Take a second and think about a piece of music you enjoy. Chances are there's some element of repetition in that music. The way that composers and musicians use patterns to fulfill and subvert your expectations as a listener is one of the key components of beauty in music.
So, what if somebody could write a piece of music with no patterns in it? Would that be the ugliest music ever written? That's what mathematician Scott Rickard tried to find out. But first, there was the problem of how to write pattern-free music.
That problem sent Rickard spiraling back through the history of mathematics, looking at innovations by 20-year-old number prodigies as well as U.S. Navy researchers trying to develop the perfect sonar ping.
Check out Rickard's TED talk for the full story — plus the premiere of his ugly, ugly piano composition: The Perfect Ping.
Find out more about the collision between music and science all week long: Science Week on CBC Music.
Our brains play all kinds of tricks on us when we listen to music, and cognitive psychologist Diana Deutsch has spent a fair portion of her career uncovering those tricks. One of the coolest ones is the "scale illusion," which shows how our brains rearrange the music we hear into the patterns that make the most sense to us.
Here's Deutsch demonstrating the illusion on an old episode of Nova. (Heads up: the audio is wonky. Scroll down further for another video that gives a better demonstration of how the illusion actually works.) The really cool bit comes at the end of the video, where an orchestra demonstrates how the illusion factors into Tchaikovsky's sixth symphony; at one point, you hear a melody that nobody's playing.
Quick note: Deutsch discovered the scale illusion in 1973. Tchaikovsky wrote it into his sixth symphony in 1893. Just saying.
Here's another video that demonstrates how the scale illusion works, in proper stereo. Headphones are an asset.
For more great science and music stories, check out our Science Week page.
Each week, staff from CBC Music, Radio 2, 3, Sonica, CBC Hamilton and Whitehorse collect songs they just can't get out of their heads, and make a case for why you should listen, too. Press play below and discover new songs for your listening list.
Let us know in the comments what catches your ear, or if you have new song suggestions.
Kaia Kater, 'Southern Girl'
You wouldn't necessarily think that one of the most groundbreaking performers in southern American music right now would be from Canada. That even though she plays the music of porch swings and tall pines, she's from the land of ketchup chips and, well, tall pines. Kaia Kater has made one of the most remarkable Canadian folk records in some time, playing the instrument she continues to study at the Appalachian studies program in Elkins, Va.: the old-time, clawhammer banjo. Kater's music is somehow ancient and brand new at the same time. — Tom Power, host of Radio 2 Morning
Coeur de pirate, 'Carry On'
Coeur de pirate, a.k.a. Béatrice Martin, released a brand new track last week on The Strombo Show, and with it we got a taste of her upcoming album's new direction. While she has garnered worldwide attention through her slower piano ballads, this track is definitely more pop than we're used to from Martin. But that's OK: with upbeat drums, synths and strings, it's the perfect mix along with her beautiful, trademark vocals. Martin also does something I'm surprised more artists don't do: she's released the same track in French, something her Québécois and French (France) fans will appreciate, especially as she continues to have greater success in the English markets. Vous pouvez trouver la version française ici.— Matthew Fisher, producer of CBC Music: Sonica
Joey O'Neil came to the Yukon to escape the big city. She's living and working in Dawson City, the site of the Klondike Gold Rush and a booming arts scene. This song reminds me of Steph Cameron's terrific debut record from last year. There's just so much honesty in the lyrics and the performance, it's hard not to get carried along. My only complaint: at two minutes, I wish the tune was longer. — Dave White, CBC Whitehorse
The shape-shifting R&B singer Janelle Monae recently dropped this summer jam. Thanks to this song, there's a new way to make your booty shake. As Monae puts it: "Baby bend over, let your booty do the yoga." And before you think she's taking herself too seriously, she drops a subtle delivery of the word "flex" in the post-chorus breakdown, ensuring you will never hear that word the same way in future yoga classes. There's so much to love in this song, from the club beat, to the lyrics, to the sleek dancing in the video, to Monae's demand for you to "get off my areola." Flex, indeed. It was recently added to CBC Music's R&B/Soul stream, which you can listen to here.— Jeanette Cabral
Lee Reed, 'Bad Gas'
