Robert Miles on This Day in History

 

This day in history: Swiss-Italian record producer, composer, musician and DJ Robert Miles died on this day in 2017. His biggest accomplishment was a song called "Children." "Children" is one of the pioneering tracks of Dream house, a genre of electronic dance music characterized by dream-like piano melodies, and a steady four-on-the-floor bass drum. The creation of dream house was a response to social pressures in Italy during the early 1990s: the growth of rave culture among young adults, and the ensuing popularity of nightclub attendance, had created a weekly trend of deaths due to car accidents as clubbers drove across the country overnight, falling asleep at the wheel from strenuous dancing as well as alcohol and drug use. In mid-1996, deaths due to this phenomenon, called strage del sabato sera (Saturday night slaughter) in Italy, were being estimated at 2000 since the start of the decade. The move by DJs such as Miles to play slower, calming music to conclude a night's set, as a means to counteract the fast-paced, repetitive tracks that preceded, was met with approval by authorities and parents of car crash victims.

Miles' next single was "Fable". Part of this song was used in the theatrical trailer for the U.S. movie Ever After starring Drew Barrymore and Dougray Scott. His debut album Dreamland was released on 7 June 1996 in Europe, and released in the United States about a month later. The album included a cover of "One and One" featuring British singer Maria Nayler. This cover became very popular (it reached number 1 in the Euro Top 100 Singles Chart during the Christmas period and remained in the top spot for six consecutive weeks) and was later released as a single in Europe and the U.S.

The songs on Dreamland showcase the genius of Robert Miles who created some of the best music in that genre.

Miles died from cancer in Ibiza, Spain, on 9 May 2017 at the age of 47.

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The Pied Piper of Hamelin on This Day in History

 

This day in history: Today is Ratcatcher's Day, Rat-catcher's Day is celebrated on 26 June or 22 July, commemorating the myth of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. The town of Hamelin in Germany uses the June date and the term "Pied Piper Day". The confusion of dates is because the Brothers Grimm cite 26 June 1284 as the date the Pied Piper led the children out of the town, while the poem by Robert Browning gives it as 22 July 1376.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin is the title character of a legend from the town of Hamelin, Lower Saxony, Germany.

The legend dates back to the Middle Ages, the earliest references describing a piper, dressed in multicolored ("pied") clothing, who was a rat catcher hired by the town to lure rats away with his magic pipe. When the citizens refuse to pay for this service as promised, he retaliates by using his instrument's magical power on their children, leading them away as he had the rats. This version of the story spread as folklore and has appeared in the writings of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the Brothers Grimm, and Robert Browning, among others.

There are many contradictory theories about the Pied Piper. Some suggest he was a symbol of hope to the people of Hamelin, which had been attacked by plague; he drove the rats from Hamelin, saving the people from the epidemic.

A number of theories suggest that children died of some natural causes such as disease or starvation, and that the Piper was a symbolic figure of Death. Analogous themes which are associated with this theory include the Dance of Death, Totentanz or Danse Macabre, a common medieval trope. Some of the scenarios that have been suggested as fitting this theory include that the children drowned in the river Weser, were killed in a landslide or contracted some disease during an epidemic. Another modern interpretation reads the story as alluding to an event where Hamelin children were lured away by a pagan or heretic sect to forests near Coppenbrugge (the mysterious Koppen "hills" of the poem) for ritual dancing where they all perished during a sudden landslide or collapsing sinkhole.

Some theories have linked the disappearance of the children to mass psychogenic illness in the form of dancing mania. Dancing mania outbreaks occurred during the 13th century, including one in 1237 in which a large group of children travelled from Erfurt to Arnstadt (about 12 miles), jumping and dancing all the way, in marked similarity to the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, which originated at around the same time.

Others have suggested that the children left Hamelin to be part of a pilgrimage, a military campaign, or even a new Children's crusade (which is said to have occurred in 1212) but never returned to their parents. These theories see the unnamed Piper as their leader or a recruiting agent. The townspeople made up this story (instead of recording the facts) to avoid the wrath of the church or the king.

William Manchester's A World Lit Only by Fire places the events in 1484, 100 years after the written mention in the town chronicles that "It is 100 years since our children left", and further proposes that the Pied Piper was a psychopathic pedophile.

Read: The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning

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Dr. Benjamin Spock on This Day in History

 

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This day in history: Dr. Benjamin Spock’s "The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care" was first published on this day in 1946. Spock told an entire generation of parents to take it easy, don’t discipline your children and allow them to express themselves. Discipline, he told us, would warp a child’s fragile ego. Millions followed this guru of child development. However, before his death Dr. Spock made an amazing discovery: he was wrong. In fact, he said:

"We have reared a generation of brats. Parents aren't firm enough with their children for fear of losing their love or incurring their resentment. This is a cruel deprivation that we professionals have imposed on mothers and fathers. Of course, we did it with the best of intentions. We didn't realize until it was too late how our know-it-all attitude was undermining the self assurance of parents."

The last few years have demonstrated how little "experts" know about truly anything. "Extensive research in a wide range of fields shows that many people not only fail to become outstandingly good at what they do, no matter how many years they spend doing it, they frequently don’t even get any better than they were when they started. In field after field, when it came to centrally important skills—stockbrokers recommending stocks, parole officers predicting recidivism, college admissions officials judging applicants—people with lots of experience were no better at their jobs than those with very little experience." Source

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Trance Musician Robert Miles on This Day in History

 

Children

This Day in History: Italian record producer, composer, musician and DJ Roberto Concina, known professionally as Robert Miles, died on this day in 2017 at the young age of 47. 

Miles is best known for his Dream Trance hit "Children" which sold more than 5 million copies and topped the charts worldwide. Dream Trance is an early subgenre of trance music that peaked prominently on the international dance scene between 1995 and 1998. 

The creation of dream trance was a response to social pressures in Italy during the early 1990s; the growth of rave culture among young adults, and the ensuing popularity of nightclub attendance, had created a weekly trend of deaths due to car accidents as clubbers drove across the country overnight, falling asleep at the wheel from strenuous dancing as well as alcohol and drug use. In mid-1996, deaths due to this phenomenon, called strage del sabato sera ("Saturday night slaughter") in Italy, were being estimated at around 2000 since the start of the 1990s. "Children" by Robert Miles is one of the pioneering tracks of the genre and was created due to these accidents. The move by DJs such as Miles to play slower, calming music to conclude a night's set, as a means to counteract the fast-paced, repetitive tracks that preceded, was met with approval by authorities and parents of car crash victims.

Miles also had 2 other great hits with Fable and One and One.