Independent Research Podcast

Composer, Producer, Innovator : Timbaland by Dionta Lyle

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I had to upload it to Youtube because blogger was having trouble uploading it.

-Dionta Lyle

Peer Comment- Electron Innovations

I chose to use Corey Downs' blog on Electron Innovations for my peer entry. After reading his blog I must say that I learned so much. I did not know that the group Nine Inch Nails has so much of an impact on electronic music. I am not a fan of NIN but after reading this blog I am seriously thinking about listening to some of their work. I enjoyed the part where he talk about NIN’s different methods of CD packaging and future album promotions, I remember hearing about a band who did that but I never knew it was NIN. I really enjoyed and learned a lot from reading Corey’s blog.

Independent Research Entry- Timbaland

Timothy Z. Mosley also known as “Timbaland” has had a great impact on all genres of music. He has been recording, composing, and producing for about sixteen years now. Creating music in many genres such as; rock, R&B, hip-hop, folk, and Middle Eastern music. Timbaland has had great impact on music because he created a sound of his own; He calls it the “junkyard sound”. Timbaland was like any other musician in the world, he used the same musical instruments that most American musician used. One day he grew tired of hearing the same exact instruments in every song, it was at that point he started his search for a new sound. He eventually found it with the help of household objects and foreign instruments. Timbaland also realized the musical significance of nature sounds. He found a way to fuse a sample of a baby crying and an elephant into his creations. He quickly became known for his extensive sound library and his unique sounds. Which was very good because no other person on earth could sound like him or copy his style. They he started a style that his calls the “junkyard sound”. The Junkyard sound is when you take things that you would find in a junkyard, like a glass bottle and a stick. Then you use the two items to make a rhythm, and then you record it. Because it isn’t a musical instrument when you hear the recorded loop it will sound very unique. Timbaland would later add percussion and other musical instruments to create a full song but the driving force of the song would be like no other. Some technical innovations that Timbaland has done are creating a handheld video game that allows the players to create their own musical compositions. The game has a built in sequencer that allows the users to place samples from Timbaland’s sound library, in order to create a musical sequence. This innovation is both entertaining and inspirational. It is very fun to challenge yourself to see what you can create. But it is also inspiring to see a young child playing this game and suddenly realized, that they want to be a music producer when they grown up. This was definitely a great innovation because the average person doesn’t realize that music could turn into a career until they’re in their teens. Now, children as young as four years old can start building the foundation for their music career.

            

Peer Comment Electronic Music

I thought Leo’s blog on Aphex Twin was very well written. After reading it I felt very informed about the topic. Leo’s word selection and details painted a picture in my head. It was very obvious that Leo knew a lot of information on his topic. In my opinion, this is a very good blog. It was simple, short, and straight to the point. After reading this entry on Leo’s blog, I feel like I learned so much about Alphex Twin. There was so much information about their music and their equipment they used to create the music in this blog.

Electronic Music Innovator

I believe an artist that has had a great impact on the popular of electronic music is David Bowie. David Bowie had his on style of music but he was heavily influenced by Kraftwerk’s innovativeness. Although, Kraftwerk where the started the electronic music craze, David Bowie added to it by fusing his rock and roll music with electron music. A great example of this fusion would be “Speed Of Life” by David Bowie. David Bowie’s eagerness to collaborate with Kraftwerk promoted not just electronic music but a fusion of the synthesized rhythmic sounds with actual musical instruments. When David heard Kraftwerk’s unique sound he moved to Europe where he met them. Together they fused David Bowie’s lyrics with Kraftwer’s instrumentation. David created the album “Low” with the help of kraftwerk.  Although, their collaboration was not very successful in the United States, David Bowie continued to create pop music. Specifically in “Speed Of Life” by David Bowie there is an actual guitar, bass, and drum kit in the song. However there is also a synthesizer in the song giving it an effect. David Bowie’s music and music videos would soon find vast success and popularity in the United Kingdom. This not only built on the foundation that Kraftwerk had started but it took electronic/pop music to its highest level of popularity than anyone ever did before. Television networks and other media played his songs and videos constantly. Thus promoting pop music’s view’s on love, dancing, and the intimacy between a male and a female. I believe that David Bowie is an artist that had a major impact on electronic music because he paved the way for electronic music and crossover artists. David Bowie truly showed the entire world the amount of success and wealth that an electronic/pop artist could attain during their career.

