3 of NPR's 100 Songs

NPR did a special The 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century
I chose to listen to "Kind of Blue, " "Tapestry," and "Rapper's Delight." The original songs are posted in my music playlist if you want to listen to them.

Kind of Blue:

    I have not listened to a lot of Miles Davis, but I wanted to know why this album was so important. The NPR clip talked about trends in jazz music at the time this album was recorded. Bepob was fast, had complex chords, and lots of instrumentation. In this CD, Miles Davis strips the instrumentation, the harmonies, the pre-made melodies, and the chord structures right out of the songs. I was really impressed to hear that none of these songs had actually been rehearsed before. It was completely improvisation with sketches of chords and possible scales.
I can see how this would be a reaction to the music at the time. Big bands seem really commercialized and contrived compared to the raw quality of Miles Davis’ band. The instrumentalists do not play melodies together that were already created and rehearsed. They each take solos and explore the kinds of melodies they can make. Apparently Davis even took out common chord patterns by simply playing in modes, which allows more freedom for the soloist.
We talked about this in class, but thinking about Davis’ style again reminds me of Jackson Pollock. We often talked about Pollock as being sensitive to line and the boundaries of the canvas even though his paintings look really random. Davis alsoseems to be careful about each note he plays and has a sensitivity to what the others are playing. Kind of Blue feels very free, but the instrumentalists still seem consciously restrained, aware of limitations, and do not want to “over do” the music.
I like how relaxed the album feels. Like the NPR clip mentioned, it is the kind of music you listen to when you are alone and in a contemplative mood. It feels poised and graceful, real and self-expressive; not contrived, complicated, polished, or commercialized. The rawness of the music and the intense focus on melody really appeal to me as well. Knowing a little about the context the music comes from makes Davis an inventive and creative genius of his time. He was stripping down the music as well as exploring the form. It’s a great album. 

Tapestry:

     This is one of my favorite albums of all time, so I had to hear what NPR said about it. I have heard Carole King’s songs for a while, but it was not until I got older that I realized how many radio hits were on one album. Almost all of the songs from Tapestry play on the radio and are very well known. Not too many albums have so many hit songs.
I liked how NPR talked about Carole King’s career before Tapestry, how she wrote songs for other people and made up demos for the song. She took some of that stripped-down feel from her demos and put it into her album. NPR also suggested that one of the most liked aspects of her album was the vulnerability she expresses. This is often a trait found in singer-songwriters since then. I kind of wondered about this statement. I have to think other singer-songwriters have also expressed vulnerability before her. Although maybe the others were simply not as famous as King. I guess she could have been one of the first famous singer-songwriters to make that a big part of their music, but I do not think she was one of the first ever to sing about insecurities and vulnerability.
    Like Miles Davis, King seems to contain a real refreshing rawness in her music. The instrumentation does not feel overdone, the solos add great melodies, and her own melodies are catchy but do not feel commercialized. Her voice even feels a little unpolished, weathered, like a real tangible person with a story to tell. I liked hearing that she would create songs while taking care of her three children, and that she was a normal, nice person; not obsessed with fame or money, just writing her music. I often got that feel from her music before, so it was nice to hear NPR validate those “vibes” I would get from her music. Even though her music is pop, it does not seem so concerned with selling the music. It feels more like the pure expression and creative hunches of an artist.

Rapper’s Delight:

    This was a fun song to listen to. I probably have not listened to the original fifteen-minute recording, but I have listened to enough of the song to know what it sounds like. My mom showed me this song when I was a little kid, and she told me it was kind of the beginning of rap. According to the NPR, that is kind of true. This was the first rap song to be commercialized. Apparently there were DJ’s and MC’s in New York who could rap and free style for hours, but they had not recorded and distributed their music. One of the problems was they did not know how to record it, where to start the rap and when to stop. The Sugarhill Gang kind of solved the puzzle and produced this CD, which gave all other rappers a template for their records. From that, commercial Hip Hop was able to grow and spread.
    Knowing this about the song, I can see why Hip Hop culture had some problems commercializing their music at the start. Even though “Rapper’s Delight” shortened hours of rapping, the kind of rapping found in New York clubs, it is still fifteen minutes long! The rhymes also just sound like a group of MC’s in a club getting on the stage and free-styling about the nice clothes and cars they have. There are not too many themes or connections between each of the rappers and no chorus either. It could literally go on forever, but they were the first to make it into a purchasable product and that made all the difference. One thing I wonder about after listening to NPR is if the song was doing much more than recording a rap record. It seems like any person who recorded their rhymes to sell on CDs would have achieved the same fame and recognition as the Sugarhill Gang. It sounds like they simply captured what was already happening and packaged it, and that they were not so much doing anything innovative or special with that type of music. If that is the case, it is kind of amazing it has remained such a popular song, that people have not criticized it so much for not being a more true artistic expression. I think the main point of the song is fun. The guys who made it were not trying to express much else, and I think it still carries that appeal.