Backing Singers and Celebrity Status

Backing singers are some of the most overlooked members of any group. Without the rich addition of vocal harmonies, many successful songs would sound empty. The extra texture can turn a song from something plain into something incredible to listen to. Yet backing singers don't often receive the credit they deserve compared to the lead singers they are supporting.

In 2005, Clare Torry, the woman who improvised the vocals for Pink Floyd's "The Great Gig In The Sky," successfully sued the band and their record label, EMI, for lost earnings. She was initially paid the typical studio fee of £30. The album that the song appears on - "Dark Side Of The Moon" - went on to become one of the biggest selling records of all time. Torry's name is barely recognisable compared to any member of Pink Floyd. Understandably, this is because the band have been incredibly successful with other projects and Torry only appeared in one song with them. However, the woman who sang the iconic, distinctive vocal performance in one of Pink Floyd's most famous songs undeniably deserves a lot more recognition. It could be argued that because the members of Pink Floyd had the initial idea to write the song and there were no lyrics involved, Torry didn't deserve any writing credit. On the other hand, the vocal performance is the main theme of the song and would stand out even with minimal instrumentation layered behind it. Also, Pink Floyd didn't write any of the melodies that Torry sang; it was entirely improvised. Although Torry eventually received the payment and rights she deserved, I am still surprised that the band didn't initially write "featuring Clare Torry" alongside the song title and merely considered her a session vocalist.

                                      Pink Floyd - The Great Gig In The Sky

A contrasting example to "The Great Gig In The Sky," but with an equally admirable backing vocal performance is "Gimme Shelter" by The Rolling Stones. I can understand here why the name of the backing singer, Merry Clayton, doesn't appear alongside the title of the track because in this instance the lyrics and the vocal melody were both written by Mick Jagger. On the other hand, some listeners may argue that in songs such as this one where the backing vocals are emphasised, the backing vocalist's name should be included in the song title. Merry Clayton sings a chorus by herself in this song and might even be considered a lead vocalist.    

                             Merry Clayton's vocal performance - Gimme Shelter                                        

The documentary "20 Feet From Stardom," directed by Morgan Neville, tells the stories of backing singers, including Darlene Love, Merry Clayton and Lisa Fischer. Love recalls her struggles whilst aiming for a solo career as a singer, including incidents with Phil Spector, her producer during the 60s. Spector exploited her vocal talent to use under the name of "The Crystals", who were already popular and bringing in money. As an aspiring singer, Darlene Love was robbed of the opportunity to become successful at an early age because Spector decided that he would prefer to be paid excessive amounts of money rather than give her a chance. As long as the pursuit of profit remains a priority amongst industry, the output and promotion of original, influential music will always be restricted. Higher standards of creative music could be introduced to members of the public who are currently comfortable hearing nothing but formulaic songs about break ups and sex.  

Despite all of the injustice regarding backing singers, the position does have its benefits. Without the stress and responsibility of stardom, backing singers might have more freedom than if they were continually in the public eye. I imagine there have been numerous scenarios in which professional backing singers have turned down celebrity status to carry on living comfortably away from the press. Although some may imagine a celebrity's life to be perfect, there is no denying that it can affect a person significantly; both mentally and privately. Constant media coverage of Britney Spears' breakdown during the 2000s only accelerated the situation by giving her unending criticism at a vulnerable time. It is thought that a lifetime of fame brought this upon her and she even admits that fame has changed her mental state in an interview for Vegas Player magazine.

Britney Spears Talks About "Mind-Altering" Aspects of Fame

Another celebrity who struggled with fame is Michael Jackson. Detailed but untrustworthy media coverage of his life undeniably inflicted pressure on him. Although it may not have been the only reason for his breakdown, celebrity status certainly made matters worse. Some people can handle it and others struggle, which is probably why some backing singers enjoy what they do so much. They can do what they love to do without having a documentation of everything they do. Being in the spotlight also cements the notion of superiority in the minds of egotistical musicians such as Kanye West, Justin Bieber and most contemporary mainstream hip hop artists.