Electronic Music by Dionta Lyle

Kraftwerk’s music and image were very closely related to machines. Everything from their album covers to their album concepts. Specifically, All of the titles and concepts of their albums during 1974 – 1981 were directly related to machines. For example, during 1974 – 1981 they released Autobahn that was related to cars and Germany, Radio-activity that was related to radios, and others like Trans-Europe Express, The Man-Machine, and Computer World. The key factor that makes Kraftwerk one of the biggest influence on electronic music is all of their instruments where machines and their instrumentation was less musical based and more rhythmic based. Not only did they help electronic music have a big impact on European music but American music. When American musicians heard Kraftwerk’s songs and creations they immediately wanted to collaborate or mimic their sound. I consider Kraftwerk to be one of the biggest reasons why synthesizers have become very popular over the last twenty years. Although, they’re instrumentation was very music their rhythms and grooves made their listeners want to dance, which is a main focal point of modern music. Also, the simplicity of their lyrics has also set the example for many of today’s music. When Kraftwerk gained fans in North America they created a whole new genre, they created pop music. Pop was a genre that could easily be joined with other genres to create new music. Before long artists would mimic theyre instrumentation and put a very good vocalist on the song, thus creating pop. I believe that without Kraftwerk we wouldn’t have artists like Madonna, Rihanna, Lady GAGA, and etc. As a listener and industry professional kraftwerk has left a lasting impression of their innovativeness and creativity. I think that they have left a great impression on the entire world by creating Pop music, the most profitable genre of music ever made.

Peer Comment

Peer Comment: To Ryan Kelly's “What’s Going On” Entry

I totally agree with Ryan’s blog Marvin Gaye was one of the biggest acts in R&B music and it is very apparent today with the vast amount of young listeners. I thoroughly enjoyed the background information and amount of knowledge the Ryan had on the topic. I felt security in the correctness on his facts because he had so much knowledge prior to taking this Music History class. Ryan’s blog kept me interested through the entire time I was reading. I thoroughly enjoyed Ryan’s blogg and I hope to read many more.

Week Two Blog- What's Going On? - Marvin Gaye

Prior to recording “What’s Going On?” Marvin Gaye’s music were mostly about the love and lust between a man and a woman who where interested in each other. Most of his love songs are considered romantic songs. The song’s inspiration came from one of it’s three writers who went to California. While in California he witnessed several war protestors receiving acts of brutality from California’s police officers. From then on the song was written about several civil war protests. During the time that he recorded “What’s going on?” Marvin had lost his friend Tammi Terrell to a brain tumor. This tragedy eventually caused Marvin Gaye to stop performing. After that he seriously thought about getting out of the music business and going to the movie business. One of the differences between “What’s Going on?” and other songs are the instrumentation, scats, crowd chatter, and free styled background vocals. Recordings of the 1960’s and 70’s were mostly bass driven but in this record the main focus is the lead vocals. Also Marvin Gaye hav free styled the first lead vocal, then he recorded a better lead vocal but when his engineers mixed the song they accidently mixed the two lead vocals giving the song a layering feel. Marvin Gaye heard this layering effect and liked it , he also used this in his later songs. Most of Motown’s records did not involve scatting, Berry Gordy also said “ It’s to bluesy” when he first heard the song. As a listener and a industry professional I feel that the writers, singers, and musician created a great song, a song that will stand the test of time. The music was very heart felt, the audience received the message and it had a cultural impact on society. It had all of the elements of a great song. 

