Week 8 Forum Review

Well, it's back. This blog is ready to rock and will not stop.

Last week we had the privilege of being part of the audience who witnessed the second wave of presentations on the topic of "Gender in Music Technology". This topic continues to fascinate all who are subjected to it, but why? Well, as Stephen Whittington bluntly put it, because technology is a penis extension. Men want a penis extension, and women don't (as much). End of topic... Or is it?

Instead of stating the obvious, the presenters tried to explain this simple concept in other, more distorted ways. Brad Leffler, for example, tried to explain that although there is a difference between men and women anatomically (according to his research), music can also be gender free, and more robot-like (robonatomic). As an example of this, he played some Kraftwerk videos. They were interesting, but would have been more enjoyable had we been offered more mushrooms before watching.

Next, we had Laura Gad talk to us not only from a female perspective, but body as well. She tried to show that men and women portray themselves differently in music, and this can be seen in lyrics of songs. She used, as examples of her theory, lyrics from Eminem and Pink. Now Laura, even if we ignore the fact that the bulk of Eminem and Pink music is mostly tonal, and therefore irrelevant to this course and musicians in general, we have to point out that Eminem is probably not a good representation for the typical "male musician", and same with Pink. Eminem's whole "thing" is to be really eccentric, which is what made him stand out from the crowd, and Pink is pretty eccentric too. Take for example, the music of John Cage. Is it ever violent, or offensive? Does he talk about his Lamborghini and hoes? Well, maybe a little. But most of his music is good natured. My point is that although there is a slight difference between male and female artist's "overall" image, it is subtle and given the diversity of musical styles today, you can find anything by anyone. In fact, John Cage could probably rap better than Eminem if he put his mind to it:

"Yo, Yo, Yo they call me, Johnny C, living of mushrooms and tea, rolling dice, killing mice, 123 you rolled 4 twice YEAH!"

Ben Cakebread was next, and he talked about "Queen". Basically he gave an overview of the homosexual element in music, and used the band to show this. Although I would've chosen a different artist to examine (cough John Cage), it was good to hear some real music in a music technology class. Seriously though, If everyone brought along 1-2 songs and presented why they liked them, played them, then examined or just discussed them and the artists, we would be a lot better off than trying to sneak our interests into unrelated presentations on set topics (like I will be doing in week 10).

The last presentation was made by Peter Kelly, who talked about a lot of random topics too numerous and unrelated to follow. He didn't really know where he was going with it either, so I don't feel bad about saying this. It was like a John Cage piece, where you mix up random bits and randomize where they go, and if this is the feel he was going for, hats off.

Overall, another fantastically stimulating forum, filled with excitement and glory.

References: Stephen Whittington “Music Technology Forum Week 8: Gender in Music Technology” Workshop presented at EMU Space, Level 5, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 3rd May 2007.