Performance Report 2: Sideshow

It was a cool and rainy Saturday night, April 17th, 2010. I did not think many people would come to the last performance of what I thought was a minor production by the drama team here at UTD. As my wife and I approached the Comet Theater, the line of 30 or 40 people waiting to buy tickets astounded me. After we had bought our tickets and taken our seats I took some time to take note of my surroundings. It was a moderate-sized theater, seating 290 people [Manjunath], but it was packed, save a few seats near the front right of the stage (which I will touch on later). What I came to find out from Kathryn Evans, the director of Sideshow, was that this series of Sideshow performances has set the record for the most attended performance at UTD of all time. This being their sixth performance, I supposed the place must have been filled every other time (still, those front few seats were somewhat disquieting).
Before Sideshow began, I noticed the orchestra seated behind the stage, which I found unusual, since orchestras are usually seated in front and below the stage for musicals or operas. But in this performance, which was probably due to the limited size of the venue, they sat behind the stage, still visible throughout most of the musical.
As the performance started, around 8:30 pm, the stage was set with boxes of various sizes and a raised kiosk. The first musical number, which was a reoccurring theme throughout the musical, was “Say Hello to the Freaks.” A dramatic song, that serves to both introduce many of the primary characters in Sideshow, and also the setting of it. One of the characters, the Cannibal King, played by Brian Thomson, was dressed as a savage, and during his introduction in the song, he ran (on all fours) and leapt off the stage, over those few absent seats and circled back around onto the stage. A slight gasp went through the crowd, and I could see evident surprise on some of the girls seated near those vacant seats. “So I guess it was sold out,” I thought to myself, knowing now those seats were reserved for this stunt.
During many of the musical pieces, I noticed two somewhat unfortunate and distracting things. First, many of the minor performers’ voices could not reach the pitch required for their parts, and were forced to either go falsetto, or simply hit a flat note. All of the main characters (except maybe the freak-show owner) could adequately sing all their required pitches. The other feature that subtracted from this performance was the variance of volume between major and minor characters’ microphones. Many minor characters were at somewhere around half the volume of the protagonists in terms of amplification. This could have been due to the elaborate costumes and where the microphones must be located in order to suit the minor characters, while the primary performers had microphones attached to their heads. [Manjunath] In any case, it was very obvious at some points.
One thing should be clarified when I say “musical pieces.” Because this was a musical performance, almost everything was sung, even if it was not directly in a song. For example, during one dialogue, one character simply sung the word “how?” suspended over a single note for about a second, even though it did not follow any particular melodic pattern in a “song.”
Overall, the performance was put together with an air of precision, clearly seen to the audience that this was not simply thrown together, but was the product of much hard work and effort. Audience turn-outs reflected this, setting the record for attendance. The performers showed great enthusiasm and energy during their performances, which the audience responded well to (especially in the case of the Cannibal King).




Manjunath, Lakshman. Phone Interview, 4/22/2010. 2:00 pm.

Blog post 12: Rock

While rock music is one of the prevailing music cultures today, it used to be a sign of rebellion, especially punk rock, rather than today's mainstream alternative rock. Rock has elements of music which are shared with other music cultures, such as an emphasis on drums and voice. However, in Rock music, the drums are not simple hand drums, as they may be in other music cultures, but rather an elaborate set of drums typically played by only one person, rather than many people. Also, rock music incorporates technology as a mandatory part of its culture. Unlike blues or country music, where acoustic guitars and voices may suffice, rock necessitates the use of amplification, because loudness is just as much a part of rock music as the guitar. This shapes rock music performances, as I wrote about in my first music performance blog entry. Volume is key in rock music, which is why amplified voice and guitar play a major part in it, as well as crashingly loud percussion. All these things together begin to sum up this subgenre of rock. Anger, at least in today's rock music, is a common thread in the lyrics and music styles of rock. Punk music was angry at "institutions" or government, but alternative rock tends to be angry at the world in general. This subject of anger is not universal, but rather, simply a stereotype with many exceptions.

