It should not come by any surprise that when you search the genre “indie” on applications like Pandora or Spotify, sites that allow for endless amounts of personalized radio stations, you get numerous premade stations. During its origin, the term “indie” was just used to differentiate between mainstream and independent artists. The emphasis of independence was solely of music labels and because of this it left room for confusion. When discussed in present day, the term still simply categorizes music that is “not under practices” and “creative control” from large musical corporations (Novara and Henry 816). As a term it quickly began to lose its initial meaning and significance because so many people began to associate it with certain sounds …show more content…
Novara and Henry argue that its “independence from major labels is of fundamental importance” for the genre however it goes beyond this vague definition, “this factor alone is not enough”. Among many characteristics, according to Novara and Henry, are a “careful balancing of pop accessibility with noise, a “manipulation of pop”, honest and thought “sensitive lyrics”. They all form part of a “shared pool” of characteristics that represent the genre. To produce music under these settings is a small part of the recipe for indie rock (Novara and Henry …show more content…
When using the term in areas of most commercial success, like the United States and the United Kingdom, if differs greatly as its histories are different. For example, the United Kingdom has music charts for independent music which differentiates it from the United States. This however has caused an even bigger confusion because people associate the music of early 80s in these musical charts to indie. Because of so much confusion, the prominent bands and artists of indie rock, are very different. In the beginning, groups like Echo and the Bunnymen were well known, but now bands like Florence + the Machine and Franz Ferdinand are on the charts. Their music are both classified as indie rock, yet their signature sounds vary drastically. A lot of these changes were caused by time but the bigger reason is that indie artists are not tied down, they try new things. Recently however, these bands or artists, like Florence + the Machine, have begun to receive some commercial success on outlets like mainstream television and have exposed this genre to many. The song “Cosmic Love” alone has made appearances on various TV series and blockbuster movies; MTV’s Catfish, Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, and The Fault in our stars. However neither artist nor band, can really epitomize all of the characteristics that make indie rock. They develop their sound, and a lot of times reject
EDM is brought up in debates solely out of the traditional view of EDM vs. the hybrids and subgenres that emerged from the EDM movement stemming from the late 80s. Traditional listeners remember when electronics came about, and the rest in the present defend the latest as their own. The popularity in recent years is contributed by artists mostly underground to be noticed again, and artists becoming more prominent in their fields, as well as more fans (both those who have known about electronic music and others who have but never listened). For example, the groups Daft Punk, and The Ting Tings, two bands under the same general EDM, but different subgenres. One is extremely well-known and recently released a new album, Daft Punk is more popular than ever, and the other is a band that initially flopped and found some success presently.
I now know that there is not a secret handshake that gets a person into the indie rock scene. Nor is there a panel of ultra-cool guardians hiding out in rock clubs deciding who's in and who's out. There is merely a certain type of literacy that one eventually picks up if one observes and listens and lets oneself become part of the scene. Just like any other kind of literacy, nobody is born with it, it needs to be learned.
Another reason why classic rock is the best is because you had to be talented to become famous. If you are vocally or musically talented now you have to be physically attractive to make it big. Now if you are pretty and have no musical talent you can throw in a lot of autotune and be “talented”. For example Steven Tyler, he was never really a attractive guy. He couldn’t just wake up one day and be pretty. He made it big for his talent. Same thing with the lead singer of Nirvana, Kurt Cobain. If you’re not attractive you might as well kiss your talent goodbye and find something else to do with your
The American rock band Nirvana impacted American culture and society by paving the way for the punk rock subculture into mainstream corporate America. Punk rock music stems from the rock genre but has its own agenda. The crux of punk rock is that it is a movement of the counterculture against the norms of society. Punk rock in itself is made up of a subculture of people who rejected the tameness of rock and roll music during the 1970s. (Masar, 2006, p. 8). The music stresses anti-establishment and anti-authoritarian ideas in its lyrics as well as scorns political idealism in American society. Before Nirvana unintentionally made punk rock a multi-million dollar commercialized genre of music, underground rock paved the way for the punk rock genre by creating core values that punk rockers drew upon.
In conclusion I feel authenticity in rock music has a huge part to play and although it is a very snobby culture of "we will like you until we've had enough" its still personal to every person and they have a choice to decide who fits into their perfect music world.
Punk music is usually defined by power chords, raw vocals and high energy performance. Punk rock is the best music ever created. It is, in short, a thinking man’s rock music. And to some, it’s like God himself ordained punk rock as His preferred music of choice. Why? Because it’s just that good. Hundreds of faithful teens and twenty-something adults pack themselves into basements shows like sardines in a tin, just to have their holy gospel delivered to them by guys with names like “Johnny Rotten,” “Justin Sane” or “Davey Havok.” Punk rock is the best musical style for numerous reasons. The reasons might seem simple, but the difference between punk and mainstream music is that punk is just better. It’s clever, thoughtful and passionate. On the other hand, Brittany Spears and the rest of the MTV pop brigade are just dull, witless morons trying to see who can be the biggest whore on television.
