Fashion is an interesting thing: a small group of designers decide what should be worn each season. The powers that be determine that there should be an eighties comeback, and there is; platforms should adorn the foot, and they do; blues and greens are this seasons colours, and they are. Store owners stock their boutiques with everything designer, the high street stores mimic everything designer. Fashonistas look oh so fabulous in the look of the season and the common people look half so fabulous in cheaper versions of the look of the season. Then, according to the rule of fashion, clothes out-date and cannot be worn again, except for maybe a few key items. Lame.

I love and appreciate the sense of adventure, excess and theatre in the designs of John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier and Vivienne Westwood. These artists inspire my own sense of style (however debatable) and passion for street fashion. The brave souls who combine labels with charity shop with high street with ‘my granny’s old …’ with costume shop with ebay randomness, so that observers have no idea what comes from where, are my favourite. I like it when people embrace innovation and individualism in pursuit of expression. Clothes are suggestions of personality and I am a fan of bold statements. The streets of London are home to statement-street-style, which reflects the eclectic, cosmopolitan character of the city – a further inspiration. I welcome Gok’s mission to get people excited about fashion as a means of asserting character, irrespective of cost. And I intend to ride on the wave of inspiration and add spans of paraphernalia to the layers of my already paraphernaliated clothing. Because it’s me.

Vivienne Westwood

Jean Paul Gaultier

John Galliano

I do not like the city at all. All sorts of men crowd there from every country…each brings its own vices and customs. None lives in it without falling into some sort of crime. Every quater abounds in grave obscenities. The greater the rascal, the greater man he is accounted…Do not associate with the crowd of pimps: do not mingle with the throng in eating houses: avoid dice and gambling, the theatre and the tavern…the number of parasites is infinite. Actors, jesters, smooth-skinned lads, moors flatterers, pretty-boys, effeminates, paederasts, singing and dancing girls, quacks, belly-dancers, sorceresses, extortioners, night-wanderers, magicians, mimes, beggars and buffoons…if you do not want to dwell with evil-livers, do not live in London. (A Thousand Years of Vice in the Capital: London The Wicked City, Fergus Linnane)

What strikes me about this observation is that nothing has changed. People still complain about foreigners and parents are afraid to let their youngsters loose in the lion’s den that is London. Sin and debauchery populate the city and to remain uncorrupted by the great Lion one has to be steadfast in one’s moral convictions: so it is thought. As I, in the year 2010, ponder the considerations of Richard of Devizes, 800+ years after the English chronicler wrote about London, a smurk appears on my face. In my mind, the very things that make the city of London deplorable to so many are what make it the fabulous, charming city that it is – from the haphazard grunge of Camden Town to the grandiose beauty of Westminster and the frenzied energy of central London. All of the aforementioned places have their own uniquely bewitching allure.

London is a city full of irony and contradiction. The transient tone of the city contrasts with the great sense of history and culture embedded in every brick and stone that has played a part in its construction. I have the acute awareness that everything and everyone around me has its or their own story. When I was on the tube the other day I was privy to a magical moment that was just so typical of London. There was a Camdenesque guy (gargantuan platforms, camo gear, a plethora of piercings and long hair streaked green and blue) who managed to grab a seat as the masses exited the train. Two jocks, the antithesis of Camdenesque, were also aiming to grab a couple of seats and asked Mr Camden to move one seat over so that the buddies could sit next to one another. Mr Camden, with his earphones protecting him from the outside world, graciously obliged. Jock number one was fascinated by Mr Camden’s tunnels (if you live in London and don’t know what ‘tunnels’ are then get with the program) and with the permission of Mr Camden, attempted to stick his finger through the giant hole in Mr Camden’s ear. It was a great scene to watch and I couldn’t help but think “only in London”.

I have these kinds of ‘London moments’ so very often and the more conscious I am of them, the more I treasure the extravagant, cosmopolitan city in which I live. I remember standing before the towering Gothic steeples of Westminster Abbey for the first time. As the martyrs and saints looked down upon me, the overwhelming magnitude of atmospheric history engulfed my person. It was a shiverific moment. England and its proud history, stitched together by the might of injustice, victory, murder, love and pain, seemed inescapably entrenched in the spot where I stood. And as I turned around, the scrappy tents and weathered posters of the adamant peace protesters camped outside the houses of parliament seemed to rip a hole in the fabric of the massive heritage that whirled around me. The conservativism of ‘the institution’ undermined by the determination and persistent ideology of a few. London: a place where ideas are big and acceptance is rampant.

