You know what I don't like in my music? Autotune. So brave, I know. It just sounds so bad, though, when a singer's voice gets transmuted into a robotic whirring. I mean, it's pretty harmless if a competent sound-mixer-person is using it to touch up a couple notes for the recording, but when singers have to go all T-Pain because they can't sing the notes for real, that makes me die a little inside.

I'm also not a fan of the screamy stuff you get in heavy metal subgenres. It's really grating, and it doesn't sound anything like music to me. If you're a singer, your job is to sing. It's bad enough when you're a bad singer like Rex Harrison and you speak the lyrics instead of singing them--if you scream them, it's like, not only are you bad at singing (or, if you're not bad at singing, then killing your vocal chords so you will be in a few years), but you're actively making it as painful as possible for the listener.

Oh, and Korn. I don't like Korn.

I know there are a lot of people who are like, "Oh, yeah, I don't like rap," or "I'll listen to anything except country." I don't really feel that way. I mean, for starters, I don't really listen to rap, but it's not like I dislike it (well, excepting the autotune stuff). And what's wrong with country? I like country. Country's fine. They've got good vocal harmonies and, like, strings and stuff.

And Justin Bieber... seriously, guys? I mean, you might not personally like his stuff, but the vitriol I see directed at this kid just baffles me. I've heard him on the radio and as far as I can tell, it's pretty standard pop schlock--but his popularity is solid proof that he's doing something right, even if it's targeted to a narrow demographic.

Anyway, my point here is that everyone else should stop hating things I don't hate, and start hating the same things as me instead.

Putting the "Clef" in "Clefairy"

About theme songs

Have you ever done the thing where you like the theme song for a TV show, so you download it and put it on your iPod or whatever?

I've done that before.

There are some legitimately great theme songs out there. Epic, memorable melodies that you never fast-forward past, even when you're binging on ten episodes in a row. "Oh man," you think, "I could listen to this theme song all day! Da na, da na na na, da na na na, da na na na..."

But the theme song isn't just a piece of music that stands on its own. It's part of a ritual. It happens every time you watch your favorite show. The theme song means that the show is starting.

This is why taking a theme song out of context can be dangerous. It dilutes the anticipatory power. The Community theme isn't just a great bit of music, it's a great bit of music that is always followed by an episode of Community.

That's why I take theme songs in moderation. The Game of Thrones theme is epic, but would it have the same punch if it were the theme song to every show? Would it have the same impact for My Little Pony? Well, maybe, but that's beside the point. Divorcing a theme song from its source is a dangerous business; you might as well just take any ol' song and use it as the theme song and hang on holy shit that's not seriously a thing is it? Oh geez I was joking.

Today was fairly uneventful.

We formed up into groups of three in my writing class. Next week we're going to do some draft-looking-at or something. Gotta have something to work with by Saturday night. Should be doable.

Talked about Proto Indo-European stuff in Myths & Legends. Shared cultural roots leading to similarities in mythology and folklore, blah blah blah. And we watched a video of a Welsh folktale called "King March" about a king who's embarrassed to take his crown off because he has horse ears and it looks very silly. Only his barber knows the secret, but the barber is bad at keeping secrets, so he whispers the secret to the ground. Except then reeds grow from the spot, and the local piper uses the reeds to make a new pipe, and when he plays the pipe it whispers the secret to everyone. So the king is embarrassed but it turns out everyone still respects him and nobody laughs at him, and it's a happy ending.

We're still on Henry V in Lit class. Not my favorite Shakespeare play, I gotta admit.

For Plant Science we had a lecture on soil. Stuff about soil composition and saturation and...stuff.

Played some Beat Hazard to pass the time. Finished a few random tracks. Some 38 Special, some Beatles, a little Taylor Swift, a couple of the built-in ones. *shrug* Got 37/47 achievements in that game now, which isn't too bad if I may say so myself.

Watched this week's episode of Game of Thrones. I am pretty sure it deviated from the book, but the spirit is the same. It's a good show. I like it.

Went to Wal-Mart for groceries. Restocked on bread, milk, dried fruit (it's not as juicy as fresh fruit but there's less pressure to eat it immediately), and all that grocery stuff. Had a bowl of soup for dinner.

Currently reading Side Jobs, which is the Dresden Files short story anthology. I like it. Also got around to catching up on The Legend of Korra which I also like. Good stuff.

And that's what I did today.

My main beef with My Fair Lady is that the score doesn't quite mesh up with the pacing. That is, there are these songs in there that are just there for no real reason. They go into "Wouldn't it be loverly" and everything stops while they do a number that doesn't advance the plot or develop the characters or anything.

This is not necessarily bad, and I don't pretend to know exactly what makes a musical number work well and what makes it fail. But I definitely think My Fair Lady is hit-or-miss at best. "Ascot Gavotte", for example, is a hit--it's funny, and it does a good job of characterizing the upper-crust aristocrats. "Get Me to the Church On Time" is a miss--it's a fine song in a vacuum, but the scene itself is a throwaway bit that doesn't need a song and dance number. It's a memorable piece, true, but it doesn't support the pacing or the tone of the play.

That being said, it's certainly possible to go too far in the other direction and end up with songs that move the plot along very nicely while being forgettable and bland, so maybe it's better to err on one side or the other. In opera, they just sing everything and it seems to work out.

...And another thing, what's the deal with Freddie? What a weirdo.

Eh, I was going to take an existing piece and arrange it for SATB, but I've changed my mind because I realized that only works if I already have the melody. Which I don't. And bugger if I'm going to try and piece it together by ear. That's too much extra work for no payoff. Instead, I'm just going to take a basic Pachelbel's Canon progression (I-V-vi-iii-IV-I-IV-V) and make up a melody to go with it, and save the other idea for sometime when I have a melody to work with. I mean, I have a good enough ear for melodies, but I can't identify pitches to save my life. If it's going to take me five minutes on the piano just to figure out what key I'm supposed to be in, that's just not an efficient use of my time. Especially since I don't have a piano.

My homework for Music Theory is to compose a short piece of music. I'm thinking I'll take an existing piece and arrange it for SATB. I have my eye on the Pokémon main theme, which is a lovely piece of music, but that's tentative. There are a couple of Shining Force battle tunes on my short list as well, and the Soulcaster II theme.

Soulcaster II has a great soundtrack. Definitely an underrated gem.




I only learned that the Soulcaster games existed because I got them in an Indie Royale Bundle. The nice thing about these indie game bundles is that a. they're cheap, so it's great value, and I love value, and b. they introduce you to great games you never would have even heard of otherwise.

I mean, a lot of people see advertising as the enemy, like, "Oh, it's advertising, they just want your money, resist the influence!" But I don't think that's fair. Like, they make their pitch, right, yeah, but it's not like you have to buy it. The Steam ARG events, for example, are something I really liked. What they did for their winter sale was they gave out free gifts for anyone who got certain achievements in various games. It was a blatant ploy to advertise the games (which were always 75% off when they announced the achievement, of course). But it's fun. Getting free gifts is exciting, and the thing was, thanks to those indie bundles, I had a whole bunch of the games in my library already that I hadn't even installed yet. So it gave me an incentive to unwrap all the goodies I had lying around and try them out. And some of them were actually really fun! Like And Yet It Moves, The Binding of Isaac (another geat soundtrack there, BTW), Killing Floor, Spiral Knights, Rise of Immortals, Trine, Revenge of the Titans...well anyway, it's basically win-win-win. Steam gets buzz or whatever, game developers get money, I get quality entertainment at low prices. I hope they do something similar for spring.

Anyway, so I'm looking at Soulcaster or Pokémon or Shining Force music.