Unit 2: Communication Skills for Creative Media Production

Unit 2: Communication Skills for Creative Media Production

Task 1

Scenario – You are going to conduct research in preparation for writing an article for the technical magazine ‘Sound on Sound’ about music recording. You have been asked to write about how certain ‘well known’ albums were recorded.

You will extract information about production characteristics used when recording certain well known albums from a range of written sources;

·       Books

·       Journals

·       Web-sites

·       Magazines

·       Newspapers

o    Identify at least three sources and print them out or photocopy them.

o    Read with concentration – skim read and scan three articles about music recording

o    Annotate the articles – write notes, summarize, highlight text, underline passages

o    Video your annotation or photograph the completed documents and upload them to your web-log.

o    Summarize the relevance of your research to your project

o    Summarize the purpose of your research.

o    Compile a bibliography of secondary sources


The purpose of this exercise is too research relevant techniques and purposes leading to the albums success and how it was achieved. This research gives us an insight on the situations, actions and techniques the artists used when creating their albums that revolutionized music. Not only does this extend our knowledge on the music media platform and factors that surround it but it gives us knowledge on what steps and actions to take if we were too make our own album/single/music video to ensure its successful outcome. A successful outcome is the most important factor to consider in media, ensuring all the work put in had a purpose and a positive turnover is achieved.

This also displays our personal ability to extract key knowledge and information from several different sources and this skill can be used for several different purposes and extends our ability to do so, which could benefit us in future prospects. This skill, in this and most cases, shows our communication skills  in terms of feedback and choosing the right medium.

Album Name:      Thriller          

Producer:            Quincy Jones

Artist:                  Michael Jackson

Year/Date:          November 30th 1982

Genre:                 Rock - Pop, Post-Disco, Funk





Why was it Revolutionary?

The album ‘Thriller’ changed the music industry in several different areas. Before Thriller, Established rock guitarists did not collaborate with soul, R’n’B and disco singers and black artists were rarely featured on MTV. The album followed up after Michael’s first non-Motown solo record being ‘Off the Wall’ which in itself became a smash hit and sold over 8 million copies. It was assumed at this stage that he and reached his peak of his career whereas Jackson had a different vision and with Thriller set to span genres and break both boundaries and records.

Michael and producer Quincy Jones approached the project with a high ambition of creating a product with mass appeal to fans of all genres and solely to break this idea that the press would not normally give a black man much coverage and the outcome will force them to pay attention to him. In the early Eighties, MTV showed only rock videos with black artists barely getting a look in. It’s debateable whether their refusal to play Jackson’s previous hits was based on his race or his genre, but with Thriller, Jackson made songs – and videos – that MTV simply could not ignore.

Alongside this  Michael Jackson contacted John Landis in 1983 to see if he was interested in creating music video for this song ‘Thriller’ over a year later after releasing the single. He approached John Landis purely due to his work of ‘An American Werewolf in London’. Landis agreed with the exception that it must be a short film and Jackson embraced this idea, the 13-minute film that resulted changed the music video for ever, becoming less a promo clip than a cultural phenomenon. At midnight on 2 December, after weeks of trailers and hype, MTV showed it to the world. This Secured MTV’s reputation as a new cultural force; dissolved racial barriers in the station's treatment of music. This also created a market for VHS rentals and sales as viewers were desperate for the ability to see it when they wanted. In 2009, became the first music video to be inducted into the Library of Congress's National Film Registry. This video heavily influenced the famous Music Video director Spike Jonze, who furthermore created some of the most iconic Music Videos in history. Nevertheless, the Thriller video was set to be so expensive – $900,000, to pay for not just the filming and effects but 10 days of dance rehearsals – that Landis and Jackson had to find a way to fund it (Jackson had paid the $150,000 cost of the Beat It video himself). It was Landis's producer George Folsey Jr who came up with the idea of the making-of video, which could be sold to networks as bespoke content. MTV paid $250,000 and Showtime $300,000 for the rights to the documentary, Jackson would take care of upfront costs, and the video was able to go ahead, with the label coughing up $100,000. When the documentary was released on VHS, selling for $29.95, it attracted more than 100,000 advance orders in its own right. In result there was 9.5m Total home video and DVD sales of The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller.

