THE ENGINEERS OF SOUND

MUsicians

What is a musician

A musician is any one who enjoys making music

Encompasses a large amount of people

Musicians come from all walks of life, but can still relate to one another

Musicians as a Discourse Community

All musicians share one common goal

To have their work listen to by the public

Musicians have a very distinct lexis

Treble, bass, measures, drops, producer, octaves

Musicians rely on feedback as a means to

appeal to their audience

Reactions from fans can cause artists to completely

change their sound

Musicians as a Discourse Community

Musicians can communicate through their

music alone

Can influence other artists through their work

There is an obvious threshold level of

members

From the person who makes beats in their garage to

Kanye West

Methodology

Interviews with local musicians

Rolling Stone articles

Online database

Observations

Online articles about the life’s of musicians

Characteristics of Musicians

Musicians as a community are very helpful to one

another

The more that musicians interact the more that

they adapt

Musicians face a problem of being critical of their

music

Typically spend a large amount of time practicing

to better their skills.

Social Media

The rise of the internet and the connected

world has made it easier than ever before to

publish music

Websites like Soundcloud and YouTube

provide artists with outlets to the public

Very popular options for prospecting

mainstream musicians

Independent Mainstream

Unsigned artists that make music.

Typically take advantage of social media

Do not usually have the money for a professional studio

Artists that are signed to a record label

Typically famous for their music

Have many tools that independent artists do not

Have a larger audience than independent artists

Independent vs Mainstream

Emoceans

Conor Forde is a local EDM artist that uses soundcloud

Uses the stage name Emoceans

“…it’s all about your confidence in your sound, you have to believe that it sounds great.”

https://soundcloud.com/conor-forde-1/roulette

Dave Grohl

Former Drummer of Nirvana and Lead singer for Foo Fighters

Describes the process of making music to be very time consuming

In Rolling Stone article describes how he starts his day as a musicians that has 3 daughters “I wake up at 5:45 a.m. to make breakfast and snack

packs, then I unwind in my home studio”

Observation

I sat in on one of Emocean’s sessions

During the session he seemed very focused

never once looking away from his computer

Every once in a while would ask my opinion

After the 4 hour process was over he played

his finished product on a speaker for

everyone in the room to hear

X-Factor

There are essentially 2 problems facing the

community of musicians whether they be

mainstream or independent

The pressure of balancing personal time and time for

music

The difficulty musicians face in being critical on their

work

References

Swales, John. "The Concepts of Discourse Community." Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. (1990): 21-32. Rpt. in Writing About Writing`. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 215-29. Print.

Partington, Kristian. "Music Evolves." Canadian Musician 35.1 (2013): 49-56. Hobbies and Crafts Reference Center. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.

Fricke, David. "The Passion of Dave Grohl." Rolling Stone 4 Dec. 2014: 62-67. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 4 Mar. 2015.

Personal Interview. Conor Forde. 3 Mar. 2015