Tag Archive: Revealed


Pop Music – History and Facts Revealed

Filed Under: Music
Apr.06, 2010

One genre that appeals to most everyone is pop music owing to its light and catchy qualities. Pop music is so aptly called because it is a categorization that is largely based on the popularity of a song. There is no clear and distinct parameters to classify a song as pop music. For the most part, its popularity should translate to records sold and radio air times.


Pop music is a combination of various styles influenced by the evolving music forms. The development of pop music is one that is progressive, rolling over from generation to generation to snowball into its current form. As this is so, pop music has taken so many forms through each decade to reflect the musical preference of a particular generation.


Rich Vocals

During the 50s, popular tunes were those that were vocally rich with a string accompaniment and a vocal chorus back up. Country music and American folk music were great hits along with variations of standard formats. Great American songbook classics, crooners and big band singers adopted other musical techniques to give their music a modern twist. The listening public lapped these enhancements up and caused songs like Mack the Knife and Singing the Blues to top the charts. In contrast to these classics, rock and roll likewise rocked the American music industry with fast and infectious beats of Rock Around the Clock, Heartbreak Hotel, and Tutti Fruitti. These tunes not only rocked the airwaves, they also rocked the dance floors.


All in the Band

The next decade brought in what is called as the novelty song characterized by humorous lyric combined with melodies that are simple yet catchy (i.e. Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini, California Girls, and Good Vibrations). Worthy of note is the fact that the vocal harmonies and lyrics of these songs revolved around Californias surf, girls and cars. Thus the label Surf pop. Other popular music during the sixties were youth-oriented band music in up-tempo beat, I Want to Hold Your Hand,Cant Buy Me Love, Downtown, and To Sir With Love.” African American music likewise joined the popular music scene with its doo-wop style that gives prominence to melodic sounds and vocal harmonies. Rhythm and blues as well as Motown soul music were also chart-toppers during this period.


Cacophony of Sounds

From the 1970s to the present, pop music is as diverse as they come. A slowdown in musical tempo was seen in the early seventies when folk-based artists took center stage. Popular during these times were songs written by the singers themselves. Tempos picked up again towards in the second half of the decade when disco-dancing became a favorite pastime among the youth. Dance tunes Play That Funky Music, Staying Alive, and YMCA dominated the airwaves and the disco scene.


The 1980s and 1990s music scene was composed of music soundtracks, international hits, rock and roll, and pop icon duets. Another music development in this decade is the advent of charity records where artists put their talents together to raise funds for a cause. Particularly characteristic of the last two decades are the prevalence of songs by female artists like Mariah Carrey, Celine Dion, and pop icon Madonna. The new millennium kept with soulful ballads, hip hop pieces and dance tracks. Movie soundtracks remained chart-toppers.


Pop music is a genre that will always be around. People will always listen to music and music labels and radio stations will continue to track what songs people are listening to. For as long as people are playing and listening to music, there will always be a chart-topper.

Sayid Aksa is the author of http://musicmars.com
You can watch best pop music videos and other cool music videos from various genres on his site.

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Jazz Music – History and Facts Revealed

Filed Under: Music
Apr.06, 2010

The 20th century music world has seen the entry of light and easy listening music with African-American jazz music. Originating in southern USA, jazz music is a combination of African and European music traditions. It puts together the use of blue notes, improvisation, syncopation and swing notes.


Jazz music was first used in reference to music from Chicago early in the 20th century. It has evolved in several other subgenres such as New Orleans Dixieland, big band-style swing, bebop, Afro-Cuban jazz, Brazilian jazz, jazz-rock fusion, and the more recent acid jazz.


The realm of jazz music was and still is predominantly associated with the American black community. These black musicians transitioning from banjos and tambourines learned to play European instruments such as the violin. Black slaves from early America used to sing and play music as a form of spiritual or ritualistic hymns.


After emancipation, employment opportunities for black slaves were very limited as segregation laws were still in force. Most of these black slaves found themselves in the entertainment industry as piano players and instrumentalists. They became low-cost entertainers as minstrels, vaudeville players, piano bar players, and marching band members. Soon, this kind of jazz music called Ragtime Jazz spread from the southern USA to other areas in the western and northern cities in USA.


