Questions about Music

[Sticks]

Well a number actually


I am being asked to do a multi-media presentation, most likely of all the church events of 2007. To do this I want to pick the hit of 2007. Over here in the UK it seems to have been "How to Save a life" by The Fray. Is that the case in the US, where the target audience will be for this presentation or was there another hit that dominated the US pop charts this year?
Sometimes we get a tune going around in our heads, which has been discussed on another forum I am a member of. I heard a while ago that there had been some neurological research into this, has anyone got any more info on that?
Music of the Spheres - was this just a dead end that Kepler went down, or do planets have a certain "tune" / "set of harmonics" associated with them
Has anyone experience of Music as therapy, I remember this concept in the DS9 episode "Chrysalis"

[Maksutov]

Well a number actually

I am being asked to do a multi-media presentation, most likely of all the church events of 2007. To do this I want to pick the hit of 2007. Over here in the UK it seems to have been "How to Save a life" by The Fray. Is that the case in the US, where the target audience will be for this presentation or was there another hit that dominated the US pop charts this year?
No idea. Pop today is about cults of personalities and extravagant stage shows. The music (all three chords of it) is incidental.
Sometimes we get a tune going around in our heads, which has been discussed on another forum I am a member of. I heard a while ago that there had been some neurological research into this, has anyone got any more info on that?Sounds like obsessive/compulsive behavior if the tune won't go away.
Music of the Spheres - was this just a dead end that Kepler went down, or do planets have a certain "tune" / "set of harmonics" associated with themAnother dead end by Kepler, along with his Platonic solids solution to the planetary orbits. His Harmonices Mundi is as arbitrary and nonfunctional as astrology or Bode's "Law". He did make some money by dabbling in astrology.Has anyone experience of Music as therapy, I remember this concept in the DS9 episode "Chrysalis"This was touched on in Hitchcock's Vertigo (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052357/), in which Jimmy Stewart loses it after losing Madeleine to death. Midge's two comments sum it up pretty well:Midge (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000895/): I talked to the woman in musical therapy, and she said that Mozart's the boy for you. Midge (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000895/): You want to know something? I don't think Mozart's going to help at all.

[Whirlpool]

Ummm..:think:

Smack That - Akon


:p

<kidding>

[Tog_]

No clue what the popular song was in the US. I don't hear anything that's not on my hard drive.

As for getting a song stuck in your head, here is what I've found to be true for me. The song will be in there for hours unless I can either get all the way through the lyrics, or sing the first verse of "Copacabana" by Barry Manilow.

My theory on the first remedy is that your mind will keep trying to get to the end of the song for whatever reason. Once it does, it's happy. Maybe this is a little OCD, but that's the pattern I've noticed.

For the second option, I think that "Copacabana" is the one song on earth that is both catchy enough to get stuck in your head, and irritating enough for you mind to give up without a fight.

[Sticks]

As for my second question, I have now found

This news story (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4332771.stm)

Scientists may have found what makes a tune catchy, after locating the brain area where a song's "hook" gets caught.

and this one (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3221499.stm)

Research in the US has found that songs get stuck in our heads because they create a "brain itch" that can only be scratched by repeating the tune over and over.
In Germany, this type of song is known as an "ohrwurm" - an earworm - and typically has a high, upbeat melody and repetitive lyrics that verge between catchy and annoying.


I knew there had been some research on this one.

[torque of the town]

Pop today is about cults of personalities and extravagant stage shows. The music (all three chords of it) is incidental.



You got that right!

[Sticks]

Maybe but I do need to confirm if "How to Save a life" by the Fray was a number one hit in the US this year, like I am told it was in the UK. If not which song dominated the US pop charts this year.

I am on a time clock on this one.

[Tog_]

Peaked at 14

Billboard (http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/esearch/searchResult.jsp?configType=BBCOM_SIMPLEDEFAULT&pubList=Billboard&an=bbcom&action=Submit&kw=&exposeNavigation=true&keyword=the+fray&submit.x=0&submit.y=0&submit=Submit&searchType=ARTICLE_SEARCH)

[farmerjumperdon]

Pop today is about cults of personalities and extravagant stage shows. The music (all three chords of it) is incidental.



You got that right!

The hottest shows barely pay homage to music at all. A lot of them do not even have the musicians or instruments on stage. It's 4 or 5 teeny boppers on stage jumping around and singing. Doesn't anybody look around and wonder where the music is even coming from? The music barely even registers, it's more about the band meeting some marketer's well researched definition of cool and convincing the kids that by attending, they are now cool too.