How was it created? / What techniques were used in pre/post productions?

During creation a number of people/icons added factors to the album. Eddie Van Halen was asked to play a solo on the song ‘Beat It’ to give the record true rock credibility, Paul McCartney sang a duet with Jackson on ‘The Girl is Mine’ which supposably helped promote racial equity , Horror film actor Vincent Price provided some creepy vocals for the song ‘Thriller’. It also covered all of the following genres:

 Funk – ‘Billie Jean’ and ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Something’

 Ballads – ‘Human Nature’ and ‘Lady of my Life’

 R’n’B and Disco – ‘Baby Be Mine’ and ‘PYT’

Never in history had any album incorporated so much and achieved so well.

Further going on to win a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards and became the best- selling album of all time.

Reuniting with producer Quincy Jones, the pair worked on 30 songs, nine of which released on the album. Recorded at ‘Westlake Recording Studios’ in Los Angeles, California with a production budget of $750,000. Commencing on April 14^th the album was completed very shortly after on November 8^th. Jackson only wrote four of the songs for the album: “Wanna Be Startin’ Something", "The Girl Is Mine", “Beat It" and "Billie Jean" and unlike mosts artists Jackson would dictate the lyrics into a sound recorded and would sing from his memory when recording.

 Jones and Jackson were determined to make a rock song that would appeal to all tastes and spent weeks looking for a suitable guitarist for the song "Beat It". Eventually, they found Steve Lukather of Toto to play the rhythm-guitar parts and Eddie Van Halen of the rock band Van Halen to play the solo. When Rod Temperton wrote the song ‘Thriller’ originally it was planned to be called ‘Starlight’ or ‘Midnight’  as they thought the name had good merchandising potential and always wanting a notable person to recite the closing lyrics of the song, Vincent Prince was brought in to complete the part which only took him two takes. Jones and Temperton said that some recordings were left off the final cut because they did not have the "edginess" of other album tracks.

Album Name:      Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)      

Producer:            RZA

Artist:                  Wu-Tang Clan

Year/Date:          November 9, 1993

Genre:                 Hardcore hip hop, East Coast hip hop



Why was it Revolutionary?

By 1993 rap's agenda had altered and preachers like 'Public Enemy' were overtaken by artists such as 'Snoop Dogg' however the Wu-Tang Clan defied this idea. They used an interesting martial arts lexicon on the album ( the vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge ) and with their rhymes cancelled out relations to raps drugs, guns and women.

This music was far beyond and music produced by hip-hop artists at the time using large pieces of Piano and Bass mixed with their individual beats featuring kicks, snares, horns and "the boom and the map and the scream". This was accompanied by several differed voices featuring:

Method Man, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, U-God, Inspectah Deck, Cappadonna, Masta Killa and GZA all with different features in their voice and vocals.

Relating themselves to "Killer Bee's" they swarmed across the industry and all members over time worked on other projects such as solo albums and movies. But even after all of this time and modern work there will be nothing like their debut album and is known as energising eccentricity par excellence.

The album's influence has become legendary: It helped restore New York City rap pride in the face of Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg's g-funk dominance, Raekwon and Ghostface's rhyme styles inspired the subsequent work of Nas, Jay Z and the Notorious BIG, and RZA's tick of speeding up soul samples struck a chord with a young Kanye West who then embraced the technique for his own early break-through productions.

Despite Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) becoming a worldwide phenomenon, its original attack on the charts was a limp affair. The album itself scaled only as far as number 41 on the Billboard charts, while its four official singles fared little better with "C.R.E.A.M." the highest placed at a sober number 61. The album eventually crawled to platinum status in 1995.

How was it created?

      The clan built itself up from and underground Hip-Hop group in New York to famously known music gurus who saved Hip-Hop by providing revolutionary and new sounds and styles. They used an unusual marketing technique on their debut album with all the members wearing a black mask as a symbol of solidarity and it wasn't until the hit C.R.E.A.M. that the members revealed their true identity to the world and The story behind their iconic album cover became one of hip-hops favorite ruses ( an action intended to deceive someone). The groups early image behold the idea of a bunch of scrappy striving artists from the slums and this supposably did represent their lifestyle, low budget living and shoplifting trips to the local store just to be fed.

