Music is a wide range of creations that everyone is the world gravitates to. Learning about popular music in America, even some around the world, I chose two concerts to attend that were completely different from each other, in terms of performance, genre, and audience appearance. The first concert I went to was held in the Ted Constant Center at Old Dominion University, hosting Hip-Hop and Trap artist and songwriter Lil Uzi Vert. He’s categorized as an charismatic, hyper, and a naturally entertaining artist who young teens to college adults gravitate to due to the non-traditional rap he portrays.
The second concert I attend was right here at George Mason, in the Center for the Arts building. Performing was the Virginia Tech Wind Ensemble and Combined Choirs. The program was very traditional, with an older audience due to the older, more traditional orchestra-like music. First, starting off with obvious differences, both performer(s) were vastly different. Lil Uzi Vert is a professional music artist who writes and sometimes produces his own music.
The Virginia Tech Wind Ensemble and Combined Choirs were students and/ or professors at Virginia Tech, of all classes and ages with their adult conductors, Dwight Bigler and Jonathan Caldwell. I would say that both performers are on two different sides of music. The Virginia Tech program had more of traditional, Tin Pan Alley and Classical genres with a hint of orchestra-like performance. Lil Uzi Vert is on the hip-hop spectrum but due to his different melodies and/or tunes of his music, he can pass in the Pop genre also.
Another difference between the artist and ensemble is their recognition before coming popular. Lil Uzi Vert became popular from his mixtape single “Money Longer”, along with popularity of his mixtapes in general. The Virginia Tech ensemble became popular solely because of friends and family supporting those who are performing. Moreover, the presence and attitude of the audience are what makes the concert and/or performance memorable. Going to the Lil Uzi Vert concert at the Ted Constant Center was an experience that was quite memorable, though good and bad.
The audience was full of students for Old Dominion, Norfolk State, Hampton University, and even some universities from northern parts of Virginia from Norfolk. I would say the age range from there would be between 18 to 23 years old, not including those who were there working the facility. The dress of the audience was casual for the most part, with only a few females wearing semi-formal attire. The audience dressed according to the facility, because it was very crowded. For the most part, every social and racial group of the universities in Norfolk and Hampton attended this concert.
I’ve seen many people of different races and ethnic backgrounds; although | couldn’t tell the economical groups who were in attendance, by the familiarity between the different and similar social groups in attendance, most of the audience appeared to be college students. Moreover, the Virginia Tech Wind Ensemble and Combined Choirs program was very quiet, with a smaller audience of 100-200 people. It was a semi-formal event, however some of the couples and/or families who’ve attended had the males in dress pants and a button up or a suit, and the ladies in dresses with dressy sandals or heels.
Being in the quiet atmosphere, I felt like I was at an opera, sitting in the furthest seat from the stage. Sitting in this program, the audience was predominately white, with a few Asian and black families and/or parent couples. They all appeared to be middle class citizens, due to my judgement of their attire; the age range of the audience would be in between 35-50 years old with outliers between 14-23 years old due to the number of possible siblings in attendance.
In addition, this program strictly prohibited cell phone, audio/video recording, and flash photography use inside the theater while at the Ted Constant Center, you couldn’t possibly not see a cellphone recording every minute of the concert. The song performance for both concerts were interesting to me, despite my taste in music. The VT Ensemble performed several traditional songs, even songs composed by the late George Gershwin and Charles Ives. Variations on “America”, composed in years 1891, 1962, and 1968 was one song performed only by the Wind Ensemble.
The melody was very light and the instrumentation made the variations sound ballroom-like and dance-like, also. The instrumentation were string instruments, wood-wind, flutes, oboe, tuba, clarinet, trombone, and more. Jonathan Caldwell, a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Virginia Tech conducted this song along with others during the show. The tempo of the variations of “America” along with the “Prelude No. 2″ (1926/1962) composed by George Gershwin were slow to mid-tempo. It had a soothing, angelic like harmony that picked up a quicker tempo in certain sections of the song.
Mothership” written and/or composed by Mason Bates (2011/2012) had an upbeat melody with a fast tempo, with a jazz-like club sound. The piano presence was large during this song performance, along with the wind ensemble instruments. There were not any unusual instruments used, although one instrument that stuck out to me while being played was the oboe. The sound was familiar, but I’ve never seen the instrument in person. During the Lil Uzi Vert concert, he performed many songs from his old mixtapes and few as new, for promotional purposes.
Ironically, being a solo artist he had a bundle of songs to perform and one of the few that stuck out to me was his older debut single “Money Longer”. This song is a fast paced/tempo song, with the instrumentation of an electric piano, drum sets and possibly digital synthesizers, samplers, and electric bass. On stage, there was a DJ, to assist with the playing of the music through the speakers and to aid in Lil Uzi’s performance techniques. “P’s and Q’s” was another popular song performed by Lil Uzi from his recent album Lil Uzi Vert vs. The World.
The instrumentation was familiar to “Money Longer” although in the introduction and during the bridge and chorus of the song, it sounds as though bagpipes are being used along with the turn tables to create the dance-like “reverse” move that is commonly done to his must. This song, along with “XO TOUR Llif3”, his new 2017 single, all have fast tempo with upbeat and dance-like melodies with one specific different instrument or digital beat created specifically made for the chorus and bridge sections. Moreover, both concert performances exceeded my expectations.
First, being that I already listen to Lil Uzi Vert due to the genre he’s set in, his musical sound and performance ethic aligned with what I saw and heard at the concert. Being that I’ve never been to a true Classical music performance with every instrument needed for the sound right in front of me, I would say Virginia Tech’s Wind Ensemble and Combined choirs kept me entertained although I don’t listen to that genre. The main differences were the audience presence, which was larger at the Lil Uzi Vert concert due to the facility being much larger.
Another difference would be the social, racial and economic groups in attendance: one was mainly concert students and the second was mainly middle-aged parent couples and/or families with younger siblings. Lastly, would be the genres: one Hip-hop and Trap and the other Tin Pan Alley with a mixture of Classical. Although I did take some interest in the Virginia Tech program, I enjoyed the Lil Uzi Vert concert more due to the large presence of college students and it was music being performed that | listen to daily. Also, I went and enjoyed my time better with my friends at the Lil Uzi concert rather than by myself at the Virginia Tech program.
