Independent Research: Juan Magan

There are many composers, and producers in this industry that have had a large impact on popular music.  The person I am going to be writing about is probably not that well known here in the United States, if you do not follow Latin and electronic music, but he has made a huge impact on popular music in latin america and around the world.  The person I am talking about is dj/producer, Juan Magan.  Juan Magan is a Latin and house dj/producer from Spain, and his music is filled with tropical and vibrant Latin sounds and instruments and adds an electronic twist to it.  What Juan Magan did, since he was already established in Europe, was take his Latin sounding electronic music and he practically physically brought it with him to south and central america, and completely changed the club scene in those places.  Before this, djs and producers in latin america were just making electronic music just like everyone else, and because of Juan Magan, they were able to make their own distinct genre and sound what is now called electro latino, or latin house.  He has played and performed in almost all of the most important cities of every continent and is number two in the world for most digital sales on beatport for his hit song "Bora Bora".  Most of the music Juan Magan produces and djs are mostly for the clubs and for people to dance.  He has also worked with many major artist including Don Omar, Pitbull, Nelly Furtado, Paulina Rubio, and Bob Sinclair.  What impresses me is the way he produces and makes his mix is as if you were going on a journey or that you are traveling through some exotic place.  I have been to one of his shows first hand in Panama City, Panama and I can say that this man does not disappoint. 

Electronic Music Innovations

The artist that I chose to do for this blog entry was Edgard Varese, a french composer and also known as the father of electronic music.  His music is described as "organized sound", having to do with his rhythms and timbre.  Someone that Edgar Varese had influence on was Frank Zappata, who just went crazy over his music after listening to one of Edgard' albums.  What I like about this is the classical vocals on the tracks and this very strange reverse vocals that make his tracks sound weird and electronic.  As a listener, I do not really like his style of music because it sounds kind of strange, but at the same time, it was something that helped make way for the electronic music and dance music that we have today, it was that creativity and experimenting that made the music what it was.

Electronic Music

Kraftwerk was a mainly experimental electronic group from Germany.   Their release of autobahn, one of their first album, is what really propelled this group to success.  A lot of the instruments that the main members of the group played were electronic instruments like synthesizers such as a minimoog.  Their next album came in 1975 called Radioactivity in which the theme of the album is about radio communication.   The album after that came out in 1977 and was called Trans-Europe Express, which was about  a journey on a train.  Kraftwerk came out with their final album for a couple of years called The Man-Machine, where they would not come out with another album for three years.  1981 is when Kraftwerk would release their next album, called Computer world.  Funny part was that they did not even own a computer at the time.  For this album they would take basically the entire studio live with them on tour.  The next album released from Kraftwerk a would be Techno Pop where one of the songs are called "Tour De France".  Some things that Kraftwerk did to set themselves apart from the norm was to use mainly electronic elements and experimenting with different sounds to get something that sounds food. Also the way the vocals were done like the Beach Boys made their music easier to listen to for the general audience.  As a listener and an industry professional, I can look to Kraftwerk and go in and just experiment with different sounds and it kind of encourages you to do something different and maybe something that sounds weird but cool.

Velvet Underground & Nico

Some of the music and imagery that were used by the Velvet Underground and Nico, had a lot to do with drug abuse and prostitution.  They obviously were not going for a clean cut image because their songs were for the most part controversial.  The primary songwriters of the band were John Cale, a composer, songwriter, musician, and record producer from Wales, and Lou Reed, a musician, songwriter, and photographer from New York.  John Cale, and Lou Reed were co-founders of the band.  They've had countless disagreements on which direction to take the band but ultimately got it done.  The person who supported the group financially, was Andy Warhol, who is the same person who received producer credits even though all he really did was to pay for the recording sessions.  There were some things that The Velvet Underground and Nico did that kind of set them apart from other bands in that time.  Music content containing sex, and drugs were not something new to the Rock and Roll world, but the content that they had was so strong that it ended in a financial failure because certain record stores did not want to sell the album and some radio stations did not even want to play them on the radio although later in the future, the album would be among the most influential of all time.  As a listener and an industry professional, I think that the Velvet Underground and Nico paved  a way for other artist in the alternative rock scene.

What's Going On

The music and the image that Marvin Gaye had before the recording of the album What's Going On, was mostly about love, and with that he had a lot of early success playing and singing with different groups and artists.  Now a lot of things that have been going on that influenced and inspired this album.  Tammie Terrell, his singing partner which he did many duets with, did from cancer.  Marvin Gaye later did not perform because of his fear of dying he suffered stage fright.  When he later returned to the studio, after a failed attempt at the NFL, he wrote songs about problems in the world, like telling the story of a Vietnam war veteran coming back home just to see more suffering and hate.  Another one of the topics were about the police brutality going on in San Francisco.  He had to face many obstacles to release the album.  At the time he was recording this album, Marvin Gaye was depressed, depressed about his singing partner, about not getting in the NFL, and about all of the things going on in the world at that time.  When he finished the album, it was shelved because the content was very different from the smooth love songs that he always did.  When it was released, it was a hit.  The way this album was set apart from the other soul recordings out were that this was the only one that did not have to do with problems going on in the world, and that was real gutsy of him to do so because the album could have been a hit or miss because it was so different in content from other soul artist.  The impression this gave me as a listener is that no matter what you do and how you are used to doing it, there will always be something out there that can make such a dramatic impact on you that you change what you do for just a moment just like this album.     

Revolver

The music prior to the album Revolver were rock and roll and the band had an overall clean image until they started to experiment with cannabis and LSD.   What had influenced the album in a non-musical way was this book called Timothy Learys' The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan book of the dead.  The way they used the whole studio as an instrument in the recording of Revolver was that they used 8 tape decks in the studio with someone working each one, moving the tape loop to create new sounds.  Some of the things that The Beatles did when experimenting on new sounds were setting up headphones as microphones for violins and putting microphones right in the bell of different instruments to get a unique sound. 

Pet Sounds

Before the recording of pet sounds the Beach Boys were a clean cut, sharp dressing, white, surfing band.  Most of the songs were about surfing, having a good time and hanging out at the beach.  They kept a very clean image and used a uniform on tours.  At the time, Brian Wilson was a song writer, composer, and producer for the band, as well as traveling with the band on tour.  After a while he completely stopped the touring with the band to focus just on composing and writing the songs.  What had inspired Brian Wilson with Pet Sounds was The Beatles album that had been released earlier called Rubber Soul.  What was different about this album is that it had been influenced by psychedelic drugs, but unlike other bands they were not trying to send a message about the world like other bands at the time did.  Another difference about the recordings that other people were not doing were placement and layering of harmonies, nobody worked on this as much as Brian Wilson did.  The impression that I get from this album is that it kind of sounds like the Beatles on this album. 

Welcome

Hello everyone, my name is Alejandro Pena and I am from Miami, Florida.  I like to make electronic and Spanish music and I also like to dj.  What I like to listen to mostly is reggaeton, hip hop, salsa, reggae and electronic music.  My primary focus in the music industry is to become a mixing engineer, I would also like to continue to dj and see where that can take me as well.