      The album was recorded at 'Firehouse Studies' which created popular rap artists at the time such as 'Audio Two' and 'MC Lyte'. According to the studio owner the first single 'Protect Ya Neck' cost around $300 of studio time to complete and apparently paying it in quarters. The single was originally produced in 1992 on Wu-Tang Records however later in 1993 for the album Method Man took over the b-side cut in the track.

      A large part of the albums charm is the lo-fi sonic ambiance which the clan used in their favor with samples of classic soul and funk. An example of this is that they used an existing track being 'Different Strokes' by blues man Syl Johnson which the clan paid for access to this on their track 'Shame on a Nigga'. RZA's use of soul samples is well known however the clans personal grooves have been used by other non-hip-hop artists in return and example of this is when the 'Prodigy' used the beat of 'Da Mystery of Chessboxin' in their song 'Breathe'.

      The final track on the album 'Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber, Pt.2' is a broken down remix to a song that appears earlier in the album line-up using its cavernous bass-line and amping up the rebelious nature of their assault. RZA claimed that the albums low end attack was his attempt to out-do the deep bass work he did for Dr. Dre's album 'The Chronic'.


What techniques were used in pre/post productions?



In each song there was a different line up of the clan members rapping their lyrics such as on the second tack 'Shame On A Nigga'  with Ol' Ditry Bastards verses sandwiching the material of the Method Man and Raekwon which rendered each second of the song lyrically impeccable over RZA's blend of samples from Thelonious Monk and Syl Johnson which further went on to influence producers such as J Dilla.

Another element considerably highly interesting was the differences in song approach. Songs like 'Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber' would feature a sort of comedic introduction before getting overcome by 7 full verses. Other songs such as 'Clan In Da Front' were more specialized allowing GZA to handle all of the verses himself allowing nothing on each track to seem forced or out of place.

RZA produced the album by creating sonic collages from classic soul samples and clips from martial arts movies such as 'Shaolin and Wu Tang'. He complemented the rappers abilities with menacing beats which evoked the gritty and urban surroundings which added effectiveness to their lyrics and image. The use of soul samples and various clips and RZA's technique which he all applied together complimenting one another creating a music masterpiece which was unique and largely unprecedented in hip hop.


 A lot of the gritty sound of the album however was not down to RZA but the cheap equipment used to produce the album. Many critics argue that the minimalist means of production into the appealing 'street' quality that which makes the album a classic. The drums have more a bass and hard-hitting effect than they are crisp and clean and the sample have and eerie and haunting sort of echo which was complimented by the vocals already being very gritty and aggressive which perfectly matched the production.

Album Name:     Never mind        

Producer:            Nirvana & Butch Vig

Artist:                  Nirvana

Year/Date:          September 24, 1991

Genre:                 Grunge




Why was it Revolutionary?

Although Nirvana were not the first Indie band to sign a major label but their album 'Nevermind'
supposably "forever blurred the lines between pop sheen and DIY pathos". The album, powered
by the golden scream of Kurt Cobain, made a huge difference to the music industry with several

different factors still affecting artists in the modern day. This Band suppsosably shuffled the indie
ecosystem and brought punk to the charts which had a large impact on several different platforms
within the given time and music industry:
Bridge MTV and college radio, 
altered the way engineers recorded bands and how publicists marketed them,
Spurred an alt-rock gold rush that resulted in hundreds of bands, with similarities, earning record
contracts and impacted upcoming artists to alter their music.

Not only did they achieve all of this but they kicked off an archetypal music myth in the late 20th
century featuring the death of the lead singer taking his own life in 1994. All achieved in a
$287,000 advance for the album.

It was an overnight success story with the single "smells like teen spirit", featured on the album,
shot to the top of the charts kicking Michael Jackson of the top spot. No album in its recent history had more of an impact on music in their generation having an impact on artists such as the 'Pixies' and 'Led-Zeppelin'. Cobain although a pop fan maintained his underground honour in his music.

