The Album of the Noughties: Daft Punk’s Discovery

For me an album of a decade must meet some crucial criteria:

• It must sound as fresh at the New Year’s Eve party at the end of that decade as it did when it came out.
• It should have been ground breaking on its release
• It should have easily recognisable songs to the music fan
• And it should still make you smile.

Daft Punk’s Discovery, released March 13, 2001, is not just all of these points but also genre defining.

The album gave birth to a new strand of electronic music, as dance was injected with catchy hooks, big bass lines, synths and vocals. The birth of particularly the French electronic or electro scene was born, which has spread across continents and now dominates dance floors and inspires DJs across the world.

The second album from the Parisian duo was in stark contrast to their earlier Homework as they moved towards a more electronic-disco sound.

Justice and other Ed Banger artists have been obviously directly inspired, Chromeo, A-Trak, Gorillaz, Hot Chip and Mylo’s equally important album Destroy Rock and Roll would not have existed as they are without Discovery.

Look at the UK Top 40 Charts towards the end of 2009, pop-princesses Little Boots and La Roux have used the combination of synths and beats begun in Discovery in their electro-pop albums; Calvin Harris, Dizzee Rascal and even Alexandra Burke’s latest track shows touches; and Daft Punk are almost always mentioned in MySpace influences or ‘Top Friends’.

The tracks from Fools Gold’s latest EP –Duck Sauce – which was the sound of Ibiza ’09 could easily fit into the album without standing out to much in sound – highlighting both the importance the album has had to dance music the best part of a decade on and the longevity it has had.

The album can be seen in two parts largely – the first contains the singles, those with catchy lyrics which dominated radio playlists from Radio 1 to student radio; while the second half is perhaps slightly less accessible, though once one has fallen in love with the tracks before they keep on listening, wanting more, and continuing the infatuation with the mysterious DJ/producers.

The opening track ‘One More Time’ will instantly receive a shout of excitement the first time the lyrics are dropped into any DJ set or played at on a stereo at a house party; ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’ has been remixed, sampled and reused more times than it is possible to keep track of – most famously of late by Kanye West (though they never beat the original); and ‘Digital Love’ could even be seen as a dance ballad – how many times has that happened.

So let’s fast forward a month to this year’s NYE party to bring in the Tens (?). At house parties and work do’s ‘One More Time’ (as mentioned), ‘Digital Love’, Aerodynamic’ and ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’ will be lapped up.

‘Crescendolls’, ‘Face to Face’ and ‘Superheroes’ will produce the same reaction in clubs, for the more electronically minded music fan.

Daft Punk will often not be known as a band, or their track names will not be recognised by the average person, but play the chorus of one of the opening four tracks from Discovery to your most people between 13 and 50 and they will know, and probably love the song.

I think Discovery matches all the criteria set out at the beginning of this post. Like a good comedy film, every listen makes you pick up an extra little riff which was hiding behind a big bass line, or brings back memories.

The album sounds as fresh today as it did 104 months ago, and will continue to inspire, drive and pleasure bedroom DJs to established producers, dance floors to radios and those looking back at past nights to those about to embark on nightlife for the first time.

Daft Punk’s Discovery, defined a genre, defined an ideology and defines the Noughties.

Tracklist:

1. “One More Time”
2. “Aerodynamic”
3. “Digital Love”
4. “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”
5. “Crescendolls”
6. “Nightvision”
7. “Superheroes”
8. “High Life”
9. “Something About Us”
10. “Voyager”
11. “Veridis Quo”
12. “Short Circuit”
13. “Face to Face”
14. “Too Long”

___________

Other Contenders:

The Libertines – Up The Bracket

Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not

Brand New – The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me

Sufjan Stevens – Come on Feel the Illinoise

Bloc Party – Silent Alarm

At the Drive In – Relationship of Command

Bon Iver – For Emma Forever Ago

The Killers – Ht Fuss

Calvin Harris: Ultimate Twitter User or Definitive Critic?

Calvin Harris is a hugely successful Scottish music producer and DJ having worked with the likes of Dizzee Rascal, headlined sold-out tours and reached number one in the UK charts – but he is also a fascinating utiliser of Twitter.

Like many other DJs he uses the site to advertise his gigs, interact with fans, share his music and source ideas of where best to find an All Day Breakfast the morning after a gig in a strange city.

