The Evolution Of Genre

Like most of our industrial achievements, the last hundred years have been the bed for almost every major development in pop music. Think about it. In 1911, there was no jazz, no rock, no hip hop, no New Wave, no punk rock, no baroque pop, no noise rock, no country, no R&B! Blues did appear at the end of 1800s as a fusion of negro spirituals and work songs and other shouts and chants. Indeed, slavery was an abomination, but if there was one huge bright side to the experience, it was the birth of the blues.

A lot of early blues was similar in structure and pattern. If one were to try and compare the house music of MSTRKRFT to Delta blues, one would find very little in common. Nevertheless, like the six degrees of Kevin Bacon, non-classical music can always be traced back to the simplicity and soul of the blues.

Okay, pick a genre. Let's start off with something relatively simple. In the 1970s, the black populace gave rise to another huge music movement spurred by a larger social movement. Hip hop was born. Hip hop began with spoken word poets verbalizing in rhythm over vinyl samples of funk, disco, R&B, reggae, and soul music. Next, focus in on disco, which was influenced by funk, swing, soul, and psychedelic rock. Soul music was derived from R&B and jazz, which are both direct descendants of - you guessed it - the blues.

That's an easy one. Let's try something more abstract, such as the recent chillwave trend. Chillwave is a synthesizer-based fusion of New Wave and shoegaze. Both New Wave and shoegaze were post-punk genres, the former being more upbeat and melodic and latter being downtempo and ambient. Post-punk music was derived from punk as a more experimental version of the original movement, mixing in progressive rock and baroque pop influences. Punk rock was in essence a heavier version of rock 'n' roll, with glam, garage, and surf influences - all of which were regional variations of the original rock 'n' roll of Elvis who, as we all know, began in the blues.

Whew! That wasn't so bad. But really, why does everything stem from the blues anyway? Well, likewise nowadays everything popular is some sort of derivative of punk, whether that be indie rock or grunge or New Wave or rapcore. And the core mentality of punk rock can be carried back to the original blues movement, which was simply a means of expression for its participants. Blues is the foundation for pop music because it embodies what art is all about - expression! And like fashion, technology, or language, niches pop up in different places in different times, and every little microevolution of genre cumulates to create monumental change over time. So, nowadays, there's something for everyone. Thank god for the blues!

The Politics Of The Grammys

While watching the Grammys the other weekend, I found myself expecting the more commercial artists to win. Most of the time, I was correct. Lady Antebellum, Usher, Eminem, etc. I watched acclaimed but lower-sale acts like The Roots, Big Boi, and Janelle Monae get snubbed. Even looking at the nominees, I found it laughable that albums such as Katy Perry's Teenage Dream or Justin Bieber's My World 2.0 could even be considered award-winner material.

By the end of the show, I had, like most years, all but given up on the Academy. That was, at least, until Arcade Fire took Album Of The Year for their latest LP, The Suburbs. I had been positive that Eminem would win. After all, he had had a comeback year, had been previously snubbed for his acclaimed early releases, and had sold millions of records. It seemed that, despite this album being weaker than his early stuff, he would finally have his year. Instead, the Academy surprised me by honoring a truly noteworthy album. The Suburbs is significant for being the first independent record to win, which is appropriate considering the growing influence of the indie scene in the Internet Age. The album received universal acclaim and even hit number one on the Billboard 200.

But despite their win, the week following the ceremony was admittedly embarrassing with the Internet exploding in anger as Bieber and Eminem fans expressed in utter disbelief the results of the Grammys. "Who is Arcade Fire?" many asked, even leading to a blog (http://whoisarcadefire.tumblr.com) attempting to compile every grammar-lacking tweet criticizing the ceremony's results.

What does all of this say about pop culture in the US, in which the trend-followers and money-seekers are rewarded over those who truly have something to say? Arcade Fire's album is both an homage to and a critique of the suburbs, an essential ingredient in the formation of pop culture as it is today, in all its commercialization. The album flows with sentiment and a mix of good and bad emotions as it tells a story and challenges its listener. The same can't be said about Justin Bieber or Katy Perry, whom in contrast feed that commercialization by singing the same cliched manufactured pop that's been around for as long as the suburbs have.

I'm glad Arcade Fire won, and not just because I adore their music. It's not often that the establishment rewards the counter-culture, and despite what preteens and Hot 100 slaves will say, art should not be recognized for how much it sells but rather for the expression it presents. Take that, Thomas Kinkade.

