A Technological Dilemma
The good thing about being your own company is that no one tells you what to do. The flip side of this advantage is that no one tells you how to do it. You learn by reading what ever information you can find, and through trial and error. The first and second discs were recorded, each containing 10 hour of music. Each transferred to MP3 format at 128 kbs. The sound quality seemed compromised, but due to the repeated listening of each track, many times, hours of listening to each one, I would get to the point of
asking myself “Is it the disc, or is it me?” I learned that there is a grading scale of MP3 sound quality, ranging from 128 kbs to 256 kbs. After learning this, I discovered that it was possible to transfer my music to an MP3 format at 256 kbs, it just would not be possible to fit 10 hours of music on a disc. So, since no one out there seemed to be rushing to buy a 10 ambient music MP3 disc, I decided to sacrifice quantity for quality. The discs have been redone, at 258 kbs. They are no longer 10 hours in length, more like 5 to 6.
Back in the 1960's, American radio was a different world. AM radio consisted of popular, rock & roll, country & western, rhythm & blues, and news, sports and weather. FM was the music that was associated with doctors offices, elevators, and shopping. A splendid example for those of you who are either too young or don't wish to remember, is in the movie "Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb". Peter Seller's character (as the British Air Force Officer) finds a radio
in a computer printer. He turns on the radio and music is heard. THAT was 1960's FM radio. Background music. Among the original intentions of Ambient music, one was to replace that music. My parents were suckered into buying a console stereo system once with the bonus of 50 free record albums. The 50 free record albums were not albums that we could purchase from any store, but the stereo stores albums, which consisted of nothing but background elevator music. My parents were quite elated at this bargain, and took me in to select a few that I may have wanted. I may have been less than 12 years old, but I knew the real thing, and this was not it. After looking, I decided to be polite and pick an album which had two extended cuts, one on each side. "Everybody's Talkin'" and "Theme from Midnight Cowboy". I selected this one due to the length of the arrangements, thinking this should be interesting. What I received was my first dose of ambient music. I can't say I like it particularly, but I do wish I still had the record. I only listened to it a few times, and it would be interesting to hear it now, picking out what elements had left their mark.
Strategies in Marketing Music
Potato Chips. Let's say that you are a department manager in a really big store. Your area is snack food. You know that there is a new potato chip that is better than potato chip ever made. Chun-yen's Organic Potato Chips. They deserve an entry in the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Universe, they are so good. The problem is that they are not advertised, so they don't sell that well. You, the manager, have 500 feet of shelf space. If you devote 5 feet of space to Chun-yen's Organic Chips, that is 5 space you
remove from the already 495 feet devoted to all those other brands that have been selling for years. The brands that sponsor race cars, the brands that super heroes eat. It doesn't matter how you feel about these chips, you will not be looked on favorably by the long line of superiors that you work for unless you keep those chips moving. No matter how they taste, no matter what the nutritional studies from India are proving, you will stock the best selling chips, if you want to keep your job.
Such is the case with everything everywhere. You are not going to walk into any store and find Russian sci-fi films, obscure early seventies hard rock bands, complete selections of Legiti or Schoenburg, books on esoteric philosophy, or magazines translated from other parts of the world so you can read another cultures view point on global situations. You will find, however, in any store in the United States, many different magazines reporting on what happened this week on various television soap operas, and the daily life stories of stars and idols. The majority of the public is more apt to spend their money on frivolous gossip than intellectually stimulating material. Supply and demand is why those magazines cost so little, and college classes cost so much.
Oenyaw searches for his place
The major function I try to convey is that music is a form of art. I like to draw, and I consider my music to be drawings. I happen to do these drawings without a constraint of time, for I do not believe it should have a time limit. There is no reason for doing any act if the intention is to do that act merely to finish it. "Hurry up and get it over with" translates to me as "don't take time to enjoy what you're doing, just do it." Also, the question is not "How do I do a piece of music which has a long duration of time?" The
issue is more about allowing myself to create music that has a long duration of time. Another development in my music is that the music itself has risen to a synergistic level along with the equipment being used. I have found that if I try to force something to happen, it comes out as a contrived mess, not worthy of being listened to a second time. If I allow the equipment to act as part of the composition itself, than the music becomes more honest, more pleasant. If music can be composed to express the
dynamics, tone color, and range of a cello, than why can't it be composed to express those qualities which exist in an electric guitar going through various effects such as distortion, flanging and reverb?
So, where does that leave me? I would like to be able to, or shall I say, there is a need to, classify my music and place it into some type of genre. I consider it to be electronic music, but that has become beat orientated dance music. I intended it to be ambient music, but as stated above, I'm just not that comfortable there. I would like for people to listen to it.
Impressionism?
Surrealism?
Post 2K digitally enhanced sonic expression?
Avante-Garde Psychedelic Experimental?
Suggestions will be considered.
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