[Delvo]

See the Billboard.com link a couple of posts above this one; HTSaL was never #1. (The singing was terrible; constantly off-pitch and drifting up or down on every syllable with slurred pronunciation. It was like a drunk trying to sing. And it was irritatingly overplayed for anybody who watched whichever TV network has "Grey's Anatomy" because they used it to advertise that show on TV far more than it was played on the radio.) You can also probably find out at that website what song was #1 the longest or sold the most copies or something like that. But there was no one song that "dominated".

Why does the soundtrack for your presentation need to be The One Big Hit Of The Year? Why not pick the most suitable one from the top 20-50 or so? About the same number of people would still be familiar with it, and the lower-ranked ones (higher numbers) would be less overplayed by now.

[Sticks]

Last year I did a 21st Anniversary video and because it was 2006 that it fell in, I ended up using Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol which seemed to dominate. I understand it was on Greys Anatomy as well. The other reason it seemed to be the hit of 2006, was that it was used for the end of UK Big Brother compilation of memorable moments. This year they chose HTSaL, and as I kept hearing it on musak I assumed it must be the hit of 2007.

As for the general point of using the hit of the year, I had also seen this done on one of those Hogmany shows where they did a review of the year clips, to a particular hit that may have been the number one for the most time that year. I was trying to follow in that tradition.

I did look at another link, and one hit that seemed to be in theUK charts for a long time was Umbrella by Rhiana ???

[01101001]

Music of the Spheres - was this just a dead end that Kepler went down, or do planets have a certain "tune" / "set of harmonics" associated with them

Of course, you can map audible frequencies to the planets' cyclic behavior, and you can call it music. No harmonics appear to be naturally involved.

Listen: Kepler's Music of the Spheres, a joint composition by Paul Viotti and Ralph Abraham (http://www.viotti.com/kepler.html) (MP3s there).

[Torsten]

The song will be in there for hours unless I can either get all the way through the lyrics, or sing the first verse of "Copacabana" by Barry Manilow.

Oh darn you, now that's on my mind! Arghhhhhhh. Must . . . listen . . . to . . . something . . . else . . quickly!

There, that's better.

I think it's a common phenomenon for people to associate a tune with a place or a time. That is, hearing the tune reminds them of the place/time. Some years ago I had a very strange thing happen to me. I had been working on a road layout on difficult terrain with several different options, and so I was doing a lot of reconaissance, weighing of options, etc over several days. Very intense. Well, on one of those days there had been a song on the radio in the morning, and it stayed in my mind all day. It was something I hadn't heard in years, and was unlikely to hear again any time soon. I didn't finish the work that day, and was reassigned to another task for a few weeks. Anyway, when I finally got back there to finish the job, I was hiking in to the area, came upon a small wetland that I'd been by earlier, and there it was: the tune was back in my head. Today, I do not remember what the tune was. Perhaps I'll have to go back there again to get the same pattern of neurons firing.

[sarongsong]

Oh darn you, now that's on my mind! Arghhhhhhh. Must . . . listen . . . to . . . something . . . else . . quickly!..."Y...M...C...A!..." :)

[Torsten]

Okay, enough already!

Well, thanks for reminding me to put a bunch of CD's in the pickup, as I'm about to head out on a three hour drive, and I don't need that on my mind. . . . No wait - three hour drive -> three hour tour. . . man, where are those CD's?

. . . .mutters something about a stupid show from the 60's . . .

[KaiYeves]

"How to Save a Life" was on the radio a lot here. It's an okay song, but there are better.

[Nicolas]

Music of the Spheres - was this just a dead end that Kepler went down, or do planets have a certain "tune" / "set of harmonics" associated with them

Mike Oldfield is bringing out a CD called Music of the Spheres, a classical work based on this idea. No real science behind this concept. Also none implied in the album (he's not pretending to have used certain well-calculated frequencies or anything, just "this is my idea of what the music from the creator of the universe would sound like"), it's just a concept suitable as source of inspiration these days :). The album is delayed, will probably be january.

[Sticks]

"How to Save a Life" was on the radio a lot here. It's an okay song, but there are better.


Our minister first thought it had slang in it which were swear words and when I showed him the transcript of the lyrics he did not think it was appropriate, and thought I ought to use a piece of music I used for another church video. :wall:

This means I have had to run with the Spice Girls reunion song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcAlA4iY_kY), until that one is vetoed

Any other ideas of singles from the 2007 charts?

[Gruesome]

Some answers:

1) Call me jaded, if you like, but I would think that any current popular song wouldn't be appropriate for a presentation detailing church events. And, The Spice Girls just might get you excommunicated.