There are inescapable responsibilities linked with being a celebrity musician. With such a strong influence on culture, any celebrity with decent moral standards has to be extremely careful how they act in front of the cameras, knowing that they are likely to be role models for young audiences. However, in an age where moral standards mean nothing next to profit, discretion isn't common. An obvious example is the ubiquity of sexual imagery in pop music videos and performances. With more and more female singers, such as Miley Cyrus and Nicki Minaj, giving in to the pressure of these expectations, pop fans find themselves buying tickets for soft porn shows that are justified musically by backing tracks accompanied by poorly mimed vocals. Because backing singers tend to remain in the background, they are less likely to be expected to perform this way.

Exciting visuals have recently become more emphasised in music since music videos gradually became more and more popular. When the primary focus of record labels is to appeal to teenagers and young adults, appearance is vital. This means that an appropriate image must be maintained by performing artists. It is therefore inevitable that people who are considered more attractive, both through fashion and looks, have a much higher chance of making it in the music industry. Not only is appearance vital, but physical performance is as well. I wouldn't see any problem with the theatrical element of music if it didn't dominate the music entirely. Judging by the popularity of Lady Gaga, it is possible that pop is headed this way. This list of criteria may prevent many backing singers who are genuinely passionate about music from achieving their full potential. Talented musicians should be given an opportunity to put out their music regardless of appearance and without fear of the media. However, when appearance and money are obsessions in today's culture, this is unlikely.

References
http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/archive/clare-torry-wins-settlement-pink-floyd.html

20 Feet From Stardom - Morgan Neville - 2013

http://uk.eonline.com/news/480558/britney-spears-talks-about-mind-altering-aspects-of-fame-in-vegas-player-magazine

Textures and counterpoint

The word texture in music refers to how many melodies or rhythms are being played simultaneously. There are 4 main musical textures:

• Monophony
• Polyphony
• Homophony
• Heterophony

A monophonic piece of music has only one melody line. It may be accompanied by unpitched rhythm, such as drums, but the melody must not have harmony or melodic counterpoint, although may have other instruments playing the same thing. An example of a monophonic piece of music with contrapuntal devices is "Leo" by John Coltrane. His saxophone melody is the main focus of the piece throughout the whole piece. The drums played can be considered as contrapuntal to this melody because they provide a rhythmic accompaniment.

The word polyphonic refers to a piece or a section of music that includes two or more independent melodies that weave in and out of each other. None one of these melodies are considered to be more important than the others which means that none stand out above the rest. An example of a polyphonic piece of music is "Little Fugue in G Minor" by Bach. A fugue is written for its counterpoint. This piece begins briefly by establishing a monophonic melody but develops soon after by introducing separate melodies that are all as important as each other.

Homophonic music is the most common texture within modern music. It can be defined as one main melodic line that stands above the rest but is accompanied by other, less important melodies. Songs that include vocals and guitar riffs, for example, are usually homophonic. An example of this being Led Zeppelin's "Good Times, Bad Times." Most of the piece is homophonic but in order to explain it properly I'll talk about a short section. From 0:13 to 0:18 a guitar riff can be heard behind the vocals. The vocal melody is the melody that the ear is drawn to. This may be because humans naturally concentrate on vocals in music but the song has been recorded to emphasise it anyway. This guitar riff is interesting enough in its own way but it is repeated multiple times and can therefore be considered as a harmonic accompaniment to the vocal line. This vocal line is also accompanied by quieter vocal harmonies to reinforce it.  

Finally, heterophonic music includes one main melody played by instruments. However, these melodies are varied slightly with each instrument so they are not strictly monophonic. This may be achieved by embellishments played by separate instruments or it may in fact be written to sound very slightly different for each instrument.

