Grunge
 |
| Grunge |
Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock genre and subculture that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American Pacific Northwest state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. The style became known as a hybrid of punk and metal.[6] The early grunge movement revolved around Seattle's independent record label Sub Pop and the region's underground music scene. The owners of Sub Pop marketed the style shrewdly and the media was encouraged to describe it as "grunge". By the early 1990s, its popularity had spread, with grunge bands appearing in California, then emerging in other parts of the United States and in Australia, building strong followings and signing major record deals.
Grunge was commercially successful in the early to mid-1990s, due to releases such as Nirvana's Nevermind, Pearl Jam's Ten, Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger, Alice in Chains' Dirt and Stone Temple Pilots' Core. The success of these bands boosted the popularity of alternative rock and made grunge the most popular form of rock music at the time.[7] Although most grunge bands had disbanded or faded from view by the late 1990s, they influenced modern rock music, as their lyrics brought socially conscious issues into pop culture[8] and added introspection and an exploration of what it means to be true to oneself.[9] Grunge was also an influence on later genres such as post-grunge (such as Creed and Nickelback) and nu metal such as Korn, Limp Bizkit and Slipknot.
Grunge fuses elements of punk rock[1] and heavy metal,[2] featuring the distorted electric guitar sound used in both genres, although some bands performed with more emphasis on one or the other. Like these genres, grunge typically uses electric guitar, bass guitar, drums and vocals. Grunge also incorporates influences from indie rock bands such as Sonic Youth. Lyrics are typically angst-filled and introspective, often addressing themes such as social alienation, self-doubt, abuse, neglect, betrayal, social and emotional isolation, psychological trauma and a desire for freedom.[10][11]A number of factors contributed to grunge's decline in prominence. During the mid-to-late 1990s, many grunge bands broke up or became less visible. Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, labeled by Time as "the John Lennon of the swinging Northwest," appeared unusually tortured by success and struggled with an addiction to heroin before his death at the age of 27 in 1994.
Riot grrrl
Riot grrrl is an underground feminist punk movement that began during the early 1990s within the United States in Olympia[1] ,Washington[2] and the greater Pacific Northwest. It also expanded to at least 26 other countries.[3] Riot grrrl is a subcultural movement that combines feminism, punk music and politics.[4] It is often associated with third-wave feminism, which is sometimes seen as having grown out of the riot grrrl movement, and has recently been seen in current fourth-wave feminist punk music.[5] It has also been described as a genre that came out of indie rock, with the punk scene serving as an inspiration for a movement in which women could express themselves in the same way men have been doing all along.[6]Riot grrrl bands often address issues such as rape, domestic abuse, sexuality, racism, patriarchy, classism, anarchism and female empowerment. Primary bands associated with the movement include Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Heavens to Betsy, Excuse 17, Huggy Bear, Skinned Teen, Emily's Sassy Lime and Sleater-Kinney, as well as queercore groups such as Team Dresch and the Third Sex.[7][8] In addition to a unique music scene and genre, riot grrrl became a subculture involving a DIY ethic, zines, art, political action and activism.[9] The movement quickly spread well beyond its musical roots to influence the vibrant zine and Internet-based nature of fourth-wave feminism, complete with local meetings and grassroots organizing to end intersectional forms of prejudice and oppression, especially physical and emotional violence against all genders.[10] Riot grrrls are known to hold meetings, start chapters,[3] and support and organize women in music[11] as well as art created by transgender people, gays and lesbians, and other oppressed communities.
Rave
By the 1990s, genres such as acid, breakbeat hardcore, hardcore, happy hardcore, gabber, post-industrial and electronica were all being featured at raves, both large and small. There were mainstream events which attracted thousands of people (up to 25,000[citation needed] instead of the 4,000 that came to earlier warehouse parties). Acid house music parties were first re-branded "rave parties" in the media, during the summer of 1989 by Genesis P-Orridge (Neil Andrew Megson) during a television interview; however, the ambience of the rave was not fully formed until the early 1990s. In 1990, raves were held "underground" in several cities, such as Berlin, Milan and Patras, in basements, warehouses and forests.[25]British politicians responded with hostility to the emerging rave party trend. Politicians spoke out against raves and began to fine promoters who held unauthorized parties. Police crackdowns on these often unauthorized parties drove the rave scene into the countryside. The word "rave" somehow caught on in the UK to describe common semi-spontaneous weekend parties occurring at various locations linked by the brand new M25 London orbital motorway that ringed London and the Home Counties. (It was this that gave the band Orbital their name.) These ranged from former warehouses and industrial sites in London, to fields and country clubs in the countryside.