One of my passions is metal (the music, not the element – again, get with the program) and one of my favourite things is going to gigs in the grand old theatres of the early 1900s, where huge riffs, screaming/growling vocals and double bass drumming invade the interior Art Deco delicacies of the: Brixton Academy, Forum, Hammersmith Apollo, Shepherd’s Bush Empire, Koko and Astoria (one minute silence please). It’s magnificently disagreeable and positively diabolical.

Magnificently disagreeable and positively diabolical. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is London.

The 80s undertone present in HIM’s signature love-metal music matures in Screamworks, which presents poignant synth harmonies that contrast with the band’s familiar rock distortion and Valo’s melancholic vocals. Songs including Dying Song; In the Arms of Rain; Love, the Hardest Way and Heartkillers, which will most likely become the album’s most popular song, are reminiscent of the Bowie-inspired New Romantic movement of the early 80s. Screamworks says hello to androgyny, quiffs, eyeliner and lipstick.

HIM’s theme of tragic love persists and liebestod is expressed through Valo’s historical, mythological and religious references. The song master’s lyrics are sufficiently poetic and metaphoric to ensure that a sense of mystery remains. The irony in phrases like “little deaths to a dying song/ Sound a lot like life” (Dying Song) and “The promise of heaven pushed us right back to hell / Turned three sevens into three sixes again” (Disarm Me) entice listeners to explore Valo’s interpretation of life and love, and expression thereof through music.

From the new-agey vibe of The Foreboding Sense of Impending Happiness to the heavier In Venere Veritas and the catchy chorus of Like St. Valentine, the broad spectrum of HIM fans should be satisfied with Screamworks, and perhaps a couple of new fans won over.

Supporting acts Dommin and Dirty Little Rabbits start things off with performances that grab the attention of an open minded audience. With red roses draping the stage, a background graphic of a skull with a rose for a brain, and Lurch from The Adams Family as a drummer, Dommin’s  goth-rock-with-a-touch-of-emo was spelled out visually for those who didn’t get it. The red roses dangling from band equipment are dramatically smashed on the ground by singer Kristofer Dommin who makes a dramatic statement in final song Without It. The band serve the crowd an impressive cover of 80s hit Dying in Your Arms Tonight. It’s hard to go wrong with rocked up 80s covers and the crowd dig it. Dirty White Rabbits is the side project of Slipknot psycho Clown, aka Shawn Crahan, who has replaced eight ugly dudes with goth Barbie and her ballet moves. Crahan’s band has a carnival-gone-wrong vibe and singer Stella Karsoudas has a weirdly high-pitched, Barbie-esque voice that would scare the bravest soul on a dark lonely night; a combination that, I guess, is cool and quirky in its own right.

Lacuna Coil open with open with Survive , which sets the tone for a confident performance that reflects the message of the band’s latest album. Moving away from the empty spiral of the darkly poetic, Shallow Life makes a statement about materialism and says a big ‘F You’ to those who jeer in the face of the freedom and independence that exists at the core of creative thinking and art – a point emphasised by the anthemic Our Truth, which is performed by the band as an encore song. As suggested by the name of the tour, Lacuna Coil’s set is dominated by songs from the band’s newest album, which has attracted a host of new fans. Old fans were not forgotten as preceding favourites Closer, Swamped, 1.19, Fragile and Heaven’s a Lie reared their heads in the band’s set and elicited a roar from the crowd. Andrea Ferro’s gruff vocals are the ying to lucid melody of his female counterpart’s yang. One compliments the other and within the context of the band the one cannot do without the other. Wide Awake is however all Cristina and her live rendition of the song seems to induce a spine-tingling intensity that is not as tangible on the album. It’s beautiful but also sublimely imposing.  In the band’s performance of Depeche Mode cover Enjoy the Silence, Scabbia pits one half of the audience against the other to see who can sing the loudest. It only half works because when it is the left side of the auditorium’s turn to sing, the right side cannot help but belt out the words as well, and vice versa. Nonetheless, the effect is one of those “Wow!” moments when an entire crowd sing along to an awesome song. Tonight’s performance is testament to the fact that there is a special relationship between Lacuna Coil and the band’s London fans who greatly appreciate the Italian sestet’s effort and energy.

