GR on Music Theory Print

Grand opera

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

Origins#

Paris at the turn of the 19th century was a magnet for composers, both French and foreign, especially those of opera. The term “grand opéra” became current in the early 19th century, with contemporaries like the critic Castil-Blaze defining it as a work that was sung throughout (in contrast to opéra comique), performed at the prestigious Paris Opéra, and had a noble subject. The librettist Étienne de Jouy further advocated for a five-act structure and plots drawn from heroic historical events. The aesthetic goals of the Empire were exemplified by works like Gaspare Spontini’s Fernand Cortez (1809), which combined an exotic setting with melodramatic plots and spectacular tableaux, such as a cavalry charge and the burning of an Aztec temple. These large-scale works were the immediate forerunners of grand opéra. Other factors contributing to Parisian supremacy in operatic spectacle were the Opéra’s ability to stage sizeable productions, its long tradition of French ballet, and its skilled staff of innovative designers like Duponchel, Cicéri, and Daguerre. The first theater performance lit by gas, for example, was Aladin ou La lampe merveilleuse at the Opéra in 1823. Several operas by Spontini, Luigi Cherubini, and Gioachino Rossini can be regarded as direct precursors to the genre. These include Spontini’s La vestale (1807) and Fernand Cortez (1809), Cherubini’s Les Abencérages (1813), and Rossini’s Le siège de Corinthe (1827) and Moïse et Pharaon (1828). All of these have the characteristics of size and spectacle that would become hallmarks of grand opéra. An especially important forerunner was Giacomo Meyerbeer’s Il crociato in Egitto (1824). Produced by Rossini in Paris in 1825, this opera successfully blended the Italian vocal style with German orchestral techniques, introducing a wider range of musical-theatrical effects than traditional Italian opera. With its exotic historical setting, on-stage bands, and themes of culture clash, Il crociato exhibited many of the features that would form the basis of grand opera’s popularity. What became the essential features of ‘grand opéra’ were foreseen by Étienne de Jouy, the librettist of Guillaume Tell, in an essay of 1826: Division into five acts seems to me the most suitable for any opera that would reunite the elements of the genre: … where the dramatic focus was combined with the marvellous: where the nature and majesty of the subject … demanded the addition of attractive festivities and splendid civil and religious ceremonies to the natural flow of the action, and consequently needed frequent scene changes.

