History of Country Music

Satellite Story- History of Country Music

Q&A

Q: When did you go to your first concert?

A: I went to my first concert on my fourth birthday, and that’s really what got me into country music.

Q: Was there anything that you noticed about the type of people that were at the concert?

A: No, they actually all look like regular people except with every concert that you go to you are going to have a couple of people who fit the redneck stereotype.

Q: Do you think that this stereotype of country music fans is a bad one?

A: I know many people who enjoy listening to country music, some of them live out in the country, but I know of no one who actually fits the stereotype of country music fans.

Q: Now with this stereotype have you seen anyone who actually fits it?

A: At the concerts a lot of people wear jeans and a flannel shirt but it’s hard to find someone who actually fits this stereotype, many of the people just look like “regular” people.

Graphs from Student Survey

This Graph is a graph of the number of people who listen to music on a specific day. This data is from a survey that I handed out to some of the study halls. This shows that the majority of people like listening to music on Mondays and Fridays. From this graph I think that people listen to music on Mondays to help them get through the day, whereas on Fridays people might listen to music to help get in a good mood for the weekend or pass the time. Sundays are the lowest because I think that most people are spending the day with their families, Sundays are when most people go to church or go out to eat or some other family activity.

Majority of people enjoy listening to music before a game against their rival or before a big audition because it helps them focus and get ready for the big game. This not only gets them focused in their minds it helps them perform better too.

Music's influence on society

It was a fresh March day, just hauling my cumbersome backpack and myself back home. Nothing special about the day, other than no snow, but, while I was strolling down the street, this old Civic was driving by me really slowly while pulling up to the stoplight, and the guy inside looked really stoned, he looked like he was practically napping on the wheel and still oriented with himself at the same time, and I don’t even know how, but I was waiting at the crosswalk, the music that he was playing at that moment was really pissing me off. First why would this guy be listening to this crap on the radio, especially 97.9, and second; What song is this? It is so. Damn. Annoying. Apparently the title of the song that was playing was “Talk Dirty” and at that moment I was literally tapping my feet just for the the ‘walk’ sign to come up already. The everything of the song was just so “urghh” to me, and I wanted the walk sign to just light up already. It took a minute of my life to wait, but it felt like forever, and when the crosswalk finally lit up, all I could say was “thank the LORD” under my breath, before I crossed Fishinger. At that moment I was pretty disappointed at 97.9 for having such catchy and annoying songs on their station all the time, but that’s what makes the bucks and people happy these days. And songs like “Talk Dirty” are the formula to commercial success apparently and today’s pop songs currently rule the music market with 28.7% in market shares, in a market worth $15 billion in the last 3 years. These songs also have spread their influences to people across the globe like wildfire, as 21 billion plays of pop music have been streamed over radio apps and an additional 158 million plays have been aired over FM radio, according to a research study conducted by Jay Frank, an independent blogger. With this number in mind, the scope of music can be seen on a MASSIVE level, as well as it’s influence like mentioned earlier which affects what people think and like and want to do. Songs about drugs makes people more inclined to do drugs, songs about getting high make people want to smoke weed and drinking songs make you want to drink (Am I right?)! According to the Addiction Magazine, According to Addiction Magazine, “teens use music as part of their identity formation…. teens use music to resolve or better understand their own inner conflicts and emotional turmoil, and as an outlet for angst.”. Obviously this correlates to drugs, drinking, weed and sex, as songs that foster that kind of activity will ultimately influence listeners to do it as well. As well as this perspective on drugs, it also shapes a person’s identity and shows or shapes personality, as aforementioned above it helps people find people with common interests and form friend groups with those people. According to Psychology Today, music also can reveal what kind of personality you have. People who like Top 40 or country are usually, “simpleminded and straightforward,” while electro fans are more often, “likely to impulsively blurt out their thoughts,” and you indie lovers might be, “introverted, intellectual, and creative.” As you can see, it is very evident that music also has a emotional and mental connection to people. With the widespread reach of music today, the widespread influence of it can show the massive amounts of things it can influence you to do and the things it can reveal about you.