All The Things You Are - Harmonic Analysis

Chords:

Major 7 = 1, 3, 5, 7

Minor 7 = 1, b3, 5, b7

Dominant 7 = 1, 3, 5, b7

Augmented 7 = 1, 3, #5, b7

Diminished 7 = 1, b3, b5, bb7

Fm7 - F, Ab, C, Eb

Bbm7 - Bb, Db, F, Ab

Eb7 - Eb, G, Bb, Db

Abmaj7 - Ab, C, Eb, G

Dbmaj7 - Db, F, Ab, C

G7 - G, B, D, F

Cmaj7 - C, E, G, B

Cm7 - C, Eb, G, Bb

Bb7 - Bb, D, F, Ab

Ebmaj7 - Eb, G, Bb, D

D7 - D, F#, A, C

Gmaj7 - G, B, D, F#

Am7 - A, C, E, G

F#m7 - F#, A, C#, E

B7 - B, D#, F#, A

Emaj7 - E, G#, B, D#

Caug7 - C, E, G#, Bb

Dbm7 - Db, Fb (E), Ab, Cb (B)

Bdim7 - B, D, F, Ab

Eb7 - Eb, G, Bb, Db

C7 - C, E, G, Bb

The piece begins in the key of F minor for the first 2 bars but quickly changes to Ab major in bars 3 and 4. Bars 3 and 4 make up a perfect cadence (V-I) in Ab major. (Dominant 7 chords being the ideal chords to pull back to the I chord.) The entire line makes up a vi, ii, V, I progression - a progression common amongst jazz music. A diatonic V to I progression in the key of F minor would be Cm to Fm. Here it is Eb7 to Abmaj7. The first note in the melody line is Ab, which could also hint at it leading to Ab major.

The second line begins with a Dbmaj7. This acts as a pivot chord. A pivot chord is a chord that appears in two different keys and is used to modulate from one of these keys to the other. It could be seen as the IV chord of Ab major but in this instance it plays another role. It acts as the II chord in a II V I (common jazz progression) that brings it into the key of C major. This progression also holds a V to I progression (a perfect cadence) meaning a strong modulation. In order to modulate to C major from Ab major, the G7 acts as a secondary dominant. A secondary dominant is a non-diatonic dominant chord that is used to modulate into a new key. In this case, the G chord in the key of Ab major would be the vii chord - Gm7b5. The spelling of this is 1, b3, b5, b7. In order to change it into a dominant to pull towards the Cmaj7, the b5 and b5 notes are increased by a semitone to create the new spelling of 1, 3, 5, b7; this makes a G7 chord. Secondary dominants allow smooth modulations due to only one or two notes being changed from the original chord. The B natural and E natural in the melody of bar 6 and 7 combined with the repeated Cmaj7 chord reinforce the new key.

All the chords between Cm7 in bar 9 and the Gmaj7 in bar 15 make up a cycle of fifths. This is where the chords ascend, or in this case descend, by a 5th. With each chord movement from Cm7 to Gmaj7, a descent of a 5th can be seen. The Cm7 in bar 9 is the parallel minor of Cmaj7. This is a subtle transition to the ear because only the 3rd (E) and the 7th (B) are flattened to make the new spelling of C, Eb, G, Bb. The melody also follows this pattern by descending a semitone from E to reach Eb. This Cm7 acts as the vi chord in another vi, ii, V, I progression. However, this time it is in the key of Eb major rather than Ab major. Similar to the naturals in bars 6 and 7, bars 11 and 12 include D naturals in the melody to emphasise the new key.

Bar 13 contains another pivot chord - Abmaj7. It is the IV chord of Eb major but also acts as the II in another II, V, I to bring it into the key of G major voa a secondary dominant - D7. This line has exactly the same chordal structure as bars 5-8 except this time it's in the key of G major instead of C major.

The chords in line 5 are identical to line 4, with the exception of the Am7 in bar 17 that replaces the Abmaj7. The appearance of this Am7 creates a diatonic ii, V, I towards the Gmaj7, remaining in the key of G major. This means that the chords in bars 14-20 are all diatonic to G major.

Line 6 starts with a diatonic ii, V, I progression that leads into the key of E major. The F#m7 also acts as a pivot chord from G major, although diatonically it would be F#m7b5. The next chord is a Caug7. This chord is also known is C7#5 which is only one note away from C7. The chord it leads into is Fm7, which is the parallel minor of F major, which would be ideal for a C7 to lead into. Also, if the chord is regarded as just Caug (C, E, G#), this includes exactly the same notes as Eaug7. If the Fm7 is regarded as just Fm, the notes in it are F, Ab (G#), C. This means that to reach Fm from Eaug, only one note, the E, needs to be sharpened to become F. With the E chord before it only needing to sharpen the 5th (B) to make an Eaug chord, this makes a subtle progression to the ear.