Graphical sound

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

History#

The first practical sound-on-film systems were created almost simultaneously in the USSR, USA and Germany. In Soviet Russia Pavel Tager initiated the first developments in 1926 in Moscow. In 1927, just over a few months later, Alexander Shorin started his research in Leningrad. The popular version of his “Shorinophone”, widely used for field and studio sound recording, was based on a mechanical reproduction of gramophone-like longitudinal grooves along the filmstrip. Another version of Shorin’s system – “Kinap”, mainly used for sound-on-film production, was based on a variable area optical recording on film – “transversal” recording as it was called in Russia. As far back as 1916, in the article “Upcoming Science of Music and the New Era in the History of Music”, Arseny Avraamov proclaimed his view on the future of the Art of Music: “By knowing the way to record the most complex sound textures by means of a phonograph, after analysis of the curve structure of the sound groove, directing the needle of the resonating membrane, one can create synthetically any, even most fantastic sound by making a groove with a proper structure of shape and depth". In October 1929 the first film-roll of Piatiletka. Plan velikih rabot (“Plan of Great Works”) movie by A. Room was developed. The group working on this film included the painter, book illustrator and animator Mikhail Tsekhanovsky as well as talented inventor and engineer Evgeny Sholpo. But the most outstanding participant in the project was Arseny Avraamov - composer, journalist, music theorist, inventor, one of the most adventurous people of his time, performance instigator, irreconcilable foe of the classical twelve tone system (based on well-tempered scale), promoter of the ultrachromatic “Welttonsystem”, developer of experimental musical instruments and tools, and author of the storied Symphony of Factory Sirens. The crew members were amazed with the view of the first sound track they ever saw and Mikhail Tsekhanovsky had voiced the idea: “what if we take some Egyptian or ancient Greek ornaments as a sound track, perhaps we will hear some unknown archaic music?”. Each crew member immediately recognized in the new optical film sound process a means to effectively realize their long-standing ideas: Arseny Avraamov - to develop further his concept of ultrachromatic “Welttonsystem” and to explore the sonic qualities of new ornamental sound; Evgeny Sholpo – to develop his “performer-less” musical tools. The next day they were already furiously at work on experiments in what they referred to variously as “ornamental”, “drawn,” “paper”, “graphical”, “artificial” or “synthetic” sound. On the 20th of February, 1930, just a few months later, Arseny Avraamov mentioned a new trend in his lecture for the sound-on-film group at ARRK (Avraamov 1930). In October, 1930 a new technique was described in the article “Multiplikacia Zvuka” (the Animation of Sound) by E. Veisenberg (Veisenberg 1930). At exactly the same time similar efforts were being undertaken in Germany by Rudolf Pfenninger in Munich and, c. 1931-32, by Oskar Fischinger in Berlin. According to Oskar Fischinger’s statements from his article “Sounding Ornaments”, first published in German in 1932 and distributed worldwide, “Between ornament and music persist direct connections, which means that Ornaments are Music. If you look at a strip of film from my experiments with synthetic sound, you will see along one edge a thin stripe of jagged ornamental patterns. These ornaments are drawn music - they are sound: when run through a projector, these graphic sounds broadcast tones of a hitherto unheard of purity, and thus, quite obviously, fantastic possibilities open up for the composition of music in the future”. According to an article published in 1931, Avraamov’s approach was similar: “Composer Arseny Avraamov at the scientific-research institute conducts the interesting experiments on a creation of the hand-drawn music. Instead of common sound recording on film by means of microphone and photocell, he simply draws on paper geometrical figures, then photographing them on sound track of the filmstrip. Afterwards this filmstrip is played as a common movie by means of film projector. Being read by photocell, amplified and monitored by loudspeaker, this filmstrip turns out to contain a well-known musical recording, while its timbre is impossible to relate to any existing musical instrument. Comrade Avraamov conducts now a study in recording of more complicated geometrical figures. For instance, to record graphical representations of the simplest algebraic equations, to draw molecular orbits of some chemical elements. In this research composer is assisted by a group of young employee of the Research Institute for Film and Photo. By the end of December Avraamov will finish his new work and to show it to the film-community. Quite possibly the listening of the abstracts of “Hand Drawn Music” will be organized in radio broadcast" (Kino 1931).

Grebo (music)

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

Etymology#

Derived from “greaser”, the word “grebo” began being used in the 1970s as a slang term for bikers with long hair. The word was re-fashioned by the group Pop Will Eat Itself that represented a brand of United Kingdom subculture of the late 1980s and early 1990s, largely based in the English Midlands.

History#

Fronted by Pop Will Eat Itself, the Wonder Stuff and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, the bands quickly gained attention: Pop Will Eat Itself’s 1989 singles “Wise Up! Sucker” and “Can U Dig It?” both entered the UK Top 40 and Stourbridge briefly became a tourist attraction for young indie rock fans. The seminal albums from the scene were released between 1989 and 1993: the Wonder Stuff’s Hup and Never Loved Elvis; Ned’s Atomic Dustbin’s God Fodder and Are You Normal?; and Pop Will Eat Itself’s This Is the Day…This Is the Hour…This Is This! and The Looks or the Lifestyle?. In this period, the scene’s bands became fixtures, sometimes headliners, at Reading Festival, sold millions of albums and were frequently featured on the covers of magazines like NME and Melody Maker. Grebo bands were distinct from prior indie rock groups not only because of their broad influences, but their subversion of the twee or unhappy moods of most other bands in the genre, and their pursuit of a heavier sound and aesthetic. The scene came to include the stylistically similar bands of nearby Leicester: the Bomb Party, Gaye Bykers on Acid, Crazyhead, the Hunters Club and Scum Pups. The term has also been used to describe Jesus Jones from Wiltshire. A younger subset of grebo bands emerged around 1991, who were in turn labelled “fraggle” bands. During this movement, the dominant sound was a style of indie rock that was heavily indebted to punk and Nirvana’s Bleach album, while also occasionally making use of drum machines.

