1990: A Space Trip hop

Trip hop is a kind of music which consists of down tempo electronic music. It was first originated in UK especially in Briston, It is one of the most famous cities in South West England and also its England's sixth and the United Kingdom's eighth most populous city.The city is famous for its music and film industries, and was a finalist for the 2008 European Capital of Culture. Since the late 1970s, the city has been home to bands combining  punk, funk, dub and political consciousness. Some famous Trip hop bands such as Tricky, Portishead, and Massive Attack are from Bristol.
The term "Trip hop" was first used by the British music media and press as a way to describe the more experimental variant of break beat which contained influences of soul, funk, and jazz. According to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, this term was first used in 1989. Also Encyclopedia Britannica Online claims that the term was coined by Mixmag, a British magazine specializing in dance music. This magazine described  this kind of new genre in music as "Europe's alternative choice in the second half of the '90s", and "a fusion of hip hop and electronica until neither genre is recognizable."
Trip hop mixes many styles and has much in common with other genres for example it has several qualities similar to ambient music which is a drum-based breakdowns share characteristics with hip hop from United States. Other elements that it has contains the elements of house, dance and dub reggae.


Most of the Trip hop music that was made usually followed the idea of the slow tempo and hypnotic sound created by an electronic background and prominent string instruments. It is characterized by beat-driven music which, although its is instrumentally similar to hip hop, it varies much in style. Trip hop is characterized by a generally deep, atmospheric sound, and its influences vary, ranging from R&B and urban, to rock and jazz-styled recordings. Trip hop is often characterized by low-key productions, vocals being absent or sparse even though this is not the case for all Trip hop music and it can be highly experimental in nature.


It rose in the 1990s and not only in its native country, United Kingdom, but across the world as well.
Several Trip hop artists and bands, such as Massive Attack, Tricky, Portishead and Morcheeba have received attention and chart success. Both on mainstream national charts and on the more dance and indie-based ones. Several outstanding artists and groups such as Janet Jackson, Kylie Minogue, Madonna, Björk, and Radiohead have used Trip hop in their music.
Trip hop also has several sub genres which have evolved over ages including Trip rock, which is a mix between Trip hop and Rock music, as well as Illbient, which is a dub based Trip hop with influences of ambient and industrial hip hop, all part of a post Trip hop which includes a wider range of styles and influences.

Massive Attack released their first album Blue Lines in 1991 and it was a huge success in the UK. Blue Lines was seen widely as the first major manifestation of a unequally British hip hop but the album's hit single "Unfinished Sympathy" and many other tracks were not seen as hip hop songs in any way.Shara Nelson, n R%B singer, featured on the orchestral "Unfinished" and Jamaican dance hall star Horace Andy provided vocals on several other tracks and also throughout Massive Attack's career.
They released their second album entitled Protection in 1994 and it was seen as an even more significant shift away from the Wild Bunch era.


Trip hop was near the peak of its popularity in 1994 and 1995 with artists such as Howie B and Naked Funk making significant contributions. DJ Shadow with the album "In/Flux" showed its mixed up bpms, spoken word samples, strings, melodies, bizarre noises, prominent bass, and slow beats, to the listeners.
Soon Massive Attack's dubby, jazzy, psychedelic, electronic textures, rooted in hip hop sampling technique but also it was used many other styles.

In 1994 Portishead released their debut album, Dummy. Beth Gibbons as one of the three members of the group led the singing also Portishead included sonic manipulators Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley. Their background was different that Massive Attach's in many ways for example one of Portishead's primary influence was 1960s and 70s film soundtrack LPs. Nevertheless, Portishead shared the scratchy, jazz based aesthetic of early Massive Attack and fragile vocals of Gibbons also brought them wide acknowledgement. In 1995 the album Dummy was awarded the Mercury Music Prize as the best British album of the year, giving Trip hop as a genre its greatest exposure yet.


We believe that Trip Hop won't have that much of an influence on the future.  Our reasoning would be that it is somewhat a subgenre.  A subgenre is a genre formed from another major music genre.  Even though bands like Bjork and Portishead are classified as trip-hop, not many listeners tune into it.  A genre originated in the early 20th century, Modernism , suffered the same fate that we think trip hop will suffer. Modernism is a type of music that is characterized by a desire for progress and innovation. It is dominated by a belief in science and technology but in music, this term refers into the significant seperation in musical language that happened at around the beginning of the 20th century. It created new understandings of harmonic, melodic, rhythmic, and texture aspects of music. But not many people liked this change, as it was too quick and extreme. 

