Fusion & Crossover on Music Theory Print

Afro fusion

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Term and widespread usage#

Vincent Mantsoe and Sylvia Glasser are the pioneering figures behind “Afrofusion,” a contemporary African movement vocabulary and technique that emerged in response to the political changes following the near-end and end of the apartheid regime, a system of racial segregation that took place in South Africa from 1948 to 1991. After the musical style was globally popularized by Freshlyground and Shakira’s Waka Waka (This Time for Africa), which showcased afrofusion and soca, the term “afro fusion” was increasingly used as a hypernym to refer to both historical and as present-day examples of African music blended with other genres, for instance, Western music. Some instances include, in 2015, John Collins described the musical style as “Afro-Fusion music of Africa itself” in his biography and music criticism book Fela: Kalakuta Notes. American rapper GoldLink’s 2019 album, Diaspora, merged African, Caribbean and North American music, inclusive of a song titled, “Zulu Screams”. “Zulu Screams” demonstrated Bibi Bourelly, a German singer-songwriter of Haitian and Moroccan descent, singing in Lingala alongside British-Nigerian musical artist Maleek Berry, who was described as an “afro-fusionist” by Pitchfork.

Alté

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Characteristics#

Alté fuses a wide array of musical influences from afrobeats, rap, R&B, soul, dancehall, and others. The term was coined by DRB LasGidi members and was first heard on Boj’s 2014 song “Paper”; it was later used to describe left-field styles of music. TeeZee explained about the term saying “Alté is Nigerian lingo for ‘alternative’ which means freedom of expression essentially through any medium. It has been going on since the 1960s as Nigerians always experimented with music. It became recognized as a style or genre from about 2012 upwards and it broke into the mainstream in 2016 with the rise of its new stars.” Its fashion culture has been inspired by the early 2000s, and its music videos have been inspired by 1990s Nollywood horror drama.

Alternative dance

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Characteristics#

AllMusic states that alternative dance mixes the “melodic song structure of alternative and indie rock with electronic beats, synths and/or samples, and club orientation of post-disco dance music”. The genre draws heavily on club culture for inspiration while incorporating other styles of music such as electropop, house, and EBM. The performers of alternative dance are closely identified with their music through a signature style, texture, or fusion of specific musical elements. They are usually signed to small record labels.

Alternative metal

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Characteristics#

One of the main characteristics of alternative metal and its subgenres are heavily downtuned, mid-paced “chug”-like guitar riffs. However, funk metal bands often use a more conventional riffing style influenced by 1980s thrash metal. Alternative metal features clean and melodic vocals, Examples include alternative metal bands associated with the nu metal movement, such as Korn and Deftones, who have been described as having “bipolar vocals”. Jonathan Gold of the Los Angeles Times wrote in 1990 “Just as rock has an alternative, left wing-bands like the Replacements and Dinosaur Jr.-so does metal. Alternative metal is alternative music that rocks. And alternative metal these days can reach 10 times the audience of other alternative rock. Jane’s Addiction plays an intense brand of ’70s-influenced arty metal; so does Soundgarden. In fact, the arty meanderings of Sabbath and Zeppelin themselves would be considered alternative metal.” Houston Press has described the genre as being a “compromise for people for whom Nirvana was not heavy enough but Metallica was too heavy.” The first wave of alternative metal bands emerged from many backgrounds, including hardcore punk (Bad Brains, Rollins Band, Life of Agony, Corrosion of Conformity), noise rock (Helmet, the Jesus Lizard, Today Is the Day), Seattle’s grunge scene (Alice in Chains, Soundgarden), stoner rock (Clutch, Kyuss), sludge metal (Fudge Tunnel, Melvins), gothic metal (Type O Negative), groove metal (Pantera, White Zombie) and industrial (Godflesh, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry). These bands never formed a distinct movement or scene; rather they were bound by their incorporation of traditional metal influences and openness to experimentation. while Primus were influenced by progressive rock, and funk and Faith No More mixed progressive rock, R&B, funk and hip hop. Fudge Tunnel’s style of alternative metal included influences from both sludge metal and noise rock.

Anatolian blues

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History#

After the 1970s, blues and jazz music became more common and have been started to use with the traditional folk music, Türküs, this has led to the Anatolian blues genre to born in Turkey.

Musicians and musical groups#

Yavuz Çetin
Can Gox
Murat Ertel
Asım Can Gündüz
Evrencan Gündüz ;Groups
Blue Blues Band
Gevende
Eis Ten Polin
Bangkok B.B.
Better Blues Band
Bluesaint Blues Band
Blues-Mobil
Bluestaff
Fötr Blues Band
Kingus Blues Band
Lackawanna Soul & Blues Band
Tarık Değirmenci Blues Band
Sahte Rakı Blues Band
Yiğitcan Sağır Trio

Anatolian rock

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Background (1930s-1960s)#

Anatolian rock has a long history that dates back to the founding of the Turkish Republic decades ago. Atatürk pushed extensive changes to build a national form of music from the early 1930s forward. He believed that music should be based on national and modern foundations and musicians should work on Turkish melodies and make them polyphonic according to the rules of Western harmonic music. As a result, Anatolian folk music began to spread and people began to listen to Anatolian folk tunes instead of Ottoman music. In the 1960s, rock and roll began to be played and rock groups such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Yes, Status Quo and Omega became popular especially in Istanbul. It began to spread and became popular among the elite youth of the city. In Istanbul, high school and university students began forming their own bands and performing covers of rock’n’roll and twist music in 1957. Students who would become famous singers later, such as Barış Manço from Galatasaray High School and Erkin Koray from German High School, performed at an amateur concert they had organized, which is known as the first rock’n roll concert of Turkey. Turkish singers such as Erol Büyükburç began to release English-language cover versions of American songs, as well as their own songs.

Big room house

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History#

By the fall of 2012, the popularity of Electronic dance music (EDM) had exploded. EDM-only festivals began to pop up all over the United States with headline bills featuring internationally touring talents like acts like Skrillex, Tiësto, and Armin van Buuren. No longer restricted to underground raves and soft-ticketed club nights, EDM continued to grow as festivals for progressive house, dubstep, electro house, trance and drum and bass all took place together. DJs began to recognize the need to make music suited for the larger venues and arenas they had begun to play and would play for years to come. As multi-genre EDM festivals like Ultra Music Festival, Electric Zoo and HARD Summer and Swedish House Mafia-like arena tours quickly became the norm in all of electronic dance music, DJs began focusing on making music specifically to be played in these new ‘big’, commercially-driven spaces. The backlash from other DJs, industry insiders and long-time ravers became predictable as the direct tie-in to commercial viability and music’s relative simplistic composition made it an easy target. Unlike trance’s richly programmed arpeggios or house music’s culturally important samples, big room house didn’t have any inborne unique or virtuoso qualities to it; instead much more reliant on the context in which its deployed. Though there are numerous classic big room house songs now, “Animals” remains among the most important. The song’s emergence and subsequent coverage was the first to even make mention of the term “big room” and is responsible for the phenomenon’s explosion. In 2016, Beatport added the Big Room genre, putting producers such as Deadmau5 and Wolfgang Gartner under the category.

Biker metal

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Characteristics#

Biker metal has been described as being influenced by punk rock, rock and roll, heavy metal and blues. Sleazegrinder, a writer at Classic Rock, described biker metal as “glam metal gone Mad Max”. Biker metal is characterized by its mid-tempo approach to metal, its “gritty and American” sound, and its alignment with biker culture as a whole. The genre has been contrasted with slower and more operatic forms of metal, such as Judas Priest’s work in the early 2000s. Similarly, biker metal eschews the speed and virtuosity that rose to prominence in the 1980s. Bands such as Black Moth, Orange Goblin, The Obsessed, Earthride and Black Label Society have been described as fusing the style with doom metal, whereas Clutch have been described as merging elements of biker metal and Southern rock into their stoner rock sound. Black Sabbath’s song “Paranoid” has been considered a classic of the genre. Biker metal has proven influential to genres ranging from speed metal to hardcore punk and crust punk, and was integral to the development of extreme metal.

Blackgaze

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Development#

Michael Nelson of Stereogum tracks the origins of blackgaze to the early work of French musician Neige, who pioneered the fusion through projects including Alcest, Amesoeurs and Lantlôs. According to Nelson, Alcest’s 2005 EP Le Secret was “the birth of blackgaze”; he noted that it sounded “like a Cocteau Twins/Burzum collaborative split” and that " r oughly half the time, vocals were delivered in an angelic coo; the other half, they were a raw, distant shriek". Natalie Zina Walschots of Exclaim! also credits Neige with pioneering the style, while noting that American band Deafheaven has pushed the genre to “greater prominence”.

Blues rock

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Characteristics#

Blues rock can be characterized by bluesy improvisation, extended boogie jams typically focused on electric guitar solos, and often a heavier, riff-oriented sound and feel to the songs than found in typical Chicago-style blues. Blues rock bands “borrow ed the idea of an instrumental combo and loud amplification from rock & roll”. It is also often played at a fast tempo, again distinguishing it from the blues. Blues rock songs often follow typical blues structures, such as twelve-bar blues, sixteen-bar blues, etc. They also use the I-IV-V progression, though there are exceptions, some pieces having a “B” section, while others remain on the I. The Allman Brothers Band’s version of “Stormy Monday”, which uses chord substitutions based on Bobby “Blue” Bland’s 1961 rendition, adds a solo section where “the rhythm shifts effortlessly into an uptempo -time jazz feel”. The key is usually major, but can also be minor, such as in “Black Magic Woman”. One notable difference is the frequent use of a straight eighth-note or rock rhythm instead of triplets usually found in blues. An example is Cream’s “Crossroads”. Although it was adapted from Robert Johnson’s “Cross Road Blues”, the bass “combines with drums to create and continually emphasize continuity in the regular metric drive”.

Cantopop

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1920s to 1950s: Shanghai origins#

Western-influenced music first came to China in the 1920s, specifically through Shanghai. Artists like Zhou Xuan () acted in films and recorded popular songs. After the People’s Republic of China was founded by the Chinese Communist Party in 1949, the new government quickly denounced pop music—particularly Western pop—as decadent. As a result, many first generation Cantopop artists and composers hail from Shanghai.

1960s: Cultural acceptance#

By the 1960s, Cantonese music in Hong Kong was still limited largely to traditional Cantonese opera and comic renditions of western music. Tang Kee-chan, Cheng Kuan-min (), and Tam Ping-man () were among the earliest artists releasing Cantonese records. The generation at the time preferred British and American exports. Western culture was at the time equated with education and sophistication, and Elvis Presley, Johnny Mathis and The Beatles were popular. Conversely, those who preferred Cantonese music were considered old-fashioned or uneducated. and Chan Chai-chung () were two popular Cantonese singers who specifically targeted the younger generation. Connie Chan Po-chu is generally considered to be Hong Kong’s first teen idol, mostly due to her career longevity. Josephine Siao is also another artist of the era.

Celtic punk

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History#

Celtic punk’s origins date back to 1960s and 1970s folk rock musicians who played Irish folk music and Celtic rock in the UK, as well as in more traditional Celtic folk bands such as the Dubliners and the Clancy Brothers. The Scottish band the Skids were possibly the first UK punk band to add a strong folk music element, as they did on their 1981 album Joy. Around the same time in London, Shane MacGowan and Spider Stacy began experimenting with a sound that became the Pogues, which most consider to be the prototypical Celtic punk band. Other early Celtic punk bands included Nyah Fearties, Australia’s Roaring Jack and Norway’s Greenland Whalefishers. The 1990s gave rise to a Celtic punk movement in North America, centered around the likes of the Dropkick Murphys of Quincy, Massachusetts, and Chicago’s The Tossers – both from cities with particularly large population of Irish Americans – as well as LA’s Flogging Molly (founded by Irish emigrant Dave King) and The Real McKenzies of Vancouver, B.C.. North American Celtic punk bands have been influenced by American forms of music, and commonly sing in English.

Chanson franco-orientale

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History#

The genre emerged in early 20th centuries, as French artists began to integrate musical elements inspired by the different cultures of the French colonial empire. Early examples, categorized under the label chanson arabe, include Haia by Paul Lack, and La Bédouine et le Tuba by Charlus (1909). In the 1930s, several artists associated with chanson réaliste, such as Marie Dubas and Nitta Jo, contributed significantly to the genre’s development. Chanson franco-orientale reached a peak of popularity in the late 1950s before gradually declining in visibility in subsequent decades.

Country rap

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Prototypes#

Early influences on the emergence of country rap as a distinct genre include talking blues like “Big Bad John” (1961) by Jimmy Dean, “A Boy Named Sue” (1969) by Johnny Cash, the 1971 cover of “Hot Rod Lincoln” by Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, “Convoy” (1975) by C.W. McCall and “Uneasy Rider” (1975) and “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” (1979), both by Charlie Daniels. Black artists’ works that may have been influential in the genre’s development include Jamaican ska artist Prince Buster’s “Texas Hold-Up” (1964), “Lil Ole Country Boy” (1970) by Parliament, and “Black Grass” (1972) by Bad Bascomb. Music journalist Chuck Eddy traces the genre’s roots back to Woody Guthrie. Blowfly’s single “Blowfly’s Rapp” (1980) drew on the influence of earlier country musicians like Charlie Daniels and C. W. McCall; NPR said the song is a “Deliverance-style encounter with Ku Klux Klan-accredited truck drivers to light funkbacking”. Spin Magazine said Trickeration’s “Western Gangster Town” (1980) (released four years before Schoolly D’s “Gangster Boogie”) is “cowboy rap’s Rosetta stone, and probably the first ‘gangster’ rap”. UGK became pioneers of the hardcore Southern rap style that emerged after the success of the Geto Boys, which they started to call “country rap”. At the end of “Let Me See It”, Pimp C raps: “This ain’t no muthafuckin’ hip-hop records, these country rap tunes”, originally a response to Northern hip-hop artists who had criticized Southern rap for not being “real hip-hop”. The name of the song “Hay” (1996) by Crucial Conflict is a reference to marijuana.

