-Andrew Evans
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WKNC’s FAKING NEWS
Category: Miscellaneous
Random sh*t we don’t know where else to put
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Music Theory?
Subjectively speaking, you definitely don’t need music theory to make music. There are a lot of people choose not to learn it because they say they either find it limiting or just tedious. But, it can also be super helpful, especially when you’re starting out or want to do something new and original. I recently read a really interesting reddit post about this ‘debate’ that made me want to learn more about both sides. I’ve been working on music with some friends and, since I only know a little bit about theory and production, it’s been on my mind. Do I need it more?
I’ve been studying music for almost two years now through the music minor program and before I started my music classes I knew absolutely nothing about music theory, but I have been playing guitar for about six years now. I really didn’t understand what it was before or what I would do with it. Then I wanted to start making my own music, so I was excited to start music theory because I was told it would really help me. I’ve only taken Piano, Music Theory 1, and joined the schools Music Theory Club at this point so I’m no expert but I definitely am starting to understand where both sides of the argument comes from.
I have written little pieces before (it’s not a musical genius by any means) but I was able to make something coherent ‘by ear’ as many people say. And I should also mention that there are so many programs these days that are made to help people who don’t understand theory too well or don’t care for it (free loop samples, chord packs, etc.). I personally feel like it’s really up to you and what you want out of your music if theory will matter much to you. If you’re simply doing it for fun or because it’s a good stress reliever, or an outlet for you, etc. then there’s really no right or wrong way to make music. I mean there isn’t either way BUT I do understand the side of the argument that says learning theory, or at least understanding some basic parts of it, will really help out a musician trying to do something new or unique. Having an understanding of how things work in music can help you do more complex things and evoke the emotions/ styles you’re going for. I’ve noticed that the more I learn the more I can break things down and come up with a more complex understanding that I can bring into my music making. It’s hard to put but as one of the Reddit commenters put it ‘if you learn theory you are more likely to do things you wouldn’t otherwise have done’.
Theory isn’t the easiest thing to understand but if you are interested in seeing what it can do for you, there are lots of videos online that can help and there is also a music theory club on campus. But again it’s totally up to you how you feel about this, you can definitely get into music without it. And you definitely don’t have to be an expert to try anything you want in music. So my question for you is, do you think music theory is fundamental for making music?
– DJ Psyched
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Fashion and Music: Hip-hop edition
Fashion and music have shown correlated trends for decades. This article will focus on some big fashion and music icons in the world of hip hop.
Kanye West:
Kanye West was known for flashiness like shutter shades, being the “Louis Vuitton Don” and collaborating with Nike with the Red October sneaker in the early days of his career. More recently, his YEEZY campaigns, collaborations with Adidas and overall personal style has changed to being very athleisure-centric and relaxed, and yet contemporary minimalist.
Outkast:
Outkast (Big Boi and Andre 3000) was known in the 90s and the 00s for putting together ensembles that shook the early hip-hop world. They took masculine hip-hop looks, but turned them avant garde and less intimidating. They frequently wore bright colors like blues, greens, oranges and pinks or rocked fuzzy pants, wigs, silly hats or intricate hairstyles. And they always looked good.
Missy Elliot:
Missy’s looks compliment the strong and fun attitude that she possesses. She wears mostly street style looks like sneakers, track suits, denim tight or baggy fits and bright colors, with Adidas being her brand of choice. Missy also loves to wear an array of accessories to feminize her looks.
A$AP Rocky:
Rocky eloquently mixes street style with brand-whore by frequently wearing Fendi or Gucci. He can mix elitist fur coat, but can also wear sweatpants or an ensemble that is brightly colored. Rocky also loves to layer a coat or jacket, bringing an element of cohesiveness. All in all, he’s a hard one to pin down, but his mystery in his style is what keeps his looks fresh.
Rico Na$ty:
Rico Na$ty has recently been showing off what being a black goth is all about. She incorporates emo, punk and gothic styles for a fun, cute, scary, but really well put together almost costume-like ensemble. Platform boots, spiked up hair, long wigs, dark, artistic makeup and lots of fishnet makes for a Na$ty look indeed. Rico really makes being a badass mom look like fun.
Lil Kim:
Lil Kim’s fashion statements of the 90s are still being seen today amongst female artists like Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj and Rihanna. Lil Kim loved to show off a monochromatic look, barely there tops, bikini bottoms, heeled boots and furry overcoats were staple pieces and she often had a colored wig to match. Being a bad bitch came easy to Kim and her fashion didn’t fall short of the persona she emulated.
