GO on Music Theory Print

Go-go

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

Description#

In technical terms, “go-go’s essential beat is characterized by a five through four syncopated rhythm that is underscored prominently by the bass drum and snare drum, and the hi-hat… and is ornamented by the other percussion instruments, especially by the conga drums, rototoms, and hand-held cowbells.” Unique to go-go is instrumentation with two standard congas and two junior congas, 8" and 9" wide and about half as tall as the standard congas, a size rare outside go-go. They were introduced to Rare Essence by Tyrone “Jungle Boogie” Williams in the early days when they couldn’t afford full-sized congas and are ubiquitous ever since. Its name arises from the persistent percussive beat, but it incorporates elements of many other genres.

Goa trance

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

History#

The music has its roots in the popularity of Goa, India as a hippie capital in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Throughout the 1980s, music incorporating elements of industrial music, new beat and electronic body music (EBM), with the spiritual culture in India were commonplace, although Goa trance did not appear as a style until the early 1990s. The music played was a blend of styles loosely defined as techno, new beat and various genres of “computer music” (e.g., high energy disco without vocals, acid-house, electro, industrial-gothic, various styles of house and electronic-rock hybrids). It arrived on tape cassettes by traveller-collectors and DJs and was shared (copied) tape-to-tape among Goa DJs, in an underground scene not driven by labels or the music industry. Prior to the 1980s, the music played at parties was performed by live bands and tapes were played in between sets. In the early 1980s, sampling synth and MIDI music appeared globally and DJs became the preferred format in Goa, with two tape decks driving a party without a break, facilitating continuous music. Cassette tapes were used by DJs until the 1990s, when DAT tapes were used. DJs playing in Goa during the 1980s included Fred Disko, Dr Bobby, Stephano, Paulino, Mackie, Babu, Laurent, Ray, Fred, Antaro, Lui, Rolf, Tilo, Pauli, Rudi, and Goa Gil. The music was eclectic in style but based around instrumental dub versions of tracks that evoked mystical, cosmic, psychedelic, and existential themes. Special mixes were made by DJs in Goa that were the editing of various versions of a track to make it longer. By 1990–91, Goa had become a hot destination for partying and was no longer under the radar: the scene grew bigger. Goa-style parties spread like a diaspora all over the world from 1993, and a multitude of labels in various countries (UK, Australia, Japan, Germany) dedicated themselves to promoting psychedelic electronic music that reflected the ethos of Goa parties, Goa music and Goa-specific artists and producers and DJs. Mark Maurice’s ‘Panjaea’s focal point’ parties brought it to London in 1992 and its programming at London club megatripolis gave a great boost to the small international scene that was then growing (October 21, 1993 onwards). The golden age and first wave of Goa trance was generally agreed upon aesthetically between 1994 and 1997. Goa trance in the music industry and as a collective party fashion did not gain global recognition until 1994, when Paul Oakenfold began to champion the genre via his own Perfecto label and in the media, most notably with the release of his 1994 Essential Mix, or more commonly known as the Goa Mix.