It is also fair to say the brains behind ‘Acceptable in the 80s’ and ‘Dance wiv Me’ is rather sceptical about much in popular culture and even his own profession.

He raided the X-Factor stage during a performance by tabloid sensations – Jedward – with a pineapple on his head to replicate their haircut; and during an interview with Pete Tong on Radio 1, stated DJs who use computers to mix – including himself – should be referred to as ‘selectors’ as no technical DJing skill in involved.

It is the first episode mentioned with the Irish tween-stars where I would like to start with @calvinharris’ activities on the social media site.

Earlier the same day he made the headlines, he posted a picture on Twitter and declared it was “important” for events to come. It was of the now infamous fruit.

As he told Chris Moyles on his Radio 1 breakfast show the following Monday, all he was trying to do was to stop people taking the show so seriously and to encourage Simon Cowell to invest money in genuine musicians and talent to try and make something genuinely X-tra special rather than churning out plastic money-making pop star after the next.

The next post of importance was tweeted at 11.50am on 28th November 2009.

“ABSOLUTELY HUGE NEWS. THE IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIETY AS A WHOLE ARE SO GREAT IT DOSEN’T EVEN BEAR THINKING ABOUT http://tinyurl.com/yc2tlha”

The link is to an American gossip website, and is an article about KimKardashian’s joy of finally reaching her “target weight”.

This clearly a jibe at 21st century gossip journalism and the utter nonsense people are interested in – but it can also be seen as a way Twitter is used to spread news stories, and how the statement leading to the link would draw someone to look at the link.

It was posted the day after news spread like wildfire on Twitter about Tiger Woods being involved in a “serious car accident”. It was later discovered to be not as serious as the KK suggested and was described by BBC Technology Correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones (@ruskin147) as:

“Tiger Woods crash – case of social media magnifying and accelerating news cycle? – overblown local paper story goes global..”

Calvin Harris clearly cynical about celebrity and its reach, and ironically uses his position as a celebrity, with his 152,650 followers (as of 3.04pm on the 28th Nov 2009) on Twitter and his opportunities on television and radio to get his point across.

Though he does this in a very interesting way for a journalist and whether his use of social media is deliberate or a consequence of uber-scepticism, his activities on the Twitter is a fascinating alternative to following Steven Fry’s train of thought or sharing what people have eaten for breakfast.

It Never Rains… It Always Rains

Having been in Cardiff for three months now there is something quite clear about this part of the world towards the end of the year – it never stops raining.

Waiting for a taxi in the rain, Cardiff

 

Having lived inland in Oxford, and equally in Nottingham I have never experienced persistent pouring of water from the skies in the UK – and my house in Oxford has been flooded twice in the past six-years.

The only similar example of this sort of whether I know of is when I travelled around South-East Asia and without warning the heavens would open and suddenly the ground would be dominated by puddles – though at least after five minutes it would pass and the sun would shine.

The Welsh capital has thankfully not been subjected to the disasters in Cockermouth, Cumbria, though the size of my puddle outside my front door seems to continually expand.

Indeed in October 2009, South Wales and the South West experienced more rainfall than any other region according to the Met Office (stats) – though it was still below average (0.85 of normal). There was 112.5mm of rainfall during the month, ahead of the North West of England and North of Wales with 104.2mm (again still below average but the closest to what it ought to be, at .97).

Make sure you buy a brolly when visiting Cardiff!

Utilizing Social Media for Interviews

Rory Cellan-Jones raised an interesting idea when he spoke to the Cardiff Journalism School – utilizing one’s social community to source questions.

He pointed out how others would think of angles or perspectives which would not occur to you, and inevitably there would be others more expert in the field at hand, out in cyber-space, willing to help.

So the evening before I set off to interview some of the Welsh rugby team at the Millennium Stadium during an Eden Park photo shoot, I thought I would utilize the minds of my online community.

The question posed was:

Any questions for the Welsh rugby team?! Interviews tomorrow so message me ASAP!!!

Responses from my 61 followers on Twitter

Responses from my 747 'friends' on Facebook

As you can see, both Facebook and Twitter brought me back ideas – some more useful than others.

