Nathan Bowen's Blog

One band that has managed to rise along with the growth of Youtube is OK Go.  But their label, EMI, felt like it wasn’t a good way to earn a return on their investment to have the video available to be viewed (and embedded) for free.  Damian Kulash of OK Go was interviewed a few weeks ago on NPR talking about ditching their label so they could continue to make viral videos (and allow someone like me to embed their video on a site like this).

OK Go’s latest video (must see):

The thing that interests me about this is to see how old business models are reinvented through changing social trends and practices.  It’s not so much that OK Go has parted with their label, but that State Farm Insurance stepped in and sponsored this video.  Kulash mentioned in the NPR interview that this is more like an artist/patronage relationship similar to 17th century visual arts.  In Kulash’s words, “We got to do what we wanted to do, and we put a thank you on the end, and that’s it.”

Thanks to their reputation of creating viral videos, OK Go has enough views and new fans (ranging from an extremely wide audience – I learned about OK Go because my Dad forwarded a link to the treadmill video) to sustain themselves through downloads and online chirp.  At least that’s their current business model.  But that’s not the entire picture, since they seem to be finding a sweet spot where sponsors come in and want to associate themselves with what’s trendy online.

It makes me wonder about Beethoven’s patronage, for example.  I used to think that patrons would donate money and support artists out of generosity, genuine interest in promoting the arts, and spreading the wealth.  It never occurred to me that patrons would also be giving as a means of self-promotion and branding identity.  I suppose it depends on the patron.

Today, I marvel at the way in which OK Go has managed to maneuver its way to what seems like a perfect balance of monetary success coupled with tremendous creative freedom (and resources).  It’s not so much that the band got to this artistic nirvana, but how it evolved and when.  Not only was it lucky timing to come up with a viral video just as YouTube was ripe for a video of its kind, but they’ve jumped off a sinking ship (i.e. EMI, or the entire music industry for that matter) unscathed.  My music technology students think OK Go’s music is lame, so they might say the real interesting factor is that the band did all this with mediocre music.  OK Go is a group of guys who make cool videos, and happen to play in a band and make music too.

Regardless of what one thinks of their music or artistry, they’re making it work in a revolutionary time in the arts.  As a professor who wishes for more commissions and patronage, I gots to give them props.

Here’s a video of a presentation by Clay Shirky on information overload vs. filter failure.  Worth watching.  Came across this on the popular blog Boing Boing. I find this an interesting contrast to Barry Schwartz’s ideas in his book The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less.

I wanted to post this after having seen Jeff Beck and Imelda May pay tribute to the couple at the Grammys last Sunday. As the Grammys was a live event, I found the overall production/performance of most artists (including Taylor Swift – sorry) at the Grammys to be riveting. Not because the performances were amazing, but because it’s so rare to hear imperfections in the music and media I take in on a regular basis (yes, I don’t get out to live shows often these days). Missed cues, flat high notes, and awkward timing is what makes awards shows so fun to watch – you never know what you’re going to get.

Maybe that’s why I found this particular video of Les Paul and Mary Ford to be so interesting. I understand that in working with a tape recorder, Les Paul and Mary Ford would probably be the first to say that they’ve done countless takes to get things right. That said, if you watch them do a demo of their recording process, there is a clear sense of polish and discipline to their approach that makes it look easy. To me, it shows not that these guys worked harder than people do now, but that they had to out of necessity.

Nothing against current artists (especially Jeff Beck and Imelda May, who sounded great), but generally speaking, I think the rise of recording engineering virtuosity and efficiency has dovetailed with a decline in performance precision. As studios can quickly edit multiple takes together to create a flawless track, it puts less pressure on artists to sound awesome live. Most still do sound awesome live, but I think the change of recording technology itself has driven the changes in performance proficiency.

Finally, not to make an example of Taylor Swift’s poor performance at the Grammy’s, but I think she is a great example of the contemporary successful musician: doing a lot of things well, but maybe not doing one thing amazingly well. She’s been a pretty busy bee, and is more of an impresario than a songwriter. Writing her own songs, yes, but then recording them in the studio, working on the accompanying music videos, appearing on Saturday Night Live, appearing in commercials, not to mention the touring and all the trimmings that go along with establishing a brand. Again, not that Les Paul & Mary Ford weren’t establishing themselves with a multi-pronged approach (I mean, I guess Les Paul did that electric guitar-making thing along with his loop-recording innovations…), but you get the idea. We may sometimes have unrealistic expectations of our stars.

How Digital Audio Works (Please read this by Wednesday 1/13.  Well worth reading in its entirety.)

