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This week I decided to finally focus on my final product, which is creating/predicating the next hit song. I have been doing research about music history, and slowly learning DJ skills to help me create my product. Looking back at my research I am going to incorporate upbeat hip-hop/pop music, because those songs normally have a higher chance at being at the top, and more people tend to listen to that kind of music. I will also add a flare of Spanish, because recently you can see through trends, that songs that incorporate both English and Spanish are at the top, because then you can project to listeners from the two biggest languages in the world. I also will keep it more positive, as more sad/depressing songs only stay at the top for very little, because people get tired of them really quick. To create this product, I will use pieces of current hit songs, and incorporate it into one 3-minute mix. The different elements I use will help show what I’ll predict in the next hit song. This shouldn’t take too long or be too hard, because I have been playing around a lot with the software the DJ from my robotics competition gave me. I created a couple remixes of songs, and shouldn’t have to many problems in the creation of my predicated hit song. I am also going to predict which artists will be in my song, because that plays a big role in how far your song can go. For example, DJ Khalid’s songs once released are already in the top 10, because of his name. This last part will wrap up my genius hour and research, because it is the second part of my project and there will be nothing else to do.

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This week I decided to focus on my DJ’ing skills, which is a part of my first part of my project, learning how to be a DJ, and mix songs together in an effective way. This connects to the second part of my project, because all this research I am doing will be useless, unless I learn to DJ. DJ’ing will help me create/predict the next hit song. Currently, I am using software I was given by a commercial DJ, who created it personally for me after I talked to him. The last time I played around with I learned how to do smooth effective BPM transitions. This skill is one of the most important fundamentals, as if you can’t merge any two songs, you become very limited as a DJ. I also made a mix of a couple songs, which I thought was pretty good. Now, I wanted to learn what types of techniques can make a job of a DJ easier, because every time I try to work with the software and do things I have never tried before, or even simple tasks I have done before it takes a lot of time. I remember when talking to the DJ at the robotics competition him telling m something about midi controllers, which he says can be very useful for most DJ’s. Midi controllers learn tasks and can repeat that tasks multiple times over and over again, which is perfect, but the problem is they take long time to setup like days, are very expensive, and you need to know how to code. Good things is that I found a digital midi controller, which was free and already was setup, and 90%o the functions programmed were useful for me. I started using it and I could do things MUCH faster. Something that would take 1 hour before, only takes 5 minutes. 

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This week I decided to change things up, because I was not going to be in school. I was missing school for 4 days due to the participation of a VEX robotics competition. So instead of focusing on learning a skill for the first or second part of my project, I was going to learn more about the profession of DJ’ing.  I remember last year at the competition seeing a DJ playing music in the background of the convention center, so I made a plan to interview him there once I got some free time. His name was Patrick Frank, who told me that he had a YouTube account which showed some of his work. He had remixes and mashes of hit songs, 1-hour DJ soundtracks, and a lot more, which helped him easily promote himself to others. One of the videos had over 3 million hits, and most of the comments were all positive. I asked him a couple questions about his hardware, and equipment he used. He told me DJ’ing isn’t a cheap profession, because you need some pretty expensive gear to run smooth and efficient. The software he used was his own. He had a background in computer programming, and he decided to create his own DJ’ing software that suited him the best. I asked him if he would ever go and try to sell it to others, and he showed me a beta which you can download off the internet. He told me DJ’s are always needed for different things, and that if you can specialize in a certain area and become really good at it you can make a lot of money. He did commercial parties, and private mixes DJ’ing, which he says is the best route to follow.

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This week I focused on learning skills a DJ should know, which is a part of my first part of my project, learning how to be a DJ, and mix songs together in a effective way. This connects to the second part of my project, because all this research I am doing will be useless, unless I learn to DJ. DJ will help me create/predict the next hit song. Currently, I am using Mixxx DJ’ing software, because when I read all the reviews on AppStore, CNET, Computer Music, and Synthopia, it looked like the best option for me. The last time I played around with I learned how to do smooth effective BPM transitions. This is skill is one of the most important fundamentals, as if you can’t merge any two songs, you become very limited as a DJ. I wanted to know what else I needed to know to become a successful DJ. After reading many articles from Time Magazine, Digital DJ Tips, How to DJ, Wikipedia, I learned I have to be effective in mixing, music history, and read audiences. Since I already practiced mixing, and researched a lot into the most popular music in different areas, which helps read audiences, I decided to dip my hands into music history. I am 15, and probably can only recall songs from the last couple of years, so this was very important for me to learn, because I am currently alienating decades of music. I wanted to start with the 1950s, because that is when music was peaking. Artists like Elvis Presley, and Little Richard lead the way. In the 1960s, you had artists such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. In the 1980s, you had artists such as Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna. In the 1990s, you had artists such as Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, and Whitney Houston. In the 2000s, you had Eminem, Usher, Coldplay and Britney Spears. After learning about all these artists, I want to look into their hit songs next.