Pop punk
In 1993, California's Green Day and Bad Religion were both signed to major labels, and by 1994, pop punk was quickly growing in mainstream popularity. Many punk rock and pop punk bands originated from the California punk scene of the late 1980s, and several of those bands, especially Green Day and The Offspring, helped revive interest in punk rock in the 1990s.[25]
Nu metal (sometimes stylized as nü-metal) is a subgenre of alternative metal that combines elements of heavy metal music with elements of other music genres such as hip hop, alternative rock, funk, industrial, and grunge. Nu metal bands have drawn elements and influences from a variety of musical styles, including multiple genres of heavy metal. Nu metal rarely features guitar solos; the genre is heavily syncopated and based on guitar riffs. Many nu metal guitarists use seven-string guitars that are down-tuned to play a heavier sound. DJs are occasionally featured in nu metal to provide instrumentation such as sampling, turntable scratching and electronic backgrounds. Vocal styles in nu metal include singing, rapping, screaming and growling. Nu metal is one of the key genres of the new wave of American heavy metal.Nu metal became popular in the late 1990s with bands and artists such as Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Kid Rock all releasing albums that sold millions of copies. Nu metal's popularity continued during the early 2000s, with bands such as Papa Roach, Staind, and P.O.D. all selling multi-platinum albums, and came to a peak with Linkin Park's diamond-selling album Hybrid Theory. However, by the mid-2000s, the oversaturation of bands combined with the under-performance of a number of high-profile releases led to nu metal's decline, leading to the rise of metalcore and many nu metal bands disbanding or abandoning their established sound in favor of other genres.
Hip hop's "golden age" (or "golden era") is a name given to a period in mainstream hip hop, produced between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s,[113][114][115] which is characterized by its diversity, quality, innovation and influence.[116][117] There were strong themes of Afrocentrism and political militancy in golden age hip hop lyrics. The music was experimental and the sampling drew on eclectic sources.[118] There was often a strong jazz influence in the music. The artists and teams most often associated with this phase are Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, Eric B. & Rakim, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Gang Starr, Big Daddy Kane and the Jungle Brothers.[119]The golden age is noted for its innovation – a time "when it seemed that every new single reinvented the genre"[120] according to Rolling Stone. Referring to "hip-hop in its golden age",[121] Spin's editor-in-chief Sia Michel says, "there were so many important, groundbreaking albums coming out right about that time",[121] and MTV's Sway Calloway adds: "The thing that made that era so great is that nothing was contrived. Everything was still being discovered and everything was still innovative and new".[122] Writer William Jelani Cobb says "what made the era they inaugurated worthy of the term golden was the sheer number of stylistic innovations that came into existence... in these golden years, a critical mass of mic prodigies were literally creating themselves and their art form at the same time".[123] Carl Stoffers of New York Daily News describes the golden age as "spanning from approximately 1986 to 1997."[113] In their article "In Search of the Golden Age Hip-Hop Sound", music theorists Ben Duinker and Denis Martin of Empirical Musicology Review use "the 11 years between and including 1986 and 1996 as chronological boundaries" to define the golden age, beginning with the releases of Run-DMC's Raising Hell and the Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill and ending the deaths of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G..[115]
Gangsta rap
Gangsta rap or gangster rap (also referred to as reality rap by its performers)[2] is a style of hip hop music whose themes and lyrics primarily deal with the gangster lifestyle. The genre evolved from hardcore rap into a distinct form, pioneered in the mid-1980s by rappers such as Ice-T and popularized in the later part of the 1980s by rap groups like N.W.A.[3] After the national attention that Ice-T and N.W.A attracted in form of hip hop, soon became the most commercially lucrative subgenre of hip hop. Many gangsta rap artists openly boast of their associations with various active street gangs as part of their artistic image, with the Crips and Bloods being the most commonly represented.[4]
Groove metal
Groove metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music that began in the early 1990s. The genre achieved mainstream success in the 1990s and continued having some more success in the 2000s. Inspired by thrash metal and traditional heavy metal, groove metal features raspy singing and screaming, down-tuned guitars, heavy guitar riffs, and syncopated rhythms. Unlike thrash metal, groove metal is usually slower and also uses elements of traditional heavy metal. Pantera are often considered the pioneers of groove metal, and groove metal expanded in the 1990s with bands like White Zombie, Machine Head, Skinlab, and Sepultura. The genre continued in the 2000s with bands like Lamb of God, DevilDriver, Damageplan, Five Finger Death Punch and Hellyeah.