Ragtime jazz became very popular in the early part of the century. Musician Jelly Roll Morton published the first ever jazz arrangement in print in 1915 with the title Jelly Roll Blues. This printed arrangement brought forth a new breed of musicians playing ragtime. Ragtime music moved on from red-light district bars and vaudeville shows to major concert locations such as the Carnegie Hall.


The first jazz record was recorded in 1913 by Society Orchestra, the first black group to come out with a record. Another group that came up with their very own jazz music recording is the “Original Dixieland Jazz Band”. Other bands followed suit, releasing jazz music recordings starting in 1917. In 1922, the most famous blues singer of the decade, Bessie Smith, also released her first recording. Also in the 1920s, Jelly Roll Morton played with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings and made history as the first mixed-race recording collaboration. Big bands like those of Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington and Earl Hines played the more prominent venues and paved the way for the development of big-band-style swing jazz.


Louis Armstrong, a trumpeter, band leader and singer, came to be known as the Ambassador of Jazz, what with his early innovations in jazz music. Swing music is considered to be popular dance music and is played from printed musical arrangements. Then came the bebop which focuses more on small groups and simple arrangements.


Throughout the years jazz music has always been preferred music genre among those who enjoy light and easy listening. There are radio stations that play only jazz music. Jazz music can be heard most everywhere hotel lounges, salons, concert halls, wedding receptions, Jazz music is perhaps also the most unique form of music as there are no two jazz music performances are ever the same.

Sayid Aksa is the author of http://musicmars.com
You can watch best jazz music videos and other cool music videos from various genres on his site.

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Rock Music – History and Facts Revealed

Filed Under: Music
Apr.05, 2010

Rock music is often associated with heavy instrumentation, reverberating through a sound system, and played by hyperactive musicians wearing all-black garb. This kind of music has enjoyed over half a century of popularity with its strong beat and catchy melody.


Rock music started in the 1940s and the 1950s as a fusion of rhythm and blues, gospel music, and country music. Originally known as rock and roll, as branded by disc jockey Alan Feed from Ohio, rock music combined influences resulted in simple blues-based style that was fast and danceable.


Instrumentation for rock music often include electric guitar, bass guitar, drums, and keyboards. Others add to their line-up reed instruments like the saxophone and the French horn. String instruments like the mandolin and the sitar are occasionally seen in the realm of rock music. Of all these instrumentations, it is the guitar that is considered to be the star of the show. Guitars come as solid electric, hollow electric or acoustic.


The electric guitar was played rock and roll style by early rock legends Chuck Berry, Link Wray and Scotty Moore. Texas blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan played a fusion of blues and rock. As multitrack recording was developed by Les Paul along with electronic sound treatment by Joe Meek, it was not long after when rock music artists like Jackie Breston and Bill Haley came out with their first rock and roll records. Breston released his record Rocket 88 under recording label Sun Records. And then several years after, Haleys Rock Around the Clock was launched and topped the charts of Billboard magazine in terms of record sales and airtime plays. Sun Records also produced rock and roll king Elvis Presleys first single labelled Thats All Right (Mama). Shake, Rattle & Roll of Big Joe Turner was also topping the Billboard R&B charts during this time.


The fusioning of rock music extended into the 1960s and the 1970s, with rock music being combined with folk music to create folk rock, with blues to create blues-rock, and with jazz to create jazz rock. Electrical instrument ambiance was incorporated into rock music to create the carefree psychedelic rock. Influences from soul, funk and latin music were integrated with rock music to pave way for subgenres as soft rock, heavy metal, hard rock, progressive rock, and punk rock.


Rock music took a metallic turn in the 1980s and 1990s with the entry of rock bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Queen, Aerosmith, Kiss, AC/DC and Black Sabbath. Hard rockers heightened the commercialization of rock and roll with albums and concerts being launched all over the country. Arenas and other similar big venues were used as a places to gather crowds and crowds of rock music fans. Live performances in rock concerts had rock fans screaming and going wild over rock bands performing to full performance level complete with stage design and pyrotechnics.


Some of the other developments in rock music are retro style grunge, theatrical glam rock (Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, and the New York Dolls), intense Britpop (John Lennon and the Beatles), indie rock and nu rock (Police, Duran Duran, Eurythmics, and the Culture Club).


