31May
Lounge music is a form of music that was popular during the 1950’s and 1960’s and includes genres like easy listening, exotica, and space age pop. Its characteristic ranges from modern electronica with chillout influences to mellow instrumentals while maintaining its emphasis on space-age elements. Lounge music is designed to create the atmosphere of a totally alien place like an island paradise, a jungle, or outer space. The genre was revived during the early 1990’s by artists like Stereolab, Pink Martini, and Love Jones. In the year 2000, other artists took lounge music to whole new heights by mixing rock and pop.
30May
Hed Kandi is a music brand and a record label based in the UK that specializes in house music. It was established in 1999 by A&R man and DJ Mark Doyle and caters to a whole new generation of grown-up clubbers. Hed Kandi’s musical compilations also includes different genres of eclectic club compilations and individual artist albums. The Hed Kandi series of albums includes Back to Love, Beach House, Deeper, Disco Heaven, Disco Kandi, Hed Kandi the Mix, Nu Cool, Serve Chilled, Twisted Disco, Winter Chill, and Kandi Lounge.
25May
Brian Eno is an electronic music artist from the UK who is also known as the father of modern ambient music. With an art school background under his belt, he first rose to prominence during the 1970’s when he became the synth and keyboard player of glam rock band Roxy Music. When he left the band, he made his own rock albums before working on abstract soundscapes and and experimenting with ambient music. Since then he has created a dozen albums and collaborated with similar artists like John Cale and Robert Fripp. Brian Eno has also made musical collaborations with pop artists like David Bowie. He is also credited for introducing chance music to rock and pop.
20May
Aphex Twin is also known as Richard David James, a British electronic music artist who is considered to be the most influential and inventive of the genre. The name “Aphex Twin” is from a brand of audio signal processing equipment called Aphex Systems Limited and is used with permission as noted on the back sleeve of his Drukqs and Richard D. James albums. The word “twin” was placed in memory of his stillborn brother, who was also named Richard James. Aphex Twin began composing ambient techno music when he was 13 and has over a hundred hours of his early creations. His musical influences are avant garde artists like Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, and John Cage. He lives in Southeast London in a space that used to be the Bank of Cyprus.
15May
House music is disco music in a more evolved form. It retains the regular, heavy beats of disco but has more electronic elements like synthesized basses and drum machine rhythms. House music is based on songs and draws from a wide number of genres, including jazz, Latin, and reggae.
House music emerged in clubs in Chicago and Detroit during the early eighties and appealed to the poor, the young, and the gay community. House music can be both instrumental and vocal, though vocal house music is more of a call to dance than containing actual lyrics. For instance, “Everybody Dance Now” by C+C Music Factory is a popular, catchy house tune that doesn’t do more than get people dancing. House became more popular as mainstream artists like Madonna incorporated it in her album, Ray of Light, and gave it a more pop angle.
10May
Dark ambient music is experimentation on ambient music and makes use of ambient sounds to create a gloomy and unsettling soundscape. This type of music is often rhythmless or uses little or no beats, and may include a few noise effects and atonal synthesized washes.
One of the first dark ambient albums to come out was Brian Eno’s Ambient 4: On Land, the darkest of his ambient works. Although the album is mostly electronic, it also includes some acoustic sounds that are difficult to identify. The album is essentially a hodgepodge of mysterious sound effects that make you feel as though you were standing on a barren alien landscape. Other artists who experimented with dark ambient music is Richard James (Aphex Twin), Robert Rich, and Steve Roach.
05May
Trance music emerged in the early 90’s and became mainstream during the turn of the millenium. Essentially, it is a fusion of electronic dance and techno music characterized by repetitive rhythms and melodies with shifting sounds. Musicians usually make the repeating melodies more interesting by altering the filter cuffs on the synthesizers, changing the sound from dull to piercing and bright.
Trance music is one of the most popular forms of music that is truly electronic; it relies heavily on synthesizers, sequencers, and electronic effects to produce different sounds. The Roland TR 808, TR 909, and TB 303 are typically used in trance. Although these models are around 20 years old, newer drum machines and bass synths mimic their sounds. Other synthesizers are also combined to add variety and spice to the mix. Orchestral arrangements and computer treatments are also added to trance music to make the melodies more complex.
01May
New age music is designed to be contemplative and spiritual, and is great for reflection, resting, stretching, thinking, and reading. Unlike easy listening music, this genre is made specifically for more meditative tasks. New age music avoids harsh sounds, heavy rhythms, and complex melodies. The focus is not on the musician, but creating music that will meet the listener’s psychological needs.
New age came about when jazz and rock musicians experimented on genres and explored meditative music styles during the 60’s and 70’s. Today, acoustic and electronic musicians can be called new age artists. Although new age music can typically be used as background music, the best kind of new age music challenges the assumptions and stereotypes listeners have about this genre.
