David Byrne as a multidisciplinary sound artist Speech or Presentation

David Byrne as a multidisciplinary sound artist - Speech or Presentation Example Recently, his collaboration album with Annie Clark, also known as St. Vincent has won him publicity, called Love Giant. His artistic skills are not only evident in his music, but also in the world of art. His artistic creations that include sound installations are an indication of this. He has also worked as a sculptor and an author. This paper will however focus on his works as a sound installer and as a musician (Semon 2). Musically, Byrne started playing musical instruments at an early age. he also listened to a variety of records by various artists of his time. This showed his immense interest in music, which kept growing with time. By the time he was in high school, he could comfortably play the guitar, accordion, and the violin. It was during his high school times that he started his music career in a duo called Bizadi. In the duo, he worked with a partner called Mark Kehoe. After high school, he attended the Rhode Island School of Design and the Maryland Institute College of A rt, but later dropped out and formed a group called â€Å"The Artistic† with his fellow student Chris Frantz. However, after a year in operation, the band was dissolved. It was Frantz’s girlfriend, Tina Weymouth, whom he co-founded the â€Å"Talking Heads† with in 1975. ... Between 1979 and 1981, he collaborated with Brian Eno in the album called â€Å"My Life in the Bush of Ghosts†. The album attracted considerable critical views since it used the early analogue sampling and found sounds. Sampling in music is the act of using the similar sound recording in a different song or record (DJ 3). Kate Bush described the album as having left a big mark in the popular music world. It was critically described as a pioneer work that would lay foundation for countless styles of music that are connected to electronics, ambience and third world music (Taylor n.p.). Another work by Byrne and Eno was â€Å"Everything That Happens Will Happen Today†. The album â€Å"My Life in the Bush of Ghosts† was re-leased in the year 2006 comprising of several bonus tracks (Miers n.p.). The extensive use of sampling on â€Å"My Life† is considered to be a ground breaking opportunity for all music styles. It was one of the first albums to use sampling e ver in the music industry. The album was recorded during a break between touring for fear of music and the record of remain in light. According to Gittins (12) Byrne declared that during their recordings, they used a normal drum kit, but replaced the bass drum with a card board. They replaced the snare drum with a frying pan. This made it very interesting for the group to make music from extra ordinary instruments. Rei Momo was released in the year 1989 and featured many Afro-Cuban, Afro-Hispanic, and Brazilian song styles that included merengue, Cuban Son, Samba, mambo cumbia, cha-cha-cha, bomba and charanga. Initially the album was released with more tracks on the cassette tape. In some of the pieces, he improved on certain works he had

Documentary Expression and Thirties America Essay

Documentary Expression and Thirties America - Essay Example In the thirties the style of social documentary became popular, and was described as increasing the knowledge of public facts while sharpening it with feeling. Two notable exponents of this style were considered, both of whom employed the presentation of dramatic, and sometimes over emphasized, photographs accompanied by a written commentary. The distinction between art and photography and whether or not documentary expression owed its genesis from fiction or non-fiction was also explored. Finally the matter of ethics in the treatment and presentation of documentary imagery was discussed. Documentary Expression 3 Documentary Expression and Thirties America William Stott in his book Documentary Expression and Thirties America covers an enormous range of topics and much of it is in a highly discursive and rambling style. However, it is possible to subdivide it into four principal themes: Documentary, The Documentary Motive and the Thirties, The Documentary Nonfiction of the Thirties, a nd Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. First of all it is necessary to understand what he means by the documentary style. In its simplest form there are two possibilities: â€Å"an honest and reasonably objective report, or a case for the prosecution† (Stott, 1986). ... It was also held that such a documentary style did not rely upon information so much as â€Å"the power to move.† Stott suggests that while the purpose is to encourage social improvement – public education at its most altruistic – reality is more cynical in that its real purpose is to shape attitudes towards certain public facts. An example of this type of â€Å"expose journalism’ is to use a public figure or authority’s quotation to mean something else. For example, the head of the US Red Cross stated categorically, in answer to innocent sounding questions, that Red Cross personnel were noncombatants. He was unable to defend this stance when faced with the fact that when called up for military service these individuals were obliged to take the oath, Documentary Expression 4 imposed by Congress, requiring them to obey military regulations and act as combatants. Two contrasting examples of the documentary style in thirties America are contained in t he works of Bourke-White & Caldwell and Agee & Evans. In both cases one of the authors writes the commentary and the other provides a series of generally highly dramatic â€Å"propaganda† pictures. The question now arises, was the documentary style in the thirties; found in fiction and non-fiction, and in art and photography. The reverse of the former was really true; both fiction and non-fiction of the time owed something to the documentary style. Fiction was full of ‘real people’ and many writers tried to introduce social issues. The social documentary style was devised to give a sense of urgency to the representation of life as it was: reality with drama and a sharp tug at the emotions. In the case of non-fiction the genre usually relied upon simple issues: