The Sound STC•Vol.2 Issue 01
January 2016
By Brian Foster
THE LAST
THINGS
Call for Submissions
Niagara Artists Centre’s Flea Market Gallery
Deadline: Wednesday 2 March 2016 to be received at NAC by 5PM
Once a thing is gone, that is the end of it.
– Anna from In the Country of the Last Things by Paul Auster
Members of the Niagara Artists Centre are invited to submit proposals
for art work to be included in an exhibition entitled THE LAST THINGS
at NAC’s unique gallery at The St. Catharines Factory Outlet Flea
Market.
Using materials sourced from the Flea Market, artists are invited to
reconfigure found materials as a way of speculating on a
post-industrial future. Tools, prototypes, and contrived artefacts, are
suggested as objects that will evoke a coming era of salvage and
survival.THE LAST THINGS seeks art works that will imply the future
material culture, the socio-political circumstances, and the kinds of
innovations and responses that might arise with the disappearance of
advanced technologies and newly manufactured goods. The exhibit
wonders: Where and how does art merge with utility? What kinds of
hybrids might arise out of necessity?
For more information: nac.org 905-641-0331 [email protected]
thesoundstc.com
Pop is a four letter word, as John Lydon once
said. At least, I think it was John Lydon who
said that. For argument’s sake, let’s say that John
Lydon once said “pop is a four letter word”. And
he was not wrong when he said that (if he did
in fact say it). The word pop is the root of the
word popular and when young music fans start
to cultivate their taste in music, the best way
to differentiate themselves from other people
is to steer clear of the mainstream. That’s why
for two and a half months in 1996, my favourite
band was Radioblaster (it doesn’t matter who).
Pop music was a genre of music, that for a long
time, I would not publicly give myself over to.
In her 2012 article “Anatomy of A Tear
Jerker”, Michaleleen Doucleff discussed how
specific pop songs are designed to illicit very
specific reactions from their listeners. Doucleff
spoke about a musical device called “appoggiatura.” Doucleff describes appoggiatura as “a type
of ornamental note that clashes with the melody
just enough to create a dissonant sound”. This
dissonant sound creates a tension in the listener.
When the song returns to the original melody,
however, the listener feels a sense of relief. The
song she examined was Adele’s 2012 hit “Someone Like You”. In short, Adele is putting us
through the emotional ringer and she knows it.
In the same article, Robert Zatorre from McGill
University reported that “emotionally intense
music releases dopamine in the pleasure and
reward centres of the brain, similar to the effects of food, sex and drugs. This makes us feel
good and motivates us to repeat the behaviour”.
It has to make us feel uneasy while simultaneously making us feel safe. Whether it is the ever
heightening chorus of “Living On A Prayer” or
the verge of tears only to brought back from
the brink construction of “Someone Like You”,
pop music needs to take you higher but it cannot leave you hanging out to dry. That’s why
it is so popular; it plays on all of the emotional
sweet spots that make us come back for more. I
for one do not like to be manipulated, so I have
struggled greatly with pop music.
Then something weird and wonderful happened: Justin Bieber released one of the best
songs of 2015. No, seriously. Justin Bieber released one of the best songs of 2015.
“What Do You Mean?” is the breezy and flutey
antithesis to the heaviness of the music I listened
to in my late twenties and early thirties. The me
of 2010, the same guy who swore The National’s
High Violet was the be all and end all, would have
smacked around the me of today for even thinking that a Justin Bieber song was catchy let alone
one of the best songs of the year. In retrospect, I
think the 2010 me could have used a beatdown
and a little dangle out of a window from the lapels
of my suit vest. Justin Bieber released a pop song,
in 2015, that borrows more from the laid back
Yacht Rock/AOR hits of the late seventies and
early eighties than any contemporary genres of
music. The Biebs owes more to the chilled out
vibes of Christopher Cross than he does to the
sensitive hubris of Drake.
What makes “What Do You Mean?” such
a pop masterstroke lies more in its effortless
Now watch me whip
swagger than anything else. Good pop music
should always sound like it happened on the
spot. In reality, truly effective pop music is
quite the opposite. It is very scientific and affected. In short, it is toiled over ad nauseum.
Two of the biggest hits of the year, Bieber’s
“What Do You Mean?” and Drake’s “Hotline
Bling” are not big, emotional songs, and they
do not share the redemptive and swooping
grandiosity of Adele’s “Someone Like You”
(or her 2015 hit “Hello” which is basically
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