This week we focused on music mapping. In particular, we focused on the prevalence of disco in low income urban areas as well as the origins of the genera. I feel that music mapping is a great way to cap off this course. We have spent the whole semester looking into they way that american music has been politicized in our society. Additionally, we have looked at the different racial makeups that specific music genera’s were born from, so being able to see a map of many of the musicians we learned about as well as the artists they coordinated with and the prevalence of those artists was very informative as well as entertaining. One thing that struck me as interesting was the shape of the web and more importantly the sheer number of collaboration’s between the artists.

In respect to the material covered during class, I was rather surprised with the origins of disco and also with the association of disco with “Gay” culture. I has always seen disco as a product of expanding music technology and strongly influenced by the use of drugs that was prolific during the 1970’S. Personally, I am somewhat a fan of disco music, and being able to take a more in-depth look at the founding beats was very informative.

All in all, I would like to say that this class has given me a new way to look at music. I’ve found myself calling out beats in pop songs, counting which beats have an emphasis placed on them, and more strongly considering the racial implications of the modern music scene with respect to their relationship with the minstrel show. Overall, i thoroughly enjoyed this class.

We focused this week primarily on the use of Digital Audio Software. Personally, I have never interacted in any way with DAW and thought that the programs used to create music where themselves very confusing, expensive, and required more processing power than was needed. What I feel surprised me the most was the ability to create songs from pre-recorded loops of music. I was under the impression that DAW was mostly fine-tuning instruments as well as creating more simple beats, with more complex, computer generated music (such as Techno) being produces by a combination of physical instruments and music making programs which were unique to the music industry. In all honesty I am blown away by both the ease in which the program can be used, as well as by the sheer number of instruments and sound tracks available for use.

However, one thing that instantly popped up in my mind was the usefulness of these pre-recorded tracks in popular music. While apple has given a license for artists to use these tracks, at what point does it become repetitive? Given that while there are many different tracks in Garageband, it is not inconceivable that more than one artist could use the same track to create a piece of music. And then, once each artist realizes that the others song is very similar due to the use of the same track, they end up in court. At what point do sampling laws apply, and who owns the royalty to that particular melody since the original melody was owned and then released by apple? I feel that as these programs become more popular, we will begin to see more legal battles on the subject.