Greek hip-hop

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

The late 80s toward the 90s: the first generation – the beginnings#

The first time Rap and/or Hip Hop was heard in Greece was in the 70s by the broadcasts of the US military base. In the early 80s concepts such as Graffiti and Break Dance came to Greece, setting up the base of Greek hip hop. The earliest indications of the localized genre date back to 1987 the Maxi-single Deejays’s with the group FF.C, though native language albums did not appear until the mid-1990s. The first hip hop album was Diamartiria (protest) in 1993 of Active Member along with “Σκληροί καιροί” (Hard Times) by FF.C. Both albums released under the independent label “Freestyle Productions”. Though many can argue that the album Modern Fears “Η Αναμέτρηση” (circa 1992) by Aris Thomas was the first hip hop influenced record in Greece. Then Razastarr followed with their unreleased demo on Freestyle Productions, and TXC with their single Terror X Crew in 1995. Also, in 1987 rapper Aris Tomas came to the scene, although he became more aligned with the dance and disco scene. The first Greek hip-hop album was released in 1990 called En+Taxei (from the Greek “Εντάξει” meaning Okay) the album was released by O.P.A. (Oppressive People Group). One of the first hip-hop groups was also Stereo Nova, their first album the same name came out in 1992. The same year in a Public Enemy concert in Nikaia, the low-bap group Active Member was created. A few years later they founded Freestyle Productions in which participated both the late Pavlos Fyssas (Killah P) and Social Waste, with the hopes of differentiating themselves from the rest of Greek hip-hop who started to look a lot alike with its American counterpart. This led to a split between the two scenes, which led to a lot of criticism towards Active Member by many groups even later on such as RNS in 2018. n 1993 the album R.E.A.L (Rap Elevate Above Law) was released by many of the bands participating in freestyle productions (Active Member, Drama N’ Vinyl, Real D, Loyal T, Maffic) In 1994 ΝΕΒΜΑ were created, a hip hop band with social problems. The same time Goin’ Through who became a fundamental part of the scene. In the end of the same year begun circulation of the magazine “radicalistic” by freestyle productions. At the same time Active Member released their second album “Stin ora ton Skion” (στην ώρα των σκιών). In 1996Imiskoumpria made their debut in the scene them being the first clearly satirical band in the hip-hop scene.

Greek punk

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

Notable Bands#

Deus Ex Machina
Panx Romana
Genia Tou Chaous
Adiexodo
Thrax Punks
Naftia

External links#

Punk.gr information on Greek punk in English (Archived)
DIY Greek Punk/Crust/HC and more page on DIY Greek punk movement and punk collective
Diymusic site on Greek diy movement
Anexartisi site with many resources, also many Greek rock bands
Words and Stuff articles on Greek punk, punk rock show reviews and zines
squathost more links
Greek_Punk_blogspot Downloads, lives …

Greek traditional music

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

Notable folk songs#

Some notable folk songs include: * “Itia” * “Milo mou kokkino” * “Kontoula lemonia” * “Mou parigile to aidoni” * “Enas aetos” * “Kira Vangelio” * “Gerakina” * “Saranta palikaria” and Nisiotika (the songs from the islands) * “Ikariotikos” * “Samiotisa” * “Thalassaki” * “Armenaki” * “Amorgos Sousta” * “Ela Na Pame S’ena Meros * “Dari Dari * “Dirlada” * “Lygaria” * “Psaropoula”, such as “Tilirkiotissa” and “Psintri Vasilitsia mou” (Cyprus).

