What Does BU Listen To?

Probably my favorite part of working at BU Central is the LIVE: series that we host. We’ve brought in some incredible artists since we’ve opened back in 2006 (Tristan Prettyman, Ra Ra Riot, Young the Giant, Das Racist, Cults, and Oh Land, just to name a few). Even just thinking back on this year, we’ve been lucky enough to host Killer Mike, Widowspeak, Joey Bada$$, and We Are Scientists.

It’s always interesting to see how the shows turn out – sometimes we really know who our audience is within the BU community, and sometimes we really have to dig around to get an idea of how people found out about a show, and to see how big of a crowd we can draw. In order to better understand who BU students want to see perform, I thought that it would be a cool idea to let YOU tell us who some of your favorite artists are!

So let us know – what’s your favorite music, BU? Chime in by clicking here!

Music Makes a Difference: 7 Awesome Ways to Give Back

Maybe your New Year’s resolution was to lose 20 pounds. Or maybe it was to gain 20 pounds, but all in muscle. Or maybe it was to Skype your parents more or stop partying so much on the weekends.

Unfortunately, I’m probably not the best person to ask how all of those steel-and-titanium machines at FitRec work (I wouldn’t know, I’ve never been there), but if your New Year’s resolution was to volunteer and give back to the community, then read on!

Being that BU Central is a music and entertainment venue, I thought it was only appropriate to compile a list of music-related volunteer opportunities for this post. They’re all located throughout the greater Boston area, and are equally great ways to use your love of music to do some good.

1. Making Music

Making Music, one of a myriad of volunteer programs run by Boston University’s Community Service Center (CSC), recruits individuals from all over campus to teach music to children in grades three through five. 

Created in 1994, Making Music provides instruction not only for traditionally-taught instruments—such as violin and piano—but has also expanded to include guitar lessons, dance lessons, and a children’s choir.

Volunteers are expected to spend 2-3 hours a week teaching music lessons, and should have some experience in the area that they plan on providing instruction. However, teaching experience is not required.

To become a Making Music volunteer, you may either fill out the Spring 2013 volunteer application here, or contact Program Manager Rosie Bauder at mmusic@bu.edu.

2. Boston Symphony Orchestra

Boston Symphony Orchestra volunteers are invited to help out in a variety of duties, including leading Symphony Hall or Tanglewood tours, helping out at the gift shop, or assisting children while at youth concerts or the BSO’s instrument playground.

While the BSO does ask that you make a donation of $75 in order to volunteer, they also encourage you to contact the volunteer office if you are unable to contribute due to financial hardship. Volunteers are asked to work a minimum of 20 hours annually.

To contact to volunteer office, you may send an email to bsav@bso.org with your contact information and volunteer interests

3. The Boston New Music Initiative

The Boston New Music Initiative aims to unite performers, composers, conductors and directors in order to produce new concerts, compositions, collaborations, and commissions.

The Boston New Music Initiative welcomes new volunteers to assist staff in projects, provide support, and to help out at events. To find out more about the Boston New Music Initiative’s more informal volunteer opportunities, interested applicants are encouraged to email jobs@bostonnewmusic.org with a brief introduction.

4.  Girls Rock Boston

Girls Rock Campaign Boston is a non-profit organization that aims to foster confidence, self-expression, and collaboration through music education and performance.

Girls Rock Boston is currently seeking volunteers for Sessions 1 and 2 of their Ladies Rock Camp (LRC). LRC vounteer positions include instructors, support crew, and workshop leaders. However, Girls Rock Boston does request that only individuals who are female identified apply as volunteers.

For more information, check out their volunteer page here. For information on year-round volunteer opportunities, click here.

5. Longwood Symphony Orchestra

What makes Longwood Symphony Orchestra so cool is that it is an orchestra composed (pun intended) almost entirely of medical professionals from the Longwood area hospitals. With their performances, they are able to support health-related non-profit organizations.

Most of the LSO’s programs and events are run by volunteers so that most of the money raised by their performances may go back to the Boston community. Volunteers are welcome in all areas—including office support, ticketing, set-up for rehearsal, social media marketing, and more.

To learn more about volunteering with the Longwood Symphony Orchestra, feel free to contact them at info@longwoodsymphony.org or 617-667-1527.

