Eight Crazy Nights – Looking back at the Road Home

Firstly, I would like to start this post by indicating that the minor delay between this post and my last has been intentional. The obvious stress, fatigue, anxiety and uncertainty that dominated my previous post (while important to have documented, in retrospect) actually frightened me from blogging temporarily! and it prompted me to briefly resort back to the good ol’ personal diary for a week.. So – since completing my previous blog post, i decided to leave the blog-o-sphere for the final 8 days of my research process, so I could truly put 100 percent energy into my study and attempt to resolve all of the issues addressed regarding my conclusion.

While I had never written a thesis prior to this one, my final week of Honours gave me the feeling that research in all of its extended forms (phd, masters, honours etc.) truly reaches its apex in the final weeks before a deadline. Over the course of “eight crazy nights”, I managed to: heavily condense the wordcount of my thesis (with some help from my supervisor); complete a concise conclusion to a pleasing standard; learn how to use a nightmare-inducing computing software to present my thesis (and do so successfully) and break some unbelievable personal records (which i will discuss further).

Aware that I was going to do a “superblog post” to tie off the semester, I decided to make a conscious effort to engage in some regular photo taking during the home stretch, so that i could document the nature and texture of my research experience throughout the final week of work on my thesis, and make it easier for readers to understand this research diary entry.. Hopefully the pictures allow for some further insight.

Necessity: Coffee consumed every day . Two in the morning and one or more in the afternoon.

As trivial as it seems, coffee has been a major component of my research experience this semester. Its stimulating effects have been central to my concentration, allowing me to stay focused on the task at hand, and I genuinely think my level of productivity has increased when coffee has been involved. But then again, maybe that’s just what the coffee wants me to believe…. Placebo or no, its been enjoyable complementing my research with some of Melbourne’s finest lattes. Particularly in the final weeks before submission!

Conclusion – draft number four was a particularly useful one, crafted in the Honours lab with some assistance from my good friend, the bodum coffee plunger. Was full of good material that I used in my final edit

I certainly had a lot of anxiety surrounding the process of writing my conclusion, perhaps unnecessarily so. I continued to feel as though the conclusion could not be properly written out until I was confident that i had completely finished the body of my work, which was not really the case. I set myself up in my introduction to present six guidelines that served as considerations for contemporary artists to keep in mind, if they were to pursue the release of a concept album in the digital age. What i needed to remind myself of in the process of writing my conclusion was that these guidelines were perhaps the most important element of it, and really needed drafting, care and attention.

I presented these alongside a summation of the work that had come in the body of my work, as well as clear discussion about what I felt that future scholars needed to address with concept albums; what I hadn’t had time to address in my own work; and what I would like to do in any further research on concept albums. I also tried to outline how my understanding of concept albums had changed through the research process, and used my six guidelines to interrogate how important concept albums are to music culture. Writing with these sorts of prompts in mind was made easier by pulling out the highlighter and reading my thesis on paper – finding the key threads so that I could be concise and not over-complicate things.

The Honours lab has been a fantastic research environment to work within this semester, with some passages of my thesis that I am particularly fond of emerging over the course of numerous sessions in lab-lockdown. There have been a number of days where the support of “the brotherhood” has been extremely valuable, using the classroom area of the lab to set up for full days, with a list of goals we wanted to achieve, and working closely to some strict “pomodoro” guidelines and a daily time management plan in order to fulfill the goals. This allowed us to avoid procrastination, and also find time to eat meals and take breaks to rejuvenate ourselves where appropriate.

There were times when the rigors of Honours got the better of us.. Jason and I found the time on Monday to have a lay down and rejuvenate ourselves for the evening ahead.

One of the toughest things to contend with as the deadline drew nearer was the obvious lack of sleep that many of us in the Honours cohort were subject to. I love sleep, and I know how it can benefit the clarity of my thoughts and enhance the quality of my work – but in the final weeks of the thesis writing process, I could not help but feel like I was not going to achieve my goals if I didn’t put myself to bed late and pull myself out of bed early each day – to maximise the time available for me to work. Naps on the Honours floor or on the beanbags in the lab were wonderful when we allowed ourselves to have them – but more often than not, in my case anyhow, the feeling of fatigue was an excuse for another coffee and to try and pull myself out of the rut.

The circumstances under which I worked in the last three days of the thesis writing process were less than preferable, and are likely to go down in Honours folklore. With the design software InDesign shrieking my name as i tried to go to sleep, and yelling “Don’t use Word, Use me!”, I felt like it was necessary to give the software a chance and try and learn the ropes with it to give my thesis a more “spiffy” appearance and layout (as Adrian has called it).

I left for Uni at 5.30am on Wednesday morning (23rd of october) and arrived at the Honours lab with a big coffee in hand by 7.30am to start laying things out in InDesign. That I would not be packing up to leave the lab until 6pm on Thursday (24th october) was the furthest thing from my expectations – and with no such nap to speak of in the 36 hours that went by in that time, i was truly “the walking dead” by the time i went to bed after 40 hours of being awake at 10pm on Thursday night.

An hour by hour documentation of the constant frustration and anger I felt throughout the two days i spent preparing my thesis in InDesign would certainly make for an interesting read.. but I would likely self-destruct in the process of writing it. My thesis was finished, and I had a folder full of images prepared to accompany it. Yet InDesign continued to confront me with overset text, anchored images, formatting issues and UNEXPECTED ERRORS that erased much of the work i had done. It is a miracle that by 2pm on Friday I finally felt at ease with the presentation of my thesis and was ready to print!

With some advice from Steve, a new favourite snack was discovered. BANANA AND PEANUT BUTTER. This became breakfast almost every day and seemed to have positive effects on my morning productivity..

The above caption makes things pretty clear.. breakfast is important.

Thursday afternoon was always going to be “cutting it fine” for my first visit to the printers.. but having been awake for nearly 40 hours and successfully laid out my front cover – i had faith – and I’m glad that was the case. Auscopy went through numerous complimentary sample prints for me and ensured that my front cover and key pages would be printed just the way I wanted.

While I am by no means a graphic designer and am certainly not renowned for my art or photography skills etc. – I had never put as much work into anything uni-related before as this thesis, and I did not want to skimp out on the presentation and appearance of the thesis as an artifact. Having a friend like Steve around the lab was extremely beneficial in this regard, with his keen eye for design.

For weeks I had been flirting with the idea of presenting my thesis like a “concept album” of sorts, to amplify the effectiveness of the message it contained. However, I didn’t believe that I had the time available, nor the know-how, to pull off such a feat. I asked Steve what his thoughts were on manipulating two key images that I was working with (the first being the record label of Jethro Tull’s “Thick as a Brick”, and the second being an image of a computer motherboard) to evoke the idea of a vinyl record, and it was not long before he assured me that a great design was in fact possible. This kind of support has been constant throughout the Honours Lab all semester, and it has been so valuable for each of us to have friends from a variety of media and communication-based backgrounds to bounce ideas off and seek help from.

By 6pm Thursday, I was heading to the printers (functioning on 36 waking hours and 7 coffees) to experiment with some prints on transparent paper for the first time. With the cover pages finalised by 6.45 – it was time to head home and get some much needed rest, knowing that I would need to complete the PDF of my thesis on Friday (there were a few changes still to be made in InDesign). I hoped to be ready for printing by 2pm on Friday afternoon, so that i would have enough time to get the thesis thermal bound at 3pm, for a 5pm submission. CUTTING IT FINE

With my transparent cover design printed out, i had some fun experimenting with it.. Misplaced childhood became a misplaced image – but one i rather liked.

3pm Friday – heart racing. Printing complete. Covers ready to go. Time for Binding!

If I could have had my time again, I certainly would have commenced the InDesign editing process earlier to avoid eating away so heavily at the time I had available for sleeping. I also would not have left the printing process until the final day.. (I did intend to print on Thursday night, but once I noticed some of the “bad edits” i had made in my sleepless state of mind – I knew that it was lucky I didn’t rush into printing and I am glad i left it for that one additional day).

Here you can more easily see the design of my front cover – a 1970s record label enshrouded in a web of computer chips – as if to symbolise to existence of concept albums in two different eras, 40 years apart (and also to indicate the re-emergence of vinyl as a prominent medium of distribution in the digital age)

It is hard to describe the surreal feeling that buzzed through me as I headed upstairs from the Honours lab at 4.45pm Friday to submit my Honours thesis. I submitted three copies (totaling nearly 50,000 words) of a year’s worth of engrossing study and research down the chute in an instant, and the sense of relief I felt is something I will never forget.

That said.. I must admit that I have been quite afraid to open up my personal copy of the thesis and read it closely (in fear of editing errors and mistakes) now that it has been submitted. I wonder if this is how most researchers feel at the completion of such a significant body of work? It felt as though the research was done, and there was nothing more that I could do, so the approach I chose to adopt was one of oblivion. The waiting game..

I reflect upon the final eight nights of my study process and shake my head in disbelief at the hours I put in to complete the thesis, and the associated sleep deprivation that came with the territory. It was nothing short of crazy! But the memory that overpowers it all, and makes the process feel so worthwhile, is the feeling of relief associated with leaving Building 9 on Friday with the work no longer in my hands, and a big grin on my face.

Here – i leave you with one of the happiest moments of my year. Photo courtesy of Wil Polson, my brother in submission.

Conclusions

The time has come to conclude my thesis, my labour of love for so much of this past year. Fittingly, finishing this task will also serve as the conclusion of my honours year – sending in the work for printing and leaving it in the hands of the big man! A lot of talk has circulated in the Honours lab recently about making that switch from writer to reader, and edit accordingly.. It seems as though it is one of the main distinctions between a good researcher and a great researcher. I just wish I could handle it better..

I’m feeling some pretty extreme angst at the moment, now only a fraction more than a week away from submission. I have been throwing everything I have got at the process of editing my thesis down to size, even attempting to shift large quantities of contextualising information to an appendix.. but I still have a lengthy monster on my hands.. worse yet, it is one without a conclusion.
Writing about the contemporary music scene, and the position of concept albums within it, has been comparatively more simple than writing about the 1970s and 1980s eras (Jethro Tull and Queensrÿche). This is because I operate within the current scene as a progressive rock musician and have engaged closely with the trends effecting it for quite a few years now, particularly since starting university four years ago. Consequently, I have had a harder time editing out words in my 1990s and 2000s case studies (Radiohead and Coheed and Cambria), but I realise that a lot of the material there can perhaps be shelved for future writing endeavours.
I do, however, read back over my case studies of these earlier eras and realise just how much I have learned from exploring the technological states of the music industry in those decades and the social/political/cultural affairs that these bands sought to address in their concept albums.
Now that it has come to the point at which my focus needs to switch to the writing of my conclusion and the editing of my bibliography, I feel completely overwhelmed by the amount of material that still needs to be axed from the body of my work. I am realising that there are so many thoughts, ideas and key concepts that need to be tied off and succinctly addressed in the conclusion in order to make my desired claims convincing, and deliver a fitting finale for the year of research.
This afternoon, I had a “click moment” that perhaps explains why this task seems so daunting – it’s the sheer scale of the work.. As a 21 year old student straight out of my Bachelor Degree and into the demanding world of Honours, the reality is that I have never dealt with such a large piece of work before – and it is natural that I should find it harder to control the amount of research material that I have compiled. Before I commenced Honours, the longest academic essay I had ever written was 5000 words. Of course the task of piecing together 12-15000 well-developed, well-referenced, thoughtful and academically correct words was not going to be easy!
While at the start of the year I genuinely feared that I might not be able to compile enough words to fulfil the submission guidelines.. the amount of research I have undertaken to prevent such a fear from becoming a reality has left me with an entirely different problem – having too much material to cohesively and concisely address in my Honours Thesis! With one and a half weeks left to go to complete my editing and appropriately format my bibliography, the simple solution is to throw EVERYTHING I have left to give at this. I want to finish the year and be able to say that I was the best researcher that I could possibly be.

Conclusion planning

Brain pain

Conclusion ideas

Find reblogged here a useful blog post from Professor Pat Thomson, which shares some nice ideas to help those of us who are struggling to  structure their thesis conclusion (raises hand)..

after a day of doubt and anxiety, these pointers should help me build a conclusion ‘roadmap’ that may allow me to more clearly articulate my arguments and ensure that I am not introducing new material or irrelevant content in my conclusion

patter

Any of you who watch cooking programmes will know the cheffy talk about mise-en-place. It’s a term used to describe all the various kinds of preparation that need to be done in order to whip up something that can be described as “freshly cooked to order”. In reality many restaurant meals have components that are precooked and cut into the right portion sizes – they need only to be added, heated, stirred and assembled, with a minimum of actual cooking time between order and service. That you don’t have to wait too long for your food is down to lots of mise-en-place.

The notion of mise-en-place is also helpful in thesis writing. There is a lot of preparation than can be done before a draft text is begun. And just as in cooking, the more preparation you do, the quicker and less painful the actual writing time involved.

It…

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Rower’s Dilemma

Lately I have been feeling a little bit unsure of myself as a researcher – However, as I have found in my previous posts, I feel that I am able to more easily express these feelings by comparing my research processes to an entirely different endeavor. The current dilemma is that I do not know which stream I need to follow in order to row my academic kayak to the island of thesis enlightenment: The editing stream or the writing stream?

It’s no longer a secret to the blog-o-sphere that I’ve ‘overwritten’ my thesis.. It feels as though I’ve been out rowing for too long in less than ideal conditions, and there is now a bit too much rainwater weighing down the boat, preventing me from smoothly gliding through the ripples of the river..

As it stands, my draft exceeds the required word length significantly and is not particularly concise, but within it are most of the points that I am hoping to get across. While I have left myself with the task of editing down this dense and detailed thesis.. there are still key sections (try introduction and conclusion on for size) that require much more attention from a ‘writing perspective’.. Do I keep on rowing in the heavy boat and see if I can make it to the island if the conditions improve (writing)? Or do I pull the boat up to the side of the river to catch my breath, empty the rainwater and patch up the boat’s leaks and dings (editing) first?

While some of my peers suggest that just going ahead with the writing is a positive idea – others (myself included) understand that when the task of cutting words down is already oceansize: adding to the challenge is somewhat counterproductive.. Besides – won’t my conclusion arguments be made stronger once i have well written, streamlined chapters to navigate??

No matter the approach, this past week has been stressful.. I have been caught in this slipstream, which has been dragging me in the direction of one canal and then the other.. While at first I just kept on rowing along – allowing the currents to steer me at their own will – Yesterday, I sought some nourishment on the shore, and the boat benefited from a patch up and some time to dry out in the sun…

My focus shifted to the ‘housekeeping things’: addressing presentation ideas, refining in-text references and working through my bibliography and discography etc. This is because my supervisor has warned me not to edit too brutally on my work just yet.. I need to drain some of the pollution from the ocean before it is safe to keep swimming in it.. But I need to be sure that I know exactly what is polluting the water and what is not..

With so much content in the thesis – i do run the risk of editing out or ‘butchering’ certain passages which i may dismiss quickly after one glance, only to realise later that they may actually be pivotal to my broader arguments.. TODAY, however, is a milestone day that i have been waiting eagerly for: a sunny, peaceful day for me to take on the “editing stream”. My supervisor has been gazing over my first completed thesis draft this week and is ready to offer some feedback.. So I think from here, the editing process should be made slightly easier – I hope that soon enough, “the island” will be in sight.. I can’t wait to pull the kayak up to the shore and dive head first into its beautiful waters.

All rights reserved to Thomas Peschak

The Barbershop Approach to Editing my Thesis

This morning, as I read over the draft version of my Honours thesis with only 3 weeks to go until submission, i continue to feel anxious. I feel like the effort I have put into my Honours year, as well as my personal development as a researcher, is evident in the work. But I know that I have significantly exceeded the wordcount and have to work some miracles in order to cut my thesis down to size.

To do this, I need to remain objective, so as not to lose sight of the central things that I really want to communicate to my readers.. the things that make the thesis interesting to read, and the things that make it ‘work’.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

One of the case studies in my thesis is concerned with the American progressive rock band, Coheed and Cambria, who have released a discography consisting entirely of concept albums.

As it stands at the moment – I feel as though my thesis could be likened to the hair of Coheed and Cambria’s lead singer and chief songwriter, Claudio Sanchez:

It’s really cool! But………

I do feel like my thesis makes a statement. It is rather unique and i am of course, personally attached to it. But in all seriousness, It would greatly benefit from a serious trim, as there is just too much of it!

To put things into ‘hair terms’ – it is currently too wooly, thick and scruffy: and in need of some close attention with the scissors and razor.. I need to try and stop seeing the editing process as a “battle” and embody the mindset of a barber – treating every chapter as a gentleman and giving each the neat and tidy haircut they deserve: assuring they get their money’s worth.

Once I have served all of these clients, and the snipped hair has been swept up and thrown in the dustbin, I hope that the end result of my thesis will be like one giant MOHAWK: held up tidily with plenty of gel (references and interesting personal views), minimal frays and strays (unclear or unsupported arguments) – and with even distribution of perfectly cut hair extending from the forehead to the upper back (with the central threads of my argument evident to my readers from start to finish).

That is correct – i would like my thesis to resemble the haircut of this little badass

Is the amount of studying I am doing driving me crazy? I think so…

All aboard the Edit train – departing: constantly

This morning as I sat on the train into Uni, planning out the day of intense editing that lay ahead – I felt some unease as I thought of the considerable amount of work that I still have to do, with just over three weeks until the submission deadline…

However, as i discovered from the process of writing out my previous blog post, which became a creative writing piece that likened the task of heavily editing down my thesis to fighting out a war: it does make you feel somewhat better when you can externalise your anxious thoughts and set some clear goals about what you want to achieve next.

I am coming to terms with the fact that my paper, as it currently exists, is much too long for an Honours thesis.. and at least until it has been considerably cut down to size – i have to refrain from doing too much writing, so I don’t overcomplicate the editing process for myself.

I am going to need to leave some ideas behind entirely and start swinging the editor’s axe more ruthlessly if I am to meet the submission guidelines required, because no matter how hard I try to condense the entire paper with small and fiddly edits here and there – it is still going to be too long, and may overwhelm my examiners.

This is certainly a process that I can learn a lot from. My supervisor has reiterated the fact that editing your own work effectively is an extremely demanding task.. and it is precisely the reason that professional editors stay in business! But i am determined to fulfill the needs of the task to the best of my abilities..

Deciding what needs to be left behind is the challenge.

In my paper, which explores the development of concept albums and their ability to reflect the technological and socio-cultural contexts of their time – i have attempted to provide a chronological framework that traces the concept album from the 1970s through to the 2000s. I begin with an introduction, followed by a literature review, and then providing case studies of releases from each decade (4 chapters), each of which explores the two streams of thought mentioned above. My conclusion should then tie everything together and propose a guiding criteria of considerations that contemporary artists can keep in mind when pursuing the release of a concept album in the 21st century.

The structural challenges i have faced throughout the semester, which led me to present my case studies and contextual writing in this way have been discussed in a few of my earlier posts – and while i feel that this structure works nicely and makes a lot of sense – the amount of words required to cover each component of my research in adequate detail has forced me to reconsider my structural options once again.

I will pick up on this in my next post, after another busy day of editing today.. The stress levels are creeping up again just thinking about what to do with my thesis structure from here – although i think this blog post has on the whole done the job of making me feel a bit better and more focused for the day ahead.

Maybe some metaphorical inspiration will hit me in time for my next blog post as well, so as to spice things up a little bit! A laugh here and there never hurts.. Choo Choo!

The Edit Train

The Battle of Editmore

Firstly, please pardon the Led Zeppelin pun that i have employed as a title for this post. Musicians do strange things sometimes.. and this title reflects precisely how i feel at this time.

Editing is a like a battle.. a struggle between author and thesis.

Just when I, the author, feel as though I have made a breakthrough in the process of editing my work – perhaps condensing a section down by 1, 2, or even 3 hundred words – I read over the edited work again and it smiles grimly back at me, firing a missile to the eyes. Things just don’t make as much sense anymore.. Sometimes the edited work looks outright mutilated..

I look to the “trash” section, where passages that I have removed from the page have been relegated: where wounded servants of mine lay. It is as if the words that I have deemed inferior are looking up at me, bleeding and pleading from a muddy trench, hoping to be reinstated to where they feel that they belong:

“How could you sacrifice your own men? We fought for you! We thought you held us dear!”

And I can’t help but sympathise with them..

I think of the memories I shared with these fine warriors of academia – the places we were first acquainted.. Sometimes the attachments an author has with his/her words are hard to ignore. You feel like you’ll do anything so as not to leave them behind.

Take for instance the productive 3 hour writing sessions at a peaceful coffee shop, guzzling lattes that put hairs on my otherwise rather bare chest. Or the three days I spent in lockdown at Steve’s art studio, churning out more words than i knew i had in my vocabulary. Groundbreaking or no.. I am astounded as to how such extraneous influences actually make you feel a certain connection to work that has been done. How can a place, a feeling, or an enjoyable meal/ beverage make you feel more closely connected to a series of words??

Surely, when I look over my work, knowing that many thousands of words need to be erased in order to meet the necessary submission guidelines, it should be plain to see what is irrelevant and needs to go?

After emailing my supervisor in a panic yesterday, I have been reassured that this is not really the case – editing your own work is HARD. But on the plus side, as my supervisor mentioned:

“You’ll have loads of quality stuff leftover that can be used should you decide to publish in journals…”

In the Battle of Editmore, I am reminded of all the books, the readings, the documentaries, the metaphors and the moments of bliss I felt when I finally made sense of those peculiar concepts I had been struggling with..

However, while the shift from writer to reader is not an easy one, it is one that needs to be made. And in the interest of giving myself the best chance of doing well in my Honours Submission – I need to move past the personal ties that I have with my words fairly quickly, and try and edit with the discipline and dedication of a major general.

Morning thoughts

Transitions

It has certainly been a week of challenges after submitting my first draft to Adrian last week. As the submission deadline for the first draft drew closer, my inner researcher came to the fore – resulting in some very late, but very productive nights of study. This week has been a bit slower and more challenging than last week, as the transition from detailed writing to focused editing has begun. It has also proven to be the aftershock – fatigue, tiredness, lack of concentration and stress have all crept into the equation – but i am doing my best to take care of myself and keep calm and focused.

While I have found myself having some really productive hours each day this week, sadly they have often been followed by lulls of 2-3-4 hours at a time where nothing seems to flow or make sense. This has made me feel anxious and tense, and led me to have doubts about the continued progress of my work at times, with less than a month to go until the final submission.

One method that has helped to alleviate some of this pressure, which i have mentioned here previously but have only really implemented heavily this past week has been printing out the draft-level versions of my work and editing them on paper. Adrian is a big advocate for this approach, and while i doubted its effectiveness at first – i have noticed that it does really save a lot of time working through the edits of each paragraph – as it is easier to complete your edits with pen and move on to the next paragraph, rather than mulling over one paragraph on the screen for hours on end striving for perfection before moving on.

I have also benefited from discussions with my peers about our progress in these anxious times, and also the direction and reassurance offered to me by my supervisor. It’s good to keep in mind that there are others in the same position as me and that we are all working through similar feelings together. We cannot expect more from ourselves that to submit the best work we can possibly submit in the time we have allocated, even if that means that not everything is 100 percent perfect.

Ultimately, the actual writing process of the thesis is rather short, so there is that sense of “race against time” that we need to contend with. I feel that my peers are dealing with this as best they can, and we are having a positive influence on each other.

I have tried to break up the aforementioned anxious bouts with walks, coffee breaks or even sessions where i stretch my sore muscles and try to relax. The pomodoro method i have raved about all semester is also extremely beneficial, but i find it works better when studying with others, because as a group it is easier to keep each other on track, motivated and obedient of the pomodoro method’s break guidelines.

There is an overwhelming amount of work yet to be done, but there are plenty of actions that can be put in place that will help me to do it. I have consciously decided not to overwhelm myself with the pressure of meeting the requirements necessary to qualify for a phd – despite the information sessions that have been offered throughout the past weeks. I have just felt more comfortable using those two hour blocks to work on my Honours thesis and keep dedicated to the present task at hand. I tend to feel most stressed and anxious when i am juggling too many things at once, so i have tried to organise my time efficiently, take things day by day and make sure that i am completing all of the ‘mini-goals’ set for me by my supervisor on a week-to-week basis, so that i can complete honours to the best of my abilities as a researcher.

The Bigger Picture

Now that I have made my decision as to which structure I am going to implement for my thesis (due now in exactly a month), it seems to be getting easier for me to edit objectively.

Previously, I had found it difficult to delete, or move on from any section of my writing until I felt that I had addressed all (or at least most of) the points that I wanted to make in that section, and until it flowed exactly the way I had intended. Yet I am now starting to feel like it is less of a challenge to determine what content should remain in my thesis and what can be left out, in order to showcase my research qualities as best as possible.

While I still have a lot of piecing together to do in order to make every section flow sensibly (but also creatively) into the next, I can see how the development of my arguments has been clarified from the process of removing many of the superfluous passages I was holding onto in case they might prove significant later.

The other thing I am learning about research this week (having submitted a draft last Friday) is that it is amazing what you can achieve when a deadline draws near. While you obviously have to be careful not to leave things to the last minute, the work ethic that surfaces when you know you are up against the clock and have lots of work to do is truly something to marvel over.

For this reason, I have set myself a little goal with the intention of staying on task and working methodically and diligently on a daily basis: and that is to have a version of my thesis prepared by the 1st of October that reads coherently from start to finish and delivers my research and conclusions in an orderly and contextualised manner. I am not fussed if it requires 18000 or 20000 words to achieve this, because I know that the editing process will be made even easier yet again once I reach the point that I can actually look over my entire thesis and think to myself: “this tells readers what I want them to know”.

A quick one

It’s important that i do this blog post and acknowledge a few key things with regard to my current research practice. I feel it will be a good way to round out this weekend and prepare myself for another week of good, old fashioned dedicated study ahead.

1 – Setting up a dedicated space for study and leaving it so for a number of days (for study purposes only) works really well.

2 – Having a friend (or more than one) to join you there helps even more so. You can keep each other in line and focus on the task at hand – but also offer each other support and inspiration in times of doubt and fatigue.

3 – Achievable daily goals. Setting these before your day of study starts guarantees that feeling of relief when you look back on the day of research you have engaged in and know you’ve achieved what you wanted to.

4 (and my final point) – Do not EVER spend nights staying up until 5 o’clock in the morning studying. The next few days (particularly submission day and the following weekend) become the epitome of the hour-by-hour struggle. On that note, GOODNIGHT!

See you again soon after some rest in the coming week of research

Pomo plan

Big day ahead

D Day (draft day)

Today is the last day available for the honours cohort to edit, revise and work through our work thus far before submitting a first draft tonight. On a personal level, the change of scenery away from the lab and from my house and over to Steve’s art studio in Footscray has been a positive one, with the two of us putting in some big efforts over the past 48 hours and ultimately coming away with some more than pleasing work.

I feel like my research and writing has really benefited from being in a different space. Every time i take a break, i find myself in an unfamiliar suburb with new faces, new experiences and of course, new coffee shops around me. It’s proven to be a good way to break up the research.

I met with my supervisor Ed yesterday too to get some advice before the draft submission, as i simply have too many words, too much clutter going on and a whole section left to write. Thank goodness it’s a draft that’s due! We went through a few of the chapters i have been working on together, which he felt positive about but admitted were much too long and in desperate need of condensing. Ed came to the conclusion that in order for me to submit a draft that meets the required wordcount, i simply cannot include everything that i have done. Today i am going to have to be scrupulous and pretty open minded – including just the barebones of my work in progress to give Adrian an idea of what it is that i am trying to say – as i have said earlier, it is surely better to have the words available if i need them, than to not have enough to begin with.

The other big realisation that i have had, as annoying as it may be, is that the structure i have pursued (as discussed in my earlier posts about ‘uneven structure’) has not worked out. By dividing the chapters into the key arguments of my thesis rather than the case studies that i am exploring, i have had to continually reintroduce and provide context about each of the albums and how they fit in with my broader arguments and this has made it tedious and repetitive to read, as others have pointed out. The change will have to be made – to the other proposed structure – active as of today.

It’s frustrating to read over the work that you have laboured over so hard to find that so much of it is superfluous – although i do feel as though the process of ‘writing it out‘ has benefited me and provided me with further context and knowledge upon which to base my arguments and discussions.

With a full day ahead, Steve’s signature buckwheat porridge slowly burning in my stomach, and an effective pomodoro plan to boot (which i have yet to find time to adequately discuss in a blog post in the haste of this manic week), Steve and I are ready to throw everything that we have got at this day and submit some work that we are proud of. I think it’s fair to say that we hope to look back at the end of it, cold beer in hand, and say ‘Cheers’.

As a novice 21-year old researcher looking to present concise and coherent arguments within my limited word thesis, I started out by setting myself word count limitations for each chapter or sub-chapter of my planned thesis, and attempted to write to them, conforming to the set guidelines. In doing this, I felt as though I would naturally be compelled to critically evaluate the worth of every sentence I committed to the page – so I could cover all of the key ideas for each section of writing as succinctly as possible, without exceeding my overall word count. In hindsight, this was an unrealistic expectation to set for myself as a researcher.

On a number of occasions over the past month or so, I have found that some of the research doors I have opened have been very hard to close satisfactorily. Sometimes these doors have led me to places that have been difficult to leave (places that I have enjoyed researching within), only for me to realise hours later that in the grand scheme of things, the research doesn’t relate enough to the context of my thesis, and I probably should never have entered in the first place.

However, I am starting to see the benefits of opening such doors. Reading over my work thus far, it is clear to me that the best and most fluent extracts of my writing seem to arise when there is adequate context for them to develop – and this context stems from deep reading and research, and from writing things out in detail so that you fully understand them as a researcher. This has left me with way too many words – (i.e – 2000 words in sections that were intended to have 500), and potentially a thesis subject with too large a scope to accurately address in a 12000 word Honours thesis. Obviously, when working within word limitations– not everything that is written can be retained.

And so there has been a recurring feeling of tension, anxiety and impatience as I have struggled to cull words from my writing, in the fear of having a detrimental impact to the flow of the piece. I think it is natural for a researcher to become attached to his/her own work.

However, with an objective mindset, it should be possible for me to weed out the weakest sections and arguments without losing the context required to drive the strongest points home. With my first draft due for submission on Friday, one of the primary goals for today is to start weeding out the superfluous information – not necessarily deleting work that I have done, never to be seen again – but just storing it somewhere else to see how the overall thesis reads without it included.

I think printing out the work and reading it from a more impartial viewpoint, on paper rather than your computer screen, could prove useful in this regard.

I do feel like there is a lot of writing yet to be done. However, I have been too scared to go forward and write the necessary new material until I’ve nicely rounded out my previous chapters (the ones with too many words), which I cant seem to leave alone and stop editing! I think the best plan of attack is to use the draft submission this Friday as the dividing date. Condense, condense, condense for these next two days – and try and hand in something that communicates the general sense of where my thesis and research is headed. Having done that, I can pick up the further writing next week, using my draft content as a foundation.

I’m currently on a train heading out to Footscray, where I will be setting up for the day and tonight to do some peaceful study with my friend Steve in his art studio. Apparently the chair in this space is less than comfortable. Regardless, I look forward to a change of scenery and to work somewhere new. But I just really, really hope, in spite of the change of scenery and perspective – that I can keep all of the tempting doors of further research locked for these next few days, and focus on the task at hand: editing what I’ve got, and completing the draft.