Rock music has not been as popular with music critics at some point in time owing to its dark and overly loud metallic sound. But innovations and developments in look, style and sound has slowly developed a following for rock music not only in the young crowd but for the public in general as well. Rock music still manages to chalk up big hits in popular music.

Sayid Aksa is the author of http://musicmars.com
You can watch best rock music videos and other cool music videos from various genres on his site.

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Alternative Music – History and Facts Revealed

Filed Under: Music
Mar.31, 2010

The evolution of music has brought forth hundreds of music variations in so many forms to the basic music categories. This diversity in music forms have categorized in alternative music those ish style music that come as slight style alterations to most popular music forms (i.e. alternative rock or rock-ish music for rock music that does not really fit into the mainstream genres of a particular time period).


Alternative music is a category coined as a sort of catch-all for those sub-genres that are unclassified but can be traced with similarities to popular genres. These alternative music are usually those that were not released commercially and are recorded on independent labels. Some music from this category, from word of mouth, would soon find its way into the mainstream and become commercially successful.


Off-Country

Country music that does not conform to the prevailing country style is generally classified as alternative music. Musicians playing alternative country music are generally those who do not subscribe to high production values and popularity concerns. Their music are of lo-fi sound quality and often incorporated strong punk and rock and roll qualities and contained lyrics that are bleak, gothic or socially aware. The range of their music spans American folk tune to rockabilly and honky-tonk to a fusion of rock and country music. Alternative country music has developed several namesakes like Americana, neotraditional, progressive country, lo-fi country, and twang core.


Not-so-hip Hip-Hop

The alternative version of hip hop has not been very popular. Artists claiming to play alternative rap or alternative hip hop are non-conformists who wish to turn from the common drug and violence-directed mainstream rap. Alternative hip-hop fuses influences from funk, rock, jazz, soul and reggae. Some of these alternative hip-hop groups have somehow found themselves in mainstream success like Black Star, Mos Def, De La Soul, M.I.A., Kidz in the Hall, Consequence, Jurassic 5 and Brand Nubian.


Electric Rock

Alternative music is most often used to refer to alternative rock. It used to be that the word alternative was used in the 1980s to refer to punk rock-inspired bands that do not belong to major record labels and have no clear genre association. There are a lot of influences in alternative rock namely, grunge, Britpop, gothic rock and indie pop. Most of these alternative rock artists were considered cult acts and recorded their albums on independent labels. Their popularity was largely due to the exposure their alternative music got in college radios and word-of-month. The band Nirvana entry in the alternative music scene has propelled the popularity of several other bands playing alternative rock music. Metallica is another group who made it big in the mainstream music world playing alternative rock.


Perhaps an offshoot of alternative rock is alternative dance music. This kind of music combined elements of dance-pop which includes forms of electronic house or techno, and alternative rock genres. Alternative dance music can be characterized as mostly electronic, pre-programmed beats and sequenced synthesizer melodies.


As there will always be popular music, there will always be a spot for alternative music. After all, there will always be music that falls somewhere in-between, music that is somewhat like but not entirely the same as what is predominantly popular at a certain period in time.

Sayid Aksa is the author of http://musicmars.com
You can watch best alternative music videos and other cool music videos from various genres on his site.

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Rap Music – History and Facts Revealed

Filed Under: Music
Mar.07, 2010

Rap music worked its way to mainstream music around the late 70s to the early 80s. Those who study history would trace rap musics roots way back in American history when Griots or West African folk poets used to deliver their stories in a rhythmic tone accompanied by drums and other sparse instrumentation. Today, the art of rapping has evolved into something that spans cultural and lifestyle dimensions.


Folk roots meet Jamaican-style

Rap music combines the poetry of the Griots with Jamaican-style toasting. Toasting is used by Jamaican disc jockeys or DJs in dance parties to coax people to dance to their music. DJs are the first rappers or MCs (short for master of ceremonies). They would speak over their music to shout out slogans like Work it, work it and Move it to keep encourage continuous dancing on the dance floor. Soon, toasting became longer and became less about dancing and more about life and having fun. Contextually, these raps can be insult raps, news raps, message raps, nonsense raps, and party raps.