6. World Music/CRASHarts

World Music/CRASHarts aims to bring global music and dance performances to as wide an audience as possible in the Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville areas.

World Music/CRASHarts calls volunteers into the office to assist in envelope-stuffing for member mailings, outreach packets, and labeling postcards. The organization also has a Street Team, where participants spread the word about upcoming performances via posters, word of mouth, social media, and postcards.

Both volunteers and Street Team members receive hourly credit towards free admission at future shows. To learn more about either of these positions, contact Jennifer@worldmusic.org.

7. Passim

Passim—also known as Club Passim to those that frequent its live shows—houses a music school, performance venue, and incredible artist grant and outreach programs.

Passim is a non-profit, and aims to bring all types of artists—local, national, and international—to its stage.

To volunteer with Passim, contact Abbey at abbey@passim.org with the subject “Volunteer Opportunities at Passim.”

Don’t Worry, Be Happy: 15 Sunshine-filled, Feel-good Songs to Boost Your Pre-Finals Spirits

I know, I know; you’re stressed. You had four papers due this week and eleven midterms and sixty-two chemistry problem sets and then your car caught on fire and you broke your leg after you tripped over your shoelaces (even though you were wearing flip-flops), and life just sucks.

But given the option, which would you prefer: to wallow in pre-finals self pity, or to feel as happy, relaxed, and without-worry as a cat anesthetized with ketamine? I think the answer is pretty obvious.

With finals just around the corner, it can be extremely easy to get yourself caught up in the hype and forget that no matter what, you’re still going to be well and breathing in about two  weeks from now. Get those teeth away from the bloody little nubs that used to be your fingernails and just try to remember that everything will be alright!

In order to try to calm some of those poor suffering nerves of yours, here is a playlist of 15 songs meant to soothe the soul with sunshine. These tunes always boost my mood, and hopefully they can give you some relief, as well!

Spread happiness,

Allison

Don’t Worry, Be Happy: 15 Sunshine-filled, Feel-good Songs to Boost Your Pre-Finals Spirits (Opens in Spotify)

1. Givers // Noche Nada

2. Buck O Nine // My Town

3. The Beatles // Twist and Shout

4. The Clash // Revolution Rock

5. Corinne Bailey Rae // Put Your Records On

6. Givers // Up Up Up

7. Jackson 5 // I Want You Back

8. Noah And The Whale // 5 Years Time

9. Mungo Jerry // In The Summertime

10. Matt and Kim // Daylight

11. The Avett Brothers // Kick Drum Heart

12. Sugar Ray // Every Morning

13. Vampire Weekend // A-Punk

14. Talking Heads // This Must Be the Place

15. Zac Brown Band // Toes

Black Holes Can Sing, Too.

Black holes vibrate at a frequency whose pitch corresponds to the note of B flat. However, don’t be surprised if you can’t find any recordings of it; the note that black holes create is 57 octaves below any B flat that can be detected by human ears.

The above fact blows my mind for a number of reasons. First of all, it is astounding to think that the beauty of music can literally be found throughout the universe, existing in forms that we can’t even comprehend. Second of all, it unites the two seemingly disparate disciplines of music and science in a fascinating, seamless fashion.

I learned this bit of information about black holes while watching ‘The Music Instinct: Science and Song’ on Netflix over Thanksgiving break. The documentary, originally aired on PBS in 2009, attempts to explain the intensely subjective experiences of music listening and performance by pairing it with objective scientific fact. Far from losing its magic, music becomes even more mysterious after having watched the film.

If you think about it, music is really just a highly organized collection of sound waves. Furthermore, these sound waves are merely vibrations that sail through the air at a variety of frequencies. So how could something so simple as vibrations affect people in such vastly different ways? Also, how is it that it even affects you in the first place? These aren’t questions that are easily answered, as the many of the answers have yet to be discovered.

Science is not only able to explain the mysteries of music, but in doing so can also create novel and useful applications for it. For example, take your brainwaves. The electrical activity of your brain does not exist at a constant energy level; rather, the frequency of your brainwaves changes depending on your mental state. Making note of the connection between the frequency of brainwaves and the frequency of sound, some scientists have gone about creating binaural beats, music that is meant to mimic the neural activity of your brain during certain mental states. For instance, there are binaural beats that are meant to induce meditation, sleep, lucid dreaming, and even happiness. The idea that something so simple as music could change our mental state—and even our outlook—is phenomenal, and some early studies have given evidence for binaural beats’ anxiety-reducing properties.