Gregorian chant

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

Development of earlier plainchant#

Singing has been part of the Christian liturgy since the earliest days of the Church. It is widely accepted that the psalmody of ancient Jewish worship significantly influenced and contributed to early Christian ritual and chant. Christians read Scriptures and sang chants, as their Jewish predecessors had done. Although new Christian liturgy was developed, the source of much of this Christian liturgy was Jewish psalmody. The source materials for newly emergent Christian chants were originally transmitted by Jews in sung form. Early Christian rites also incorporated elements of Jewish worship that survived in later chant tradition. Canonical hours have their roots in Jewish prayer hours. “Amen”, “alleluia”, and “hosanna” come from Hebrew, and the threefold “sanctus” derives from the threefold “kadosh” of the Kedushah. The New Testament mentions singing hymns during the Last Supper: “When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives” (). Other ancient witnesses such as Pope Clement I, Tertullian, St. Athanasius, and Egeria confirm the practice, although in poetic or obscure ways that shed little light on how music sounded during this period. Musical elements that would later be used in the Roman Rite began to appear in the 3rd century. The Apostolic Tradition, attributed to the theologian Hippolytus, attests the singing of Hallel (Jewish) psalms with Alleluia as the refrain in early Christian agape feasts. Chants of the Office, sung during the canonical hours, have their roots in the early 4th century, when desert monks following St. Anthony introduced the practice of continuous psalmody, singing the complete cycle of 150 psalms each week. Around 375, antiphonal psalmody became popular in the Christian East; in 386, St. Ambrose introduced this practice to the West. In the fifth century, a singing school, the Schola Cantorum, was founded at Rome to provide training in church musicianship. Scholars are still debating how plainchant developed during the 5th through the 9th centuries, as information from this period is scarce. Around 410, St. Augustine described the responsorial singing of a Gradual psalm at Mass. At c. 520, Benedict of Nursia established what is called the rule of St. Benedict, in which the protocol of the Divine Office for monastic use was laid down. Around 678, Roman chant was taught at York. Distinctive regional traditions of Western plainchant arose during this period, notably in the British Isles (Celtic chant), Spain (Mozarabic), Gaul (Gallican), and Italy (Old Roman, Ambrosian and Beneventan). These traditions may have evolved from a hypothetical year-round repertory of 5th-century plainchant after the western Roman Empire collapsed. John the Deacon, biographer (c. 872) of Pope Gregory I, modestly claimed that the saint “compiled a patchwork antiphonary”, unsurprisingly, given his considerable work with liturgical development. He reorganized the Schola Cantorum and established a more uniform standard in church services, gathering chants from among the regional traditions as widely as he could manage. Of those, he retained what he could, revised where necessary, and assigned particular chants to the various services. According to Donald Jay Grout, his goal was to organize the bodies of chants from diverse traditions into a uniform and orderly whole for use by the entire western region of the Church. His renowned love for music was recorded only 34 years after his death; the epitaph of Honorius testified that comparison to Gregory was already considered the highest praise for a music-loving pope. While later legends magnified his real achievements, these significant steps may account for why his name came to be attached to Gregorian chant.

