Author: jkim

Billie Eilish is a rising American singer and songwriter. She’s only seventeen and has already accomplished way more than I ever will. I love her. Billie Eilish and her brother, Finneas O’Connell writes, produces and records all their songs. We grew up hearing thousands of different songs everywhere around us, and often underestimate how difficult it is to write a song, whether it be pop, classical or jazz, etc. But even coming up with a decent melody is actually very challenging. I have to compose a song for theory 202 by next week, and so far it literally sounds like garbage lmao

Billie Eilish’s debut album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, was released on March 29^th, 2019. The album title is a line from her song “bury a friend”, released on January 30^th, 2019. The accompanying music video plays a significant role in making ‘bury a friend’ so impactful. Eilish mentioned that she always knows exactly what she wants her music videos to be like, and is very involved with the filming and editing process. So it’s safe to presume that her songs and the music videos are closely related.

The video takes place in a dark, ominous, rundown apartment complex. There are three main settings that are interchanged throughout: a bedroom, empty hallways and a white room that resembles a lab. The music video opens with a man suddenly waking up from his sleep and then lying back down. He then mutters “Billie” and the camera pans down to reveal Eilish, with all-black eyes, lurking under his bed. She stumbles through flickering corridors then is grabbed and manhandled aggressively by gloved hands. When she sings the line “I wanna end me”, these gloved hands inject dozens of syringes filled with black liquid. This sequence of singing under/next to the guy’s bed, stumbling down the hallways, gloved hands pushing and pulling her then injecting needles on her back, repeats over the course of the video. One noticeable difference is that as the video progresses her body and face also progressively contort and transform unnaturally, looking more and more possessed and frightening. Towards the end of the song when she sings the lyrics:

“For the debt I owe, gotta sell my soul
‘Cause I can’t say no, no, I can’t say no
Then my limbs all froze and my eyes won’t close
And I can’t say no, I can’t say no”

The camera zooms into her face, and her eyes are completely black, and her face is completely unnatural and emotionless, making those lyrics more effective. This is just one example of many where the video amplifies its connection with the music.

The music video ends with the camera zooming out on the man’s bed but Eilish no longer present under his bed. The song and the video both ends but the beat keeps on going, and the beat actually transitions straight into the next track in her album – ‘ilomilo’.

The song itself already has a sinister, eerie undertone, with the almost monotone melody, her whispery voice, and the dark lyrics. But the music video really levels-up the horror movie vibe of the song. Once you’ve watched the video it’ll be very hard for you to make your mind not automatically conjure up the video next time you hear the song.

Here are some of people’s reactions to this creepy music video:

When I first heard the song on the radio, I thought the song was about suicide because the line “I wanna end me” is so prominent and repetitive. Then I watched the music video and read the entire lyrics and I guessed that the song and the video is about drug addiction. Billie stated in an interview that she wants the listener to ultimately decide what the meaning behind her songs is, but she did mention in an interview that the song is about sleep paralysis and written from the perspective of the “monster under the bed”. I think it’s interesting how she wants the audience to decide what her songs mean to them, and so chooses not to discuss too much about her interpretation of them. Reading Youtube comments is an easy way to read millions of opinions in a short period of time just by scrolling down. I usually never really read youtube comments because irrational hateful comments that some people leave usually annoy the heck out of me. But I didn’t find any bad comments on this video. In fact, it was really cool how so many people interpreted the song differently:

In conclusion, Billie Eilish is awesome and everyone should go listen to her songs if you somehow haven’t already

Bibliography:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bury_a_Friend
https://consequenceofsound.net/2019/02/song-of-the-week-billie-eilish-asks-the-big-questions-on-bury-a-friend/
https://www.songmeaningsandfacts.com/billie-eilishs-bury-a-friend/
http://bcheights.com/2019/02/03/billie-eilish-spooks-in-haunting-bury-a-friend/
https://consequenceofsound.net/2019/02/song-of-the-week-billie-eilish-asks-the-big-questions-on-bury-a-friend/

For thousands of years before Lieutenant James Cook “discovered” Australia, more than 500 Indigenous nations consisting of over 750,000 people had already been living harmoniously on the land. They believed that Human, Animal, Plant and land is part of one vast unchanging network of relationships that was established before they even existed. Unlike the Europeans, they believed that the land owns mankind, not the other way around. Sadly, on 22 August 1770, Lieutenant Cook stumbled across this land, stuck a flag on the ground and claimed it to be a part of the British Empire. Aboriginal people were stripped of their human and land rights and suffered from discrimination, and violence for hundreds of years.  

