Iowa State Daily

The Institute on National Affairs’ “Business of Music in America” lecture series launched Tuesday with a discussion-based talk from punk icon Ian MacKaye, an advocate of the DIY music movement.

INA lecture series such as this happen annually at Iowa State. Past themes have included television and movies.

“One of the things the INA has traditionally always dealt with is a lot of social and political issues,” said David Stuart, committee member and associate professor of music. “To some degree there is always some kind of political and social issues involved with music. With young people those issues are very important all the time.”

This yearly event began in 1966, and every year the institute picks a topic of national interest. In the 35 years of the program’s existence, this will be the first series on the current state of music. A volunteer group of students and faculty members decided on the focus.

“It’s a process of selecting a topic and thinking about how to break it down and who would be the best to cover it,” said Pat Miller, director of the Committee on Lectures. “Chuck D was high on the list and we were lucky to get him right off the bat.”

Chuck D is best known as the co-founder and leader of rap group Public Enemy.

He has also published a book titled “Fight the Power: Rap, Race, and Reality.” Similarly, his speech is titled “Rap, Race, and Reality.”

In the past, Iowa State has seen notable speakers such as Sherman Alexie, an accomplished author, and Harry Shearer, actor in “This is Spinal Tap” and voice of Ned Flanders, Mr. Burns and Mr. Smithers on “The Simpsons.”

This year, along with MacKaye and Public Enemy’s Chuck D will be Jeffrey Vallier, who will tackle the technical side of music in his talk, “Technical Innovations in Popular Music.”

Rockrgrl Magazine founder and publisher Carla DeSantis will explore the obstacles faced by female musicians in her oration “Can Chicks Rock? Sexism in the Music Business.”

The series will conclude with a panel discussion titled “Making It: The Business of Music,” which will include producer and musician Robb Vallier and House of Large Sizes members Dave Diebler and Barb Schlif.

“We’ve got a lot of well-known and very thoughtful folks who are good communicators,” Miller said. “We’re on the cutting edge here.”

by Justin Kendall

Chuck D’s legacy revolves around fighting the power – be it racism, the music industry or the government. Considered both positive and radical, Public Enemy left an indelible mark on pop culture, society and a generation of future rap and hip-hop stars.

Chuck D brings the noise to Stephens Auditorium Tuesday at 8 p.m. with his keynote speech, “Rap, Race and Reality.” The speech is part of the Institute on National Affairs series, “The Business of Music in America.”

“Chuck D, to me, represents the positive side of hip hop,” said Black Student Alliance President Robert Price. “In Public Enemy, he always had a very politically astute message in the songs, and the music always had a positive message.”

That message was trumpeted in songs such as “Fight The Power” and “911 Is A Joke.” African American communities as well as white accepted the message and grew socially aware of inner city problems because of it.

“By transcending color lines, they got out the message to the entire community,” said Price, senior in management information systems. “By transcending color lines, they let other races know the problems that African Americans were facing at the time.”

Reaching fans of all races has allowed Public Enemy to remain wanted whereas other acts flicker then fade.

“People continue to talk about them in sort of, I suppose, a legendary sense,” said David Stuart, associate professor of music. “Public Enemy is not a group that anybody doesn’t acknowledge as being fabulous.”

Staying at the forefront of the music industry, Chuck D has been a vocal advocate of making music available via the Internet. He and Public Enemy ended a 12-year relationship with record label Def Jam over the Internet release of the single “Swindler’s Lust,” which led to Public Enemy signing with Internet record label, Atomic Pop.

“He’s a very outspoken person on the use of the Internet and First Amendment rights,” said Pat Miller, director of the Lectures Program, of Chuck D.

“He’s got credentials that are very impressive as well as being well known for his musical pursuits and performing ability. So we’re very lucky.”

by Trevor Fisher

The world of music technology is changing drastically every day. Not so long ago MP3s were introduced to the world; now music fans make it a regular habit to download songs they want from the Internet for free. Soon, drastic changes will be introduced to musical instruments as well, and a former Iowa State student is playing a decisive role in it.

