Newcastle Music Scene

It is very good condition that Newcastle have the capacity to grow up many genres of musicians. Many different kind of media or social activity can help and support local musicians.

 

I believe the popularity of media in the are affects the capacity of growing musicians. Otherwise musicians have to go to bigger city to play. Freepapers are also strong back up for musicians. There are many kinds of them in Newcastle.

Background and the locality is very important for musicians. I want to know about Newcastle music scene more and more.

All-time hit number

Time never affects those which all-time hit numbers.

Any time I find someone playing music in the pub they always sing at least one Beatles song and often most of people like it.

Those songs maybe really divided from other songs; completely perfect music and go across the wall of music genres.

These days, the genres of music is getting more and more complicated and they are losing clear boundaries in between and it is difficult to choose which one to follow… But early time super-hits were in the mainstream of the sub-culture at that time and almost everyone followed it so that could produce this all-hit songs. However these days it has become so complicated and almost anyone has different taste and sometimes it is in between some genres.

Can musicians these days compose ‘mega-hit music’ in the future? It’s going to be very difficult…

Age and music

There are a lot of kinds of genre and musicians these days and it is really difficult to say which music is what. However, what you listen to is hard to change sometimes.

When Avril Lavigne came to Newcastle the audience was almost young kids like 18-20 years-old but when the Beautiful Girls came to Newcastle the audience was bit older than that like 20-25. When I went to Morpheth to see Jazz festival the audience was like mid 20s and any age older.

Like this, by age, the music you listen to may be changes with what you expect to the music. Lounging time, meaning of something, love, reducing stress, or imaginative time, they may be depends on what age you are; many high-school kids listen to punk or rock that give you the emotion breaking something. I spent same time like this, however me myself changed slowly to more skilful music like jazz-rock or blues-rock and sometimes chilling out music. But at somewhere my music taste stopped changing somehow. I still listen to 90s rock and some genres that I really like but do not try to find out new genre. Maybe passing younger age and about around 22 the personal taste of music will be fixed in your mind because your life may not dramatically change after those ages. What you need and what you feel will be formed by then and your personality may be established by then.

As I’ve written before, music can be adapted into you lifestyle as an equipment. This may be true; in younger age some people try to show off with what they listen to but by taking ages music will turn to more meaningful thing and support your personal time.

But at this time, some music is separated from this. Some very famous musician like the Beatles their music is loved over the generations and can be fit in to any situation or atmosphere. Why is it? I will write about this next time…

Communication with fans

Powderfinger is one of the biggest band in Australia and often come to Newcastle. I went to their live couple of times. They manage fans really good I felt.

In this June they started a new movement; they let audience to choose their set list.

When I go to concert I feel it’s like obvious business; the vocalist tries to communicate from on the stage to talk to audience sometimes but it is just a shout. they play songs on the stage and done…

The voting for the set list selection is done on the internet and the audience can expect to listen to what they want at the concert.

Powderfinger themselves says “that was one of the dumbest thing we’ve ever done…” (Rolling Stone issue 679 2008 ) but what audience want is maybe different. Feeling getting closer to the band and having same time with their music is the most important thing to the audience.

The voting for the set list selection is done on the internet and the audience can expect to listen to what they want at the live concert. Releasing CDs is the main way of providing songs however the live on the stage should be the ‘total coordinated performance’ I think. Place, set list, stage direction, or anything, they all are the components of the whole performance.

Music is amorphous art and every live performance can give different experience to audience even playing same song on the stage.

Equipment of your style

I was walking by the shore to the Nobby’s beach from the station. It was very good day but was bit chilly. But there were a lot of cars pulled up by the shore and playing music loudly with huge speaker and sitting in the bonnet with wearing singlet and shortie… Listening to strong beat hip-hop and trying to hook each other… So ridiculous and just showing off…

 

I don’t like too loud music for nothing. But next moment, I just passed them and realised one thing; they are using the music as equipment. Big car, big speaker, loud music, and rough style, they are parts of their outlook and they are trying to make it as their identity but it is just like equipment. This may be much later way of music consumption I believe. Music used to always need a place to be listened. A concert is played in the hall, records could be played on record player, and radio could be listened in a room. But after walkman or car-stereo was released the style of music is dramatically broadened and fit in to your lifestyle. One of the most recent items is iPod and its commercial word is “Wear your music!” Because music does not have particular shape as an art however this lets people to transform the style of consumption or portability.

Japanese banana?

 

I hope this title won’t be offensive.

 

Check the Japanese band called ELLEGARDEN and their song called ‘Space Sonic’ on You Tube. Then move down to the article below.

 

I went to the pub in Newcastle few weeks ago. I found a Japanese amateur band was playing. They said ‘next song is Japanese song. We hope you like it.’ They started singing but the lyric was in English…

They said it’s Japanese song… The audience was feeling the same as I thought I think…

 

Couple of decades ago, Japanese was ironically called ‘banana’ because outside is yellow but the inside is white…; inside is Americanised or westernised.

However, the band sang in English somehow but the sentence even doesn’t make sense, pronunciation is even wrong, and can’t understand why they sing in other language which they don’t speak.

 

Why?

Music is, in some parts, reflection of identity. Language and culture is also features of identity. But those Japanese bands compose music in English…

There may be longing for American culture from the right after WW2, Japan has grown up quickly by taking a lot of western culture and products so may be it came from there. Also Japanese did not have popular music before that time so they just started trying to copy it.

 

But can it be a part of their identity? By copying wester style makes them look cool? That may be big point to argue about…