LO on Music Theory Print

Lo-fi music

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

Evolution of the term and its scope#

Lo-fi is the opposite of high fidelity, or “hi-fi”. and ran during a thirty-minute prime time evening slot every Friday. In the fall 1986 issue of the WFMU magazine LCD, the program was described as “home recordings produced on inexpensive equipment. Technical primitivism coupled with brilliance.” A third definition was added to the Oxford Dictionary in 2008: “unpolished, amateurish, or technologically unsophisticated, esp. as a deliberate aesthetic choice.” In 2017, About.coms Anthony Carew argued that the term “lo-fi” had been commonly misused as a synonym for “warm” or “punchy” when it should be reserved for music that “sounds like it’s recorded onto a broken answering-machine”.

Lofi hip-hop

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

Characteristics#

Lofi hip-hop, or chillhop, uses “downtempo, fuzzed-out atmospheric beats” along with samples from sources like retro video games, old cartoons, self-help tapes and public access television.

Etymology#

The genre name originates from the low fidelity (“lo-fi”) aesthetic of the music, which tends to be deliberately less “polished” than high fidelity (“hi-fi”) music and features audio imperfections, distorted sound quality, and less professional audio equipment. The 2004 MF Doom and Madlib album Madvillainy is regarded as a “shared touchstone” for lo-fi hip-hop. is also credited with driving lofi’s growth with his contributions to the soundtrack for the popular anime Samurai Champloo. Another artist also often associated with the development of lofi is US rapper and producer J Dilla.

Loft jazz

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

Recordings#

A series of five LPs known as Wildflowers: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions was released on Casablanca Records in 1976, documenting sessions hosted by Sam Rivers at Studio Rivbea. The recordings were reissued on CD in 1999.

External links#

Sam Rivers/Studio RivBea Website

Long song

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

Description#

The Mongolian long song folk music tradition has ties to other national traditions and customs, including Mongolian history, culture, aesthetics, ethics and philosophy. The main feature of the long song is the shuranhai (prolonged, tenuto notes with deeply modulated vibrato on the vowels). The Mongol aizam long songs are ancient grand songs that possess extensively broad vocal diapason and diverse vocal movement techniques, elaborate singing elements and vocal improvisations such as dan (single) and davkhar (double) shurankhai (tenuto notes with deeply modulated vibrato on the vowels), nugalaa (sharp notes modulated in lower pitch), various vocal ‘soothing’ long-drawns, upward and downward usrelt (tone leaps or sudden transmission to higher or lower tones), tsokhilgo (vocal modulated pulsation), tsatslaga (sprinkling), khayalga (bestrewing or free improvised tone), shigshree (sifting or repeated vocal vibration) and other unique singing techniques. These features give the long song profound philosophical, meditational character, often depicting the spacious mountain valleys and a sense of tranquility, believed to represent the Mongolian soul. Three major styles are identified in long songs: besreg urtyn duu (“minor long song”), suman urtyn duu (“ordinary long song”) and aizam urtyn duu (“major’ or majestic long songs”). Again, the styles reflect the way of the performance of the shuranhai and other techniques rather than the lengths of the songs. The word ‘Aizam’ comes from the non-lexical vocable of ‘Aya, zee khu’ at the beginning of the grand long song, which features a broad melody with a context of philosophical theme, ceremony and quality of ode, honor, respect or solemnity. The aizam grand long songs are sung in a sequence at the beginning of a ceremony or feast, in accordance with the special ceremonial rules, and constitute the summit of the long songs which test the skills and capability of the singer and morin khuur (horse-headed fiddle) player.

Lostwave

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

History#

Lostwave gained prominence from two sources. The first was the search for “Ready ’n’ Steady”, a song that briefly appeared on the ‘bubbling under’ addendum to the Billboard Hot 100 and was noted by musical historians and collectors as seemingly not existing anywhere. Decades of searching and speculations of it being a copyright trap ended when the song was found in 2016. The second was with the search for “The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet”, recorded from the German radio station Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) in the mid-1980s, likely in or after 1984, by Darius S. In 2007, Darius’ sister, Lydia H., uploaded the song to best-of-80s.de and The Spirit of Radio, sparking widespread interest across various Internet forums. In 2024, the song was identified as “Subways of Your Mind” by German new wave band Fex. With other examples of lostwave appearing online, a Reddit community of the same name was created in 2019 to distinguish it from the search for “The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet” and bring more attention to the topic. This was the first usage of the term ’lostwave’, which uses the same naming format which stems from “new wave”, similar to internet microgenres, such as vaporwave and chillwave.

Louisiana blues

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

New Orleans blues#

The blues that developed in the 1940s and 1950s in and around the city of New Orleans was strongly influenced by jazz and incorporated Caribbean influences, it is dominated by piano and saxophone but has also produced major guitar bluesmen. Major figures in the genre include Professor Longhair and Guitar Slim, who both produced major regional, national R&B chart and even mainstream hits.