Golden age hip-hop

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

Characteristics#

The golden age is noted for its innovation—a time “when it seemed that every new single reinvented the genre”, Spin ’ s editor-in-chief Sia Michel said, “there were so many important, groundbreaking albums coming out right about that time”, Jelani Cobb wrote, “what made the era they inaugurated worthy of the term golden was the sheer number of stylistic innovations that came into existence… in these golden years, a critical mass of mic prodigies were literally creating themselves and their art form at the same time”. The term golden age hip-hop frames the late 1980s in mainstream hip-hop, said to be characterized by its diversity, quality, innovation, and influence, and associated with Public Enemy, KRS-One and his Boogie Down Productions, Eric B. & Rakim, Ultramagnetic MCs, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, and the Jungle Brothers with their themes of Afrocentricity and political militancy, experimental music, and eclectic sampling. This period is sometimes called “mid-school” or a “middle school” in hip-hop and covers acts such as Gang Starr, the UMC’s, Main Source, Lord Finesse, EPMD, Just Ice, Stetsasonic, True Mathematics, and Mantronix. The innovations of Run-DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys, and new-school producers such as Larry Smith and Rick Rubin were built upon by Marley Marl and his Juice Crew MCs, Boogie Down Productions, Public Enemy, and Eric B. & Rakim. Hip-hop production became denser and rhymes and beats faster as the drum machine was augmented with sampler technology. Rakim took lyrics about the art of rapping to new heights, while KRS-One and Chuck D pushed “message rap” toward black activism. Native Tongues artists’ inclusive, sample-crowded music accompanied their positivity, Afrocentricity, and playfulness. Samples were heavily used during the golden age. The ability to sample beats, riffs, and patterns from a wide variety of sources birthed a new breed of producers and DJs who did not need formal musical training or instruments, just a good ear for sound collages. These samples came from various genres, ranging from jazz, funk and soul to rock and roll. For example, Paul’s Boutique, Beastie Boys’ second studio album, drew from over 200 individual samples, 24 of which were on the album’s last track. Many of hip-hop’s biggest artists were also at their creative peak. AllMusic said the golden age “witnessed the best recordings from some of the biggest rappers in the genre’s history… overwhelmingly based in New York City, golden age rap is characterized by skeletal beats, samples cribbed from hard rock or soul tracks, and tough dis raps… rhymers like PE’s Chuck D, Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One, Rakim, and LL Cool J basically invented the complex wordplay and lyrical kung-fu of later hip-hop”. In addition to lyrical self-glorification, hip-hop was also used as a form of social protest. Lyrical content often drew attention to social issues, including Afrocentric living, drug use, crime and violence, religion, culture, the U.S. economy, and the modern man’s struggle. Conscious and political hip-hop tracks were a response to the effects of U.S. capitalism and President Ronald Reagan’s conservative political economy. According to Tricia Rose, “In rap, relationships between black cultural practice, social and economic conditions, technology, sexual and racial politics, and the institution policing of the popular terrain are complex and in constant motion. Even though hip-hop was used as a mechanism for different social issues it was still very complex with issues within the movement itself. There was also often an emphasis on black nationalism. Hip-hop scholar Michael Eric Dyson wrote, “during the golden age of hip hop, from 1987 to 1993, Afrocentric and black nationalist rap were prominent”, and critic Scott Thill wrote that during this period “the form most capably fused the militancy of its Black Panther and Watts Prophets forebears with the wide-open cultural experimentalism of De La Soul and others”. Stylistic variety was also prominent; MSNBC wrote, “rappers had an individual sound that was dictated by their region and their communities, not by a marketing strategist,” and Ben Duinker and Denis Martin of Empirical Musicology Review wrote, “The constant flow of new, boundary-pushing Golden Age album releases exemplifies this era’s unprecedented stylistic fluidity.”

Gombhira

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

Gambhira mask#

The Gambhira dance is performed all over the Malda district of North Bengal during the festival of Chaitra Sankranti. The masks for Gambhira dance are made out of neem and fig trees by the local Bengali Sutradhar community. Sometimes they were also made the mask of clay.

Performance#

Gambhira songs frequently employ biting satire to mock and ridicule people, even those who are powerful and are in attendance.

Goregrind

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

History#

Despite the early impact of albums such as Repulsion’s Horrified and Impetigo’s Ultimo Mondo Cannibale, the origins of the genre lie with British band Carcass, who began their career in the late 1980s. In their Reek of Putrefaction era, Carcass used pitch shifters, medical imagery and several visceral associations—all of which would become synonymous with goregrind.

Characteristics#

According to Matthew Harvey, Zero Tolerance described goregrind as being defined by “detuned guitars, blasting drums (sometimes with a high-tuned, clanging ‘biscuit tin’ snare drum sound), sickening lyrics and often heavily processed/distorted vocals.” Goregrind bands commonly use extremely low or pitch-shifted vocals. The lyrics’ subject matter often features violent themes including gore, forensic pathology, death, and rape. Lyrics sometimes have a clear tongue-in-cheek Z-grade horror-movie feel and are not expected to be taken seriously. The medical pathophysiology terms of many later bands have earned the genre the occasional name of “medicore”.

Gōshū ondo

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

Form#

Gōshū ondo is a lot like Kawachi ondo in that the structure of the tune is quite fluid. There are no set lyrics, the themes used in the song vary from region to region, and the song’s structure is variable. There is only a set theme which performers can improvise on, and a returning chorus which is sung back by singers, or the audience. The returning chorus is sung in pitched notes, but the singers consider this a kakegoe. Said to have evolved from a religious song game, the song incorporates a lot of call-and-response, where listeners who know the song are encouraged to participate shouting back kakegoe. The tune of Gōshū ondo can be used to tell stories, or talk about current events. There is even a version of Gōshū ondo that names all the prefectures and capitals in Japan. The staple instruments are always a taiko drum and a stringed instrument, be it an electric guitar or a shamisen, though the song can be sung with just the drum alone.

Gosos

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

Catalan#

In Catalan, goigs means “joys”, from the Latin gaudium, meaning “joy” or “delight”. The term comes from the origin of these songs, which celebrated the Seven Joys of the Virgin. Thus, the word is always used in plural, even when referring to a single composition.