How was it created?




      The albums artwork was very controversial at the time and still is in modern day. It features a
       naked, 4-month-old baby, submerged in water , swimming towards a dollar bill attached to a fish hook. The image has been interpreted by fans as a metaphor for Nirvana and their movement however it was only the case of Cobain stumbling across a documentary of babies being born underwater and he thought the image would "make a cool cover" which was too graphic so this idea had to altered.

The foundation of Nevermind's 12 tracks were recorded within a week with Butch Vig and started being mixed in early june 1991. With a small budget of $65,000 Nevermind married the main tenets of the grunge sound, crunching guitars an loud vocals with memorable tunes, heavily shown in tracks such as 'Lithium', 'Come as you are' & 'Smells like Teen Spirit'.

Toying with dynamics and shifting between loud and quiet guitars and covering the dual bases of noise and melody so that Nevermind ensured Nirvana had a crossover appeal to: Old, young, male, female, fans of punk and fans of folk.

Prior to the release of the album the video for 'Teen Spirit' was shot along side a Europe tour including Reading Festival. The album however had low expectations after originally shipping only just 46,251 copies to the US and 35,000 in the UK with an objective of at least 250,000 sales. However the video for 'Teen Spirit' was getting radio and MTV exposure causing the sales to soar and by december that year over a million copies were sold in the US alone. This brought alternative to the mainstream. The albums success can be attributed to Geffen money ( an american business magnate ) and MTV patronage and exposure.

What techniques were used in pre/post productions?

Compared to their post album 'Bleach' before Nevermind the sounds in nevermind sound
muchness raw and better processed and using large amounts of overlays and various instruments the overall sound is thicker and more powerful.  By frequently using double tracking on the vocals it made Cobain's voice much stronger and intense and is purposely sat out in front of nearly every mix on the Nevermind album.

The bass is recognised for having a very big and intruding sound which is displayed very feel in
tracks like 'Stay Away' & 'Breed' this is purely down to the sound of the amplifier. Sound city's far
Neve console and abnormally large and reverent live room have been known for creating very
inviting sound tracks for a number of popular artists. The most noticeably impressive drum track on the album is that in 'Smells like Teen Spirit' with very large and clear sounds.

However Cobain, although the album becoming an all-time great, was not entirely please with the
outcome and he put this down to the mixing engineer Andy Wallace whom was chosen based
on his past work experience with 'Slayer'. He felt that the album did not represent the noisy
grunge sound he was hoping for and it was all too polished.

Sources/References:

References: 

Michael Jackson - Thriller

             





The Telegraph - Michael Jackson: How Thriller and Bad Changed Music.

Written (with highlighting): 

On Saturday night, Bad 25, Spike Lee’s brilliantly detailed, two-hour documentary on the making of Michael Jackson’s Bad celebrates the album’s 25th anniversary. But Bad is not the only Jackson record with an anniversary to celebrate.

On this date, 30 years ago, Jackson released Thriller, and with it, changed the landscape of contemporary pop music. Before Thriller, established rock guitarists did not collaborate with soul, R’n’B and disco singers. Before Thriller, black artists were very rarely featured on MTV.

The album came three years after Jackson’s first non-Motown solo record, Off the Wall – itself a smash hit which had sold more than eight million copies. Released when Jackson was 20, Off the Wall had been seen as a departure from his brothers and his childhood stardom. Many were sceptical that he could survive without Motown but Off the Wall had proved them wrong and it was assumed that Jackson had reached his peak. Jackson, on the other hand, knew that he was only just getting started. Off the Wall had been a decent disco record, but Thriller was set to span genres and break both boundaries and records.

Jackson and his producer Quincy Jones approached the project with enormous ambition. They wanted to make an album that would appeal to fans of all genres and prove so important that the press that would normally give a black man little coverage would be forced to pay attention to him. To give the record true rock credibility, Jackson and Jones drafted in Eddie Van Halen to play a solo on Beat It.