Grime music

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

Origins#

Grime emerged in the early 2000s in East London. It has origins tied with UK pirate radio stations such as Rinse FM, Deja Vu, Major FM, Delight FM, Freeze 92.7 and Mission. In the late 1990s, UK garage grew in popularity and also found crossover commercial success with shows on Kiss 100 and BBC Radio 1. Whilst much of the popular UK garage sound fused soul and R&B influences, a ‘darker garage’ sound was also appearing which was more instrumental and less vocal, which allowed MCs to lay down lyrics over them. The role of MCs became more prominent on radio shows, and collectives such as So Solid Crew (on Delight FM), Heartless Crew (on Mission), and Pay As U Go (on Rinse FM) would begin to pave the way for what would eventually be called “grime”. Members of these crews would begin to experiment with accessible music creation software such as Fruityloops to write their own instrumentals which were cut to dubplate for shows. The first definitive grime release is often debated. Some will credit Pay As U Go’s “Know We” or So Solid Crew’s “Dilemma” (both were released in 2000), however, “Eskimo” by Wiley (produced in Christmas 1999 or early 2000, but released in 2002) and “Pulse X” by Youngstar (released in 2002), a member of Musical Mobb, are also often considered to be contenders. Dizzee Rascal personally claimed his song “Crime”, released in 2000, was the first grime song. DJ Slimzee and DJ Karnage have also suggested “Year 2000” (released 2000) by Wiley as a contender. Other tracks that were among the first to be labelled as “grime” include “Ice Rink” and “Igloo” by Wiley, “Creeper” by Danny Weed, and “Dollar Sign” by Sticky featuring Stush. Several earlier electronic music tracks have been noted for sharing elements of what would later become grime music. “Bamboo Houses” (1982) by Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Sylvian “accidentally predicted” grime and was “the earliest example of proto-grime” according to Fact, with a “gleaming synth lead, syncopated drumming and the type of vaguely Asian motif that would go on to define much of Wiley and Jammer’s early work” in Sinogrime. It later appeared on Kode9’s DJ sets and was remixed by Slackk, becoming “a grime touchstone” by the early 2010s. Also of note is the 1994 Super Nintendo video game soundtrack Wolverine: Adamantium Rage, composed by Shahid Ahmad and Dylan Beale. According to Fact, it features “all the hallmarks of early grime instrumentals: staccato strings, eski bleeps and square wave bass”. It predates the first recognized grime instrumentals by eight years. Wiley at the timed dubbed the sound ’eskibeat’ rather than “grime”, which had yet to gain popular usage. At this point, the style was known by a number of names, including 8-bar (meaning eight-bar verse patterns), nu shape (which encouraged more complex 16-bar and 32-bar verse patterns), sublow (a music style and movement created by Jon E Cash with Dread D (T Williams) and crew “The Black Ops”, the name sublow being a reference to the very low bassline frequencies, often around 40 Hz) and eskibeat, a term applied specifically to a style initially developed by Wiley and his collaborators, incorporating dance and electro elements. This indicated the movement of UK garage away from its house influences towards darker themes and sounds. Wiley’s song “Wot Do U Call It” was released in 2004 and was made to address the identity problems grime was experiencing at the time, and to establish its separation from garage. there are other contributing factors to its rapid and widespread growth in popularity. The MCs producing current grime music are overwhelmingly young as a group, the most well known names in the industry, Dizzee Rascal and Kano, both getting their first hits at the age of 16 with “I Luv U” and “Boys Love Girls” respectively, and the resultant package of “youth making music for youth” is seen as a crucial factor for grime’s success. Grime producers often battle in so-called “war dubs”. Clashing between MC’s is generally considered to be an important part of grime culture.

Grindcore

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

Characteristics#

Known for being “among the noisiest, fastest and rawest kinds of metal,” grindcore is influenced by crust punk, thrashcore, as well as noise musical acts like Swans. The name derives from the fact that grind is a British term for thrash; that term was prepended to -core from hardcore. Grindcore relies on standard hardcore punk instrumentation: electric guitar, bass and drums. A characteristic of some grindcore songs is the “microsong,” lasting only a few seconds. In 2001, the Guinness Book of World Records awarded Brutal Truth the record for “Shortest Music Video” for 1994’s “Collateral Damage” (the song lasts four seconds). In 2007, the video for the Napalm Death song “You Suffer” set a new “Shortest Music Video” record: 1.3 seconds. Beyond the microsong, it is characteristic of grindcore to have short songs in general; for example, Carcass’ debut album Reek of Putrefaction (1988) consists of 22 tracks with an average length of 1 minute and 48 seconds. It is common for grindcore albums to be very short when compared to other genres, usually consisting of a large track list but having a total length of only 15 to 20 minutes. Many grindcore groups experiment with tuned-down guitars and play mostly with downstrokes of the pick, power chords and heavy distortion. While the vinyl A-side of Napalm Death’s debut, 1987’s Scum, is set to Eb tuning, on side B, the guitars are tuned down to C. Their second album From Enslavement to Obliteration and the Mentally Murdered EP were tuned to C ♯. Harmony Corruption, their third full-length album, was tuned up to a D. Bolt Thrower went further, dropping 3½ steps down (A). The bass playing is often overdriven.

