Critical Noise

If you’re already familiar with Gene Weingarten’s Washington Post article Pearls Before Breakfast, then you’re also probably aware how often it has been picked up, transmogrified and distributed since its April 2007 publication. But if you could care less about the state of classical music, you likely missed it. Here’s a recap: The author convinced internationally acclaimed virtuoso Joshua Bell to busk inside the terminal at L’Enfant Plaza, a metro station at “the nucleus of federal... Read Full Story

From Photoshop to ProTools: We live in a Cut and Paste world. Modern music making tools –synthesizers, samplers and digital audio workstations– draw a striking parallel to cameras, scanners and software applications such as those provided by Adobe; Illustrator and Photoshop for instance. Think of a camera or scanner as samplers, and Photoshop a Digital Workstation for its ability to manipulate, enhance and process media elements into a composite whole. One interesting side effect of... Read Full Story

Rap collective Wu Tang Clan made pop music history the other day by winning the right to license a sample from the Beatles. This event precipitated an argument in online music industry forum, the Velvet Rope, which pitched music production traditionalists against electronic musicians regarding the artistic legitimacy of modern production techniques. Essentially the question is this: Is music created by electronic means as legitimate as that which is created by traditional means? It seems... Read Full Story

Wikizines are interactive magazines that anyone can create or edit - and this one is called "Critical Noise". Here you can find fresh voices and respond in real time. Some members write articles about recent news and trends related to the wikizine's topic, others recount relevant personal stories or share their favorite pictures and video clips. Got an interesting idea or story to share with other members of this wikizine? Well, then put on your journalist's cap and add your own article... Read Full Story

In the November 28th issue of the Wall Street Journal, Emily Steel reports in an article titled 'When Marketers See Double', on unwitting overlap by advertisers who coincidently choose the same photo for parallel running campaigns. One notable example given is when Bank of America and Key Bank, the article points out, both chose the same ‘heart warming’ image of father and daughter hanging over a laptop. Consider this example presented by the Wall Street Journal, and culled from the US... Read Full Story