Even More Rock Conspiracies

11/25/20 • 32 min

1 Listener

The universe is a weird, random place that has little regard for what us puny humans think...this is something we find very, very hard to accept...we’re always looking for explanations for the weird, random, and sometimes evil things that befall us...

Occam’s razor—the idea that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one—doesn’t cut it for some people...they believe that there are nefarious things afoot...

For example, I know someone who is all-in when it comes to this QAnon rubbish...quick explanation: a government insider believes that Donald Trump is leading a secret global fight against a cabal of Satan-worshipping politicians and celebrities and journalists who are engaged in everything from child sex trafficking to cannibalism...

Everything about qanon is bat-guano crazy and nothing to do with reality...yet there are people who believe that people Barack Obama, George Soros, and Tom Hanks will soon be arrested and jailed for their hideous crimes...

This is more nutty than even the most out-there “JFK-was-assassinated” or “9/11 was an inside government job” theories...or the idea that the moon landing was faked...or that Sandy Hook was a false flag event...or that Bill Gates is big on vaccinations because he wants to inject miniature tracking chips into all of us...

What else is out there?...chemtrails...the truth about the Denver airport...the UFO cover-up...the evils of fluoridation...flat-earthers, weather control machines, the illuminati, freemasonry...

Okay, what about music?...are there any conspiracies that have taken root?...the answer is “yes...plenty”...and here’s another look down that rat hole of insanity...

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Occam’s razor—the idea that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one—doesn’t cut it for some people...they believe that there are nefarious things afoot...

What else is out there?...chemtrails...the truth about the Denver airport...the UFO cover-up...the evils of fluoridation...flat-earthers, weather control machines, the illuminati, freemasonry...

Okay, what about music?...are there any conspiracies that have taken root?...the answer is “yes...plenty”...and here’s another look down that rat hole of insanity...

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Previous Episode

Hidden Figures

I’ve always been something of a nut when it comes to the space program...but even though I’ve read all the books, seen all the documentaries, and watched all the movies, I was still surprised to learn something new with the movie “Hidden Figures”...

This was a 2016 film based on a book of the same name...it told the true story about black female mathematicians who worked at nasa during the hottest period of the space race...

They were “computers” in the original sense of the word: people who computer things complex things like flight trajectories, re-entry methods, and landing coordinates...they were even assigned to check and correct the calculations spit out by NASA’s big ibm mainframes...their work was essential to the American space effort...

But this being the 60s, these women were segregated away from the other scientists, meaning that their work was largely forgotten until the movie and book came out...

This got me thinking...are there any forgotten figures in music?...I’m talking about women who did awesome and important things but have largely been ignored by the traditional history of rock?...I’m talking about people beyond Deborah Harry, Janis Joplin, Stevie Nicks, Chrissie Hynde, and Courtney Love...

Well, yes...yes, there was...and we need to know about them...let’s do that now...

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Next Episode

The Story of Stereo: Part 1

Our ears are amazing things...evolution has created an ability that allows us to tell the direction of a sound...left and right, up and down, front and back...we can tell how close something might be, whether it’s stationary or moving, and if it’s coming towards us or going away...in other words, we hear sound in 3-d...very helpful for humans on the plains of Africa who had to be worried about being eaten by a lion...

This directionality also makes listen to music so enjoyable...the very same things that prevented us from being eaten allow us to appreciate music, whether it be live or recorded...

With a live performance, we’re in the same space as the musicians, so our ears and eyes work together when it comes to how we interpret what’s going on in front of us...we’re able to pick out all kinds of individual details...that includes the bad stuff like unwanted echo and reverb...and we’re always at the mercy of whoever is controlling and the mixing the audio for a gig...

But let’s focus recorded music...how do you create that illusion of sitting in front of a performer?...and I’m talking about the ability to close your eyes and visualize where everyone is onstage?...the singer out front...the guitarist slightly to your right...the keyboardist is slightly to your left...you can tell that the drummer is further back than everyone else, but parts of the kit are slightly spread out...and the bass player is in there somewhere, but doesn’t overwhelm the rest of the instruments...

For the last 60-plus years, technology has relied on a set of principles and techniques that allow recorded music to sound exponentially better that 99% of live performances—at least in terms of audio quality...listening to music this way is a totally immersive experience...

We call it “stereo”...and this is how this part of our musical lives came to be...it’s The Story of Stereo, Part 1

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