Marvin Gaye

Before Marvin Gaye's success with his hit song what's going on, Marvin Gaye started out in the doo-wop quartet. Marvin Gaye along with James Nolan and Chester Simions formed the doo-wop group and where noticed by Bo Diddley. Though the quartet failed at making the label that Diddley worked for, Diddley did not give up on the boys he worked hard and tried to get the gang on a sub-label which also fail. Marvin Gaye was forced to give up his singing career for a lit bit and worked normal jobs like a dishwasher,and a stock boy. Then one day Diddley talked with the co-owner of moonglow and he decided to take the boys under his wing, Which Brought Marvin Gaye back to his music career. Later in Marvin Gaye's career he would come out with the song whats going on, but what influenced this song? From the information in the articles i read i can conclude that Marvin Gaye came up with the idea of what's going on when he was riding a bus and he saw police brutality towards antiwar protester. Marvin thought to him self whats going on with this nation, which led to the idea of his song what's going on. Though Marvin Thought his song was going to be a great idea for a song, everybody who heard the it would say other wise. One of the producers went as far as saying that his song was the worsted song he had ever heard in his life. Though it seemed nobody would release his song Marvin didn't give up and eventually one producer loved it. If Marvin Gaye's Song Whats going on has thought me anything its that just because someone doesn't like your work it doesn't mean its bad, its just no for them and you should just find somebody who is interested in your works.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What's_Going_On#Conception

The Velvet Underground & Nico

The Velvet Underground was a band out of New York City in 1964. The Velvet Underground was known for their image which was music, art, and film. The Velvet Underground is held as one of the most influential band of their era. This was for there experimental music and provocative lyrics. The two main members of the Velvet Underground where Lou Reed, and John Cale. Lou Reed was the guitar player as well as the lead songwriter. Lou Reed would sing about subjects that where unheard of in the early rock and roll era, with subjects like sexuality and about the drug culture. Lou Reed Eventually left the band in 1971 when he started his solo career, which later that year he came out with a hit song titled "Walk on the wild side". John Cale was the bass/cello player of the band, and also the co-founder. John met Reed in college where the formed the band and started to develop their experimental music style. John Later moved on to writing classical and drone music in his solo career and is still working on solo projects. Though both Lou Reed, and John Cale had much more success with their solo carer then with Velvet Underground, both acknowledge the fact that those years in Velvet Underground were very important to their success. Andy Warhol was the Velvet Undergrounds manager, which some say is why they were so successful. Andy Warhol not only managed the Velvet Underground but he also own The Factory which was a studio in New York City. Warhol had the Velvet Underground as the house band for his studio and also for his Exploding Plastic Inevitable events. Some of the characteristics that would describe this band would be unique, experimental, and before its time. What a lot of people don't understand is the fact that the Velvet Underground was speaking its mind through the music and not comforting to what the typical music style would have been back in its era. To sum this all up, i can end by saying that the Velvet Underground has though me that you don't have to follow the book for people to like your music you just need an original idea and you can set your own trends. 






References :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Velvet_Underground#Early_stages_.281965.E2.80.931966.29

Revolver

On August 5, 1966, the Beatles released their 7th studio album Revolver. The Revolver album was one of the Beatles better known albums and was number one on the billboard chart for seven weeks. The Beatles were a big hit in America and in London.  Before the Revolver album the Beatles were already touring the world and playing sold out stadiums. Beatlemania as some would call it , took the USA by storm.  The Beatles were use to having their songs on the top charts by the time they made the Revolver album. What made Revolver different from there pervious albums, was that in the process of making the Revolver  album the Beatles experimented with some non-musical influences such as LSD. The use of LSD made the Beatles makes a more psychedelic rock sound then there earlier pop rock sound. A good example of this psychedelic rock is the song she said she said. The Beatles used the studio as an instrument in one of their tracks on the revolver album. They used the sound of the studio room to give the  present of the studio so the  listener could feel like they were there with them. This was an unheard of thing back when they recorded the album. One of the innovations found on the Revolver record was on the song Eleanor Rigby, this song featured nothing but a singer and a string section playing all the parts and even the rhythm of the song. The use of the string section in this song was unheard of in the 1960's  for a pop song. Another innovation the Revolver Album had was the use of compression of the drum set. There was no other band in that era that had a compressed drum sound, which is a very common practice these days. The revolver album has shown me a lot about how a record can sound amazing if you are not afraid to try something new. This album has also taught me that you can use different instruments to play the rhythm part then just drums and that a song doesn't always have to have the same instruments in it as the pervious song did.


References;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolver_(album)#Contributions_and_inspirations

Pet Sounds

The pet sounds album by the beach boys, was there 11th studio album. Although the Pet sounds album is regarded as the best album of all time by New Musical Express, The Times, and Mojo Magazine, When the album first came out in was only 10th out of 200 on the billboard charts. Before the pet sounds album the beach boys were known for there surfing theme music. The beach boys would sing songs about surfing and just simple love songs. While in the pet sounds album they sang about more complicated love stories. The more complicated love stories were due to the fact that Brain Wilson wrote the whole album. Brain Wilson took time off from the beach boys busy touring schedule to focus on recording the new album. The Album was recorded at three different studios in Los Angeles Gold Star studios, Western studios, and Sunset studios. The whole album was produced by Brain Wilson as he tried to use  his mentors (Phil Spector) technique "The Wall of Sound".  Brain Wilson used a lot of different sounding instruments and sound while recording the pet sounds album. Some examples of the unusual  sounds include crushing soda cans, and baking dogs. Brain Wilson also used multiple electric instruments and voices in an ensemble while combining them with reverb and echo. The pets sounds album has personally showed me that you do not need a hundred plus tracks to record a great album its about the quality of the sound not the quantity. This album has also showed me that you should be open to experimenting with different sounds, because you never know what you will come up with.  I have learned a lot from this album, and i feel that it is one of the best albums from its era.


References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pet_Sounds#Provisional_tracks_and_Capitol.27s_insistence

WELCOME

Hi my name is Dustin Breeden , I am a Recording Arts student at Full Sail. I have been interested with every type of music from classical to electronic. Some of my favorite artists are Cannibal Corpse, Excision, and Primus. My primary focus is to become an audio engineer who does the tracking for a major studio.