Mark Applebaum : The Mad Scientist of Music

         For this entry in my blog I decided to take a different route. As a musician and artist I often find my self bored out of my mind with music. I get bored with Hip-Hop, Dance, House, R&B, Latin, Salsa,Merengue, Reggaeton, Mambo, Classical etc. Pretty much any genre that I listen to, I often get tired of and then fall in love with it again. I get tired of trying to compose music and find new sounds or ideas but there is always a solution to every problem even if it doesn't seem apparent at first. I am an Eclectic individual , some would say I am an eccentric individual, I am an artist and as an artist I search for Individuals who are like me and can inspire me to keep on trucking down this long road of creation with no beginning or end.

        In my endless search for inspiring media and information I came across this TED talk by Mark Applebaum. Mark is an accomplished composer and multi-instrumentalist. In this presentation at Stanford university he demonstrates his incredible talent, and ingenuity in finding inspiration in all kinds of objects and creating music inspired by everything from combs to florists. Mark says he"uses boredom as a catalyst for creativity and invention" I find that refreshing because often times when we are bored as people, we just stop doing what is boring us. When we can use the feeling of boredom to harness energy and change direction, or just look at things differently we can still be productive in our endeavors.

          No one that ever became a notable individual,or left a legacy, just quit when they were bored or tired of doing what they do. It takes energy and creativity in order to continue creating and creating repeatedly even if they are many and varied creations. The energy and dedication Mark has demonstrated in this video is what drives us to continue pushing the limits of Electronic Dance music and music and art in general. When we toil for hours looking for a different sound and adjusting low frequency oscillators and automating synths we are doing just what Mark does when he creates music out of inanimate objects. this brings up the question of What is music? and are the examples that he has demonstrated actually music?

           I answer the question I have posed above with this statement, Music is made to be perceived. Music is simply sound created  at intervals that is perceived to create rhythm and melody through harmony, the interplay of distinct sounds. The perception of music is simply a function of metabolism our internal rhythms have to be functioning at such a rate that the external rhythms can be perceived to coincide with them. In other words if you think it is music and find it interesting, then it is music. If you do not, then it is not. Do you think that if you play" Push The feeling On" By the Nightcrawlers for a dog he would perceive it as music? Maybe. If he does it is music to him, if he doesn't then to him it is not.

With any piece of music some humans will like it and perceive it as music others will not. We as  the creators and connoisseurs of music simply have to understand that some music is for certain people  while other music is for other individuals. It's about the feeling that it creates.

This video is for all of us to listen to with an open heart and appreciate the ingenuity that composers and creators of music in an genre have to possess in order to continue to create.I find his creativity and talent inspiring, and he inspires me to think outside of the box,and continue to be a multi-genre-list (if you think that is an actual word then it is to you! Otherwise you should already know i just made it up).