A live music performance that I attended recently was from an artist called Glaive. I went with a friend and we were both fans of Glaive as well as other artists who were going to perform that night. Glaive is an artist mostly known for being in the Hyperpop genre of music. To explain what Hyperpop is, I’d say it’s similar to pop music but more fast paced and with different sounding electric sounds as beats. The concert took place in Webster Hall which is located near Washington Square Park in Manhattan. It was a pretty small venue but I recall it being filled with people. A couple days later I looked up how many people attended the concert and found out that more than 1,000 attended. This took me by surprise as I didn’t think that many people could fit in that concert hall. Everyone in the crowd was standing and the stage was really close to the audience. We could hear the music very loud and it sounded amazing.

Hearing Glaive perform live was very memorable for me. He was my favorite artist at the time and I had been listening to his music for a while. As soon as I saw that he had a show in New York, I told my friend about it and we bought the tickets as soon as we could. His performance did not disappoint. He hyped everyone in the crowd and gave us a really good show. All the people there were shouting the lyrics to his songs and jumping to the music. This reminded me of the Coachella performance by Khalid. The fans were singing the lyrics to his songs and he interacted with the crowd as well. I think in order for an artist to have a successful concert, they need to include the audience with their performance.

1. The article “100 years ago today, ‘The Rite of Spring’ incited a riot in a Paris theater” speaks upon an event that took place on May 29th 1913. During the debut performance of The Rite of Spring composed by Igor Stravinsky, there was an altercation within the crowd. The author states how the details of the event are scarce and hazy. Many things surrounding this event are left unanswered and leaves us with more questions. However, the author believes that there was actually a riot at this theater in Paris. The author of the article believes that due to the controversial dance moves and sounds of the performance, a verbal dispute occurred which would later turn physical. The show was pure chaos and the ballerinas were unable to hear the commands due to all the commotion. Angry fans would be fighting with each other and launch objects such as vegetables at the performers . What is clear here is that the author believes that this “Riot” was real an actually took place in history.
2. In the article “Did Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring incite a riot at its premiere?” the author talks about the same event of the premiere of “The Rite of Spring. The author states how there were accounts and rumors of there being a riot, verbal and physical fights at this event. However, the author of the article does not think this is what happens. They believe that the people in the audience might have started laughing at the show, and others seeing them laughing would be seen as disrespectful. There were verbal altercations between fans based on their reactions and this was all taken account for in the personal journals and recorded reviews. The author states that there was no physical fights much less a riot. The author believes that there was no riot at all and that “it would not make sense for well cultured people to go into a mob after something so refined as ballet.” So it is clear to see, that the author of this article does not believe that there was a riot in this event.
3. When I first heard/watched this performance, I felt like I was watching something I had never seen before. The performance was very intense and I enjoyed watching the dancers energetic movements. The music or sound of the show reminded me of soundtracks I would hear in horror films. If I was to be in the audience in 1913, I think I would’ve reacted differently. I might’ve felt scared or I would’ve just not liked the performance at all. At that time period, I can see how this performance could make others angry. The presentation was probably unexpected to most people and they might not like the way dances and music was presented.

The song “The Man Who Sold The World” is a song originally written by David Bowie and was released in November 1970 in the United Kingdom and April 1971 in the United States. He had written the song when he was 19 years old. It was released as the title track of Bowie’s third studio Album with the same name of the track. Since its release, many bands and artists have made a cover of the song and it is sometimes performed at live concerts. According to secondhandsongs.com, this song in particular has over 121 versions that have been made within the years between 1970 and 2022. Some of the artists that made their own take on the song include but are not limited to: Midgre Ure in 1982, Simple Minds in 2001, Marcus Van Heller in 2007, and Nirvana in 1994.

From the many versions and performances that have been made of this song, there is one performance that I enjoy the most. Nirvana had a live presentation on Mtv called “MTV Unplugged” which took place in New York City in 1994. The show lasted for 45 minutes and Nirvana performed a lot of their hit songs such as “About a girl”, and “Come As You Are”. However, they also performed “The Man Who Sold The World” as part of their presentation. Kurt Cobain sang this song a couple times before this at other live shows. But this one was well known because it repeated numerous times on the MTV channel following Cobain’s Death.