This early way of rapping was soon enhanced to include manual manipulation of the sound system to heighten the dance experience. It has been said that people dance because of the beat and not of the lyrics. And so, DJs soon incorporated other techniques like dubbing and scratching to the rap music appeal. Dubbing enhanced Jamaican toasting by cutting back and forth between vocal and instrumental tracks and isolating the beat for danceability. Scratching, on the other hand, is done by moving the record in the turntable from one direction to another and back again while the needle is still in the groove.


Rappers deluxe

Rap historians cite young Jamaican Clive Campbell as one of the proponents of rap music when he migrated to the Bronx and brought with him the art of Jamaican toasting. In the Brox, Campbell was known by his monicker, Kool Herc (short for Hercules). Other early rappers rappers were Jamaican toasters such as U Roy, Duke Reid, Sir Coxsone, and Prince Buster. They were followed by the next decade of rappers like MelleMel, Fatback Band, Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Flash, and Run-D.M.C.


The early nineties saw the entry of white American rappers like Ice Cube to the African-American-dominated world of rap music. Even women rappers surfaced in the mainstream rap music scene. Women rappers like Salt N Pepper, Monie Love, and Queen Latifah rapped over R&B melodies and expressed lyrics that touched on women-related issues.


The look of rap

From its origins in the gang dominion of Bronx and the dancehalls of downtown ghettos, rap music soon found its way into the mainstream music scene. Soon, not only African-Americans were dancing to rap music. Rap music evolved into lyrical reflection of urban life. Rastafari-clad youth wore oversized shirts and jackets paired with low-riding oversized jeans that exposed their underwear. Heavy chain accessories also became part of the rapper look.


Rap music, while considered by some to be a fad that would eventually lose its appeal, is really a form of musical art that has become a way of expression. Modern mouth percussion, vocal improvisation and stripped down melody, these elements of rap music make it a unique musical experience.

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Radio Controlled Devices – Their History Revealed

Filed Under: Radio
Feb.15, 2010

Radio controlled devices have gained popularity as hobby items apart from being used for various other purposes. Building, modifying and driving radio controlled vehicles is a favorite pastime of radio control enthusiasts. The sport involves displaying the skills of the person in handling the device, efficiently.

Remote or radio controlled devices are controlled from a remote distance. Jagdish Chandra Bose was perhaps the first to demonstrate remote controlled activity when he set alight gun powder to strike a gong using electromagnetic radiation, from a distance. Tesla was the first to show the use of a transmitter and receiver to remotely control a ship. He showed how mechanical gadgets could be controlled using the wireless principle in the year 1898. He also began the construction of a wireless tower that remained incomplete due to lack of finance. Tesla can be said to have created the basis for the design of radio controlled devices which are in use today. The American inventor Armstrong said, “The world will long have to wait for a mind equal to Tesla’s, a mind of such creative possibilities and such wealth of imagination.”

Remote controlled devices are also known commonly as RC devices- RC meaning radio controlled. Dr. William and Walter Good, two twin brothers created and flew the first radio controlled airplane in 1937. Dr. William was a radio specialist whereas his brother Walter built aero models. They combined both their skills to create a radio controlled airplane. The principle of radio control has also been used in the World War II. From the 1960s, transistors were available, and this revolutionized the circuits to make them compact and light.

Sometime during the mid or late 1960s, the British company Mardave, began producing the first commercially feasible remote controlled cars. The first gas powered or nitro cars were sold in the early 1970s in Leicester, where the company was based. Radio controlled devices need a control transmitter, a throttle trigger and wheels for turning, while the receiver is located in the body of the toy. These models run on either electricity or fuel. Electrical speed control is used in electrical models, whereas radio control mechanisms are used in fuel control systems to regulate the fuel input.

Toy grade devices are usually assembled models available at retail shops and are much cheaper than hobby grade models. The toy grade models use electric power and run on batteries. Hobby grade radio controlled devices are more serviceable and durable, but are very expensive. They run on fuel like gasoline or nitro and unlike toy models which are ready made, these require assembling of the various components.

RC devices come in the form of cars, airplanes, boats and helicopters. Remote controlled cars are used for racing and this is a very popular sport among car enthusiasts. Small cars and toys are used for indoor games. Radio control technology is combined with robotics to create various devices used in international robotics contests held in Japan.

There are numerous uses for radio control technology and vehicles are only one aspect of it. Radio controlled hobbies can be enjoyed in many ways and combined with robotics, they open up wider possibilities for the hobbyists.

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