Musical Styles

Musical Styles

Getting Started

Warmer: Try asking Siri or Google…

• •What is a genre?

• •What is a music genre?

• •What is a convention?

Open Ended

What is the definition of a genre?

Open Ended

What is the deinfition of a music genre?

Open Ended

What is the definition of a convention?

Definitions

• Genre – a style or category of art, music, literature etc.

• Music Genre – A conventional category that identifies music or songs as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions

• Convention – A way in which something is usually done

So a music genre is a style of music. It’s a group of songs that are made the same way, sound similar and/or share the same features…

But what are these features?

We can all agree that this...

Sounds different to this...

But Why?

• What is the difference between them?

• True they sound different and feel different, they have a different vibe

• But we need to be more specific when analysing music

• We need to be able to explain HOW and WHY they sound different

• And we do that by breaking music down into it's elements

Musical Elements

The Reason behind variety in music

Structure

This is how the sections of the song are arranged.

Songs usually have verses, choruses, pre-choruses, bridges, intros and outros.

These are it's sections and the order of these varies from song to song.

Multiple Choice

What do you think the structure of this song is?

• Chorus, Verse, Pre Chorus, Chorus, Verse, Pre Chorus, Chorus, Verse, Pre Chorus, Chorus

• Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Chorus

• Verse, Pre Chorus, Chorus, Verse, Pre Chorus, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus

• Intro, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus, Chorus

Instrumentation

This refers to the instruments or sounds used in a song.

Some genres, like rock, use recordings of live instruments where as others use electronic sounds made using software, like Hip Hop.

Open Ended

What instruments can you hear in this song?

Rhythm

This covers the speed or BPM of the song.

It also coveres the time signature or how many beats are in a bar.

It also coveres the rhythmic patterns within a song.

Multiple Choice

Tap along to this. What do you think the BPM (beats per minute) of this song is?

• 120 beats per minute

• 200 beats per minute

• 80 beats per minute

• 60 beats per minute

Subject Matter & Lyrical Content

• Subject matter is what the song is actually about

• Lyrical content is what is contained within the lyrics. You can talk about the type of language used and they style of writing

• Sometimes the subject matter is very straight forward, sometimes you have to work hard to understand the meaning of the song

Open Ended

Listen to and read the lyrics. What do you think this song is about?

Tone

This is all about the emotion or the feeling behind the song.

Think about what the artist was trying to get across when they wrote the song...

As well as how it makes you feel - this will give you a good idea of the tone

Open Ended

What do you think the tone of this song is? What emotion(s) did the singer feel when writing it?

Production Effects

This is the effects and edits that have been made to the song by the producer in the studio

These usually happen after the song has been recorded

These days, these effects are added using software

Multiple Choice

What is the main production effect being used on the vocals on this song?

• Hyperspeed

• Panning

• Autotune

• Pitch Shifter

Your Project

• Going forward, your new modules are Music Style in Context and Composing Music (Styles)

• For these, you need to choose a genre of music to focus on

• Choose something that you like as you're going to be doing a lot of listening and composing in this style

• You're going to learn how to analyse your style with Kirsty and then put the things you've learned into practice with your compositions

Choosing a Genre

There are thousands of genres to choose from

If you're not yet sure what you want to do, go to www.musicmap.info to explore some genres

Tips

• You can have any genre you like except...

• Pop - the word 'pop' doesn't actually tell us anything about music. It tells us that this type of song was produced to be 'popular' and sell records

• You can choose a specific sub-genre of pop like folk-pop, K-pop or Pop-rock as these have specific musical characteristics

• Indie - 'indie' doesn't tell us about musical characteristics either. It just tells us that the music has not beed released through a major label, rather an 'independent' one which is where the name comes from!

Finally...

One last Question!

Open Ended

Which genre of music are you going to study for this project?

Remember, don't choose pop or indie - this will make your life very difficult!