Music Talks II

Convert Your Passion Into A Career

Angelos Mavros

• Publisher: Ghost Label Publishing
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9783986779863
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Internationales Marketing

All live talks that Angelos Mavros aka Open Source delivered during 2020 & 2021. These talks can be found on his Youtube channel with video footage. Angelos mainly talks about music marketing, music promotion, and how to make it in the music industry and convert your passion into a career.

Talk #1

The Mother Of All Languages

 

Music has always played a fundamental role in human civilization, and yet there has been no universal consensus on what is considered good music or bad music; it is usually subjected to cultural biases. However, some composers have done wonders by creating and reinventing sounds that span lifetimes. But those wonders are just a tiny fraction of the global music that is out there.

 

Ancient Greeks understood music as something that describes the inner structure of the universe. My ancestors had a very practical mind; they tried to explain the world based on facts. They tried to justify their theories with proof and applied a scientific methodology. Science is the effort to study something thoroughly and thus be able to estimate, predict and prepare for the future.

 

Generally, we try to remove from science things that we don't understand. For example, we don't understand anything about God, so God is not science. If one day we are able to understand how Jesus performed his miracles, then it will no longer be part of religion; it will be science. And through that way of thinking, the ancient Greeks came to the conclusion that music was a fundamental element of the cosmos.

 

Scientists nowadays constantly come across musical patterns, from the electromagnetic signals in our brain to the sub-noises that dolphins make to communicate with one another. Music is a universal, archetypal, mother language. Music is implanted in all of us.

 

But today, when we use the term "music" one’s mind goes to unscrupulous producers that degrade music to the level of a loop and reduce singing to the level of speaking. Words, spoken by young kids. Kids that have barely had any life experiences yet. But because of their youth, and their high levels of hormones, they feel they need to state their opinion. And even worse, they believe that what they say has some sort of value. Unfortunately, that is what most people consider music to be nowadays; low-value loops combined with trash teen talk. However, music has a deeper, more global, more universal meaning.

 

Music is an archetypal form of communication. When you don't know what to say, you send a song to your beloved and that says it all. Psychologists consider people who never sing, not even when they are having a shower in the privacy of their bathroom, to be mentally ill.

 

As much as we would like to think that we know music, we ultimately realize that we don't. Similarly, we see this in the way one tries to know God, but the more we strive to understand Him, the more complex He becomes. We will eventually understand and answer many questions except the ones that matter most: Who are we? Where are we going? Where is God? Is there a God? Music falls into the same category. We will never understand its power, its potential. We all fool ourselves that we are musicians, but we are pretty well aware of our ignorance.

 

Nevertheless, we use music in everything. We need music in everything. In ads, in movies, in the supermarket, in the gym, in the car, in sex, in sleep, in the spa. Music can be therapeutic or it can be a dangerous weapon. Its usage could have healing or catastrophic results. And most times, the results are harmful, even though we do not realize it. We are using misleading music to manipulate consumers and convert them into buyers of whatever junk we struggle to sell. We sing rowdy lyrics that contaminate our souls.

 

Consider, for example, what is widely accepted concerning Trance music. People say, “You can't listen to Trance while being sober. This kind of music can only be enjoyed under the influence of LSD or MDMA.” Those are the catastrophic complexes clustered to music.

 

When people say, "I don't know much about music", they mean that they never had a conventional musical education. But when people say, "Yes I do understand music", they mean that they understand the global message that music radiates.

 

In truth, we all know something about music. Because music made us. It remains one of the strongest forces in the universe. It speaks directly to our souls, because it lives in Plato's ideal world, where everything is eternal.

 

As technology evolves and civilization progresses, our scientists get to understand what our ancestors understood thousands of years ago; that music is divine. And we should be very cautious with its usage, which apparently is a harmless thing, but in fact, it isn't.

 

Talk #2

Let Music Do The Talking

What is a fast track? What is a slow song? It surely has nothing to do with the bpm (Beats Per Minute). For the sake of science, Ι can create a track of 138 bpm that sounds faster than a 140 bpm track, and everyone will fall for it. The sense of speed in music is relative. It is precisely measured by a metronome, but also blurred, hardly defined by our senses.

If there is no objective speed, then there is no objective loudness or softness; there is no full or empty; there are no fundamental specifications whatsoever. I dare to say that there are no basic principles regarding music, at least as long as those principles concern our senses, and yet, we humans have created a ton of rules regarding music. That is mainly because our brain appears to be inadequate to fully comprehend the meaning of music. Instead, I always prefer to let the music do the talking. I try not to walk on patterns. I try not to read theories about harmony. I try not to interfere. Meretricious interference is always second best compared to spontaneous interference, which takes place when music flows naturally.

Music is energy. Even scientists nowadays suggest that the world consists of tiny fractures of matter that sway incessantly through the space-time continuum, known as strings. To describe the incessant flux and ever-changing nature of things, Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher who lived 2500 years ago, summed it up in sayings like “All is flux. Nothing stays still.”, “You cannot step in the same river twice.” Scientists today confirm that everything vibrates even at a microscopical level. Vibrations are caused by either divine or not-yet understood forces that govern the universe. So to pretend that we fully understand the whole thing, would be pure arrogance.

Music has its own code, an ancient language spoken by all organic and non-organic matter. When you play music, when you listen to music, when you make music, you are using the musical code. However, when you think of music, you are degrading the effectiveness of this cosmic language by letting your human logic interfere. The musical code can be more easily decoded through our senses, not through logic. Our mind merely works as a receiver, barely capable of absorbing and decoding that signal. Whatever effort we make on programming or reconstructing musical code is doomed to fail.

Consider this example to see what I mean. Let's say that you want to talk to a beautiful woman and before even meeting up with her, you start playing the conversation in your mind. But what is more likely to happen? You meet up with her and the conversation never goes as planned. Because you were making plans using only yourself. But communication is diverse, unpredictable, and generated by two sides. Since one of the two pieces is missing, how will you be able to put together the puzzle and make predictions? Music code, similarly, takes two sides, the receiver and the transmitter. The best music pieces are brought to life when the two sides are brought together. And that explains why no one ever had a melody in their mind before putting it together.

Outsiders ask composers, “Do you have a melody in your mind and then write it down? Did you come up with this melody in your sleep?” Well, I doubt if this ever happened to a composer. Melodies are being produced in real time, through playing and experimenting. When a composer is experimenting, his senses play the role of the receiver AND the transmitter at the same time. Music is reflected on himself. A part of him plays and a part of him listens. That is how music is created! Not in our sleep! And not while thinking! But by interacting! So when you make music, or any art in general, let your senses take over, and stop thinking about the rules.

I have tried to analyze music in more ways than you would care to read about. Music, in my opinion, is the most incomprehensible art-form of all. I have served music for twenty years and still haven't figured out the slightest thing about it. I can point out a million guys that know harmony, and music theory, and have diplomas; people who can identify all chords by ear, and yet, they can't compose! Because they understand the rules of music, but not music itself! And the truth is that hardly can anyone. Playing music can be taught, but understanding music is a gift. Who can claim that they understand music? Not many. Maybe John Williams, Bill Conti and a few others. Those composers let themselves be drifted away and they let music pass through them; and we, the audience, just hear a tiny fraction of what comes out the other way. Those tiny fractions escape the perfect, ideal world and enter our own materialistic world. And then, we miraculously have a "Swan Lake" or a "Bolero."

So, as a composer, you hav...