Country rock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Definition and etymology#

There has also been cross-pollination throughout the history of both genres; however, the term “country-rock” is sometimes used to refer to the wave of rock musicians of the mid 1960s and early 1970s who began recording rock songs with country themes, vocal styles, and additional instrumentation, most characteristically pedal steel guitars. The term country rock had rarely been heard until the critic Richard Goldstein used it the June6, 1968 issue of The Village Voice. In his piece, titled “Country Rock: Can Y’All Dig It?”, Goldstein counted several artists as moving towards country-friendly material – including Moby Grape, Stone Poneys, Buffy Sainte-Marie, the International Submarine Band and Bob Dylan – but he expected the Byrds’ forthcoming album, Sweetheart of the Rodeo, to represent the new genre. Before the Byrds’ album was released in August1968, Goldstein considered the Band’s debut album, Music From Big Pink, as the “first major album” of the country-rock movement when he reviewed it for The New York Times on August4. Key to the genre, Goldstein wrote, was that the album had country music’s “twang and… tenacity”, but it also " made you want to move" like rock music.

Cowpunk

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Etymology and characteristics#

The term “cowpunk” is first attested in 1979, as a blend of “cowboy” and “punk”. The term “country punk” has been proposed as an equivalent term. Both terms are sometimes hyphenated, especially in late 1970s or early 1980s sources (e.g., cow-punk or country-punk). In 1984, Robert Palmer wrote in the New York Times on the emerging aesthetic acknowledged “cowpunk” as one of several catch-all terms critics were using to categorize the country-influenced music of otherwise unrelated punk and new wave bands. The article briefly summarized the music’s history, at least in the United States, saying that in the early 1980s, several punk and new wave bands had begun collecting classic country records, and soon thereafter began performing high-tempo cover versions of their favorite songs, and that new bands had also formed around the idea. By 1984, there were dozens of bands in both the U.S. and England “personalizing country music and making it palatable for the MTV Generation.” A New York Times writer stated that one issue with the “cowpunk” term was that “…no single term really describes the music of all these bands.” A 2018 article looking back at the 1980s trends states that the “…diversity of styles beyond punk proper” in cowpunk, “…for some, made the category…suspect, or at least misleading.”

Crossover thrash

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Etymology#

The term “thrash” originated as a way of referring to hardcore punk, seen on the 1982 hardcore compilation New York Thrash. The name “crossover” was coined in reference to Dirty Rotten Imbeciles’s 1987 album Crossover.

Precursors#

Hybrid forms of metal and punk had existed as early as the mid-1970s, with the most notable act being Motörhead. However, Discharge were the first band to turn the fusion into “something a little more long-term”. With their 1980 EPs Reality of War, Fight Back and Decontrol, the band began to merge the nascent sounds of hardcore punk and street punk with elements of heavy metal. The band’s influence was immediate and widespread, helping influence the beginnings of grindcore, crust punk, black metal and D-beat, and notably pioneering thrash metal groups Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and Sepultura. In his book Choosing Death author Albert Mudrian called Discharge “the ultimate crossover act, marrying the passion and intensity of punk with the speed and extremity of heavy metal.” The initial contact between punk rock and heavy metal involved a “fair amount of mutual loathing. Despite their shared devotion to speed, spite, shredded attire and stomping on distortion pedals, their relationship seemed, at first, unlikely.” Their 1982 split LP with fellow Washington band the Faith showed both bands exhibiting quick, fiery, high-speed punk rock. It has been argued that those recordings laid the foundation for early thrash metal, at least in terms of selected tempos, By 1985, pioneering Boston hardcore bands including SS Decontrol, DYS and the F.U.’s had begun to play heavy metal. Author Steven Blush said of the fusion: “It was natural. The most intense music, after Black Flag and Dead Kennedys, was Slayer and Metallica. Therefore, that’s where everybody was going. That turned into a culture war, basically.”

Crunkcore

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History and characteristics#

Crunkcore combines the post-hardcore genres of screamo and emo with hip-hop, particularly the Southern hip-hop genre crunk, along with electronic music such as electropop, dance, pop, rock, and the metal genres of nu metal and metalcore. Writer and musician Jessica Hopper claims that Panic! at the Disco’s fusion of emo and electronic elements influenced the development of crunkcore in the mid-2000s. Kerrang! noted retrospectively that a mostly online presence through mediums such as Myspace was a major feature of crunkcore. The lyrics of the genres are mostly party-themed, hedonistic, and sexually explicit. Family Force 5 is a lyrical exception, instead melding the sounds of the genre with Christian-themed lyrics. Hollywood Undead, Brokencyde, and 3OH!3 are credited as the primary artists behind the creation and emergence of crunkcore. The roots of the genre are in the output of the rap rock group Hollywood Undead, but the genre achieved popularity through Brokencyde, who are considered the most responsible for crunkcore’s rise. Warped Tour co-creator and CEO Kevin Lyman calls the group 3OH!3 “the real tipping point for scrunk” as “they were the first emo-influenced act to depart from traditional instruments in favor of pre-programmed beats”, while still retaining many of the stylistic elements of emo. That group achieved the genre’s greatest success, the 2008 single “Don’t Trust Me”. The genre declined in the 2010s, although Brokencyde and 3OH!3 continued to record and tour, respectively, for the next few years. Blood on the Dance Floor and Family Force 5 are the most prolific artists in the genre, with a respective eight studio albums and five studio album and nine EPs. Crunkcore is typically characterized by the use of screamed vocals, although some crunkcore artists do not scream. For example, 3OH!3 do not “incorporate the blood-curdling screams of many scrunk acts”. Millionaires and Kesha likewise eschewed the screamed vocals typical for crunkcore but retained the sexually explicit lyrics and thus are still often considered part of the genre.

Dance-pop

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1980s#

As the term “disco” started to go out of fashion by the late 1970s to early 1980s, other terms were commonly used to describe disco-based music, such as “post-disco”, “club”, “dance” or “dance-pop” music. As the primary songwriter on her self-titled debut album and a co-producer by her third record, Madonna’s insistence on being involved in all creative aspects of her work was highly unusual for a female dance-pop vocalist at the time. The staff of Vice magazine stated that her debut album “drew the blueprint for future dance-pop.” In the 1980s, dance-pop was closely aligned to other uptempo electronic genres, such as Hi-NRG. Prominent producers in the 1980s included Stock, Aitken and Waterman, who created Hi-NRG/dance-pop for artists such as Kylie Minogue, Dead or Alive and Bananarama. During the decade, dance-pop borrowed influences from funk (e.g. Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston), new jack swing (e.g. Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul), and contemporary R&B. Other prominent dance-pop artists and groups of the 1980s included the Pet Shop Boys, Mel and Kim, Samantha Fox, Debbie Gibson, and Tiffany.

Dance-punk

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History#

Many groups in the post-punk era adopted a more danceable style, with dance-punk emerging as a compromised genre originally referred to as “disco-punk” or “punk funk”. Its first wave emerged from a communal and alternative scene as a critique of social standards. New York City bands who were core to this wave were ESG, Liquid Liquid, James Chance and the Contortions, Defunkt, Lizzy Mercier Descloux and Material. In addition, the Slits contributed to the genre in Britain, emphasizing the influence of reggae. These bands were influenced strongly by funk, avant-funk trends, disco, dub reggae, ska, new wave, and other dance music forms popular at the time. More culturally prominent acts from the late 1970s into the 1980s included Talking Heads, Public Image Ltd., New Order and Gang of Four. Emerging from the convergence of disco and punk influences, dance-punk exhibits a strong affiliation with urban environments, particularly in the way they are romanticized and portrayed. These spaces, whether they exist in the realm of imagination or reality, conjure up a sense of cosmopolitanism, artistic liberation, and a spirit of defiance against the confines of conventional mainstream culture.

Dance-rock

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Definitions#

Michael Campbell, in his book Popular Music in America, defines the genre as “post-punk/post-disco fusion”. Campbell also cited Robert Christgau, who described dance-oriented rock (or DOR) as an umbrella term used by various DJs in the 1980s. However, AllMusic defines “dance-rock” as 1980s and 1990s music practiced by rock musicians, influenced by Philly soul, disco and funk, fusing those styles with rock and dance. Artists like the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Duran Duran, Simple Minds, INXS, Eurythmics, Depeche Mode, the Clash, New Order and Devo belong, according to AllMusic, to this genre. Dance-rock embraces some experimental funk acts like A Certain Ratio, Gang of Four, and also mainstream musicians, for example Robert Palmer, Billy Idol and Hall & Oates.

Dark wave

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1980s: Origins in Europe#

Since the 1980s, the term “dark wave” has been used in Europe by the music press to describe the gloomy and melancholy variant of new wave and post-punk music. At that time, the term “goth” was inseparably connected with gothic rock, whereas “dark wave” acquired a broader meaning, embracing bands and solo artists that were associated with gothic rock such as Bauhaus, Joy Division, the Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Depeche Mode, French cold wave groups such as Clair Obscur and Opera Multi Steel have also been associated with the dark wave scene; Simultaneously, different substyles associated with the new wave and dark wave movements started to merge and influence each other, e.g. synth-wave ) with gothic rock, or began to borrow elements of post-industrial music. Attrition, Die Form (France), Pink Industry (UK), Psyche (Canada), Kirlian Camera (Italy) and Clan of Xymox (Netherlands) performed this music in the 1980s. Other bands such as Malaria! and the Vyllies added elements of chanson and cabaret music. This sort of dark wave music became known as cabaret noir (or “dark cabaret”, a term popularized by U.S. dark wave label Projekt Records). German dark wave bands were partially associated with the Neue Deutsche Welle (i.e. German new wave), and included Xmal Deutschland, Mask For, Asmodi Bizarr, and Pink Turns Blue.

Deathcore

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Characteristics#

A fusion genre, deathcore melds elements of metalcore, hardcore and death metal. It is usually very fast and focuses on intensity. Deathcore typically combines deep ‘roaring’ and high ‘screaming’ vocals, down-tuned guitars, simplified death metal riffs, tremolo picking, double bass drumming and blast beat drumming. It is defined by its slower intense sections called breakdowns, which are also a key trait of metalcore. Vocals in deathcore are typically a mixture of deep roaring vocals similar to death growls, and higher-pitched screaming, as well as a style known as “pig squeals” or “pig squealing”. Sung vocals are rare, but they have been used by a few bands such as All Shall Perish (in the song “Awaken the Dreamers”) and Oceano (in the song “Incisions”). Lyrics in deathcore tend to be personal, angry and violent, often deal with male frustrations, and can include misogynistic language. In terms of fashion, deathcore is associated with short hair, baseball caps, earlobe plugs and sportswear, which is similar to metalcore and hardcore scenes, and differs from typical metalhead attire.

Electronic rock

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Subgenres and other terms#

The term “progressive rock” (or “prog rock”) was originally coined in the 1960s for music that would otherwise be described as “electronic rock,” Electronic rock is also associated with industrial rock, synth-pop, dance-punk, indietronica, and new wave,

Synth-punk#

Synth-punk (originally techno-punk or electropunk) is a style of electronic music that mixes the aggression of punk rock with the use of synthesizers. Originally pioneered by New York band Suicide, formed in 1970. Their sound over their five studio albums mixed punk rock with various electronic-based genres such as electronic rock, synth-pop, and disco. Other artists such as Californian band the Screamers were labeled “techno-punk” by the Los Angeles Times in 1978. Rather than the usual electric guitars, the band’s instrumentation included a heavily distorted Fender Rhodes electric piano and an ARP Odyssey synthesizer. The term synth-punk (or electropunk) was coined in 1999 by Damien Ramsey. In the early 1980s, synth-punk fused with various electronic genres to create electronic body music, which would influence a number of subsequent industrial dance, industrial rock and industrial metal acts. It also influenced the hardcore punk inspired digital hardcore, which combines hardcore punk with electronic music, noise and heavy metal. It typically features fast tempos and aggressive sound samples. dance punk,

Electronicore

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Reception#

Attack Attack! is often recognized as the primary American contributor of the style, being inspired by British band Enter Shikari. Enter Shikari is an electronicore band that began in 1999 as Hybryd, adding their last member and adopting their current name in early 2003, in St Albans, England. The group has received international radio airplay and a substantial number of musical awards, from Kerrang!, NME, Rock Sound Magazine and BT Digital Music Awards. They express a relationship with electronic music genres such as trance and have been referred to as the “kings of trancecore.” In 2020, British band Bring Me The Horizon released Post Human: Survival Horror, which has notable elements of electronicore in a few tracks such as 1x1 which features duo Nova Twins.

Emo pop

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Characteristics#

Emo pop is a fusion between emo and pop-punk characterized by “bright, emotional, and heavily singable” melodic composition. AllMusic describes emo pop as blending “youthful angst” with “slick production” and mainstream appeal, using “high-pitched melodies, rhythmic guitars, and confessional lyrics concerning adolescence, relationships, and heartbreak.” MasterClass describes emo pop as featuring “soaring vocals and upbeat songs with melancholy lyrics.” During the 2000s, emo pop artists would fuse the “lyrical and visual elements of emo with radio-friendly sonics of pop-punk.” Quinn Villarreal of SiriusXM said: “If you were born between 1990 and 2000, this is the emo you know and heard feverishly across U.S. pop stations.” and less extreme use of loud/soft dynamics.

Emo rap

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Characteristics#

Publications have described emo rap as taking influence from hip hop, nu metal, post-hardcore, and cloud rap. Emo rap departs from the traditional tones found in modern mainstream hip hop in favor of more emotional and personal lyrical content, described by The Wall Street Journal as “giving their elders the finger.” Lyrics tend to focus on topics such as depression, loneliness, anxiety, consumption of drugs and alcohol, nihilism, suicide, and self-medication. The genre is characterized by its combination of musical elements commonly found in conscious hip hop with indie rock instrumentals. Sampling often uses 2000s pop punk and emo songs. Much of the sampling has been influenced by artists who inspired the genre, such as Mineral, Underoath, and the Postal Service. Some emo rappers also make use of original instrumentation. Horse Head of the collective GothBoiClique has described the music as “…sort of nostalgic, but it’s new too…no one’s really done shit like this. It’s like emo rap and melodic trap”. Fans of the music are sometimes referred to as “sad boys”, in reference to emo rapper Yung Lean’s music group by the same name.