Despite the absolutely harrowing and irreversible pain they have inflicted on Aboriginal people, Australia remains the only commonwealth country to have never signed a treaty with its indigenous people. The lack of a treaty insinuates the lack of recognition of indigenous people’s history and prior occupation of the land, and the lack of a firm, functional relationship between Indigenous people and non-Indigenous Australians. In 1988, former Prime Minister of Australia, Bob Hawke, signed the Barunga statement proposed by the leaders of the Australian Indigenous community and promised that a treaty would be delivered by 1990. The Barunga statement called for the Australian Government to recognise Indigenous sovereignty, their basic human rights and respect for the Aboriginal identity and culture. However, despite Hawke’s promise, there were no signs of change, let alone a treaty. In 1991, the band Yothu Yindi collaborated with musician Paul Kelly to compose ‘Treaty’ to protest against the government’s broken promise and to raise public awareness about it.

Yothu Yindi were an Australian musical group that was a merger of a white rock group and an Aboriginal folk group from Yolngu homelands. The lyrics of ‘Treaty’ consist of both English and Yolngu Matha, the native language of the Yolngu. This is the lyrics to the song:

Well I heard it on the radio 
And I saw it on the television
Back in 1988, all those talking politicians

Words are easy, words are cheap
Much cheaper than our priceless land
But promises can disappear
Just like writing in the sand

Treaty yeah treaty now treaty yeah treaty now

Nhima djatpangarri nhima walangwalang (You dance djatpangarri, that’s better)
Nhe djatpayatpa nhima gaya’ nhe marrtjini yakarray (You’re dancing, you improvise, you keep going, wow)
Nhe djatpa nhe walang gumurrt jararrk gutjuk (You dance djatpangarri, that’s good my dear paternal grandson)

This land was never given up
This land was never bought and sold
The planting of the union jack
Never changed our law at all
Now two river run their course
Seperated for so long
I’m dreaming of a brighter day
When the waters will be one

Treaty yeah, treaty now (x2)

Nhima gayakaya nhe gaya’ nhe (You improvise, you improvise)
Nhe gaya’ nhe marrtjini walangwalang nhe ya (You improvise, you keep going, you’re better)
Nhima djatpa nhe walang (You dance djatpangarri, that’s good)
Gumurr-djararrk yawirriny’ (My dear young men)
Nhe gaya’ nhe marrtjini gaya’ nhe marrtjini (You improvise, you keep improvising, you keep going)
Gayakaya nhe gaya’ nhe marrtjini walangwalang (Improvise, you improvise, you keep going, that’s better)
Nhima djatpa nhe walang (You dance djatpangarri, that’s good)
Gumurr-djararrk nhe yå, e i, e i, e i i i, i i i, i i i, i i (You dear things)

Treaty ma’ (Treaty now)

Promises disappear – priceless land – destiny
Well I heard it on the radio
And I saw it on the television
But promises can be broken
Just like writing in the sand

Treaty yeah treaty now treaty yeah treaty now (x2)
Treaty yeah treaty ma treaty yeah treaty ma (x2)

What makes this song so unique and impactful is the combination of both aboriginal and balanda (non-Aboriginal) musical cultures. The lead singer, Mandawuy Yunupingu commented “Though it borrows from rock ‘n’ roll, the whole structure of ‘Treaty’ is driven by the beat of the djatpangarri that I’ve incorporated in it. It was an old recording of this historic djatpangarri that triggered the song’s composition.” The instrumentation used in this song includes both western instruments such as electric guitars, keyboard and drums, and traditional indigenous instruments such as yidaki (didgeridoo) and bilma (ironwood clapsticks). The song is composed with the western twelve-note chromatic scale, and so harmony is more controlled by electric guitar and keyboard. Traditional aboriginal instruments focus more on timbre rather than harmony, and adds a distinct, irreplaceable tone quality to the song.