A Hellish Chorus: Social Criticism in Thick as a Brick

Here is a nicely written essay that offers Burke’s interpetation of the social commentary dispersed throughout the lyrics and extra-music material of Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick (1972).

Analysis of Variance

December 8th, 2008

At first exposure, Jethro Tull’s 44-minute song Thick as a Brick may seem to be filled with nothing more than a bizarre and incomprehensible string of lyrics. Ian Anderson called it a “spoof” of other concept albums, and the album insert is a mock newspaper whose articles make ridiculous, seemingly accidental references to the song. The fictional back-story of the lyrics—that they were written for a contest by an eight-year-old boy named Gerald Bostock—further downplay their significance. According to the newspaper insert, Bostock’s poem actually won the contest at first, before a “hastily reconvened panel of Judges accepted the decision by four leading child psychiatrists that the boy’s mind was seriously unbalanced and that his work was a product of an ‘extremely unwholesome attitude towards life, his God and Country’” (1).[*] The comically severe traditionalism of their assessment highlights the poem’s atmosphere of satire and self-ridicule…

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Pomodoro collective

Further discussion of our pomodoro method – as detailed by Ed

honoured

Simon, Steve and I have been structuring our days around chunks of pomodoro writing and reading each others work. So far it has been going quite well. We arrive at the Honours lab around 9am to settle in for a 9:30 pomodoro start. We knock out three to four pomo’s (25mins with 5min breaks) before reading and critiquing a page of each others work. We then briefly debrief and discuss the comments before amending the pieces.

Here’s a demo from the first day of this pomo collective:

 

Structuring the days has been useful. Less chit chat and more writing is what’s needed at this stage in semester. The sounding boards both Simon and Steve offer me has been incredibly helpful. It is interesting that students from such diverse backgrounds and with such strong, individual writing styles have been drawn together in this year of intense study. Steve’s informal…

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5 days to go

The first draft of my thesis is due this Friday.

With this in mind, I expect a very busy and fired up honours cohort to be occupying the lab for the week ahead, which should prove to be a positive influence as far as spurring each other on is concerned. In order to submit a somewhat ‘complete’ piece on Friday, there is however, one section of my study in particular that requires utmost attention this week.

I have been building the middle section of my thesis at a steady pace, which deals with the technological development of the music industry from the 1970s until the 2000s and how technological changes have influenced the concept album. However, although i have been taking plenty of notes with relation to my section on how socio-cultural contexts are expressed through concept albums, I have been skipping over the writing process of this section somewhat, and need to direct my written attention here this week.

Thankfully, with the help of my buddies Steve and Ed, a study plan has been enforced that seems to be working well when followed closely – this will be vital this coming week. Using pomodoros as our time currency, we divide the day up into 25 minute writing blocks, with breaks for coffee and a lengthy break for lunch to save us from going insane.

I look forward to sharing the results of the semester thus far with my supervisor and program director at week’s end, and will use this blog throughout the week to assess how effectively our pomodoro-based writing plan has been working and also how I am feeling/what I am thinking as this important deadline draws near!

Wordcount, structures and helping hands.

Yesterday I engaged in a very helpful discussion with Jason, a friend of mine from the Media Objects Lab. While our research areas are rather different, we have realized throughout the semester that there is still a great deal of constructive advice that can be shared between us – and this goes for any two researchers. You don’t necessarily need to be engaging in in-depth reading of each others work, but just talking about your research with one another helps. What areas are you succeeding in? What requires further attention?

I explained to Jason that I had a solid writing session yesterday morning in terms of word count – exceeding the usual amount of words I would commit to the page in the few hours that I studied for. However, I faced an issue.

Reading over my technological analysis of Queensryche’s 1988 concept album Operation: Mindcrime, I felt that I had covered all of the necessary points of my discussion, and the flow of my writing was pleasing – conforming to a good structure. This was not the problem though. The problem was that in my plan, the section I had dedicated to “Operation: Mindcrime as a reflection of technological context within the music industry of the late 1980s” was supposed to go for 500 words. It had taken me over 2000 to cover the territory.

I mentioned this to our program director, Adrian, in the lab class. Reassuringly, it is the kind of ‘problem’ that he doesn’t really see as a problem.. Obviously, it is better to have many words to choose from and be able to cut them down, rather than be struggling to find them as the submission date draws near.

However, I think the reason that I view this as a problem is that there is such a VAST difference between the desired word count and the actual word count – yet I cannot look at the current work that lies before me at this stage, and see how the same message can be accurately conveyed in one quarter of the word length. It led me to consider whether the topics I have been looking to cover in my thesis are too broad to explore, given that I have a limit of 12,000 words (or thereabouts) with which to contain my whole thesis.

Wayne Booth’s book The Craft of Research drives the point that meeting such guidelines requires a very good grasp of the key concepts to be addressed (and also what will not be addressed), and the ability to express the findings of your research on these concepts succinctly. While I have made a structural plan detailing how many words can realistically be allocated to each chapter (featuring target word lengths for each section to keep me on track) I have found that so far, the key threads of my arguments and my most insightful observations only start to arise after researching and writing out my chapters in extended form, so the plan has often been ignored…

Maybe the best short works start out as extended pieces? Maybe I can apply two different streams of thought (technological and socio-cultural contexts) across four concept album case studies in 12000 words? I am hoping that even if my draft is well over the word limit – the most convincing and integral parts of my work will stand out as i read it back, and allow me to look at the work objectively and weed out the bad from the good. I guess this can be re-explored in a juicy blog post once everything has been properly written out. (I still have a lot of drafting to do)

Jason has faced similar problems with word counts and whether or not his ideas are too extensive to cover within his thesis. His work is grounded in the relationship between cinema and philosophy. His main concern has been an imbalance of how much background to provide about Heidegger in comparison to Deleuze, as he intends to use both figures as reference points throughout his piece. Whereas an average plan would naturally coerce one to allocate the same wordcount about each figure, offering background information and their theories and ideas, sometimes one theory supports the points you are trying to make more than the other: this has been the case with Jason, and is also the case with me (I seem to have an abundance to say about Jethro Tull and Queensryche at the moment, and it is raising concerns over how much I can afford to say about Radiohead and also Coheed and Cambria).

Perhaps the option of returning to a modified version of my original proposal: which involved blending the technological and socio-cultural discussions of each of my four case studies together, is one to consider? However, since so much of my writing thus far has been concerned with the technological contexts of these four great concept albums I am studying, and so little has actually articulated their socio-cultural importance: it is hard to judge whether one stream of thought is worth emphasising more than the other.

Jason mentioned that having a separate chapter for Technological contexts and another for Socio-cultural contexts will naturally require more words. This is certainly true, as the two chapters will need to be treated somewhat like separate essays, with their own introductions and contextualising information, and then linking paragraphs and re-introductory sentences to integrate each of the case studies. This approach, on the other hand, is likely to make sense to the reader and allows for ideas to develop gradually in the lead up to the big conclusion. Blending them together is also a good idea, as it may make the links between technology and social context more clear having them ‘in the same world’. I need to be thinking about which approach seems to be the most suitable, both for my own writing experience and for the potential audience that will read my work.

I feel that the only way to find out is to keep doing what i am doing – writing it out and leaving nothing out of the picture. Jason seems to be adopting the same approach, so we are in it together! The following line has been thrown around a lot this year, and while it frightens me, i do hope it is true.. “It all comes out in the editing”.

Maybe i need some music therapy.. wait on, songs typically do not go for long enough to ease the frustration! A HA! I have a solution……

Ha det bra!

 

 

Taking care of business

In this little blog post, I would just like to say hello you those people who have decided to ‘follow’ my blog in this past week. It has been quite a surprise! Apparently you will receive a notification by email every time I set my fingers to the keyboard on wordpress! So I thought I’d better say Hello and let you know who I am!