Other researches continue to explore the practical medical uses of music in healing the brain. Researchers as close as those at the Music and Neuroimaging Laboratory at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have begun to uncover some of music’s powerful properties. The lab, directed by neurologist Gottfried Schlaug, has conducted ample research on music’s ability to help patients with stroke-induced aphasia and to induce speaking in autistic children, among other things. The evidence is accumulating, and other current projects—such as research that looks into music’s effects on things like emotion and cognitive skill—show hope for future useful findings.

To bring up such research on music’s beneficial effects isn’t to say that music can mend all mental ailments. There are some mysteries of science and music that may never be solved – such as the infamously baffling Deep Ocean Bloop. But as our understanding of the links between the two grows—and as the technology allowing us to investigate these links improves—it will be interesting to how music and science may come to explain and influence each other.

If you’re interested in the mysterious and endlessly fascinating connections between music and science, I highly suggest watching “The Music Instinct: Science and Song” (the video may be accessed in its entirety on Netflix), or reading This Is Your Brain On Music by Daniel J. Levitin (which, if you do not wish to purchase it, can be found at Mugar Library when I’m not busy renting it out).

As a parting gift: Have scientists really created the “most relaxing tune ever”? Judge for yourself.

-Allison

Getting to Know Your Music

This past weekend, I was lucky enough to attend the National Association of Campus Activities’ annual Northeast conference. The conference consisted of a variety of different events, including education sessions and time slots where schools could show off their programming councils and campus activities boards. During the afternoons, NACA held showcases where various bands, comedians, a capella groups and other entertainers performed for conference attendees.

For me, one of the coolest things about the conference was that after each showcase, performers would set up booths in one of the exhibit halls where each was able to introduce people to their music, talk to attendees, and discuss booking with those who were interested.

I was able to meet a lot of really talented performers, including Boston’s own Darlingside, rapper Kosha Dillz—who has toured and performed with artists such as Matisyahu, Snoop Dogg, Cage the Elephant and Aesop Rock—and a ton of great acoustic singers. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, but I was so happy to discover that virtually every artist I encountered was eager to meet and talk with attendees, and they all seemed to love answering questions and hearing what people had to say about their performances.

It’s not often that I get the chance to talk to performers that I admire—I’m usually at large festivals where large security guards with their arms folded across their chests ensure that that’s not an option. However, looking back at my attendance at smaller shows, it’s safe to say that I’ve had only positive interactions with the bands that I love. Collecting autographs from members of Hellogoodbye (it was my 15^th birthday, okay?), getting Yuri from Gogol Bordello to sit still and smile for a picture. I got so much fan-girl joy out of being able to experience all of these moments with my favorite performers, and it seems to make them happy to see their fans so enthusiastic, too.

A photo of me and Forrest, frontman of Hellogoodbye. I was bad at selfies back then.

I think that sometimes people take for granted how important going to live shows is. Live shows are incredible for a variety of reasons (cool stories, great energy, meeting people, battle wounds from moshing too hard), but one of the greatest remains the fans’ ability to show support for the bands that they love. Especially since downloading music illegally is so easy, a lot of performers really count on touring to act as their main source of income.

But ‘support’ shouldn’t just be taken to mean financial assistance. If fans didn’t come out to shows, bands wouldn’t have anybody to perform for. Musicians don’t just want to record an album, try to sell it, and leave it at that; they get their joy from performing and seeing their fans smiling, rocking out, and enjoying the music. In case you’re not satisfied with any of the above reasons, there’s always the fact that you may discover a new artist that you really like since headliners often bring other bands along with them on tour. Finally, going to live shows is just fun. There is nothing quite like the energy that can be created between a band and a sea of their fans.

So get out there and go get to know these people that you’ve got blasting on your ipod all the time! There are always great performances to be seen here at BU Central – including rapper Killer Mike’s upcoming set this Saturday at 9P.M.—and there are a ton of other awesome venues near the BU campus where you can always catch a show, including Paradise Rock Club, Brighton Music Hall, and House of Blues Boston.