Grindie

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

History#

In 2004, music journalist John Doran coined the term “grindie” as a joke. It was later adopted by grime producer Statik and the NME. The genre initially received some criticisms by grime fans who perceived it to be a fad created by magazines, rather than a fully fledged scene. Akira the Don, who signed to Interscope Records in 2004, released multiple mixtapes sampling rock and indie artists, including the “Third Hand Wire Riffs” mixtape featuring Elastica, Big Narstie, Lethal Bizzle, Martin Carr of the Boo Radleys and others. Jack Nimble and Marvin the Martian / Marv the Marsh have been credited for creating the first grindie song, “Stay Off the Kane”, released in 2005. The song was a remix of Art Brut’s song “Emily Kane”. Art Brut later invited Why Lout?, the group Marvin and Jack Nimble were members of, to be the opening act for them at Koko. In 2006, the group released Hoods & Badges EP on the Universal Digital record label. Akira the Don produced tracks for grime star Big Narstie’s “What’s the Story Brixton Glory” mixtape that sampled Oasis and Arctic Monkeys, that was later cited as an influence by Ed Sheeran. Grime artist Lethal Bizzle became a prominent artist in the subgenre, releasing multiple top 40 hits produced by Akira the Don that sampled the Clash, the Breeders and Sham 69, also collaborating with Statik, the Rakes, Babyshambles, Bloc Party, and Test Icicles. Lethal Bizzle was at the time struggling due to clubs banning him from performing. Grindie allowed Lethal Bizzle to find a new, indie, audience and platform. Charli XCX was dubbed the “Grindie Princess” during her early career. Hadouken! was also associated with the scene.

Groove (music)

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

Musicians’ perspectives#

Like the term “swing”, which is used to describe a cohesive rhythmic “feel” in a jazz context, the concept of “groove” can be hard to define. Marc Sabatella’s article Establishing The Groove argues that “groove is a completely subjective thing.” He claims that “one person may think a given drummer has a great feel, while another person may think the same drummer sounds too stiff, and another may think he is too loose.” Similarly, a bass educator states that while “groove is an elusive thing” it can be defined as “what makes the music breathe” and the “sense of motion in the context of a song”. In a musical context, general dictionaries define a groove as “a pronounced, enjoyable rhythm” or the act of “creat ing , danc ing to, or enjoy ing rhythmic music”. Steve Van Telejuice explains the “groove” as the point in this sense when he defines it as a point in a song or performance when “even the people who can’t dance wanna feel like dancing…” due to the effect of the music. The composer Bernard Coquelet argues that the “groove is the way an experienced musician will play a rhythm compared with the way it is written (or would be written)” by playing slightly “before or after the beat”. Coquelet claims that the “notion of groove actually has to do with aesthetics and style”; “groove is an artistic element, that is to say human,…and “it will evolve depending on the harmonic context, the place in the song, the sound of the musician’s instrument, and, in interaction with the groove of the other musicians”, which he calls “collective” groove”. Minute rhythmic variations by the rhythm section members such as the bass player can dramatically change the feel as a band plays a song, even for a simple singer-songwriter groove.

Groove metal

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

Characteristics#

Groove metal makes use of elements of thrash metal, but plays them in a slower tempo, making use of bouncy, unconventional rhythms. Music journalist Gary Graff also noted the influence of hardcore punk as integral to groove metal.