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This week I focused on how music affects people, which is a part of the second part my project, creating/predicting the next hit song. This connects to my second part to my project, because I need to understand how music affects people to be able to create a song that they want to listen. For example, I don’t want to create a depressing song, because most probably people won’t want to hear it multiple times leading them to become sad. Many studies show that music can be beneficial in multiple ways, such as developing bigger, better brain, reducing stress, improving your mood, making you more productive/creative, and a better person. The research shows that the music is like someone directly talking to you, but with rhythm and beats, making you more vulnerable to listen. This can even be seen in our personal lives. For example, during our golf district tournament, someone played very bad and felt like he let the team down. He didn’t talk to anyone, because he was so frustrated. Once we got off the bus he was okay, I asked him “Why the sudden change of mood?” he told me “I listened to music!”. Who knew that music would change his mood in just a 1-hour bus drive. This is just one scenario where it shows how music affects us. Something I noticed was that musicians have better brains than most people because it is bigger, better connected, and more sensitive when showed in brain scans. This leads to faster development of ideas and easier understanding of difficult topics. An article compared a musician and an ordinary office worker, and in almost all brain challenges the musician succeeded. Music affects us all in positive ways, but when we try to utilize it, we fail. Next week I am going to be considering if there is a way we can utilize music and control how it affects our brains.

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This week I focused on the types of music in different regions, which connects to the second part of my project, creating/predicting the next hit song. This research will help me understand where certain hit songs are played. For example, in India they make Bollywood music, which may be a hit song there, but not in other places like China. That is why I need to see what songs are a hit all over the world. First, I need to see what languages are most widely understood, not spoken, because people don’t want to listen to a song unless they understand some it. The first most widely spoken language is Mandarin, the second most widely spoken language is Spanish, and last the third most widely spoken language is English. This is pretty accurate, because if you currently look at some of the billboard hit songs, you will see Spanish songs such as Despacito by J.fla, Mi Gente by J Balvin and Willy William, you see English songs such as God’s Plan by Drake, Shape of You by Ed Sheeran, but you don’t see that many mandarin songs. Yes, k-pop is pretty popular, but as you see in the name that is Korean which isn’t one of the biggest languages in the world. I am noticing that each region may have there own music, but American music pretty much dominates all around the world. This coming from personal experience, I have visited so many places around the world, for example, India, which over the years has been developing rapidly. I am slowly noticing English is growing over there taking over Hindi. Taking over not only with new road signs but the culture itself. Bollywood music is slowly incorporating more and more English because it is so dominant. Also, if you go on there radio channels or TV you will hear the occasional English song. Looking at his I am concluding that my predicted hit song should be in English because since it is a growing language is overtaking others it will be perfect for the most amount of people.

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This week I focused into the production of hit songs, which connects to my second part of my project, creating/predicating the next hit song. I need to see how hit songs are attracted by many listeners, because maybe it will help me understand why they listen to that specific songs over millions of others. Over the span of my life I have listen to many different genres of music. I have heard pop, rock, classical, bollywood, k-pop, and many more, but one thing I never understood was how they singers, writers, and producers, turned stories into music. For example, the singer, songwriter, producer, The Weekend, recently this weekend, ironically, dropped a new album called “My Dear Melancholy”. This album was written around his break up with Selena Gomez, another star. He shows depressions throughout all his songs, and you can tell exactly what he is talking about. According to Business Insider, the new album, made by them has been one of the most grossing albums of all time. It had a huge weekend, again ironically, and already has two songs in the top 25 with the Billboard Music List. Many articles say, many people are listening to it, because they can connect to getting over a hard break up. This isn’t the only example, Shawn Mendes, another singer, songwriter, also dropped two new songs called “Lost in Japan” and “In My Blood”. These two songs talk about all the hardships in life, and how he won’t let those drag him down. Instead of depression like The Weekend album, you see motivation, which people can also connect to. This is how these songwriters are so successful, because they can reach into the listeners soul and make a connection through a 3-minute song. Therefore, this help me conclude I will be needing a theme for my hit song, for it too actually have a chance.