(I'm Kevin Tompkins. and I'm Nima ShahabShahmir, reporting to you live, channel 69 news. The most watching channel in the history of human existence.)12 Portishead - We Carry On
Portishead - Glory box


Massive attack - teardrop
Massive Attack - Angel


Sources:


Wikipedia.org
Last.fm

A Perfect Circle: Beat Oven's predecessor

If Beethoven was alive today, we think that he would be compared to A Perfect Circle, an alternative/progressive rock band who mixes a dark sound with nice melodic voice.They were formed in 1999 by guitarist Billy Howerdel and Tool's vocalist Maynard James Keenan. Maybe one of the reasons that their music has such dark effect on the listener is because the lead singer (Maynard James Keenan) is also one of the brains behind the band Tool and you can find the same themes in Tool's music maybe with more anger or hate in it. In the world of Violins and Orchestras, Beethoven also made symphonies that have a sad and dark theme in them.
His music can be compared to A Perfect Circle's through the ups and downs that can be felt by the ears and eardrum. Sometimes the orchestra has to play high notes or a type of music that when you hear it, it will make you feel good but as you are feeling amazing and imagining deer and unicorns running into the forest, the music changes 180 degrees to the dark and sad parts. (Suddenly Vampires come and eat the unicorns. And the deer...well, you know what happened..it was the hunting season.)
We can find lots of these ups and downs when listening to his symphonies but A Perfect Circle doesn't have much of  these sudden ups and downs. Most of the times the whole song has the dark effect or mixed with some happy ones but sudden bumps are kind of rare. Some of the reasons can be that the rock bands won't usually play song that are 10 minutes long (only if we were comparing Beethoven to Pink Floyd, Atom Heart Mother or Echoes were great examples to use..23 minutes of awesomeness) and they usually don't have enough space (in minutes!) or can't come up with genius music that shows the ups and downs of the hills. (this doesn't mean that we should burn our APC albums) It just simply means that the bands of today have maybe lost touch with strung out emotion.



     In conclusion, A Perfect Circle's music is closely related to Beethoven's, with the depressing and melodic voices of the songs.  The singer of APC provides deep feelings through vocal talent, but doesn't seem to keep the length of Beethoven's symphonies.

A Perfect Circle - Rose

Beethoven - Moonlight sonata

Mozart, the man behind the movie

In our music appreciation class, we saw the move Amadeus; which apparently tells the story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  While this movie had some factual background, there were also many parts which were thought to be pure fiction, to add excitement and drama to the movie.  The first point we can make is the relationship between Mozart and Salieri.  In the movie, it depicts the two men being rivals, both being composers of their time.  It shows them confronting eachother often, and depicts Salieri even helping Mozart write his final piece of music, titled Requiem Mass in D minor.  As facts show, Salieri and Mozart may have never even spoken.  But this is one point that cannot be proven.  The other facts and fictions will be written in a neat chart.

FACT:
1. Mozart actually did not get along with the Archbishop of Salzburg. The Archbishop heavily disliked Mozart, and eventually dismissed him.
2. Mozart loved billiards.  In the movie there are many instances where he is playing or writing music at his billiards table.
3. Mozart was buried in a common grave.
4. Salieri and his co-workers did work secretly to make Le Nozze di Figaro a failure. But the emperor ended up finding out, and had the piece restored to it's original form. Which turned out to be a huge success.
5. Mozart was broke at the end of his life.
6. Mozart's father never actually approved of Mozart's marriage.
7. Mozart was said to have had tourettes syndrome, which would lead to his compulsive swearing.



FICTION:
1. Amadeus showed Mozart to be a heavy drinker, especially towards the end of his life.  In reality, while Mozart did enjoy drinking, he rarely consumed alcohol.  Mozart's favorite drink was punch, which he drank in large quantities.
2. In the movie, it showed Mozart die with his eyes open. But in actuality, it is said that he slipped into unconsciousness and never awoke, which would lead to him dying with his eyes closed.
3. Salieri was not with Mozart when he died.  The people present were Constanze, her sister, and a doctor.
4. Mozart didn't just have one child; he had six.
5. Constanze, Mozart's wife, did not attend Mozart's funeral.  It was held two days after his death, and she was too distraught.
6. Salieri was not the man behind the mask who asked Mozart to write the Requiem.  It was actually the servant of a rich man who planned to claim to have written the Requiem.
7.  Salieri is confessing to murdering Mozart by poisoning him. It was a rumor during the 1820s, but was never proven.  Mozart was said to have died from a fever.

http://www.moviemistakes.com/film1755/corrections


http://mozartsmusic.blogspot.com/2011/05/amadeus-fact-and-fiction.html



www.jimloy.com/movie/amadeus.htmhttp://

This!... Is!.. KOLKATA!

