wiki

I went on a wikipedia rampage the other night that led me somewhere worth mentioning. I didn't save any of it, so I'll have to do it from memory.

It all started when I was playing Guitar Hero. I finally beat "Hot for Teacher" on expert in World Tour.
I was so happy I decided to go online.

I looked up "Hot for Teacher" in Google and found its Wikipedia page.
That led me to the article about the album that the song is from,
where I learned that
1984 peaked at #2 on the Billboard Magazine album charts (#1 at the time was Thriller, which featured an Eddie Van Halen guitar solo on "Beat It," which Roth had criticized[1]) and contained future hits "Jump", "Panama", "I'll Wait", and "Hot for Teacher".So I clicked on the link for Thriller
and went right to the page for Michael Jackson. Look, there he is!
Incidentally, this picture was taken in 1984. Anyway, I promise this is going somewhere. From the lede of the MJ article:
In the early 1980s, he became a dominant figure in popular music and the first African-American entertainer to amass a strong crossover following on MTV."Crossover" was linked. So I clicked on it. Interesting article, though it could use some work. Third graf:In practice crossover frequently results from the appearance of the music in question in a film soundtrack. For instance, Sacred Harp music experienced a spurt of crossover popularity as a result of its appearance in the 2003 film Cold Mountain, and bluegrass music experienced a revival due to the reception of 2000's O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Even atonal music, which tends to be less popular among classical enthusiasts, has a kind of crossover niche, since it is widely used in film and television scores "to depict an approaching menace," as noted by Charles Rosen[citation needed]Okay, here we go. That Sacred Harp thing they mention does not mean harp music that is religiously pointed; it's actually... wait, what the hell is it?
Well, it's a type of choral Shape Note music, something to do with solfège, but I know when Wikipedia offers me more to bite off than I can chew. The good stuff is in the Sacred Harp article. I can't quote the entire thing, but for example:
Sacred Harp singers view their tradition as a participatory one, not a passive one. Those who gather for a singing sing for themselves and for each other, and not for an audience...

...The leader, being equidistant from all sections, in principle hears the best sound. The often intense sonic experience of standing in the center of the square is considered one of the perquisites of leading, and sometimes a guest will be invited as a courtesy to stand next to the leader during a song.

The music itself is also meant to be participatory. Most forms of choral composition place the melody on the top (treble) line, where it can be best heard by an audience, with the other parts written so as not to obscure the melody. In contrast, Sacred Harp composers have aimed to make each musical part singable and interesting in its own right, thus giving every singer in the group an absorbing task.That's all. Kind of makes me want to rent Cold Mountain, but why bother when everything I want is...yes, I know you're thinking the same thing.

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