Setlist

Survive

Underdog

Closer

I’m Not Afraid

Fragments of Faith

Tight Rope

1.19

I Won’t Tell You

Heaven’s A Lie

Fragile

Wide Awake

To The Edge

The Maze

Swamped

Enjoy the Silence

ENCORE

Not Enough

Spellbound

Our Truth

Keep a look out for Clink’s interview with Lacuna Coil vocalist Andrea Ferro

The facebook group encourages members to get Rage Against the Machine’s Killing In The Name to the number one spot by purchasing a download of the song, also owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Rage Against the Machine is a band that openly challenges ‘the system’ and conformity achieved through indoctrination and propaganda. Although it seems apt for this type of band to challenge Simon Cowell’s music empire, members of the public have noted the irony of the use of an orchestrated campaign to assert independence: ‘the many’ being conditioned by ‘the few’ to buy a preselected song. Perhaps in this case the means justify the end, irrespective of the ideological consistencies. The thought of having a Rage song as the Christmas No. 1 is just too juicy.

Thus far, the facebook group has 818, 791 members. According to Guardian.co.uk, last year’s No 1, Alexandra Burke’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, sold 576,000 copies in its opening week. Leon Jackson, who won the competition in 2007, achieved the Christmas No 1 after selling 275,000 copies of his single When You Believe in its opening week. If all facebook members do indeed purchase Killing In The Name there is a chance that the 1992 song could clinch the No 1 title. Guardian.co.uk reports that Rage Against the Machine is leading the way but that the Official Chart Company said the “gap had closed considerably” since Wednesday morning, when McElderry trailed behind Rage Against the Machine by approximately 60,000 sales. Bookies still favour the X Factor winner to top the charts.

In an interview with BBC6 earlier this week, Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello said of the campaign: “I think people are fed up of being spoon-fed some sugary ballad that sits on top of the charts. It’s a little dose of anarchy.” Morello also said some of the proceeds from the sale of Killing in the Name would go to a UK-based charity called Youth Music, which provides children with access to music education and training. He also said that the homeless charity Shelter would receive some of the profits. Rage Against the Machine singer Zack de la Rocha told Radio 5 Live that the campaign was: “a wonderful statement… it says something about the real tensions that people are experiencing all over the UK and US as well, as people would love to experience something which reflects this.”

Up with Rage! Up with protest!

The Mozart Effect is a theory that is based on a set of research results, which indicate that listening to Mozart’s music may induce a short-term improvement on the performance of certain kinds of mental tasks known as ‘spatial-temporal reasoning‘. Popularised versions of the theory credit the playing of classical music to babies with boosting IQ, improving health, strengthening family ties and even producing the occasional child prodigy. This idea was entrenched in the 1997 book by Don Campbell, The Mozart Effect: Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit. Although there have been numerous studies conducted in support of the Mozart Effect, the theory remains controversial and there are many academics and studies that debunk the extent and consistency of the proposed effects of classical music on babies. There are researchers who argue that the Mozart Effect represents only the short-term effects of classical music on mood and arousal. There are also studies concluding that although classical music may have a calming effect babies, it does not in fact improve IQ. This is why researchers continue to test whether the Mozart Effect is real and if any other styles and pieces of music have the same effect.

A small-scale study conducted by Dr Alexandra Lamont, Lecturer in the Psychology of Music at Keele University, on the effect of music on an unborn child, shows that babies can remember and prefer music that they heard before they were born over 12 months later. The discovery expands on the theory that babies can only remember things for a month or two by suggesting that memory could last a great deal longer than that. Lamont states that “It used to be assumed that it was really noisy in the womb but actually it’s quite quiet. So the baby should be able to hear your stereo at a reasonable volume. You don’t need to apply headphones to your bump!” According to Lamont, any kind of music will be heard although bass frequencies will travel through fluid better and be more audible to your unborn baby. This research provides important new evidence for the influence of nurture in early child development.