Folk punk

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Characteristics#

Folk punk is related to and/or influenced by various styles such as Celtic punk, gypsy punk, anti-folk, and alternative country. Folk punk is also linked with DIY punk scenes, and bands often perform in house venues in addition to more traditional spaces. Folk-punk musicians may perform their own compositions in the style of punk rock, but using additional folk instruments, such as mandolins, accordions, banjos, and/or violins. Folk punk possesses a rich history of progressive and leftist political views, involving topics like race, class, feminism, anti-fascism, animal rights, queerness, and anarchism.

Funk metal

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

Funk metal has also been called thrash-funk or punk-funk. It was most prevalent in the American state of California, particularly in Los Angeles and San Francisco. According to AllMusic, funk metal “takes the loud guitars and riffs of heavy metal and melds them to the popping bass lines and syncopated rhythms of funk”. Faith No More, another Californian alternative group who emerged in the mid-1980s, have been described as a funk metal band that also dabbled in rap metal. Rage Against the Machine’s mix of funk and metal not only included rap, but also elements of hardcore. AllMusic formerly categorized funk metal as a style of alternative rock, in spite of the genre’s name. The website currently categorizes it as a style of heavy metal. Bands such as Primus and Mordred emerged from the thrash metal underground. Roy Shuker described the genre in his 1994 book Understanding Popular Music, writing: “the ‘classic’ distinction between rock and pop runs into some difficulties when we consider various forms of ‘alternative’ music, illustrating the difficulties of forcing genres into too rigid a typology. For example, where would we place the wild musical genre called ’thrash funk’, a fusion of 1970s funk, punk rock, rap, California surf, skateboard and hippy cultures, which, according to press reports, swept San Francisco clubs in 1990.” Shuker wrote about the genre again in the 2005 edition of his book Popular Music: The Key Concepts, calling it “less structured than earlier forms of metal, with the bass guitar relied on more than the lead.” The genre managed to gain some international popularity through foreign acts such as British groups Atom Seed and Scat Opera, as well as Super Junky Monkey, an all-female funk metal/avant-garde band from Japan. Although never breaking through in the United States, Swedish band Electric Boys attracted recognition throughout Europe, Funk metal’s prevalence in the late 1980s and 1990–91 predated the rise of grunge music in late 1991, which hurt the popularity of more traditional forms of hard rock/metal. In a January 1991 Spin article, Electric Boys singer Conny Bloom claimed funk metal had become a trend since people thought other hard rock of that era was “boring”.

Funk rock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

1960s and 1970s#

Sly and the Family Stone gained funk rock hits such as “Sing a Simple Song” and “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)”. The Jimi Hendrix Experience album Electric Ladyland also included a couple of funk rock songs, such as “Gypsy Eyes” and “Still Raining, Still Dreaming”. George Clinton has been considered the godfather of this genre since 1970. Clinton created the name “P-Funk” include Funkadelic and Parliament for the innovative new concepts of funk that he culled from former members of James Brown’s band (such as Maceo Parker, Bootsy Collins and Fred Wesley) and new young players such as Eddie Hazel. His groups, Funkadelic and Parliament, practically defined funk since the release of the influential funk rock Funkadelic classic Maggot Brain (1971). Later funk rock albums by the group include Cosmic Slop, Standing on the Verge of Getting It On, Hardcore Jollies and Let’s Take It to the Stage. Later albums such as One Nation Under a Groove and Electric Spanking of War Babies had a bit more radio-friendly sound but still preserved much of group’s funk rock approach. Grand Funk Railroad pioneered the bass driven hard rock funk style in 1970 so well portrayed in their cover of the Animals song Inside-Looking Out and later picked up by Rage Against the Machine. Composer and guitarist Frank Zappa demonstrated the merge of styles in albums like Overnite Sensation, in themes such as “I’m the Slime”, covered in concert decades later by Funkadelic. Other pioneers evolved in the 1970s are American artists Rick Derringer, Redbone, the Bar-Kays, and Mother’s Finest. “We called ourselves funk rock”, recalled Mother’s Finest singer Glenn “Doc” Murdock. “I think we invented that. We even had a house where we all lived and we named it ‘Funk Rock, Georgia’. We felt that we were headlining that whole genre. We played with Lynyrd Skynyrd and AC/DC. Those bands had a lot of funk in their music. The real problem for us was when we played in black clubs. They told us we were too loud.” Funk rock acts were not favored by R&B recording companies. For example, Nile Rodgers, guitarist of Chic, wanted to be a rock band like Roxy Music, but they eventually became a disco act after being turned down by recording companies. Despite its considerable influence on later popular music, funk rock was not a very visible phenomenon during the 1970s. Only a few funk rock acts could be seen on record charts, notably David Bowie (“Fame”, 1975), Aerosmith (“Last Child”, 1976), The Rolling Stones (“Hot Stuff”, 1975), Gary Wright (“Love Is Alive”, 1976) and Steve Winwood (“I’m A Man”). When Glenn Hughes left Trapeze and joined Deep Purple along with David Coverdale, Deep Purple’s next two albums contained elements of funk and soul. When Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple in 1975, the band’s next album Come Taste the Band with Tommy Bolin was even more funky than its predecessor Stormbringer. However, Deep Purple broke up in 1976 and Tommy Bolin died from a drug overdose.

Garage punk (fusion genre)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Etymology#

The earliest known use of the term “garage punk” appeared in Lenny Kaye’s track-by-track liner notes for the 1972 psychedelic music compilation Nuggets to describe a song by the 1960s garage rock band the Shadows of Knight as “classic garage punk”. The term “punk rock” was originally used to describe the music of mid-1960s American garage bands. When referring to 1960s groups, the term “garage punk” is usually deployed interchangeably with “garage rock”. MTVs Beverly Bryan says that “garage punk” may be used “more likely” to refer to “garage rock” or “garage revival”. While garage bands varied in style, the label of garage punk has been attributed by critic Michael Hann to the “toughest, angriest garage rockers” such as the 13th Floor Elevators and the Sonics.

Glam metal

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics, fashion, and terminology#

Musically, glam metal combines a traditional heavy metal sound with elements of hard rock and punk rock, adding pop-influenced catchy hooks and guitar riffs. Like other heavy metal songs of the 1980s (most notably thrash metal songs), they often feature shred guitar solos. They also include extensive use of harmonies, particularly in the characteristic power balladsslow, emotional songs that gradually build to a strong finale. These were among the most commercially successful singles in the genre and opened it up to a wider audience that would otherwise not have been attracted to traditional heavy metal. Lyrical themes often deal with love and lust, with songs often directed at a particular woman. Aesthetically glam metal draws heavily on the glam rock or glitter rock of the 1970s, often with very long backcombed hair, use of hair spray, use of make-up, gaudy clothing and accessories (chiefly consisting of tight denim or leather jeans, spandex, and headbands). The visual aspects of glam metal appealed to music television producers, particularly MTV, whose establishment coincided with the rise of the genre. Glam metal performers became infamous for their debauched lifestyles of drugs, strippers and late-night parties, which were widely covered in the tabloid press. Sociologist Deena Weinstein points to the large number of terms used to describe more commercial forms of heavy metal, which she groups together as lite metal. These include, beside glam metal: melodic metal, false metal, poodle bands, nerf metal, pop metal or metal pop, the last of which was coined by critic Philip Bashe in 1983 to describe bands such as Van Halen, Bon Jovi, and Def Leppard. AllMusic employs the umbrella term “pop metal”, which refers a late-1980s variation of pop metal characterized by flashy clothing and heavy makeup influenced by glam rock (as embodied by Poison and Mötley Crüe). Use of the derogatory term “hair metal” started in the early 1990s, as grunge gained popularity at the expense of 1980s metal. In the “definitive metal family tree” of his documentary Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, anthropologist Sam Dunn differentiates pop metal, which includes bands like Def Leppard, Europe, and Whitesnake, from glam metal bands such as Mötley Crüe and Poison.

Gothic country

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Gothic country is rooted in early jazz, gospel, country, Americana, gothic rock, and post-punk. The genre’s lyrics focus on macabre and grim subject matters. J.D. Wilkes, frontman of the band Legendary Shack Shakers, described gothic country as " taking an angle that there’s something grotesque and beautiful in the traditions of the South, the backdrop of Southern living." Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, formed in 1992, often deals with lyrical themes derived from apocalyptic religious imagery, applying a gothic lyrical approach to country and gospel songs, although the band has denied that their songs are gothic. The following year, the gothic country group the Handsome Family formed; Andy Fyfe of Mojo called them “Americana’s ghostly Sonny & Cher.” A.V. Club reviewer Christopher Bahn compared their music to “a collaboration between Hank Williams and Edgar Allan Poe.” Johnny Cash’s American Recordings series, produced by Rick Rubin, a producer best known for working with hip hop and heavy metal artists, was described as having a gothic country sound and image; amidst covers of songs by non-country artists such as Depeche Mode, Danzig and Nine Inch Nails, as well as traditional and World War II-era songs, Cash’s album series lyrically derived from haunting, despaired themes such as death, and recurring religious themes in the form of dark gospel recordings. Pioneered by David Eugene Edwards through his band 16 Horsepower (and later, Wovenhand), a regional gothic country scene developed in Denver.

Hip house

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

A British collaboration between the electronic group Beatmasters and the rap duo Cookie Crew entitled “Rok da House” is cited as one of the first hip house tracks. Minor controversy ensued in 1988 when a U.S. record called “Turn Up the Bass” by Tyree Cooper featuring Kool Rock Steady claimed it was the “first hip house record on vinyl”. The Beatmasters disputed this, pointing out that “Rok da House” had originally been written and pressed to vinyl in 1986. The outfit then released “Who’s in the House?” featuring British emcee Merlin, containing the lines “Beatmasters stand to attention, hip house is your invention” and “Watch out Tyree, we come faster”. More claims to the hip-house crown were subsequently laid down by Fast Eddie in “Yo Yo Get Funky!”, Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock with “It Takes Two”, and Tony Scott’s “That’s How I’m Living”. After successful releases by the Beatmasters, Deskee, Tyree, KC Flightt, Doug Lazy and Mr. Lee, hip-house became popular in the acid house warehouse scene and nightclubs. Hip house also garnered substantial chart success. The style complemented sample-based records of the period, produced by British artists such as S-Express, Bomb the Bass and MARRS. Hip house tracks featured on popular dance compilations including Telstar’s Deep Heat compilation series and was championed by DJs such as Chad Jackson. As house music emerged as a worldwide industry by the late 1980s, U.S. acts such as C+C Music Factory would use the hip house formula in hits such as “Gonna Make You Sweat”, as well as the Eurodance particularly with hits by the Belgian group Technotronic and the German groups Snap! and Real McCoy.

Hokkien pop

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Terminology#

The historical origin of Hokkien pop comes from a Japanese enka base instead of a Chinese shidaiqu base. Because it developed from traditional Japanese enka, it has become diverse in its varieties.

Origin#

Under Japanese rule (1895–1945), Taiwanese music continued and developed its new form from the previous period. By the 1930s, vinyl records of traditional music, such as Taiwanese opera, Peking opera, Nanguan, and Beiguan were popular. The first Hokkien record to have “pop song” printed on its label was . Sung by Chiu-chan and released in March 1929, the song featured Taiwanese opera-style seven-character lines with a Western orchestral instrumentation. In March 1932, a Hokkien-language promotional jingle recorded by Sun-sun to advertise the film The Peach Girl was released, and achieved wider popularity. A new business model of the popular music industry emerged when Kashiwano Seijiro, who led the Taiwan branch of Columbia Record Company, started to market their records in new ways, such as marketing songs with silent movies. Kashiwano also recruited and made popular musical talents such as Teng Yu-hsien, , , Lee Lim-chhiu and Sun-sun. They produced important titles such as Bāng Chhun-hong (Longing for the Spring Breeze) and The Torment of a Flower (Flower of a Rainy Night). The Taiwan branch of Victor Records was an equally competitive company, delegated by the influential Lin Ben Yuan Family and headed by Chang Fu-hsing. With talents such as Chen Ta-ju, Victor produced important titles such as . This new business was led by a new generation born under Japanese rule. This generation received modern Japanese education at that time and was exposed to western musical styles and ideas. Some were active in the new music industry because of their interest in politics. Music helped them demonstrate their disapproval against the Japanese ruling and support of native culture. However, Hokkien pop was soon set back. As Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, non-Japanese songs were banned, and talents were required to write songs (and change previous songs) for military propaganda. The situation worsened in 1941 when the Pacific War broke out. The bombings of Taiwan (called Formosa at the time) by the United States, poverty, and the shortage of raw materials hit the music industry hard, a situation which drove many talents away. This period ends with the end of World War II and the handover of Taiwan to the Republic of China in 1945.

Hong Kong English pop

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

As English was the only official language from 1843 to 1974 in Hong Kong, it was spoken widely, especially in formal contexts, by Hongkongers in the 20th century. As a result, pop songs performed in English language were very popular among both ethnic Chinese and British Hong Kong citizens.

Pre-WWII#

Many of the bandleaders and musicians were Filipinos. Lobing Samson, who led the house band at Ciro’s in Shanghai, China for many years, later made his way to Hong Kong as did Fred Carpio, Vic Cristobal and many others.

Indigenous rock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Australia#

In Australia, Aboriginal rock mixes rock styles and instruments (e.g. electric (guitar, bass and drums) with Indigenous Australian instruments such as the didgeridoo and clapsticks. Aboriginal rock is mostly performed by Indigenous bands, although some bands include non-Aboriginal members. Bands include Yothu Yindi, Us Mob and No Fixed Address. Yothu Yindi, with vocalist Mandawuy Yunupingu has politicised lyrics, such as 1991’s “Treaty”. Other songs relate more generally to Aboriginal culture. Another major band was the Warumpi Band, which toured with Midnight Oil. The Warumpi Band focuses more on the Aboriginal aspects of the music, rather than the rock sound of Yothu Yindi. In the 2000s, Aboriginal bands such as NoKTuRNL have adopted a rap metal or nu metal sound. Formal training institutions include the Government sponsored Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts. Famous songs include “Treaty”, “My Island Home”, and “Blackfella/Whitefella”.