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This week I focused mainly on the history of music, and tried to find patterns and similarities between songs and genres of music. Since I am researching music, this week was mainly spent on preparing for my second part of my project, which is trying to create/guess the next hit song. I first wanted to know what music genres were the most popular around U.S.A. According to digital music news it says Rock is 30%, which is the highest, then after that it is R&B/Hip-Hop is 22%, Pop is 19%, Country is 10%, Latin is 5%, EDM is 4%, Christian/Gospel is 3%, Seasonal is 2%, Jazz is 2%, Classical is 2%, Children is 1%. Looking at this most hit songs would probably want hints of rock and hip-hop music in their songs, so they can attract to more audiences, rather than creating a song with hint of classical and seasonal music. After seeing what genres were the highest, I wanted to know what some of the top songs would fit in. On January 1st, 2018, the number one song according to Billboard Music was Perfect, by Ed Sheeran, which is a pop song. On January 1st, 2017, the number one song according to Billboard Music was Closer by The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey, which is also a pop song. Seeing the past two years this lead me to the conclusion that even though Rock is majority of what people listen to, you don’t necessarily need it in a song to be number one. If you have pop in your song that will help it become a hit song, because it has the greatest chance due to recent results. This also helped me narrow my research, because now I know I need to focus on Hip-Hop and Pop.

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This week I look into the direction of Dj'ing equipment, which would help me with my first part of my Genius Hour Project. I needed to know what all I would need to get/use to create my guess of a hit song, which is my second part of my Genius Hour Project. So, I first started off with the most important things a DJ needs which is software. I needed to find out which mixing software, would fit me the best. I had to look at cost, features, and little things to examine which one I liked. I found ten perfectly viable options to look, Native Instruments Traktor Pro, Ableton Live, Serato DJ, Pioneer DJ rekordbox DJ, Stanton Deckadance, Mixxx, PCDJ Dex, Atomix VirtualDJ Pro, Mixvibes Cross, and Algoriddim djay Pro. After thoroughly looking through all of them I found Mixxx the best option, because not only is it free, but it perfect for a beginner like me to start with, at least that is what I am told. I use a MacBook, which is supported by it. It has a twin deck feature which allows each one to have its own scratchtable, and scrolling waveform, to help blend and integrate music. iTunes integration, to easily upload all the music I already have. Sample decks, loops and hot cues to help you figure out what best fits your style of DJ’ing. It also supports many types of track formats, so no matter what I throw at it, all will be fine. Just to make sure it was not just a gimmick, I read reviews from the AppStore, CNET, Computer Music, and Synthopia. Once it was verified I then quickly downloaded it, and started messing around. I was a little lost at the beginning, but then I went online look at a couple of tutorials and created a perfect BPM transition.

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This week I look into the direction of Dj'ing I want to learn, which is the first part of my Genius Hour Project. There are many Dj's out there, for many different scenarios. Such as, party Dj'ing, mobile Dj'ing, producer Dj'ing, radio Dj'ing and many more, but the one I will need to focus on is mixing Dj'ing. It is one of the hardest out of all of them, because you aren't just playing music, but having to create new music with already produced music. I choose this type, because it fits my goal best. I am not producing any new music but looking for parts of music people like and incorporating it. Also, I am not going to be playing entire songs, so radio and party Dj'ing wouldn't help. Mixing Dj's are used for things such as dance mixes, ads, promo videos, and etc. After, I figured out what type of Dj’ing I was going to do, I started looking into music history, to help me understand the music industry. I wanted to see if I could slowly find any patterns. I noticed that music patterns occur almost every generation, meaning every wave of new artists. That is because, with new artists, new music, which make sense. But, not only has there been new artists, but the amount that artist survives also has shortened. For example, an artist in the 90’s could last about 6-7 years, but in today’s worlds you only get one shot so about every 2-3 years. They also are becoming younger in age. The average age of an artist in the 90’s was in the high 20s, but today they are low 20’s. So with all these patters I am noticing, it is becoming harder and harder to get to the top, because everything changes quickly.