AT on Music Theory Print

Athabaskan fiddle

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

Origins#

In a sense, there are two main beginnings of Alaskan old-time music: the original introduction of fiddle music in 1847, and Alaska’s version of the great folk music revival in the 1970s. Athabaskan fiddle music has been cultivated in relative isolation from mainstream American country music. According to several accounts, the first fiddler on the Yukon River was a Hudson’s Bay Company employee named Antoine Hoole, who was among a trading party who established Fort Yukon, Alaska in 1847. His French Canadian influence likely helped spread the Anglo-Celtic music and dance tradition to the local Indians (First Nations and Métis), a rich tradition that continues today as a unique style of old-time music known as Athabaskan fiddle music. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, fiddle music blended with aboriginal singing and dancing and melodic choral singing of hymns introduced by Anglican and Catholic missionaries. This music developed largely in isolation, with only occasional injections of new influences, and today is its own unique style. Athabaskan old-time fiddling music represents a fusion of traditional Athabascan instrumental and vocal music with the songs and violin tunes brought to the region in the late 1840s by Hudson Bay Company traders from their homelands in Scotland, Ireland, the Orkney Islands and French Canada. The popular Gwich’in tune, The Red River Jig, almost certainly came from the Red River area of southern Manitoba. The gold rush such as the Klondike (1896–1899) of Canada and Nome (1899–1909) and Fairbanks (1902–1905) of Alaska in the latter days of the 19th century and early 20th century saw another wave of musical influences as the prospectors’ waltzes, jigs, schottisches, foxtrots, two steps, and square dances (running sets) were incorporated into this unique musical style.

Atlanta blues

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

External links#

“Southern Blues” in “Acoustic Guitar Magazine”

Atlanta hip-hop

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

History#

In the 1980s and early 1990s Atlanta’s hip-hop scene was characterized by a local variant of Miami’s electro-driven bass music, with stars like Kilo Ali, MC Shy-D, Raheem the Dream, and DJ Smurf (later Mr. Collipark). produced by DJ Toomp; Jones was signed to controversial Southern hip-hop label Luke Records, run by Luther Campbell aka “Uncle Luke”. Arrested Development won a Grammy Award in 1992 with “Tennessee”, while Kris Kross won with their hit song “Jump”. The group Tag Team released their debut platinum certified album Whoomp! (There It Is) on July 20, 1993, spawned by their hit single of the same name. However, Organized Noize and Dungeon Family “cornerstone” Rico Wade, who even produced albums for Outkast, Goodie Mob and Future, was considered to be a major architect of Atlanta hip-hop. Numerous aspiring musicians and artists would in fact record music in the studio which was located in the basement of Wade’s mother, and which became known as the “Dungeon.” i.e. Southwest Atlanta, plus territory extending into the adjacent cities of College Park and East Point. The term “SWATS” came into vogue around 1996, initially made popular by Outkast and Goodie Mob. From the late 1990s to early 2000s, record producer Lil Jon became a driving force behind the hip-hop subgenre known as crunk, known for its upbeat and club-oriented hip-hop sound. Record producers L.A. Reid and Babyface founded LaFace Records in Atlanta in the late-1980s; the label eventually became the home to multi-platinum selling artists such as Toni Braxton, TLC, Ciara. It is also the home of So So Def Recordings, a label founded by Jermaine Dupri in the mid-1990s, that signed acts such as Da Brat, Jagged Edge, Xscape and Dem Franchise Boyz. The success of LaFace and SoSo Def led to Atlanta as an established scene for record labels such as LaFace parent company Arista Records to set up satellite offices. In 2009 The New York Times noted that after 2000, Atlanta moved “from the margins to becoming hip-hop’s center of gravity, part of a larger shift in hip-hop innovation to the South.” Atlanta hip-hop’s pop breakthrough—everyone from Jermaine Dupri to OutKast to Lil Jon—involved the blend of various distillations of hard-core sounds from the West, bass beats from Florida, and styles and images from the North. Producer Drumma Boy called Atlanta “the melting pot of the South”. Producer Fatboi called the Roland TR-808 (“808”) synthesizer “central” to the Music of Atlanta’s versatility, used for snap, crunk, trap, and pop rap styles.