Tuesday 24 March 2009

Sunday 15 March 2009

Can music make you dumb? Or smart?

According to recent research by Ph.D student Virgil GRiffith, who is also the founder of a data-mining tool called WikiScanner, musical tastes can tell a lot about intelligence. He matched average SAT Scores using Network Statistics page on Facebook and 133 most popular entries for "favorite music" on facebook.

http://musicthatmakesyoudumb.virgil.gr/

According to this, the dumbest students are listening to Lil Wayne, Beyonce and T.I., while the smartest were fans of Beethoven. Ironically, listening to gospel and jazz doesn't make you any smarter either. Something doesn't seem right to me. When I studied at Russian Music Academy, some of the students who had the highest scores in reality, couldn't produce any original idea, were absolutely non-creative and useless when it came to applying their knowledge in practice. Furthermore, when I was offering to promote an event or do something related to qualification we were going to get in real life, they refused saying "I'm concentrating on reading books and getting for the exams now, I'll start working when I graduate". Some of them, after graduation got jobs in totally different areas anyway. I noticed the same thing when I was at school. Sometimes all that the scores can say about you, is that you are eager to please those who are on a higher position than you and have some sort of influence on part of your life, so once you've graduated with the highest results, when you get a job you will be basically doing the same to please your boss. On another hand, remember Alex from "Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess? Angry teenager, leading his gang on violence and orgies every night, while being a huge listener of Beethoven. That's not just a fiction character, I've seen people like that in real life, it's not rare in Russia. Also, what about music maniacs like me, who just listen to literally everything, from Ne-Yo and Bob Marley to Mozart and Nina Simone? Well, I can play "Fur Elise" by Beethoven on piano too :) What about people who are curious just about everything with a mind set "if it's there, I got to check this out" and figure out, what makes other people like it. Music is a form of expression, different vibrations and moods, I don't think this graph is fair, in the end of the day it seems to only take a brief look at college students in USA, but cultural aspect does make significant impacet too, in other countries you might find people tastes totally upside down, partly because particular type of music is preferred and made popular there.

Monday 9 March 2009

My interview on Roots FM radio 2009

Check out my interview on Roots 95,4 FM radio (www.ukrootsfm.com)
songs featured in this radio episode:

1. "Please Forgive Dem Lord"
2. "The Price of the Beauty"
3. "Tough Game"


Jahna Sebastian on Roots FM : interview 2009

DIY artist example : hand made cd's for sale : I Am Jen project

I was just listening to a CD Baby podcast today, and it featured an interview with an artist, who represents an example of out-of-the-box approach to what she does, from videos she made to cd's she also made by hand. I'm not saying that everybody should start selling albums recorded on blank cds with stickers on them instead of a standard full color 4-page inlay packaged cds in jewel cases (cello wrapped), it is one of the signs of the time for the DIY musicians: she makes her music, than creates her own videos and edits them, makes her cds and then distributes and promotes them herself, without any record label involved, and her songs do get air play in certain areas, and this is amazing. From what I heard in her interview, apparently, she only started doing all this as an experiment, a hobby rather than trying to make it her main occupation as an artist.

I am Jen : Making of Broken EP

Sunday 1 March 2009

Jennifer Hudson on Oprah

Oscar and Grammy award-winning singer Jennifer Hudson performed "If This Isn't Love" on The Oprah Winfrey Show. After all that happened in her life, now she said: “I’m good. I’m really good. Glad to be back to working and doing what I love to do. I’m in a very good place.” I'm happy to hear that, she's so talented.