Atmospheric Rock

1. Read pp 164 – 170 from Rip It Up and Start Again and listen to “Once in a Lifetime” by the Talking Heads. • We have heard an earlier Talking Heads song “Psycho Killer.” How does it compare with “Once in a Lifetime”? How has their music changed? What have the retained from their earlier style? • David Byrne’s spoken lyrics in “Once in a Lifetime” may not tell a coherent story, but do have something to say. How do you interpret the lyrics? How does your reading say that this song offers the possibility of rebirth? • Your reading says that Byrne and Brian Eno found themselves attracted to something on the radio. What was it? Do you hear any of this in “Once in a Lifetime.” • “Once in a Lifetime” was produced by Eno. Where do you hear his contribution?

2. Read the Allmusic biography of the Cocteau Twins, listen to “Ivo” and “Lorelei,” and watch the Cocteau Twins video. • Where are the Cocteau Twins from? • How did Guthrie use electronic music techniques to help create their sound? • Can you understand Fraser’s lyrics? Does it matter? • Compare the Cocteau Twins’ “Ivo” and “Lorelei” with the synth-pop recordings you have heard. Think about the contributions made by melody, harmony, lyrics, sound texture, dissonance, and other factors to music. • Of all the music we have listened to in the course, which is closest to the Cocteau Twins’ music?

3. Read pp 358 – 362 from The Ambient Century and listen to the two U2 songs from The Unforgettable Fire ? • Who produced thus album? How is it obvious from “4 th of July”?

4. Read the Allmusic biography of Jesus and Mary Chain, listen to “It’s So Hard” from Psychocandy , and watch the Jesus and Mary Chain YouTube video. • Allmusic says that the Velvet Underground is this band’s “most obvious influence.” How so? • What kind of contrast is there between their vocals and their instrumental background? How are they using noise in a new way?

5. Read the Allmusic biography of My Bloody Valentine and listen to “Sometimes” from Loveless . • What does My Bloody Valentine draw from Jesus and the Mary Chain. Compare their instrumental sounds? What is similar and what is different • Compare My Bloody Valentine with the Cocteau Twins. How are they similar?

6. Compare Lush (“Nothing Natural”) with The Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine. How are they similar? What is different about Lush? Which of these three groups has more in common with synth-pop?

December 29, 2009 1 7. Listen to the assigned recordings by the other Atmospheric Rock bands. We will discuss them in class.

8. Listen again to all the music in this lesson and ask yourself the following questions: • What is new in this music? What sets it apart from the music of the previous decades? • Is this music more experimental or more of a consolidation of previous experiments? • What do these bands and their music have in common? • How are the bands and their music different from each other?

9. In this course we are following five general trends that characterize most, if not all, of the ways that the avant-garde music has influenced popular music. Which of the five general trends is evident in the music to which you have listened today? • Simplicity • Decomposition of Musical Structure • Pastiche • Electronic Music • Noise as Music

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