Week 10 Forum Review

Last week's forum was the best because I got to do a presentation. Everybody thought I was super cool, and I totally was. It made everyone feel happy and eager to listen to more talks. My talk was about Construction and Deconstruction, a topic I suggested we study because I saw great learning potential... was I ever right! From the moment I started talking, I could see in people's eyes a glowing, growing passion for learning. From my talk they learned about construction in musical pieces (introduction), deconstruction in musical pieces (the end bit) and thousands more topics. It was great to finally be able to get out there and publicly express these burning feelings about construction and deconstruction. This could have been the perfect topic for me for a number of reasons. Firstly, I've been constructing all my life. I've been constructing more cells as I grew, I've been constructing musical works, and I've especially been construction an eagerness to get these feelings out about construction and deconstruction. To my own credit, I've also been deconstructing a lot through my short career: deconstructing plates when I broke them, deconstructing nuclear reactors, and deconstructing food through a powerful but effecting digestive system. If I had more time, I would've deconstructed a lot more but for my young age this is a start... In the future, I look forward to constructing a lot more opportunities for me to deconstruct this topic for young audiences. This, hopefully was the start of many such opportunities.

There were also other presenters present, who also presented. They also chose my topic.

Matt Mazzone presented about an add he wrote music for and "deconstructed" his process of "constructing" it. I was surprised at the level of professionalism Matt displayed in his choice of sound and music. It fit the images very well, went along with the story but most importantly: was NOT INTRUSSIVE. This shows a mature understanding of the add as a whole, and you can tell Matt didn't try to write a masterpiece, but rather, complement a video. The music and sounds were well chosen and worked well, and his other adds were also good. Good stuff!

Frederick May also presented about popular music and how its systematic construction can effectively make it a hit song or not. He went on to analyse (DEC on Struction) some hit songs, and made some generalizations about number 1 singles, and why they work. He claimed that every number 1 single shares a number of factors that make it stand out, and every B side that accompanies those lacks those exact elements. Although this is probably true to an extent, it is impossible to think there are exceptions. For example, what if a B side makes it to number 1 in a country but nowhere else? Does that mean that country is wrong? Does that song HAVE the features of a number 1 or not? Frederick, however, made a lot of interesting points about how these songs are constructed and played some music to back up his claims. He was a good public speaker and fun to listen to, but the generalisations were a bit too generalisatory (told a general story, or told a general a story, or story about a general).

Generally speaking, the presentations were presented well, and everybody in the audience had a great time. I am looking forward to next week's speakers, who will deconstruct this topic for us a bit more.

Music Technology Forum Presentation, EMU Space. Lecture presented at the University of Adelaide, 17th May 2007