Post 11

One cannot sum up a music culture in just 200 words. So I will just focus on one or two major aspects of Gullah music culture.
First, because of the focus of the culture to span the Atlantic and keep African traditions valued in America, the Gullah music culture is very rhythmically based. "Rhythm: everything's about rhythm. And It's about celebrating Gullah culture," says Queen Quet, a (possibly the) spokeswoman for and believer in the Gullah way of life. Gullah music has a heavy emphasis on percussion, as shown in the video, with over a dozen vibraphones being played simultaneously while others around dance. These rhythm and dance aspects of the Gullah go hand in hand. In the videos, we don't see any music without dance. It is said in the first video that the rhythms come from the mixture of the Gullah dialect with the English dialect learned in America. This brings me to my second focal point about the Gullah culture. That is, their history and their music culture are inseparable. In fact, their history and all parts of their culture are inseparable. They have such a rich heritage that they feel extremely important to maintain. Because the Gullah history involves slavery in America, they easily confront the issue as part of their life, just as African traditions are part of their life. The influence of these beliefs and traditions on their music culture runs deep because it is the foundation of their very way of life.

Music Performance Report - Muse!

Attending a rock concert is a unique experience. The sheer volume of the event is enough to make it memorable, but rock bands typically go the extra mile to the point of complete sensory overload. On the evening of Wednesday, March 17, I attended a performance by the Brit-rock band Muse that fit the description. To give you an idea of the popularity of Muse (if you have not heard of them), they recently came in number 2 on the chart of most sold songs on iTunes. (Hathaway) That is to say, their music is very popular.
The concert was held at the Fort Worth Convention Center. Before the doors opened, the line to get in wrapped around the building. Energy was high, as the crowd consisted of mostly young adults ranging from 16-25 years of age, many wearing Muse t-shirts or other band shirts and paraphernalia. When the lights dimmed, indicating that Muse was about to begin their performance, the entire arena was packed. The Fort Worth Convention Center arena seats 14,000 people (City-data), and there were even more fans down below in the “pit.” The audience roared to life as the music began, standing from their seats, shouting, whistling, singing along, and clapping to the beat of Muse’s opening song. A few men in the pit even took their shirts off and began rocking out.
Although there was always a significant amount of noise coming from the crowd throughout the concert, there was also a noticeable flux of energy depending on what Muse did on stage. For example, at one point, giant balloons shaped and colored like eye-balls were released into crowd in the pit, causing a great deal of excitement as people bounced them to different parts of the crowd and popped them, sending confetti flying everywhere. At the climax of one of Muse’s songs, Mathew Bellamy (the lead singer/guitarist) burst one of the balloons with his guitar as he struck the final chord of the song, sending confetti showering down into the crowd, and giving the crowd an explosive vigor.
Because the concert happened on Saint Patrick’s Day, many people in the audience wore green. The members of Muse did not don anything particularly festive. The only homage they paid to the holiday was that, between two of their songs, they randomly burst into an Irish jig for about 30 seconds before abruptly beginning another song.
Apart from the music itself, Muse put on quite an extensive show on stage. For starters, their first piece they performed was played with each of the three members standing (or sitting in the case of the drummer) on three separate pillars that were actually giant screens which flashed images, words, and streaming video of the performance itself (as seen in the first video). As the concert progressed, the pillars lowered into the stage and the bassist and singer were free to roam (as seen in the second and third videos). One might say that fans come to the concert as much for the music as they do for the lights, energy, and the overall look of the performance.

(These are actually videos from the night I saw Muse)


A Muse concert is an accurate picture of what the modern day rock concert aspires to be: high energy, fun, loud, showy, and of course, sold out. Whether you like the music or not, everyone should attend a Muse concert at least once in their life. When I left the concert with acute tinnitus, dazed from sensory over-stimulation, and smelling of second-hand tobacco and marijuana smoke, I knew I had shared in a one-time event, and I felt a deeper part of a music community.




