99% Invisible - 99% Invisible-56- Frozen Music

Episode Date: June 14, 2012

Goethe said, “Architecture is frozen music.” I like that. Of course that was before audio recording, so now, for the most part, music is frozen music. It’s only very recently in the history of music that we’ve been able to … Continue reading →

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Of course, that was before audio recording. So now for the most part, music is frozen music. It's only very recently in the history of music that we've been able to freeze music into an object. And in my life, the form of this object mattered a lot. I once bought vinyl albums and cassette tapes, and there were two first songs per album, Side A and Side B. The energy of a first song made it stand apart from the other songs, at least in my head it did. Then the CD came along and eliminated Side B and

there was only one first song and the actual number of the track that you could see prominently displayed on the CD player UI. That became my index for sorting songs. Then MP3s jumbled my sense of track order and albums began to feel more like a loose group being of individual pieces rather than a conceptual whole. I could do this all day and you're welcome to chime in, let's just totally hash this out on the website. But my point is this, when it comes to music, the form of the thing matters. But no effect has been as world-changing as the original innovation, freezing music in time onto a recording,

where a single version of a song, a single performance of a song, became the song. This inherently mutable method of communication was fundamentally changed. Songs are astonishing things and I also don't think most people really even know what they are. That's the songwriter composer, Amperie's or John Bryant. Now I didn't talk to John Bryant, but I know people who did. Jim DeRugatus and Greg Cot are the hosts of a radio program I'm a huge fan of, called Sound Opinions. It's a rock and roll talk show. And if certain niche-y snarky corners of the internet have darkened your concept of

music journalism, well, Sound Opinions is your beacon of light, my friends. Anyway, John Bryan came to WBZ in Chicago to talk to his own opinions in 2006. And at the time, Bryan had just co-produced Kanye West's album Late Registration, and he was also already well known as a film composer of a lot of really great movies, many by Paul Thomas Anderson. I heard the show broadcast on WBZ while I was sitting in my car in a parking lot of Atakaria in Logan Square, and I've thought about this section of their interview about songs versus performances, at least once a month since then.

For six years, but only recently did it on me that this is a perfect 99% of visible story. So here it is. John Bryant on Sound Opinions in 2006. I distinguish between what, for lack of better terms, I call songs and performance pieces. And what most people like are specific performances. We've grown up in an era of recording. And you know, the very thing, one of the very things I love recording has killed people's ability to hear songs purely as core change Melody and lyric. It's a very strange and beautiful art form because when it's right boy, do you know it?

But what we have sort of lost is I don't know the best example I could probably give would be lead Zeppelin Those things are the ultimate performance pieces, and I'm a big fan. I think they're just absolutely astonishing, and the sort of dynamics they had are sorely lacking in music today. Record making is great. A true band in the sense that you really could tell who the individuals were. A remarkable thing. And I don't consider most of those things songs.

And the way I can sort of prove my point is, have you ever listened to anybody else play a Led Zeppelin song and gone, oh, that was a great satisfying experience. Except for Dread Zeppelin, who I'd love. What people like is that specific guitar sound, that specific performance in concert with that specific drum sound, with that specific drummer playing that specific part. And it's beautiful, it's a beautiful thing.

They're all different types of art and creative expression. However, if I were to sit and go, here, over on the piano, go, this is the melody to a Led Zeppelin song. And I could play, you know, 30 others that that's the thing. You know, I know it could sound like a snobbishness. It's not. I'm telling you, I love these records. They're great. However, it is, there's a difference between that and a song, say, a Gershwin song, you could actually play in the style of Led Zeppelin and have a completely satisfied experience. I do it all the time. I want to hear that. But when you start playing Zeppelin's song, say, in the style of like 1920s music,

it's suddenly it's laid bare that it's like, oh no, it was about those people. And those people were in a room and it was, and it was great. And I love it. But I consider it a performance piece. And I consider a lot of rock the people listen to be performance pieces. They're not necessarily songs. I heard you had Tom York here recently and there's a guy who's a songwriter, comes into the band and goes, here's the thing I've got, and then they rock with holy hardness and

all the greatness they've got with them getting in a room. I mean, you know, that's part of what makes a band like Radiohead stand out. You know, when that second record came out, we all collectively went, oh my god! Somebody who actually has songs in this guy's an amazing singer! It isn't extinct yet. Yeah, and... Or Cobain, right? Right! Exactly, and I mean, okay, here. Let's uh... The little musicology course. Okay, if you just go, yeah, it was cool. It was, you know, punk rock.

It was popular. He had it factor for days. But if you take the average punk rock sound, it is that same lead Zeppelin melody, even though they hated Zeppelin so much. It's very hard. No, but if it's like... You know, one of a thousand punk songs. Sure.

There's a big difference between that and... Hmm. I mean, I can sit here on Grand Piano playing unaffected version and we can all go, oh my god, yeah, that's the best thing ever. Yeah. And my spine tingles any time I play that melody over those chord changes. That to me, lithium is no different. It's in the same realm as being able to go, you know, where, you know, probably like most people, I remember exactly where

I was first time I heard lithium. I remember back of the friends car and it came on and I just freaked out. I mean, I was nearly in tears. I'm like, oh my God, that guy is better than everybody's. He's like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's true.

Yeah. You know, it was so palpable. Like, that's one of the best chord changes I've ever heard. It's absolutely as good as, you know, Gershwin or Thelonius Monk or any great thing that's existed. It was John Bryan, talking with Jim DeRigadas and Greg Cot on Sound Opinions in 2006. Sound Opinions is produced by WBEZ Chicago and distributed by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange. Find out more at Sound Opinions.com. I'm not sure if I can do it. I'm not sure if I can do it.

I'm not sure if I can do it. I'm not sure if I can do it. I'm not sure if I can do it. 99% Invisible was produced this week, pretty much by sound opinions. Special thanks to Robin Wynn and Jason Saldonna. We are a project of KALW-91.7 local public radio in San Francisco, and the American Institute of Architects in San Francisco and the American Institute of Architects in San Francisco. Support for 99% of visible is provided in part by the Facebook design team who believes that design can bring positive change to the world.

Visit them at facebook.com slash design. And by tiny letter, email for people with something to say. My boy Carver always says something to say. What do you have to say, Carver? I think that my dad is the best. Well you know like if I put that on everyone's gonna say, oh Roman, you just made your son say that he's the best. Are you the best? What do you have to say about that? Can you tell you the list about how to also filmed?

It's the simplest way to write an email newsletter tinyletter.com from the people behind male chip. You can find the show and like the show on Facebook. I tweet at Roman Mars and I'm serious let's talk about how the objects of music change the way you both make and listen to music. I'm ready to throw down at 99% of visible. you