Here goes. My name is Simon! I am a 21 year old musician from Melbourne, Australia. I perform in a progressive rock band called Kettlespider, playing the drums. I am currently researching the technological and socio-cultural trajectories of ‘concept albums’ as they have developed, and their significance within our contemporary music industry. This research is the foundation of the thesis I am writing in fulfillment of my Honours degree (Media and Communication) at RMIT university.

While I cannot guarantee that all of my posts are going to fascinate you, as this blog is intended for university research purposes, I will try and keep in mind the fact that there are people out there reading.. I’m really glad you’ve found a thing or two that I have written about interesting. In fact, It’s fantastic.

So thank you very much for your interest!

 

Writing it out

In yesterday’s onslaught of pomodoros, I attempted to address the technological context of the 1970s music industry in 1000 words, predominantly through the lens of Jethro Tull’s classic concept album, Thick as a Brick. Contrary to some of my previous concerns throughout the semester, in which I have struggled to elaborate on certain sections and find enough words to explore them in adequate detail – yesterday I didn’t allow the ‘word count’ feature to influence me. Instead I just focused on writing out my ideas and thoughts on the topic, letting them flow naturally, adding references as i found them. I managed to set over 2000 words to the page and I still felt that the territory was not properly covered..

While I am aware that exceeding target word counts should be the least of my worries for the moment, as many of the superfluous phrases and sentences i have included can be weeded out in the editing process, there is an imbalance surfacing in the word counts I have accumulated so far across the different sections of my prescribed thesis structure. Whereas I had no problems finding the words for this particular case study, there are other segments (written using the same approach) that have not been so free-flowing…

My concern is that an extended work requires consistency.. From the introduction onwards – all of the key concepts and ideas relevant to the thesis should be given at least roughly equal time – with a select few that stand out as more significant, in order to drive the concluding points home. (i.e: there is no use in providing four case studies if you are going to focus the majority of my case study allocation on just one)

The thought does cross my mind that perhaps I have taken on a task that is too big to address in the amount words that I have to play with, but then again I have yet to begin the proper editing stage of my work. It is surely better to have words on the page that can be edited down, rather than enduring a constant struggle to find the words at all.

I think I am going to persevere with this method of ‘writing it out’ – welcoming all the detail that I can possibly provide for each case study or chapter for the time being, so that it’s all there on the page, and freeing myself of the limitations and constraints of the ‘meet this strict word count’ mindset. There will no doubt be some long days and nights in the editing room – but hey – you do the hokie pokie and you turn around – and that’s what it’s all about.

Half asleep and ranting away the day.

– posted an hour after writing –

With the deadline of the first draft of my thesis approaching faster than a blast beat, and a mountain of key quotes, rough notes and new original observations to edit into some cohesive case study chapters – things in Simon’s Honours HQ are getting pretty tense. It’s 11.30pm on a Wednesday night.. I think that means it’s time to head home.

 

Today’s word count was encouraging, and I was able to implement the first of the structural changes that I have been toying with in my last few blog posts. But I am concerned by the way that the restructuring of my thesis has damaged the once orderly presentation of my Scrivener project. In the space of two weeks, my Scrivener project file has shifted from being the most organized uni-related endeavour I have ever worked on (see my previous post about scrivener labels), to its current appearance as a haphazard, anxiety inducing trainwreck.

 

This is in need of drastic change – starting first thing tomorrow morning.

 

The section of my work that is most daunting to peruse over at the moment is my chapter on the relationship between concept albums and media technologies.

The chapter is paramount to the flow of my thesis. It needs to document the ways that the concept album format has been influenced by the ongoing progression of technology over the course of nearly half a century, while critically engaging with the four albums that I have chosen to explore as case studies. At the moment, it doesn’t really do either of these things – for reasons that I am aware of, yet find hard to articulate in words.

I can recall how my introduction chapter (which appears to be taking a nice-ish shape now) went through a similar phase of utter disorganization, before it slowly but surely developed for the better with some perseverance and patience.

 

While there are so many things in my other ‘work-in-progress’ chapters that require revising and tempt further attention, the truth is that no component of my work requires more dedicated effort than this one. Given its importance to my pending next steps, of developing a strong conclusion and evaluating the outcomes of my research, this chapter is the only thing that I should have open in Scrivener when I sit myself down for study in the morning.

In more uplifting news – my progressive rock band Kettlespider had a good day. The photo below says it all.

Kettlespider earn some ‘played on triple j’ honours!

 

 

 

 

 

‘Break (a.k.a study) Week’

This week at RMIT university, it is ‘break week’. In past years of study, this week has been something that i have relished at the midpoint of second semester, to get rejuvenated and enjoy some time to myself free of study-related endeavours.

For Honours, however, with just over two weeks left until our first draft submissions are due, i feel that some downtime will not in any way relieve my anxieties, but rather compound them. Thus, with the help of my study buddies – Ed and Steve – ‘say hi guys’…

      hi!             hi!

I am poised to really try and make the most of this forthcoming week, using each day for close study and consistent writing, while attempting to find solutions to the structural issues that i have outlined in my previous posts.

I have found that starting the writing process earlier in the day rather than later seems to be a method that has paid dividends for me in recent weeks, and i will be trying to work in this fashion every day for the week ahead. Channeling the positive effects of a night’s sleep, a tasty breakfast and a hot cup of coffee into words on a page seems to set up similarly positive habits and work ethic for the remainder of the day (particularly if deep reading and note-taking needs to be done), and the morning’s words are fit for editing when you return to them later.

Of chief importance for my ‘break (study) week’ is to construct my case studies, so i can start to develop an idea of how the many ingredients of my thesis will look, smell and taste once they have all been delicately poured through the sifter and into the bowl.

There are four case studies. They are each different. The research i have done for each of the four studies does not really overlap, with each study representing different eras and different musical/technological/social approaches. Yet links need to be made between them, and this is my current goal.

What do my case studies tell us about the concept album’s current and potential future positions?

Do they support my claim that concept albums can represent the technological and socio-cultural contexts of their time?

Can these four examples be seen as representative of the concept album approach as a whole?

This week is likely to provide, at the very least, foundational answers to such questions.

Queensryche: Mindcrime documentary

Given the surprising lack of scholarly attention afforded to Operation:Mindcrime (an album that i will be investigating in a case study for my thesis), i feel lucky to have access to this video on YouTube.

It is an analytical appraisal of the album, its concept and its broader contexts, put together by an avid fan of Queensryche, who also happens to be a great researcher.

 

Uneven Structure – second installment

This post is in continuation from my previous entry, where I explained how I would use this week to look into different ways of structuring my case studies and the flow of my thesis.

I have always seemed to crumble and face difficulties in the structural component of my writing more so than anything else, and have identified this as something that I need to be clear about and in control of from an early enough point in time that I won’t face issues and anxieties prior to submission.

As I have established previously, my introduction will clarify the goals of my thesis, including straightforward explanations for why the concept album holds importance in music history and why it is likely to endure in the future. I will also highlight my personal inspiration for writing about the subject, introduce my four case studies (Coheed and Cambria for 2000s, Radiohead for 1990s, Queensryche for 1980s and Jethro Tull for 1970s), and explicate the two streams of thought that constitute my primary arguments:

1. The concept album has a history of reflecting the socio-cultural context of its time.

2. The concept album format has been adapted to reflect progressions in media technology and the dominant mode of music distribution.

My literature review will be concerned with the history of concept albums themselves, allowing readers to grasp an idea of what constitutes a concept album, as well as what a concept album is not. I discuss the concept album’s relationship with progressive rock music and outline famous examples that have been interrogated by scholars. The aim is to establish a linear, chronological order in my writing here that traces existing literature on the concept album from its early origins, through its most successful period, up to its supposed decline and possible resurgence. It will be important to familiarise readers with the chronological layout early, as it seems to be the most logical way to order my case studies.

The case studies are the difficult aspect. Quite simply, there are two layout options that I am weighing against each other at the moment, each with advantages and disadvantages.

