Quixotic

Cantankerous

Syncopated

Elucidate

This looks like an interesting game, hopefully where people who've had an introduction on Guitar Hero will head next.

I think the resentment towards the latter is a little unfounded, however. The game introduces people to the instrument, who would probably have never picked one up on their own. I don't see how this is a negative thing. Do people who play DDR not count as dancers in some form because they're following prompts and not designing their own moves? To be good at all of Guitar Hero, you need to develop something of a musical sense, to play the difficult sequences with the correct cadence or syncopation.

Tycho at Penny-Arcade made a post on the subject recently which enunciates this perspective far better than I have. I guess my point is if you can play genuine guitars, then great. Perhaps Guitar Hero is just not for you. Let people enjoy their escapist glory before an imaginary audience. That is, after all, why we play games.

I don't think she's got a problem with syncopation. I think she probably just rushes the tempo on everything she plays.

In reply to this comment by fissionchips:
Does anyone know why syncopation is such a hard thing to master for young musicians who are otherwise extremely talented?

/\ Even pros can have difficulty with syncopation. I saw the LA phil nearly trainwreck on a performance of Adam's 'The Chairman Dances'. Overall this kid has great feel. I bet this is from the Yamaha school.

Does anyone know why syncopation is such a hard thing to master for young musicians who are otherwise extremely talented?

SG,

You've misunderstood. Your criteria for disliking something may be rational or irrational. Disliking something doesn't make you irrational.

On Country

You don't like 'modern' country, but you do like country, which means you haven't written off an entire genre of music (I'm not judging, it's just an observation).

I happen to agree with you on country, but there is some decent stuff out there if you look for it. If you don't already know Abigail Washburn, then she is soon to be one of your favorites. Other acts to look for are Old Crow Medicine Show, Wilco and Nickel Creek. None of it but the AW stuff really stack up to Patsy Cline or Johnny Cash, but it's a helluva lot better than the drivel on the radio.

In general, music on commercial radio is horrible.

Jazz and Hip-Hop

Jazz and Hip-hop are actually more similar than you think.

-They both use the same types of rhythmic syncopations. This point is made clearly by an excellent mashup of an Eminem song and an old piano rag. The track is called 'Snookered' by a DJ named Freelance Hairdresser. You can follow these syncopations from ragtime to Dixie Jazz, to Swing, Rock, Bop, Soul, Funk, and eventually Hip-Hop.

-The co-opting of popular tunes is also shared between the two genres. Rappers are much maligned for their use of samples and get little credit for the creative ways in which they reconstruct the source material. Jazzer's would also co-opt the popular standards of the day, tweaking the harmonies/ melodies and adding their own improvisational ideas.

-Both types of music place a large emphasis on improvisation. In Hip-Hop it's called freestyle.

-Like Hip-Hop, Jazz was an outlet for a culture largely shut out of the mainstream. Both styles of music were marginalized, maligned and generally considered lewd, crude and disgusting.

-Jazz was eventually co-opted and accepted by whites, which is happening as we speak in the hip hop world. This isn't a bad thing, as white folks had/have some nice things to add.

Finally, I must say that your characterization of Hip-hop as negative is as bad a generalization as saying all Christians are as lame as Pat Robertson. There is plenty of positive Hip-Hop out there. I'd suggest MeShell Ndegeocello, Eryka Badhu, Outkast and M.I.A. for starters.

The media spends much time attacking Hip-Hip, and buying into media distortions don't make you a racist.

The racism I speak of is subtle and internalized. If you were to recognize this racism in yourself, it would evaporate instantly upon recognition. I'm not trying to brand anyone with a scarlet R, this is just a plea for folks to be introspective and constantly in a state of self improvement.

We are all a product of our time, and although things are getting better, we have a long way to go before we are free from racism/sexism/classism/homophobia to name a few isms (and one phobia). If it exists in culture, it exists in you too.

Finally, I know I pissed many people off with this thread. It was intended to be light-hearted. I have arrived at these ideas after doing quite a bit of thinking, and didn't bother to fill in the space between A and B. In other words, I blurted out some unconventional, controversial ideas without telling you how I got to them.

Some of got it right away, but apparently others thought I was calling them Klansmen, and apparently others still ACTUALLY ARE KLANMEN (just kidding you know who.)

It probably would have been better to present these ideas as things I've discovered about myself, without forcing anyone to have to take a critical look inside their own soul. Forcing introspection is not polite.

Still, I think this discussion will be rattling around in sifty heads for some time, and at the very least, we've breached that most taboo of American taboos, racism. Maybe we should move on to classism..........

SG,

Oh, and it's so funny to call someone irrational if they dislike something that's somehow tied to a particular culture

You've misunderstood. Your criteria for disliking something may be rational or irrational. Disliking something doesn't make you irrational.

On Country

You don't like 'modern' country, but you do like country, which means you haven't written off an entire genre of music (I'm not judging, it's just an observation).

I happen to agree with you on country, but there is some decent stuff out there if you look for it. If you don't already know Abigail Washburn, then she is soon to be one of your favorites. Other acts to look for are Old Crow Medicine Show, Wilco and Nickel Creek. None of it but the AW stuff really stack up to Patsy Cline or Johnny Cash, but it's a helluva lot better than the drivel on the radio.

