Revolver Entry

As we all know, The Beatles were one of the most successful acts in music history. Before the release of their album Revolver, The Beatles already had already had 5 successful albums under their belt as well as many top radio hits.  Those 5 albums were mainly pop influenced and written to fit the pop genre, this is what made them so famous in the first place and it's what helped them reach stardom. With The Beatles release of Revolver, they branched out into the world of psychedelic rock. This album was released during the time the band was experimenting with psychedelics and other drugs. Drugs were a big influence on this album, as well as conversations had during LSD trips helped influence and inspire songs on the album. The Beatles used the studio as an instrument by incorporating many different studio techniques in this album. They used techniques such as backwards guitar solos, megaphone vocals, and varispeed tape effects. They put many different effects on this album which helped them create their unique sounds. They basically used the studio as an instrument. The Beatles' Revolver used different innovations to help create unique sounds. One innovation that can be found was the invention and use of ADT which means automatic double tracking. This technique used two linked tape recorders to create a doubled vocal track. Another innovation found on this album was the unique process to give John Lennon a certain sound that he was looking for. The studio routed a signal from the recording console into the studios Leslie speaker which gave John Lennon the processed vocal he was looking for. I really enjoyed listening to this album. There are many catchy songs on this album that use crazy effects which really caught my attention as well as the many different instruments implemented on this album.

The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds entry

Pet Sounds is the 11th addition to the famous pop band's arsenal of albums. This album has been hailed as one of the most influential records ever released in pop music. Before The release of Pet Sounds the Beach Boys were known for their songs about cars, surfing, and romance. This is what got them popular and made them the most money at first. They have had many top hits prior to pet sounds with songs like "I Get Around" and "Surfin'." The songs that made them popular in the first place are about very superficial things in life and this is what makes pet sounds so special. It was their first move to writing more introspective songs with deeper meanings. Pet sounds was produced solely by Brian Wilson. Pet Sounds was basically Brian Wilsons baby. He wrote most of the music on this album and sang on many of the tracks. He implemented his own version of the wall of sound and used many different instruments and recording techniques such as recording the instrumental backing tracks for each song as a live ensemble performance direct onto a 4-track recorder. Wilson also used combinations of sounds that of multiple electric instruments and voices in an ensemble and combined them with echo and reverb to get unique sounds. One of the main influences to writing this album was The Beatles' Rubber Soul. Brian Wilson has many other influences as well such as Phil Specter himself,  The Four Freshman, and Chuck Berry. Some characteristics of Pet Sounds that stood out to me were the use of different recording techniques, the many different instruments used like the the theremin, and the use of introspective writing. I enjoyed the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds and i think that it is one of the most innovative and influential pop albums of all time. Before this class I had not listened to this album but now I know how influential it really was and how it pushed the beach boys into a new era. 

Welcome Entry

Hello, my name is Corey Downs and I'm attending the Recording Arts Bachelors degree program at Full Sail University. I am from a small town in Massachusetts called Uxbridge. I have been playing the drums for several years. I have many influences which include everything from death metal to dubstep. My primary focus in the music industry is to be successful in the game audio or post production industries.I am looking forward to the upcoming weeks in Music History 2. Thank you for visiting my blog.


-Corey Downs