Survey on Music's influence in 2 environments

Survey on today’s music’s results of a UAHS lunchroom of 40 people What do you think of today’s mainstream music?: Good-23 Okay-7 Bad/Terrible-10 Does today’s mainstream music foster a negative/harmful culture?: Yes-29 No-11 Do you think the rise of the popularity of weed, molly and other drugs can be attributed to music?: Yes-38 No-2 Survey in a local Barnes and Noble of the same questions-35 people: What do you think of today’s mainstream music?: Good-10 Okay-14 Bad/Terrible-11 Does today’s mainstream music doster a negative/harmful culture?: Yes-31 No-4 Do you think the rise of the popularity of weed, molly, and other drugs can be attributed to music?: Yes-29 No-4 (Other 2 didn’t know what weed or molly was)

Core Story

“Hey, so can you think of any other names?” “KOHL sounds good man, to be honest with you, just go for it.” On the day I visited the cozy little home of Kohl Aufdencamp, he decided to plan to make a SoundCloud page with me, as he needed assistance setting it up and jotting down different names, which was incredibly convenient for the project as well. Some brainstorming produced some unique names. Subwaufer sounded cool, Koohla sounded chill, and Kohl the Camper just sounded too ironic for his name, but at the end of this little 30 minute brainstorming session, we compromised on the name KOHL (in capital letters) since it looked cool with the capital letters and it’s his name too! Before launching his page, Kohl was just producing EDM (Electronic Dance Music) for fun, finding cool different sounds and learning the flow and organization of a song in his producing program, and before he was even producing all his different tracks and creating different beats, Kohl was just at home, laying on his bed, bored out of his mind, with only music to accompany him on a brisk winter day. He said he needed something to do. “Well, I just had the random thought of, ‘Well why not make some music of my own, you know?’ and it just went from there, and I’m totally glad it did.” The process of mixing music and the unlimited amount of pieces of music he can make is what makes music producing so appealing to him, Kohl says. But what makes the allure of producing even deeper to Kohl is the prospects of the producing business. “There are people that went from nothing to a millionaire, and to think about being able to do that just by expressing myself in a song is pretty sick.” The average music producer that isn’t too well renowned per se makes a hefty $55,000 per year, which isn’t horrid or laughable at all, but the top producers in the industry such as Calvin Harris, Tiesto, and Swedish House Mafia have all made upwards of $10+ million in performances and record sales last year with Calvin Harris topping the board with $46 million accumulated last year, an astronomically large sum of money that’ll certainly fill a nice wallet. That kind of money produces hunger in many young producers and DJ’s, Kohl being that, another guy that has the hunger to make it in the industry like his forecomers. “I think if I can make tracks that sound good and sound me, I can really make it far,” he says. “I get to make tons of money doing something I like to do AND I can be famous someday too, haha.” After all, many stars come from humble beginnings, yes? Thought the potential for Kohl’s dream is extremely bright, the expenses such as production equipment, promotions, possibly producing space and other additional hindrances that may come in the way of the dream can stop Kohl from letting him climb to the spotlight. For instance a Roland MIDI Keyboard/Controller for creating virtual notes can cost $300+ , Studio monitors, another fancy term for Super-precise speakers, from Yamaha can cost $300 a pair of monitors, individual virtual instruments to create unique beats can come in packages of $10 to a hundred for certain packages. Certainly, the average Joe doesn’t have this kind of huge money to invest on a random day. This is a main obstacle for Aufdencamp, who is like every other high schooler without thousands of dollars to spend at free will (except maybe Charlie) and as such, would be rather hesitant to spend such money. Another difficulty in trying to get started in the industry is the amount of promotion that must be conducted and the difficulty of self-promoting. “It’s hard in a place where a ton of people like me want to get in there too, you know, I’m not the only guy that has to fight for attention.” Kohl puts it precisely, and he