For a more comprehensive list of upcoming live shows in the Boston area, be sure to check out websites such as Songkick, Tourfilter, or The Phoenix’s live music calendar.

Hope to see you at some shows!

Allison

p.s. Here’s the video for “The Ancestor” from Darlingside, so I don’t leave you all with a media-less post. These guys just played a sold-out show at Club Passim and seriously, seriously rock.

Six “Spooky, Scary” Songs to Haunt Your Halloween

Happy Halloween!

I know that many of us are still recovering from the hilarity of the Daily Free Now’s Hurricane Sandy playlist, but the onset of Halloween is just begging for its own set of special occasion-relevant tunes.

In addition to seeing at least a handful of students walking down Comm. Ave in their best Halloween garb (I saw a dinosaur, a unicorn, a leopard, a ninja, some girl with a braid that was at least a foot tall) and a special Halloween episode of Boy Meets World, I hope that these songs set the mood for your day. And no, not that mood — that playlist isn’t coming until Valentine’s Day.

In no particular order:

1. “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah” // 30 Rock

2. “This Is Halloween” // The Nightmare Before Christmas (Composed by Danny Elfman)

3. “The Monster Mash” // Bobby “Boris” Pickett

4. “I Put A Spell On You” // Hocus Pocus

5. “Weird Science” // Oingo Boingo

And, last but not least:

6. “Thriller” // Michael Jackson

Classical Conditioning

Hipster Beethoven used hash tags in front of everything. Before they were cool.

As a classical music lover and ex-cellist, I always feel like it’s my civic duty to get other people to think that classical music is cool, too. Some of my friends occasionally listen to it; a friend named Caroline listens to classical music on Spotify while studying, and some other friends jokingly play it so we can be super-classy while indulging ourselves in super-classy home-cooked dinners prepared in super-classy (read: grungy) Allston apartments (did I mention that it’s classy?). But other than that, I feel like the only other people I can adequately nerd-out with are other people who play or have played classical music.

One of my major problems with a lot of things is that they seem inaccessible to people who don’t know a lot about it. Science scares people away by assigning tricky terminology to not-so-difficult concepts; cool and useful pieces of technology scare my middle-aged parents away by having “too many buttons” and 50 page long instruction manuals; math scares people away because…well, math is just scary.

The same can be said for classical music. Because it doesn’t necessarily fall into the realm of pop culture, it’s not something that most people are exposed to on a frequent basis. And when they are, it’s not unusal for it to go something like this:

 Classical snob #1: “I thought that the conductor held the fermata just a little too long.”

Classical snob #2: “But the effect that the long fermata had was tremendous…just think about how much more suspenseful it made the beginning of the fugue that followed major thirds minor sixths arpeggio col legno triads atonal blahblahblahblahblah.”

Random guy who just happened to go to a classical performance: What.

 *Disclaimer: The above is not an actual conversation

I’ve been playing classical music since the fifth grade and can’t even stand conversations like that.

The irony is that even though it seems slightly complicated or inaccessible from afar, the reason that I fell in love with classical music in the first place is that it is so beautifully simplistic. There are no pickups, no places to plug in a ¼ inch cable, no effects to apply, no fancy software needed, not even any frets – just a collection of sound waves bouncing around in a dried-out and hollowed piece of wood.

I really, really want to convince you that classical music isn’t at all boring, and that it definitely isn’t meant for only a subset of the population, and that it’s not just the music that you listen to when you’re past the aged of 60. Heck, back in the day, going to see Bach debut his latest piece was just as cool as hopping on the T and getting your club on (*Disclaimer: I also do not know this to be fact). It’s beautiful, often formulaic—many composers basically created pieces using ‘recipes,’ so to speak. How many times have you ever felt confused reading the directions for chocolate chip cookies?! But most importantly, classical music has so many cool stories to tell that all kinds of people with all kinds of musical backgrounds can relate to.

Here are some of my favorite classical pieces that never get old (or, if you’re going to look at it literally, some pieces that are very, very old). I’m not going to get too much into the reasons that they rock so hard right now, because some of these definitely deserve their own posts (patience, young warrior; good stories take time). For now, just soak up the wonder that is horse hair, nylon strings and wood. And, if appropriate, say hello to some of your new study and relaxation music!