Autotune: Creative Tool, Overdone Trend, Or Both?

I was watching the Super Bowl Halftime Show the other night, and as I stared in belief at what the Black Eyed Peas had become (knowing what they used to be: an intellectual and fast-rapping underground hip hop troupe minus Fergie). It was a very solid example of a pop group sucking the mainstream mega-teet. Aside from their performance being poorly mixed and musically mediocre, I thought about what people might think of the Black Eyed Peas had they always been this way. Will.i.am is indeed a solid studio producer, and the Autotune the Peas now utilize can be seen in all circles of music, whether it be the freak folk of Bon Iver or Sufjan Stevens, the electro hop of Kanye West, the house music of Daft Punk, or the nintendocore of Attack Attack! I'm not condoning or condemning it, as I think it can be certainly used artistically, as can any computer-based music tool whether it be a drum machine or a vocoder. But when the Peas or Ke$ha use it, it's criticized for being a far-overdone trend, as well as a crutch. Nevertheless, what is it exactly that separates the Black Eyed Peas' repetitive electronica from that of Daft Punk (who is critically embraced)?

The reason the Black Eyed Peas are repeatedly bashed for their increasingly unintelligent dance music stretches back to their history as a group. Indeed, they were originally an indie hip hop trio. As they've pursued and then achieved success, they've become increasingly trendy and poppy in terms of style. Daft Punk on the other hand set out to be a house band from the get go, regardless of whatever success they might achieve. I can't speak for the Black Eyed Peas, but artists like Sufjan Stevens and Kanye West tend to do whatever they want musically without much regard to whether mainstream audiences are going to eat it up and even if it means pissing off some fans. Black Eyed Peas on the other hand, regardless of how much talent they actually have, seem to want to do whatever it is that's popular at the time.

And that is in itself the problem with Autotune. It's not Autotune that's bad; it just depends on how it's used. Sufjan and Kanye weren't using Autotune because other people were, they were using it to advance their own creative projects for their own artistic satisfaction. But regardless of how talented the members of Nickelback are as musicians (and believe it or not, they are talented), they're still sellouts, and they still suck.

One & The Same: "Punk," "Indie," & "Pop"

Nowadays, everything trendy seems to be labeled as "indie," regardless of whether it be the enormously huge Modest Mouse and Death Cab For Cutie, the recent rise of "hipster hop" artists like Kid Cudi, Wiz Khalifa, and The Cool Kids, or experimental electronic from Flying Lotus, M.I.A., and Sufjan Stevens. Many of these artists have nothing to do with each other in terms of style, and many of them have top 10 hits, millions of fans, and major record deals. So in what way are they indie? Many of them are part of the same machine that created pop as performed by Britney Spears and Akon and contribute to the same mainstream ideology that punk rock originally sought to identify against.

Punk music originated from the D.I.Y. ethic in the early 1970s with artists you and I have never heard of, if only for the fact that these artists played music simply for the sake of playing music and not to get famous. Like everything else, generational outcasts and Bohemians identified with this counter-culture and it became popular. Bands like Sex Pistols and The Ramones took off, with records distributed by major labels and sold out concerts. Over the next few years, punk started to evolve in New Wave, post-punk, and hardcore. New Wave became known for big shot one-hit wonders, post-punk fused with heavy metal and hardcore punk to create grunge, and hardcore evolved into post-hardcore, emo (post-punk + hardcore), and metalcore (metal + hardcore). Grunge went on to spawn Britpop and post-grunge (see Nickelback), and New Wave and post-punk were both revived in the early 21st century - all to great success. Summarily, all these subgenres became popular, and punk derivatives can be seen absolutely everywhere regardless of where you look, whether you listen to Avenged Sevenfold, System Of A Down, Arcade Fire, Oasis, The Strokes, or Lady Gaga. And consequentially, if one were to go to last.fm and look at the tags on any of these mega-huge acts, "indie" can be quickly spotted.

The Sex Pistols would probably disagree, but they were "pop" music, too. It's all pop. Maybe it's punk, too, or post-punk, or maybe it's on an "indie" label. But anything that seems original is probably just a new derivative of things that have already been done. And anyone who likes something solely because it's indie should realize that someone else likes it, too.

Listen to music because it's artistic and well-made, and fuck genres.