Music Commons^™

The Big Payback Book Analysis, Isaiah Smith

Backstage Pass

This paper is an analysis of the book, The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop.

The Next Frontier: Blockchain In The Music Industry, Manuel J. Manriquez Jr

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This Research Paper takes a look at how Blockchain technology can potentially change the music industry as we know it!

Streaming Services Insist On Buying Out Composers’ Music Rights, Kendra Sananikone

Backstage Pass

No abstract provided.

From Penny Lane To Stranger Things: Technology’S Influence On Music Production, Sami Fong

Backstage Pass

No abstract provided.

Spotify Vs. Apple Music, Lexi Gerbino

Backstage Pass

A quick look at the differences of the two biggest music streaming services, Spotify and Apple Music.

Uc Theatre: An Internship Guide Book, Monica Motta

Backstage Pass

No abstract provided.

Female Representation In U.S. Music Festivals, Kortney Burton

Backstage Pass

No abstract provided.

A Guide To 30 Northern California Venues: Excerpts, Nicole Wasnock

Backstage Pass

This is a sample of six venues from my senior project, A Guide to 30 Northern California Venues.

Interview With Sarah Jones, Music Industry Media Specialist, Jennifer Morrow

Backstage Pass

No abstract provided.

Letter From The Editor, Keith Hatschek

Backstage Pass

No abstract provided.

Moved Through Abbey Road, Raymond Gallo Iii

Backstage Pass

The Beatles songs have beautiful lyrics that has connected with people for multiple generations. I believe everyone has their own way to relate to their lyrics. In this piece, I have chosen some of the lyrics that have moved me and used specific colors to depict The Beatles’ famous Abbey Road picture.

Revolver Please Sgt. Abbey, Monica Motta

Backstage Pass

No abstract provided.

The Beatles And The Yellow Submarine, June Benoit

Backstage Pass

Something that always stuck with me about the Beatles, besides their music obviously, was their unique visuals. I remember as a kid I loved their album artwork for all of their albums, and how creative they were with everything they did. For my final project, I decided I want to combine two things they were known for outside of their music: their strong artistic visuals and fashion.

Here Comes The Sun, Olivia Valentino

Backstage Pass

It became very clear while learning about the Beatles this semester is that the group truly were themselves while creating in the studio. This is an image of the group recording and I recreated the feel of that room.

Acid Rose, Mia Saucedo

Backstage Pass

The original framed collage was a birthday present when I was a huge Beatles fan in the sixth grade.

I decided to use this collage to contrast how I viewed the Beatles and how I consumed their music when I was younger and how that's evolved, as well as how their sound evolved as their career progressed.

I focused on how their songs began to be influenced by their drug use. Some of their songs with drug-influenced lyrics are featured in the painting.

*Note: Download Original collage in "Additional Files" below as well as Author Statement as original image file.

Fab 4, Nicole Wasnock

Backstage Pass

I wanted to do something artistic for this project so I chose to do a grid drawing inspired by Chuck Close. In order to choose the color palate I used the colors of each of their uniforms on the album cover for Sgt. Peppers .

"We All Live...", Bryan Kyner

Backstage Pass

I wanted to draw the submarine from 'Yellow Submarine' as this was the first song I ever listened to from The Beatles. The style of The Beatles from the top-left corner and the Octopus from the bottom-right corner was inspired by The Beatles cartoon and I really like the at style from the cartoon too.

What Percentage Of The World Owns A Beatles Album?, Ailey Butler

Backstage Pass

What inspired me to create this work was seeing the impact that the Beatles had on culture and the world. They became so popular, and I felt the inclination to see how many albums they had sold over the course of their career. In my infographic, I examined the top five best selling Beatles albums and did some quick math to show what percent of the world’s population owns that particular album.

Come Together, Doone'y Harris

Backstage Pass

At the beginning of the semester I was asked “what is your favorite song by The Beatles?” I said that I didn’t know. I was told that by the end of the semester I will know. The sheet music used for the background in my piece is that of my two favorite songs by the band. “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” and “A Hard Day's Night.” My art piece is called “Come Together.” The title is not only the name of a Beatles song, but it helps to describe the entire piece. Throughout the course I learned a lot …

Memorias | Electronic Literature + Live Coding Performance, Jessica A. Rodriguez Miss, Rolando Rodriguez, Alejandro Brianza, Luis M. Guzman

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

Memorias is a web-based artistic project by Jessica Rodríguez developed through the Estuary platform —an online platform to host live coding languages. It is based in six autobiographical writings connected to the way she “hears”, “writes”, “watches”, “reads”, “sees” and “listens” to the word. Through these texts, six code works were designed and programmed, hybridizing natural and computing languages by parsing three existing live coding languages: Tidal Cycles, Punctual, and CineCer0.

Together, Memorias’ languages collide different materialities as well as visual and sonic approaches, going from voices in English, Spanish, Cello and Paetzold samples, audio and visual synthesis, and pre-recorded …

African American Sacred Music And The Romantic Aesthetic, Brooksie Harrington

English Faculty Working Papers

Gospel music affects every aspect of African American culture, and the similarities between the African American sacred music aesthetic and the Romantic aesthetic share a theme of religiosity that is contained in the correlative of the mythopoetic “seam.” This seam meshes together analysis that explores the natural sublime, as suggested in the writings of such scholars as William Wordsworth, Pierre Proudhon, Samuel Coleridge, James Weldon Johnson, Henry L. Gates, and Anthony Heilbut.

