Why Do Some Noises Make You Cringe? Let’s Bring In The Science
Hank Green of SciShow offers his explanation as to why certain sounds are considered to be so awful to listen to. It’s not the actual sound, but the frequency.
…it turns out that there’s a good scientific reason why certain sounds set most people’s teeth on edge: human ears are extra sensitive to a particular range of pitches. Although where that sensitivity comes from is still up for debate. In 1986, a group of neuroscientists tried to get to the bottom of these intense reactions by doing what so many researchers do: unpleasant things to volunteers. Specifically, they asked 24 adults to rank a series of 16 sounds based on how unpleasant they thought those sounds were. And although that isn’t a very big sample size, the noises that were consistently rated the nastiest — like the sound of a fork scraping a plate or squealing brakes — all had something in common: They share a frequency range between 2,000 and 5,000 hertz, where our ears happen to be especially sensitive.
Lucy Blair, Digital Marketer, Gets It Right On Why Music Is Less Important In Youth Culture
“We listen to more individual tracks because we’re discovering more music, but that may be leading to more fickle artist/fan relationships And in response, the music industry is mainly sitting there going ‘Shit! How do we get more plays and visibility on streaming services, and how do we crack discovery?’”
“Kids and teens discover music because they want a way to identify themselves.
“They create content that’s very episodic, short-form and very addictive, and they tend to focus on one key community first – YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat or whatever it is. They build up these huge audiences, and along the way, music is getting less important in youth culture.
“Because musicians are trying to spread themselves thin across all these platforms – streaming, social, messaging – and it’s not really working because the audiences are so much less emotionally engaged. There’s a tyranny of choice of music, and slowly but surely our emotional connection to it is being eroded.
“As an artist, it’s not about trying to sell to more people. The trick is to make people give a shit about you: to make them feel something. Those are the people who will keep coming back and streaming your music in the long term.”
Lady Gaga Speaks Out: ‘I’ve Suffered Through Depression and Anxiety My Whole Life’
You’ve met thousands of people who’ve been affected by the Born This Way foundation. Who is someone you can’t forget?
Lady Gaga: There are a lot of kids that I could talk about. One I’ve become very good friends with is this girl, Emma. She has cerebral palsy. She’s in a wheelchair. I met her on the [2013] Born Brave Bus, when it followed the Born This Way Ball Tour, and we shared a very deep connection about the pain she was in. There were all these people around — cameras and journalists wanting to capture the moment between us — and I said to everyone, “Could you leave us alone?” I just wanted to be alone with her and ask her if she was OK. She was in her chair, kind of hunched over, but still with this very brave smile on her face. I swore I was in the presence of maybe one of the greatest people. Moments like that make you go, “Everyone should learn from this person — this person knows what it means to self-empower through adversity, this person knows what it means to be strong when you’re not.”
When you’re listening to these kids’ stories, what’s the fundamental problem?
Lady Gaga: Depression and anxiety really link them. There is something in the way that we are now, with our cell phones and people are not looking at each other and not being in the moment with each other, that kids feel isolated. They read all of this extremely hateful language on the Internet. The internet is a toilet. It is. It used to be a fantastic resource — but you have to sort through shit to find the good stuff.
These kids just want to feel human, but they feel like robots. They don’t understand why they’re so sad. There are scientific reasons, which the foundation researches, why you feel sad when you look at your phone all day.
I’ve suffered through depression and anxiety my entire life, I still suffer with it every single day. I just want these kids to know that that depth that they feel as human beings is normal. We were born that way. This modern thing, where everyone is feeling shallow and less connected? That‘s not human.
Video: Bing Crosby’s visit to Vancouver BC in 1948
This cool newsreel shows Bingo Crosby visiting Vancouver, BC in 1948. It’s likely around the time of the film The Emperor Waltz starring Bing and Joan Fontaine was released. That movie, filmed on location in Jasper National Park in Alberta, is about a brash American gramophone salesman in Austria at the turn of the twentieth century who tries to convince Emperor Franz Joseph to buy a gramophone so the product will gain favor with the Austrian people.
Students In Their Dorm Rooms In Toronto, 1904-1905
These photographs were taken in the old Trinity College buildings that is now the location of Trinity-Bellwoods park. Anyone out there know these students? Grandparents or Great-Grandparent? Let me know!
10 Colour Photographs Of Bob Dylan In The 1960s You’ve Never Seen Like This
Bob Dylan has been busy in the studio and will be releasing his 37th album titled “Fallen Angels.” Dylan will follow up the album with a 27-stop tour this summer. Let’s take a look back at one of music’s greatest songwriters with photos that you might have seen before in black and white, but not in colour.
Tegan And Sara Announce New Album “Love You To Death”; Due Out June 3
Tegan and Sara have announced their forthcoming album Love You to Death today. Recorded in Los Angeles, Love You to Death is the band’s 8th studio album and once again finds the group working with producer Greg Kurstin (Adele, Sia, Beck, Ellie Goulding). It is slated for release on June 3rd while the first taste of music from the album is due April 8th, the same day that preorders begin.
Love You to Death is the follow up to Tegan and Sara’s pop breakthrough album Heartthrob, which featured the singles “Closer” and “I Was a Fool” which were double platinum and platinum certified in Canada, respectively. In addition to this, the band were featured on the LEGO Movie single “Everything is Awesome” with The Lonely Island, and were invited to perform that song as part of the 2015 Oscar telecast.
Tegan and Sara will be performing in Toronto during Canadian Music Week at the iHEARTRADIO Fest on Friday, May 6th. Click here for tickets to this performance. Further Canadian dates will be announced in the near future.
Born in Calgary, Alberta and now residing in Vancouver, BC, Tegan and Sara’s career numbers are impressive. They have sold over 1 million albums and collected 7 Gold certifications, 1 Double Platinum certification, 3 Juno Awards, 2 Polaris Prize nominations, and a Grammy nomination.
