1. Grandmaster Flash - The Message
The Message is a hip hop song by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. It was released as a single on Sugar Hill Records in 1982 and went platinum in under a month. It is thought of as one of the original hip hop records and is often regarded as the best hip hop record ever made.
Although it was not the first rap song to talk about the struggles of ghetto life, it was slower and more focused on lyrics which made it such a socio-politically important song. The song was written and performed by Sugar Hill session musician Ed Fletcher and Furious Five MC Melle Mel.
Grandmaster Flash was a pioneer of the hip hop movement and is credited for many innovative DJ techniques such as extending breaks using two copies of the same record, using volume faders on a mixer to accentuate certain melodies and rhythms, and scratching. Although he is not credited with the invention of scratching records, he definitely perfected it and developed it as a way to create new music from existing songs. The turntable had a massive technological impact upon hip hop music and Grandmaster Flash used it to create new music and bring this new music to a much wider audience. Through his music he was able to demonstrate the social inequalities that he and other hip hop musicians were experiencing in their day to day life.
2. The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony
Bittersweet Symphony is a song by The Verve which was released in 1997 and reached number 2 on the UK singles chart. It used the new technology available to sample the Andrew Oldham Orchestra recording of The Rolling Stones' song ‘The Last Time’.
After its release it stirred up great controversy and financial disagreements with the original owners of the music which had been sampled. Although The Verve had reached an agreement with the owners of the song, after the release the owner argued that the Verve had used 'too much' of the sample and won in court.
The songwriting credits ended up going to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and the copyright of the song belongs to ABKCO Records, a record company which own all of The Rolling Stones’ song rights from the 1960s.
This was the first financial case of its type and marked a new era in music technology. It brought about great debate as to who actually owned the song as The Verve had added other parts and used original lyrics. Since then sampling has been used extensively in many genres of popular music.
3. Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
Crazy was a song by Gnarls Barkley, the collaboration of multi-instrumentalist/producer Danger Mouse and vocalist Cee-Lo. It was released in 2006 after much radio play in 2005, and became the first song to show the power of digital downloads in the music industry. After its release as a digital download in the UK, the song debuted at number one on the UK Official download chart. The song then went straight to number one on the UK singles chart, due to the rules that digital downloads will be counted if the CD had not yet been released. The song sold over 31,000 downloads in a week and demonstrated the potential power of digital downloads as a source of income for the music industry. It also showed the shift in preference by music consumers from CDs and other physical media to the digital domain of MP3s.
4. Doobie Brothers – Long Train Running
Long Train Running was a funk song written and performed by the Doobie Brothers in 1973. It took influence from the 1960s funk style and was composed through a series of live jams with a very organic feel.
Almost twenty years later in the 1990s, the song was covered by girl group Bananarama in 1991 and remixed in 1993. The remixed version became very popular in the dance music/club scene and showed that a remix is a powerful form of popular song. It also reflected and capitalised upon the ideology of hip hop, by recycling existing music and bringing it back into the modern eye with a new feel. The original funk style fit well with the new disco vibe and revived the attraction of funk music in the 1990s pop/dance scene.
Although the remix was an electronic take on an organic funk song, it showed the potential of electronic composition as a competitor to acoustic and live instrumentation in the 1990s popular music climate. This attitude towards electronic music led to the fast development of dance music throughout the 1990s and 2000s.
Thursday, 13 May 2010
Thursday, 11 March 2010
Trip Hop in the 1990s
Trip hop is a musical genre which was created in Bristol, UK in the early 1990s. It fuses elements of hip hop and house music to create a downtempo electronica style. Although hip hop and house are the obvious influences, trip hop has also been influenced by the wide range of music and culture available in Bristol such as reggae, punk, techno, acid jazz and soul.
As American hip hop began to achieve more and more mainstream popularity, its influence spread from the USA to the rest of the world and Bristol was massively influenced by hip hop due to its association with black culture. Bristol had been used as a port during the slave trade and so had a large black population of African and Caribbean descent. Trip hop was not exclusive to any race however, due to the wide range of influences and its association with rave culture it attracted students, bohemians and fans of electronica, dub and many more genres which were thriving in Bristol.
Originally DJs and producers began creating trip hop to play at after parties of rave nights, for people who had been up and dancing all night to relax. In a similar way to that of rave culture, trip hop became associated with drug use which was common at raves in 1990s Britain. Where rave culture became associated with ecstasy, trip hop became associated with smoking cannabis and chilling out hence the term ‘trip’ hop. Similar to hip hop, the tempo of trip hop is often between 65bpm and 90bpm.
Trip hop production relies heavily on sampling and looping in a similar way to hip hop. Often trip hop producers sample single drum hits and then re use them to create new beats and rhythms – this gives trip hop an interesting mix of organic drum sounds and electronic sequencing. Trip hop often also incorporates hip hop stylistic elements such as record scratching and sample looping.
One of the main differences between trip hop and hip hop is melodic content – hip hop vocals rely on the rap style of fast rhythmic chatter, however trip hop vocals are often long melodic female vocal lines, complimented with orchestral sections such as strings and brass.
Trip hop also draw influence from dub music, a genre which involves experimental instrumental versions of reggae songs. Artist such as Lee Perry pioneered dub with a strange, eccentric style which definitely rubbed off on trip hop. Influences from dub can be heard in the spacious feel of trip hop and slow, laid back downtempo style. Also the heavily shuffled rhythms of dub with plenty of percussion can be heard a lot in trip hop.