The chapter headings used in a thesis are obviously intended to dictate the nature of the content to be discussed within them, and can play a major role in determining the effectiveness of the author’s argument. My dilemma is whether to give the concept albums I am using as case studies the chapter title ascendancy, or whether to make the chapter titles relate to the sociocultural and technological contexts I am exploring. i.e:

“2000s: Coheed and Cambria’s The Amory Wars (2002-2013)”
vs.
“Concept Albums as a Reflection of Socio-Cultural Contexts in Different Eras”

In the case of the former approach, the concept albums themselves are the primary focus. The subheadings I include would dictate the different areas of discussion: Firstly, background information on the album and its time of release. Secondly, how the album was able to reflect it’s relevant socio-cultural circumstances. Finally, how it used technology of its time to enhance the effectiveness of its concept and ultimately reflect its era of media in transition. Setting out the case studies in this way would provide a close look into each album in their own separate chapter, analysing how they function as concept albums, socio-cultural indicators and reflections of technological progress.

The other approach, one championed by my good friend Ed Armstrong, is to use the ‘subheadings’ discussed above (Background info, Socio-cultural context, Technological context) as the overarching chapter titles that follow on from my literature review. If I were to do this, I would discuss each of my four case studies (in order of their time of release) under those headings, focusing on how they reflect the chapter’s title only. In adopting this structural style, I would be using the concept albums as my subject of study, but placing greater emphasis on the broader streams of thought that I have set out to investigate: the concept album format, the progression of new media technologies within the music industries, and the expression of socio-cultural contexts through music.

I feel that in either case, the many dimensions of my chosen concept albums (artwork, packing, narratives, themes, layout) may be able to function as languages of communication, allowing me to speak objectively about the broader points I have identified. However, as far as having the most powerful effect on the audience is concerned, I feel that perhaps the only way for me to know which structural method is “right” for this piece will be to draft two different versions of my thesis. For now, I’ll take things one big step at a time.. and hopefully the uneven structure will start to balance itself out.

Uneven structure

On the whole, it has been a productive few days for me in Honours land. I endured a productive full-day study slog in the lab on Saturday with Steve, which saw each of us muster up word tallys to be proud of. One of the other worthwhile exercises we attempted was to articulate our ‘research paths’ to one another effectively and as quickly as possible. This was interesting, as our understanding of each other’s topics is limited, but it served as a positive exercise for breaking down the more complex arguments we are each trying to deliver and expressing them in a way that an impartial observer could understand.

I have added an extra case study to the mix.. Queensryche’s “Operation: Mindcrime” album. I feel that the leap between the early 1970s (Jethro Tull) and the late 1990s (Radiohead) is too great to adequately trace the progression of media technologies in the music industry, and more importantly, could be seen to suggest that the 1980s was an unimportant era in the history of the concept album format and also in the socio-cultural contexts affecting music: which would have been terribly false. While the era had adverse effects on the concept album, it is still highly significant to its development.

I look forward to addressing “Operation: Mindcrime” in my work. The political nature of “Operation: Mindcrime” and its complex narrative concept earned it the reputation of being one of the greatest rock/metal albums of the 1980s, and it is indeed a personal favourite album of mine.

My dogs brekky introductory chapter draft (which discusses why the concept album is important, which case studies i have chosen, and my decision to divide my research into two streams: relations with new media technologies and reflections of socio-cultural contexts) received some helpful feedback from the likes of Callie and Gemma in last weeks lab class. With the suggested amendments made, supervisor Ed has taken his first glance over it and decided that its time to shelve it until my arguments have some more substance in the form of my case studies, and come back to it later. Ed has also picked apart much of my overlong literature review segments as I begin to weed out all of the unnecessaries.

As i dive head first into the case study process, one of the first things i have needed to think about is the ratio of innovation i inject. How much of each case study should focus on the existing literature, facts, stats and ideas about each of the albums i am studying? And how much of the content should express my own reasonings, projections and thoughts?

At this stage i feel that there is a lot that i want to say to support my broader arguments, but i know that finding authoritative evidence from the work of others that achieves the same end result will be more effective.

Another aspect of my case studies that i am having trouble with is how I should set them out in order to achieve consistency and coherency between them. I feel as though subheadings that divide each of the case studies into topics such as “background information”, “technological context” and “sociocultural context” could be a useful approach. Ideally, this would mean that linear narratives could be discerned as the reader analyses my case studies (tying in nicely with their chronological order) and i believe this would be valuable to the strength and flow of my arguments.

I look forward to experimenting with various structural approaches throughout the coming week as i complete more writing!

Geared towards the Average AND the Exceptional?

Early in Side B of Jethro Tull’s 1972 concept album Thick as a Brick, a faint voice, that of bassist Jeffrey Hammond Hammond, can be heard uttering the words:

“we will be geared toward the average rather than the exceptional”.

Whether the use of “we” in this quote of Hammond’s insinuates the band, Jethro Tull, or is inclusive of English society as a whole at the time of the album’s release in 1972, is up for debate. However, it would seem that the latter is the more likely.

Throughout the course of the album, the band offers a nicely disguised commentary on the state of affairs in England during the counterculture. The band present subtle observations about England’s government, education systems and dominant religions, suggesting that these authoritative bodies are “gearing society toward the average”, and robbing individuals of their independence and natural intellect.

The album’s innovative cover is presented in the form of a newspaper known as the St. Cleve Chronicle. The headline story pokes fun at the Education system of Britain, who have supposedly disqualified an 8 year old boy, one Gerald Bostock, from a poetry competition for delivering a poem seemingly beyond his years in its syntax and complex themes. Other representations of England’s flaws are hidden in the guise of obscure lyrics that shift between 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd person viewpoints, and also scattered throughout the various articles and comic strips of the fictional newspaper.

A peculiar thought crossed my mind yesterday as I was listening to and researching Thick as a Brick. The above quote from this classic concept album, with its notions of “the exceptional” and “the average”, could be applied in numerous contexts. For example, if we consider the recent progression of the music industry, perhaps the argument that society has been “geared toward to average rather than the exceptional” could be made…

The mainstream popular music audience has channeled their focus towards the consumption of intangible, digital singles – easy to make, easy to sell, and easy to forget. Most singles are not demanding on the listener, often have a tendency to incorporate generic sounds and use common song structures and only feature on an album for the purpose of maximising revenue, bundled with sub-par ‘filler’ tracks to fulfill the album duration and cover that share of the market. In a nutshell, this mainstream trend within contemporary music could be considered “average”.

By contrast, concept albums (and the album format in general for that matter) maintain their relevance today as a mode of artistic expression (particularly in specific music circles such as progressive rock) due to the skill and labour required in their construction, and their inventiveness. A good concept album utilises the extended playing time of the album format, experiments with conventional song structures and features many twists and turns to maintain the listeners interest throughout. Most importantly, it communicates a certain mood, story or message. For the purpose of this comparison, we might consider concept albums, like Thick as a Brick, to be “exceptional”.

Another idea stopped me in my tracks yesterday, giving the notions of “average” and “exceptional” a different meaning with regards to music. It concerned the differing ways that music has been distributed in various eras, as technology has continued to progress. This has been a major factor in the fluctuating success of concept albums.

Taking a retrospective look at the sound carriers of music over the past 50 years, one could arguably position the current state of the music industry, in all its digitised glory, as that which is “exceptional”. While vinyl records are actually growing in popularity again (as I explored in my last post), the multiple media platforms available in our current digital age can combine to enhance the music listening experience for audiences in both album and single form. Websites, video, interactive content, and the music of course, can form immersive transmedia narratives – which, when made effectively, can leave the trusty old vinyl records so important to the concept album format in past years to look rather “average” in comparison.

So.. are contemporary music consumers geared towards “the exceptional” or “the

average”? Maybe, depending on how you look at it, we are geared towards both?

The major trends seem to indicate that “the average”, conventional music dominates the charts and key analytics. However, I believe it can be argued, (using big-selling recent concept albums by artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Coheed and Cambria, Daft Punk and Frank Ocean as examples) that “exceptional” musical content remains highly valued in the now. The rapidly increasing sales of current issue vinyls suggest that maybe the “exceptional” presentation available in the digital age is impressive, but not essential. Perhaps, it’s even a little bit scary.

