Song of Fire

Independent music source CD Baby recently posted a blog article, “Has the Internet Really Destroyed the Music Business?”, citing negative comments from John Mellencamp and Stevie Nicks as the latest salvos about the current state of music in the digital age. After pointing out that these stars made a lot of money under the old music business model (which were never golden days, to be sure), CD Baby does some cheerleading for the new, egalitarian model where “there’s at least a spot on the couch” for everybody. [Read more →]

Tags: Internet music, The state of music // Add Comment »

Following up on my previous post, I’ve tried to find examples of music as a direct influence on architecture. Apart from concert hall design (which is concerned primarily with acoustic properties), there are surprisingly few examples. The Experience Music Project in Seattle, designed by Frank Gehry, has a Tower of Music built from guitars, drums and keyboards in its lobby. Part of the building’s unique shape seems inspired by a melting, surrealistic red bass with a grid of frets. [Read more →]

Tags: architecture, art // Add Comment »

It’s a commonplace that architecture and music share certain organizational elements: patterns, motifs, rhythm and repetition as structure. What’s less common is the presence of music in architecture. As a challenge, I designed floorplans for houses in the shape of a grand piano, guitar and French horn.

Certain musical elements are carried through the layouts. A five-line music staff inlaid in the floor runs the length of the entry hall into the great room of the piano house; a central courtyard resembles the body of a guitar, with a round fountain where the sounding hole would be.

A circular dining room occupies the heart of the guitar house, with six lines inlaid in the floor extending from the dining room to the fireplace and outlining the base of the neck.

The most ambitious plan is the French horn house. The tubing pattern forms curving counters and inlaid flooring throughout the main living area. The mouthpiece is a planter in a private garden for the master bath.

These were just whimsical experiments to work within the constraints of musical forms with curves. I’ll explore how music affects design in real buildings in another post.

Tags: architecture, art // Add Comment »

More dramatic evidence of the decline of the music industry. The amount of sales needed to qualify an album as a top-seller has dropped by two-thirds since 2000. The number one CD in 2009 sold less than the number ten CD a decade earlier, despite population growth.

Nielsen/Soundscan collects sales data from 14,000 retail, mass merchant, and non-traditional outlets (such as on-line stores and digital music services) in the United States, Canada and U.K., according to Wikipedia. Billboard reports these rankings weekly. [Read more →]

Tags: The state of music // Add Comment »