The use of deep dubby basslines and spacious reverb and echo effects can be heard in Massive Attacks ‘Karmacoma’:
The use of samples from different records such as jazz, reggae and hip hop records is often used to create textures and build songs in trip hop, alongside drum sampling/programming and sometimes vocal lines and/or orchestral instruments. Portishead were known to layer samples from 60s and 70s records with their vocalist to create a unique sound. Because of the heavy use of sampling in trip hop, the music industry has had to reconsider the way samples are cleared for use and allowed in songs.
Trip hop production is often very lo-fi, with many sounds being made by using lo-fi equipment such as turntables and old records. This gives it an organic and ‘real’ sound which was not present in most electronica due to the use of computer sequencing and drum machines/synthesisers etc. Trip hop artists were known to record to tape and then to their computer, to get a grittier sound. The vinyl crackle was a common sound in trip hop and can be distinctively heard in Massive Attack’s ‘Teardrops’:
Elements of jazz drumming can be seen in the drum programming of a lot of trip hop, using samples of drums played with brushes and rimshots etc. Swung rhythms are also common.
Trip hop explore different harmonic methods such as using a major melody with the instrumentation in a relative minor key. This knowledge and understanding of rhythm and harmony established trip hop as a respected musical form.
Popular artists at the beginning of trip hop included Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky. As the sound developed and increased in mainstream popularity, it spread to America and artists such as DJ Shadow began producing trip hop. Bjork has also been associated with trip hop (amongst many genres). Trip hop went on to influence popular artists throughout the 1990s and 2000s such as Kanye West, Kid Cudi, The Gorillaz, and U.N.K.L.E. Bands such as Ruby and Ilya became associated with the subgenre trip rock which involved more rock influenced ‘trippy’ music.
As American hip hop began to achieve more and more mainstream popularity, its influence spread from the USA to the rest of the world and Bristol was massively influenced by hip hop due to its association with black culture. Bristol had been used as a port during the slave trade and so had a large black population of African and Caribbean descent. Trip hop was not exclusive to any race however, due to the wide range of influences and its association with rave culture it attracted students, bohemians and fans of electronica, dub and many more genres which were thriving in Bristol.
Originally DJs and producers began creating trip hop to play at after parties of rave nights, for people who had been up and dancing all night to relax. In a similar way to that of rave culture, trip hop became associated with drug use which was common at raves in 1990s Britain. Where rave culture became associated with ecstasy, trip hop became associated with smoking cannabis and chilling out hence the term ‘trip’ hop. Similar to hip hop, the tempo of trip hop is often between 65bpm and 90bpm.
Trip hop production relies heavily on sampling and looping in a similar way to hip hop. Often trip hop producers sample single drum hits and then re use them to create new beats and rhythms – this gives trip hop an interesting mix of organic drum sounds and electronic sequencing. Trip hop often also incorporates hip hop stylistic elements such as record scratching and sample looping.
One of the main differences between trip hop and hip hop is melodic content – hip hop vocals rely on the rap style of fast rhythmic chatter, however trip hop vocals are often long melodic female vocal lines, complimented with orchestral sections such as strings and brass.
Trip hop also draw influence from dub music, a genre which involves experimental instrumental versions of reggae songs. Artist such as Lee Perry pioneered dub with a strange, eccentric style which definitely rubbed off on trip hop. Influences from dub can be heard in the spacious feel of trip hop and slow, laid back downtempo style. Also the heavily shuffled rhythms of dub with plenty of percussion can be heard a lot in trip hop.
The use of deep dubby basslines and spacious reverb and echo effects can be heard in Massive Attacks ‘Karmacoma’:
The use of samples from different records such as jazz, reggae and hip hop records is often used to create textures and build songs in trip hop, alongside drum sampling/programming and sometimes vocal lines and/or orchestral instruments. Portishead were known to layer samples from 60s and 70s records with their vocalist to create a unique sound. Because of the heavy use of sampling in trip hop, the music industry has had to reconsider the way samples are cleared for use and allowed in songs.
Trip hop production is often very lo-fi, with many sounds being made by using lo-fi equipment such as turntables and old records. This gives it an organic and ‘real’ sound which was not present in most electronica due to the use of computer sequencing and drum machines/synthesisers etc. Trip hop artists were known to record to tape and then to their computer, to get a grittier sound. The vinyl crackle was a common sound in trip hop and can be distinctively heard in Massive Attack’s ‘Teardrops’:
Elements of jazz drumming can be seen in the drum programming of a lot of trip hop, using samples of drums played with brushes and rimshots etc. Swung rhythms are also common.
Trip hop explore different harmonic methods such as using a major melody with the instrumentation in a relative minor key. This knowledge and understanding of rhythm and harmony established trip hop as a respected musical form.
Popular artists at the beginning of trip hop included Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky. As the sound developed and increased in mainstream popularity, it spread to America and artists such as DJ Shadow began producing trip hop. Bjork has also been associated with trip hop (amongst many genres). Trip hop went on to influence popular artists throughout the 1990s and 2000s such as Kanye West, Kid Cudi, The Gorillaz, and U.N.K.L.E. Bands such as Ruby and Ilya became associated with the subgenre trip rock which involved more rock influenced ‘trippy’ music.
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