2) As far as a tune which sticks (no pun) in one's head, I can offer no scientific information. However, I will relay a story I read in The Real Frank Zappa Book. While in high school there was a song he liked and he asked his music teacher why he liked it. The teacher's response...parallel fifths. I still don't know what it means. For what it's worth...

3) Can't help you here.

4) Yes. I have much experience with music as therapy. Playing the drums is great therapy. You get to hit stuff in a socially acceptable manner. You don't even really have to be that good.

[KaiYeves]

Our minister first thought it had slang in it which were swear words and when I showed him the transcript of the lyrics he did not think it was appropriate, and thought I ought to use a piece of music I used for another church video.
Isn't it about a parent trying to get their son to stop doing drugs?

[Delvo]

Isn't it about a parent trying to get their son to stop doing drugs?It can be, but it's more generalized than that; it can also be about trying to help someone get over other problems like tragic loss or depression. It was inspired by a band member's experience at a place that was dedicated to trying to help "troubled" teenagers straighten their lives out. Apparently, nobody really knew quite what to do for some of them, which led to a song depicting one person's (presumably an adult's) attempts to reach out to help another (presumably younger), with a chorus that looks back at someone that the singer "couldn't save" due to not knowing how.

There's nothing sexually inappropriate or violent or such in there, so I don't see how a church could object to the song itself, but it does seem off for a year-end retrospective video unless the idea is to depress the audience about what went wrong that year and make them feel like they've all lost something by suffering through that year.

[Kaptain K]

Isn't it about a parent trying to get their son to stop doing drugs?
I thought it was about a parent trying to get their son to stop throwing random falsetto notes into an otherwise decent melody! :evil:

[Sticks]

There's nothing sexually inappropriate or violent or such in there, so I don't see how a church could object to the song itself, but it does seem off for a year-end retrospective video unless the idea is to depress the audience about what went wrong that year and make them feel like they've all lost something by suffering through that year.

I think that may have been the depressing aspect. Incidentally we have a new couple at church, and the mother will not allow any modern pop songs in the house because she disagrees with the lyrics, and only goes for classical music. I have however got away with using popular music for church videos like this one (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3759466002996077059)

[jamestox]

No clue what the popular song was in the US. I don't hear anything that's not on my hard drive.

As for getting a song stuck in your head, here is what I've found to be true for me. The song will be in there for hours unless I can either get all the way through the lyrics, or sing the first verse of "Copacabana" by Barry Manilow.

My theory on the first remedy is that your mind will keep trying to get to the end of the song for whatever reason. Once it does, it's happy. Maybe this is a little OCD, but that's the pattern I've noticed.

For the second option, I think that "Copacabana" is the one song on earth that is both catchy enough to get stuck in your head, and irritating enough for you mind to give up without a fight.


ARRRRRGHHHH!! Tog, why in blazes did you have to mention THAT song before I have to go to sleep???


Postscript
(Believe it or not, I wrote my reaction right after reading that post and before I saw the other reactions - at least I know I'm not alone...)

[Maksutov]

I think that may have been the depressing aspect. Incidentally we have a new couple at church, and the mother will not allow any modern pop songs in the house because she disagrees with the lyrics, and only goes for classical music. I have however got away with using popular music for church videos like this one (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3759466002996077059)You could always use the final song of Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony (http://www.americansymphony.org/dialogues_extensions/season/dialogue_detail.cfm?ID=4&season=2003-2004). If music has a flavor, this would be wormwood.

[HenrikOlsen]

I think that may have been the depressing aspect. Incidentally we have a new couple at church, and the mother will not allow any modern pop songs in the house because she disagrees with the lyrics, and only goes for classical music.
Aargh! I hate it when one of the first thing people do when joining a group1 is to try to change it.
If they didn't like it they shouldn't have joined in the first place.

If she's so vexed about lyrics in modern pop, use Orff's Carmina Burana.

1) Any group, not a church specifically.

[Sticks]

Aargh! I hate it when one of the first thing people do when joining a group1 is to try to change it.
If they didn't like it they shouldn't have joined in the first place.

If she's so vexed about lyrics in modern pop, use Orff's Carmina Burana.

1) Any group, not a church specifically.

I thought about that piece as well, infact I have a copy of it on CD, as I had needed the La Luna part for a four part documentary I did back in 2006. It was a history series for people in the US and we had reached 2001, which was mostly remembered for 9/11 over there, so I had to open with that, before going on about the other disaster that year, foot and mouth disease and how it had an indirect effect on the subject I was doing the documentary on.

But I digress

Orff's work was highly secular IIRC

Actually you have me worried now about this pop music issue and my continued ability to use it. I have heard other people go on about it's evils, usually by those who sometimes lapse into Rabbit warren Christianity