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.
30Apr
A synthesizer is something that is used in techno music. It is an electronic instrument capable of creating a range of sounds by generating and combining signals of different frequencies. There are three main types of synthesizers which operate differently: analog, digital and software-based. Rather than creating direct sounds, synthesizers create electrical signals which are processed through headphones or a loudspeaker.
30Apr
Synthpop is a subgenre of New Wave music. In Synthpop, the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument that is used. It is associated with the era between the late 1970s and early to middle 1980s however it has continued to exist and develop even up to this day. The German group Kraftwerk and Japanese group Yellow Magic Orchestra are said to pioneer this style of music, however a lot other musicians have improved to the original style.
29Apr
Electro Funk or Electro is sometimes known as robot hip hop and electro hop. This is an electronic style of hip hop influenced by Kraftwerk and funk records. This is different from rap records of earlier times which were closer to disco music. Records in the genre have distinct electronic sounds and some words that are delivered mechanically and these are made to sound like a robot’s voice. This is accomplished through a vocoder or other electronic distortion.
29Apr
Ambient music is a musical genre where sound is more important than notes and is recognized by its environmental and atmospheric feel. The main effect of this kind of music is to drift in and out of the listener’s awareness. This genre came from early 20th century forms of “semi-audible music”, from Erik Satie’s impressionism, through Terry Riley and Philip Glass’ minimalism of concrete music and Brian Eno’s deliberate sub-audible approach. During later times, ambient music is applied to rhythmic music at raves and dance events.
29Apr
Trance is one of the many styles of electronic music. It is characterized by a tempo of between 130 and 160 BPM and features repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and down throughout a track. The style is derived from a combination of electronic music like techno and ambient music. The term is linked to the ability of a drum beat to induce altered states of consciousness, also known as trance. This can be understood as a form of club music and is played at nightclubs all over the planet.
28Apr
Music psychologists investigate all aspects of musical behavior by applying methods and knowledge from all aspects of psychology. Topics of study include for example:
* everyday music listening
* musical rituals and gatherings
* the specific skills and processes involved in learning a musical instrument or singing in a choir
* musical behaviors such as dancing and responding emotionally to music
* development of musical behaviours and abilities throughout the lifespan
* the role of music in forming personal and group identities
* preferences: the reasons why we like some kinds of music and not others
* the structures that we hear within music: melody, phrasing, harmony, tonality, rhythm, meter
* the psychological processes involved in musical performance