This paper is an analysis of the grunge movement, an exploration into genre classification, audience and artist identity and how it is related to media and cultural capital. This paper will also highlight the vast difference between literary perception of the movement (analysis and articles written about grunge) versus the perception of inhabitants of Seattle that witnessed the grunge movement as it happened (extracted from interviews in the grunge documentary, Hype!).
What he means by this is that we do not base our opinions on music being authentic but rather if the person behind it is authentic in the eyes of the public. Society wants to be able to relate to an artist as another ordinary human and because of this, authenticity can be a marketable trait that can be paramount in the success of a performer. This idea is also echoed throughout ‘Living underground is tough’ Solomon (2005) and ‘Reality Goes Pop!’ Holmes (2004). This review will compare and contrast between the articles, analysing the methodology behind each and
2. What is the difference between a.. Describe the “rockabilly” sound pioneered by Sun Records in the mid-1950s. The term rockabilly has been used to describe a type of music that was very unique and without a doubt one of the most influential genres of music in the development of rock and roll. Dating back to the 1950’s, Rockabilly was a new and interesting form of music.
By the late ‘70s, punk had finished and become an amazing genre with a following triple the size from when it was just garage musicians. Becoming the solid musical force no one in that time saw coming. With this rise in popularity comes many sub-genres of punk. New musicians embraced the DIY movement and began to create their own individual scenes with specific sounds.
Rock music is a term that should be familiar. Originally dubbed “rock and roll” in the 1940’s and 1950’s, rock and roll is almost always fronted by an electrical guitar and heavily influenced by blues, R&B, and even country music. By the late 1960’s and early 1970’s rock and roll began to be shortened to just “rock music”, and the entire style starting branching out into other sub-genres such as punk rock, heavy metal, garage rock, hard rock, among others. The sub-genre in question however is Alternative Rock, which is generally defined as despite following the fundamentals of rock music, it strays away from what is considered “mainstream” at the time by using concepts such as extensive underground music association, muddied or distorted guitars, more prominent use of power chords, and even a sort of rebellious or defiant attitude in lyrics and sound.
In rock music its target audience is the youth. And by youth I am not referring to teenagers, but instead to the mentality of youth, the adults and teens still in the sociological stage between being a ‘kid’ and accepting the responsibilities of ‘adulthood’ [Weinstein pg6] These youth negotiate the genre and change it to their liking. For example both males and females have different subgenres of rock targeted specifically at them. Males are seen from a young age as being naughty and rowdy, not very responsible and thus given more freedom. While girls are seen as quiet and polite, with very low aggression. These traits have reflected in the genres that are targeted at the two genders. Males were targeted with Heavy Metal as it expressed the qualities the very qualities they will have to give up in order to become adults and how they will lose their freedom. While for females rock music is soft and romantic, females will typically grow up faster than males and leave youth behind in order to take up responsibilities. An example of how the music was negotiated to fit the two genders is seem in the 1960s when performers such as Carole king and James Taylor transformed themes of protest into sentimental commentaries, romance and illusions of youth. [Weinstein pg 12-13] While heavy metal bands such as Black Sabbath sung about politicians and how disgusting they are for exploiting young people in the name of greed which is shown in the song Wicked World. This very characteristic of rock being created by the youth for the youth is still alive today, for example during the 2004 presidential election Green Day released American Idiot. The song was about how the media and political are brainwashing Americans to remove their individuality. The singer wanted to warn America of this and prevent them from turning into ‘idiots’ and
...congregations of grunge believers. This is where the most amateur alternative bands debut and discover their little local fame. Obviously, most of them don’t make it to the top. Our society is still very commercially oriented and the grunge phenomenon is not as large as to promote all but very few bands to be the representatives of the movement.
The record labels in the industry select what music they think people want to hear, and they try to sell the music. Although a lot of times the artists the labels push are not successful, there are also times where they succeed. Art...
During the Romantic period, poetry was a release of energy that was captured by experimentation and creative power. William Wordsworth, who was a famous poet of the time, published the poem The world is too much with us which expressed his opinion of the social, moral and ethical issues that were prevalent during the Romantic era. Wordsworth used his poem The world is too much with us to inform the reader of his view that humanity must get in touch with nature to progress spiritually. The Romantic era (1785-1830) was a period dominated by a number of historical events including the French revolution (1785) and the declaration of the rights of man, as well as urbanisation and enclosure, industrialisation and invention.