In general, music on commercial radio is horrible.

Jazz and Hip-Hop

Jazz and Hip-hop are actually more similar than you think.

-They both use the same types of rhythmic syncopations. This point is made clearly by an excellent mashup of an Eminem song and an old piano rag. The track is called 'Snookered' by a DJ named Freelance Hairdresser. You can follow these syncopations from ragtime to Dixie Jazz, to Swing, Rock, Bop, Soul, Funk, and eventually Hip-Hop.

-The co-opting of popular tunes is also shared between the two genres. Rappers are much maligned for their use of samples and get little credit for the creative ways in which they reconstruct the source material. Jazzer's would also co-opt the popular standards of the day, tweaking the harmonies/ melodies and adding their own improvisational ideas.

-Both types of music place a large emphasis on improvisation. In Hip-Hop it's called freestyle.

-Like Hip-Hop, Jazz was an outlet for a culture largely shut out of the mainstream. Both styles of music were marginalized, maligned and generally considered lewd, crude and disgusting.

-Jazz was eventually co-opted and accepted by whites, which is happening as we speak in the hip hop world. This isn't a bad thing, as white folks had/have some nice things to add.

Finally, I must say that your characterization of Hip-hop as negative is as bad a generalization as saying all Christians are as lame as Pat Robertson. There is plenty of positive Hip-Hop out there. I'd suggest MeShell Ndegeocello, Eryka Badhu, Outkast and M.I.A. for starters.

The media spends much time attacking Hip-Hip, and buying into media distortions don't make you a racist.

The racism I speak of is subtle and internalized. If you were to recognize this racism in yourself, it would evaporate instantly upon recognition. I'm not trying to brand anyone with a scarlet R, this is just a plea for folks to be introspective and constantly in a state of self improvement.

We are all a product of our time, and although things are getting better, we have a long way to go before we are free from racism/sexism/classism/homophobia to name a few isms (and one phobia). If it exists in culture, it exists in you too.

Finally, I know I pissed many people off with this thread. It was intended to be light-hearted. I have arrived at these ideas after doing quite a bit of thinking, and didn't bother to fill in the space between A and B. In other words, I blurted out some unconventional, controversial ideas without telling you how I got to them.

Some of got it right away, but apparently others thought I was calling them Klansmen, and apparently others still ACTUALLY ARE KLANMEN (just kidding you know who.)

It probably would have been better to present these ideas as things I've discovered about myself, without forcing anyone to have to take a critical look inside their own soul. Forcing introspection is not polite.

Still, I think this discussion will be rattling around in sifty heads for some time, and at the very least, we've breached that most taboo of American taboos, racism. Maybe we should move on to classism..........

Yayyyy!! One less blog on teh nets!! why don't more folks condense?? Hey youdiejoe, what type or jobs do you get to do? Interested in what a freelancer like yerself gets for work....indie bands?...filmstrip syncopation?...industrial proprietary inter-departmental employee pep-talk viddies??? Do you have one of those old Scully lathes, to crank out yer own vinyl???

I would love to bop over to the west coast for a sift-up, too....I wanna visit Sacto, and San Fran, and see some old buds....

GOING FOR THE ONE is a must have YES album. Especially love this one, and Turn of the Century, and the rest of the tracks on there! Watching Jon Anderson perform makes this video. Bow to the masters of implication and syncopation!

Continued:

Much is often also made of the “exceptional” research that Clampett and his animators undertook (they visited night-clubs and “drafted” African-African musicians and actors) to provide an accurate, celebratory, authentic and incorporative vision of urban African-American culture of the time. Along with Tin Pan Alley Cats (1943) it highlights Clampett's fascination with African-American street culture, its syncopation and language, pushing its potent stereotypes to the extremes of comic absurdity.

Also, as with many of Clampett's cartoons, one can sense the direct influence of comic books, popular music, street culture, live-action cinema and contemporary art (especially surrealism) upon these two films. Like much of Clampett's best work, these films are syncopated snapshots of a particular time, place and set of social mores. So it is hardly surprising to discover that the greatest period of Clampett's tenure at Warners coincides with the ramped-up stereotypes encouraged by the World War II era. As Tim Onosko argues, “Clampett created an entirely new and irreverent style of animated filmmaking more suited to the era than either Disney or Fleischer” (17). Although Onosko's parochial account unnecessarily favours Clampett at the expense of his Warners' colleagues, as well as Avery at MGM, it does pinpoint the ascension of the studio to the pinnacle of Hollywood short animation during this period and accurately regards Clampett's work as a cornerstone of this process.

To me that is what this video is, a snapshot of that era, not a racist hate film.

I'm playing two copies of this song at the same time... start it the right way and you get some wild syncopation or an amusing round...

From their defining album The Queen is Dead, this song bristles with energy from Morrissey's acerbic vocal ("Sweetness, I was only joking when I said I'd like to smash every tooth in your head"), Johnny Marr's syncopated guitar chops (played by "fifth member" Craig Gannon in this clip, with Marr playing the lead line) and Mike Joyce's machine-gun drumming.

Marr called this "my Jumpin' Jack Flash".

This isn't really jazz. It's the original music, pretty much note for note, played to a syncopated beat: "jazz" is more about layering different rhythms and improvising melodies.

But anyway, I liked it.