Indorock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The guitar was imported to the East Indies by Portuguese explorers in the 16th century. The traditional Portuguese song styles, saudade and fado, played with guitar accompaniment, later became kroncong music. Many Indorock musicians had a predilection for Hawaiian music, which was popular in the Netherlands at the time. Other significant influences include American country & western, and the rock & roll repertoire played on radio stations in Indonesia via American (AFN) stations from the Philippines and Australia. While Dutch audience were interested in Rock & Roll, white Dutch musicians did not perform the genre in the mid-1950s, and Indonesians and Moluccans filled the void at that time, and bands such as the Bellboys, the Room Rockers, the Hap Cats, and the Hot Jumpers performing to a mixed audience in venues such as pubs. Since the Dutch music industry offered few venues for Indorock artists, many of them went to Germany where it quickly became highly popular, at least until the advent of British beat music. The Indorock scene had largely faded in the Netherlands by the mid-1960s, as it was superseded in popularity by British rock as a result of the British Invasion. However, it would continue to be an influence in Indonesian rock music. Indorock has also been considered by some to be an early form of proto-punk, as some of its stylistic elements are similar to those in the punk rock movement of the 1970s.

Industrial metal

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Early innovators#

Though electric guitars had been used by industrial artists since the early days of the genre, archetypal industrial groups such as Throbbing Gristle displayed a strong anti-rock stance. British post-punk band Killing Joke pioneered the crossing over between styles and was an influence on major acts associated with industrial metal such as Ministry, Godflesh, and Nine Inch Nails. Another pioneer industrial rock group, Big Black, also impacted some later groups. By the late 1980s industrial and heavy metal began to fuse into a common genre, with Godflesh’s self-titled EP and Ministry’s The Land of Rape and Honey at the forefront. Godflesh was founded by former Napalm Death guitarist Justin Broadrick. Drawing from a wide array of influences—power electronics forefathers Whitehouse, noise rock band Swans, ambient music creator Brian Eno Faith No More, and Fear Factory. Ministry emerged from the scene surrounding Wax Trax! Records, a Chicago indie label dedicated to industrial music. Ministry’s initial foray into guitar rock happened during a recording session of The Land of Rape and Honey on Southern Studios, in London. The band’s frontman, the Cuban-born Al Jourgensen, explained this transition: Jourgensen seemed particularly fond of thrash metal. After the release of Land, he recruited guitarist Mike Scaccia from Texas thrashers Rigor Mortis. On one occasion, Jourgensen told the press that Sepultura was his favorite band. He also expressed the desire to produce a Metallica album. Jourgensen’s interest in dance-oriented electronic music did not entirely fade, however; he also formed the side-project Revolting Cocks, a more electronic body music-inflected collaboration with Richard23 of Front 242. German band KMFDM was another seminal industrial metal group. Although not a metal fan, KMFDM leader Sascha Konietzko’s “infatuation with ripping off metal licks” stemmed from his experiments with E-mu’s Emax sampler in late 1986. He told Guitar World that, A Swiss trio, The Young Gods, brushed with the style on their second album, L’Eau Rouge (1989). Prior to its release, singer Franz Treichler declared: Canadian thrash metal band Malhavoc became one of the earlier acts of the genre when they began to mix extreme metal with industrial music in the late 1980s. Pigface, formed by Martin Atkins and including Ministry drummer Bill Rieflin, emerged as an industrial metal collective of sorts, participating with many figures from the noise rock and industrial worlds. Nine Inch Nails, the “one-man-band” formed by Trent Reznor, brought the genre to mainstream audiences with albums such as the Grammy-winning Broken and the best-selling The Downward Spiral, accompanied by their groundbreaking performance at Woodstock ‘94. The rivethead subculture also developed at this time, along with the so-called “coldwave” subgenre, which encompassed Chemlab, 16 Volt, and Acumen Nation. Some electro-industrial groups adopted industrial metal techniques in this period, including Skinny Puppy (on their Rabies, co-produced by Jourgensen), and Front Line Assembly. British band Pitchshifter, formed in 1989 by brothers Jon and Mark Clayden, also started as an industrial metal band. The band later included elements of drum and bass. Frontman JS mentions:

Industrial rock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

Industrial rock is defined by the merging of rock music with influences lifted from industrial music, electronic, and avant-garde music. Industrial rock bands are characterized by harsh, abrasive sounds, blending distorted, aggressive guitar riffs with electronic textures and experimental production techniques. Exemplified by artists who signed to industrial focused independent record label Wax Trax! Records, while some industrial rock artists later overlapped with industrial metal.

Forerunners#

Cromagnon’s 1969 record Orgasm has been credited with foreshadowing the industrial rock sound, with AllMusic describing it as sounding “like it could be a Ministry … recording from 1989”. Pitchfork labelled the opening track “Caledonia” as a “pre-industrial stomp”. During the 1970s, industrial music emerged through the early works of Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, NON, SPK and Z’EV. SAlongside, New York City band Suicide, formed in 1970, by Alan Vega and Martin Rev, whose 1977 debut album has been credited with providing “the blueprints for … industrial rock”. Furthermore, Iggy Pop who released his debut solo album The Idiot, produced by David Bowie, in 1977, was later retroactively recognized as a forerunner to industrial rock, particularly the closing track, “Mass Production’, which contains numerous “proto-industrial noises” created using tape loops, which Hugo Wilcken described as “early industrial electronica.” Ian Curtis of Joy Division, cited the album as an inspiration, and later influenced the work of Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, who’d cover their song “Dead Souls”. Other influences on industrial rock include Einstürzende Neubauten, Alien Sex Fiend, and Come.

Jazz fusion

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins#

When John Coltrane died in 1967, rock was the most popular music in America, and DownBeat magazine went so far as to declare in a headline that: “Jazz as We Know It Is Dead”. AllMusic states that “until around 1967, the worlds of jazz and rock were nearly completely separate”, although the Daevid Allen Trio which later became the Soft Machine formed in 1963, while the jazz label Verve released the influential debut album, Freak Out!, by artist and composer Frank Zappa in 1966. In 1966, he started the band the Free Spirits with Bob Moses on drums and recorded the band’s first album, Axelrod said Davis had played the album before conceiving Bitches Brew.

Jazz rap

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

In 1989, Gang Starr released the debut single “Words I Manifest”, sampling Dizzy Gillespie’s 1952 “Night in Tunisia”, and Stetsasonic released “Talkin’ All That Jazz”, sampling Lonnie Liston Smith. Gang Starr’s debut LP, No More Mr. Nice Guy (Wild Pitch, 1989), and their track “Jazz Thing” (CBS, 1990) for the soundtrack of Mo’ Better Blues, further popularized the jazz rap style. In 1992, Eric B & Rakim used wood bass on “Don’t Sweat the Technique”. Digable Planets’ 1993 release Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space) was a hit jazz rap record. It sampled the likes of Don Cherry, Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey, Herbie Mann, Herbie Hancock, Grant Green, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Additionally, it spawned the hit single “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)”. In 1993, Us3 released Hand on the Torch on Blue Note Records. All samples were from the Blue Note catalogue. The single “Cantaloop” was Blue Note’s first gold record. Post-WWII swing and modern jazz had fused with the introduction of Black appeal radio, which attracted a younger audience through its reliance on jive idioms, rhyming, and cadence-laden rap verses. Dizzy Gillespie had pointed to The Jives of Dr. Hepcat and rhyming D.J. Daddy-O Daylie as key to popularizing modern jazz. The rise of Top-40 radio on the strength of the rapping DJs in this period of radio’s rebirth among black youth led to the wider use of language and syntax popularizing rap. Muhammad Ali’s phrasing to the press in the early part of his career was born of listening to black radio of the 1950s, which was often white radio announcers speaking slang “jive” and imitating black announcers while withholding the fact on air of their backgrounds. Pioneering DJs Al Benson, Nat D., and Jack the Rapper all used rhyming, the dozens, and jive talk to pepper their broadcasts and were widely copied by white DJs like John Richbourg, Gene Nobles, and Bill Allen during the 1950s, whose influence on James Brown and other godfathers of rap was formative. Bebop was the backing track that modern jazz credits with being the foundation of black appeal, radio is based on.

Kaseko

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Etymology#

The term Kaseko may be derived from Kasékò, a Guianan creole dance.

History#

Kaseko emerged from the traditional Afro-Surinamese kawina music, which was played since the beginning of 1900 by street musicians in Paramaribo. It evolved in the 1930s during festivities that used large bands, especially brass bands, and was called Bigi Poku (“big drum music”). In the late 1940s, jazz, calypso, and other importations became popular, while rock and roll soon left its own influence in the form of electrified instruments. Eddy Snijders incorporated kaseko to symphonic music. In the 1970s, Surinamese diaspora living in the Netherlands, such as Lieve Hugo and Ewald Krolis, popularised kaseko.

Kawaii metal

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History and characteristics#

Japanese heavy metal idol group Babymetal are considered the inventors of the kawaii metal genre. The concept of kawaii metal started with Key “Kobametal” Kobayashi, the producer behind the group Babymetal. In an interview conducted by Billboard, Kobayashi explains that he was “just trying to do something no one had heard before”. Kawaii metal gained international popularity in 2014, when the group Babymetal uploaded a song to Youtube called “Gimme Chocolate!!” Angelica Wallingford of City Times opined that Babymetal’s eponymous debut album had pioneered the kawaii metal musical genre. Wallingford also defined the genre, and album, as a “mixture of varying genres including pop, rock, heavy metal, electronic dance music, industrial and symphonic death metal”. A guest contributor at The Independent believed that the genre was a derivative of J-pop and various extreme metal genres, namely “speed metal, power metal, black metal, and industrial metal”. While discussing Babymetal, The Sydney Morning Heralds Rob Nash stated that the genre consisted of “sugary pop melodies over thrash metal”. Nash also believed that the group’s song “Awadama Fever” exemplified the genre, with its “slabs of angry guitar and undanceably fast breakbeats, while the girls Babymetal squeak about ‘bubble ball fever’ and chewing gum”. Babymetal has remained extremely popular. In 2019, Babymetal became the first Asian artists to top Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart, with their third studio album, Metal Galaxy. Murray Stassen in Music Week commented that “Babymetal is, without a doubt, a genuine cross-genre musical phenomenon” and that, despite how the juxtaposition of metal and J-pop might not seem to make sense on paper: " Babymetal has proved that it can, and does work, and resistance to the Babymetal phenomenon is futile." Discussing Ladybeard, and Ladybaby, Jake Cleland of The Sydney Morning Herald defined the genre as “saccharine pop with his heavy metal growling”. Alex Weiss of Paper defined the genre as “hard rock with sugary sweet pop hooks”. Weiss also used Babymetal’s songs “Karate” and “Road of Resistance” as examples to explain the differing lyrical perspective between the kawaii metal and other metal genres, stating that kawaii metal songs “offer a perspective often missing from the hyper-masculine, aggressive lyrics usually present in most of the metal genre’s hits”. Felix Clay of Cracked.com also believed that the genre had less aggressive lyricism, citing the genre had lyrics about “pop music topics like kittens, chocolate, and fun”.

Latin R&B

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

Vocals include a majority of singing and occasionally rapping, in Spanish. The lyrics in Latin R&B are often about sadness, heartbreak, and sex.

History#

Latin R&B can trace its roots to Latin pop songs with an American R&B and new jack swing influence, such as the Selena and Barrio Boyzz song “Donde Quiera Que Estés” released in 1994. According to Rolling Stone, Spanish-language singles by Álex Rose, Rauw Alejandro and Paloma Mami, which borrow from R&B, reached a global audience. and most notably Sech’s “Otro Trago”, which peaked in number one in Spain, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico. In the United States, “Otro Trago” reached the top of the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart and peaked at No. 34 in the Hot 100.

Latin trap

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

Latin trap is a subgenre of Latin hip hop, generally taking influence from Southern hip hop, Hip-Hop in general, and possibly influenced by Sound Cloud rap as well as already established Puerto Rican genres like reggaeton and Urbano music. Vocals include a bend of rapping and singing using synthesizers and autotune in Spanish or in Spanglish, while still maintaining the trap style sonic circuitry. The lyrics in Latin trap are often about street life, violence, sex, drugs, and people who pride themselves in living on the other side of the law.

Mandopop

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Beginning of recording industry in China#

The Chinese-language music industry began with the arrival of the gramophone. The earliest gramophone recording in China was made in Shanghai in March 1903 by Fred Gaisberg, who was sent by the Victor Talking Machine Company (VTMC) in the U.S. to record local music in Asia. The recordings were then manufactured outside China and re-imported by the Gramophone Company’s sales agent in China, the Moutrie (Moudeli) Foreign Firm. The Moudeli Company dominated the market before the 1910s until the Pathé Records () took over the leading role. Pathé was founded in 1908 by a Frenchman named Labansat who had previously started a novelty entertainment business using phonograph in Shanghai around the beginning of the 20th century. The company established a recording studio, and the first record-pressing plant in the Shanghai French Concession in 1914, and became the principal record company to serve as the backbone for the young industry in China. It originally recorded mainly Peking opera, but later expanded to Mandarin popular music. Later other foreign as well as Chinese-own recording companies were also established in China. Early in the 20th century, people in China generally spoke in their own regional dialect. Although most people in Shanghai then spoke Shanghainese, the recordings of the pop music from Shanghai from the 1920s onwards were done in Standard Mandarin, which is based on the Beijing dialect. Mandarin was then considered as the language of the modern, educated class in China, and there was a movement to popularize the use of Mandarin as a national language in the pursuit of national unity. Those involved in this movement included songwriters such as Li Jinhui working in Shanghai. The drive to impose linguistic uniformity in China started in the early 20th century when the Qing Ministry of Education proclaimed Mandarin as the official speech to be taught in modern schools, a policy the new leaders of the Chinese Republic formed in 1912 were also committed to. Sound films in Shanghai which started in the early 1930s were made in Mandarin because of a ban on the use of dialects in films by the then Nanjing government, consequently popular songs from films were also performed in Mandarin.

