Musicians Colbie Caillat, Lisa Loeb, Rufus Wainwright, Hilary Hahn, and More Support Colorectal Cancer Awareness in Free Webcast Concert

The American College of Gastroenterology Free Virtual Event on March 28, 2024, at 8:00 pm ET, “Tune It Up: A Concert To Raise Colorectal Cancer Awareness”

Songs of the Oceans Raise Environmental Awareness #ASA184

At the 184th ASA Meeting, Colin Malloy of Ocean Network Canada will present his method to transform ocean data into captivating, solo percussion songs. He employs sound from hydrophones and introduces elements inspired by ocean-related data such as temperature, acidity, and oxygenation. For example, in his piece, Oil & Water, Malloy represents the impact of oil production on the oceans. He plays an eerily catchy melody on steel drums and inserts noise to represent oil production over the past 120 years.

Beyond Necessity, Hearing Aids Bring Enjoyment Through Music #ASA184

At the 184th ASA Meeting, Emily Sandgren and Joshua Alexander of Purdue University will describe experiments to determine the best hearing aids for listening to music. To test and compare, they took over 200 recordings of music samples as processed by hearing aids from seven popular manufacturers. They asked study participants to rate the sound quality of these recordings and found that the hearing aids had lower ratings for music than their control stimuli. The researchers found bigger differences in music quality between hearing aid brands than between speech and music programs.

Lead Vocal Tracks in Popular Music Go Quiet

Scientists carried out an analysis of hundreds of popular song recordings from 1946 to 2020 to determine the lead vocal to accompaniment ratio, or LAR. The study considered the four highest-ranked songs from the Billboard Hot 100 chart for each year and the results show that, contrary to expectations, the LAR for popular music decreased over the decades in question. This means that, relative to their bands, lead singers are getting quieter.

Chulalongkorn University Holds the “Chula Health Care Body & Mind” Fest

The Center for Safety, Health and Environment of Chulalongkorn University (SHECU), Chulalongkorn University Health Service Center, the Physical Resources Management, the Department of Physical Therapy at the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, the Department of Industrial Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering, the Center for Psychological Wellness at the Faculty of Psychology, and Chula Student Wellness have organized the “Chula Health Care Body & Mind” event under the CU Sustainable Well-Being project.

Can a Playlist be Your Therapist? Balancing Emotions Through Music #ASA183

Researchers present an app that creates playlists to help listeners care for their emotions through music. The app could be used by people who may not want to receive counseling or treatment because of feelings of shame, inadequacy, or distrust and aims to leave them more positive and focused than they were when they began. Users take three self-led questionnaires to measure their emotional status and the app then creates a customized playlist of songs using one of three strategies: consoling, relaxing, or uplifting.

Scientists at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and 23andMe Find Genetic Link to People’s Ability to Move to a Musical Beat

The study, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, is the first large-scale genome-wide association study of a musical trait. Gordon and Lea Davis, PhD, associate professor of Medicine, both co-senior authors on the findings, along with Maria Niarchou, PhD, research instructor in the Department of Medicine and first author of the paper, co-led a team of international collaborators in novel groundwork toward understanding the biology underlying how musicality relates to other health traits.

THE ASCAP LAB & THE NYC MEDIA LAB CHALLENGE STARTUP TEAMS TO UNITE MUSIC AND THE METAVERSE

To deeply engage with the tech community and help shape the development of the metaverse, The ASCAP Lab is partnering with the NYC Media Lab (NYCML), led by the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, to conduct a “Music in the Metaverse” challenge for startups that are exploring new ways to create and experience music, express digital identity through music, and connect music creators and fans in the metaverse.

Media Invited to Acoustical Society of America Meeting in Seattle, Nov. 29 – Dec. 3

After more than a year of virtual conferences, the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) is holding its 181st meeting in person in Seattle, Washington, at the Hyatt Regency Seattle from Nov. 29 through Dec. 3. This major scientific conference brings together interdisciplinary groups of acoustics professionals, spanning many fields, including physics, medicine, music, psychology, wildlife biology, and engineering, to discuss the latest advancements. Follow conference highlights with social media hashtag #ASA181.

Stress-relief Music Therapy Can Also Effectively Relieve Pain

Medical results show that music therapy can lower blood pressure, relieve pain during chemotherapy and dialysis, as well as stimulate the elderly brain. The Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Chulalongkorn University is offering a Music Therapy Program aiming to heal the ever-increasing patients with various chronic diseases in society.

Algorithm Finds Personalized Sound Zones in Cars for Driver, Passengers

In The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, published by the Acoustical Society of America through AIP Publishing, researchers from Stellantis and Laboratoire d’Acoustique de l’Universite du Mans outline an algorithm that adapts personalized sound zones within a car to changes in seat position, allowing riders to listen to their own audio without headphones and interruption.

UCI experts produce guide for defense attorneys fighting use of rap lyrics in trials

Irvine, Calif., June 9, 2021 — Criminology and legal experts at the University of California, Irvine have released Rap on Trial: A Legal Guide for Attorneys, to help protect artists from having their lyrics used against them in court. Rap lyrics have been introduced as evidence in hundreds of cases, and a high-profile ruling by the Maryland Court of Appeals recently allowed a few lines of rap to help put a man behind bars for 50 years.

MEDIA ADVISORY: Story, Feature Ideas from 180th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America

The 180th ASA Meeting, being held virtually June 8-10, will feature sessions on how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted hearing health, affected noise annoyance in urban settings, and adjusted how teachers talked and listened to their students. There will be presentations on how acoustics shapes speech in children, impacts mental health, and potentially signals health problems.

Conrad Prebys Foundation Awards $500,000 Grant to Support UC San Diego Department of Music Outreach

The University of California San Diego Department of Music will expand its post-pandemic reach with support from a $500,000 grant from The Conrad Prebys Foundation. The grant, which contributes to the Campaign for UC San Diego, helps launch the department’s outreach to both regional audiences, and the international music community.

Montana State’s Gregory Young Selected as the 2021 CUR-Arts and Humanities Faculty Mentor Awardee

Gregory Young, professor in the School of Music at Montana State University in Bozeman, has been selected as the 2021 CUR-Arts and Humanities Faculty Mentor Awardee. The award consists of a plaque and $1,000 for the recipient’s work with undergraduate researchers.

Not a Musician? Your Brain Can Still Tell What’s Music

Article title: Music-selective neural populations arise without musical training Authors: Dana Boebinger, Samuel Norman-Haignere, Josh H. McDermott, Nancy Kanwisher From the authors: “We show that music-selective neural populations are clearly present in people without musical training, demonstrating that they are a fundamental…

Rock Musicians Rufus Wainwright, Lisa Loeb, Tim Reynolds and More to Perform Free Virtual Concert for Colorectal Cancer Awareness

The American College of Gastroenterology Invites All to “Tune It Up: A Concert To Raise Awareness of Colorectal Cancer” Free Webstream Event Open to All on March 31, 2021 at 8:00 pm EDT