The Black Hole of Kolkata was a pretty shady place. It's where they placed prisoners that did not deserve to live. It's where they left mortal souls to suffer. It was feared by the masses.

The name "Kolkatā" (and the anglicised name "Calcutta") has its roots in Kalikatā, one of the three villages (Kalikatā, Sutanuti, Govindapur) that existed in the area before the city was established by the British.  "Kalikata", in turn, is believed to be a version of Kalikshetra (Bengali: কালীক্ষেত্র, Kalikkhetro) literally meaning "Land of [the goddess] Kāli".  And as we all know, goddesses are always evil.  Because they are women. But anyway, the Black Hole of Calcutta was a dark place where many dark and evil activites took place. For example people that got stuck in it had to wash dirty clothes and drink lava from the same cup. As the group of people who survived described, there were camels with eights bumps on the back and with every bump they could carry three and a half people by the left leg. If they refused to be carried the camel would bite their left leg and carry them by left hand. Camels would stop every five minutes and asked them if they could move their body, just to check if they are still in the bumps. In the famous square-town  the prisoners had to stab stone monuments. Were they given a chisel and hammer? No. They received plastic butter knives. If one was to break their butter knife, the camels would once again return. Darn those camels, with their eight humps large enough to fit three people into. After stabbing the stone monuments, the prisoners of Calcutta would have to eat TACKS. But just not any tacks.. Rusty tacks dipped in demon blood. We suspect the demon to look a little something like this:



The demon goes by the name of Ktulu. He was a product of the BP Oil Spill of ancient times. The spill had opened up another dimension, allowing Ktulu to roam freely right to Calcutta. The great demon terrorized the prisoners. He'd put them into laundry detergent and give them a lovely flower scent. No prisoner enjoys smelling like flowers. But as was said in the above paragraphs; some prisoners survived these torturous activities, and lived to tell the tale.

Just kidding! The above entry was entirely fictional. We're sorry to disappoint. As dark and evil as it may sound, the Black Hole of Calcutta was actually just a small room where troops of the Nawab of Bengal held British prisoners of war. It was not just a room, though. It was a tiny room, where they crammed roughly 150 people. Most of them died from exhaustion and dehydration, although some of them did live and are not still alive today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hole_of_Calcutta

We All Live on a Yellow Submarine

The concept of an underwater boat has roots deep in antiquity. Although there are images of men using hollow sticks to breathe underwater for hunting at the temples at Thebes, the first known military use is of divers being used to clear obstructions during the siege of Syracuse (about 413 BC), according to the History of the Peloponnesian War. At the siege of Tyre in 332 BC divers were again used by Alexander the Great, according to Aristotle. Later legends from Alexandria, Egypt, in the 12th century AD suggested that he had used a primitive submersible for reconnaissance missions. This seems to have been a form of diving bell, and was depicted in a 16th-century Islamic painting.


                                          

A 16th-century Islamic painting depicting Alexander the Great being lowered in a glass submersible.


The first version of a submarine came from the mind of William Bourne, an English manager for an inn and magnificent scientist. He was an English mathematician, innkeeper and former Royal Navy gunner who invented the first navigable submarine and wrote important navigational manuals. He is often called William Bourne of Gravesend. His design, detailed in his book Inventions and Devises published in 1578, was one of the first recorded plan for an underwater navigation vehicle. He designed an enclosed craft capable of submerging by decreasing the overall volume (rather than flooding chambers as in modern submarines), and being rowed underwater. Bourne described a ship with a wooden frame covered in waterproofed leather, but the description was a general principle rather than a detailed plan. However, Bourne's concept of an underwater rowing boat was put into action by the Dutchman Cornelius Drebbel in 1620, and Nathaniel Symons demonstrated a 'sinking boat' in 1729 using the expanding and contracting volume of the boat to submerge. The submarine was the subject of a modern-day recreation on season 3 of "The Re-Inventors" TV show, episode "Bourne Submarine". The recreation had limited functionality before it sank when water pressure ruptured some membranes on a test descent.


                                       
Some years later, this drawing purported to be Bourne's scheme: leather-wrapped pads which can be screwed in toward the centerline to create a flooded chamber, and screwed out to expel the water and seal the opening.

However, Bourne wrote of expanding and contracting structures, not flooding chambers – and submarines built in England in 1729 and France in 1863 conformed with his idea exactly.

