Same as it ever was, “Deep Cuts and Conservations” is back on campus. The first in-person edition of the event to occur since the Covid-19 pandemic, was on Sept. 20. The meeting was held at the Norman Levan Center and hosted by BC professors Reggie Williams, Josh Ottum, and Kris Tiner.
The discussion focused on the “Once in a Lifetime” music video by the Talking Heads and the conservation explored themes in music, music producers, and ambient music.
Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime” was released in 1981, sung by David Byrne, and produced by Brian Eno. The music video was screened in a room to share with the audience. The speakers asked for the audiences’ thoughts with their response calling the video “dated”.
Tiner stated that the theme of the song is how things stay the same while being different. Williams added to his statement that David Byrns is super artsy and made it dated, which coincides with the questions asked in the song about life.
Discussion of the band’s producer Brian Eno segued the conservation to the role of a music producer in the industry. Williams stated that a producer’s role is to try to get the artist’s song to connect with the audience. Ottum explained that Eno, as the music producer of the video, brought a great music texture and sound. He also helped bands like U2, Coldplay, and Talking Heads by creating the atmosphere to show how producers can do a lot for art. Producers are often responsible for why you like the music, Ottum explained.
The speakers also presented another music video produced by Eno called “Music for Airport” which moved the discussion to ambient music. Tiner commented on music that all frequencies are saturated when listening to sounds such as the ocean making it calming to audiences.
Ottum added that nature recordings are inherently calming, hence the use of synthesizers and music technology to replicate nature sounds for ambient music. Tiner explained that ambient music saves the audiences the problem of processing the lyrics which can be mentally exhausting. Ottum expressed that we like to think about what we are listening to. Ambient music allows for passive listening to create an atmosphere for us to do something like lighting a candle to read a novel.