NSA Spying

The NSA story has dominated the news recently, and I'm not going to rehash it here, other than to give a few observations regarding it.

Politics

 

The politics of this whole thing drives me crazy.  The same people who looked the other way when the Bush administration was engaged in the same activity are now decrying "Big Brother," and are all of the sudden huge civil libertarians.  Note that many of these same people call the ACLU a liberal organization and denounce it as "evil."  It really is the height of hypocrisy. 

 

I've been told that this is neither a Democratic issue nor a Republican issue.  Really?  Then where were you when the PATRIOT Act was being passed and Americans were being spied on without a warrant?  The Republicans were silent--and many Democrats were, too--as the giant war machine roared on.  Anyone who spoke out against it was called unpatriotic and a supporter of terrorists. 

 

If you doubt me on this, imagine if a Republican were in the White House now.  How many Republicans would be trumpeting the right of government to engage in this activity all in the name of national security?  That brings me to my next point.

 

 

National Security

 

National Security has, for a long time, been a blanket excuse for the government engaging in a whole host of activities that trample the rights of American citizens.  This was rampant during World War I, when many individuals--mostly socialists--were under the supposedly erroneous notion that freedom of speech was an essential element in a democracy, even during wartime. 

 

Evidently, however, all the government officials must do is utter the phrase "national security," and all bets are off.  Speech is suppressed, the Fourth Amendment is ignored, and some people go to prison.  Thankfully, the Supreme Court through the years has prohibited the government from engaging in prosecution for "seditious" speech, but it's important to note that the Espionage Act of 1917 is still used by prosecutors to suppress speech.

 

 

Whistleblowers

 

I'm not as forceful on this point, but the right of individuals to speak out against the government raises a serious question: at what point does someone cease being a whistleblower and become a leaker of classified information?

 

Don't we want someone to let American citizens know when its government is doing something wrong?  Then why is Bradley Manning being prosecuted?  Shouldn't we know when our government is murdering journalists and other civilians?  And now, the government will undoubtedly target Edward Snowden for his information regarding the NSA spying activities.

 

Don't get me wrong.  National security is important.  But the government should not be able hide behind that cause and end the debate--it should be a starting point.  We should at least be able to weigh Americans' right to know what their government is doing and their right to privacy against the government's duty and ability to keep Americans safe.  But right now, we can't even have that debate.  Anyone who dares to defend Manning, Snowden, or Daniel Ellsberg--or even question whether their decisions were justified--is branded an extremist or unAmerican.  As long as "national security" is the card that trumps all others, that will, sadly, continue to be the case.  



The Supreme Court and DNA

This time of year always brings with it big Supreme Court cases, and many of those are controversial.  Such was the case this past week: the Court held in a 5-4 decision that any person who has been arrested can have his/her DNA taken without a warrant.

I am incredibly conflicted on this, and I'm not sure which side I would have come down on.  On one hand, law enforcement uses identification methods of every arrestee, such as photos and fingerprints.  From that standpoint, using one's DNA is no different--it helps the police identify the suspect.

On the other hand, DNA is different because every person's DNA is different.  People can have similar appearances and fingerprint analysis is an inexact science, but your DNA is yours only, and scientists can prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt.

There are major problems with the Court's decision, though.  First, once a person is arrested, his/her DNA will be in the database for life, regardless of whether the person was arrested legally.  This could allow police to go "fishing" for suspects of certain crimes, and if they can legitimize an arrest, they don't have to have a warrant to collect DNA samples.

I heard this argument in the aftermath of the case (and the majority might have even tried to make it): collecting DNA samples will ease the burden on law enforcement.  That is a dangerous argument to make.  The issue in this case was whether such DNA collection without a warrant was a reasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment.  But easing the burden on law enforcement is not the standard by which we determine whether a search is reasonable. 

Anyway, interesting issue, and we're still waiting on some major decisions here in the final two weeks of the Court's term.

The History of Rock and Roll: Punk and New Wave

The Talking Heads at club CBGB in New York, 1975.

The variety of music within rock and roll during the early 1970s had not been seen up to that point.  In the middle part of the decade, however, things began to change.

Artists during the latter half of the decade had been influenced by so many different styles that much of the music was fused together to create a different sound.  So many of those super groups--Queen, Foreigner, ELO, and Kansas, to mention a few--were blending a range of styles to create their own rock sound.  Songs were becoming more sophisticated, and it was now not out of the norm for a five-minute song to get regular airplay on the radio, something that would have been unheard of just a few years prior.

In the UK, something different was happening--punk.    Many people today are surprised to learn that punk never really caught on in the U.S.  The Clash by far was the biggest punk band in the States, but no other band in that category made a significant impact at the time.  The punk influence in America, however, would come in the form of a new sound called, appropriately, "new wave."

I have always thought of new wave music as "cleaned-up" punk or sophisticated punk, and the author of my text pretty much says the same thing.  Record companies in America were hesitant to sign punk bands because of the reputation they were earning in the UK--you can thank the Sex Pistols for that.  So, you had bands in America toning it down a bit and creating a somewhat gentler sound.  The Talking Heads, Blondie, and Elvis Costello are good examples of that.

