Changing trends spark controversy within the recording industry

By Thomas Patrick Hooper

ATHENS, Ga. – The days of musicians relying on the instruments in their hands and the voices in their throats are changing with the increasing popularity in the digital age of sampling and Auto-Tune.

With music piped into elevators and laid over commercials, people experience music now more than ever before.

“The way that the world is experiencing music is new,” said Eric Stetson, a 23-year-old music composition major at Georgia Southern. “We take music for granted. It’s ubiquitous. It’s all around us.”

However, the innovations of the digital age have received flack from performers of many genres.
Singer-songwriter Ben Folds lampooned the industry’s reliance on computers in the lyrics of his 2001 single “Rockin’ the Suburbs,” which carries the line “the song producer with computers fixes all my s---y tracks.”

Folds isn’t the only one who has taken notice.

Indie rock group Death Cab for Cutie made a statement at the 51st Grammy Awards, held on February 8, 2009. The band members wore blue ribbons to protest the widespread use of Auto-Tune, a software program that corrects the tune of a voice or instrument.

Auto-Tune first rose to prominence in 1999, with Cher’s #1 hit song “Believe.” “Believe” used the program to great effect in creating the distinctive warbling effect in Cher’s voice that has since become the song’s most recognized element.

"If you're trying to turn a bad singer into a good singer, you're probably wasting your time," said Bruce Burch, director of the University of Georgia's music business program.

While Auto-Tune began as a select style, the program has founds its way into the hands of any number of artists, with rapper T-Pain being the most visible example.

“It is what it is,” said Daniel Collins, owner and producer of the Athens-based Pigpen Studios. “It has become very, very commonplace. It’s just what’s popular right now.”

However, the proliferation of Auto-Tune songs does not sit well with some artists.

Rapper Shawn Corey Carter, better known by his stage name Jay-Z, made his feelings toward Auto-Tune known. In June of 2009, he released “D.O.A (Death of Auto-Tune),” a rather frank criticism of how Auto-Tune has overtaken music.

Will Hodge, a Marietta-based producer/engineer/songwriter who has been in the business for 20 years, doesn’t see any harm in using Auto-Tune.

“Background vocals need to be more in tune because they’re more a part of the instrumentation,” said Hodge, who also uses the program quite extensively in bass recordings. “The only way to get a real bass track is to play it on a keyboard.”

While the Auto-Tune controversy has emerged as the most common point of contention in the shifting priorities of the music industry, the sampling debate remains alive and well.

Computers have made it possible for artists to cut and paste certain vocals, instruments and melodies into another, entirely unrelated song. The process has drawn criticism for its perceived lack of originality.

“They’re just taking existing pieces of existing media and making something,” said Hodge, who likened the sampling process to a collage. “As long as [the writer] is getting paid, it’s not a big deal.”

Unfortunately, not every sample is properly attributed, which has sparked a handful of highly publicized lawsuits. One of the most notable cases arose in the late 80s, when rapper Vanilla Ice sampled the bassline of “Under Pressure,” a Queen-Davie Bowie collaboration.

“It’s an inevitable thing,” Hodge said of the changes sweeping the industry. “It’s insane what I can do with an iPhone.”

For better or for worse, new artists appear each day, taking advantage of the new age and all it has to offer in the form of file-sharing web sites like Reverb Nation or the digital audio program Pro Tools.

“People shouldn’t be afraid of change,” said Stetson.










The tools of the trade
Photo by: Thomas Patrick Hooper

Are instruments like these a thing of the past?

Photo by: Thomas Patrick Hooper

Edited by: Blakeney Spong and Katie Weise

Article #2 - First Draft

(Title pending)

Thomas Patrick Hooper

ATHENS, Ga. – Bands like the Beatles may have revolutionized music, but with the digital age in full swing, the artists may not be the only driving force in the music industry anymore.

With music piped into elevators and laid over commercials, people experience music now more than ever before.

“The way that the world is experiencing music is new,” said Eric Stetson, a 23-year-old music composition major at Georgia Southern. “We take music for granted. It’s ubiquitous. It’s all around us.”

TV programs like the wildly successful American Idol have put up-and-coming musicians in the public eye while video games such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero make the everyman into the musician.

“It’s not really anything new, but I think they’ve done the best job of it,” said Bruce Burch, director of the Music Business program at the University of Georgia, of the American Idol phenomenon.

However, American Idol may be symptomatic of a greater trend in the musical world, as the industry has begun moving to court the performer and not the other way around.