-cellar door xXxxx
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WKNC’s FAKING NEWS
-Andrew Evans
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How to Find New Music
Finding new music has become so much easier in this technological age. There are even services dedicated solely to helping people with this and since my show (2k indie) is dedicated to sharing the newest of indie music, I thought I’d share some ways I’ve learned to find good new music fast.
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Spotify – I have to say (#notsponsored) that Spotify has been a huge tool of mine for finding new music. Because of the algorithms that it uses, the more you use the service and save music the more you’ll get suggested music tailored to your liking. Since I started DJing my music library has grown A LOT and I’ve noticed that this has helped Spotify in suggesting artists that sound similar to the ones I have liked before. Now it’s as simple as going to a favorite artists of mine and clicking ‘Fans Also Like’ and bam, I have a lot of new artists to start looking into.
2. Blogs – Thanks to the power of google it’s pretty easy to find music based blogs. There are blogs that list out good artists, albums, songs and some even review them for you (which is super helpful). Someone has already gone through the work to find and listen to the music, so this is a good secondary way to find music.
3. Indieshuffle.com – This website has been incredibly useful to me as well, there might be others like it but this one is definitely worth checking out. You can sort the music by genre, popularity and even go random. It gives you new music and tells you what the artist sounds like, tags related to the piece, and a short description along with a sample of the music. This is a quick and really organized way to find new tunes, and it’s definitely worth trying out. They range from really known artists to smaller artists, so there’s a pretty diverse range of music available.
4. Youtube – This one kind of goes with the blogs. You can find plenty of album reviews and channels dedicated to new music, and there’s also a lot of playlists for this too. Album Review TV (ARTV) is a nice channel to start with. There’s also TheLazylazyme who posts a lot of random new tracks. (and I’m sure there’s plenty more)
5. Your Favorite Artists – This is a fun way to find music you like, since you’re favorite artists likely listen to music you would like too. Some artists these days have Spotify’s or other accounts where they make playlists of their favorite stuff, and since it’s likely you have similar taste in music, it’s a good place to look.
6. Pay Attention When You’re Out – This is one of my absolute favorite ways to stumble on a new good song. Music is large in our world and can heard in so many different places, and if you hear something you like it’s now as easy as pulling out your phone and asking siri or Bixby or whatever what’s playing, and bam you have a new track on your list.
7. Listen to WKNC – Of course I had to save the best for last, make sure to tune in to the best in college radio for some new music too. With the new HD 1 and HD 2 you have a lot of options, we play different genres depending on the time of day on each. You can check it out at wknc.org/listen or through the Radio FX app. We have Spotify playlists too.
So how do you find new music?
– DJ Psyched
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Tracking Time With Music
Right before I came to NC State my older sister (who went here as well) told me that college would be a time I would want to remember, and that I should find some ways to track my memories. I used to keep a small box of things and I also took a lot of pictures that I posted on Instagram meant to document my college experience. But I never really kept up with the box and although I do use the pictures still, I found another way to document this journey. With music.
One day during my first week at state it just dawned on me that my music taste would likely change a lot in college (I wanted to get more into the local music scene and smaller artists) so I decided that I would make a playlist every semester so I could see this change. And I’m so glad I did. Sometimes it’s funny to look back (especially at the first one I made) and see just how fitting some of the music is to the time when I was listening to it. For instance, you can tell when I had a crush versus when I was crushed (some semesters playlists are much happier than others). But it’s kind of cool to track where my mind was in a certain semester based on what kind of music I was listening to the most at the time.
The best part of all of this is that whenever I want to get into a nostalgic mood I just go back to an old playlist and let myself get swept away. We’ve all had those songs that remind of a certain time/place/person and I definitely see images and memories in my mind whenever I go back to these old playlists. I still make these playlists every semester and It’s something I plan to continue after college because it’s just been such a cool thing and it really keeps me searching for new music and changing up my style/ trying to find new and different things. I would definitely recommend tracking time with music to anyone who also has an obsession with making playlists.
– DJ Psyched
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WKNC’s FAKING NEWS
Anthony Fantanto was asked to leave Pinecrest Elementary School after starting a live stream and loudly shouting that the performance was derivative of the the nearby Westwood Middle School ’s recital.
-Andrew Evans
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THE DEATH OF THE SKATEPARK PUNK
My first exposure to skate punk was probably the soundtrack of Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland. By the time those games were being released, skate punk was already on the decline. First, what is skate punk? Trying to define musical genres in words is stupid but here I go. Skate punk is just punk music by skaters, about skateboarding, that skateboarders listen to, while skating. Honestly, it doesn’t even have to be about skateboarding. It just has to motivate you to go out and risk life and limb in the pursuit of shredding. And it doesn’t hurt if it has that one-two skate punk rhythm.