Line 7 has exactly the same melody and chord structure as the first line. Line 8 begins with a Dbmaj7 into its parallel minor, Dbm7. It then descends chromatically until it reaches Bbm7 on the next line. The Bdim7 in bar 32 is used as a chromatic passing chord. Finally, line 9 includes another ii, V, I progression bringing it back into the key of Ab major. The next two optional chords, G7 and C7 are used as a turnaround to bring the bpiece back to the beginning. The G7 is a secondary dominant which would suaully pull to a C chord. However, the C has been substituted for C7 which pulls to the Fm7 at the beginning with a perfect cadence. G7, C7, Fm7 also acts as a II, V, i.

   

Bach - Invention No.1 Melodic Analysis

Time signature - 4/4

The piece begins in the key of C major, due to the absence of sharps or flats in the key signature (and the small clue given by the title - "Invention in C major"). Immediately, a theme is introduced that contains two separate motifs. The theme begins on the first C of bar one and ends on the first note of bar 2. The first motif contains 7 semiquavers, beginning on C, followed by a quaver (G). The second motif, beginning on the C, includes 4 quavers followed by a D semiquaver that is played with staccato. The use of this staccato works well to create a gap, emphasising the length of the theme. The second note of this motif has an upper mordent ornament, meaning that the B should be played as a rapid B-C-B. The use of this mordent in this motif is only repeated once in the next bar and not throughout the piece but considering it is just ornamentation, the style of the motif is still the same. 

The first motif appears as an exact imitation an octave lower in the bass stave before the theme is finished. An exact imitation being a repetition of an idea with the same rhythmic structure and melodic intervals - usually played by a different voice. It doesn't necessarily have to begin on the same note, however. In this case, the entire theme (except the final note at the start of bar 3) is repeated in the second bar, beginning on the G, but transposed up a perfect 5th. The notes are different but the intervals between them remain exactly the same as the original motif. This can therefore be described as another exact imitation.

The first half of bar 2 could be considered as being in the key of G major because of the G in the bass and the D (perfect 5th above G) in the treble line. In the second half of the bar there is an F rather than an F#, which means that it is diatonic to C major and also implies a G7 chord. With the addition of the G and B in the final few notes of the bar, all the important tonal qualities of G7 are present which makes a perfect cadence (V-I) into C major at the beginning of bar 3. The bass melody in bar 3 also includes an imitation of the first motif but transposed up a 5th.

The treble in bar 3 begins with a diatonic melodic inversion of the first motif but played a 13th up. The motif is played 4 times to the end of bar 4 in a descending sequence. (Not all a 13th up). An inversion is a form of imitation where the notes are played in the opposite direction to the original part. For example, if a note in the original part descended by a 5th, the corresponding note in the imitation would ascend by a 5th. The fact that it is a diatonic melodic inversion rather than a literal melodic inversion means that the key signature is taken into account and every note must remain diatonic even if the interval isn't exactly the same. So for example, in the key of G major, a G might descend into an F# in one voice (a minor second interval) whilst an E might ascend into an F# in the other (a major second interval.) These 2 both include 3rd intervals except one must be altered in order to reach the diatonic note. If it was a literal inversion, the G might still descend to an F# but the E would need to ascend to an F, meaning both intervals were identical as a minor 3rd. 

In bars 3 and 4 there is another descending sequence in the bass based on the second motif that is played 3 times. It is an augmented version of the motif. This means that the note lengths are doubled. So in this case, the original motif uses semiquavers whereas the augmentation uses quavers. The opposite would be diminution where semiquavers would be halved to become demisemiquavers. Bar 4 includes a literal melodic inversion of the first motif, which introduces an F#, suggesting that the piece is modulating into G major. The F# combined with the C in the bass could be seen as the major 3rd and the minor 7th of the D7 chord. Although there isn't actually a D present, the two important tonal qualities are still there so this could imply a secondary dominant in C major. D7 is the V chord of G major so this fits well. 