Vinyl’s comeback

I am realising more and more just how significant the vinyl record is within my discussion of ‘concept albums’, and how certain concept albums released in the 60s, 70s and 80s utilised the vinyl’s extra-musical properties (such as the large 12×12 inch cover space and the larger still gatefold sleeve) to enhance the narrative or thematic themes of the album’s music, and also reflect the sociocultural contexts of their time of release. (See Jethro Tull’s ‘Thick as a Brick’, Aphrodite’s Child’s ‘666’, Camel’s ‘Nude’ or Queensryche’s ‘Operation Mindcrime’.)

I have always marveled at the warmth and richness of vinyl records, and their characteristic crackle. I am learning that I am far from the only young fellow with this fascination.

CDs are falling down fast.. i have 700 of them, but i am aware they are on the way out. Even JB HIFI have halved their range. As digital files dominate the music market, and single songs rather than albums are the more common unit of sale, the physicality of music (which has been preserved by albums for decades) appears under threat.

A piece that I have been analysing by Bartmanski and Woodward (2012), together with an Ashgate publication by Osborne (2012), however, have each made the incredible power and appeal of vinyl records clearer to me.

Could it be that vinyl, and its traditional traits and aesthetics, holds the key to the reinvigoration of the physical artefact in music?

Bartmanski and Woodward seem to think so.. They note that the period between 2008 and 2012 delivered more sales of vinyl records than the entire period between 1993 and 2007 combined. And this doesn’t even take into account the many sales of vinyl from independent record retailers that do not report sales figures to Soundscan.

Osborne suggests that vinyl records, more so than any other physical medium of music, provide both an alternative to, and a complement for digital music files. Popular contemporary artists such as Coheed and Cambria and Kendrick Lamar, as well as resurgent veterans such as Jethro Tull, have each released concept albums in the past two years that have made the most of vinyl’s comeback. Their gatefolds are filled to the brim with imagery, text and special features that illuminate their album concepts, and justify their album’s status as a valuable artifact. What is most interesting, however, is that these artists also bundle their vinyls with digital file versions of the music at no extra cost, to service the demands of the digital generation. This sacrifices some of the artistic intent, but allows their music to be featured on playlists for iPhones, iPads, iPods and websites everywhere and guarantees listeners.. Genius.

Lady Gaga has announced plans to release a concept album later this year in the form of an App. As far as I understand, the devilish diva, known for being one step ahead of the times just as Bowie was in the 1970s, intends for her ‘Applbum’, titled ARTPOP, to throw a spanner in the works of the music industry’s current ‘album vs single’ situation. The album-as-app format will be used to place equal importance on both her individual songs, and the album on which they belong. Each song on ARTPOP will have its own dedicated page of interactive content, while remaining connected to the greater whole.

Whether or not we see a mass-distributed vinyl edition of ARTPOP may be a telling sign of things to come.

Lady Gaga strikes a pose in the lead-up to the release of her forthcoming ARTPOP.

Writing time

The task of writing a thesis is certainly proving to be one of deep involvement and immersion.. Thankfully, my passion for music is being integrated in my studies of the concept album.

I’m finding that i can’t go for a swim, attend band practice or even have a date with my girlfriend without getting distracted at times by thoughts of the things i might like to write about, read about, listen to or watch.

However, at times, i have found that while my creative thoughts are running wild and ideas are aplenty – its hard to force words out on the page that properly articulate the concepts in my mind the way I want them to read. The key word here is WRITING, and i’m finding that if the task of writing is treated as a repetitious process, things start to make sense, slowly but surely, and at the same time become injected with a certain flair and sense of personality that distinguish my own thoughts from those of others.

On Tuesday, I mentioned in my lab class to Adrian, the program director, that in an attempt to pry further words out last week: I spent entire days (9am until 12am) in lockdown at home in what I referred to as my ‘study zone’. I had a comfy chair and table space in my living room, with my relevant texts at my side, 3 concept albums loaded in the CD player (with a Genesis vinyl ready to go while i had lunch), laptop there before me and everything I could possibly need to have a solid, enjoyable study day.

Adrian asked me how I fared with this set up. And the truth was, I ended up with about 700 words, not great words at that, and it took me all of 15 hours to complete. Clearly, for my studies, which involves a combination of writing, reading and listening tasks, it was not a wise idea to collide these three seperate worlds. Adrian was not surprised in the slightest.

Yesterday, I acknowledged the problems of last weeks arrangement, and took it upon myself to pull out the diary in the morning, plan out the day, and allocate separate times to each of my three work areas. In the space of 5 hours of dedicated study, I came away with 800 great words (thought provoking words at that), enjoyed a close listening of Camel’s 1981 concept album ‘Nude’ with the notebook in hand, and read through a lengthy and dense journal article, with some great references, that I had been putting off for weeks.

This blog post aims to serve as a personal reminder of what to do, and what not to do when I have a vacant day for studying. Capping off a productive study day with a clear enough conscience to enjoy a nice dinner and a trip to the cinemas with my girlfriend, without thinking about how the text in the newspaper articles that accompany Jethro Tull’s ‘Thick as a Brick’ vinyl are reflected in the album’s music, was a good feeling.

If I can continue writing like that (as I will attempt to do now that i’ve let off some steam): i’d suggest that ’12 points’ for the word WRITING isn’t out of the question.

See you next time.
Sim

Scrivener labels

Following on from my previous post, i have included a screenshot here of the sidebar from my scrivener project. I feel that while this organisational process has been useful for keeping organised and managing my material, it is certainly no hidden pathway to better and more fluent writing!

After a difficult weekend in the writers seat, i have acknowledged that this coming week i have to focus rather intently on meeting reasonable daily goals. With a draft of my second chapter due to my supervisor on thursday (which still needs a lot of work before i would feel comfortable submitting) i know i need to break down the bigger goals such as ‘finish chapter’ into smaller and more, achievable goals as we discussed last semester. Paragraph by paragraph, well referenced and all written in context. My diary has been of much use in this regard.

Sunday Ponderings

In the past few days, I have favoured the type and edit routine more so than the read and blog path, as I have tried to make sense of my current research position. I have found that writing in a ‘literature review style’ about newer ideas I have been trying to grasp (trying to concisely place the concept album art form into both its technological and sociocultural contexts) has been a useful exercise.

My knowledge base is growing daily, and this has left my scrivener file with many ‘segments’, in which I write about various concepts and ideas that could potentially be used to bolster my arguments. I have started to use the ‘label’ function on scrivener to categorise these segments, so that I can easily identify the type of content discussed and the argument each author or article I analyse is trying to make. Work I have done based on books I have read attracts the book label, just as articles from magazines and newspapers attract their relevant label. Segments featuring quotes and references from; or passages I have written about a certain piece of work that must be integrated into my writing somewhere are labeled with an exclamation mark, so I do not ignore them and forget to include them in my work. Those authors who discuss technological aspects (Jones, Arditi, Biron, Sorger, Kibby etc) are categorised with the flat screen TV label. And my broader sociocultural and ethnographic works-in-progress simply use a picture of a man to symbolise their content. General ideas I have that can be returned to in spare time are labeled with a light bulb.

One of my primary concerns at this early stage is gauging the flow, pace and progression of my work. Since I have never written a piece of this duration before, I am finding it challenging to know how long I should spend on each topic to be addressed my thesis, and how to divide the various chapters of my thesis accordingly. I do not want the content of my thesis to feel like it drags on or misses ‘the point’ at any stage, and I certainly want to make sure every sentence and quote I use contributes to the sense and cohesion of my broader arguments.

I am certainly looking forward to meeting with my supervisor, Ed, later this week to share with him the work I have done in the past few days and also raise the concerns I have articulated here.

This coming Tuesday, the Media Objects lab will be revisiting our precursor projects from last semester and refining the contextualising statements that accompany them, with the hope of preparing them for the chance of publication in an iBook collection. I look forward to tackling this challenge on Tuesday morning and having another look at the fine work everyone did last semester in our lab.

Simon.