The ‘Filthy Lucre’, Melbourne-based dance remixers, let out a remix of ‘Treaty’, and that led the song to gain international recognition. The remix peaked at No.11 on the Australian Recording Industry Association singles charts, and was the 29^th best-selling song in Australia in 1991. It was performed by Yothu Yindi at the Closing Ceremony of the Sydney Olympics on 1 October 2000.

‘Treaty’ is an upbeat song with mainly major tonality, despite the heavy issue that it addresses. Perhaps this is to express their hopefulness for a brighter future despite their current gloomy situation. Unfortunately, to this day there is still no treaty. Although on the surface it may seem like Aboriginal Australians are given equal rights as non-indigenous Australians, the social, educational and economic gap is huge but not much is being done to close it. A treaty is long, long overdue and it is absolutely necessary to the future of Australia’s relationship with its indigenous peoples. I hope “treaty yeah treaty now” happens in the very very near future.

link to the song:

Bibliography:

http://www.aboriginalart.com.au/culture/dreamtime2.html
https://aiatsis.gov.au/collections/collections-online/digitised-collections/treaty/barunga-statement

https://australianstogether.org.au/discover/the-wound/the-lack-of-treaty/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barunga,_Northern_Territory#The_Barunga_Statement

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/read-the-lyrics-of-yothu-yindi-song-treaty
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-40024622

You might think that finding music stands at a music school shouldn’t be a problem. Wrong. Finding a music stand in the annex is one of the hardest challenges you’ll face at Eastman. Musicians always talk about recording devices, recital halls, more expensive instruments etc., but no one ever talks about music stands?! Let me show you some examples of how hard musicians’ lives would be without music stands:

I tried to find out who invented music stands and what they originally looked like but unfortunately couldn’t. This suggests that music stands have been around for a very long time. However, I did find this painting called “Church singing, Tacuinum Sanitatis” from 14^th century, which gives us an idea of what stands might have looked like centuries ago.

Look at the stand in the painting. It’s made up of thick wood and is probably extremely heavy. It doesn’t seem to be adjustable, as the children in the painting are craning their necks to see the music. Today, we can easily adjust the height of the stand so that it can suit people of various heights. Not only that, plenty of improvements have been made to music stands to make our lives so much easier.

Most music stands these days are made up of metal, that are lighter than wood and are still steady. Most come with adjustable height and tilt function. Some have knobs attached to them, and some have automatic friction slides so that you can just easily push the head of the stand to adjust the height.

This is my personal favourite type of music stands, as it has an extra accessory shelf that lets you put things like pencils, reeds, tuner etc. I always carry a shitload of stuff with me all the time so this extra storage room makes my life so much easier.

One disadvantage music stands have is that it is too heavy and big to carry around. Thankfully there are these things called foldable stands that lets you fold it to make it easier to carry around, and is also significantly lighter in weight. One downside of these portable folding music stands have is that they aren’t very sturdy. They usually have metal spring arm extensions to hold sheet music in place.

To make music stands more awesome than they already are, there are stand accessories such as clip-on light, attachable instrument stands, clip-on page holder and phone/drink holders. It’s pretty wild.

I’m now realising that it’s kinda hard to write 600 words about music stands.. especially because there doesn’t seem to be much information about it. Unbelievable.. Music stands deserve way more credit than it’s getting. Music stands are an absolute necessity for musicians. You can’t even dreeeam of having a functioning orchestra without music stands!

Maybe I’ll post my blog online somewhere public. Let me know what you guys think.

source:

https://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_stand

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_stand

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/stand-accessories-parts

Music Stand

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