Welcome to July’s roundup of our favourite links from the last month. We’ve been scouring every corner of the internet for the best entertainment-related stories and as usual, our old friend the internet hasn’t disappointed. Let’s get to it…
Congratulations, you’ve played yourself
Events folk love finding ways to incorporate the latest tech into their next big bash (our sister agency Sternberg Clarke are no exception) so naturally, we always like to keep an eye out for the latest ideas that blur the line between technology and entertainment. Take this Royal College of Art student’s recent project that lets musicians compose and perform tracks as vibrations on the skin; the plastic pods attach to the wearer and play tracks while creating different types of sensations.
You can’t talk about technology these days without the issue of job-stealing robots coming up. Not even music is safe it seems, with news that an “Irish Folk Algorithm” is actually surprisingly good at composing Irish folk music. Machine learning algorithm folk-rnn has been fed a steady diet of folk samples in order to teach it the recurring patterns and harmonies of Irish music. It’s fascinating stuff and leaves you wondering whether folk-rnn could possibly fill in for a Ceilidh gig next weekend…
One way tech could improve the lives of musicians (rather than stealing their jobs) would be by making instruments a little bit easier to transport. MIT Media Lab’s new Fabric Keyboard is not only more portable than your average baby grand, but it’s also more versatile; allowing the performer to stretch, twist and pull the material to create different sounds. Could we soon see musicians wearing their instruments and effectively “playing themselves”?
Ever wondered…
Ever wondered why something as free flowing as music is written in such a rigid format? Classical Music Magazine’s Ivan Hewitt has, and he digs into the history of the bar line in this fascinating piece.
Ever wondered why famous composers didn’t write national anthems? Classical Music Magazine’s Alex Marshall has, and he dives into the stories of classical titans who tried, and failed, to capture the national character in song.
Ever wondered whether the term “classical music” is a little bit of a straightjacket for artists who are constantly pushing the boundaries between styles? Well perhaps you haven’t, but Kate Molleson has, and she argues that the term has outlived its usefulness for many of today’s genre-bending pioneers.
Tricks of the trade
Magicians are fun n’ all, but they’re not exactly the first people you should turn to for advice on surviving in the cut-throat world of business. At least, that’s what you might’ve thought before reading this piece from Business Insider, in which they pick the brains of a leading illusionist for magic secrets that can help you get ahead in the office.
Riders on the storm
Glastonbury Festival will be taking a year off in 2018, so revellers were determined to make this year’s festival count. It seemed to pay off, leading festival organiser Emily Eavis to declare this year’s festival “the best one yet”… But then again, don’t they always say that?
In other Glastonbury news, pop music’s most divisive everybloke Ed Sheeran suffered the indignity of having his rider leaked before his headline slot at this year’s festival. His demands? Almost calculatedly humble: “a bottle of Robinsons fruit squash, six cans of fizzy drink, and a jar of Manuka honey,” coming to the princely sum of £57.31. Expect a song on his next album about how he “prefers a glass of Robinsons fruit and barley to champagne” or something.
If all this Glastonbury talk has you yearning for a little festival to call your own, we offered up some ideas for how you can create your own festival-themed event in a recent blog.
For more of our thoughts on entertainment and the events industry, be sure to follow us on Twitter. See you next time!