Hamilton’s resident hip-hop curmudgeon Lee Reed is back with this new track that actually isn't about bloating, despite what the title says. He refers to himself as Canada’s "oldest and grumpiest radical-lefty loudmouth" — and though the man might be grumpy, he knows his way around a microphone. Reed just put out a new record, and it’s full of intensely socially aware hip-hop. It’s the sort of music that only comes from an MC with real lived experience and an ear for social justice. — Adam Carter, CBC Hamilton
Manatee Commune, 'Wake'
Manatee Commune is Seattle violinist and producer Grant Eadie. This video for his song "Wake" was his submission to the recent Tiny Desk contest put on by our southern public radio kinsfolk at NPR. The track is full of surprise, as is the video — a compelling, winning collision of electronic and classical and the great outdoors. Check out an interview with Eadie here, and if you want more from the multi-instrumentalist, here's a complete performance at KEXP. — Brad Frenette
You can't help but love this song the second it kicks in with that sunny rhythm section and dreamy vocals from Alanna Gurr's perfectly retro sound. The Enchantment Under the Sea dance would have ended in a much less awkward and much more dance-y fashion if Marty McFly had this tune lined up. No offence to Chuck, or Johnny B. Goode. — Kerry Martin, associate producer for Searchlight
From Dawes's upcoming album, All Your Favorite Bands, "Things Happen" is a stripped-down alt-country anthem with a haunting guitar sound and minimalist drum fill breakdown. It sounds like they nailed it in one take. — Dave Shumka
Melissa Lynn, 'Play it Cool' (Searchlight contestant)
Some slick country from Searchlight contestant Melissa Lynn. Definitely one to watch for on festival stages this summer. — Mike Miner
I’ve never been so happy to hear such a sad song. The voice of this Belgian songwriter is full of soul and wrought with angst, reminding me of a young Rudy Huxtable wailing earnestly to Ray Charles. The instrumentation dips between jazz and reggae, providing a funky and danceable backdrop to the powerful and punching vocals. "Sadness" appears on her latest release, Reason. — Joan Chung
Florence and the Machine, 'Ship to Wreck'
Another week, another Flo video — never a complaint, to be clear. There’s so much growing tension in these new Florence and the Machine releases that I’m carrying around some general malaise, but this song is first and foremost a jam. A Florence Welch jam is never without strings, though: "Did I drink too much? Am I losing touch? Did I build a ship to wreck?" Dance with abandon first, question your life second. — Holly Gordon
Ivory Hours, 'I Won't' (Searchlight contestant)
This peppy jam has taken the power of London, England's trademark indie music sound on a transatlantic flight and landed it in London, Ont. — in the hands of Ivory Hours. This Searchlight entry is a standout in any playlist. Take it for a test drive, try it on for size and make sure you're ready to have this earworm of a tune accompany you through the summer months. — KM
I'm not gonna lie, I have no clue what this song is about because I can't understand Spanish. But I dig its vibe and its slow descent into a PBR&B song. The sound of Audri Nix rapping is music to my ears — literally. The track is a remixed version of L.A. duo 18+'s 2014 track, "Crow." — Nicolle Weeks
Gina Loes, 'Pretend' (Searchlight contestant)
Some dreamy folk-pop from the West Coast, with ukulele and a splash of horns to make sure you wake up smiling. A nice Searchlight find. — MM
St. Vincent first debuted this song a month ago, as its synthy, calming effect crept up over the end credits of the third-last Girls episode of the season. The track is soaked in nostalgia ("You know I never loved you more/ than when we were hiding from those sirens, sirens./ Oh, we laughed so hard/ threw up in your mom’s azaleas"), but St. Vincent also sings knowingly on how we fancifully look at our past ("That's just teenage talk, I don't think the past is better, better. Just ’cause it's cased in glass, protecting us from our now and later"). She performed it on The Tonight Show last week, adding the perfect layer: teen backup dancers doing subtle choreography while dressed in puffy silver coats. You’re going to have to watch the video a few times to appreciate all the robotic wonder — and learn the dance. — HG
AsapSCIENCE is the name of a hit YouTube channel started by two very bright and funny Canadian science enthusiasts, Mitchell Moffit and Gregory Brown. Their videos, which look at things like the age of your ears, that dress everyone was talking about and, well, their love for science, have views in the multi-millions, but they have yet to sit down in our jam booth to play Jam or Not a Jam. Until now. Check out the results below.
Like that? Watch more videos with artists like Hey Rosetta!, Ghostface Killah, Whitehorse and more in our Games with Bands series.