Both punk and new wave were a reaction to "corporate rock,"--rock that the punk and new wave bands saw as too commercialized--music created specifically to appeal to the corporate overlords that ran the record labels and FM radio.  So, punk and new wave were a return to the simplicity of rock music.  Whereas punk was typically quick, high-energy songs with undertones of anger (or sometimes overt anger), new wave songs tended to be longer and the artists who produced the music were much more likely to experiment with different sounds. 

Some of the best known punk and new wave songs from this time period:

Talking Heads: Take Me to the River (new wave)

The Clash: London Calling (punk)

The Ramones: Blitzkrieg Bop (punk)

Blondie: Heart of Glass (new wave)

Devo: Whip It (new wave)

The History of Rock and Roll: Black Pop, Funk, and Disco

As I stated in my previous post, the music from 1970-1975 was among the best in rick history, and a big reason for that was the sheer variety of the music that was being recorded.  Really, though, the entire decade had the best music, but the latter half is often looked down upon because of so-called "corporate rock" and its dominance on FM radio, which by this time was heavily scripted and largely controlled by corporations and program directors (before, DJs mostly controlled the music they played).

Having said that, black artists made a significant impact on 1970s music.  And this chapter in my text was particularly eye opening because, as I found out and suspected anyway, white listeners like me have mostly been shielded from 1970s black music.  Unless, of course, the black music was successful enough in mainstream white society to crack the top 40 on the Billboard pop chart.  If that were the case, the music might have been played on top 40 stations (although that was no guarantee).  And that music today still gets airplay with "oldies" or similar formats.

Much of the music that appeared early in the decade was an extension of southern soul and, in the case of artists such as James Brown, pure funk.  James Brown's Superbad and Sly and the Family Stone's Thank You are good examples of the rare funk song that crossed over onto the pop charts.  There was also more mainstream music from black artists, as Marvin Gaye's Mercy, Mercy Me and Stevie Wonder's Sir Duke illustrate.

Then came disco.  It burst onto the scene in 1977 with the Bee Gees and the movie Saturday Night Fever, but what I didn't know before is how disco got its start. 

It used to be the norm that in nightclubs, there would be live bands, and if people wanted to dance they could.  Rock music, though, was not made as dance music, so any dancing that went on in the clubs was secondary to the music itself.  After Stonewall in 1969, however, gay clubs became more acceptable, but many bands refused to play there because of the stigma that would follow.  So, those clubs were forced to hire DJs, and they started mixing songs in such a way that the beat and rhythm were emphasized.  This all started in the early 1970s, but it would still be a couple of years before artists started recording music where dancing would be the primary focus. 

There's a dispute among scholars about what the first real disco song is.  Some say it's One Night Affair by Jerry Butler (1972) or Manu Dibango's Soul Mikossa (1972).  Others say it came along a bit later either with:  the Hues Corporation's Rock the Boat (1973), George McCrae's Rock Your Baby (1974), or Kung Fu Fighting (1974) by Biddu and Carl Douglas.  I'll let you be the judge.

One final note: The Village People were gay.  Their song YMCA is clearly about celebrating the YMCA as a place where young, gay men can meet and hook up.  The lyrics tell the "young man" that at the YMCA, he can "do whatever [he] feels" and "hang out with all the boys."  I'm saying this because I find it hilarious that good, wholesome, middle class people with their families--mothers fathers, children, and grandparents just love to sing along to this song while doing the choreography--oblivious that they are celebrating gay culture.

The History of Rock and Roll: 1970-1975

Led Zeppelin in concert, 1970.

I'm getting way ahead in my MOOC textbook, but like I said before, I'm fascinated by the history of rock and roll.  From a historical perspective, however, the period of 1970-1975 is a bit overwhelming because rock took so many different turns and there were so many varied styles.  It's useful--but difficult--to categorize all of the styles, but it's pointless for me to do that here.

I have felt for a long time that the period of 1970-1975 was when rock music was probably at its best, and the variety of the music has a lot to do with that.  The classic rock format that started appearing on radio stations during the late 1980s and early 90s exemplifies this: one can be listening to Led Zeppelin or Grand Funk Railroad one minute, and then Elton John or Cat Stevens the next. 

But it's not just the variety that makes this time period so great.  Many artists had taken over songwriting and producing, and were controlling most of their operation, much like the Beatles and Beach Boys had done in the late 60s.  Additionally, music was becoming more sophisticated, and artists were experimenting in the studio, creating arrangements that seemed light years ahead of what hit the airwaves just a decade earlier.

The following songs are a good example of the varied styles that appeared during this time period.

Yes: Long Distance Runaround

Cat Stevens: Peace Train

Jim Croce: I Got a Name

Three Dog Night: Never Been to Spain

Chicago: 25 or 6 to 4

For those reading this thinking that I made a glaring error by not including black pop or funk from this time period, don't worry--that's coming in the next post.

The History of Rock and Roll: Psychedelia

I'm not breaking any news when I tell you that a lot of things changed in the late 1960s.  But rock and roll was no different.  Several things happened that fueled this change, so I will briefly describe each.

