Those who know me, either in person or through my blog posts, know that I have recently published a book…one that was a long time coming but also one that brought about a great feeling of accomplishment and pride. Well, over the past two months I’ve received wonderful news from my publisher, Taylor & Francis, that arrangements have been made to have the book translated. Into Chinese. And into Japanese! The Japanese news came in just this week and it sent my co-author Paul Bolls and me sending email congratulations back and forth between ourselves and our Publisher Linda Bathgate.
Being old radio guys from the 1980s, our email had to include pop references to songs that mention Japan or the word Japanese. Here’s mine from the band Alphaville (who are certainly better know for their hit Forever Young than this mid-chart chestnut. [Paul has mentioned that he would like a shirt similar to the lead singer's that appears at 2:05...so anyone who knows him in Columbia now you have one lest gift to think about].
Now this weekend while I was watching TiVo’d shows with my wife the excitement I felt about getting translated into foreign languages (both with entirely unrecognizable alphabets, even!) was somewhat dampened by seeing this comedy sketch on The Graham Norton Show with his very special guest Madonna. The point I’m trying to make here gets set up around 54-seconds in:
I will have to rely on the goodness of former graduate students who now have budding professorships in China and Japan to let me know if something doesn’t quite translate like it should!
It’s the start of a new semester. I’m teaching one undergraduate course this time around–T340 Electronic Media Advertising. Like I do almost every time I teach an undergrad course I hand out a First Day Questionnaire as a way of getting to know a little bit about them and to try to tune in to what interests them. It becomes more and more necessary the older I get. Last semester I was teaching three (!) undergrad courses and barely had time to look at the returned questionnaires. This semester I’m trying to do a better job. I thought I’d begin getting to know them this year through the blog. So, I randomly (seriously) selected five of them and will be taking a look at their responses over the next little bit.
This being the AUDIO prof blog…I figured we’d start with a look at the type of audio they are interested in.
Of the five, not a single one reports listening to the radio “a lot.” Three of them do some…but two of them say they never do.
Now, what I’m asking for is their perception of how often they THINK they listen to the radio. But, it’s interesting to consider these answers…and my general sense of how little my students listen to the radio…given data from Arbitron in Radio Today 2011. Check this out:
From Radio Today 2011
And, of course, just because they say they don’t listen to the radio doesn’t mean they don’t listen to music.
Here’s the videos of the favorite songs from three of my students. I have tried to use the official videos when available. Otherwise, just the ones viewed most often.
There were two other songs listed. One of them I wasn’t particularly comfortable posting, quite honestly…it’s by Jay-Z and Kayne West about people of a certain race visiting the capital of France. The other is a song called Little Black Submarines by a band I’ve grown to like, The Black Keys. However, there does not seem to be a video available for the song. Pretty tight hold they have on their copyrights I’d say.
More later as I tell you about a few of my students.
That’s what a new study by the website Hit Songs Deconstructed tells us Pop Music is all about these days. Thanks to a Daily Digest report that I received in my email inbox from The Hollywood Reporter, I know that the guitar has all but disappeared from the top 10 pop song charts this year–appearing as the main instrument in only 4 percent of the songs during the second quarter of the year. FOUR PERCENT. Eddie Van Halen, Slash, Eric Clapton, The Edge…where have you gone?
You’ve been replaced by the synthesizer. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the HSD report shows that 79 percent of the 2011 Top 10 used the electronic keyboard to drive the beat. And the lyrics? “As for lyrical themes in pop music, ‘hooking up’ is the most popular so far in 2011, prevalent in 38 percent of hit songs.” To me a more promising sign is that “inspirational” songs are also on the rise, up to 25% of the total for the year. No comment about 4-in-10 songs being about one-night-stands leading to an increased need in positive inspiration was reported in The Hollywood Reporter piece.
Those who know me, either in person or through my blog posts, know that I have recently published a book…one that was a long time coming but also one that brought about a great feeling of accomplishment and pride. Well, over the past two months I’ve received wonderful news from my publisher, Taylor & Francis, that arrangements have been made to have the book translated. Into Chinese. And into Japanese! The Japanese news came in just this week and it sent my co-author Paul Bolls and me sending email congratulations back and forth between ourselves and our Publisher Linda Bathgate.
