A look at Music Genres and their technology influences

      Music is a world wide language of sound  and rhythms. People around the world understand.In several parts of the world they have their own special type of music. J-pop, C-pop, and K-pop  just to name a few. This blogpost though will focus on genres of music that technology powers the music more than vocals. More specifically, this post will talk about disco, Techno,  punk, and Dubstep music. It will start with a brief description followed by a example of the genre.

   Disco and Techno are very interesting. Disco came from the word “discotheque” which was the name of a popular nightclub in the 60’s. Disco was a colorful and bouncy form of dance music that was popular in the 70’s in clubs. The music was influenced by funk, soft soul music, and salsa music. (Garofalo) In the technical department, disco was usually played with dance floors and a colorful ball floating on the ceiling. The ball had small circle holes that filled with multi-colored lights the circulate on its axis. The lights flood onto the dance floor as people dance.   One example of Disco is the song, “Le Freak”, by Chic.

Video 1.1(Chic - Le Freak)   

            Techno is another form of dance music. This genre of music was made possible by a trio of people who liked to go to dance parties. The trio was Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Sauderson. They merged synthpop and Italo-disco with funk in the 1980’s (A brief history of techno). This was when Techno began. On the technical side of techno artists used a keyboard called the Roland TR-808. It was where the artist could sample and remix music. The great thing about it was that the keyboard was small and could be worn around the neck. 

 In my many dives into youtube, I noticed that there are many tracks of techno music. It seems that it is very popular in even today’s age—probably due to programs like Audacity and Adobe audition. With them you can probably plug in an electronic keyboard into a computer. I saw a setup like that in one of my school’s music rooms. An example of Techno comes from Martin Garrix for his song “Animals” seen here: 

Video 1. 3|(Martin Garrix - Animals (Official Video))

Gothic music has a special place in my heart. When Christmas is not upon us, I often listen to Gothic music when I’m working on my homework. It helps my creativity come more easily than other music. I believe that technology can be seen most in both their music videos and music. Check out this video from Within Temptation’s-The Howling from their album, “The Heart of Everything”.The songs are performed by drums, guitars and vocals. The vocals are remixed and overlaid to make it spooky and or somber. Some of their music has some elements of dubstep. On their videos they are visually pleasing. Green screen and special effects are used in conjunction with the music. There is an unseen storytelling element that the viewer can watch. 

                                         Video 1.4|(Within Temptation - The Howling)

                     Punk Rock emerged in the 70’s around the world. It was characterized as a “aggressive form of rock music” and became a “archetype of teen rebellion and alienation” (Savage). Interestingly, this genre of music was hugely popular in Britain. It had huge amounts of dark humor regarding British politics. Punk slowly turned into pop music in the late 70’s.  On the technology side they used electric guitars and an amplifier to boost the sound. An example of Punk music is

                                            Video 1.5(Flag)

            Dubstep is not one of my favorite music genre. The sounds are loud and have drop beats that seem to dominate the genre. Dubstep got its name from its 2-step genre of music (Norman) . Dubstep is one of the youngest genre of music within the Electronic Dance Music umbrella. It started in the late 90’s and seem to be going strong. One advantage it has over the others is that it was developed during the age of the internet. Fans could search for this type of music on forums and later Youtube. In Dubstep the artist used drums and a whole bunch of base with beats “between 138 and 142 BPM”  (Norman). According to the Britannica Enclopedia, the DJ went from a turntable to the Ableton Live program that made it easier to DJ with digital files. (Matos) Now we have more advanced music programs that allow easy imports of beats, drums, and vocals on different audio slots. I believe that dubstep will gain even more attention with today’s Facebook live, Youtube live stream, Younow and other streaming platforms that allows communication with audiences in real-time. Here is an example of Dubstep:

                                         Video 1.6(Stirling)

     Lindsey Sterling does a big range of music with dance and her violin. This particular video is inspired by dubstep. Her songs hinges on colorful and amazing visuals in video form. She records the song first than performs it by dancing with her violin without the music on Youtube. From this video you can see that special effects such as rain and fire are used in her videos. I believed that the production used a rain maker and something to make the fire with.

Works Cited

Chic - Le Freak. CaptainCarlossi, 7 September 2011.

A brief history of techno. n.d. 15 11 2017. <http://www.gridface.com/features/a_brief_history_of_techno.html>.

Black Flag - Nervous Breakdown. Perf. Black Flag. ciscomexicano, 2008. Youtube video. 19 11 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=302oEzSPCqE>.

Elements - Lindsey Stirling (Dubstep Violin Original Song). Perf. Lindsey Stirling. 2012. Youtue video. 19 11 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf6LD2B_kDQ>.

Garofalo, Reebee. disco. Ed. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 29 09 2014. 15 11 2017. <https://www.britannica.com/art/disco>.

"Martin Garrix - Animals (Official Video)." Spinnin' Records, 17 6 2013. Youtube Video.

Matos, Michaelangelo. electronic dance music. 23 11 2016. 19 11 2017. <https://www.britannica.com/topic/electronic-dance-music>.

Norman, Ben. what-is-dubstep. 16 01 17. 18 11 17. <https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-dubstep-1013080>.

Savage, Jon. punk. 07 09 2016. 15 11 2017. <https://www.britannica.com/art/punk>.

"Within Temptation - The Howling." Within Temptation, 26 10 2009. Youtube Video. 15 11 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYeXu7JfYHU>.