SUMMERTIME ROLLS

Summer is here and the time is right for NEW WAVE SUMMER.  We are about 12 hours away from launching New Wave Summer on KJRW as we sit here typing this.  By the time you read this, it may have already begun.  You will hear Joy Division, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Tears for Fears, and many other New Wave bands all summer long on KJRW.  

New wave is a genre of rock music popular in the late 1970s and the 1980s with ties to mid-1970s punk rock. New wave moved away from blues and rock and roll sounds to create rock music (early new wave) or pop music (later) that incorporated disco, mod, and electronic music.  - Wikipedia

Taking its name from the French New Wave cinema of the late 1950s, this catchall classification was defined in opposition to punk (which was generally more raw, rough edged, and political) and to mainstream “corporate” rock (which many new wave upstarts considered complacent and creatively stagnant). - Britannica

During the late '70s and early '80s, New Wave was a catch-all term for the music that directly followed punk rock; often, the term encompassed punk itself, as well. - AllMusic

No matter your definition, get ready for a fun summer with KJRW.

Listening time is up 20% in June.  That places us at 75% of our goal to stay online at the end of October.  Thanks for listening to KJRW!

FRANCES FARMER WILL HAVE HER REVENGE ON SEATTLE*

KJRW once again gives you a trivia night in West Seattle!  Beginning next Monday, July 27th, Program Director Julie will be presenting the music round of the Shadowland Pub Quiz the last Monday of every month.

Scott M.X. Turner hosts the Pub Quiz every Monday at 8 p.m. at Shadowland Bar and Restaurant, located at the corner of California and Oregon in West Seattle.  Scott says, "Come on down to one of Seattle's increasingly rare INDEPENDENT pub quizzes and trivia nights.  Don't settle for a nationwide chain-quiz available at 30 Seattle area bars.  The Shadowland Pub Quiz & Trivia Night is written fresh every week here in West Seattle."

It's FREE to play!  So mark your calendar for Monday night at 8, and brush up on your current events and New Wave music knowledge!



*Here's some trivia for you:  The title of this post is the title of a Nirvana song about actress Frances Farmer.  Shadowland is the title of a book by William Arnold about actress Frances Farmer.

Scientists Just Discovered Why All Pop Music Sounds Exactly the Same

Tom Barnes wrote at mic.com:

"Anyone who listens to pop radio regularly has probably been hit with this realization at one point or another – a ton of pop music sounds very similar. It seems like grandpa logic, but a growing body of research confirms what we all suspect: Pop music is actually getting more and more homogeneous. And now, thanks to a new study, they know why.

A new study, surveying more than 500,000 albums, shows simplicity sells best across all music genres. As something becomes popular, it necessarily dumbs down and becomes more formulaic. So if you're wondering why the top 10 features two Meghan Trainor songs that sound exactly the same and two Taylor Swift songs that sound exactly the same, scientists think they finally have the answer.

The study: In a recent study, researchers from the Medical University of Vienna in Austria studied 15 genres and 374 subgenres. They rated the genre's complexity over time — measured by researchers in purely quantitative aspects, such as timbre and acoustical variations — and compared that to the genre's sales. They found that in nearly every case, as genres increase in popularity, they also become more generic.

"This can be interpreted," the researchers write, "as music becoming increasingly formulaic in terms of instrumentation under increasing sales numbers due to a tendency to popularize music styles with low variety and musicians with similar skills." 

So music all starts simplifying and sounding similar. Not only that, but complexity actually starts turning people off of musical styles. Alternative rock, experimental and hip-hop music are all more complex now than when they began, and each has seen their sales plummet. Startlingly few genres have retained high levels of musical complexity over their histories, according to the researchers. And ones that have — folk, folk rock and experimental music — aren't exactly big earners. Unless, of course, they fit into the Mumford & Sons/Lumineers pop-folk mold.

The findings are somewhat intuitive. Of course a genre will sell more once it forms an established sound that listeners can identify with. But the science is only proving the now-dominant truth of pop music: Record companies are only comfortable promoting things they already know will sell. And they know that now better than ever.

Record labels are pouring resources into data analysis tools, using them to predict which songs will be the next breakout hit. According to Derek Thompson at the Atlantic, executives can use services like Shazam and HitPredictor to see which songs will break out next with surprising accuracy.

Once a worthy song or artist emerges from the data, radio conglomerates have mechanisms in place to ensure that music will connect with an audience. Clear Channel's "On the Verge" program is one of the most talked about. When a song is dubbed "On the Verge," every station in the Clear Channel network has to play it at least 150 times — blasting it to a potential network of about 245 million listeners. This undoubtedly helped launch Iggy Azalea to incredible new heights of success, which she may not have otherwise earned with her talent alone. And her success, in turn, is spawning legions of hip-hop pop imitators whom labels will choose to blast out because their chance at success has been proven. It's a cycle.