Mendelssohn // Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20

Mendelssohn wrote this piece as a birthday present to his violin teacher Eduard Rietz. A birthday present. How many people can say that they got a string octet as a birthday present? This recording, performed by the Emerson String Quartet in Boston’s very own Isabella Stewart Gardner museum, is just awesome. Eight people playing this together is just an incredible thing to see and hear.

Shostakovich // String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110 – II (Allegro molto)

Shostakovich stole my heart several years ago, and if he were still alive I would probably promise him my first-born child. This ain’t your grandmaw’s classical music; it speaks more of a rock concert than a fine evening out at Symphony Hall. But the tumultuous sound reflect’s the composer’s struggles. The piece was written during the height of the struggle between Shostakovich and Joseph Stalin, and at a point in which the composer was thinking of taking his own life. To me, nobody tells better musical stories than Dmitri Shostakovich.

Debussy // Suite bergamasque – III (Clair de lune)

Yeah, I know, everybody in the world has heard Clair de lune or played it in their childhood piano lessons or insert other place where you may have encountered it here. But come on. It is such a pretty song. All of the “empty space” in the song is a perfect example of how lack of sound can be just as powerful – in my opinion it’s what makes the piece sound like such a dreamy lullaby.

Beethoven // String Quartet No. 12 in E-flat major, Op. 127 – I (Maestoso)

It’s all about the sounds in this song for me. It’s rich, dense, and crisp at points – kind of like a really gooey caramel chocolate brownie that’s slightly burnt around the edges.

Bernstein // Overture to Candide

This song is just so much fun. I have really great memories of my orchestra friends and I singing (the entirety of) this piece really badly. And dancing and making strange excited facial expressions. The different parts in this piece sound like they’re running around chasing each other all the time. How could you not love a song that is so giddy and playful?

Artists on the Rise: WALK THE MOON

Chances are that you’ve heard at least one song by WALK THE MOON before. Their single “Anna Sun” has already peaked at #10 on Billboard’s Alternative songs chart, and the band has been featured on MTV’s Unplugged, VH1’s You Oughta Know and countless other charts, television shows and music magazines. With disco-flavored dance beats, catchy melodies and a serious penchant for face paint, it’s hard not to find this foursome instantly loveable.

WALK THE MOON formed in Cincinnati, OH in 2008, and in November 2010 the band independently released their debut EP i want! i want!. The EP included their first single, “Anna Sun,” which has helped to gain them some serious momentum on the indie scene. Of the single, lead singer Nicholas Petricca says, “It’s about college, about maintaining that little bit of being a kid. Don’t be afraid to play.” And play they do.

Their self-titled full-length album, released this past June by RCA Records, opens with the track “Quesadilla.” In the very first seconds of the song you get bright synths, playful percussion, an enthusiastic scream, and several lively rounds of “Hey!” in the background. Their cheerful, melodic, upbeat sound doesn’t waver throughout the rest of the album; tracks such as “Tightrope” incorporate a nice clean bass and their signature dance-beats underneath sunny guitar licks, and Petricca’s pleasant voice has a way of turning every track into a sing-along.

WALK THE MOON is an album just teeming with energy and good vibes, and this lively force doesn’t go anywhere during the band’s live shows.  From reading reviews of WALK THE MOON’s live shows or watching performances on YouTube, one can get a sense of the positive feedback loop created by their music. The band’s playful, fun-loving energy is something that the crowd feeds off of as they bounce around the venue, and the band in turn gets their momentum from the energy of the crowd.

Between the colorful face paint (WALK THE MOON likes to bring to share with the crowd) and the smiles on both the band and the audience, you can tell that WALK THE MOON just likes to have fun. And this is something that resonates beautifully with the band’s mission: “We want our music to be the most fun thing you’ve ever listened to in your entire life,” said bassist Kevin Ray in an interview with SXSW, “We want it to not just affect you emotionally, but also physically in that it makes you want to dance.”

You can purchase there new album, WALK THE MOON, by clicking here. They just recently released a full list of Fall 2012 US tour dates, which you may view by clicking here.