Drugs

First, drugs.  Especially LSD.  This drug was just another way for the counterculture--the hippies--to escape mainstream society.  And what fueled their "trips" and made them better was some good music.  The advent of using music to enhance a drug trip came into widespread use by the Grateful Dead in San Francisco, and it spread like wildfire.  I didn't know this before, but songs became longer during this time because songs had to be long enough to feel the full experience of the onset of drugs.  Before this, standard pop songs were usually about three minutes long--not near long enough to start your drug trip.

This is why some bands--most notably the Grateful Dead--would play songs live for 20 or 25 minutes at a time, and just improvise a lot of it.  A 25-minute song would drive me crazy, but I guess if you're stoned out of your mind, it's a pretty cool experience.

There was also a burgeoning psychedelic movement in London at the same time, and would spawn acts such as Cream, Pink Floyd, and Jimi Hendrix (he was from Seattle, but made his name in the London clubs).

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

 

For most of rock and roll history, up until the late 1960s, albums had more or less been a collection of singles.  An artist would record songs, release them as singles, and then sometime later release those singles on an album (in a blatant effort to sell more records). 

 

The Beatles changed all this with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, released in June 1967.  The idea was to make a "concept" album--an album that has a central theme where most (if not all) of the songs are related in some way.  The Beatles, incidentally, got the idea from Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys with their release of Pet Sounds a year earlier.  Sgt. Pepper's also included lyrics to all of the songs, something that had never been done before.  These two features, coupled with the fact that the album was put out by the biggest band in the world and the fact that it contains some of the Beatles' best work, are the reasons the album is considered by most rock historians to be the most influential rock album of all time.

 

Studio Sophistication  

 

When Brian Wilson stayed home to work in the studio while his band when on tour, he started a trend--focusing on production quality and perfecting sound.  If he had not done so, it's pretty safe to say that the quality of God Only Knows or Good Vibrations wouldn't be near as good.  The Beatles didn't even play live after 1966 (except for their impromptu, rooftop concert in June 1969) and focused all of their energy on writing and recording quality music.  This is quite evident in songs such as Strawberry Fields Forever, I am the Walrus, and the their masterpiece--A Day in the Life.

 

What Phil Spector had started just a few years earlier became mainstream: work tirelessly in the studio through a painstaking process to get just the right sound.  The Beach Boys took that to a new level, and the Beatles took it to the stratosphere.  Rock would never be the same after the release of Sgt. Pepper's.

 

FM Radio



 It's hard for people my age and younger to understand that FM radio was a dead zone before the late 1960s.  It was filled with "elevator music" and talk shows.  AM was where it was at.  That all started changing in 1967.  As songs became longer, DJs on the AM side refused to play such long songs on a regular basis.  Thus, FM stations started changing their format, marketing it to young adults, and playing the longer, more sophisticated music.  AM became a place for "teen" music, while FM became an oasis of longer tracks that were shut out of AM radio.  It seems so simple now: FM radio sounds better, so why not put pop music on it?  But that was a radical concept in the late 60s.

The History of Rock and Roll: Motown



The Supremes were one of Motown Records' biggest acts, outselling every other artist on the label in the 1960s.  Polished recordings, formal wear, and heavily choreographed moves characterized the Motown sound and look.

Berry Gordy, Motown Records' founder, wanted to record music that would appeal to both white and black audiences.  His idea was to take the approach popular in the record industry at the time: set a up a studio, hire professional songwriters and musicians, and hand pick singers to record the songs. 

He went around to the local jazz clubs in Detroit, which were filled with promising young singers full of talent, but who were also somewhat unpolished.  He brought them into the studio to record, but through the process of turning them into stars, he had the singers undergo what they pejoratively termed "charm school."  If records were to sell--especially to white audiences--the singers had to look professional.  They had to know how to walk, dance, smile, and charm their audiences.  Gordy told his singers that they had to look and act as if they were going to perform at the White House or Buckingham Palace.

Thus, everything--everything--from Motown was heavily polished.  The songwriting was good, the production was even better, and the singers all had choreographed moves on stage (many moves unique to each song).  Check out a Temptations' 1965 TV performance of My Girl for a good example of the choreography.

What I didn't know before studying the history of Motown was that many accused the Motown label and all those involved of selling out to the whites--that they weren't making music that was "black" enough.  Much of this criticism came from the southern soul genre, music from artists that included James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and Wilson Pickett.  A good example of the contrast between the smoothness of Motown and rawness of southern soul is to listen to The Supremes' Where Did Our Love Go? and Pickett's Midnight Hour.  Both are considered classics, but the Motown song is definitely more mainstream and had a wider appeal.

Whether that criticism is valid is up for debate, but it's undeniable that the Motown sound was good enough to withstand influence from the British Invasion.  Not only that, but it produced some of the most successful rock and roll artists in history, such as The Supremes, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson, The Four Tops, The Jackson Five, Stevie Wonder, and Marvin Gaye (Wonder and Gaye recorded on the Tamla label, which was operated by Motown).