The study is right — and it's more of a problem now than ever. Iggy Azalea may be the harbinger of hip-hop's eventual homogenization, but she is only a pawn of the larger media circuit. As reported by the Atlantic, "Top 40 stations last year played the 10 biggest songs almost twice as much as they did a decade ago."

Human beings crave familiarity. Numerous psychological studies show that people choose songs they're familiar with over songs that more closely match their reported music tastes. Our somewhat manipulative music industry, which chooses familiar-sounding music and pushes it to listeners in massive quantities, knows well how to capitalize on those cravings. Genres standardize over time as a way to plug into this psychology. And then we hear the same songs, over and over again.

But there's a point at which that becomes tired, and the space opens for something revolutionary — something that totally shifts the way we think about music. If we're aware of these sort of trends and practices, we can better resist what they do to our music. We can champion the genuinely original and leave aside the derivative. We can make a better musical culture."

Champion the genuinely original with KJRW! 

WE DO NEED SOME MUSIC EDUCATION

"Building on existing research (Kirschner and Tomasello in 20102) which found that making music significantly improves pro-social behaviour in young children) the current study investigated not only the potential effects of music making (singing or playing an instrument) on pro-sociability but also its effects on problem-solving and whether there was a difference between boys and girls.

The study, carried out by undergraduate student, Rie Davies, and academics Dr Maddie Ohl and Dr Anne Manyande from the School of Psychology at the University of West London, explored the pro-sociability, co-operation and problem-solving abilities of 24 girls and 24 boys aged four.

The children in the study were randomly assigned to either a 'Music' Group (Group 1) or a 'No Music' Group (Group 2). Children in Group 1 (Music) sang and played the percussion bullfrog and children in Group 2 (No Music) listened to a story. These sequences were then followed by two games a 'Co-operation' game and a 'Helping' game. The children's problem solving ability was tested by observing their reactions during the 'Helping' game.

Music improved helpfulness for both girls and boys with children in the 'Music' group over thirty times more likely to help than those in the 'No Music' group. Girls were over twenty times more likely to help than boys. Making music was also shown to improve co-operation among all the children in the 'Music Group' who were six times more likely to co-operate than those in the 'No Music' Group. Once again girls were even more likely to co-operate after music making than boys. Boys in the 'Music' Group were also four times more likely to problem solve.

Rie Davies said: "This study provides support for prior research by Kirschner and Tomasello (2010)1 and also highlights the need for schools and parents to understand the important role music making has in children's lives in terms of social bonding and helping behaviours. Music making in class, particularly singing, may encourage pupils with learning differences and emotional difficulties to feel less alienated in the school environment."*

*British Psychological Society (BPS). (2013, September 5). 'Making music may improve young children's behavior'. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 9, 2014 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130905202851.htm

The moral of the story is:  KEEP MUSIC IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS!  Don't you agree?

WALK THIS WAY

"Most people synchronize their steps to the beat of their tunes when they listen to music on a walk. In the current study, researchers found that even when excerpts of music had identical tempo and beat, other acoustic features influenced walkers' stride and speed.

Participants in the study heard samples of 52 different types of music that all had the same tempo and a 4-beat meter during a walk, but their stride lengthened in response to some tunes and was shorter in response to others. These differences in stride caused an overall difference in the pace of their walk.

After the experiment, participants rated the music they had heard with bipolar adjectives like bad or good, aggressive or tender, familiar or unfamiliar. Music which increased walking speed the most was most frequently rated bad, aggressive, loud or fast, whereas emotions, familiarity or taste had little correlation to the music's effect on pace. Pop-techno sounds were more prominent in the excerpts that increased pace, compared to jazz-reggae on tunes that decreased walking pace. Leman adds "Music tones up or tones down your walking stride depending on musical style, even when the tempo is the same. This offers perspectives for sports and physical rehabilitation."*

*Public Library of Science. (2013, July 10). Same beat set to different tunes changes walkers' pace. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 9, 2014 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130710182938.htm

Download the free Live365 app to listen to KJRW on your smartphone, and see if you walk faster!

DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY

Our friends at the Stress Blog write about listening to upbeat music to stay happy.  We at KJRW have to wonder what listening to the tunes we play does to people's moods.

The Stress Blog: Be Happier ~ Listen to Upbeat Music: enlarge People can successfully try to be happier, especially when cheery music aids the process. (Credit: © Syda Productions / Foto...