Sardinian#

The term and its varieties (, , and in Gallurese) used in the central-northern part of Sardinia derive from the Castilian , Both and seem to originate in turn from the Latin . Sergio Bullegas, to whom the seem to constitute “an hagiographic genre of dramatic kind”, stresses the “clear influence of the Hispano-Catalan culture” and the “rather close linguistic relationship with the .” A minor denomination comes from the Catalan (strophe), called gròbbes or cròbbes, which also comprise some other genres related to the improvised poetry in some areas around Nuoro, and especially where the conventional boundaries of the Logudorese and Campidanese dialects merge.

Gospel blues

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

External links#

The Gospel Blues Society

Gospel music

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

History#

According to Yale University music professor Willie Ruff, the singing of psalms in Scottish Gaelic by Presbyterians of the Scottish Hebrides evolved from “lining out”—where one person sang a solo and others followed—into the call and response of gospel music of the American South.

18th century#

Perhaps the most famous gospel-based hymns were composed in the 1760s and 1770s by English writers John Newton (“Amazing Grace”) and Augustus Toplady (“Rock of Ages”), members of the Anglican Church. Starting out as lyrics only, decades were needed for standardized tunes to be added to them. Although not directly connected with African-American gospel music, they were adopted by African Americans as well as white Americans, and Newton’s connection with the abolition movement provided cross-fertilization.

Gospel reggae

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

Gothabilly

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

Characteristics#

Gothabilly is distinctly different in sound from psychobilly. While psychobilly fuses 1950s rockabilly with 1970s punk rock in a faster, more aggressive sound, gothabilly fuses bluesy rockabilly with gothic piano and guitar, and is defined by having slower tempos and emphasizing mood over aggression.

History#

The Cramps have been credited with coining the term “gothabilly”. Gothabilly is particularly active in the western portion of the United States, with many of today’s bands originating in California.

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.

Gothic metal

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

Etymology#

Some musicians have disputed the gothic label associated with their bands, including Rozz Williams of Christian Death and Andrew Eldritch of the Sisters of Mercy. In the gothic metal subgenre, members from such groups as After Forever and Nightwish have similarly downplayed or dismissed the gothic label from their music.

Sonic traits#

The music of gothic metal is generally characterised by its dark atmospheres. The adjective “dark” is commonly used to describe gothic music in general while other terms that are less frequently used include deep, romantic, passionate and intense. Gothic metal has also sometimes been viewed as “a combination of the darkness and melancholy of goth rock with heavy metal”. Allmusic defines the genre as a fusion of “the bleak, icy atmospherics of goth rock with the loud guitars and aggression of heavy metal” and further notes that “true goth metal is always directly influenced by goth rock — ethereal synths and spooky textures are just as important as guitar riffs, if not more so”. Gothic metal is a varied genre with bands pursuing many different directions, from “slow and crushing variations” to “orchestral and bombastic”. The doom metal background of early pioneers like Anathema, Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride has been taken up by groups like Artrosis, Ava Inferi and Draconian. The black metal approach of Cradle of Filth, Theatres des Vampires and early Moonspell can be found in such subsequent bands as Graveworm and Samsas Traum.

Gothic rock

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

Etymology#

The term “gothic rock” was originally coined by critic John Stickney who used the label to describe the music of the Doors in October 1967, in a review published in The Williams Record. Stickney wrote that the band met the journalists “in the gloomy vaulted wine cellar of the Delmonico hotel, the perfect room to honor the gothic rock of the Doors”. On 4 November 1978 Record Mirror’s Tim Lott described Pere Ubu’s 1975 debut single “30 Seconds Over Tokyo” as “discordant gothic rock”. In a review of a Siouxsie and the Banshees’ concert in July 1978, critic Nick Kent stated, “parallels and comparisons can now be drawn with gothic rock architects like the Doors and, certainly, early Velvet Underground”. In 1980, Joy Division’s album Closer was noted for its “dark strokes of gothic rock” by Sounds.

GO on Music Theory Print

Go-go

Description#

Goa trance

History#

Golden age hip-hop

Characteristics#

Gombhira

Gambhira mask#

Performance#

Goregrind

History#

Characteristics#

Gōshū ondo

Form#

Gosos

Catalan#

Sardinian#

Gospel blues

See also#

External links#

Gospel music

History#

18th century#

Gospel reggae

Gothabilly

Characteristics#

History#

Gothic country

History#

Gothic metal

Etymology#

Sonic traits#

Gothic rock

Etymology#