Dan Hosken, Computer Hardware

Dan Hosken, Computer Software

Joel Chadabe, The Electronic Century: Part I Early Instruments

Joel Chadabe, The Electronic Century: Part II Tales of the Tape

Joel Chadabe, The Electronic Century: Part III Computer and Synthesizers

Joel Chadabe, The Electronic Century: Part IV Seeds of the Future

http://www.tenthegg.co.uk/tips/t018/

Hi Class.  Grab this file for practice editing audio (specifically speech).  You’ll need to insert a username and password to get it off my ftp, so to go onto Blackboard for that information.  There you’ll also find details about the assignment, including instructions and suggestions for proceeding.

Here’s the link:

ftp://shock.dreamhost.com/Obama_School.mp3

Here’s the Survey Monkey link.

Please do it!

Here’s where you can get the Max/MSP license:

http://cycling74.com/purchase/discounts

Here’s where you can get the CDs.

UPDATE: My performance time and location has changed.  I’m now performing Saturday night at 10pm at The Tank.  Please note that the venue is no longer in Tribeca – they’ve moved to 354 W 45th St. in Hell’s Kitchen. $10 admission. If you can be at the right place at the right time, you deserve a cookie.

It’s time to tell you about an upcoming premier of my piece Gotham Swift at the first annual New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival.  This festival is being put on by a former professor of mine, Hubert Howe, along with my friends Paul Riker and Zachary Seldess.  I’m also involved as the Art Director, while my brother Jeremy is doing design for us.  Note the most excellent poster above.

I’m slated to be performing at the Friday morning concert at 10:30am on April 3 at the Elebash Recital Hall at the CUNY Graduate Center (see the full schedule here).

Here’s a map. Trains: B D F V 1 2 3 6 N R Q W

My program notes for Gotham Swift:

The recent economic downturn has created an almost palpable sense of worry here in New York City that I have not ever experienced.  Perhaps because of this backdrop of fear and uncertainty, I have taken unusual interest in the remarkable safe landing of US Airways flight 1526 in the Hudson River on January 15, 2009.  As source material I use the audio from air traffic control communications with the pilot, Captain C.B. Sullenburger, as well as recordings of traffic outside my apartment and sounds from my daughter.  The piece is intended to be a salute to the preparation of the pilot and a personal reflection on how to cope with stress in short term intervals.

Hope you can make it if you’re around and have the time!

With tonight’s Intermedia Arts Group performance at the New Music Now concert, I thought it might be appropriate to highlight some of the great advertising work done for our past concerts by Jeremiah and Matt Simpson.  They are two members of our group who are graphic and visual designers.  They specialize not so much in music, but in visual awesomeness.  I mean, these guys make us look really really good.

This was our premier event, back in May 2006.  Here’s a page about it, or you could also go to our website, intermediaartsgroup.com.  If you can’t tell from the image, the orange part is made entirely of fine dots.  This compressed low-quality image shows you how relevant the title of the concert is.

This event was hosted by The Graduate Center’s New Media Lab, where Rob, Zach, Paul, and I have worked.  You can see a page about the event here.  These two images were the front and back of the postcards.  I personally like the extended ‘B’ and ‘I’ in the title of the second image, smartly playing on the idea of bending.

This was for our gig on Yuri’s Night, the anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s first night in space.  Rob found the image using a great free app called Celestia, and Jeremiah spruced it up with the fonts.

This was our event last spring, when CUNY faculty composers’ works were featured as an inter-college program for the first time.  Note the subtle convergence of the ‘r’ and ‘g’, and how the ‘e’ meets the page.  See, I get to make comments pointing this stuff out because I’m not the designer.  Anyway, if you’d like Jeremiah and Matt to design your stuff, visit studiobridger.com.

This next week I’m going to do a premier of 4Quarters, my cell phone project, with my good friends Zachary Seldess, Paul Riker, and Rob Collins.  We are the Intermedia Arts Group, and we’re going to perform a beta version (no cell phones this time–just laptops) of what will ultimately be an audience-driven, collaborative music composition.

Since this is meant to be an improvisatory piece, I am hoping for the performance to have a little structure so we don’t sound like musical mush.  In an effort to establish some sort of compositional unity, I’m giving each of us one rhythmic cell to be used as a point of departure for composition.  Each of us will prepare our own musical content (i.e. sound files) using this basic instruction, making the piece a collaborative composition from the outset.

Our performance will be the manipulation and real-time reordering of our prepared content.  We’ll do this by pushing buttons on our laptop keyboards.  Soon that will change to pushing buttons on cell phones.

[ADDENDUM: 4QUARTERS WILL NOT BE PRESENTED.  I AM PERFORMING when spoken to in dreams INSTEAD.]

If you’d like to see/hear the fun, drop in to the concert.  Here’s the info:

CUNY/Brandeis Exchange Concert
Elebash Hall, 7:30pm
CUNY Graduate Center
365 5th Ave
Trains: B D F V 1 2 3 6 N R Q W
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