The progressive rock group the Decemberists have emerged as a clear cut example, coming out of the city of Portland, Ore., far from the musical capitals of Los Angeles and Atlanta.

“Music has been decentralized,” said Burch of the Decemberists. “You don’t have to be in a major music center anymore.”

That hasn’t kept the innovations of the digital age from having received its fair share of flack from performers of many genres.

Singer-songwriter Ben Folds lampooned the changes of the editing process in the lyrics of “Rockin’ the Suburbs,” which carries the line “the song producer with computers fixes all my shitty tracks.”

Folds isn’t the only one who has taken notice.

Indie rock group Death Cab for Cutie made a statement at the 51st Grammy Awards, when the band members wore blue ribbons to protest the widespread use of Auto-Tune, a software program that corrects the tune of a voice or instrument.

Rapper Shawn Corey Carter, better known by his stage name Jay-Z, took things a step further. In June of 2009, he released D.O.A (Death of Auto-Tune) in protest of the program’s widespread use in the industry.

“It’s been around a lot longer than people think,” said Stetson in reference to the program, which began to gain national attention after Cher’s obvious use of it in her1998 song, “Believe.”

Since then, Auto-Tune has founds its way into the hands of any number of artists, with rapper T-Pain being the most visible example.

Will Hodge, a Marietta-based producer/engineer/songwriter who has been in the business for 20 years, doesn’t see any harm in using Auto-Tune.

“Background vocals need to be more in tune because they’re more a part of the instrumentation,” said Hodge, who also uses the program quite extensively in bass recordings. “The only way to get a real bass track is to play it on a keyboard.”

While the Auto-Tune controversy has become a trend, it comes on the heels of the sampling debate.

Artists initially relied on the instruments in their hands and the voices in their throats, but computers have made it possible for artists to cut and paste certain vocals, instruments and melodies into another, entirely unrelated song. The process has drawn criticism for its perceived lack of originality.

“They’re just taking existing pieces of existing media and making something,” said Hodge, who likened the sampling process to a collage. “As long as [the writer] is getting paid, it’s not a big deal.”

Unfortunately, not every sample is properly attributed, which has sparked a handful of highly publicized lawsuits. One of the most notable cases arose in the late 80s, when rapper Vanilla Ice sampled the bassline of “Under Pressure,” a Queen-Davie Bowie collaboration.

“It’s an inevitable thing,” Hodge said of the changes sweeping the industry. “It’s insane what I can do with an iPhone… I’m a purist. I think the people that will advance in the industry are the people associated with the pure songwriter. It all starts with the song.”

With the history of music stretching back so far and the recording industry being as young as it is, it’s anyone guess as to where the industry will go in the future.

“People shouldn’t be afraid of change,” said Stetson.

iTunes article (Final)

Is iTunes changing the face of music for the better?
By Thomas Patrick Hooper

ATHENS, Ga. – Conventional wisdom says not every Tom, Dick, and Harry can be a rock star. With the rise of the digital age, that may no longer be the case.

Aspiring musicians have found a number of opportunities in the likes of iTunes, a digital media player created by Apple Inc., now in its eighth phase. While best known as a source to download music, the iTunes program offers a wide variety of media to download, allowing users to watch movies, listen to audio books and even conduct their own podcasts.

The iTunes Store has sold over 5 billion songs, including tracks from lesser-known artists.
Austin Lite, a 19-year-old sophomore at Georgia State University, is one such aspiring musician. Lite, under the alias of A-Lite, has uploaded a three-song album, Thirstay Thursday, for mass consumption on the iTunes Store.

“I Googled how to do it,” Lite said, who went through the digital music distribution site TuneCore to make his iTunes debut possible. “You just upload [your songs] and they listen to it to make sure it’s music. It was really easy.”

Lite makes 99 cents for every song downloaded, which is not uncommon. The iTunes Store offers its songs at prices of 69 cents, 99 cents, or $1.29 per track.

“I get 100% of the profit, although it’s not that much,”said Lite.

Lite isn’t alone in embracing music-sharing media like iTunes.

Elijah Cross, 28, has taken advantage of social networking and file streaming sites like Facebook and ReverbNation, respectively, for the sake of promoting his music. Cross is the lead vocalist and main promoter of Christian rock band His Reunited, which he co-founded with guitarist Jimmy Parr.

