Target Corporation has been using the Beatles classic Hello Goodbye in its recent TV advertising. One spot aired during last Sunday’s Grammy Awards broadcast. They have changed the word Goodbye to Good Buy morphing the song’s refrain into an ad slogan “Hello Good Buy, Hello Good Buy, Hello Good Buy….” The campaign is “Say Hello to Good Buys at Target”.
Hello Goodbye is a song from the Beatles Magical Mystery Tour album and was a number 1 hit for the Beatles in both the US and UK in 1967.
Licensing classic songs is attractive to advertisers (those with deep enough pockets) because they can then begin to trade on the cultural significance of the song. Hello Goodbye is part of the soundtrack for a whole generation (or more). By licensing the song, advertisers leverage this collective, accumulated experience channelling it to sell merchandise. But does our culture (do we) pay a price for this?
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There are several spots using Hello Goodbye. Each has a different musical style or arrangement. Here is one version taken from YouTube.
I first heard Drum’n Bass music (also called Jungle) around 1995. I thought I had heard the next great musical movement. The concepts were fresh and startling. It was a new way to think about rhythm and, to me, most musical innovations, whether in jazz or hip hop, center around new musical thinking regarding rhythm. Back then I could not hear a bad drum’n bass track. They all seemed to point in new directions.
As time passed, the revolution I envisioned never happened (at least in America) and eventually the music became watered down as more and more people started making it. It’s probably true of any musical movement that catches fire and finds a greater audience. The pioneers that create the form produce the strongest music and set the benchmarks. This is not to say drum’n bass as a form of music is dead, far from it, but the early years were truly remarkable.
This video, posted on YouTube in 2006, is an exceptional discussion about a drum break that almost single-handedly launched the drum’n bass form. It is called the “Amen” break because it is a 6-second sample or break from a song recorded in 1969 by a group named the Winstons. The song is called “Amen Brother”.
The video is long at 18 minutes and it is not that interesting visually but it’s very well written with plenty of musical examples as well as many insightful cultural comments. If you have an interest in drum’n bass or are making electronic music, you owe it to yourself to watch this video.
Towards the end of the video the author also talks about how the drum’n bass music which was powered by the Amen break has never been challenged by the copyright owners of the song Amen Brother. He goes on to point out that this act, essentially putting the sample in the public domain, led to the creation of a new art form.
I received Bruce Springsteen’s remastered Born to Run: 30th Anniversary 3-Disc Set CD/DVD this Christmas. The DVD is a full length concert film showing a performance by Springsteen and the E Street Band in their first date outside the U.S. at London’s Hammersmith Odeon in November 1975.
Listening and watching this concert you get the sense of how glorious this band was. What strikes me most is the difference between the power of a real “band” and all the digital studio effects and wizardry we music creators have at our fingertips today.
This band grooves so hard, like nothing I’ve heard in rock music certainly in the last 10 years or so. The closest act I can think of to what the E Street Band manages here is Prince’s band circa Sign ‘O’ the Times. Even the idea of what a “groove” is has changed to a point where it is now considered something that you purchase and import into your digital sampler.
I like the digital music tools we have today but I think the ease with which we can create audio tracks has caused us to forget just what great music is made of. The Springsteen concert audio is pretty raw, it’s not a great “recording” but through all the audio non-perfections this spirit, this holy-rolling sound comes through and it completely transports the listener.
The E-Street Band for all its size can turn on a dime. If Bruce hangs on a note longer than usual the band follows. Compare this to acts today that have pre-recorded backing tracks (like in hip hop or most pop music). These bands have no nuance because the “band” is on tape. The performance relies only on the charisma of the “star” but the accompaniment cannot contribute because it is frozen in time.
The best argument I can think of against this trend in modern music is this new concert video on the new Born to Run re-release.
MindTools - great site with a wealth of information on the creative process and problem solving.
There are articles outlining several creativity techniques - I responded most to a technique called SIMPLEX.
The Simplex Process is a powerful, sophisticated approach to innovation. It is suitable for projects and organizations of almost any scale.
The Process is an eight-stage cycle. Upon completion of the eight stages you start it again to find and solve another problem. This helps to ensure continuous improvement.
Stages in the process are:
Problem finding
Fact finding
Problem Definition
Idea Finding
Selection and Evaluation
Planning
Selling of the Idea
Action
By moving through these stages you ensure that you solve the most significant problems with the best solutions available to you. This process can help you to be intensely creative.
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CD/DVD this Christmas. The DVD is a full length concert film showing a performance by Springsteen and the E Street Band in their first date outside the U.S. at London’s Hammersmith Odeon in November 1975.
. Even the idea of what a “groove” is has changed to a point where it is now considered something that you purchase and import into your digital sampler. 