"Fort Worth: Convention Facilities". City-Data.com. April 1, 2010 .

Hathaway, Josh. "iTunes Chart Watch: Muse Debuts at #2, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys Topple Miley Cyrus". BlogCritics. April 4, 2010 .

Blog Post 10

I chose this video because I am so used to seeing either Europeans or Americans perform opera, and I had never seen a Chinese orchestra and vocalist perform before. Liao Changyong, the vocalist in this video, sang with the strong vibrato that is typical of these Italian Operas. A particularly strong example of this is at 2:42.
Because the arena he performed at apparently was very large and did not have the best acoustics, there was a slight echo, which made some of the syllables difficult to distinguish from one another. The singer himself, however, moved, sometimes even acted, with the music, and carried himself and his facial expressions in such a way that it was apparent that he had internalized the music and was wanting to put on an entertaining show. See 3:29 especially.
City light decorations in the background gave the performance a feel of show-business or some kind of a more lighthearted performance, as opposed to an opera sung in an opera house.
The audience stayed completely quiet, even at moments when an American audience may of whistled or clapped or shouted (such as 3:37), but erupted at the end.

Blog 9 - Avatar music

Although I did not see Avatar, I did listen to the soundtrack and speak to people who did see the movie in order to make this blog post. It sounded to me that the general soundscape of the film was mostly sweeping sounds of strings and brass, but when the people were with the Na'vi, the music changed to include tribal drums, wordless interjections, vocal choruses, and pan-flute-like instruments. It seemed that they almost wanted the music culture of the Na'vi to sound similar to a mix of African tribal music and Native American tribal music, but not exactly. According to the link professor Young put up, James Horner, the composer of all the music in Avatar, looked into sounds from all over the world, including Sweden, Bolivia, Burundi, Comoros, Finland. So although the music reminded me of the aforesaid styles, really the music is a blend of music cultures from all over this world, which gives the music a very other-worldly quality.
The vocal emphasis throughout the Na'vi's music is meant to mimic that of rudimentary soundscapes. As Wanda Bryant said in her interview, "We always wanted to keep the people grounded in their world, so what that meant is we had to understand the way they live. [With regard to the Na’vi] we thought about aboriginal cultures here on earth." This is also why Horner chose to use the African talking drums as a central aspect of the Na'vi music culture.
Overall, we can see clear attempt at making the Na'vi music in the movie mimic their culture, which is one which resembles Aborigine tribes in our world.

Music Ethnography

Philip Sneed
MUSI 1306
Professor Young
February 25, 2010
Musical Ethnography of the UTD Pub