Jack Diamond is blunt about the science of things. The South African-born Canadian architect has been practising since 1968, completing projects such as the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto, la Maison symphonique de Montreal, the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the new Mariinsky II Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. He’s currently working on the Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts in Lubbock, Texas.
While Diamond is clear that it isn’t all smoke and mirrors (though, architecturally, he may use mirrors), he doesn’t deny the magical quality of music itself.
"Music ... is a love," he admits. "Next to architecture it’s probably the next field and area that I love and find absolutely inspiring ... and whether it’s pop or classical, whatever it is, I think music really does affect one’s emotions."
It’s no coincidence that Diamond’s thesis for his bachelor degree was a concert hall in acoustics. His thesis supervisor was, as Diamond puts it, "one of the great acousticians": Philip Hope Bagenal, who worked on the Sydney Opera House, New York’s Lincoln Centre and the refurbishment of the Royal Albert Hall. The marriage of architecture and music is a crucial union for Diamond.
For CBC Music’s Science Week, we asked Diamond to give us Acoustics 101: the science of sound in concert halls. Want to know how to get a 10 out of 10 on your concert hall architecture? Keep reading.
On the physics of sound
"Physics of sound obeys very varied, specific phenomena. Sound travels a bit like light in the sense that the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection. So you can measure where the sound goes. There are lots of ways that one can really understand how sound travels.
"The problem I think often is, in romantic architects who have a predilection for a certain shape: [they] say here's the shape in a kind of preconception of some form or other, and say to the acoustician: 'Now fix it.' [They] are going to get a six out of 10.
"But if you start with the physics of sound, you'll get an eight or nine out of 10, and then you can tune the hall with some minor adjustments. So it isn't magic at all. People think of acoustics as some kind of a black box. It's not."
On designing for sound before shape
"If you can see well, you can begin to hear well. What it means is that you're going to be getting direct sound, not interfered by anything. That's number one. It’s not the only thing, but it's a beginning.
"In fact an acoustician I know has said that you see with your ears and you hear with your eyes, as well. So you need both. That's a start.
"You also need a quiet room. So you’ve got to really exclude sound or noise … so the quieter the hall, the better it sounds. The more nuances that you can perceive."
On the actual physics of it all
"You need to refract low-, medium- and high-frequency sounds. All of them. The full range of sounds. And you need to refract them and blend them so that you get what some acousticians call 'bloom' — there's a wonderful quality to the sound, and it comes through this blend.
"Low, medium and high frequencies are refracted by different surfaces. High frequency is refracted by very finely modulated — like a ground glass or a sandpaper. Medium frequencies are reflected by rather bigger moves like a balcony front. And the low frequency are much much bigger moves, really large shapes will reflect that sound.
"But the most interesting thing is, if you can get ... in addition to the quality of sound, there's the density or the quantity of sound you get, and what you want is the last seat in the theatre and the first seat in the theatre, closest the stage, if it’s at all possible, to have the same density of sound."
On the stage as a 'megaphone'
"Now we all know that sound decays as it moves away from its source, gets fainter and fainter. So you need to reinforce it. So not only do you need to get direct sound, but you need to get reflected sound, so the early reflections that come from a singer or an instrument and the direct sound … by the angle of the surface, just like a megaphone, you can direct the sound up into the balconies.
"So you're trying to accomplish a nice blend."
On reverberation, a.k.a. why you can’t have a hall for both choral and chamber music
"The other aspect of this is ... reverberation: it's how long the sound is in the air. Now, you will get, if you go into a recording room, it sounds quite dead. It's because the reverberation time is extremely short. All the walls have absorbent materials to suck up the sound. The sound loses its energy in all the tiny, tiny apertures in cloth or woven fabrics and so forth because speech intelligibility comes from a short reverberation time.
"That works for both chamber music and speech, because chamber music was originally designed to be in a chamber, usually a palace or a castle or something, which had tapestries on the walls, carpets, cushions, furniture. Those all absorb sound, and so the reverberation time is quite short. Symphony music is a medium reverberation time.
"And then choral music or organ music has a very long reverberation time ... so the short reverberation time is under one second. The medium is anywhere between about 1.2 or 1.3 seconds to about two. And then longer reverberation times are those above two, 2.5, three and in some cathedrals four. In fact, I think Salisbury Cathedral is something like 16, I mean it's like an echo hanging in the air.