Week Two Blog- The Velvet Underground & Nico

The image of The Velvet Underground & Nico is a yellow Banana with a peel tab that if peeled would show a pink banana. Andy Warhol created the album cover design. Lou Reed served as one of the writers for Velvet Underground. The book states that “ Lou acquired a fascination with the power of words and phrases, he studied their economic yet bold use of language, a technique he used in his lyrics, the result would be songs just as evocative as the books of written by Nelson Algren and Raymond Chandler.”  Lou successfully brought literary sensitivity to rock and roll lyrics. John Cale was a driving force on the bands visual image and sound. He was responsible for all of the bands sound and instrumentation. The velvet Underground & Nico were promoted and produced by Andy Warhol. Andy Warhol also played a major part in the bands originality, he encouraged The Velvet Underground not to change based on the suggestions by others. A characteristic that I noticed almost instantly when listening to this album is the likeability of the lead singer’s voice. Other bands like The Beach Boys and The Beatles had a lead singer who’s singing voice was very likable to the listener. However, The Velvet Underground’s lead singer sounds very emotionless and unpleasant. The singer’s imperfections actually showed the true power or Lou Reed’s lyrics because even with a very bad lead singer the listener still received the messages that he was trying to get across. Also another characteristic that I noticed was the heavy reverb on the vocals and also the lack of background vocals and harmonies. A majority of the albums songs sounded very empty because of their lack of background vocals and vocal layers, kind of the total opposite of The Beatles and The Beach Boys. I believe that this album represents the power of Rock and Roll in its simplest form.

Podcast Project One- The Beatles Revolver- Dionta Lyle

Welcome Entry

My name is Dionta Lyle better known as "DLYLE The Producer"; I am an aspiring Music Producer and Mix Engineer. I have a strong Drive and Passion for music like no other. Although, I have been making my own music since 15 years old, I was heavily moved by music as a young child. I am currently a student at Full Sail University, pursuing my Bachelor's Degree in Recording Arts. I am eager to work with anyone and every one who shares a passion for music like I do. I love all genres of music. That includes everything from Country, Classical, Reggae, House, R&B, Rap, Caribbean, Soul, Rock, Alternative, and Gospel. My skills include Producing, Recording, and Mixing. If you’re interested in working together or networking feel free to contact me.


Dionta Lyle

The Beatles Revolver

The Beatles’ material before the Revolver album was very much more traditional and built on the musicality of the songs. It seems that Revolver was created with a much more abstract idea in mind. What made this album such a success was the way that the Beatles used ground breaking effects to innovate new ways to record an album. I think the thing that influenced the content of Revolver is the heavy drug use of the band members during this period of their career. During the making of this album the Beatles were heavily into the use of drugs like acid, like many other artists during this time. However, it worked out in their favor because this allowed the band to think outside of the box and create new ideas. The Beatles used the studio as an instrument by recording instruments in new ways and reassembling studio equipment to fit their needs. A good example of this is when they recorded vocals through a rotating speaker cabinet to get a special effect. Two innovations found in the Revolver album that I felt were very important is backwards tape loops and the instrumentation. These are the two instruments that were the most influential to me because they were unheard of during this time in music history. No engineer in their right mind would dare to record a guitar track to tape then reverse it and in correct time with the song. Also, foreign instruments used in American music were not very common at all. As a listener and industry professional revolver is a great album to listen for new recording ideas. Although, the Revolver has a lot of great songs I would not listen to it for its musicality because that is not what it was created for. However, I do think it is one of the most influential album of all time. 

Dionta Lyle

Pet Sounds

The Beach Boys earlier work seemed very youthful and chipper. Pet Sounds seems very more song driven and a bit more mature. The change from the Beach Boys party songs to the songs of pet sounds shows the growth in maturity and musicianship from album to album. Brian Wilson is somewhat consider the driving force of the Beach Boys. He was the writer, producer, and sometimes the lead singer. He was influenced to write and record Pet Sounds because he heard the Beatles Rubber Sole. He Said that he never heard an album that all of the songs fit so well together. Brian spent countless hours in the studio formulating his ideas for pet sounds. I believe the reason why Pet Sounds is such a great album is because most of it was co-written by Tony Asher, a very successful Jingle writer. I believed this helped the album become what it is today because the songs are very catchy hence, they were written by a jingle writer. I feel that prior to Pet Sounds the Beach Boys records were just recorded. It seems to me that they did not take as much time to fully think and plan out their tracks. Also, prior to Pet Sounds most of their material is very up-tempo. Pet Sounds is very calming to me, the listener. When I hear it, it reminds me of easy listening music. It is very different from other music during the 1960’s era because of its wide variety of instruments. Most songs during that time were just guitars, bass, a drum kit, and maybe a brass instrument but Pet Sounds used very uncommon things like bells and whistles. It is especially different from the music that Motown Records was creating because no other group of singers mastered the art of harmonizing like the Beach Boys did. 

Dionta Lyle