Interactive poll team

No. 2

5 votes:

- Beth Nielson Chapman - Away Beyond the Blue

- Charlie Daniels Band - No Place to Go

 Interactive Poll #3b: A New Beginning

7 votes:

- Enter the Haggis - Lancaster Gate

6 votes:

- Bootsy Collins - What; is the Name of this Town

5 votes:

- Seckou Keita - Rewmi live

7 votes:

5 votes:

- The Hu - The Great Chinggis Khaan

4 votes:

- Grizzly Bear (ft. Michael McDonald) - While You Wait...

- Rickie Lee Jones - The Magazine

- Holger Hiller - Ohi oh bang bang

- Cake - The Distance

8 votes:

- Kaleidoscope - Taxim

6 votes:

- Era - Tono

5 votes: 

- Charles Ives - Piano Sonata #2

- Tokyo Groove Jyoshi - What is Hip?

- Janko Nilovic - Underground Session

8 votes:

-Inti Illimani: A la Casa del Nandù

-Meta Meta: Logun

6 votes:

No. 12

6 votes:

- Air - Radian

5 votes:

- Diethelm/Famulari - Portrait

- A Filetta feat. P. Fresu & D. Di Bonaventura: I Vostri sguardi

- Bruno Pernadas - Spaceway 70

No. 13

- Jim Croce “Time In A Bottle,”

- Nick Drake “Fruit Tree”

- Sufjan Stevens "Should Have Known Better

- Elliott Smith "Miss Misery"

A history section is always helpful and after some time inevitable. I have hosted various online song competitions in the past and I used excel spreadsheets at the time. Google spreadsheets are also a good option. They are practical for various reasons but one of them is that you would not have to do all the work yourself by granting access to the poll participants.

You attended a Bobby McFerrin concert, how cool this is that?! Is he still as good as he used to be? The voice is a subtle but fragile instrument.

Perhaps I didn't understand the proposal.

It seemed to me that the next poll of Mila-13 had as a theme asian music, and in this regard I explained to Mila-13 which, in my opinion, the theme should not cover only Asian artists because, perhaps, some of us do not listen a lot to Asian music and have no favorite artists for that kind of music. The important thing is to extend the theme to every music with Asian influences, in the melody or composition or arrangement etc.

The goal of these Interactive Poll is to share among us artists not present in PAs that are among our favorites, which are part of our personal history.

For this reason, the themes of the Polls are optional, the polls without any theme go well. When I proposed an poll with a theme, following the example of Micky, and I chose the Latin American music, some forumists have said they would not have participated, since they didn't listen to that kind of music, but I immediately  tell them that they could choose any Western group that had made some songs with Latin American influence, from Raggae to Tex Mex, from Rock Chicano to Tango and so on. The Bob Dyaln of Desire for example would have gone well, as well as Mink de Ville, Los Lobos or, to come to England, many songs by The Clash and Police went well.

Now, if I read about music made with the body, I wouldn't know what to think about, it seems to me a very specific theme and I don't know anyone who makes music with the body. And I don't think it would make sense to research on the internet to find some songs (which maybe I don't like) to propose. These Polls, as I conceived them, are not a hidden treasure hunt.

If instead we talk about songs where the artist uses the voice as a musical instrument - always intended in a very broad and flexible sense, that is songs where the voice is very important - then I believe that this is available to everyone. Some will present very original songs for technique, other more conventional songs. Moreover, if we are lovers of artists or songs that forumists know a few, and that belong to a particular genre, keeping broad and flexible themes we will always find the way to post them and make them know to the formists. For example, I managed to post, on an Poll open by TCAT, not by me, church songs performed by a polyphonic choir, and only with traditional Italian instruments (Litania). But I would never open a poll dedicated to sacred polyphonic choirs, because many forumists may not be interested.

In conclusion, to me all the themes are fine, as well as the absence of themes, so also the theme on Asian music and on the voice as a musical instrument, provided that the themes are not too specific and do not force me and others to not participate or to search and then participate with an artist we know little. 

About the "Body as a Musical Instrument" theme, there are many possibilites and they are not necessarily limited to a particular music genre, f.e. whistling, clapping hands, snapping fingers, stomping/tapping foot. In fact it is primarily about percussion and rhythm. Moreover, some thechniques include the use of vocals (vocal percussion) such as beatboxing or the Indian "konnakol". Many of those rhythm techniques are used in dance music also in the Western world. An expansion of the subject would be another option, f.e. under the title "The World Is a Drum"? But if that is too complicated as a poll theme, I can still stick to Asia. Btw. when is my turn, Lorenzo?