"I'm a firm believer that you design the hall for the purpose and you make it work for that purpose. And you talk about the limitations, you know. You wouldn’t design a hall for long, choral organ music and chamber music. It can't be done. And it's no good pretending it can be."
Really, it’s not magic
"You can think about it this way: if you throw a ball against a curtain, ball probably falls flat. Throw it against a concrete wall, and the ball will bounce back. The thing is that the curtain has absorbed the energy of the ball. The concrete wall makes no movement at all, so the energy in throwing the ball is contained in the bounce back.
"You don't want the sound bouncing back from the back wall, is an example. That would interfere with sound coming to you. So you often make that rear wall an absorbent one. Around about the stage, near where the performers are, your very, very rigid surfaces, which will be sure to reflect the sound out into the hall. It's really the principle of a megaphone: it concentrates the sound and directs it."
On getting a 10/10
"The aesthetic [of a hall] is really driven by the acoustic. Now, of course you can do it in different ways. In the classical halls, all the decoration, you know, the mouldings of angels or grapes ... and so on as you found in baroque halls, those surfaces are actually doing a job. They were really acoustically important for that medium range, and so it can be done stylistically differently, but the principle of moulding the surface to get the right refraction is a way that leads you to the aesthetic.
"It’s a bit like a sculptor with a block of stone. You first block it out. Then you chip away and then you polish. So we've blocked out the shape of the [Buddy Holly Hall] to accommodate the 2,200 seats that will suit that range of functions we know. We will now begin to design the details of the materials. The detail shapes of the wall and it’s texture. That’s next.
"I think the most enduring aesthetics come from a principle that I have and that is that you make a virtue of a necessity. That creates authenticity and very enduring design."
The 11th Glenn Gould Prize laureate has just been announced, and the prestigious honour goes to renowned minimalist composer Philip Glass.
The prolific American composer is considered one of the most important and influential creators in modern music.
The genre-bending artist challenged convention in the '60s and '70s with his Eastern-inspired approach, and has broken barriers between art forms, collaborating with pop stars, choreographers and poets, among them Allen Ginsberg, Woody Allen and David Bowie.
He has also written music for experimental theatre and for Academy Award-winning films including The Hours and Martin Scorsese’s Kundun.
He has written over 20 operas, and in 2012 he revived his first-ever opera work, Einstein on the Beach.
Along the way, Glass has won a wide, multi-generational audience that straddles opera, dance, pop, film and more, and his name has become one of the most recognizable in contemporary music.
The prestigious Glenn Gould Prize is given out every second year to recognize a person’s lifetime contribution to the arts.
Among this year's jurors were legendary British singer Petula Clark, Toronto actress and director Sarah Polley and award-winning Canadian novelist Michael Ondaatje. The jury was chaired by Canadian music producer Bob Ezrin.
Others jurors included former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, Grammy nominee Wu Man and American soprano Deborah Voigt.
The winner receives a cash prize of $100,000 as well as a statue by Canadian sculptor Ruth Abernethy.
The 2013 winner was famed Quebec theatre director and filmmaker Robert LePage. Other past winners include Yo-Yo Ma, Oscar Peterson and Leonard Cohen.
Sledge is best known for the classic song "When a Man Loves a Woman," one of the most beloved and enduring soul songs in history. The 1966 recording made him famous and also helped make Muscle Shoals, Alabama an unlikely pop music capital.
While he wrote the song with help from Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright, he handed them all the writing credit.
Sledge followed up his early success with a string of pop and R&B hits, including "Warm and Tender Love," "It Tears Me Up," "Out of Left Field" and "Take Time to Know Her," which reached number 11 in the U.S.
His recording career slowed in the mid-'70s, but he continued touring and working in music, and in 2005 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Listen to "When a Man Loves a Woman" and five other Sledge classics you may not know below.
There's so much music and yet so little time to listen to it, which means you barely have enough time to find it. Let us help you with this little roundup of some of the albums that you can stream online this week.
"The band describe their sound as 'melodic symphonic prophetic alternative indie rock music,' and though it may be a mouthful to say, it's certainly easier to listen to."
Artist: The Alchemist and Oh No Album:Welcome To Los Santos Where:NPR Music
"Welcome To Los Santos is a collection of new songs created by hip-hop producers The Alchemist and Oh No and inspired by the 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V — Los Santos being the fictional setting of the gangster-fantasy adventure."
