Over the past century the amount of music on offer
has sky rocketed, and with the incerase in volume, new genres
and sounds have been created. But it is often easy to forget where
the music you listen to today originated from, and to dicipher
the key features of each genre.
Blues: Originated
around the 17th Century amoung black slaves brought over to America
from Africa to work on plantations and railways. For this reason
and ever since the music has always been about sadness and depression.
The standard blues format has a twelve bar structure, divided
into three phrases of four bars each, and the words are one phrase
of twelve beats, repeated, and a third phrase that is different.
Related Link : Origins
of the Blues
Jazz:
Was born sometime around 1895 in New Orleans and originated from
elements of Ragtime, marching band music, and Blues. However unlike
Western musical traditions Jazz where artists would do there best
to play the notes just as the composer had intended. Jazz artists
tended to break away from this set rigour often playing music
improvised on the spot, with less in any set structure.
Related Link : Origins
of Jazz
R & B: This
genre otherwise known as Rhythm and Blues originated in the 50's
from places like Memphis and New Orleans. It is closely related
to its blues roots however has a far greater emphasis on rhythm.
Reggae: Originated from Jamaica
in the 1960's and was developed from traditional African Caribbean
music such as mento, calypso and ska. The genre was made world
famous by Bob Marley who popularized the style on a world-wide
basis.
Related Link: Origins
of Reggae
Trance: Developed
out of Techno in the 20th Century and has evolved and developed
very quickly into many sub genres. Trance generally evolves a
strong repetitive base line with the introduction of electronic
noises that are blended in such a way to create build ups. Psy
Trance is still a underground form of music as Progressive Trance
is beginning to hit the Urban scene and House Trance is very happy
music and has hit the club scene heavily in recent years.
Related Link: Three
Degrees of Trance