“I had dealings with booking agents and managers,” Cross said. “It isn’t always easy finding someone who has your best interests at heart.”

Cross put agents and managers aside and began promoting himself through the Internet four years ago, after leaving a previous band.

“You can spend more time creating.” Cross said of the self-promoting approach. “The more time you put into it, the more response you get. You’ve got to invite 1,000 people to a show to get 100.”

However, the digital age has not been entirely beneficial to musicians.

The relationship between the recording industry and the file sharing community grew heated in 2000 with highly publicized legal troubles of Napster, an online file sharing host that offered its services free of charge. The United States Court of Appeals upheld a decision by a lower court ordering that Napster be shut down after legal battles with artists like Metallica, Madonna, and Dr. Dre.

“People perceive music as being free,” said Bruce Burch, director and founder of the University of Georgia’s Music Business program.

The Internet’s capacity for abuse isn’t the only thing that troubles Burch about the proliferation of online music distribution.

“With technology being what it is, it doesn’t cost as much to make a record. Anyone can make a record,” Burch said. “It’s hard to find the good stuff when you have to sift through the bad stuff.”

However, iTunes may be taking steps to move away from promoting the less notable musicians of its catalogue with offers like iTunes Originals, albums and tracks exclusive to the iTunes Store. Many of the iTunes Originals consist of live performances and interviews with some of the most popular and frequently downloaded artists.

“I think you’ve got to be able to perform live,” Burch said of anyone looking for success in the world of music. “That’s how Mozart did it.”


Editor: Sydney Slotkin

iMusic the wave of the future--for better or for worse?

Thomas Patrick Hooper

ATHENS, Ga – Conventional wisdom says not every Tom, Dick, and Harry can be a rock star. With the rise of the digital age, that may no longer be the case.

Aspiring musicians have found any number of opportunities in the likes of iTunes, a digital media player created by Apple Incorporated, now in its eighth phase. While known best as a source of music, the iTunes program offers a wide variety of media to explore, allowing users to watch movies, listen to audio books, and even conduct their own podcasts.

Austin Lite, a 19-year-old sophomore attending Georgia State University, is one such aspiring musician. Lite, under the alias of A-Lite, has uploaded a three-song album for mass consumption on the iTunes Store.

“I googled how to do it.” Lite said, having gone through the digital music distribution web site TuneCore to make his iTunes debut possible. “You just upload [your songs] and they listen to it to make sure it’s music. It was really easy.”

Lite makes 99 cents for every song downloaded, which is not uncommon. The iTunes store offers its songs at prices of 69 cents, 99 cents, or $1.29 per track.

Lite isn’t alone in embracing new media to spread the word about his music.

Elijah Cross, 28, has taken advantage of social networking and file streaming sites like Facebook and ReverbNation, respectively, for the sake of promoting his music. Cross acts as the lead vocalist and main promoter of Christian rock band His Reunited, which he co-founded with guitarist Jimmy Parr.

“I had dealings with booking agents and managers,” Cross said. “It isn’t always easy finding someone who has your best interests at heart.”

Cross embraced the possibilities of an online promotional campaign four years ago, after leaving a previous band.

“You can spend more time creating.” Cross said of the Internet approach. “The more time you put into it, the more response you get. You’ve got to invite 1,000 people to a show to get 100.”

However, the digital age has not been entirely beneficial to the musicians of America.

The relationship between the recording industry and the file sharing community grew heated in 2000 with highly publicized legal troubles of Napster, an online file sharing community that offered its services free of charge. The US Court of Appeals upheld a decision by a lower court ordering that Napster be shut down after legal battles with artists like Metallica, Madonna, and Dr Dre.

“People perceive music as being free,” said Bruce Burch, 56, who is the Director of the University of Georgia’s Music Business program. Burch is also a founder of the program, having come to the university in 2001 and officially beginning classes in January of 2006.

The system’s capacity for abuse isn’t the only thing that troubles Burch about the proliferation of online music distribution.

“With technology being what it is, it doesn’t cost as much to make a record. Anyone can make a record.” Burch said. “It’s hard to find the good stuff when you have to sift through the bad stuff.”

However, features like iTunes may have taken steps to move away from promoting the less talented with offers like iTunes Originals, albums and tracks exclusive to the iTunes family. Many of the Originals consist of live performances and interviews with some of the most popular and frequently downloaded artists.

“I think you’ve got to be able to perform live.” Burch said of anyone looking for success in the world of music. “That’s how Mozart did it.”