Artist: Squarepusher Album:Damogen Furies Where:NPR Music
"Damogen Furies, the latest in a list of albums dating back to 1996, finds Squarepusher at his most bombastic and intense, with enough bludgeoning beats and epic sonic seizures to take on the heaviest EDM upstarts of the world."
Artist: Sam Roberts Band Album:Counting The Days Where:CBC Music
"Counting the Days incorporates everything we love about EPs. Its ambitious and experimental, but more importantly, it sounds like a band having fun."
From the 3,333 bands that entered Searchlight, 545 talented acts have moved on to the regional semi-finals.
Now it's up to fans to decide the regional finalists. Voting continues until 3 p.m. ET on Monday, April 20 to decide the top 10 from each region (except Iqaluit, which will advance five finalists). On Tuesday, April 21 the finalists will be revealed, and be one step from making the national round judged by Dan Boeckner, Jenn Grant and Saukrates. Now things really start speeding up.
As you help your favourite bands move closer to being named Canada's best new artist, don't forget that by voting you can win prizes from Yamaha Canada Music.
Fact: cool scientists and science types also listen to super cool music. Want proof?
We've got it. In honour of CBC Music's Science Week, we asked famous scientists and science-lovers to tell us about their favourite songs.
Below, you'll find fascinating and fabulously diverse playlists from a Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist, an MIT theoretical physicist, as well as the hosts of It's Okay to Be Smart, AsapSCIENCE and the Brain Scoop, with music ranging from Bjork and Flying Lotus and Kendrick Lamar to Celine Dion, Bob Dylan and Super Junior D&E.
Dr. Amy Mainzer is a scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, whose main research interests include asteroids, comets, brown dwarfs, planetary atmospheres as well as design and construction of novel instrumentation for ground and space.
1. Holst, Mars, from The Planets
"I loved this song from the minute I first heard it in my youth orchestra. This foreboding music embodies the hostility of outer space and the challenges that face those who seek to explore it."
2. Boomtown Rats, “Up All Night”
"I'm an astronomer, and staying up all night observing the sky goes with the territory. Even though I mostly use space telescopes that take data round-the-clock, I still use ground-based observatories sometimes that require some all nighters. This song always makes me smile when I play it at four in the morning."
3. Steppenwolf, “Magic Carpet Ride”
"Because you can't be a scientist without being a bit of a dreamer."
4. George Clinton and the Muppets, “Flashlight/Spaceflight”
"This song has George Clinton singing about spaceflight with the Muppets. All three of these are things I really like. It's from the soundtrack to the movie Muppets From Space."
5. Jonzun Crew, “Space Cowboy”
"This song tells the epic tale of a space cowboy who was one one hell of a man."
6. Zapp & Roger, “More Bounce to the Ounce”
"I love roller skating, in particular dancing on skates with a small but dedicated group of people for whom roller disco never died. This is a classic skate song, and scientifically, I appreciate the authors' work to quantify the precise amount of bounce they can achieve per ounce."
7. Tweet, “Boogie 2Nite”
"They played this song at a roller rink in the heart of Los Angeles called World on Wheels. People all over the city came there to skate. We're all crossing our fingers that World on Wheels will reopen soon."
8. Air, “Kelly Watch the Stars” (Moog Cookbook remix)
"No matter whether my experiments are working or not, hearing this Moog Cookbook remix of a song by the French band Air reminds me to keep looking up."
Canadians Mitch Moffit and Greg Brown host the wildly popular YouTube channel offering up weekly doses of weird and fascinating science facts and information and are co-authors of the book AsapSCIENCE: Answers to the world’s weirdest questions, most persistent rumours, and unexplained phenomena.
1. Bjork, “Mutual Core”
"It’s an amazing dance song, but it’s also about science and it’s off of her amazing album which is also an interactive, scientific app. She’s an inspiration for us because she creates science and artistic content."
2. Sigur Ros, “Hoppipolla”
"Anything by Sigur Ros is amazing because it makes nature and the world around you so much more beautiful and the natural world stands out anytime I’m listening to Sigur Ros."
3. Kanye West, “Hold My Liquor”
"It’s off the Yeezus album, which is an amazing album, but also because it’s about alcohol and that’s something we talk about a lot in our videos: how alcohol affects your body and your brain."
4. Robyn, “Time Machine”
"Time machines are about science. When will science finally invent a time machine? Or space travel? It’s danceable and danceable has to do with science, because it’s all about a human mating call."
