Originally Posted by question giver (Post 866602)

Hello. I am a college music student who is currently in the process of writing a piece about social and economic class in popular music. As part of this project I am asking a series of questions related to class in popular music. Long and short answers are both acceptable.

1. Do you consider class an important element in popular music?

No. A talented musician is a talented musician.

2. Do you believe it is easier/harder for a musician from a poorer economic background to succeed?
It has to be harder. You have less exposure to gear, recording software etc. etc.

3. Can a poor musician who attains fame and fortune remain “true” to his roots?

Yes. While it is almost impossible not to care about money after making millions of dollars, artists can still stay true. It's very, very rare for an artist to stay true, but's it's not impossible.

4. Is class a relevant theme in modern popular music?

I think people who sing about how rich/poor they are, are awful lyricists. Nuff said.

5. Do you consider wealth a common lyrical topic in popular music?

Too common

Thank you for your time.

Originally Posted by chrissygerraty (Post 809459)

I'm going to soon start working on my Master's thesis, and as an Interior Design student with a background in music journalism, I've decided to combine the best of both worlds. I'm really fascinated with how musicians seek alternative environments to write/record music. I've noticed a trend in recent years of bands straying away from the confines of a huge, elaborate studio in Los Angeles and instead opting for a more untraditional place to work on their music.

Some examples that I've already found are...

*Grizzly Bear cut some Veckatimest tracks in old, weathered church in Brooklyn (the rest were recorded in the singer's house in Cape Cod)

* Death Cab for Cutie recorded some material for Plans in a barn at Longview Farms, North Brookfield, MA

*Mike Kinsella (Owen) records the majority of his music in the basement of his mom's house

*Thom Yorke says "To me the environment in which one records is the only thing that matters..."

This is just a rough concept, it definitely needs to be tweaked and more defined. I am just fascinated with how musicians' creativity during the songwriting/recording process is influenced by where they are and choose to be. If you have any information or can point me to any articles/videos of bands talking about recording in an unconventional environment, I'd really appreciate the help!

Originally Posted by kabum555 (Post 1220287)

Hi, I'm a piano player and know a bit about classical music theory, but actually am a big fan of blues, blues rock and rock and roll. One of the major instruments in those generes is the harmonica, and I've been wanting to learn how to play it for a really long time, but never found a good method I could use for no payment. I've seen some of Erik's Harmonicanotes's 'Harmonica in 30 Days', but he doean't play good which made me stop, some of Gussow's videos, which seemed too high level, and some of JP Allen's free videos, which made me mostly think i should buy the rest of his videos.
Before I go buying off JP's videos, I'd like to know if there are any better video lessons, either payed or free, that could trach me how to play really nice (I'd like to get to Steven Tyler's level), or if there is any method to learn harmonica by myself in an efficient way (and if that method could work for more instruments - better, because eventually I'd like to learn guitar, bass guitar, ukulele, drums, etc.).
Thank you for the reading and for the help!