1.
Album
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Album, is a collection of audio recordings issued as a single item on CD, record, audio tape, or another medium. Albums of recorded music were developed in the early 20th century, first as books of individual 78rpm records, vinyl LPs are still issued, though in the 21st century album sales have mostly focused on compact disc and MP3 formats. The audio cassette was a format used from the late 1970s through to the 1990s alongside vinyl, an album may be recorded in a recording studio, in a concert venue, at home, in the field, or a mix of places. Recording may take a few hours to years to complete, usually in several takes with different parts recorded separately. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing are termed live, the majority of studio recordings contain an abundance of editing, sound effects, voice adjustments, etc. With modern recording technology, musicians can be recorded in separate rooms or at times while listening to the other parts using headphones. Album covers and liner notes are used, and sometimes additional information is provided, such as analysis of the recording, historically, the term album was applied to a collection of various items housed in a book format. In musical usage the word was used for collections of pieces of printed music from the early nineteenth century. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, the LP record, or 33 1⁄3 rpm microgroove vinyl record, is a gramophone record format introduced by Columbia Records in 1948. It was adopted by the industry as a standard format for the album. Apart from relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound capability, the term album had been carried forward from the early nineteenth century when it had been used for collections of short pieces of music. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, as part of a trend of shifting sales in the music industry, some commenters have declared that the early 21st century experienced the death of the album. Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as mini-albums or EPs, Albums such as Tubular Bells, Amarok, Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield, and Yess Close to the Edge, include fewer than four tracks. There are no rules against artists such as Pinhead Gunpowder referring to their own releases under thirty minutes as albums. These are known as box sets, material is stored on an album in sections termed tracks, normally 11 or 12 tracks. A music track is a song or instrumental recording. The term is associated with popular music where separate tracks are known as album tracks. When vinyl records were the medium for audio recordings a track could be identified visually from the grooves
2.
Aphex Twin
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Richard David James, known by his stage name Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born English electronic musician and composer. He is known for his influential and idiosyncratic work in music styles such as IDM and acid techno in the 1990s. He is also the co-founder of Rephlex Records with Grant Wilson-Claridge and he rose to mainstream popularity with his 1997 EP Come to Daddy and his 1999 single Windowlicker. James was born in Limerick, Ireland, and grew up in Lanner, Cornwall, UK and he enjoyed living there, feeling apart from nearby cities and the rest of the world. You couldnt make sound on a ZX81, but I played around with machine code, according to musician Benjamin Middleton, James began producing music the following year. As a teenager he was a jockey at the Shire Horse Inn in St Ives, with Tom Middleton at the Bowgie Inn in Crantock. James studied at Cornwall College from 1988 to 1990 for a National Diploma in engineering, about his studies, he said music and electronics went hand in hand. James graduated from college, according to a lecturer he often wore headphones during practical lessons. In 1989, James befriended Grant Wilson-Claridge when they were working alternate weeks as a DJ at the Bowgie pub near Newquay, Wilson-Claridge was intrigued by his sets, and when he discovered that James was playing tapes of his own music he suggested that they make records. James first release as Aphex Twin, later changed to AFX, was the 1991 12-inch EP Analogue Bubblebath on Mighty Force Records, the track En Trance to Exit was recorded with Tom Middleton, also known as Schizophrenia. The EP made the playlist of Kiss FM, an influential London radio station, from 1991 to 1993 James released two Analogue Bubblebath EPs and an EP, Bradleys Beat, as Bradley Strider. Although he allegedly lived on the roundabout in Elephant and Castle, South London, during his years in the city. The first full-length Aphex Twin album, Selected Ambient Works 85–92, was released in 1992 on R&S Records to critical acclaim, John Bush of Allmusic described it as a watershed of ambient music. In 2002 Rolling Stone said about the album, Aphex Twin expanded way beyond the ambient music of Brian Eno by fusing lush soundscapes with oceanic beats, Pitchfork Media called it among the most interesting music ever created with a keyboard and a computer. However, critics noted that the songs were recorded on cassette, in 1992 James also released the Xylem Tube EP and Digeridoo as Aphex Twin, the Pac-Man EP as Power-Pill, and two of his four Joyrex EPs as Caustic Window. Digeridoo reached #55 on the UK Singles Chart, and was described by Rolling Stone as foreshadowing drum. He wrote Digeridoo to clear up his audience after a rave and these early releases were on Rephlex Records, Mighty Force of Exeter and R&S Records of Belgium. Warp Records released Selected Ambient Works Volume II in 1994, with a less beat-, the track names were described with pie chart symbols, each of which was meant to be paired with a corresponding image in the album jacket
3.