5. Celine Dion, “The Power of Love”
"A, it’s the best song ever made. B, it’s about the science of love, which we talk about a lot and it’s a really interesting thing. She puts it into words in a way that can unanimously unite the world."
Dr. Joe Hanson is a biologist and science writer based in Austin, TX. He’s the creator/host/writer of PBS Digital Studios' It’s Okay to Be Smart.
1. Sufjan Stevens, “Carrie & Lowell”
"I'm a sucker for storytelling songwriters, and this is a simply stunning album. It's definitely heavy, kind of sad in parts, but the songs are so good that I find myself oddly enjoying the experience."
2. Public Service Broadcasting, The Race For Space
"I spend a lot of time reading about science, thinking of Big Questions and getting my Carl Sagan on, and I listen to ambient, spacey music while I'm doing that. Brian Eno's "Apollo" used to be my go-to, but this new album from PSB combines actual news recordings from the 20th century space race. I love it, I feel like this album was made for exactly my kind of nerd."
3. Best Coast, "California Nights"
"I grew up listening to a ton of Beach Boys, so I love lo-fi pop and surf rock. Bands like Best Coast, Wavves, Beach House, and Surfer Blood are always in my rotation. Looking forward to the upcoming Best Coast album mainly because of this song, it sounds like they're moving a little darker and more dreamy, which happens to all of us as we get older."
4. Shakey Graves, "If Not For You"
"I live in Austin, TX and as such I completely love blues guitar players. Shakey Graves is a local artist making a big splash. his resonator slide guitar and vocals are a little gritty and dirty, but super-precise and intricate. I like that."
5. Leon Bridges, "Coming Home"
"I feel like Sam Cooke or Otis Redding stepped into a time machine and Leon Bridges came out. Retro and romantic in the best way, like a wholesome version of Mad Men."
Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is a theoretical physicist specializing in cosmology, the study of the origin and evolution of the universe. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and she almost always has a pair of noise-cancelling headphones on or within reach because she listens to music whenever possible.
1. Janelle Monae, “Sally Ride”
"Sally Ride is remembered as a national hero and a barrier breaker, but she this country's love for her did not include honoring her romantic and sexual attraction to women. I think Janelle Monae gorgeously captures the heroism and the agony associated with that kind of life, and as a Black queer woman in physics, I really identified with the storytelling."
2. David Bowie, “Sue (Or In A Season of Crime)”
"I'm not sure how widely known it is that David Bowie started out as Davie Jones, jazz saxophonist. I really love that this track arrived 50 years after those beginnings and returns to jazz while also recalling everything that has happened in between."
3. Vijay Iyer Trio, “Break Stuff”
"One of my favorite things about Vijay, Marcus Gilmore and Stephan Crump is how beautifully they work together during live shows, and I think this piece captures how that sounds. Each voice is loud and clear but not in a hyperindividualistic way."
4. Angel Haze & Sia, “Battle Cry”
"Angel Haze is not just an incredibly talented rapper, they* are also an inspiring and brutally honest lyricist. This song is for when I need to go to Church."
*Angel Haze is agender and prefers third person pronouns
5. G-Dragon (of BIGBANG), “A Boy”
"The K-pop training system is incredibly rigorous, and G-Dragon has spent almost his entire life training to be a success. This song honors the blood, sweat and tears and recognizes that success comes on the back of surviving difficult moments."
6. Jung Seung Hwan, “Those Days”
"Jung Seung-Hwan is a contestant on the Korean music competition show K-Pop Star 4, and he has such a phenomenal voice that I've already got him on repeat. In Korea, the ballad is taken very seriously, and Jung Seung-Hwan took a risk reinterpreting Kim Kwang-Seok's classic, but I think he really does it justice."
7. Super Junior-D&E, “Can You Feel It?”
"Super Junior is one of the biggest boy bands on the planet, and this track from their sub-unit of singer Donghae and rapper Eunhyuk is my favorite release of 2015 so far. It comes complete with the Chok Chok dance which is a lot of fun, and yes, I've made my own dance video to go with it and posted it to Facebook."
8. ALi, “I'll Be Damned”
"ALi sings not only with great emotion but also one of the best voices in the K-pop business. I think she's underappreciated, which is unfortunate. This song about heartbreak is devastating and beautiful, and even though I don't really speak Korean, I know most of the words because it's probably my favorite ballad of all time."
