Vaporwave

 It's kinda hard to explain. Lemme just show it to you.

Uh... It's very creative XD

A bit of History:

Vaporwave is a musical genre that emerged in the early 2010s from indie dance genres such as seapunk, bounce house, or chillwave.  Although there is much ambiguity in its attitude and message, Vaporwave often serves as both a review and parody of consumerist society, '80s yuppie culture and New Age music. It was first characterized by its heavy use of music samples from '80s and '90s music. Usually lounge, smooth jazz or Muzak. Samples are most often pitched, layered or altered in classic chopped and screwed style.

Visual imagery associated with vaporwave includes things like glitch art, Renaissance sculptures, 90s web design and outmoded computer renderings. Use of Japanese characters and other non western symbols are also prominent. 

Facts and Criticism:

Vaporwave has been interpreted as a dystopian critique of capitalism.

Christian Ward of Stylus.com said that "vaporwave is a reflection of soulless techno-corporatism."

Some people love this style while others find it confusing, if not outright creepy. 

Opinion :D

When I first heard Vaporwave, my reaction was along the lines of "....wat." I found it confusing and odd. After researching a bit for this project, I began to grasp the ideas behind it. Though I wouldn't listen to this in my free time, I still think Vaporwave is an interesting and psychedelic. 

Bibliography:

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

Tuvan Throat Singing

Most people can sing one note at a time, but these people can sing clear, multiple notes at once!

Back TUVA Future: Ondar in Vladivostok

A Bit of History:
The Art of Mongolian Throat singing  reaches very far back, and seems to have arisen because of the geographic location. The open plains of Mongolia allows for the sound to carry a great distance. The world view of this region identifies the spirituality of things in nature, not just in their shape or place, but in their sound as well. Human mimicry of the sounds in nature is seen as the root of throat singing. An example is the Mongolian story of the waterfall above the Buyan Gol or "Deer River", where mysterious harmonic sounds are said to have attracted deer to bask in the waters, and where harmonic sounds were first revealed to people. Often, singers will even travel far into the countryside, looking for the right environment  for throat singing. 

While the many cultures of this region share throat singing, their styles differ in width of development.


Facts and Criticism:
Women have started to throat sing, since the superstitions of female throat singing are slowly being abolished.

 Tuvan throat singing is sort of similar to another ancient form of vocal polyphony that is practiced by the Sardinian, called cantu a tenore. 

Criticism varies, with some people claiming it sounds awesome to to others saying it sounds like complete garbage. 


Opinion :D
 Personally, I think it's pretty cool how people have blended Tuvan throat singing with modern-ish sounding styles. However, I think the culture and origins of throat singing are pretty awesome, and they should definitely be regarded with respect no matter your opinion on how the music itself sounds.

Bibliography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuvan_throat_singing

Kongar-Ol Ondar - Tuva Groove

Fantasy Metal

SIR CHRISTOPHER LEE SINGING SYMPHONIC METAL. THIS IS A THING. 

THE WORLD IS BEAUTIFUL.

            *Ahem* Sorry for that. But as a Metal and LoTR fan, this video makes me so happy.

A bit of History

*"Fantasy metal is a less-popular alias for Epic metal, both tags refer to the metal bands with fantastic or mythological lyrical themes."

As said in the quote, Fantasy/Epic metal is a sub-genre of the popular style of Metal, who's songs and lyrics dabble in magic, fantasy and mythology. It's never been very popular (only among the most hardcore of nerds, whoo!), but has always been well rooted in the underground community with a small fan base and a few record labels. 

Fantasy/Epic Metal originated in the late seventies and eighties in America and Europe. It apparently got its name when Mark Shelton, leader of the band Manilla Road was asked the question of what type of music his band plays, and he replied "Epic metal."

Facts and Criticism

A lot of Fantasy metal bands are neck-deep in Tolkien lore.

Tons of mainstream Metal bands have touched the Fantasy Metal genre at least once (Led Zepplin, Black Sabbath, Rush...)

Of course, plenty of people think this genre of music is goofy and bad because they're too uncultured after listening to their rap and hip hop to know good music. Haters Gonna Hate! 

Opinion :D

Probably one of my favorite genres of music. I find it interesting that Metal, a music usually thrashy, dark and "hardcore," can be influenced so much by themes that are usually considered "nerdy."

Bibliography 

*Here's where I got the quote: http://www.last.fm/tag/fantasy%20metal

The wiki was in Spanish and the translation was pretty rough. It was really hard to try and fish out information that made sense >.<: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_metal

Whoo!

 Black MIDI

Have you ever wanted to listen to a song with hundreds of thousands of notes? Well now you can, with Black MIDI!

"Bad Apple" by TheSuperBarioBros2 has 4.6 MILLION Notes! Insane!

 A bit of History
Blacked Musical Notation, aka Black MIDI, is a recording of music that uses Musical Instrumental Digital Interface files (MIDI files) so dense with notes that it literally appears to be back (or, in this video's case, a rainbow tossed into a blender). The first Black midi song was uploaded on April 30, 2009 by a person on Nico Nico Douga, who's name is 白鷺ゆっきー@黒雪ごはん (Shirasagi Yukki @ Kuro Yuki Gohan). It was a remix of the Japanese video game Touhou Project 6's song "U.N Owen Was Her?". 

Black MIDI's main popularity was in Japan, China, and Korea, but was not known in the East until sometime in 2010. A South Korean Youtube user posed a Black MIDI song mistakenly titled "John Stump- Death Waltz." The wrongly titled video created a considerable amount of confusion, especially in the East. Consequently, it made Touhou fans and 'okatus' enraged at the misuse of the name.


Trivia and Criticism
According to several articles, Black MIDI is "a normal MIDI file that consists of millions of notes," though the majority of them have less than a million notes. 

Gawker claimed that Black MIDIs are "insane but totally mesmerizing robot music," (Heck yes!)

Some people hate Black MIDI, and call it "garbage," "rubbish" or "noise." Others claim it's racist because there's "Black" in the title. Really guys, really?

Opinion :D
Personally, I think Black MIDI is awesome. The thousands of notes are as mesmerizing as the presentation itself. I could literally stare at a Black MIDI video all day, immersed by the barrage of sound and colour.  


Bibliography:
http://impossible-music.wikia.com/wiki/Blackened_musical_notation

Aaaand check out this Youtube channel if you love music, It's also where I got a lot of my infornation: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnc8DxbEb6rzOCk3vea8wrw

:3

In this blog, I will be exploring eight different styles of music that I personally find the most interesting, different, or just plain weird. This will range from the cultural background to the history behind it, to the way it sounds. I chose this topic because I love music. Well, I love good music. It is a beautiful and powerful form of art, capable of invoking emotions to the point of bringing us to tears, and stimulating the mind--enough to drive people to kill. There are dozens, if not hundreds of styles of music, some good and some outright terrible. 

Hopefully, you will not find any of the styles I choose terrible. If you do, please feel free to express why you don't like them in the comments, as long as it's profanity free and you use valid points, not just "Tht stile suks lol." After all, you only make yourself look silly when you do that. I won't be focusing solely on the music I like, (so for those of you who don't like Rock or Metal, don't worry), though I will express my opinion on the genre. I aim to explore styles from all angles of the spectrum, so no matter your taste, perhaps you'll find a genre you can genuinely enjoy.