Techno
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Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan, in the United States during the mid-to-late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno in reference to a genre of music was in 1988. Many styles of techno now exist, but Detroit techno is seen as the foundation upon which a number of subgenres have been built. Added to this is the influence of futuristic and fictional themes relevant to life in American late capitalist society, pioneering producer Juan Atkins cites Tofflers phrase techno rebels as inspiring him to use the word techno to describe the musical style he helped to create. This unique blend of influences aligns techno with the referred to as afrofuturism. To producers such as Derrick May, the transference of spirit from the body to the machine is often a central preoccupation, in this manner, techno dance music defeats what Adorno saw as the alienating effect of mechanisation on the modern consciousness. Stylistically, techno is generally repetitive instrumental music, oftentimes produced for use in a continuous DJ set, the tempo tends to vary between approximately 120 to 150 beats per minute, depending on the style of techno. The creative use of production technology, such as drum machines, synthesizers. Many producers use retro electronic musical devices to create what they consider to be an authentic techno sound, drum machines from the 1980s such as Rolands TR-808 and TR-909 are highly prized, and software emulations of such retro technology are popular among techno producers. The Electrifying Mojo was the first radio DJ to play music by the Detroit techno producers Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Mojo refused to follow pre-established radio formats or playlists, and he promoted social and cultural awareness of the African American community. In exploring technos origins writer Kodwo Eshun maintains that Kraftwerk are to Techno what Muddy Waters is to the Rolling Stones, the authentic, the origin, the real. Juan Atkins has acknowledged that he had an enthusiasm for Kraftwerk and Giorgio Moroder, particularly Moroders work with Donna Summer. Atkins also mentions that around 1980 I had a tape of nothing but Kraftwerk, Telex, Devo, Giorgio Moroder and Gary Numan, and Id ride around in my car playing it. Regarding his initial impression of Kraftwerk, Atkins notes that they were clean, Derrick May identified the influence of Kraftwerk and other European synthesizer music in commenting that it was just classy and clean, and to us it was beautiful, like outer space. Living around Detroit, there was so little beauty, everything is an ugly mess in Detroit, and so we were attracted to this music. May has commented that he considered his music a direct continuation of the European synthesizer tradition and he also identified Japanese synthpop act Yellow Magic Orchestra, particularly member Ryuichi Sakamoto, and British band Ultravox, as influences, along with Kraftwerk. In 1980 or 1981 they met with Mojo and proposed that they provide mixes for his show, which they did end up doing the following year. These young promoters developed and nurtured the local music scene by both catering to the tastes of the local audience of young people and by marketing parties with new DJs
4.
Philip Glass
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Philip Morris Glass is an American composer. He is considered one of the most influential makers of the late 20th century. Glasss compositions have been described as music, similar to other minimalist composers including La Monte Young, Steve Reich. However, Glass has described himself instead as a composer of music with repetitive structures, Glass founded the Philip Glass Ensemble, with which he still performs on keyboards. He has written numerous operas and musical works, eleven symphonies, eleven concertos, seven string quartets and various other chamber music. Three of his scores have been nominated for Academy Awards. Glass was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Ida and his family were Jewish immigrants from Lithuania. His father owned a store and his mother was a librarian. She developed a plan to help them learn English and develop skills so they could find work and his sister, Sheppie, would later do similar work as an active member of the International Rescue Committee. Glass developed his appreciation of music from his father, discovering later his fathers side of the family had many musicians and his cousin Cevia was a classical pianist, while others had been in vaudeville. He learned his family was related to Al Jolson. Glasss father often received promotional copies of new recordings at his music store and he spent many hours listening to them, developing his knowledge and taste in music. This openness to modern sounds affected Glass at an age, My father was self-taught, but he ended up having a very refined and rich knowledge of classical, chamber. Typically he would come home and have dinner, and then sit in his armchair, I caught on to this very early, and I would go and listen with him. The elder Glass promoted both new recordings and a selection of composers to his customers, sometimes convincing them to try something new by allowing them to return records they didnt like. His store soon developed a reputation as Baltimores leading source of modern music, Glass cites Schuberts work as a big influence growing up. He studied the flute as a child at the school of the Peabody Institute. At the age of 15, he entered a college program at the University of Chicago where he studied mathematics
5.