"In the music video for this song, the spirits of two beautiful Black children are dancing and playing the day away while their bodies are laid to rest. The song was first shared with me on a particularly difficult day when the #BlackLivesMatter movement was just taking off."
10. BIGBANG, “Fantastic Baby”
"It is a total coincidence that my favorite musical group on the planet also happens to be named after a cosmological phenomenon. K-pop has emerged as a highly visual musical community, and this song is really half of a performance art piece that is completed in the music video by BIGBANG leader G-Dragon and the rest of the group."
Emily Graslie is the Chief Curiosity Correspondent of The Field Museum in Chicago and host of the Brain Scoop.
1. Rob Cantor, “Shia LaBeouf”
"I know I'm a little late to the game here, but words cannot describe the ingenuity, humor, and entertainment of this song. I'm perpetually amused about the amount of time and talent poured into such a ridiculous song."
2. Andrew Bird, “Naming of Things”
"I've been an AB fan since I was in high school, and this was one of the first songs of his I ever heard. Even before I knew about the study of taxonomy in the context of natural history, I loved the concept of someone having an authority of what we call or name things."
3. Houndmouth, “Sedona”
"This song has a sort of Beach Boys singy-songy charm that's nostalgic and sad and powerful. It makes me think about that awkward internal transition between youthful stubbornness and resigning one's self over to a less glamorous form of adulthood, and being pretty grumpy about it."
4. Justin Power and the Portland Cello Project, “Seeds May Fall”
"The music video for this song on YouTube was shot in western Montana, an area I lived and loved for seven years, but it's really the cello melody and no-frills recording of 'Seeds May Fall' that takes me back to basement recitals and folk shows from my art school days."
5. Motion City Soundtrack, “The Future Freaks me Out”
"If we go deeper into Emily Nostalgia Land you'll come across Motion City Soundtrack and how this song was the anthem for my life, except now I'm freaked out about the future of habitat loss and species extinctions, not just the SATs or college admissions processes, so the song endures."
6. Bob Dylan, “Don't Think Twice, It’s Alright”
"As a follow up to the previous existential freak-out songs."
7. Ray LaMontagne, “You Are the Best Thing”
"Ray LaMontagne does amazing things with his voice and jazzy rocky instruments but the best thing about this song is that it's the perfect embodiment of what it's like to be stupid in love with someone else."
8. Guster, “Amsterdam”
"Guster is the band of choice to accompany my sister Serri and me driving through the Black Hills of South Dakota as angsty teenagers, screaming lyrics out the sunroof -- now I save their songs for good days."
Love that? Try this! Searchlight recommendations playlist Tracklist
Thousands of Searchlight entries sounds pretty cool, until one realizes that also means thousands of new bands and new music and weeks of listening and you're already freaking out about where to start, right?
We can help.
Just like last year, we've listened to a lot of music in the last few weeks and couldn't help but think, "Wow, this band could be the next ________," or, "I adore Feist. This person sounds like a kindred!"
So think of us as your personal Searchlight recommendation engine. In the gallery above we've selected some of your favourite bands and musicians and paired them up with their Searchlight counterparts. There's also a handy playlist at the top of this post so you can listen to all the Searchlight songs as you go through the gallery.
Follow Andrea Warner on Twitter: @_AndreaWarner
Today, when we think of musical technology, we picture Spotify, smartphones and dubious Neil Young-endorsed luxury products. But the notion of technology being "what's new" obscures the fact that all music is produced with the aid of technology.
I mean, sure, humans come with a built-in musical instrument: a voice. But anything else we use for musical purposes is tech: violins, tuning forks, printing presses. We have generations of science to thank for the fact that we can go to a concert and hear 300-year-old music.
Granted, many of the innovations on this list aren't as concerned with science-y science as they are with adjacent disciplines like engineering, architecture and even alchemy. Let’s just think of it as an opportunity to celebrate the great musical advances that weren't made by artsy-fartsy composers.
Open the gallery above for 11 technological tales. Also, check out the rest of CBC Music's Science Week posts for more on the collision between music and science.
Remember when the concept album was something you (or your parents) used to listen to in the '70s? You know, the kind of album reserved for late night basement listening sessions that demanded you sit down and listen to the whole thing?
In case you're not familiar, a concept album contains songs which are written around one central theme or storyline, usually involving an epic love affair, a parallel universe or a space colony in the future. A great concept album has an overall coherency that makes the listener feel like they've been taken on a journey.