Swamp blues#

Swamp blues developed around Baton Rouge in the 1950s and which reached a peak of popularity in the 1960s. It generally has a slow tempo and incorporates influences from other genres of music, particularly the regional styles of zydeco and Cajun music. Its most successful proponents included Slim Harpo and Lightnin’ Slim, who enjoyed a number of rhythm and blues and national hits and whose work was frequently covered by bands of the British Invasion.

Lounge music

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

Retrospective usage#

Exotica, space age pop, and some forms of easy listening music popular during the 1950s and 1960s are now broadly termed “lounge”. The term “lounge” does not appear in textual documentation of the period, such as Billboard magazine or long playing album covers, but has been retroactively applied. While rock and roll was generally influenced by blues and country, lounge music was derived from jazz and other musical elements borrowed from traditions around the world. Exotica from such artists as Les Baxter, Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman, and The Three Suns sold millions of records during its heyday. It combined music that was popular outside the United States, such as various Latin genres (e.g., bossa nova, cha-cha-cha, mambo as in Cal Tjader’s fine Latin jazz efforts), Polynesian, French, etc. into a relaxed, palatable sound. Such music could have some instruments exaggerated (e.g., a Polynesian song might have an exotic percussion arrangement using bongos, and vocalists imitating wild animals). Many of these recordings were portrayed as originating in exotic foreign lands, but in truth were recorded in Hollywood recording studios by veteran session musicians. Another genre, space age pop, mimicked space age sound effects of the time and reflected the public interest in space exploration. With the advent of stereophonic technology, artists such as Esquivel used spatial audio techniques to full effect, creating whooshing sounds with his orchestra. A good deal of lounge music was pure instrumental (i.e., no main vocal part, although there could be minor vocal parts). Sometimes, this music would be theme music from movies or TV shows, although such music could be produced independently from other entertainment productions. These instrumentals could be produced with an orchestral arrangement, or from an arrangement of instruments very similar to that found in jazz, or even rock and roll such as the Hammond organ or electric guitar.

Love song

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

History#

Love songs have existed for many years and can be found in the histories and cultures of most societies, though their ubiquity is a modern phenomenon. The oldest known love song is the love song of Shu-Sin, which was discovered in the library of Ashurbanipal in Mesopotamia. It was about both romantic and erotic love. Prior to the discovery of the love song of Shu-Sin, Solomon’s Song of Songs from the Bible was considered the oldest love song.

Lovers rock

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

History#

The roots of lovers rock lie in the last days of the rocksteady era and early days of reggae, with Jamaican and American singers such as Ken Boothe, Johnny Nash and John Holt enjoying international hits with versions of well-known love songs. A style suited to the London reggae scene, lovers rock represented an apolitical counterpoint to the conscious Rastafarian sound dominant in Jamaica at the time, a continuation of the soulful and commonly love-themed rocksteady style, based on singers like Alton Ellis, who were not very optimistic about the rise of Rastafarian reggae. Rooted in the sound systems of South London, the style had particular appeal amongst women and produced many female stars including Carroll Thompson. Louisa Mark was aged 14 when she had a major lovers rock hit with her version of Robert Parker’s “Caught You in a Lie” in 1975. This spawned the distinctive young girl female sound associated with early lovers rock. Simplicity formed in 1975 and released their first hit “To Be in Love” produced by Coxson; the B-side was the Emotions’ US R&B song, “A Feeling Is a Feeling”. They were headhunted by Neville King who produced their UK reggae chart hit “Black Is Our Colour”. This was followed by the husband and wife production team of Dennis and Eve Harris who then had a big hit with T.T. Ross’s “Last Date”. Dennis Harris then set up a new record label, Lover’s Rock, at his South East London Studio on Upper Brockley Road along with John Kpiaye and Dennis Bovell, which gave the new genre a name. Beres Hammond, Horace Andy, Kofi, Sanchez, Samantha Rose, and Marcia Aitken. Maxi Priest gained lovers rock hits such as “Wild World”(1988) and “Close to You”(1990). Seminal punk/rock/ska/reggae crossover band the Clash popularised the term, introducing it to a wider mainstream audience, by including a song called “Lover’s Rock” on their 1979 signature double LP, London Calling. The popularity of lovers rock continued through the next decade. In the 1980s, the Fashion label was successful with UK audiences, and the Revue label had a chart-topper in 1986 with Boris Gardiner’s “I Wanna Wake Up with You”. In the 1990s, artists such as Mike Anthony, Peter Hunnigale and Donna Marie enjoyed success with the genre, and several British stars performed at Reggae Sunsplash.

Lowend

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

Characteristics#

Lowend is defined primarily by a steady, metronome-like rhythm of synthesized eighth note handclaps, as well as snares on the first and third counts of its beats, rumbling bass, fast tempos, and brief runtimes, typically not exceeding two minutes in length. Lowend beats are also known for being danceable and relatively minimalistic, while lyrics in lowend songs generally focus on partying, twerking, and cars. It takes influence from other hip-hop genres such as bounce, ratchet, hyphy, and twerk music.