MAM Day 18: Pop music & judging

Although the link between math and pop music isn't as theoretical or mathematical, today's topic: pop music and the rise of talent shows on TV is much more exciting to write about.

My original interest in pop music isn't just my bad taste in music, it was the Billboard charts and other top charts that we hear so much about when we flip on music TV channels or the radio. I used to watch MTV for the top 10 music videos of the week or whatnot, and then I thought more critically about what it means to be the top song, album, or music video.


Certainly no stranger to the top charts
The Billboard top charts are created by statistical amalgamation album sales, singles sales, digital music sales, and radio requests and plays. Billboard compiles the music data of the US regularly and puts out top charts which then often influence how and what types of music people will buy and what is defined as "popular music." Itunes also uses the statistics on popular downloads to influence what types of music are displayed in their download sections. I clicked on an artist and found that Billboard tracks much much more data on songs than I previously thought. The Billboard site also tracks a song's position from week to week.

It's important to remember that popular music or top chart music records trends in music popularity and what types of music is being consumed by the public. A look through top songs or albums reveals very interesting trends in American music taste. What I would love to see are the age and gender demographics on top chart songs and albums. I have a feeling that younger generations of music fans are driving the pop music statistics and popularity, but without age demographics, we have to believe that certain songs are the most "popular" songs at this moment in American history.


Pie chart of 2008's top songs by genre
My other big topic for today is the rise of talent judging TV shows that started with American Idol in 2002. Since American Idol became big, other very similar shows have popped up: Dancing with the Stars, America's Best Dance Crew, America's Got Talent, and So You Think You Can Dance. Interesting side note, many of these shows are spinoffs from British TV.

My roommate and I started watching Dancing with the Stars this year and I got hooked. For some reason celebrities learning how to ballroom dance intrigued me in a way the other shows didn't.

However, recent weeks on this season of DwtS left my roommate and I incredibly outraged (why we were so emotionally invested is another issue) at the judging and results. For DwtS, and many similar shows, the scoring is half from professional judges that evaluate weekly nationally televised performances and half from American votes for their favorite stars or performances. In lots of ways, we're troubled to see that it's all a popularity contest - more popular celebrities often don't get eliminated even if they had good performances.


One of these stars is not my favorite
However, I feel that the professional judges' evaluations have a significant effect on what the American public thinks of a performance. There have been so many times after a performance that I think "That was a great performance!" but then the judges tear them down and say terrible things sometimes. Simon's comments on a performance have influence whether or not people vote in the following days.

I also have a big issue with America's Got Talent and the judging of a variety of performances. How do you judge a singing talent versus a dancing crew. How does a dance crew's judging differ from a more classical piece? It's a tough call and after my research, I don't think I found an answer. I don't watch America's Got Talent very much anyways.


Professional judges at work
So I looked up how to actually judge a singing performance or a ballroom dance. It's quite technical and really up to a professional to be judging an individual's performance.
A general list of criteria for a singing competition.
How to judge American Idol performances
Ballroom dancing judging criteria

It really does take a professional who has retired and knows his/her stuff to be able to spot all the minute details of a performance. While these talent shows on US TV aren't as critical as Olympic judging or real untelevised competitions, the judging relies on mathematical ordering of performance. On DwtS, stars and their professional dancing partners are given numerical quantities for their performance and then ranked by scores.


Hey wait, I can hold up 10s too...

I would be surprised to hear that the competitions aren't rigged, I have a feeling certain stars or contestants survive from week to week not based on their performance or the voting records, but rather on what kinds of TV ratings they can get if they keep the drama levels high...but that's neither math related or relevant to what's actually happening in my shows. Oh well, maybe next time.



.

MAM Day 17: Music and Math

In trying to do a blog post on music and math, I very quickly got bogged down with very technical music knowledge that I don't have. Although it's incredible how linked music and math are, I don't have enough music theory under my belt to speak very intelligently about it. I hope you will understand if I explain just what I do know about the links between music and math.

As a child, my mother signed me up for after school math lessons from the nearby orchestra teacher. This is where I would meet some of my closest grade school friends and learn how to read and play violin for a few years.
Although I didn't stick through with violin, I later went on to dabble in piano and guitar. I also played taiko drums in college with Icho Daiko. I also enjoy whistling quite a bit, but that's the limit of my musical experience. I didn't study enough music to learn about music theory or anything more complex than learning how to read music.

Some basics:

• Music is made up of sound.
  
• Sound is made from repeating sound waves.
  
• The musical pitch of each note has a corresponding frequency measured physically in hz (hertz) or cycles per second.
  
• Check out this site if you don't know or recognize the terms pitch, frequency, or sound wavelength
  
• More explanation on wave patterns and note frequency ratios

Since thinking about frequency and wave patterns hertz my brain, we can talk about something much easier to grasp that is the fundamental background of music, rhythm - my favorite. Rhythm measures time in music, and time signatures tell musicians what speed they will be playing. Review this great introductory math and music site for children and non-musician math enthusiasts (like myself) if you're completely lost on these terms.


A different type of connection between math and music
If you've ever gotten a peek at sheet music, you'll notice the music is divided into "measures" that follow the "time signature." Time signature tells you what music unit to be playing, and how many music units make up a measure.

Musical pieces in 4/4 have four quarter notes to a measure, pieces in 3/4 have three quarter notes to a measure. Other time signatures include but aren't limited to: 2/2, 6/8, 3/8, 9/8, and 12/8. The difference in time signature typically changes the way a musical piece sounds.

Notes also have a certain math to them, whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, and sixteenth notes are the basic notes. They're all fractions! To add to the confusion, notes can also be dotted notes, or one and a half notes. Even rests or pauses in the flow of music are measured in musical time.


There's plenty more topics to talk about in terms of math and music, but I'm not an expert in either so I'll just leave you with these links below. Math patterns in great musical pieces, the math involved in making musical instruments, tuning, how math makes pieces sound good or bad, and lots of music theory are all at the intersection of math and music.

---

Great introductory math and music site for children and non-musician math enthusiasts (like myself)

Make your own musical and mathematical instruments! I particularly liked the water xylophones. I had never thought of something so simple as water in glasses or glass bottles as being mathematical, but it weighs heavily on volume and getting the right pitch for a scale.

The math behind making musical instruments

An elementary lesson plan involving beats, measures, meter, and time signature.

More lesson plans on music and math

This email Q&A answers the question Why are harps shaped like they are?

More math and music connections. Some of these are very music theory heavy, but great resources for musicians who are interested in the connections between math and music.



.