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Rock
Rock & Roll is often used as a generic
term, but its sound is rarely predictable. From the outset,
when the early rockers merged
country and blues, rock has been defined by its energy, rebellion
and catchyhooks,
but as the genre aged, it began to shed those very characteristics, placing
equal emphasis on craftsmanship
and pushing the boundaries of the music. As a result, everything from Chuck
Berry's pounding,
three-chord
rockers and the sweet harmonies of the Beatles to the soulful pleas
of Otis Redding and the jarring,
atonalwhite
noise of Sonic Youth has been categorized as "rock." That's accurate --
rock & roll had a specific sound and image for only a handful of years.
For most of its life, rock has been fragmented,
spinning
off new styles and variations every few years, from Brill Building Pop
and heavy metal to dance-pop and grunge.
And that's only natural for a genre that began its life as a fusion
of styles.
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COUNTRY
Country music is about tradition, yet its simple form lends itself to endless
variations on similar themes. Like blues -- the two genres often shared
themes, melodies and songs -- country is a simple music at its core.
Most of its songs are built around three chords
and a plain melody, but these forms are so basic, they allow for any different
styles, from the gritty
sounds of honkytonk
to the jazzy
improvisations
of Western Swing. Country music grew out of American Southern folk music,
both Appalachian
and blues, and old-time country was simple and folky,
with just guitars and fiddles.
As the genre
progressed, old time music evolved
into the rhythmic
guitar-and-fiddle driven traditional country that became the foundation
of modern country music, from honky tonk and Western Swing to the pop-oriented
Countrypolitan
and rock-inflected
Bakersfield Sound.
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JAZZ
Jazz has been called America's classical music, and for good reason. Along
with the blues, its forefather,
it is one of the first truly indigenous musics to develop in America, yet
its unpredictable, riskyventures
into improvisation gave it critical cache
with scholars that the blues lacked. At the outset,
jazz was dance music, performed by swinging big bands. Soon, the dance
elements faded into the background and improvisation became the key element
of the music. As the genre evolved, the music split into a number of different
styles, from the speedy, hard-hitting rhythms of be-bop
and the laid-back,
mellow
harmonies of cool jazz to the jittery,
atonal
forays
of free jazz and the earthygrooves
of soul jazz. What tied it all together was a foundation in the blues,
a reliance on group interplay
and unpredictable improvisation. Throughout
the years, and in all the different styles, those are the qualities that
defined jazz.
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BLUES
Blues is about tradition and personal expression. At its core,
the blues has remained the same since its inception.
Most blues feature simple, usually three-chord, progressions and have simple
structures that are open to endless improvisations,
both lyrical and musical. The blues grew out of African spirituals and
worksongs. In the late 1800s, southern African-Americans passed the songs
down orally, and they collided
with American folk and country from the Appalachians. New hybrids
appeared by each region,
but all of the recorded blues from the early 1900s are distinguished by
simple, rural-acoustic
guitars and pianos. After World War II, the blues began to fragment, with
some musicians holding on to acoustic traditions and others taking it to
jazzier territory. However, most bluesmen followed {$Muddy Waters}' lead
and played the blues on electric instruments. From that point on, the blues
continued to develop in new directions -- particularly on electric instruments
-- or it has been preserved
as an acoustic tradition.
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NEWAGE
Born from an aesthetic
that aims to induce
a sense of inner calm, new age music emerged from the meditational
and holistic
fields. Generally, these are harmonious and nonthreatening albums that
are allied
with new age philosophies encouraging spiritual transcendence
and physical healing. Some of these albums are artistically satisfying
as well as therapeutic.
Lesser musicians, however, often make ridiculous claims in the liner notes
as to their ability to catapult
listeners into advanced spiritual states through specially designed sonicvibrations
and "immaculately
conceived" musical ideas. ~ Linda Kohanov
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RAP
To the untrained ear, all rap and hip-hop
may sound the same, but there's a number of different levels in even the
simplest rap song. At its core, hip-hop is a post-modern musical genre
that deconstructs familiar sounds and songs, rebuilding them as entirely
new, unpredictable songs. Early rap records, commonly called "old school,"
were made by DJs scratching
records and playing drum loops,
with MCs rapping
over the resulting rhythms. As the genre progressed, hard-rock guitars
and hard-hitting beats were introduced by Run-D.M.C., the first hardcore
rap group, and the scratching techniques were replaced by sampling.
With their densecollages
of samples, beats and white noise, Public Enemy took sampling to the extreme,
and they helped introduce a social and political conscience
to hip-hop. That faded in the '90s, as gangsta
rap -- originally introduced by NWA, who used Public Enemy's sound as a
template--
became the dominant form. By the '90s, gangsta rap, which originally was
in direct opposition to such pop-oriented rappers as MC Hammer, had become
smoothed over and stylish, and consequently was more popular than ever,
as evidenced by the success of pop-gangsta Puff Daddy.
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REGGAE
Reggae is a music unique to Jamiaca,
but it ironically has its roots in New
Orleans R&B. Reggae's direct forefather is ska,
an uptempo, rhythmic variation based on the New Orleans R&B Jamaican
musicians heard broadcast from the US on their transistor radios. Relying
on skittering
guitar and syncopated
rhythms, ska was their interpretation of R&B and it was quite popular
in the early '60s. However, during one very hot summer, it was too hot
to either play or dance to ska, so the beat was slowed down and reggae
was born. Since then, reggae has proven to be as versatile
as the blues, as it lends itself to a number of interpretations, from the
melodic
rock steady of Alton Ellis and the rock and folk-influenced songwriting
of Bob Marley to the trippy,
near-psychedelic
soundscapes of dub artists like Lee "Scratch" Perry. It has crossed into
the mainstream through the bright, bouncy
"reggae sun splash"
festivals and pop-oriented bands like UB40, but more adventurous reggae
artists, such as Marley and Perry, have influenced countless reggae, folk,
rock and dance artists. Their contributions resonate
throughout popular music.
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This
article is a collage of brief introductions taken from All Music Guide.
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