Epiphany IV

Maybe there was something else that needed to happen in Music. Or at least something different on my behalf. I therefore decided that since rock was going to be my audible delight, pop should be my main area of expertise.

There is reasoning behind this madness. You look at the top 40 singles charts as it stands today. Guitar based bands aren't up there anymore and if there are, there's only a few. I realised that if any money was to be made it would be made in pop. Pop has so much character to it and it can branch off anywhere whilst still being pop. But, I am not saying for one instance that rock doesn't have character. It's a different sort of character compared to modern day pop music. For example, pop can feature the standard band set up such as guitars, bass, vocals and drums. But you can then spread that to include pianos, keyboards, sythesizers, stringed instruments, acoustic guitars, samplers...all laden with effects. Listen to Katy Perry's California Gurls. In there you have the band instruments. The guitars and bass are very funky and very varied throughout. Then you have the synth pads that add another texture. You've then got Snoop rapping in the middle 8. There's a vocoder in there. You've got all these creative elements. You can't have a vocoder in rock band because, although it would be cool, it would have its limits. Pop can then extend into Dance, Trance and House. Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, Fatboy Slim and certain Lady Gaga songs include these styles. And it's not just pop songs either, there's remixes and club tunes too. When people goes out to paint the town red, the songs that play get them people moving. They either like it a lot or they're very drunk (normally the latter, and yes, I have used this phrase before). But either way, they're enjoying it. It's the atmosphere it creates. It 3 minutes worth of mad dancing, whereas rock could be anything from quick-paced to really moving, depending on the style. I also love remixes too because they may be created from other works but there is still the creativity behind it. A cover can be a different interpretation of a song. A remix is more like a different creation of the same song. Even better if it's a mashup. And the best thing is, some of them seem so easy to create.

After being shown an article in Sound on Sound by my music teacher, I got really interested in becoming a producer. Producers such as StarGate have created songs for Rihanna and this is something I would like to do. This was when I found out that the magic answer was pop music. And the more of the rawkess side of pop, like I say clubtunes and Dance. My next step was to start experimenting with it.

The school had a little analogue USB synthesizer; a Korg MS-20ic. It was a gordy looking synth with huge dials, little keys and button that didn't do anything. It was hooked up to the computer and ran through a music programme called Cubase. The schools version of Cubase had some plug-ins on the soundcard which allowed the synthesizer to act as a USB keyboard so I could essentially play through the computer and changed the sounds on screen as well adjust with dials. I loved playing around with the oscillations to get these 'growing and pulsing' synth sounds. I found a collection of the sounds that I liked and made a note of them. Then, in my own time, I made up a very simple chord line and song structure. Over the next few weeks I worked frantically on this synth driven dance song that could make Cascada run for the hills. The result was fascinating; it sounded so professional and was very surprising that it only took 5 weeks to go from simple idea to a finished track. This was used in my BTEC Music technology course and was probably what got me my high marks. Or so I like to think. I did even write lyrics to this song, which at the moment is called Stop, for intended use on a female vocalist. I asked a few girls I knew to sing over it but sadly I got turned down. Their loss. But this goes to show. In 5 weeks, I got a fully created tune. Albeit, it was an instrumental, but a tune none the less. And I did it all including the drums. I have never been known for my drumming ability, but with a dancey-poppy sort of song, it's easy to make a drum track. All you need is a booming bass drum sound, handclaps, snares and a few cymbals and that is essentially it. Put them into any rhythm and that's that. It's so easy. And, it wasn't the only pop based work I was doing at the time either.

Another song I was creating was a rework of Katy Perry's Hot n Cold using her vocal track and the result was my interpretation of the hit song. It used guitars, basses and a real kit. You could even say that this was essentially a remix. I theory, it is. I know it was a cover but it still had my creative element in there as I had to find certain sounds my Telecaster could create; find a synth line that worked (I ended up using an arpeggiated synth line); and I included a solo, which the original doesn't have. So, yes, it was a cover, but it was my cover. And I got to boast that I was 'working with Katy Perry.' I just wish I knew how lucky I was.