Hip hop music
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It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements, MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching with turntables, break dancing, and graffiti writing. Other elements include sampling beats or bass lines from records, while often used to refer solely to rapping, hip hop more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture. Hip hops early evolution occurred as sampling technology and drum machines became available and affordable. Turntablist techniques such as scratching and beatmatching developed along with the breaks and Jamaican toasting, rapping developed as a vocal style in which the artist speaks or chants along rhythmically with an instrumental or synthesized beat. The Sugarhill Gangs 1979 song Rappers Delight is widely regarded to be the first hip hop record to gain popularity in the mainstream. The 1980s marked the diversification of hip hop as the genre developed more complex styles, prior to the 1980s, hip hop music was largely confined within the United States. However, during the 1980s, it began to spread to scenes in dozens of countries. New school hip hop was the wave of hip hop music, originating in 1983–84 with the early records of Run-D. M. C. The Golden age hip hop period was a period between the mid-1980s and the early 1990s. Notable artists from this era include the Juice Crew, Public Enemy, & Rakim, Boogie Down Productions and KRS-One, EPMD, Slick Rick, Beastie Boys, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, Ultramagnetic MCs, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest. Gangsta rap is a subgenre of hip hop that often focuses on the violent lifestyles, in the West Coast hip hop style, G-funk dominated mainstream hip hop for several years during the 1990s. I. G. In the 1990s, hip hop began to diversify with other regional styles emerging, such as Southern rap, at the same time, hip hop continued to be assimilated into other genres of popular music, examples being Neo soul and nu metal. Hip hop became a pop music genre in the mid-1990s. The popularity of hip hop music continued through the 2000s, with hip hop influences also increasingly finding their way into mainstream pop, the United States also saw the success of regional styles such as crunk, a Southern genre that emphasized the beats and music more than the lyrics. Starting in 2005, sales of hip hop music in the United States began to severely wane, during the mid-2000s, alternative hip hop secured a place in the mainstream, due in part to the crossover success of artists such as OutKast and Kanye West. Creation of the hip hop is often credited to Keith Cowboy, rapper with Grandmaster Flash. However, Lovebug Starski, Keith Cowboy, and DJ Hollywood used the term when the music was known as disco rap. Cowboy later worked the hip hop cadence into a part of his stage performance, the first use of the term in print was in The Village Voice, by Steven Hager, later author of a 1984 history of hip hop
6.
Drum and bass
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Drum and bass is a genre and branch of electronic music which emerged from rave and oldschool jungle scenes in England during the early 1990s. The style is characterised by fast breakbeats with heavy bass and sub-bass lines, sampled sources. The popularity of drum and bass at its peak ran parallel to several other homegrown dance styles in the UK including big beat. Drum and bass incorporates a number of scenes and styles, a major influence on jungle and drum and bass was the original Jamaican dub and reggae sound. Another feature of the style is the syncopation of the drum tracks breakbeat. Drum and bass subgenres include breakcore, ragga jungle, hardstep, darkstep, techstep, neurofunk, ambient drum and bass, liquid funk, deep, drumfunk, funkstep, sambass, dnbnoise, from its roots in the UK, the style has established itself around the world. Drum and bass has influenced other genres like hip hop, big beat, dubstep, house, trip hop, ambient music, techno, rock. Drum and bass is dominated by a small group of record labels. The major international labels have shown very little interest in the drum. But rave music tended to feature stronger bass sounds and a faster tempo beats per minute than that of early house music and it is important to note when discussing the history of drum and bass that prior to jungle, rave music was getting faster and more experimental. Professional DJ and producer C. K. states, There was a progression as far as the speed of music is concerned, anyone buying vinyl every week from 1989 to 1992 noticed this. By 1994, jungle had begun to gain popularity and fans of the music became a more recognisable part of youth subculture. However, this developed in tandem with the positive reputation of the music as part of the wider rave scene. As the genre became more polished and sophisticated technically, it began to expand its reach from pirate radio to commercial stations. It also began to split into subgenres such as jump-up. The popularity of drum and bass at its peak ran parallel to several other homegrown dance styles in the UK including big beat. But towards the turn of the millennium its popularity was deemed to have dwindled as the UK garage style known as speed garage yielded several hit singles. London DJ/producer C. K. says, It is often forgotten by my students that a type of music called garage house existed in the late 1980s alongside hip house, acid house and other forms of house music
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