You may not know, but in the time of William Bourne, the song Yellow Submarine was written. It was not an original by the Beatles. Here's the original excerpt of William Bourne's poem.
In the town where Willy was born,
Lived a man who sailed to sea, (The poet was actually talking about William Bourne here)
And he told us of his life,
In the land of submarines,
So he made some blue prints
Near the sea with submarines,

He made the first model out of steel
then used the color on the leaves
cause he was color blind
and saw the sea green,

So after his first model sank
he lived beneath the waves,
In his green submarine.

Vikings

                                              The Vikings were savages

I am not quite sure of the history of the Vikings, and neither is the internet, but I percieve that the vikings were pillagers who had no pity. They ransacked towns, killing just about everyone who did not comply with their demands. They were large men, closely related to barbarians.

The noun viking comes from Old Norse, meaning "expedition overseas".

They travelled much by sea, using longships and knarrs.

                 
               
Longships were used for warfare and exploration, designed for speed and agility. The longship had oars stick out from its side, which were rowed by strong men.

                              
The knarr was mostly used for cargo, even though they were some times used for warfare.


According to custom, all free Norse men were required to own weapons, as well as permitted to carry them all the time. These arms were also indicative of a Viking's social status: a wealthy Viking would have a complete ensemble of a helmet, shield, chainmail shirt, and sword. A typical bóndi was more likely to fight with a spear and shield, and most also carried a seax as a utility knife and side-arm. Bows were used in the opening stages of land battles, and at sea, but tended to be considered less "honorable" than a hand weapon. Vikings were relatively unusual for the time in their use of axes as a main battle weapon. The Húscarls, the elite guard of King Cnut were armed with two-handed axes which could split shields or metal helmets with
ease.

Even though Vikings were savages, they had feelings.  They expressed their emotions with music, whether it was through chants for sacrifices, or songs played on the lyre with a lively tune. Foreigners thought of their music as ugly. An Arab merchant visiting Hereby, Denmark, in the 10th century had this to say about the Viking's singing: "Never before I have heard uglier songs than those of the Vikings in Slesvig (in Denmark). The growling sound coming from their throats reminds me of dogs howling, only more untamed." Another visitor compared their singing to the sound of a heavily loaded cart rolling down a hillside. The storyteller explains the sound was a result of lack of moderation in contact with alcohol. (Obviously, even back then, beer and brass music obviously went well together.) 

There were two kinds of musicians back in viking times: Jesters and Skalds. Jesters were held in low regards, as they were commonly used for humor and court. You could kill a jester and not recieve punishment for the activity. Skalds travelled all around viking territory, singing to the viking chiefs and kings of the realm.

In conclusion, vikings were very vile creatures(Arghhhh!) who killed many and ransacked lots of land, but they still had a heart that held beautiful(not really) viking songs that made their lives worthwhile.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking

Music is awesome

During our music appreciation class we listened to different types of musics in different Eras. For example we listened to the Modern type music, Classical period, Romantic period, Renaissance period, and Medieval period. I really enjoyed listening to all these different types of music especially the Classical and Medieval period. Classical music has a peaceful and exciting kind of feeling , although sometimes it has a very thick texture or multiple melodies at once, I still think it shares a little bit of the same sensation in itself.
In my opinion some of the best samples of music in this era are: Symphony No.9 by Beethoven and Symphony No.35 by Mozart.
Medieval period music was good and fun to listen to. In this era instruments weren't used very much because people didn't have different types of them like todays. So they used their voices to make different sounds as an instrument in the background or made harmony with the voice of the singer. This is exactly what Louis Armstrong did in 40s and 50s when in the middle of the song everybody stopped and he grabbed the old microphone and started making sounds like "Ba bam da doraab.." or how he started the song "When you're smilling"
I think one of the best examples of Medieval period is "Sumer is Icumen In" (This is not the original version and its a bit faster) Yes this song reminds us of old men with long white beard walking down the road in a jogging way and singing this song! This was actually made after the time when in Europe the weather was so cold that farmers couldn't grow anything and people were hungry and you can tell that these people were happy that summer was coming. (Quote from Mr.Allder: Life sucked for these people for a long time so they're happy that its summer! - you're the best)
Finally we listened to an ancient Greek music called "Seikilos epitaph" (It starts at 00:20).It is the oldest example of music that survived. I was really excited to listen to it cause I wanted to hear in which ways their music in old days were different than the other times and eras. The texture is very thin in this song because we have only the string instrument and the voice of the singer. Also the string instrument has harmony with the singer whenever she starts to sing. I think it is really cool that Greek had developed a musical system in the third or fourth century.