Mathcore

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

Mathcore has been referred to as the “nerdy fusion cousin” of metalcore by Ultimate Guitar. According to the staff of Metal Hammer, the genre is akin to “the sound of metal being twisted into startling new shapes.” but Loudwire stated that the genre is “almost indistinguishable from progressive metal.”

Instrumentation#

Mathcore typically features irregular time signatures, polymeters, syncopations and tempo changes, while retaining the intensity of hardcore. In the words of The Dillinger Escape Plan bassist Liam Wilson, their “choppy rhythms that people get kind of tongue-twisted on” are “Latin rhythms” mixed with the speed and “stamina” of heavy metal, drawing a parallel between them and John McLaughlin’s use of Eastern sounds within a jazz context. Most pioneering mathcore drummers had jazz, orchestral or academic backgrounds, including Dazzling Killmen’s Blake Fleming, Craw’s Neil Chastain, Coalesce’s James Dewees, Botch’s Tim Latona, The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Chris Pennie, and Converge’s Ben Koller. As with the rhythm section, the guitars perform riffs that constantly change and are seldom repeated after one section. Early bands were almost completely atonal with the guitars or all the instruments playing polyphonic dissonance. In a 2016 article, Ian Cory of Invisible Oranges described mathcore’s emphasis on technical complexity as “the means by which” they attain the aggressiveness of punk, “but never the end unto itself”, distinguishing it from “the overflowing excess” of progressive metal.

Melodic metalcore

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins#

In the late 1990s, a wave of metalcore bands began incorporating elements of melodic death metal into their sound. This formed an early version of what would become the melodic metalcore genre. The first band to make use of this fusion was Overcast, who were soon followed by Shadows Fall on Somber Eyes to the Sky (1997), Undying on This Day All Gods Die (1999), Darkest Hour on The Prophecy Fulfilled (1999), Unearth on Above the Fall of Man (1999) and Prayer for Cleansing on Rain in Endless Fall (1999). CMJ writer Anthony Delia also credited Florida’s Poison the Well and their first two releases The Opposite of December… A Season of Separation (1999) and Tear from the Red (2002) as “design ing the template for most of” the melodic metalcore bands to come. Killswitch Engage have also been called a pioneering force in the genre by publications such as Revolver, along with artists such as 7 Angels 7 Plagues, Chimaira, Dead to Fall and Heaven Shall Burn. Belgian groups also played a large part in the development of the genre in its early years, as bands such as Arkangel began embracing the sounds of melodic death metal in their traditional metalcore sound, as early as 1998.

Metalcore

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Etymology#

The term “metalcore” is a portmanteau of the words “metal” and “hardcore”, and was originally tongue-in-cheek. During the 1980s, Maximumrocknroll had used early variations of the term, referring to Richmond band Black Pyramid as “heavy-metal core” in February 1985; Oxnard band False Confessions as “metal-core” in December 1985; Mesa band Desecration as “death metal core” in May 1986; and Austin band Last Will as “ghoulish metal/core” in December 1986. Phillip Trapp of Loudwire states that Shai Hulud guitarist Matt Fox is widely credited for playing a role in “popularizing” the term. However, in a 2008 interview, Fox claimed the term had already been in use before his band began releasing music. He recalled: “There were bands before Shai Hulud started that my friends and I were referring to as ‘metalcore.’ Bands like Burn, Deadguy, Earth Crisis, even Integrity. These bands that were heavier than the average hardcore bands. These bands that were more progressive … my friends and I would always refer to them as ‘metalcore’ because it wasn’t purely hardcore and it wasn’t purely metal … so we would joke around and say, ‘Hey, it’s metalcore. Cool!’ But it was definitely a tongue-in-cheek term.” Alternatively, Jorge Rosado of Merauder claimed in a 2014 interview that he and his band coined the term. Luke Morton of Metal Hammer stated that the word “means different things to different people,” highlighting the fact that the tag has been variously applied to stylistically dissimilar bands such as Killswitch Engage, Earth Crisis, Asking Alexandria and Parkway Drive.

New jack swing

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Etymology#

The term “new jack swing” was coined in an October 18, 1987, Village Voice profile of Teddy Riley by Barry Michael Cooper. “New Jack” was a slang term (meaning “Johnny-come-lately”) used in a song by Grandmaster Caz of the Cold Crush Brothers, and “swing” was intended by Cooper to draw an “analogy between the music played at the speak easies of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s time to the crack-houses of Teddy Riley’s time”. The term “new jack swing” describes the sound produced and engineered by R&B/hip hop artist and producer Teddy Riley. Riley is an American R&B and hip hop singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer, who led the band Guy in the late 1980s and Blackstreet in the 1990s. Riley said, “I define the term new jack swing as a new kid on the block who’s swinging it.” The defining feature of Riley’s music was the introduction of swingbeats, “a rhythmic pattern using offbeat accented 16th note triplets”. In an interview with Revolt TV in 2017, Andre Harrell called Riley the inventor of the sound, hailing him “the king of New Jack Swing, because he invented it”.

Nintendocore

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

Referred to as the “bastard child of chiptune and metal,” Nintendocore frequently features the use of electric guitars, drum kits, and typical rock instrumentation alongside synthesizers, chiptune, 8-bit sounds, and electronically produced beats. Loudwire described the style as “literally sound ing like a bunch of scene kids got lost inside a Mario game.” The publication categorized it as a subgenre of both hardcore punk and scene music. It originated primarily from hardcore punk and heavy metal, and subgenres of those styles such as post-hardcore, and screamo. Artists in the genre have also incorporated elements of electro, and post-rock. Math the Band includes electro and dance-punk styles. Minibosses use Kyuss-inspired heavy metal riffing, and The Advantage is associated with styles such as noise rock and post-rock. The Depreciation Guild was an indie band that incorporated 8-bit sounds, video game music, and elements of shoegaze. Others, such as Horse the Band and Math the Band, add screamed vocals into the mix. But yet other groups are strictly instrumental, such as Minibosses, While otherwise diverse, all Nintendocore groups “use specific instruments to mimic the sounds of Nintendo games.”

Nu jazz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Nu jazz began with the use of electronic instruments in the 1970s, with contributions from artists like Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, and Ornette Coleman. Herbie Hancock’s work in the early 1980s, particularly his collaboration with Bill Laswell on the album Future Shock, played a pivotal role in defining the genre by incorporating electro and hip-hop rhythms. By the late 1980s, many hip-hop musicians were exploring jazz-rap, including groups like Gang Starr, The Roots, A Tribe Called Quest, and Nas. Concurrently, in the 1980s, numerous house musicians drew inspiration from jazz, especially post-bop and jazz-funk. In the mid-1990s and early 2000s, downtempo artists such as Jazztronik, St Germain, Trüby Trio, DJ Takemura, Perry Hemus, and Jazzanova delved deeper into jazz. During the same period, producers of intelligent dance music, including notable names like Squarepusher and Spring Heel Jack, and later London Elektricity and Landslide, also showed interest in nu jazz. Techno musicians like Carl Craig and his Innerzone Orchestra project demonstrated interest in the genre. Figures from hardcore and breakcore scenes, such as Alec Empire, Nic Endo, and Venetian Snares, experimented with a harsher and more noisy variant of nu jazz. A decade later, some dubstep producers, like Boxcutter, also explored electronic jazz. While maintaining traditional jazz forms, pianist Bugge Wesseltoft and trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær are known for their improvisations in the nu jazz style. The Cinematic Orchestra is recognized for incorporating traditional jazz elements into their musical productions alongside electronic elements. St Germain, a prominent figure in nu jazz, even sold 1.5 million copies of his album “Tourist.”

Nu metal

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Terminology and origins#

Nu metal is a subgenre of alternative metal. Sometimes stylized as nü-metal, the genre has also been dubbed aggro-metal or simply aggro. MTV states that the early nu metal group Korn “arrived in 1993 into the burgeoning alternative metal scene, which would morph into nü-metal the way college rock became alternative rock.” Nu metal merges elements of heavy metal music with elements of other music genres such as hip-hop, grunge, funk, and alternative rock according to Blabbermouth.net. Some nu metal bands, such as Static-X and Dope, made nu metal music with elements of industrial metal. In contrast with other heavy metal subgenres, nu metal tends to use the same structure of verses, choruses, and bridges as those in pop music.

Nu metalcore

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

Nu metalcore often makes use of both screamed and sung vocals, breakdowns, heavy guitar riffs, hip hop-influenced drum beats and electronic music elements. Metal Injection writer Max Heilman specifically stated the style of metalcore that nu metalcore bands draw on is the original 1990s “metallic hardcore” style. An editorial for Thrash Hits cited Contemporary R&B as a key influence on the genre, comparing it to the influence hip hop had on the original nu metal genre.

Pagode baiano

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The genre gained momentum around 1994, influenced by Bahia and Rio de Janeiro pagode. The genre’s first success was Dança do Tchaco, by . At that time, the group was also emerging, releasing an independently recorded CD that sold well. From 1995 onwards, with the phenomenon of É o Tchan!, the genre gained national prominence. Other groups emerged, such as , , , , and Gang do Samba. In the late 1990s, despite the name pagode “baiano” (from Bahia), groups focused on the style emerged in other parts of the country, such as from Rio de Janeiro and from São Paulo, which were also very successful. In the 2000s, other notable groups emerged, such as , Parangolé, Pagod’art, , Guig Guetho, Oz Bambaz, Saiddy Bamba, Fantasmão, Swing do P, Black Style and A Bronkka, Leo Santana.

Pop metal

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

Pop metal is a variation of heavy metal which emphasizes catchy pop-influenced hooks and guitar riffs. It was influenced by the anthemic choruses of arena rock. In the “definitive metal family tree” of his documentary Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, anthropologist Sam Dunn differentiates pop metal, which includes bands like Def Leppard, Europe, and Whitesnake, from glam metal bands that include Mötley Crüe and Poison.

History#

The catchy hard rock of Kiss and Van Halen in the 1970s helped spawn the genre, The arrival of grunge in 1991 largely turned audiences away from pop metal. Andrew W.K., Architects, Bring Me the Horizon, Coheed and Cambria, Dead by April, Evanescence, Halestorm, Ghost, In Flames, In This Moment, Issues, Lacuna Coil, Poppy, Shinedown, The Pretty Reckless, We Are the Fallen, and Weezer.

Pop rap

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

AllMusic describes pop rap as “a marriage of hip-hop beats and raps with strong melodic hooks, which are usually featured as part of the chorus section in a standard pop-song structure.” Pop rap also tends to have less aggressive lyrics than street-level rap music. However, some 1990s artists fused pop rap with a more aggressive attitude to defuse backlash on their own accessibility.

History#

In the 1980s, rap artists including Run-DMC and LL Cool J set up the blueprints and origins of pop rap as they suddenly broke into the mainstream. Later, rap artists such as Tone Loc, Young MC, and Fresh Prince then made party tunes and used their storytelling abilities as they became popular. During the 1990s, pop rap began to expand even more as hip-hop music also began to connect strongly with dance music and R&B. They caused pop rap to be “derided (and, occasionally, taken to court) for its willingness to borrow” from best-known hit singles. By the end of the 1990s and early 2000s, rappers such as Ja Rule fused gangsta rap themes with 1980s pop and soul elements; pop rap was dominated by many artists. During the late 2000s and early 2010s, many rap artists who used pop rap in their music had emerged such as Nicki Minaj, Drake, will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas, LMFAO, Illslick, Flo Rida, Pitbull and Wiz Khalifa.

Pop rock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics and etymology#

Much pop and rock music has been very similar in sound, instrumentation and even lyrical content. The terms “pop rock” and “power pop” have been used to describe more commercially successful music that uses elements from, or the form of, rock music. Writer Johan Fornas views pop rock as “one single, continuous genre field”, rather than distinct categories. The term “pop” has been used since the early 1940s to refer to popular music in general, but in the mid-1950s, it began to be used for a distinct genre, aimed at a youth market, often characterized as a softer alternative to rock and roll. As of the 2010s, “guitar pop rock” and “indie rock” are roughly synonymous terms. “Jangle” is a noun-adjective that music critics often use in reference to guitar pop with a bright mood.

Pop-punk

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Definition and characteristics#

Pop-punk is variously described as a punk subgenre, Writers at The A.V. Club described pop-punk as a punk subgenre that has “essentially been around as long as punk itself” with roots in the “classic pop of the Beatles, the Kinks, and the Beach Boys, often pitting sweet harmonies against bratty, rowdy riffs.” According to Ryan Cooper of About.com, “pop-punk is a style that owes more to The Beatles and ’60s pop than other sub-genres of punk”. There is considerable overlap between power pop and pop-punk, and the two styles are often conflated. In Brian Cogan’s The Encyclopedia of Punk Music and Culture (2006) pop-punk is characterized as “a catchy, faster version of power pop.” AllMusic defines “punk-pop” as “a post-grunge strand of alternative rock” that combines the textures and fast tempos of punk rock with the “melodies and chord changes” of power pop. In the 1990s, there was overlap between pop-punk and skate punk. Music journalist Ben Myers wrote that the two terms were synonymous. Rock writer Greg Shaw, who wrote extensively about power pop and took credit for codifying the genre in the 1970s, originally defined power pop itself as a hybrid style of punk and pop. Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, who described power pop as “the greatest music on Earth that no one likes”, whether it’s something like Cheap Trick or another band “. opined that the pop-punk term was an oxymoron: “You’re either punk or you’re not.” Writing in Shake Some Action: The Ultimate Guide to Power Pop (2007), actor Robbie Rist felt that much of the genre merely consisted of pop bands who “add the ‘punk’ moniker so the kids will think they are pissing off their parents.” Rolling Stone, in an article about pop-punk, wrote that the term was a retroactive label for punk bands who had “always championed great songwriting alongside their anti-authoritarian stance. And punk’s focus on speed, concision and three-chord simplicity is a natural fit with pop’s core values.” Bill Lamb, also from About.com, writes that pop-punk is a variant of punk music that features “a hard and fast guitar and drums base but powered by pop melodies like much of ’70s punk rock.” Lyrically, pop-punk often addresses adolescent themes of lust, romantic relationships, heartbreak, drugs, suburbia, and rebellion. Some pop-punk lyrics make an emphasis on jokes and humor. The New Yorkers Amanda Petrush summarized that the “rawness” of pop-punk “lies not in the music” but by conveying the “spectrum of human experience, all that longing and self-doubt.”