Origins#

In their book Hellraisers: A Complete Visual History of Heavy Metal Mayhem, journalists Axl Rosenberg and Christopher Krovatin traced the origins of groove metal to New Orleans’ Exhorder and New York’s Prong. Exhorder, formed in 1985, recorded their first demo in the summer of 1986, The band were immediately influential in the New Orleans metal scene, with pioneering sludge metal bands Eyehategod, Soilent Green and Crowbar all playing some of their earliest live performances in support of them. Prong, on the other hand, originated from the New York hardcore scene. The band originally played crossover thrash before slowing their tempos and incorporating heavier percussion on their second album Beg to Differ (1990). A number of writers have also noted the Bad Brains’s post-1987 music, particularly Quickness (1989), as helping to pioneer the genre. White Zombie, formed in 1985, playing music influenced by the noise rock of Honeymoon Killers, Swans and Pussy Galore, 1970s rock of Van Halen, Kiss and AC/DC, as well as Black Sabbath, the Cramps and gothic rock. Their early career was spent playing in the New York City noise rock scene, before being approached by the members of the Cro-Mags and Biohazard to instead begin playing in the New York hardcore scene. During this time, some New York hardcore bands were embracing metal influence and grooves, to the extent that bands including Sick of It All and Leeway self-identified as “Jackson Heights groove metal”. White Zombie began leaning into the nascent sound of groove metal on their second album Make Them Die Slowly (1989). The band achieved mainstream success in the mid-1990s, with La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One (1992) peaking at number 2 on the Heatseekers Albums chart in 1993 and was certified double-platinum by the RIAA in July 1998. White Zombie’s music videos were featured on Beavis and Butt-Head, helping to increase the band’s sales. Their 1995 follow-up Astro Creep: 2000 peaked at number 6 on the Billboard 200 and sold 104,000 copies in its first week of release; it was certified double-platinum by the RIAA. White Zombie’s song “More Human than Human” achieved mainstream success in 1995, peaking at number 53 on Billboard ’s Radio Songs chart, number 7 on the Alternative Songs chart, and number 10 on the Mainstream Rock Songs chart. The song was played frequently on MTV and won the Best Metal/Hard Rock Video award at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards. Venice crossover thrash band Excel’s second album The Joke’s on You (1989) took a more groove-driven direction. Far Out cited the introduction to the track “Tapping into the Emotional Void” as an early example of groove metal. Texas heavy metal band Pantera’s 1990 album Cowboys from Hell is often considered the album that codified and popularized groove metal. They continued releasing influential albums through the 1990s; the 1992 album Vulgar Display of Power featured an even heavier sound than its predecessor, while its follow-up Far Beyond Driven (1994) peaked at number 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 186,000 copies its first week of release. Thrash pioneers Metallica’s Black Album (1991) included multiple groove metal tracks, including “Sad but True” and “The Struggle Within”. Brazilian band Sepultura, previously established as having a deathrash sound, released their fifth studio album Chaos A.D. in 1993, which saw the band slow their tempos and embrace the influence of New York hardcore acts like the Cro-Mags, Agnostic Front and Sick of It All. Sound of the Beast author Ian Christe credited Chaos A.D. with helping to developing groove metal and as being widely influential. Machine Head released their debut album Burn My Eyes in 1994. The album helped the band achieve underground success and sold over 145,000 copies.

Group sounds

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

External links#

Cutie Morning Moon - Dedicated to Japanese 1960s garage punk
The Video Beat - What are the Group Sounds?
Showapop - Group Sounds Record & CD articles in English
Trans World ’60s Punk:Cutie Morning Moon - Provides Information Mostly About Garage Bands From Outside the United States