Lamont’s “The Child Of Our Time” study involved a small group of mothers playing a single piece of music to their babies for the last three months before birth. Dr Lamont said the music was chosen by the mother so all babies heard different pieces of music while still in the womb. These included classical (opera, Mozart and Vivaldi), world (Spirits of Nature), reggae (UB40, Ken Boothe) and pop (Five). Over 12 months later, eleven of the babies were tested and showed a significant preference for the pieces of music they had heard in utero compared with very similar pieces of music they had not heard before. After the babies were a year old, they heard the pre-natal music and other music that was matched for style, key, pace and loudness and it was concluded that the style of the music is not important – the babies recognise UB40 just as much as they do Mozart – but the pace of the music seems to be influential. The babies with faster music like Five’s If Ya Gettin’ Down or the start of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons showed stronger preferences than the babies with slower music like Mozart’s Adagio for Wind. This relates to other findings by Dr Lamont that babies have developed clear preferences for faster and more exciting music by the age of 12 months. Dr Lamont’s study suggests that although deliberate and extended pre-natal exposure to music sets up a very long-term memory trace for a particular piece of music, and that this is recognised and preferred over 12 months later, babies’ outstanding musical memories are not at all related to their intelligence. Dr Lamont emphasised that there is no evidence here that playing classical music to babies helps make their brains develop – the babies perform just as well with pop or reggae music, and the same high levels of musical memory are found in babies from families where IQ levels differ enormously.

The small scale of Lamont’s study may not be enough to convince parents that the Mozart Effect is untrue – and it isn’t meant to. But it does represent a body of evidence that renders the Mozart Effect sufficiently inconsistent to hopefully make individuals think before they start sprouting this “classical music inspires a higher IQ bullshit”. The initial music brain study, conducted by Drs. Shaw and Rauscher suggested that students exposed to 10 minutes of music by Mozart, specifically Allegro conspirito from Sonata for Two Pianos in D major, K448 caused an enhancement in reasoning (ordering objects in space and time) lasting from some 10-15 minutes. Rauscher acknowledges that there is popular misconception that her work showed a relationship between listening to Mozart and general intelligence. Her original result, which is, she claims, upheld by other studies, reported only an improvement in tasks involving ordering objects in space and time. Dr. Norman Weinberger, Executive Director of the International Foundation for Music Research, stated, “Many studies have failed to replicate the Shaw/Rauscher original Mozart effect of passive listening” and Fran Rauscher wrote an article stating “I would be extremely cautious about arguing that passive listening to music briefly produces an ‘increase in IQ’ (even transiently). The major transfer effects of music are likely to come from active playing of music and in continual music education experiences.” In other words, active music making, not passive listening is the key to enhanced spatial-temporal reasoning.

I guess the whole ‘music and babies’ thing has become a personal issue for me because of the extreme kind of music that I listen to. And I have thought long and hard about the type of music I want to expose my baby/toddler/child to. I have no doubt about the significant effects of music on a child – both negative and positive. My baby has already been exposed to some pretty extreme bands and if Lamont’s music proves consistent, my baby girl will like In Flames and Caliban and will show a ’strong preference’ in a year’s time. It annoys me that my poor child is being set up for failure by some – any personality trait or behavioural manifestation that she may display will merely be chalked down to “well, you shouldn’t have played that music or seen that concert” or “it’s because you didn’t play her classical music”. It reminds me of the outdated perception that inclines many people to attribute the behaviour of children of divorced families to ‘the divorce’ when in fact life is far more complex and contextual and the psychology of ‘blame the divorce’ is just too reductive. It’s annoying and I get rather aggressive about these things. I am still getting used to the idea that when you have children, everyone’s ten cents worth will be delivered; well intentioned or not, asked for or not. Everyone has an opinion and everyone has a ‘right’ way of doing things. It’s great to discuss ideas, to debate and share experiences and opinions. But judgment and ‘thou shalts’ are just annoying, especially when based on hearsay or ignorance. Finally, the ironic crux of the whole ‘music and babies’ debate, which confronts me on a personal level and warrants a whole other rant, is the assumption that: because I like metal, naturally, I don’t like or appreciate classical music. Point made.

Sources:
BBC.co.uk: Womb Music
BBC.co.uk: Does classical music make babies smarter?
Childrensmusicworkshop.com
Wikipedia.com
Edu-cyberpg.com: Babies remember music heard in the womb

Toy company Mattel is gearing for the December launch of its new Barbie Ladies of the 80s collection . The range is aimed primarily at collectors and includes three Barbies: Cindi Lauper, Debbie Harry and Joan Jett. All I can say is: Where were these Barbies when I was growing up? and I need the Cindi!

The 80s Barbies can be pre-ordered at Entertainment Earth ($34.99 each) and Amazon ($69.95 each).