To add to the sheer scope of the record, Paul McCartney sang a duet with Jackson on The Girl is Mine, horror film actor Vincent Price provided the creepy vocals at the start and end of the song Thriller; and sound effects of footsteps, opening doors and howling wind were added. It played across the genres: Billie Jean and Wanna Be Startin’ Somethingare funk tracks, Human Nature and Lady of My Life are ballads, Beat Itis a rock song, PYT and Baby Be Mine fall into the realm of R’n’B and disco. Never had a pop record incorporated so much and done it so well. It went on to win a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards and became the best-selling album of all time but Thriller’s legacy did not end there.

In the early Eighties, MTV showed only rock videos with black artists barely getting a look in. It’s debateable whether their refusal to play Jackson’s previous hits was based on his race or his genre, but with Thriller, Jackson made songs – and videos – that MTV simply could not ignore. His use of Eddie Van Halen on Beat It made it undoubtedly a rock song and its gangland, West Side Story-influenced video set a new standard – costing an unheard-of $150,000 to make.

The 14-minute horror film pastiche that was the accompaniment to the song Thriller, directed by American Werewolf in London’s John Landis, was something else entirely. Its budget was $500,000 and the production was on the scale of a major movie. The television premiere was a well-hyped event, and it was shown on Channel 4 late at night due to its scary contents. Fans stayed up late to watch, fingers poised over the VCR record button.

It was five years before Jackson completed another album, again with Quincy Jones at his side. They left his disco roots behind and produced an album of pop, rock, funk and R’n’B. The result was more adult, with darker themes and even more polished.

More event videos followed; this time Martin Scorsese made the video for Bad (which starred Welsey Snipes), Moonwalker - which included the video for Smooth Criminal - became a project even more ambitious than Thriller, and Liberian Girl starred possibly the largest number of celebrities ever featured in a music video.

Compared to the enormous success of Thriller, Bad did not sell as well and only won two Grammies. But with time it has found its place in history. Both Bad and Thriller can easily be named as Jackson’s finest album, depending on who you ask. That said, it could be argued that Bad is the stronger album simply because it doesn’t contain the utterly dire Paul McCartney duet, The Girl is Mine.

The legacy of both albums, along with Jackson's individual dancing style, voice, and inclusive approach to different genres is well-documented. Love them or hate them, even brand new artists such as Justin Bieber cite him as an influence. With the countless bizarre stories now associated with the artist, it's all too easy to forget just how innovative, talented and groundbreaking the work of Michael Jackson was, and still is today.

Wu Tang Clan -  Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)   

The Rolling Stone Magazine - 

15 Fun Facts About Wu-Tang
Clan's 'Enter the Wu-Tang (36
Chambers)'





Written (with highlighting): 

Twenty years ago, the Wu-Tang Clan blessed the world with their debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). Masterminded by the group's de facto leader RZA, the album paired grit-sodden, lo-fi production with razor sharp rhyming skills from the nine-man troupe who claimed Shaolin (as they'd re-christened Staten Island) as their fortress. The album's influence has become legendary: It helped restore New York City rap pride in the face of Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg's g-funk dominance, Raekwon and Ghostface's rhyme styles inspired the subsequent work of Nas, Jay Z and the Notorious BIG, and RZA's tick of speeding up soul samples struck a chord with a young Kanye West who then embraced the technique for his own early break-through productions.

Nirvana - Never mind

Rolling Stones Magazine-

500 Greatest Albums of All Time.











Written (with highlighting): 

