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One of the branches of alternative rock that emerged after the genre's absorption into the mainstream, adult alternative pop/rock is a smooth, melodic, radio-friendly style that packaged alternative's mellower side for wider consumption. Commercial viability is usually an important part of adult alternative pop/rock, but artists don't always aim for it -- their individual approaches may simply turn out to be compatible with the style's sensibility.
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 1800's, 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 1900's 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 then on, the blues continued to develop in new directions-particularly on electric instruments-or it has been preserved as an acoustic tradition.
Traditional pop or Classic pop or Standards music denotes, in general, Western (and particularly American) popular music that either wholly predates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s, or to any popular music which exists concurrently to rock and roll but originated in a time before the appearance of rock and roll, and its offshoots, as the dominant commercial music of the United States and Western culture.
The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Grand Funk Railroad and The Who began the practice of live performances for large audiences in stadiums and arenas. The growing popularity of metal and progressive rock led to more bands selling out large venues. Entertainment companies marketed a series of arena rock bands, such as Journey, Boston, Styx, REO Speedwagon, Heart, and Foreigner in the late 70s. Corporate rock has many of the same characteristics with respect to mega-sales of albums and superstar level bands. This music is frequently referred to a "classic rock" or sometimes "guitar rock".
Comedy records, unsurprisingly, are made to make you laugh. Since there are so many kinds of humor, there are a number of different comedy records, from straight standup and comedy sketches to song parodies. Comedy records haven't so much evolved as waxed and waned in popularity. During the '50s and '60s, before pop-rock completely dominated the marketplace, they were at their popular peak, but certain albums -- from Richard Pryor in the '70s to Eddie Murphy and Robin Williams in the '80s to Adam Sandler in the '90s -- tend to develop strong cult followings. Comedy records range from pleasant one-liners to bawdy stand-up, but they all have one thing in common -- they want to put a smile on your face.
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 many different styles, from the gritty sounds of honky tonk 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.
Dance music comes in many different forms, from disco to hip-hop. Though there have been various dance crazes throughout the history of popular music, Dance music became its own genre in the mid-'70s, as soul mutated into disco and whole clubs were devoted to dancing. In the late '70s, dance clubs played disco, but by the end of the decade, disco was mutating into a number of different genres. All of the genres were collected under the catch-all term "dance," though there were distinct differences between dance-pop, hip-hop, house, and techno, among other subgenres. What tied them all together was their emphasis on rhythm -- in each dance subgenre, from Disco to House to Rave, the beat is king.
A suitably vague term used to describe the emergence of electronic dance music increasingly geared to listening instead of strictly dancing, Electronica was first used in the title of a series of compilations (actually called New Electronica) spotlighting original sources of Detroit techno such as Juan Atkins and Underground Resistance alongside European artists who had gained much from the Motor City's futuristic vision for techno. The word was later appropriated by the American press as an easy catch-all for practically any young artist using electronic equipment and/or instruments, but electronica serves to describe techno-based music that can be used for home listening as well as on the dance floor (since many electronica artists are club DJs as well).
Each country has their own folk music, but the genre usually refers to American and British music that has been passed through the generations by oral tradition. It's simple, acoustic-based music that spins everyday events and common people into mythic status. Many traditional folksongs have no known author, they have simply evolved over the years. Most of the earliest recorded folk music was of this nature, but with Woody Guthrie, topical folk began making its way to record. Still, many artists, including the Weavers and Pete Seeger, chose to mix traditional songs with newer material, either written by the artists themselves or other contemporary musicians. Initially, Bob Dylan functioned in that style, but by his second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, he began relying entirely on original material, thereby ushering the modern era of folk, where most performers sang their own (usually personally and introspective) material, and only occasionally throwing in covers.
Gospel essentially breaks down into three separate categories. For many listeners, the word "gospel" conjures the sound of large African-American Southern gospel choirs, singing joyous songs of celebration. These grew out of traditional spirituals and would later evolve into close-knit, small combos that were the blueprint for doo-wop groups. Another style of gospel was country gospel, which sounded like traditional country with lyrics about God. These two forms -- along with blues gospel, which was never quite as widespread as country gospel -- provided part of the foundation of contemporary gospel and CCM (Contemporary Christian Music), which came into existence in the late '70s. The other part of CCM was soft rock and mainstream pop, which provided the sound of the genre. Throughout the '80s and '90s, CCM was the most popular style of gospel, since it sounded like mainstream pop, only with religious lyrics.
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, risky ventures 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 earthy grooves 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.