Progressive metal

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

Metal Hammer describes progressive metal as “a genre with way fewer boundaries than the rest of the heavy metal family tree, meaning that each year will always bring fresh sounds from unexpected places.” The publication stated that in the 1980s, “metal took on the DNA of progressive rock,” that gave way to “a mutant strain of music that married volume and aggression with brain-melting complexity, far-reaching ambition and barking mad concepts.” According to AllMusic, the genre’s earliest acts such as Fates Warning and Queensrÿche developed their sounds by “merg ing their love of Yes and Rush with their admiration for Iron Maiden and Judas Priest.” Most bands labeled under the genre have considerably different musical influences when compared to each other. Bands such as Dream Theater, Planet X and Puya have a jazz influence, with extended solo sections that often feature “trading solos”. Some progressive metal bands incorporate ballads and acoustic music into their arrangements. Loudwire stated that the genre is “unaffected by trends.” Lyrics in progressive metal draw influence from fantasy and literature, similar to the progressive rock of the 1970s. Themes may also include outer space and anti-capitalism.

Progressive metalcore

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

Progressive metalcore evolved from progressive metal and metalcore in the 90s. According to the digital ticketing corporation AXS, “After The Burial play progressive metalcore and have been a key contributor to the sound of djent.” Erra has been referred to as “the spearhead of the whole modern/progressive metalcore movement” and noted for their “balance between involved riffs, beautiful clean moments and tasty solos.” They were formed in 2009 and express their unique version of “progressive technical metalcore” by utilizing “precise stop-and-start arrangements.” According to Metal Insider in 2010, “progressive metalcore bands are now appearing all over the place.” I, the Breather “weren’t exactly the first” to perform “technical metalcore,” but are noted for their “well constructed” instrumentation; they have influenced the style alongside For Today and Born of Osiris, who have been referred to as “the bastions of modern technical metalcore” for their 2013 release Tomorrow We Die Alive. Carcer City is a progressive metalcore band that showcases “technical riffs amid more prominent atmospheric sections.” They have been described as “ambient metalcore.” According to Corey Deiterman of the Houston Press, Northlane is a primary contributor of the style, and is “making waves with their particular brand of progressive metalcore, which features … interesting use of space and ambiance.” Invent Animate is a progressive metalcore band that formed in Texas in 2011. They have been compared with Northlane and Erra. Volumes is a djent-influenced progressive metalcore band that has received critical acclaim for their “career-defining” song “Edge Of The Earth,” and their 2017 release, Different Animals.

Psychedelic rap

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

Psychedelic rap is defined by “deep musicality, anchored by dusty drum breaks and samples often lifted from jazz records”, resulting in music that is “both comforting and otherworldly — both retro and Afrofuturistic”. The genre has its roots in the psychedelic rock of Jimi Hendrix, whose “hypnotic, laidback vocal style” on songs like “Crosstown Traffic” would " foreshadow the stoned swagger of a West Coast hip-hop MC", according to Tidal magazine. Psychedelic soul, such as Sly Stone, and funk, were also key influences on psychedelic rap. Parliament-Funkadelic are among hip-hop’s most sampled artists. Betty Davis was cited as another precursor to psychedelic rap, as her recordings “wove singularly freaky funkiness with proto-rap aggression”, particularly on “Shut Off the Light,” in which Davis has been described as “barking, screeching and howling in a spoken-sung style over a barbed-wire slap-bass riff”. Her ex-husband, jazz musician Miles Davis, “chased head-trip sounds through tape-splicing studio experimentation and electric chaos”, which predated sampling.

Psychedelic rock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Etymology#

As a musical style, psychedelic rock incorporated new electronic sound effects and recording effects, extended solos, and improvisation. Features mentioned in relation to the genre include: * electric guitars, often used with feedback, wah-wah and fuzzbox effects units; * elements of Indian music and other Eastern music, including Middle Eastern modalities; * non-Western instruments (especially in British psychedelia), specifically those originally used in Indian classical music, such as sitar, tambura and tabla; * elements of free-form jazz; * extended instrumental segments, especially guitar solos, or jams; * disjunctive song structures, occasional key and time signature changes, modal melodies and drones; * droning quality in vocals; * electronic instruments such as synthesizers and the theremin; * lyrics that made direct or indirect reference to hallucinogenic drugs; * surreal, whimsical, esoterically or literary-inspired lyrics with (especially in British psychedelia) references to childhood; * Victorian-era antiquation (exclusive to British psychedelia), drawing on items such as music boxes, music hall nostalgia and circus sounds. The term “psychedelic” was coined in 1956 by psychiatrist Humphry Osmond in a letter to LSD exponent Aldous Huxley and used as an alternative descriptor for hallucinogenic drugs in the context of psychedelic psychotherapy. The New York-based folk group the Holy Modal Rounders would use the term “psychedelic” on their version of Lead Belly’s “Hesitation Blues” in 1964. In May 1965, drummer John Densmore joined guitarist Robby Krieger in a band called the Psychedelic Rangers which was formed in Los Angeles, California. The duo took LSD legally and wrote only two songs, one of them called “Paranoia”. The group was one of the earliest instances of a rock band referring to themselves as “psychedelic”. However, John Townley and David Blue formed a short-lived group of the same name that same year in New York. Townley compared the band to the Holy Modal Rounders and had also been roommates with Steve Weber. In January 1966, Texan band the 13th Floor Elevators would coin the term “psychedelic rock” on business cards which contained an image of a third eye. That same year, the band released The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators in October, which was later recognized as the earliest known use of the term “psychedelic” in an album title. This was followed by New York acts the Deep and Blues Magoos releasing Psychedelic Moods and Psychedelic Lollipop in November. As the countercultural scene developed in San Francisco, the terms acid rock and psychedelic rock were used in 1966 to describe the new drug-influenced music and were being widely used by 1967. The two terms are often used interchangeably, but acid rock may be distinguished as a more extreme variation that was heavier, louder, relied on long jams, focused more directly on LSD, and made greater use of distortion.

Psychobilly

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The evolution of psychobilly as a genre is often described as having occurred in waves. The first wave occurred in New York City in the 1970s and reached Britain in the early 1980s, the second wave took place at the end of that decade and spread through the rest of Europe, and the third crested in the late 1990s with the genre finding international popularity.

Precursors#

The wildly theatrical shock rock aesthetic of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins in the 1950s, and the outsider music of the Legendary Stardust Cowboy in the late 1960s have been cited as a precursor to what would become psychobilly. The members of the Meteors and the Cramps both cited the song “Love Me” (1960) by the Phantom as the first song in the genre.

Punk blues

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins#

Before the beginning of the punk movement of the late 1970s, several important forerunners such as the MC5, the Stooges, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Sonics, Captain Beefheart, and the New York Dolls displayed a fascination with American blues. AllMusic states that punk blues draws on the influence of the “garage rock sound of the mid-’60s, the primal howl of early Captain Beefheart, and especially in the raw and desperate sound of the Gun Club’s landmark Fire of Love LP from 1981”.

Punk jazz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

1970s–1980s#

The first band to approach the genre were The Stooges, more specifically on three songs from their second album, Fun House: “1970”, “Fun House”, and “L.A. Blues”. Those songs featured saxophone played by Steve Mackay, and were released in 1970, several years before the genre expanded. Late 1970s New York no wave bands broke with blues rock-influenced punk in a style that instead combined elements such as free jazz noise, experimental drone rock, and other avant-garde influences. Examples of this style include Lydia Lunch’s album Queen of Siam, the work of James Chance and the Contortions, who mixed funk with free jazz and punk rock. In London, the Pop Group began to mix free jazz, along with dub reggae, into their brand of punk rock. The Birthday Party’s sound on Junkyard (1982) was described by one journalist as a mix of “no-wave guitar, free-jazz craziness, and punk-processed Captain Beefheart angularity”. The Lounge Lizards was the first group to call themselves punk jazz. Bill Laswell and his band Material mixed funk, jazz, and punk while his band Massacre added improvisation to rock. James Blood Ulmer applied Coleman’s harmolodic style to guitar and sought out links to no wave. Bad Brains, widely acknowledged to have established the rudiments of the hardcore style, began by attempting jazz fusion. Guitarist Joe Baiza executed his blend of punk and free jazz with Saccharine Trust and in Universal Congress Of, a group influenced by the work of Albert Ayler. Henry Rollins has praised free jazz, releasing albums by Matthew Shipp on his record label and collaborating with Charles Gayle. The Minutemen were influenced by jazz, folk and funk. Mike Watt of the band has spoken about being inspired by listening to John Coltrane. Dutch anarcho-punk group the Ex incorporated elements of free jazz and particularly European free improvisation, collaborating with Han Bennink and other members of the Instant Composers Pool.

Punk rap

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Vocals and structure#

Some artists makes use of sonic elements of punk rock, such as screaming, whereas others make use of its attitude and melodic style. Lil Jon’s harsh style of vocalization has also been cited as influence on the development of the genre. In a way, hardcore punk was a “radical departure” from alternative and popular music of that era; this was because it was played “louder and harder,” “wasn’t verse-chorus rock,” and “dispelled any notion of what songwriting is supposed to be and it’s its own form” punk rap songs share some of the “unorthodox” characteristics. They are “short, repetitive, wrapped in distortion and grimly effective.” One of the earliest proponents of the scene was Odd Future, due to their merging of hip-hop and shock humor. In an article for the BBC, journalist Thomas Hobbs referred to the rise of the genre as being a rebellion against the politics of the period, with artists showing disdain for topics such as Brexit, the presidency of Donald Trump and global warming.

Quiet storm

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins#

Melvin Lindsey, a student at Howard University, with his classmate Jack Shuler, began as disc jockeys for WHUR in June 1976, performing as stand-ins for an absentee employee. Lindsey’s on-air voice was silky smooth, and the music selections were initially old, slow romantic songs from black artists of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, a form of easy listening which Lindsey called “beautiful black music” for African Americans. The response from listeners was positive, and WHUR station manager Cathy Hughes soon gave Lindsey and Shuler their own show. The name of the show came from the Smokey Robinson song “Quiet Storm”, from his 1975 album A Quiet Storm. The song developed into Lindsey’s theme music which introduced his time slot every night. “The Quiet Storm” was four hours of melodically soulful music that provided an intimate, laid-back mood for late-night listening, and that was the key to its tremendous appeal among adult audiences. The format was an immediate success, becoming so popular that within a few years, virtually every station in the U.S. with a core black, urban listenership adopted a similar format for its graveyard slot. Philadelphia’s WDAS-FM had begun a similar format in 1972, where Tony Brown hosted “The Extrasensory Connection.” That program was renamed to “The Quiet Storm” in 1976, and is still on the air. In the San Francisco Bay Area, KBLX-FM expanded the night-time concept into a 24-hour quiet storm format in 1979. In the New York tri-state late night market, Vaughn Harper deejayed the quiet storm graveyard program for WBLS-FM which he developed with co-host Champaine in mid-1983. In 1993, Harper took ill and Champaine continued the program as Quiet Storm II. Lawrence Tanter of KUTE in Greater Los Angeles replicated the KBLX format and changed his station to an all-day quiet storm format from January 1984 until September 1987, playing “a hybrid that incorporates pop, jazz, fusion, international, and urban music”. Addressing the misconception that quiet storm was only for blacks, Tanter said his listenership was 40% black, 40% white, and 20% other races. WLNR-FM in Chicago also changed in August 1985 to a 24-hour quiet storm program called “The Soft Touch”, featuring more instrumental music and even straight-ahead jazz, a mix which sales manager Gregory Brown described as “not so laid-back” as other quiet storm shows. A notable feature of WLNR was that the four regular deejays were women.

Rap metal

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins and early development (1980s–early 1990s)#

Rap metal’s roots are based both in hip hop acts who sampled heavy metal music, such as Beastie Boys, Cypress Hill, Esham and Run-DMC, and rock bands who fused heavy metal and hip hop influences, such as 24-7 Spyz and Faith No More. Scott Ian of Anthrax (who helped pioneer the genre) believes Rage Against the Machine invented the genre. In 1987, the heavy metal band Anthrax fused hip hop with heavy metal for their extended play I’m the Man. The next year rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot teamed up with Metal Church for his 1988 single “Iron Man”, from his debut album Swass, loosely based upon the Black Sabbath song of the same name. Rap metal can be found in a track from the industrial metal band Ministry in their 1989 album The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste on the track “Test” for which they hired rappers The Grand Wizard (K. Lite) and The Slogan God (Tommie Boyskee) to perform vocals. In 1990, the rapper Ice-T formed a heavy metal band called Body Count, and while performing at the 1991 Lollapalooza tour performed a set that was half rap songs and half metal songs. Stuck Mojo and Clawfinger, both formed in 1989, are considered to be another two pioneers of the genre. Anthrax in 1991 teamed up with Public Enemy for a remake of the latter’s “Bring the Noise” that fused hip hop with thrash metal. Also in 1991, the thrash metal band Tourniquet featured the hip hop group P.I.D. on the song “Spineless” from their album Psycho Surgery. That same year the hair metal band Whitecross featured a rap by Alton Hood of the hip hop group D.O.C. on their album In The Kingdom.

Rap opera

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Etymology#

The word hip hopera is a portmanteau of hip hop and opera. An early use of the phrase was a 1994 album of that name by Volume 10 (although not a concept album). The first dramatic production to use the term was a 2001 telefilm by MTV, titled Carmen: A Hip Hopera. The word received increased use after 2005, in describing R&B singer R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet series.

Rap rock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

AllMusic characterized rap rock songs as rock songs in which the vocals were rapped rather than sung. Session player Eddie Martinez, who created the guitar parts for hip hop group Run-DMC’s rap rock song “Rock Box”, recognized that “a rap-rock song needn’t feature a new change in the chorus; rather, it’s a spot where the guitarist can just solo over the same riff that drives the verses.”