Today, we are celebrating the much beloved (and sometimes maligned) format, so, put on your bell bottoms, let your hair down and get into the groove. Check out our top eight in the gallery above.
What are your favourite Canadian concept albums of all time? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @cbcradio3.
Each day, Rich Terfry and Radio 2 Drive wraps up your day with music and stories about the interesting things going on in the world. Here are the stories we're talking about today.
Rich's Pick:
"The Champ" by The Mohawks
Junk In The Trunk:
The greatest ping pong shot ever
A treat for a raccoon
Rear-View Mirror:
Every week, Rich Terfry looks back in our Rear-view Mirror at a great song from the good ol’ days. This week Wanda Jackson and her track "Hard Headed Woman".
Guy Few grew up in Saskatoon, loving music. He began piano lessons at the age of four, and took up the trumpet when he was eight. At the age of 11 he played the Hummel Trumpet Concerto with the local band, and if that wasn't quite enough music, he also studied singing.
In his recitals with bassoonist Nadina Mackie Jackson, Guy Few engages in all of that: trumpet, piano and singing. Their collaboration has resulted in new works for the evocative combination of trumpet and bassoon, and their CD Bacchanale won the international Just Plain Folks Music Award in 2009.
Guy Few is in demand as a soloist with orchestras, and he plays chamber music in festivals throughout North America. As principal trumpet of the Oregon Bach Festival, Few performed music by Krzysztof Penderecki on their Grammy-winning CD Credo.
In 1990, in the midst of his blossoming career, Guy Few suffered a grand mal seizure. During brain surgery he lost a big chunk of his language ability and fine motor skills. With painstaking determination he eventually regained his health, using Glenn Gould's recording of the Goldberg Variations as a tool. He also recovered from a second round of seizures eight years later, and as host of This Is My Music he describes his experience.
Guy Few hosts This Is My Music on Saturday, Apr. 18 on CBC Radio 2, 10:00 a.m. (11:00 a.m. AT/11:30 a.m. NL).
Each Saturday morning, This Is My Music is hosted by one of Canada's foremost international classical artists. The host selects a program of mainly classical music and presents it in a lively, engaging manner enriched with personal anecdotes and insights.
Upcoming This Is My Music shows:
April 25: Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra double bassist, Alison MacKay
The San Antonio Spurs are getting ready for another run at an NBA title in the most traditional way possible: making a music video.
This one - featuring the team's Matt Bonner, Patty Mills, Aron Baynes, Kawhi Leonard and the team's mascot, the Coyote – is an homage to the classic video "Sports!" by comedy duoTim and Eric.
As one colleague just enthused: "It's no Super Bowl Shuffle, but it's pretty good!"
On May 12, Leonard Cohen will release his third album since last September. Titled Can’t Forget: A Souvenir of the Grand Tour (you can pre-order it here), the album consists of 10 songs recorded during various soundchecks on his recent Old Ideas world tour.
CBC Music is pleased to debut a track from the album, a reimagined version of the Cohen classic "Joan of Arc." The song was recorded during the Bard of Montreal's stop in Quebec City on the tour, and features the vocal work of his longtime backup singer, Hattie Webb.
Can the Terminator shred? I hope not. Can the Canadarm play the banjo? That would be an incredible misuse of resources. Since the dawn of Kraftwerk, people have wondered what it would sound like if robots made music.
Thanks to recent advances in robotics, we now have an idea. And since it's Science Week at CBC Music, we've assembled the most amazing examples of robots singing, playing instruments and even composing music.
From the super cool to the super creepy, check out 10 musical robots in the gallery above.
And for more great science and music stories, check out our Science Week page all week, because we'll be adding new stories every day.
The jump between round one and two is the deepest cut of the competition. We went from over 3,300 artists in round one, to just 545 artists remaining in round two.
The Top 25 in each region of the country has been announced, and in just a week, we'll cut that down to the top ten in each region as we march towards the national round, so keep voting for your favourites! Congratulations to all who made it through!
Hover and click on the image above to check out my second-round standout picks, and let me know your thoughts in the comments section below or tweet us @CBCMusic with the hashtag #Searchlight!
One Searchlight artist is going to be crowned the winner, a.k.a. the best new artist in Canada, in May, winning $20,000 in new music equipment and a slot at the CBCMusic.ca Festival in Toronto, among other prizes.