Bounce 102: Boyshawts, or, Bounce’s Rise to Fame and Infamy

This post is the second installment of a two-part series on New Orleans Bounce music. Click here to read part one, “Bounce 101: Introduction to Bounce”.

“Man, forget going to the club to meet someone new! When I wanna meet someone new I go get me a basket, and I go walk around Walmart. All the women be in Walmart, ya heard?!”

More unforgettable words have never been spoken. And these 36 words from Mr. Ghetto’s “Walmart” are only the beginning of the most mind-boggling and booty-shaking four minutes and twenty-two seconds of video that you will ever—ever—see.

Let me ask you a question: What do you do when you go to Walmart? Do you buy vegetables? Bread? Maybe some other household necessities such as toilet paper, shampoo, toothpaste, and the like? For most of us, the process of going to Walmart probably involves going in, making groceries, and coming right back out as soon as humanly possible (because who wants to spend their whole Saturday standing in line at Walmart?).

But not Mr. Ghetto!

Mr. Ghetto’s infatuation with the experience of going to Walmart brought him a level of fame—or rather, infamy—that I’m sure nobody shooting a homemade video with a handicam expects to receive. As a result of his love for boyshort-clad women who like to make their groceries in Walmart, Mr. Ghetto attracted a worldwide audience. I had friends up in the northeast calling me and asking if I’ve been to that Walmart (for the record, I’ve shopped at that particular Walmart many times before). Heck, I met people from Spain that said they had seen the video.

I’m not entirely sure that it was Mr. Ghetto’s intention to reach such a high level of internet fame, and it probably came as a huge surprise to him when the video garnered 1.2 million views in the first week alone. But that said, it’s kind of hard not to make a scene when you bring two boyshort-clad dancers in sports bras into your local grocery store and then shoot video of them (I always wonder how long they stayed in there filming for) gyrating furiously at a velocity that rivals the speed of light.

After the release of Mr. Ghetto’s “Walmart,” it didn’t take long before the rest of the country knew what bounce music was. In an interview with NOLA Defender, a blog centered on New Orleans culture, Mr. Ghetto said, “Bounce, you know, they don’t consider it mainstream. But after this song right here, this is mainstream. It don’t get more mainstream this. So, hopefully, this is going to change the game.”

Mr. Ghetto was right; bounce certainly did go mainstream after this. However, it’s hard to say whether the people who saw the video necessarily thought of Bounce as being a legitimate form of music after having viewed the video. Youtube reactions were mixed: while some people thought it was hilarious, sharing it with their friends and undoubtedly having themselves a good laugh over the Shake Team’s impressive dance moves, others responded negatively, admonishing Mr. Ghetto for the video’s explicit content and distaste. Unfortunately, neither of these are the reactions that you want when trying to get people to take your music seriously. Even more unfortunate is that some people came to view New Orleans itself in a negative light after seeing “Walmart.”

Luckily for Bounce music’s reputation, some serious damage control came in the form of Diplo and Nicky da B.

 “Express Yourself,” featuring New Orleans Bounce artist Nicky da B, comes off of Philly-based DJ and producer Diplo’s latest EP of the same name.  After attending one of the many Bounce showcases in New Orleans, Diplo reportedly liked what he saw and began hanging around with the Bounce big-names in an effort to get to know the Bounce music and culture better.

His efforts, in my opinion, clearly paid off in “Express Yourself.” Due to the nature of Bounce—any genre that puts an emphasis on “booty-clapping” is bounce to be a bit raunchy and hypersexual—it can easily come off as distasteful to those who haven’t experienced it before. And, though I mean no disrespect to Mr. Ghetto or his music, getting people outside of the New Orleans area to understand Bounce needed more than a haphazard video shot in the lingerie section of Walmart.

Diplo and Nicky da B’s collaboration, in addition to being better thought-out than Mr. Ghetto’s video, is also much more well-balanced. “Express Yourself” contains many of the same elements of “Walmart”—the fast beats, the repetition, the booty-clapping, and the boyshorts (or “boyshawts” as New Orleanians so lovingly call them).