The more followers the greater pool of questions, and Twitter I think is the better utility. It seems to engage its users more when it comes to updates in comparison to Facebook, though I still feel it was a useful experiment.

mrbrownmr is an avid Welsh fan, and his input was expected and well received, though one must also remember one’s journalism is for a wide audience and therefore the questions posed by non-rugby fans should also be considered.

The whole exercise allows journalists to source and prepare better interview questions and techniques, as well as engage their community. By utilizing and including their followers they are more likely to create a strong following by keeping them involved, and in turn, if individuals feel their contributions have been listened to they are more likely to share the article with their community.

The Greatest Sporting Icon of the Noughties

An online debate was sparked by Josh Pettitt in the Cardiff Journalism School newsroom which has spread across WordPress and Twitter flaming debate.

The Greatest Sporting Icon of the Noughties is the issue, and personally I feel there is only one possible choice.

Men such as Michael Schumacher, Lance Armstrong and Ricky Pointing have all been hugely successful since 2000.

Though Michael Brown’s suggestion of Usain Bolt raised a very valid point, and one which goes straight to the crux of the issue.

Bolt, since blasting onto the sprinting scene with his blistering world-record times at Beijing of 9.69s (100m) and 19.30s (200m), has seen the Jamaican become a sporting icon: as an example to youngsters; a remarkable and unique physical specimen; but also with his trademark bolt stance.

Usain and his trademark Bolt

Icons

Cathy Freeman was iconic at the Sydney Olympics. In her head-to-toe suit she carried the hopes of Australia and her Aboriginal heritage.

Freeman iconic at Sydney in 2000

There are many images of Andrew Flintoff during the 2005 Ashes, from celebrating wickets to consoling Brett Lee at Trent Bridge after the Australian tail-end almost pulled off a remarkable victory.

There are many other examples but frankly only David Beckham can really justify the tag of The Greatest Sporting Icon of the Noughties.

The Player

For a start: the cornrows, the shaved head, the mohawk and now the mullet.

Beckham’s hair alone and the attention it has received and inspired others to follow is probably enough to give him this accolade, but his actions have been far more important over ten-years.

Since scoring from the half-way against Neil Sullivan’s Wimbledon on 17th August 1996, he was an instant superstar.
His last-gasp-goal at Old Trafford against Greece in 2001 shattered the ill feeling the nation felt towards him after that incident against Argentina in 1998.

Steve McClaren’s decision to leave him out of his teams for the failed qualification campaign for the 2008 European Championships was later seen as a huge factor in England’s poor performance; and the reinstatement of Beckham to win a record number of caps for an outfield England player (109) by Fabio Capello – a world renowned manager and judge of ability – shows the class the man oozes.

He has played for four of the most glamorous clubs in the world: Manchester United, Real Madrid, AC Milan and LA Galaxy and enjoyed success at all (the Galaxy having just reached the final of MLS).

Although the latter may not be the most famous or decorated club, the money they spent on Brand Beckham put previous feeble attempts by US franchises to promote the sport with the likes of Franz Beckenbauer, Pele, Johan Cruff and George Best – some of the greatest players to have ever played the game – into perspective, and demonstrate the importance the man carries as an icon and player second.

He has been BBC Sports Personality of the Year, inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame and twice runner-up in FIFA’s World Player of the Year.

The Brand

His marriage to Posh Spice propelled him even further into superstardom in 1999, for a decade which was to see Beckham move the attention on footballers from the back pages to gossip columns and magazines.

He has fronted multi-million pound advertising campaigns from Police, Calvin Kline, Gillette to even Sharpie pens, and was even reportedly bought by Real over Ronaldinhio because of his ability to sell shirts as a world-wide sporting icon.

He was one of football’s pioneers to negotiate image rights into his contracts: simply, put a picture of David Beckham and any other sports star to anyone in the world – and Beckham will be recognised considerably more.

He was named in the Time 100 last year, has been recognised by the Queen with a CBE and has been a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF.

***

Beckham may not be the most loved, or may not have won the most amount of football’s prizes since 1st January 2000, but as a sporting icon, he is light-years ahead.

Though he may not be the sharpest knife in the draw

The other contenders:

Roger Federer

Ryan Giggs

Zinedine Zidane

Lance Armstrong

Michael Schumacher

Usian Bolt

Cristiano Ronaldo

Shane Warne

Henrik Larsson