Old school rap rock (1980s to mid-1990s)#

Early hip hop DJs utilized breaks from rock records, such as Billy Squier’s “the Big Beat”, the Monkees’ “Mary, Mary” and Steve Miller Band’s “Take the Money and Run”, in order to “flaunt their vinyl guile”. Although the Cold Crush Brothers’ “Punk Rock Rap” did not see much success and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five would wind up being jeered opening for the Clash, Run-DMC saw a crossover audience with their rap rock sound, helping gain rock fans’ acceptance of hip hop. Public Enemy brought a punk rock attitude to hip hop; Another link between hip hop and punk rock was producer Rick Rubin, who split his time between working with hip hop artists Run-DMC and Beastie Boys, and punk-influenced bands like Slayer and the Cult. However, a rap rock collaboration between Run-DMC and the rock band Aerosmith helped diminish such biases. It was the first Billboard top ten rap rock success played on radio. The music video signaled “both a literal and metaphoric merging of hard rock and rap”; the recording revitalized Aerosmith’s career. as demonstrated by songs like “Rhymin’ and Stealin’”, which was built around samples from Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and the Clash, “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)” and “No Sleep till Brooklyn”, which featured guitar playing by Slayer’s Kerry King. Public Enemy’s 1988 album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back contained a song which sampled Slayer, and in 1991, the hip hop group would re-record their song “Bring the Noise” with the metal band Anthrax, After releasing “two albums of pure Beastie Boys worship”, Kid Rock began to explore his Southern rock influences on Early Mornin’ Stoned Pimp (1996), and Devil Without a Cause (1998), the latter of which “extended the lineage of rap-rock” and helped to “ignite the rap-rock genre”.

Reggae fusion

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origin#

Artists have been mixing reggae with other genres from as early as the early 1970s, but initially they were described using terms that joined the various genres they performed (e.g. “reggae funk”, “reggae pop”, “reggae-disco”). It was not until the late 1990s that the term “reggae fusion” was coined. The subgenre predominantly evolved from late 1980s and early 1990s dancehall music which instrumentals or “riddims” contained elements from the R&B and hip hop genres. Due to this, some consider dancehall artists such as Mad Cobra, Shabba Ranks, Super Cat, Buju Banton and Tony Rebel as pioneers of reggae fusion. For some of these artists, among them Buju Banton, reggae fusion became a staple throughout their careers. However, reggae fusion can be traced back to before the success of these artists, as far back as the late 1970s and early 1980s, with such songs as “Pass the Dutchie”, and the band Third World blazed the trail, finding international success with songs such as “Now That We Found Love” and “Try Jah Love”. Therefore, Third World can be seen as arguably the original pioneers of reggae fusion leading the way for groups such as UB40 and Steel Pulse. Although there were a few recognized reggae fusion artists in the late 1980s to mid-1990s, including the aforementioned acts in addition to others such as Sublime, Maxi Priest, Shinehead, 311, First Light, the Police and Inner Circle, their style of fusing genres was subtly done. Artists such as Diana King, Patra, Buju Banton, Ini Kamoze, Snow and Shabba Ranks followed in their footsteps, however, creating a less subtle fusion by further blending heavier Jamaican dialect as well as more hardcore and sexual lyrics in their songs. This led to a lot of crossover success for these artists with songs such as “Informer” and “Here Comes the Hotstepper” reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as topping charts all around the world. As the subgenre began to take shape, the mid- to late 1990s saw artists becoming more innovative as many began to mix genres that were not similar nor typically associated with reggae, such as techno and house, leading to the subgenre gaining a more distinctive following and really beginning to grow. This led dancehall artists who were trying to break into the U.S. market, to fuse the dancehall style of toasting or deejaying over softer and predominantly pop and hip hop instrumentals as well as to diversify the content of their songs while moving away from homophobic lyrics. Traditional dancehall acts, such as Shaggy and Beenie Man experienced commercial success in the American markets with the release of their albums in 2000. Shaggy had previously experienced multiple chart successes in the ’90s but it was his album, Hot Shot, that especially helped further propel the subgenre internationally, as his album spawned two number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, “It Wasn’t Me” and “Angel”. The early 2000s also saw Sean Paul achieve tremendous success internationally with singles such as “Baby Boy”, “Breathe”, “Like Glue” and “Make It Clap”, among many others. His albums Dutty Rock and The Trinity altogether spawned five top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits between 2002 and 2006, including the number-one hits “Get Busy” and “Temperature”.

Reggae punk

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

1970s#

Reggae punk first appeared in the late-1970s in England by punk rock bands incorporating reggae (and even lovers rock) elements into their music. The most notable band to have done this was the Clash. When Clash bassist Paul Simonon was getting his start in the music business and learning to play the bass, he found it easier to play along to reggae songs rather than traditional rock songs. In 1977, the Police would form. Initially considered a punk rock band, they soon expanded their sound to incorporate pop, new wave and reggae. In a retrospective assessment, AllMusic’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine argued that the notion of the Police as a punk band was only true “in the loosest sense of the term”, and stated that the band’s “nervous, reggae-injected pop/rock was punky” and had a “punk spirit” but it “wasn’t necessarily punk”. The Slits have also been described as punk-reggae by The Independent.

Reggae rock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Reggaeton

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Etymology#

There are several versions about the origin of the word reggaeton. The word reggaeton was officially invented and coined in Puerto Rico adding the Spanish suffix ton to the word reggae. One of them states that the word reggaeton emerged in 1994 when Daddy Yankee mentioned it for the first time while “freestyling” on the mixtape Playero 34. Another version suggests that it appeared the following year when DJ Erick released the album titled Reggaetón Live Vol.1, abbreviating the words reggae and maratón (marathon). The spellings reggaeton and reggaetón are common, although prescriptivist sources such as the Fundéu BBVA and the Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española recommend the spelling reguetón, as it conforms more closely with traditional Spanish spelling rules.

Riddim (genre)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins and evolution#

The term “riddim” is the Jamaican Patois pronunciation of the English word “rhythm”. The derived genre originally stemmed from dub, reggae, and dancehall. Although the term was widely used by MCs since the early days of dancehall and garage music, it was later adopted by American dubstep producers and fans to describe what was originally referred to as “wonky dubstep”. As a subgenre, riddim started to gain mainstream presence in the electronic music scene around 2015. As all riddim works of music are dubstep, their histories and notable artists can be considered closely intertwined. Riddim can be traced back to several dubstep artists, including Jakes and Rusko. Although not considered a riddim artist, Rusko originally produced dubstep that featured riddim-esque bassline patterns. Jakes is credited by many as being the first riddim artist, and served as direct inspiration for the following wave of producers. From that wave, artists like Subfiltronik are credited for establishing what riddim is known as today. Various other artists have been credited for having contributed to the rise of the subgenre, including Bukez Finezt, Coffi, Deemed, Blankface, Drippy, The Monsters, Coki from Digital Mystikz, and Kromestar.

Risecore

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

In the mid-2000s, many pop screamo bands began to push their music further into the prevailing metalcore sound, particularly Alesana, Drop Dead, Gorgeous, Blessthefall and From First to Last. In turn, Drop Dead, Gorgeous, Alesana, Blessthefall, A Skylit Drive and Escape the Fate became early pioneers of Risecore. By the end of the decade, this style had been popularised by Attack Attack!, the Devil Wears Prada, I See Stars, We Came As Romans and Of Mice & Men. By early 2012, Risecore had declined in popularity, as the metalcore scene shifted towards srscore.

Rockabilly

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

There was a close relationship between blues and country music from the very earliest country recordings in the 1920s. The first nationwide country hit was “Wreck of the Old 97”, backed with “The Prisoner’s Song”, which also became quite popular. Jimmie Rodgers, the “first true country star”, was known as the “Blue Yodeler”, and most of his songs used blues-based chord progressions, although with very different instrumentation and sound from the recordings of his black contemporaries like Blind Lemon Jefferson and Bessie Smith. During the 1930s and 1940s, two new sounds emerged. Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys were the leading proponents of Western Swing, which combined country singing and steel guitar with big band jazz influences and horn sections; Wills’s music found massive popularity. Recordings of Wills’s from the mid 1940s to the early 1950s include “two beat jazz” rhythms, “jazz choruses”, and guitar work that preceded early rockabilly recordings. Wills is quoted as saying “Rock and Roll? Why, man, that’s the same kind of music we’ve been playin’ since 1928!… But it’s just basic rhythm and has gone by a lot of different names in my time. It’s the same, whether you just follow a drum beat like in Africa or surround it with a lot of instruments. The rhythm’s what’s important.” After blues artists like Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis and Pete Johnson launched a nationwide boogie craze starting in 1938, country artists like Moon Mullican, the Delmore Brothers, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Speedy West, Jimmy Bryant, and the Maddox Brothers and Rose began recording what was then known as “hillbilly boogie”, which consisted of “hillbilly” vocals and instrumentation with a boogie bass line. After World War II, The Maddox Brothers and Rose were at “the leading edge of rockabilly with the slapped bass that Fred Maddox had developed”. They had shifted into higher gear leaning toward a whimsical honky-tonk feel, with a heavy, manic bottom end and high volume. The Maddoxes were known for their lively, antic-filled shows, which were an influential novelty for white listeners and musicians alike. Along with country, swing and boogie influences, jump blues artists such as Wynonie Harris and Roy Brown, and electric blues acts such as Howlin’ Wolf, Junior Parker, and Arthur Crudup, influenced the development of rockabilly. The Memphis blues musician Junior Parker and his electric blues band, Little Junior’s Blue Flames, featuring Pat Hare on the guitar, were a major influence on the rockabilly style, particularly with their songs “Love My Baby” and “Mystery Train” in 1953. Zeb Turner’s February 1953 recording of “Jersey Rock” with its mix of musical styles, lyrics about music and dancing, and guitar solo, is another example of the mixing of musical genres in the first half of the 1950s. Bill Monroe is known as the Father of Bluegrass, a specific style of country music. Many of his songs were in blues form, while others took the form of folk ballads, parlor songs, or waltzes. Bluegrass was a staple of country music in the early 1950s and is often mentioned as an influence in the development of rockabilly, in part owing to its favoring of fast tempos. The Honky Tonk sound, which “tended to focus on working-class life, with frequently tragic themes of lost love, adultery, loneliness, alcoholism, and self-pity”, also included songs of energetic, uptempo hillbilly boogie. Some of the better known musicians who recorded and performed these songs are: the Delmore Brothers, the Maddox Brothers and Rose, Merle Travis, Hank Williams, Hank Snow, and Tennessee Ernie Ford.

Samba funk

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

Samba funk is a hybrid musical subgenre that combines elements of Brazilian samba with American funk, its rhythm mostly composed by keyboards, electric guitar, bass guitar, drums and percussion, creating a hybrid and contagious sound. The bass, drums and guitar lines transition between the two styles. Samba funk uses instrumentation, timbres, and effects common in 1970s American funk bands, such as the Rhodes electric piano, clavinet, and Moog and Oberheim analog synthesizers. Musical effects such as the wah-wah on the guitar also contribute to the genre’s sound.

Samba reggae

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History and background#

Samba-reggae arose in the context of the black pride movement that occurred in the city of Salvador de Bahia, around 69, and it still carries connotations of ethnic identity and pride for Afro-Brazilians today. Bahia’s population has a large proportion of dark-skinned Brazilians who are descendants of African slaves who were brought to Brazil by the Portuguese in the 17th and 18th centuries. These Afro-Brazilians played a major role in the early development of samba, which first took form in a Bahian style of dance and music called “samba de roda”, probably in the late 19th century. Samba de roda was brought to Rio de Janeiro by Bahians around 1900, where it was combined with harmonic and rhythmic elements from European influences (such as chorinho and military marches). By the 1930s, samba de roda had developed into the faster, more harmonically complex Rio-style samba that is now played in Rio’s Carnival. Through the middle of the 20th century this new Rio-style samba spread throughout Brazil. Of note, the low pitch bass that was heard on beats 1 and 3, and the higher pitched surdo on beats 2 and 4 in Bahia, brought by the slaves, was changed in Samba-the low pitch was moved to beats 2 and 4. The paradoxical result was that samba was brought back to Bahia from Rio, but now in a highly altered form, and no longer associated with Afro-Brazilians. Thus, in the mid-20th century, the city of Salvador had many samba schools that were modeled on the samba schools of Rio, as well as blocos (informal street percussion groups), both of which performed Rio-style samba in Carnival parades every year. Yet, ironically, black Brazilians did not participate in these Carnival parades or in the blocos, since they were not allowed to participate. Samba-reggae represents an effort by black Brazilians to develop a Carnival parade music that they could call their own, and to form all-black or mostly-black blocos with which they could parade during Carnival. The afro bloco music was very different because they aimed to recreate and strengthen their community through their music.

Samba rock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins#

Samba rock’s origins lie in the predominantly black favelas of São Paulo during the late 1950s, when Brazilian radio and dance halls were reached by the global spread of American rock and roll and related African-American music such as blues and jazz. Its first incarnation was as a dance phenomenon at community block parties that began to play these styles alongside traditional samba and bolero music. These parties eventually moved to larger venues hosted by disc jockeys. The first known samba-rock deejay Osvaldo Pereira—known by his stage name “Orquestra Invisível (Invisible Orchestra) Let’s Dance”—debuted in 1958 in downtown São Paulo. “The parties started to get crowded, and the rooms for the parties started to get larger”, Pereira recounted. “Then, I thought of building my own equipment, which had to be powerful, and faithful to the sound of the live orchestras.” His early equipment included a 100-watt sound system featuring a rudimentary version of a crossover, which allowed Pereira to control the frequencies of the music.

Ska punk

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

Ska punk combines ska music with punk rock music. Ska punk often features wind instruments, especially horns such as saxophones, trombones and trumpets, making the genre distinct from other forms of punk rock. It is similar to traditional Jamaican ska, but faster and heavier.