Latin music is a catch-all term for a number of diverse styles from different regions and countries in Latin America. Often, the term refers to Latin pop -- either dance-based or pop oriented-music sung in Spanish or Tejano. Tejano has a number of different styles, from romantic ballads to the narrative nortenos, and they're usually performed by large groups with acoustic instruments and horns. In the '80s and '90s, Tejano has also adopted smooth production techniques from American pop-rock and soft rock. Latin America is also known for such dance music as salsas and sambas, which have layers of percussion, blaring horns and an infectious sense of style. A related style to salsa is the bossa nova, a cool, laid-back style that crossed dance music with jazz. With the exception of tejano and mariachi, which is folk and pop based, most Latin music is defined by its strong rhythms.
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 sonic vibrations and "immaculately conceived" musical ideas.
Evolving out of jump blues in the late '40s, R&B laid the groundwork for rock & roll. R&B kept the tempo and the drive of jump blues, but its instrumentation was sparer and the emphasis was on the song, not improvisation. It was blues chord changes played with an insistent backbeat. During the '50s, R&B was dominated by vocalists like Ray Charles and Ruth Brown, as well as vocal groups like the Drifters and the Coasters. Eventually, R&B metamorphosed into soul, which was funkier and looser.
Hip hop music can be seen as a subgenre of R&B tradition. Hip hop culture, the movement from which the music came, began in inner cities in the US in the 1970s. The earliest recordings, from the late-1970s and early 1980s, are now referred to as old school hip hop. In the later part of the decade, regional styles developed. East Coast hip hop, based out of New York City, was by far the most popular as hip hop began to break into the mainstream. West Coast hip hop, based out of Los Angeles, was by far less popular until 1992, when Dr. Dre's The Chronic revolutionized the West Coast sound, using slow, stoned, lazy beats in what came to be called G Funk. Soon after, a host of other regional styles became popular, most notably Southern rap, based out of Atlanta and New Orleans, primarily. As hip hop became more popular in the mid-1990s, alternative hip hop gained in popularity among critics and long-time fans of the music.
Reggae-Pop has its foundation in reggae, but the music is tempered with strong, melodic hooks, commercial production, and a crossover sensibility. Sometimes, reggae-pop is performed by pop bands seeking to diversify their sounds, but more often it's played by reggae artists with a fondness for pop. During the '70s, such diverse rockers as Eric Clapton and the Clash experimented with reggae, and the entire 2-Tone ska revival movement of the early '80s was closely aligned with reggae. Nevertheless, it wasn't until the '80s -- when artists like UB40, Eddy Grant, and Maxi Priest all established a place for it on the charts -- that reggae-pop became part of the mass consciousness. Reggae-pop first surfaced in the mid-'80s, and flourished toward the end of the decade, as those previously mentioned artists had crossover hits. During the '90s, the style remained strong, even if there weren't as many crossover hits as there were in the late '80s and early '90s.
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 catchy hooks, but as the genre aged, it began to shed those very characteristics, placing equal emphasis on craftmanship 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, atonal white 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.
Most of the Third Wave of Ska Revival was based on Ska-Punk, a hybrid that took the 2-Tone movement of the early '80s as its starting point, and added the velocity and volume of hardcore punk for good measure. Throughout the late '80s, ska-punk was an underground phenomenon, with Fishbone being the only one of its practitioners to earn significant exposure. By the mid-'90s, ska-punk bands like Rancid had broken through into the alternative audience, and the Third Wave of Ska Revival -- which also included bands that leaned more toward metal than ska -- was on its way to becoming part of the mainstream.
Vocal music is a term describing classic mainstream American pop performed either by individual singers or vocal groups. Before rock & roll, pop vocalists didn't write their own material, they interpreted songs written by such professional songwriters as Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and Cole Porter. Often, they would sing these songs supported by an orchestra or a swinging big band. During the '30s and '40s, vocalists were the centerpiece of these big bands and such singers as Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra became huge stars, as did such groups as the Andrews Sisters. These vocal groups paved the way for the vocal groups of the '40s and '50s, who sang similar songs in similar styles, but tended toward lighter material. For the remainder of the century, vocalists continued to return to the traditional pop and showtunes for inspiration, and they often built upon the vocal innovations of such singers as Crosby, Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald and Mel Torme.
In the Western world, "World music" refers either to music that doesn't fall into the North American and British pop or folk traditions or to hybrids of various indigenous musics. Certain styles -- such as Jamaican reggae or Latin pop -- grew large enough to be classified as their own genre, but everything else, from traditional Chinese music to African folk, is classified as world music. Worldbeat is something different than world music, since it's usually the result of Western hybrids and fusions, yet it still falls under the world music umbrella because it borrows styles, sounds and instrumentation from various indigenous musics.