Grunge

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

Etymology#

The term “grunge” is American slang for “someone or something that is repugnant” and also for “dirt”. In 1988, it was first recorded as being applied to Seattle musicians in a Sub Pop mail order catalog, when Bruce Pavitt described Green River’s Dry as a Bone EP as “Gritty vocals, roaring Marshall amps. Ultra-loose GRUNGE that destroyed the morals of a generation”. Although the phrase “grunge” has been used to describe bands since the 1960s, this was the first association of grunge with the sound of a Seattle rock band. Nirvana’s frontman Kurt Cobain, in one of his final interviews, credited Jonathan Poneman, cofounder of Sub Pop, with coining the term “grunge” to describe the music. The term “Seattle sound” became a marketing ploy for the music industry. Seattle musician Jeff Stetson states that when he visited Seattle in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a touring musician, the local musicians did not refer to themselves as “grunge” performers or their style as “grunge” and they were not flattered that their music was being called “grunge”. Robert Loss acknowledges the challenges of defining “grunge”; he stated that, while he can recount stories about grunge, they do not serve to provide a useful definition. Roy Shuker states that the term “obscured a variety of styles.” Stetson states that prominent bands considered to be grunge (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Mudhoney and Hammerbox) all sound different.

Grungegaze

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

Etymology#

During the 2010s, Spotify had used the genre tag “dreamo” to describe the genre, which is a portmanteau of “emo” and “dream” (referencing its reverb-heavy guitars). “Grungegaze” was uncommon during this time. In 2021, Spotify began also tagging the genre as “grungegaze”, which was the common name by 2023. while in 2017 Vice Media had used it to refer to Goon.

Characteristics#

Grungegaze makes use of simple, heavy guitar riffs, thick guitar tones, hazey production and dynamics where verses are soft and choruses are loud. Clash writer Tom Morgan compared the genre’s lyrics to “teenage bedroom poetry”, noting them as “vague” and “undercooked”. Often, vocals are subdued in verses. It is rooted in soft grunge music and fourth-wave emo, incorporating grunge, shoegaze and alternative metal, and making use of emo-influenced melodies and harmonies. incorporating grunge’s energy, and shoegaze’s use of effects units. Everything Is Noise writer Carlos Vélez-Cancel called it “grunge and shoegaze-influenced alt rock”, noting it as caring more about “immersion”. Pittsburgh City Paper called it a fusion of “hardcore, metal, and alt-rock into a new idiom”, calling it a “genre-agnostic landscape”. Trblezine writer Tom Morgan called it “a blend of grunge and shoegaze with emo and hardcore elements thrown in”. Bands in the genre often use a visuals inspired by the Y2K aesthetic, particularly through VHS-inspired videography.

Grupera

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

History#

The original wave of Mexican rock bands got their start mostly with Spanish covers of popular English rock songs. After this initial stage, they moved on to include in their repertoire traditional ranchera songs, in addition to cumbias and ballads. Thus, the 1970s saw the rise of a number of grupera bands that specialized in romantic ballads and songs that up to that point had only been sung with mariachi. The name comes from the fact that many of the bands had names starting with (Group). Most of these groups had a rural origin and many previously played rock music. According to Madrid, cited by Rivera Godina, In the 1990s, the term grupero and its variations started to be part of Mexico’s music industry and began to receive media attention, and, as the first American artist popular on both sides of the border, Selena. The media industry popularized this term to generate products based on grupera, such as the radio station XEQR-FM, whose slogan was (savagely grupero), specialized magazines like Furia Musical and cable channels like Bandamax. Enterprises like Televisa included bands from the grupera wave like Bronco in telenovelas such as Dos mujeres, un camino. In the early 2000s, in Mexico the term Regional Mexican began to be used. Regional Mexican music had already been used for several years in the United States to refer homogeneously to the regional variations of rural Mexican music and avoid including tropical music artists under the label. Meanwhile, grupera came to refer specifically to the bands and solo artists that use electric guitars and basses, electronic keyboards and drums, but that played ballads, cumbias, rancheras, corridos, boleros and huapangos, with said genre being one of many styles under the Regional Mexican umbrella.

GR on Music Theory Print

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Etymology#

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Further reading#

External links#

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Groove metal

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Origins#

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See also#

External links#

Grunge

Etymology#

Grungegaze

Etymology#

Characteristics#

Grupera

History#