Although I could have chosen to study a music culture more exotic or foreign to me, I chose to research the music culture of our very own Pub. Maybe it is not the same as delving into the subtle eccentricities of Kelantanese music and how it differs from the music styles of the coast of Malaya, but I was determined to learn about this culture, my culture, and see it in a new light.
In researching this music culture I ran into a slight problem: there is almost nothing written about the music in the pub. So, I decided to go there myself, sit, and observe. In observing I took in the following details. First, the typical music being played at the Pub when no events are underway is ambient. Nearly all restaurants or coffee houses play ambient music that either best suits their target demographic or perpetuates whatever image that place is going for. For example, Cracker Barrel plays country music and Starbucks plays “Indie” and folk music, both of which fit their demographics, and La Madeleine plays French music or classical music, which suits the image they are trying to portray. We can see both of these elements working as one in the Pub. It is meant to set a tone of socialization and keeping with the times, not to entertain or to evoke any emotion in particular. This ambient music is played through speakers in the ceiling and is just the radio usually set to FM 102.1 The Edge, or 106.1 Kiss FM. The Edge plays modern alternative rock music, while Kiss FM plays mostly hip-hop and “pop,” which fits the typical demographic of college-aged men and women that frequent the Pub. This is juxtaposed to the music of Comet Café down the hall, which typically plays music from Radio UTD. Radio UTD has a much wider, often more obscure selection of music.
Much of these elements change, however, during an event night. Almost every week the Pub features a different live music event. What was ambient becomes central in the Underground Poetry Circus or Open Mic Night. The mood changes as the focus of the room turns from socializing over a meal to being entertained by performers. The role of music at the Pub turns to entertainment and artistic expression rather than the hum of the radio. I have attended many of these events in the past, but for this class I attended the Open Mic Night (hereafter referred to as OMN).
Music performers at OMN in the Pub are, by definition, folk musicians. That is, they are amateurish and perform for the enjoyment of the community. However, often OMN performers cover music written by professionals. This is a common practice and is respected among performers and audience alike, so long as the performance itself is well done. This brings up an interesting point about this music culture: So long as you are performing your own original composition, the quality of the performance is not judged nearly as harshly. But if you are performing a popular song, the audience is much quicker to deem your performance as unsatisfactory. I suppose in this way this music culture values original music. Still, there was a wide variety of music played at the OMN I attended. Everywhere from covers of Bright Eyes on guitar, to Christian praise music on the piano, to an a cappella performance of “You Raise Me Up” were done, as well as many original pieces played on piano and guitar.
The only professional performers that make UTD Pub appearances are comedians, according to full-time Pub employee Sami Atassi. In my interview with Atassi, I asked him what he noticed the audience respected in the performers. “It’s all about confidence, it’s all about confidence,” he said. He went on to explain that the audience would rarely respond very strongly to a performer who did not show good charisma on stage. Engaging the audience, such as getting them to sing along to a familiar song, or clap, or anything of that nature depended on the performer’s confidence and the general attitude of the night. OMN had a laid back, small scale kind of feel, so the audience stayed, for the most part, uninvolved. No matter how involved the audience is at these performances, there is never any dancing. This may be due, at least in part, to the fact that there are no alcoholic beverages sold at the UTD Pub.
As I mentioned before, I have attended many evening events at the Pub, though I attended before I was in this class. I noticed that the mood varied from event to event. There is no question about it, the OMN I attended for this class was not nearly as vivacious or exciting as other events, such as the Underground Poetry Circus, which was hosted by DJ, and had poets and other performers coming in from all over the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. In those events, members of the audience were literally called upon to rate the performance of the poets on a scale of 1-10. So, just as the role of music in this culture changes from day to day (or from afternoon to night), the roles of the different aspects of this music culture (performers, audience) change from day to day (or night to night) depending on the feel and popularity of the event hosted that night.
There is an interesting feature of the material culture of music at the Pub. On Open Mic Night, for example, people were encouraged to perform, even if they had not intended to initially, by being awarded prizes for their participation. I did not plan to perform at OMN going into that night, but because I saw that participants were being given coupons for 25% of their next purchase at the Pub, I changed my mind and played a piece I wrote for the piano. So, one could say that food plays a fairly large role in this music culture. After all, that is a large part of the appeal for attending performances at the Pub – if the music stinks, the food is good! But apart from that, the material culture of music was straight forward for western style music. Music was played on a stage, performers brought their own instruments (except piano, which was provided next to the stage), amplification was provided for electric guitars, and, of course, microphones.
With music ranging from Christian worship music to Hip Hop, from 3-person bands to 1-man a cappella performances, from death metal to country, the music culture of the Pub is varied. I did not expect to see such strong diversity in this music culture when I started researching it, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was very intriguing to see a familiar culture with a different set of eyes – ethnocentrically – so to speak. So many of the things that I simply took for granted, or wrote off as completely normal in a performance, I now realize are often completely unique to my culture, or even the culture of the restaurant I am eating at. Music cultures are all around us, sometimes we just cannot see them because we are so much a part of them.


Work Cited:
Atassi, Sami. Personal interview. 10 March, 2010.


P.S. - I am attending a concert in Fort Worth of a band called Muse next week. I am excited to see them in light of what we have learned about music cultures.