Jeff Vallier will be speaking on the topic of “Technical Innovation in Popular Music” at noon Feb. 6 in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union.

Vallier began school at Iowa State before transferring to The Evergreen State College. He would later return as a graduate student and hold an adjunct faculty position while spending two years researching a patent.

Today he carries the title of senior firmware engineer for Gibson, one of the biggest and most legendary guitar producing companies ever.

Currently Vallier is part of a team working on a project called MaGIC that will revolutionize digital audio. Vallier says MaGIC is a way to send digital audio between instruments, mixing boards and other pieces of musical equipment.

“It allows a bunch of instruments and other devices to be hooked up in a `network’ and they all talk to each other like PCs in a computer lab but sending audio and control information rather than e-mails,” he said.

Musicians, listen to this: Vallier says MaGIC will also replace all wires and cables in a musical environment with one cable, and that one cable can send 32 channels of audio.

“If you were jamming with your friends, you could assign one of the knobs on your guitar to be able to turn down the volume of the bass player,” Vallier explained. “If you had a studio or a nightclub that had a mixing board, you could replace 64 cables with only one MaGIC connection.”

Vallier is also developing a chip that will be installed on the backs of guitars to make them compatible with MaGIC.

And it isn’t just the music industry that will benefit from this technology. Vallier says MaGIC will address needs in the medical industry and in home audio as well.

“Ever try to wire up a home theater system? It’s a nightmare with dozens of specialized cables to connect your CD, DVD, TV, amp, etc. With MaGIC there is only one type of cable that connects everything in any order – anyone can hook it up in minutes.”

Once completed, the chip will be installed into every Gibson guitar.

“Since Gibson and its affiliated companies produce about 80 percent of guitars in the world, we are poised to flood the guitar market with this technology,” Vallier said.

by Erin Randolph

Flip through any music publication these days, and it’s hard to find female rockers. There are hardly any girls holding guitars gracing the pages of “Rolling Stone,” and even fewer in “Alternative Press.”

And any articles about women artists seem more worried about what brand of bottled water they drink or what they look for in a boyfriend.

Carla DeSantis, an ex-musician, will address the treatment of women in rock in her speech “Can Chicks Rock? Sexism in the Music Business.” This lecture is part of the Institute on National Affairs series on the business of music and will be Feb. 6 at 8 p.m. in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union.

As a frequent contributor to VH1’s “Behind the Music” and writer of an occasional article for “Rolling Stone,” DeSantis became increasingly aware of the treatment of the estrogen-laden rockers in music publications. To combat the sexism, she decided to launch her own magazine exclusively for chicks who rock, or could potentially rock.

“I had gone away from music for quite a while, and when I came back everything that I read seemed to treat women as women first and musicians second, if even second,” she said.

Since 1994, DeSantis has been publishing Rockrgrl Magazine to act as an advocate for women in music. Rockrgrl strives to give them the encouragement they may not find in other music publications.

“There are articles that crop up every once and a while about why chicks can’t play music,” DeSantis said. “I see those all the time and it still just freaks me out. It just seems like such a ridiculous statement.”

“Carla DeSantis is an important person in the rock journalism arena and has been involved in some of these kinds of issues with women in rock,” said David Stuart, professor of music.

“We’re back to the `chick singer,’ and how the person sings and what the content of the lyrics are is far less important than the physical appearance they have in videos.”

As young girls grow up today, the women they see in the mainstream are largely vocalists, perhaps deterring them from picking up a guitar or a bass.

DeSantis’ goal is to help foster a balance between the two. To help achieve that balance, she organized the ROCKRGRL Conference in 2000, a 3-day event in Seattle for female artists.

Whether trying to join the ranks as a guitarist, she said, vocalist or maybe someone behind the scenes, the important thing is to not get discouraged.

“Find your voice, whether it’s through music or writing, and be true to that,” DeSantis said. “Also, realize it’s all a journey.”