In the 80’s, skate punk was super trendy. Everyone was skating, or at least, pretending that they could. The Bones Brigade was in its prime. Epitaph records was storming the scene, releasing killer album after album. Bad Religion’s How Could Hell Be Any Worse was a raging success that raked in a ton of money for the Epitaph label, enabling them to significantly improve their production quality. The new polished sounds of punk records attracted more people to listen to skate punk. Skate punk was a full-scale production now, not just some rinky dink operation out of some guy’s ratty basement. Skateboarding became a popular theme in music videos (the music video for Agent Orange – A Cry For Help In A World Gone Mad is literally the band performing inside a bowl while skateboarders do gravity-defying tricks in the background). The go-to source for the latest, most essential skate punk albums was Thrasher magazine’s skate rock compilations.
At some point, the skateboarding craze faded but the scene didn’t die away. There are new bands dropping skate punk albums all the time. Unfortunately, it’s really hard for these independent bands to gain any recognition when most people are satisfied with just listening to the skate punk OGs from the old days. So, if you want to find new music in this genre or in punk in general, you’ll have to dig a little deeper. It’s not hard though. All you really have to do it go to Bandcamp and type in ‘skate punk’. You never know what gems you will uncover when you go down the bandcamp rabbit hole.
The other day, I found a skate punk band called The Shidiots that really rips. They’re only available on bandcamp; you can listen here: https://theshidiots.bandcamp.com/
Could there be a skate punk revival in the future? God I hope so. We’ll have to see.
(cover art by Carliihde on Deviant Art)
-Safia Rizwan
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How to Meet Musicians
When I decided that I wanted to take music more seriously and make it a part of my life forever, I decided that I should get to know some other musicians. I only had one problem… I had no idea how to meet musicians. Through time (and a lot of different trials) I found a few things that worked for me, so I’m here to share them for anyone on a similar journey!
Music Clubs/ Orgs – This is a big one for college/ high school students but it’s also applicable to anyone. If you are at a school it’s always a good idea to get to know the organizations & opportunities that you have, specifically in regards to music here. There’s no easier way to meet musicians then at an event or meeting that is aimed toward music. It’s also nice because you’ll usually find more ‘dedicated’ people at these kinds of events, everyone loves music but if you’re looking for people to collab with or share ideas it’s worth finding people who put in that extra effort to get involved too. If you’re not in school then checking out local community groups is a route you can take (especially online and music stores but more on that below).
Social Media – I’m not ashamed to admit that a lot of my musician friends came from Tinder, this is 2019 after all. Self-advertising has always been a thing (ever been to a music store and seen adds up for band members?). While that can still be a good way to get in contact with people it’s much faster to use social media for this, especially with the power of hashtags. You can search for just about anything on just about any platform and find people looking for the same thing as you. It can also be used to promote your work, I have a lot of friends with side Instagrams and other media to promote their music and this can help people find you and make you look a bit more legit. Tinder, and other apps meant for meeting people, is also not a bad place to look since it’s people trying to meet people. People use tinder all the time for business and as long as you make things clear in your bio you have a good shot at finding people this way.
Concerts – Like I said before there’s no easier way to meet musicians then at an event or meeting that is aimed toward music. As an added bonus you already have an artist in common so it’s likely you have a similar taste in music. Especially if you go to a show alone, all you have to do is find someone who’s also alone and say hey, I did this once and met a DJ from UNC. A bonus here is that you’re at a concert so no matter what happens it’ll be enjoyable.
Record/ Music Stores – This one is a classic. This is a common place for people to put up personal ads and a lot of local stores play little concerts, so if you keep up with that you may even be able to meet small local bands. This is a great way to get involved in your local music scene.
Anywhere – Something important to remember is that musicians are just people and can be anywhere. Recently I was at work, in Carmichael Gym, and a man walked up to talk to me and my co-workers. After a bit of talking he told us he was performing with a local band and that he free-lances as a bassist sometimes. I kept the conversation in music and told him that I’m a DJ at the campus station and now whenever we see each other at the gym we talk a bit (mostly about music). Moral of the story, musicians are everywhere and the more you go out and try new things the better your chance of running into some fellow music lovers
– DJ Psyched
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WKNC’s REAL FAKING NEWS
The historic Golden Record sent into space is finally found by Intelligent life. Aliens say “We’re disappointed. We wish NASA would keep their mixes more relevant.”
-Andrew Evans