is right, when many other people are trying to market themselves as ‘unique’ or ‘the next big thing’ to labels, radio, and even just around the block to make people familiar with him. “I haven’t started yet, because, I haven’t really planned that out yet to be honest,” Kohl says, then laughs as he realizes how unplanned he is for the music industry. I then asked him at that moment, “So you really don’t know what you’re going to do to get your name out there?” Kohl pauses for a second, then returns with, “Well I guess SoundCloud’s a start right?” If one goes deeper into promotion, they must consider how to develop their ‘brand’, how to gather as much contacts as possible, and how to grow your fanbase, and all these questions are what Kohl feels he needs to address if he ever goes into producing. Other than the producing standpoint, Kohl feels that everyone’s different music tastes aid in helping them go down different paths and decisions in life. His influence from the EDM scene has made him lean toward wanting to produce and DJ. Other influences of the EDM scene include big rave-like music festivals and concerts of famous Producers/DJ’s, producing songs yourself and the infamous ‘moly’ craze during concerts. The drug problem is not only at EDM concerts, Miley Cyrus even asked where ‘Molly’ was at one of her recent concerts this year, and many other concerts are fostering the use of this drug to enhance their partying experience during a concert. I asked Kohl during my visit on his view on ‘molly.’ “Yeah, I know people who do it at parties, of course, I’m not naming names, but yeah I know some of the stuff that gets into those pills, and some of the stuff isn’t good, at all.” Touted for being extremely pure, containing only MDMA in powders and pills, many of the dealers can’t afford putting 100% MDMA in their moly pills/powders, looking to put additives such as caffeine, bath salts, and even methamphetamine as fillers for the drug, according to an article by Slate, a blog site. They went further into their study by purchasing some molly from a local and ‘reputable’ New York dealer, promoting his molly as “the best money could buy.” After purchasing it, they dissected the pill and found fillers such as bath salts, meth, and an unidentified opiate in the pill. Clearly ‘molly’ ain’t so innocent or clean anymore. I told Kohl about the extra ingredients I knew at the time and he suddenly had a more worried face. “Wow, there’s meth in there? Yeah people’s gonna have to rethink about doing that stuff.” What’s the cause of the rise of this drug that seems so irrelevant to music and Kohl? Well, music helped it gain popularity. Again. Popular in the 80s, then just plainly called MDMA, molly like stated before, is a staple drug of today’s music scene. If you haven’t heard, “Pop a molly I’m sweatin” yet, you need to listen to some music, because practically everyone knowsthose lyrics, if they don't know what song it is. That phrase being one of the most prominent promoters of MDMA, it is increasingly evident that music affects lifestyle choices of many teens today. It’s not just MDMA that’s a problem, no. There’s weed, cocaine, alcohol and a lot more illicit drugs that are mentioned in today’s songs. According to Dan Aune, a sophomore in Keene State who believes that her peers are in danger because of music’s dire influence, “It’s detrimental not only to the state of modern music, but to the youth that look up to these people too.” After talking with Kohl about life paths and such he said he's glad he is producing and staying on the good path. Maybe one day he'll get to iTunes...

Survey on Influence of Music

How often do you listen to music per day?

_____3+ Hours _____1-2 Hours ____Less than an hour

Does music play a big role in your life?

_____Yes _____No

What genre of music do you mostly listen to?

_____Hip Hop/Rap _____Country ______Rock

_____Classical _____Electrical _____Other

Results:

3+ Hours=53 Yes: 74

1-2 Hours=36 No: 26

>1 Hour=11

Hip Hop/Rap=47 Rock=23 Electrical=4

Country=6 Classical=11   Other=9

Reflection:

This survey allowed me to see how much influence music had on their lives. I wanted to see how much time they commit to listening to music per day. I also wanted to see if people viewed music as a big priority in their life. Also I wanted to see what types of genre people mostly listen to on their own time to see what kind of music is popular among high school students. This survey showed me how much of an impact music had among many students.