Predecessors and early development (late 1970s to early 1990s)#

Before ska punk started, many ska bands and punk rock bands performed on the same bills together and appealed to the same audiences. A ska revival occurred simultaneously around the beginning of British punk rock and the near-simultaneous rebirth of the late 1970s British mod and skinhead movements. During the late 1970s and early 1980s in United Kingdom, many punk rock bands mixed punk rock with ska influences. Pioneering punk rock band the Clash incorporated influences from ska alongside a range of other genres on their seminal 1979 post-punk album London Calling. Songs like 1978’s “Kill the Hippies” by the Deadbeats prominently featured horns, although there are no ska elements. Other British bands that were influenced by both punk rock and ska included the Specials, the Beat and Madness. With both films like the 1981 documentary film Dance Craze and supportive radio stations like Los Angeles, California’s KROQ, ska crossed the Atlantic. During the 1980s in America, ska punk was underground. However, Fishbone, one of the earliest ska punk bands, achieved moderate success. Another band in America that was semi-popular came from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, called the Pressure Boys. Other ska punk bands from the 1980s and early 1990s include Operation Ivy, The Toasters, Culture Shock, Voodoo Glow Skulls, the Porkers, Sublime, Citizen Fish, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, the Suicide Machines, MU330 and Dance Hall Crashers.

Smooth jazz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Description#

In general, a smooth jazz track is downtempo (the most widely played track are in the 90-105 BPM range), layering a lead, melody-playing instrument (saxophones – especially soprano and tenor – are the most popular with guitars a close second) over a backdrop that typically consists of programmed rhythms and various pads and/or samples. Smooth jazz groups or recording artists tend to play their instruments in a melodic fashion that they are recognizable within just a few measures; this category includes names such as saxophonists Kenny G, Najee, the late David Sanborn, George Howard and Art Porter Jr.; guitarists George Benson, Earl Klugh, Marc Antonie, Peter White, Jonathan Butler, Ray Parker Jr., Norman Brown, Ronny Jordan, and Yves Vincent; keyboardist/pianists Joe Sample, David Benoit, and Bradley Joseph. Some performers, such as Dave Koz, Bob James, and Nathan East are notable for their numerous collaborations with many of the genre’s big names. Groups include Fourplay, Pieces of a Dream, Acoustic Alchemy, Airborne and the Rippingtons. Female performers includes Keiko Matsui, Joyce Cooling, Mindi Abair, Candy Dulfer, Sade, Brenda Russell, Pamela Williams, Regina Belle and Anita Baker.

Sufi rock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

It is mostly based on the poetry of famous sufi poets such as Rumi, Hafez, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Bulleh Shah, Waris Shah and even Kabir and is mostly sung in languages such as Urdu, Pashto, Punjabi, Sindhi, Persian and Turkish.

External links#

*The New Sufiana – Indian Express

Swamp rock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

Swamp rock fuses rockabilly and soul music with swamp blues, country music and funk. Swamp blues provided swamp rock with its defining guitar sound, which was low toned and often reverberated. The sound also frequently uses horns, due to its soul influence, although solos are more commonly performed on guitars. Also contributing influence to the sound of swamp rock was the hard, guitar-driven sound of British Invasion bands, as well as country blues, Cajun music and New Orleans rhythm and blues. The genre’s lyrics are often “dark and menacing”, drawing from young Americans’ dissatisfaction with the political establishment, as well as environmentalist concerns.

Symphonic metal

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Musical characteristics#

The metal subgenres most typically featuring a subset of symphonic bands are gothic metal, power metal, black metal, death metal and classic heavy metal. As with many other metal bands, those adopting a symphonic style may feature influences from several metal subgenres. Music workstation keyboards and orchestras are often a key feature of the style, distinguishing symphonic from non-symphonic bands within the same metal subgenre. Other instruments, including guitars, bass and drums, may in some cases play relatively simple parts in contrast to the complex and nuanced keyboard and/or orchestral parts, typically in the case of symphonic heavy metal and symphonic gothic metal acts. The use of such instruments (as well as the lead vocals) to play simpler, catchier melodies than those of the average non-symphonic band arguably makes the symphonic style one of the most accessible in metal. Bands that do not use live orchestral instrumentation on their recordings or when playing live typically utilize factory presets on workstation keyboards (i. e., strings, choirs, pianos, pipe organs, etc.) to conjure up a “pseudo-orchestral” sound, where parts are played idiomatically according to keyboard technique. This is particularly characteristic of lesser-known bands on tighter budgets. Some symphonic metal bands abstain from using keyboards entirely, preferring to use orchestral backing tracks pre-recorded by a live symphony orchestra and/or choir during an album session, or recorded using virtual software instruments in a sequencer. This is particularly characteristic of bands that feature deeper and more complex arrangements which could be more difficult for one or two keyboardists to reproduce faithfully in a live performance. On average, songs under the symphonic metal umbrella are often highly atmospheric, though more upbeat than those of many non-symphonic metal bands; songs with morbid themes routinely feature prominent major-key fanfares. Particularly central to creating mood and atmosphere is the choice of keyboard timbre. It is nonetheless hardly possible to generalize about the role played by the classic metal instruments (guitars, bass and drums) within symphonic bands, as it can entirely vary depending on the metal subgenre to which the symphonic band mostly belongs. Lyrics cover a broad range of topics. As with two of its often overlapping elements, power metal and opera (including symphonic progressive rock), fantasy and mythological themes are common. Concept albums styled after operas or epic poems are not uncommon. Bands in this genre may often feature a female lead vocalist, usually a soprano. Male vocalists (baritone or bass-baritone), are also common in gothic metal. Growling, death-metal-style vocals are not unknown but tend to be used less frequently than in other metal subgenres (a notable exception being Mark Jansen in Epica). Backing vocals, often consisting of a choral ensemble or full choir, may be employed. It is common for bands, particularly female-fronted bands, to feature operatic lead vocals. Such bands may be referred to as operatic symphonic metal and include the likes of Epica, Nightwish (Tarja Turunen, then Floor Jansen), Haggard,

Third stream

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Definition and critics#

In 1961, Schuller defined third stream as “a new genre of music located about halfway between jazz and classical music”. He insisted that “by definition there is no such thing as ’third stream jazz’”. He noted that while critics on both sides of third stream objected to tainting their favorite music with the other, more strenuous objections were typically made by jazz musicians who felt such efforts were “an assault on their traditions”. He wrote that “by designating the music as a ‘separate, third stream’, the other two mainstreams could go about their way unaffected by the attempts at fusion”. Third-stream music emerged during a time when jazz was seeking recognition as a legitimate art form, and European musical traditions were still widely considered the standard by which all music was judged. In chapter 4, he describes discovering jazz music as a teenager and being fully attracted to Duke Ellington’s music and how he was fascinated by its “freely, loosely, more personal” music style, which he had not experienced as a classical learner. Later, he discusses how he wanted to combine classical music and jazz together to produce a third-stream, and how he explored this music style in various creative ways. He also shares his experiences of wanting to make the New England Conservatory more inclusive by adding new programs and jazz-related courses when he was the president from 1967 to 1977.

Trip hop

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

Common musical aesthetics include a bass-heavy drumbeat, often providing the slowed down breakbeat samples similar to standard 1990s hip-hop beats, giving the genre a more psychedelic and mainstream feel. and Groove Armada collaborated with male and female vocalists, Tricky often features vocally in his own productions along with Martina Topley-Bird, and Chris Corner provided vocals for later albums with Sneaker Pimps. Trip hop is also known for its melancholic sound, due to the fact that several acts of the Bristol scene were inspired by post-punk. Tricky opened his second album Nearly God (1996) with a cover version of “Tattoo”, a 1983’s “proto-trip-hop” song by Siouxsie and the Banshees released as a b-side of a single. Tricky then covered a pop single of the Cure. Massive Attack also covered and sampled songs of Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Cure in 1997 and 1998 respectively. Trip hop tracks often incorporate Rhodes pianos, saxophones, trumpets, flutes, and may employ unconventional instruments such as the theremin and Mellotron. Trip hop differs from hip-hop in theme and overall tone. Contrasting with gangsta rap and its hard-hitting lyrics, trip hop offers more aural atmospherics influenced by experimental folk and rock acts of the seventies, such as John Martyn, combined with instrumental hip-hop, turntable scratching, and breakbeat rhythms. Regarded in some ways as a 1990s update of fusion, trip hop may be said to “transcend” the hardcore rap styles and lyrics with atmospheric overtones to create a more mellow tempo.

Two-tone (music genre)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The two-tone sound originated among young musicians in Coventry in the West Midlands of England, who grew up listening to 1960s Jamaican music. They combined influences from ska, reggae and rocksteady with elements of punk rock and new wave. Bands considered part of the genre include the Specials, the Selecter, Madness, the Beat, Bad Manners, the Bodysnatchers and Akrylykz. The Specials’ keyboard player Jerry Dammers coined the term “two-tone”. Dammers, with the assistance of Horace Panter and graphic designer John “Teflon” Sims, developed the iconic Walt Jabsco logo (a man in a black suit, white shirt, black tie, pork pie hat, white socks and black loafers) to represent the two-tone genre. The logo, based on an early album-cover photo of Peter Tosh, included an added black-and-white check pattern. Most of the bands considered to be part of the two-tone genre were signed to 2 Tone Records (operative 1979–1985) at some point. Other record labels associated with the two-tone sound were Stiff Records and Go Feet Records. The music was especially popular among skinheads, rudies and mod revivalists.

Unblack metal

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

Unblack metal is a genre derived from black metal that focuses on Christian lyrical themes. Unblack metal incorporates black metal’s fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars, tremolo picking, double-kick drumming, repetition and often unconventional song structure. Garry Sharpe-Young’s 2001 encyclopedia A-Z of Black Metal states that " t opping the lot are Christian ‘Unblack’ acts who for all intents and purposes look like, sound like and employ the imagery of Black Metal whilst hidden in the unpenetrable vocal growls and distortions are the proclamations of Jesus Christ". Some unblack metal artists, such as Horde, write lyrics that explicitly attack Satanism. This remained a dominant theme throughout most of the 1990s. In the late 1990s, groups began to write more philosophical and ideological lyrics. These often include stories of conversion, doubt, salvation, struggles with faith, and the darker side of living a Christian life. Unblack metal bands may justify their use of the black metal style with reasons ranging from genuine appreciation of the musical genre, to evangelization towards the largely anti-Christian black metal scene, i.e. “bringing light into darkness”.

Urbano music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins#

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, most Latin hip-hop came from the United States West Coast. Cuban-American artist Mellow Man Ace was the first Latino artist to have a major bilingual single attached to his 1989 debut. Mellow Man, referred to as the “Godfather of Latin rap” and a Hip Hop Hall of Fame inductee, brought mainstream attention to Spanglish rhyming with his 1989 platinum single “Mentirosa”. In 1990, fellow West Coast artist Kid Frost further brought Latinos to the rap forefront with his single “La Raza”. In 1991, Kid Frost, Mellow Man, A.L.T. and several other Latin rappers formed the rap supergroup Latin Alliance and released a self-titled album which featured the hit “Lowrider (On the Boulevard)”. A.L.T. also scored a hit later that year with his remake of the song “Tequila”. Cypress Hill, of which Mellow Man Ace was a member before going solo, would become the first Latino rap group to reach platinum status in 1991. The group has since continued to release other Gold and Platinum albums. Ecuadorian-born rapper Gerardo received heavy rotation on video and radio for his single “Rico, Suave”. While commercially watered-down, his album enjoyed the status of being one of the first mainstream Spanglish CDs on the market. Johnny “J” was a multi-platinum songwriter, music producer, and rapper who was perhaps best known for his production on Tupac Shakur’s albums All Eyez on Me and Me Against the World. He also produced the 1990 single “Knockin’ Boots” for his classmate Candyman’s album Ain’t No Shame in My Game, which eventually went platinum thanks to the single. Reggae as a musical genre has its origins in Jamaica, and it became popular throughout the 1970s in the black-immigrant communities of the other British West Indies, North America, and Great Britain. Jamaican reggae was embraced in the Spanish-speaking world first in Panama by the descendants of black workers who immigrated to the Isthmus during the construction of the Panama Railroad (mid-19th century), the railways for the banana companies (late 19th century), and the Panama Canal (early 20th century). Prior to the period of construction of the Panama Canal (1904–1915), most of the Afro-Caribbean communities in Panama were of Jamaican descent, but with the construction of the canal these communities grew in diversity with immigrants from other parts of the Caribbean such as Jamaica, Barbados, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Trinidad, Dominica, French and British Guyana and other Caribbean Islands. In 1977, a Guyanese immigrant who went by the nickname “Guyana”, along with a local DJ known as “Wassabanga,” introduced for the first time the reggae rhythms in Panama with lyrics in Spanish. Wassabanga’s music, along with later interpreters such as Rastanini and Calito Soul, were perhaps the first remarkable cases of Reggae en Español, and came at a time when many Panamanians were already developing a musical and spiritual bond with the Mecca of reggae music (Kingston, Jamaica) and the music of Bob Marley.

Witch house

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

Witch house is characterized by the use of hip-hop drum machines, noise atmospherics, creepy samples, dark synthpop-influenced lead melodies, dense reverb, and heavily altered, distorted, and sometimes pitched down & reverse vocals, which are either rapped or sung. Influences range from electronic-based genres like ambient house and synth-pop, to alternative music genres such as shoegaze, industrial, ethereal wave, and gothic rock. Alongside, the Houston hip hop scene, particularly rapper and producer DJ Screw, whose pioneering sampling technique known as “chopped and screwed” is regarded as a foundational influence. Witch house’s sonic and aesthetic features are often grisly, nihilistic, and dystopic in nature.

Zhongguo feng (music)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

It is hard to pinpoint the exact origins of Zhongguo feng music, although Jay Chou is largely credited as an influential figure in modern Zhongguo feng music in the early 2000s. Music ethnographers and researchers have also studied Zhongguo feng in relation to the sociocultural and political conditions in different time periods such as the May Fourth movement and the end of Cultural Revolution. Departing from the days of revolutionary and ultra-nationalistic songs during Mao’s dictatorship until the end of the 1970s, the 1980 saw the introduction of rock music into China, with its people beginning to embrace new steady and upbeat rhythms. Featured in his debut album Jay in 2000, “Wife” is one of Jay Chou’s most famous songs in the Zhongguo feng music genre. Leehom Wang is also known for his brand of Zhongguo feng music, known as “chinked-out”, since 2004. Other factors that contributed to the popularity of Zhongguo feng music include the efforts of the Chinese state in building a sense of nationalism, and national pride from the successful 2008 Beijing Olympics.

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