The overnight-success story of the 1990s, Nirvana's second album and its totemic first single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit," shot up from the nascent grunge scene in Seattle to kick Michael Jackson off the top of the Billboard album chart and blow hair metal off the map. No album in recent history had such an overpowering impact on a generation – a nation of teens suddenly turned punk – and such a catastrophic effect on its main creator. The weight of fame led already troubled singer-guitarist Kurt Cobain to take his own life in 1994. But his slashing riffs, corrosive singing and deviously oblique writing, rammed home by the Pixies-via-Zeppelin might of bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl, put the warrior purity back in rock & roll. Lyrically, Cobain raged in code – shorthand grenades of inner tumult and self-loathing. His genius, though, in songs like "Lithium," "Breed" and "Teen Spirit" was the soft-loud tension he created between verse and chorus, restraint and assault. Cobain was a pop lover at heart – and a Beatlemaniac: Nevermind producer Butch Vig remembers hearing Cobain play John Lennon's "Julia" at sessions. Cobain also fought to maintain his underground honor. Ultimately, it was a losing battle, but it is part of this album's enduring power. Vig recalls when Cobain was forced to overdub the guitar intro to "Teen Spirit" because he couldn't nail it live with the band: "That pissed him off. He wanted to play [the song] live all the way through."

Written (with highlighting): 

The bones of Nevermind’s 12 tracks were recorded in a week with Butch Vig, later of Garbage, producing. Mixing started in early June. The budget was $65,000, and Cobain’s original name for it was Sheep, a joke about the people who’d buy it. Nevermind married the main tenets of the grunge sound – crunching guitars, loud vocals – with memorable tunes, such as on Lithium, Come As You Are, Smells Like Teen Spirit and Polly.

The band also toyed with dynamics, shifting between quiet and loud guitars within songs. In covering the dual bases of noise and melody so absolutely, Nevermind ensured Nirvana had crossover appeal: to old and young, male and female, fans of punk and folk alike. The huge and varied range of cover versions of Nevermind songs stands testament to this. Lithium has been recorded by bands including Muse and St Vincent, while Patti Smith, Tori Amos and even The Muppets have put their own stamp on Smells Like Teem Spirit.

Prior to the album’s release, Nirvana shot the video for Teen Spirit and toured Europe, including Reading Festival. DGC had low expectations for Nevermind, originally shipping just 46,521 copies in the US and 35,000 in the UK, hoping for total sales of 250,000. However Smells Like Teen Spirit (named after a deodorant) was getting radio and MTV exposure. Sales soared. By December, Nevermind had sold a million copies in the US alone. The underground was now overground; the alternative was now mainstream.

Nevermind’s success can be partly attributed to Geffen money and MTV patronage. But its success also signalled that the slick, expensively produced albums that had dominated the eighties – think Phil Collins or Dire Straits – no longer reigned supreme.

Rolling Stones Magazine -

 40 Most Groundbreaking Albums of
all Time

Written (with highlighting): 

Nirvana weren't the first indie heroes to sign a major label (the Replacements, Tim, 1985), or the first to subsequently hit Number One (R.E.M., Out of Time, 1991), but the Washington trio's sophomore album was the one that forever blurred the lines between pop sheen and DIY pathos. Flying the independent Sub Pop logo alongside DGC's corporate shield — and powered by Kurt Cobain's golden scream — Nevermind shuffled the major/indie ecosystem, brought shine to punk and punk to the charts, transmitted a post-feminist sensitivity to the masses, bridged MTV and college radio, provided aphoristic angst for sullen teens to replicate in school notebook margins, altered the way engineers recorded bands and publicists marketed them, commodified discontent, kicked off an archetypal music myth for the late 20th century, spurred an alt-rock gold rush that resulted in hundreds of bands earning record contracts and impacted nearly every sad guitar player that followed. Not bad for a $287,000 advance.



Sources: 

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/jul/16/popandrock.shopping

Nirvana - Nevermind - Magazine sources: Rolling Stones 40 Most Groundbreaking Albums of all
Time ( http://www.rollingstone.com/most-groundbreaking-albums-of-all-time ),

Rolling Stones 500 Greatest albums of all time ( http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500
greatest-albums-of-all-time-20120531/nirvana-nevermind-20120524 ).

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/09/22/nirvana-nevermind-album-cover-behind-scenes

https://pmccrummusic.wordpress.com/2014/05/01/the-recording-history-of-nirvana-nevermind/

http://www.niu.edu/newsplace/nnwutang.html

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/15-fun-facts-about-wu-tang-clans-36-chambers-

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/268212/exclusive-how-michael-jacksons-thriller-changed-the-music-business20131108

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(Michael_Jackson_album)#Recording