The bass at the beginning of bar 5 is an exact imitation of the first motif although it begins on a D instead of a C. It is then followed by an augmentation of this motif leading into bar 6. The notes at the end are played in a different order but the rhythm is still doubled exactly so it can still be considered an augmentation. The bass at the end of bar 6 has a dotted quaver rhythm, which is similar to the treble in bar 5 except without the lower mordent. Half way into bar 5 there is a diatonic inversion of the first motif that begins on a B rather than a C. The end of this imitation repeats ascending alternating 3rds into the bar 6.

Bars 7 and 8 are similar to bars 1 and 2 except the bass and the treble (or the left hand and right hand on the piano) have swapped parts. This means that the treble begins imitating the bass. The bass in bars 7 and 8 is an exact imitation of the treble line in bars 1 and 2 except now it is in the key of G major, with each note diatonic to G major. The treble line now includes rests, similar to the bass of Bars 1 and 2 except not imitated exactly.

Band rehearsal techniques 4.3 and 4.4

Audience reaction:
Most of the members of the audience that turned up to watch our show were music students from the college and friends and family members of the performers. The expectations of these people might be completely different from other people outside of college.

Being musicians, students from our college were impressed by technical ability and might've compared their own abilities to the skills of the performers in the show. I heard most of the performers receive positive feedback from the audience immediately after the show had finished and I received a couple myself. Most of these comments seemed to be from music students, which must mean that they were impressed.

Friends and family members in the audience would probably have been impressed to see how their friends/sons were improving, despite an obvious bias.

For one of the tunes we played, Mr Clean, we received positive feedback by audience members and were asked to perform it again in another show. This must mean that it worked well the first time.

I discussed the technical issues that I had and mistakes I made during my performances with some members of the audience since the show and they mentioned that they noticed them and thought they detracted from the overall feel of the songs. Although this may seem obvious it made me aware that I did a poor attempt at covering them up. The only way I could practise this is to perform more and familiarise myself with equipment. Although many mistakes are difficult to recover from, they can be made to sound slightly better by focusing on staying in time with the song.

Our audience was made up entirely of people who had seen us play before or who knew us personally so they probably knew what to expect when they decided to attend the event. If we were all to perform in a different setting, such as a pub gig, the reaction may be worse and the crowd's taste in music could be completely different. If the venue was local and I had the opportunity I would probably visit it on another night beforehand to see what kind of music appeal to the crowds. However, considering this isn't always an option, it would be better researching into it. Most venues will probably have examples of previous music nights online and this could be a good way to judge what kind of music appeals to the local crowd. A better way to achieve a positive reaction from the public would just be to play in venues multiple times and get to know first hand what kind of music works well.

Promotion:
For a venue this size I think the promotion worked well enough because the seats were almost filled. The two methods of promotion we used were on Facebook and by posters. I would say that the Facebook event page was more effective than the posters at notifying people about the event. The posters may have just reminded people who already knew about it to attend. The event took place in the same building as where the posters were stuck up which meant more people who were thinking of attending would be likely to see them. The event page allowed any details to be posted and allowed people to say whether they were attending or not. Social media websites are also useful in this situation because they allow people who may be attending to invite their friends and discuss immediately whether or not to go.

The promotion for this event was effective because it was a small venue and the people that attended were easy to reach. If it was promotion for events outside of college however, I don't think posters and a Facebook page alone would be enough to attract may people. An effective way to promote yourself is by just performing around your local area and building a strong fan base. Other methods such as social media can be effective at making your presence known but aren't necessarily good at attracting people without the aid of previously recorded music and videos of past performances. Whilst increasing the number of fans, performances could also be filmed to use in future promotions. With the use of editing to bring out the best parts, this would allow people to decide whether or not to attend.

In order to maintain a loyal fan base a mailing list could be effective to inform people of future events whilst also seeming more personal than social media.

Karma Police Transcription

A transcription with melody and chord symbols of "Karma Police" by Radiohead.

Gymnopedie No.1 Transcription