However, “Express Yourself” is a lot more lively, colorful (literally – the sweater Nicky wears in the video probably includes nearly every color of the rainbow) and upbeat, reflecting some of the qualities that I think make New Orleans so unique. The video is shot on-location in New Orleans at a variety of local landmarks, a great way to include elements of the city’s culture. Additionally, the song itself is a lot more melodically playful than other Bounce tunes, and it can’t hurt that it was produced by a world-renowned DJ.

The things that “Express Yourself” does work because they help to tone down what otherwise might be another risqué Bounce video. The dancers are better-clothes and the message better-said (because, honestly, who doesn’t want to express themselves?!). Diplo and Nicky da B’s collaboration is seriously fun, with emphasis on the serious. Because of songs like theirs, people now know that Bounce means business.

There are obviously a lot of other players in the Bounce game that helped to take the genre to where it is today. However much longer the full account of it’s history may be, I hope that you enjoyed this abridged introduction to this fun and truly unique style of music. If you’re interested in seeing live Bounce, don’t forget to check out Nicky da B open for Tilly and the Wall at Brighton Music Hall in October (tickets can be found here).

Bounce 101: Introduction to Bounce

One of the biggest misconceptions that I’ve heard about Southerners regards the kinds of music that they listen to. If you ask anybody living below the Mason-Dixon line (yes, I suppose that you can also include Texas), they’ll present you with an array of artists and styles that reflects tastes not all that different from people living in the rest of the country. But if you ask anybody else (read: Yankees), the only kinds of music that we play down in the bayou are jazz, pickup-truck-and-beer country ballads, and banjo-pickin’ finger-lickin’ good ole’ bluegrass music.

Now, I’m not going to refute the fact that a lot of us think country and bluegrass are awesome (one of my favorite songs—”Callin’ Baton Rouge”—is by Garth Brooks, and I used to own a banjo. But that’s another story). However, many places in the South—especially where I’m from in New Orleans—produce bands that experiment with all styles of music, from indie to hip-hop, electronic, and rock. One of the most exciting musical trends that we’ve experienced in recent years has been New Orleans Bounce music, or just “Bounce” for short.

Bounce originated in New Orleans sometime between the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. For most of the time since then, it has been a phenomenon localized largely to New Orleans, but which eventually spread to other Southern urban centers such as Atlanta. Growing up during the early 2000’s, I remember DJ Jubilee’s “Get it Ready, Ready!” permeating virtually every school dance or Jewish Community Center sock hop (yes, we had those) that I attended.  The song—still probably one of his biggest hits, and the song that everybody still requests when DJ Jubilee plays his monthly Bounce show at the popular La Maison music club—is a fast-paced, high-energy blend of repetitive beats and melodies. And like most Bounce songs, it is highly infectious.

One of the most important aspects of Bounce music is the call-and-response style that songs often use. In “Get it Ready, Ready!” Jubilee calls out dance-move directions to the audience the entire time (“Now walk it like a dog!”—trust me, you all want to see that one). The call-and-response separates Bounce from a lot of other music that I’ve heard because it is super interactive for the audience, and therefore super, super fun.

People in New Orleans eat this stuff up like it’s a Thanksgiving turkey. And, from what I can tell, people up here do, too. This past April I went to see Big Freedia—one of New Orleans’ most beloved Bounce artists—perform at Brighton Music Hall. I guarantee you that most of the people in that room had never been to a Bounce show before. But when Freedia got up there, people were so eager to shake their booties in front of everybody that they were running towards that stage like Ryan Gosling was waiting for them at the finish line.

Honestly, it’s kind of hard to fully describe the awesomeness of a Bounce show experience. It’s hip-hop on speed, it’s participation, it’s shaking your ass. But it’s also just kind of ridiculous. And that’s the best part. Even though Bounce knows this, it doesn’t give a crap, because Bounce just wants to have fun.

If you want to experience some Bounce goodness for yourself, make sure to head on down to Brighton Music Hall (again!) to see Nicky da B open for Tilly and the Wall on Friday, October 12 (you may purchase tickets by clicking here).

This post just barely scratches the surface of the Bounce phenomenon, and there were a lot of parts that I wasn’t able to get to in order to give you a better picture of how it all began in the first place. Stay tuned to the BU Central blog if you want to hear more about Bounce and it’s rise to fame (or infamy)!

Allison