Making A Record In 36 Hours, Recording One Song For 6 Months.

According to studio records and since verified by Jimmy Page himself, Led Zeppelin purchased 36 hours of studio time to record Led Zeppelin I (this includes mixing). Including artwork and studio time the album collectively cost Led Zeppelin 1750 pounds. Today this is roughly $2794.40 in US dollars. Led Zeppelin I was released in 1969 and by 1975 the band had grossed $7,000,000 in sales.

The overall sales as of 2010 are unbeknowst to me but I can imagine that they are astronomically higher than 7 million dollars at this point. For those of you who don't know, making a record of high quality in 36 hours is not feasable for 99.9% of bands on this planet.

By today's standards it is extremely rare that anything released by a major label gets recorded for this cheap (relatively) and completed in anything near a 36 hour period. Most bands in general - regardless of their level of success or talent - do not work this quick anymore. The standards and processes have changed immensely.The reasons for bands working so much slower than they used to can be debated for days. Some blame record labels. Some will go as far as to cite the lack of talent and current demands put on the modern band. It could be a combination of many of these things.

In a recent interview I viewed from the Beatles Documentary "All Together Now", Paul Mc Cartney states that our modern technology gives an artist more options which lengthens the creative/recording process. He explains that the Beatles didn't  have  as  many  options  as  bands  do  today. For this reason they completed songs at a very fast rate. He recalls that they would go in to the studio to work and record songs like "Girl" and "Nowhere Man" back to back, throw them on the shelf and get on the next song. Most of these songs they were writing themselves. When you only have 4 tracks and you are forced to record live you have no choice but to deliver a great performance/arrangement because there are no other options.

For any readers that think the Beatles don't deserve the credit they get consider that they recorded over 300 songs (between live and studio) and released 212 of them in proper LP format ... in a span of a short 8 years.

The quality of the recordings, performances, and songs in general are all around fantastic. Think about your favorite band and try to tip the scales.

Today most recording artists have unlimited track counts and thus more options. It is common that bands 'track' their records over recording them 'live'. Tracking is a process in which each member does their part

individually rather than 'live' (all at the same time). A majority of records are a combination of these two processes. Since the birth of the digital age, post production on records has steadily increased and it isn't uncommon that bands hand their records away or they are taken away to be doctored up by a professional. Why is this relevant? The studio is being used as much if not more as an instrument as the musicians themselves, which unfortunately leaves less of a demand on actual performance.

On the contrary to Led Zeppelin and The Beatles, The Beach Boys took an ungodly amount of time and money (by 1966 standards) to record the Brian Wilson masterpiece "Good Vibrations". This song was recorded over the course of 6 months. "Good Vibrations" was recorded in 17 different sections at 4 different studios. The first section recorded took 26 takes alone. In the end the recording sessions cost $50,000, and used 90 hours of tape. It is rumored that $15,000 of the recording costs went to capturing the right theramin take. Brian Wilson had a vision and used the studio, multi-tracking and tape to build a 'pocket symphony'. Though costly and by no means done efficiently or in a timely manner, this is a masterpiece. This song is a fine example of a band using the studio as a tool to perform something they couldn't do live. Approaches to recording have forever been altered since. I couldn't imagine the work that went into building one cohesive song out of 90 hours of tape and hundreds of takes they had at their disposal.

As we were preparing to track, we sat down and had a long conversation about how to approach our next record. Collectively we decided that this was a good time for us to try to record live. When I came across that Led Zeppelin statistic I was so impressed that they did that entire record in three sessions and was inspired to write this blog and share other stories/thoughts. Those kind of numbers make my head spin. especially when you hear that end product.

Thanks for reading.

Stephen Francis

Lady Gaga Sets Billboard Record!!!

Lady Gaga was played 10,859 times in one week setting a new Billboard record... Check that out HERE

Just an FYI that is: 1551 times a day, 64 times an hour, simultaneously overlapping somewhere in the country every 1.07 minutes for one week straight.

Some amazing numbers. Truly an unreal feat.

Before you read this next section, please understand that no one in the Model Stranger camp is diminishing Lady Gaga's achievements or raining on her parade.

On the same token no one was diminishing Sammy  Sosa and Mark McGwire's achievements either, until they started putting up unreal numbers.

Do Billboard charts put asterisks next to statistics when a music company is on steroids?

*(Clear Channel owns roughly 1,200 radio stations and about seventy percent of all live events that are promoted in the United States).

"Before the Music Dies" was a 2006 documentary that describes the commercialization of music and the involvement of Clear Channel and other key public figures in monopolizing on our airwaves/radio stations. In the end we are left with less and less capability to find new music on the radio. Believe or not, it gets worse (watch the movie, there's a trailer HERE).

When a fan of music only has 20 songs to choose from, the numbers will get stacked.

HOPE 

There's still hope. Believe it or not there are some great places to discover great and fresh music. And no, not "MySpace".

College Radio 

This still exists believe it or not. Radio 1190 out in Boulder, Colorado are as advanced and involved as any radio station. They even have a cool iPhone app! Model Stranger will be visiting them on paying them a visit during their forthcoming spring tour. Most college radio stations stream online, and you can listen to a handful of them straight out of your iTunes. Just click the radio icon in the sidebar (not the iTunes Store) to reveal the College Radio section. You can find College Radio stations in Chicago via this nifty list.

Online Radio

There's a massive database of online radio stations out there and it can be difficult to navigate.Google "online radio stations" or "free internet radio" and your eyes will fall out looking through all the options. For example, locally, Model Stranger have found airplay on Fearless Radio and are also paying close attention to the recently launched Chicago Independent Radio Project (CHIRP). Branding themselves as "Chicago's Newest Community Radio Station".

Super Cool Awesome Streaming Sites

The Sixty One - A music adventure community where good music gets boosted up, and bad music disappears. Model Stranger is part of this one and are big fans of it. It's unreal the amount of unknown talent on this site.

Last.fm - Last.fm is a music service that learns what you love. Every track you play will tell your Last.fm profile something about what you like. It can connect you to other people who like what you like - and recommend songs from their music collections and yours too.

Pandora – The online streaming radio giant continues to grow, gaining new users in all genres and allowing any indie musician with a physical CD available on Amazon to be in their rotation. Not to mention their iPhone app that is still the most popular music app. The mainstream attention they've gotten recently is well deserved.

Activism

So if ClearChannel makes you want to punch something you might want to check out The Future of Music Coalition or Stop Big Media. More locally, Chicago Independent Media Center and Chicago Media Action act as watchdogs for "the little guy".

Where do you get YOUR new music? What sites or "under-discovered" artists are you into now?

Tell us at http://www.modelstranger.com !