Madchester
Madchester is a musical and cultural scene that developed in the English city of Manchester in the late 1980s. It saw artists merging alternative rock with elements of acid house, rave music, psychedelia[1] and 1960s pop.[2] The label was popularised by the British music press in the early 1990s,[3] and its most famous groups include the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets, the Charlatans, James and 808 State. It is widely seen as being heavily influenced by drugs, especially MDMA. At that time, the Haçienda nightclub, co-owned by members of New Order, was a major catalyst for the distinctive musical ethos in the city that was called the Second Summer of Love.[4]
Shoegazing
Shoegazing (or shoegaze, initially referred to as "dream pop")[2][11][12] is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock that emerged in the United Kingdom in the late 1980s.[1][2] It is characterized by its ethereal-sounding mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volume.[1][12] The term shoegazing was coined by the British music press to describe the stage presence of a wave of neo-psychedelic groups[2] who stood still during live performances in a detached, introspective, non-confrontational state with their heads down.[1][13] This was because the heavy use of effects pedals meant the performers were often looking down at the readouts on their pedals during concerts.[14]Most shoegazing artists drew from the glide guitar template set by My Bloody Valentine on their early EPs and album Isn't Anything from the late 1980s.[1] A loose label given to the shoegazing bands and other affiliated bands in London in the early 1990s was The Scene That Celebrates Itself. In the early 1990s, shoegazing groups were pushed aside by the American grunge movement and early Britpop acts such as Suede, forcing the relatively unknown bands to break up or reinvent their style altogether.[1] In the 2000s, there was renewed interest in the genre among "Nu gaze" bands.
Britpop
Britpop was a mid-1990s UK-based music and culture movement that emphasised Britishness. It produced brighter, catchier alternative rock, partly in reaction to the popularity of the darker lyrical themes of the US-led grunge music and to the UK's own shoegazing music scene. The movement brought British alternative rock into the mainstream and formed the backbone of a larger British popular cultural movement, Cool Britannia, which evoked the Swinging Sixties and the British guitar pop of that decade.Britpop was a media-driven focus on bands which emerged from the independent music scene of the early 1990s. Although the term was viewed as a marketing tool, and more of a cultural moment than a musical style or genre, its associated bands typically drew from the British pop music of the 1960s, glam rock and punk rock of the 1970s and indie pop of the 1980s.The most successful bands linked with Britpop were Blur, Oasis, Suede and Pulp, known as the movement's "big four", although Suede and Pulp distanced themselves from the term. The timespan of Britpop is generally considered to be 1993–1997, and its peak years to be 1994–1995. A chart battle between Blur and Oasis (dubbed "The Battle of Britpop") brought the movement to the forefront of the British press in 1995. While music was the main focus, fashion, art, and politics also got involved, with Tony Blair and New Labour aligning themselves with the movement.During the final years of the 1990s, many Britpop acts began to falter commercially or break up, or otherwise moved towards new genres or styles. Commercially, Britpop lost out to teen pop, led by acts such as The Spice Girls, Westlife and Britney Spears, while artistically it segued into a post-Britpop indie movement characterized by bands such as Travis, Snow Patrol and Coldplay.
Links
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments welcome