Bendit_I/O: A System For Extending Mediated And Networked Performance Techniques To Circuit-Bent Devices, Anthony Thomas Marasco

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Circuit bending—the act of modifying a consumer device's internal circuitry in search of new, previously-unintended responses—provides artists with a chance to subvert expectations for how a certain piece of hardware should be utilized, asking them to view everyday objects as complex electronic instruments. Along with the ability to create avant-garde instruments from unique and nostalgic sound sources, the practice of circuit bending serves as a methodology for exploring the histories of discarded objects through activism, democratization, and creative resurrection. While a rich history of circuit bending continues to inspire artists today, the recent advent of smart musical instruments and the …

A Conductor's Guide To Dale Trumbore's How To Go On, Stuart Dameron

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

How To Go On is a thirty-five minute work for a cappella choir composed by Dale Trumbore from 2015 to 2017. Since its premiere, How To Go On has been performed by notable choral ensembles including The Esoterics, the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, The Singers: Minnesota Choral Artists, and Webster University’s Chamber Singers. The work was awarded the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award in 2017.

This dissertation serves as an analysis and conductor’s guide for this work through the fulfillment of several purposes: a detailed and thorough investigation into the background and history behind the …

Corporeal Analysis: The Performing Body As Analytic Site, Laura Cocks

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A framework of corporeal analysis posits that the physicality of the performer can be construed as a primary analytical parameter in a work. This dissertation seeks to set up such a method of analysis largely through anecdata and autoethnography with the aim of eliciting a deeper space for additional performer-driven analyses that prioritize the bodily knowledge of performers and their physical understandings of a work. Centering around David Bird’s 2013 work for solo piccolo and “no-less-than twenty-nine spatialized piccolos,” Atolls, three main aspects of corporeal analysis will be explored. These are: performance physicality as expressive connective tissue between flutist …

Lived Experience Of Music Therapists As Musician-Therapists, Kotoe Suzuki

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

The dissertation research explored the lived experiences of music therapists who are performing musicians. A conceptual foundation of music therapists as musicians, a “musician-therapist” who is deeply versed in the unique properties of music can be identified in the literature (Ansdell & Verney, 2008; Nordoff & Robbins, 1973). The objectives of this study were to explore three topics: 1) deeper understandings of music therapists’ musical improvisation both in clinical and nonclinical settings, 2) the connection between music therapists’ personal and professional musical growth, and 3) identity formation. A qualitative method was chosen for this research including reflexive/embodied/interpretative phenomenology, and arts-based …

Encumbered By Stage Fright Or I’M Not Sure Why I Did That, Chris Scott

Graduate School of Art Theses

I hope to be as honest as possible. I’m hoping to be the star of the show. This is a series of onanistic musings, a rambling narrative that oscillates between truth and fabrication. There are instances of earnestness paired with ostentatious exaggeration. The frequent leaps from subject to subject, often seemingly unrelated to one another, reflect the ineluctably scatterbrained headspace that dictates how I operate in the studio, in every facet of life. Through this lens of storytelling I delve into a few artists, like Bruce Nauman, and rock and roll musicians, like Lou Reed, who I have been unable …

Musical Ability And Accent Imitation, Maria Murljacic

Honors Scholar Theses

This study investigates the intersection of musical ability and accent imitation, more specifically defining what factors cause a relationship between the two. The study was run on 50 participants, who each completed an accent imitation ability assessment, a musical ability assessment, and an articulation ability assessment. The scores for the accent imitation portion were rated by anonymous online raters. Each participant filled out a questionnaire on prior musical experience and were either classified as a musician or non-musician. The analysis found that those in the musician group performed better on the musical ability, articulation, and accent ability assessment than non-musicians. …

The Making Of When We Say Goodnight, Andrew Newman

Honors Theses

The following thesis documents the writing and recording of When We Say Goodnight, an album by Lo Noom. The author discusses the various influences that led to the development of the album’s concept. The album is meant to explore the feelings the author associates with summer nights in Mississippi. He attempts to create a world in which the songs and feelings live. He discusses the album’s song development and various recording processes. As he brings the album to completion, a struggle emerges between the author’s desire to please his audience and his desire to create for his own personal enjoyment. …

Detours In Music - Podcast, Laura F. Ruple

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

The podcast, Detours in Music, aims to inspire, spark interest, and educate its audience of all ages and music levels about a life in music. Each episode includes an interview with someone involved in music at the professional level. The interviews focus on the person's story and the paths and detours their lives have taken them on, leading them to where they are today. The project has been well received, with episodes downloaded on four continents, and a consistent following of listeners. The podcast is intended to help its listeners connect with music faculty members at JMU, gain new perspectives …

Recording A Solo Instrumental Album: A Methodology And Representative Album, John Nye

Dissertations, 2020-current

Contests and Collaborations is a trumpet album consisting of solo and collaborative works for trumpet. The album is aimed towards demonstrating diverse performance abilities in a variety of musical styles. The methodology for recording a solo instrumental album is discussed in detail and includes topics such as selecting repertoire, recruiting collaborative artists, hiring a recording engineer, selecting a producer, choosing a recording venue, allocating rehearsal and recording time, and royalties and licensing. Contests and Collaborations, along with the accompanying methodology, serves as a resource for other musicians by detailing various considerations and procedures involved in recording an album.