The song itself is very short, containing the first verse which is followed by the chorus, second verse and then the chorus is repeated at the end. The lyrics of the song seem to be very dark, talking about death and uncertainty. Even so, the song is known for being soft and mellow. A similarity between performances of Nirvana and David is that they keep the lyrics the same. The lyrics don’t change in Nirvana’s rendition, which makes sense because it is only a cover of the song. Another similarity is you can hear both the drums and acoustic guitar. In the David Bowie performance, you can see people in the back playing these instruments while Bowie sings. Similarly in the show by Nirvana, you can see Kurt Cobain playing the guitar while delivering these beautiful vocals. There are also some differences between the two versions. In David Bowie’s performance, the tempo is quicker and fast paced while the one by Nirvana is slower and can almost be seen as a ballad. Although Nirvana is known for there more intense rock songs, this one was always performed with soft vocals and nice sounding guitar strokes. The drastic difference between Nirvana’s usual songs could be the reason this performance is more known than others.

The kind of music technology that I have chosen is a musical format known as CD’s. “CD” stands for compact disk and it is one of the many ways that music can be stored. They are a portable optical disk that can be used to store audio or digital data. A According to an article by itstillworks “https://itstillworks.com/how-much-can-a-blank-cd-hold-10377.html”, they can store a maximum of 700 megabytes of data or approximately 80 minutes of audio. They were first introduced in the 80s by Sony and Philips. Although their capacity is limited, they are still being mass produced for new artists today. The way CD’s work is by having a number of indents within it’s surface. The only way to play a CD is through a CD player. With this player, it shines a laser over the disk and it is able to read the indentations. The dips and difference in height is calculated by the shinning of the laser and then is transmitted into binary code where only a computer can read.

I myself have used CD’s in the past when listening to music that my parents had stored away. I’d place the CD in this machine that also played the radio and I’d listen to whatever my mom had at hand. Some people nowadays might say that CD’s are old technology while others may disagree. New and coming artists tend to release their albums and still have a vinyl or CD set available for purchase. An example of this could be the album “Harry’s House” by Harry Styles. He released this album earlier this year and made it available digitally, in Vinyl, and CD. The artists do this so their fans can be happy with what they have produced which then leads to more sales. All in all, it’s always for the fans.

A song that I am familiar with and that I really enjoy listening to is called “Redbone” by Childish Gambino.

Childish Gambino’s real name is Donald McKinley Glover and is known for being an American actor, writer, singer and comedian. His music has been very popular over the past couple of years and is known for being part of the R&B music genre. The genre of R&B combines jazz, gospel and blues. Gambino was nominated for many awards in the past including Song of the year for the Grammy awards, and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for the Primetime Emmy Awards. When I first heard the song Redbone, I thought it was very strange. It was like something I had never heard before in my life and I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not. The vocals sounded distorted and it seemed as if they had been put through some sort of voice changer. After listening to the song multiple times, I found out how nice the lyrics were and how well made the beat is.

There is a part in the song that I find very interesting. In music terminology, I believe this part is called the chorus. In this section, you can hear Gambino’s vocals say “If you want it, you can have it” while accompanied by drums and bass and sounds of high pitched percussion instruments. Based on this we can say that the texture of this part is polyphonic because of how the vocals and instruments are independent and work with each other. We can also see a Harmony present here since there are multiple different notes in the instruments being played at the same time here.

The Medieval time period also known as the “Middle Ages” took place from 450 to 1450. This period in history was heavily influenced by religion. Christianity began to spread wildly during the Medieval period and the music at this time could be considered similar to chants and songs that were sung in religious places. Something that I found interesting was stated in packet #1 “The chants sung in the services, some of them of ancient origin, were passed on through oral tradition, undoubtedly undergoing changes in the process”. The Christians had difficulty passing down the passed traditions and because of this problem, they would later create the basis of staff lines and spaces which is something we still use today. It is considered one of the greatest achievements in human history. I listened to a song by Guillaume Dufay who was a major figure in this period “https://youtu.be/6mcxEtyEUw4”. The song sounded very majestic and echoed through my headphones. I was very surprised as it truly felt like I was listening to someone singing in a church.