Music >> Education >> Contemporary Music April, 02 2021
Contemporary music is any style of music that is current or modern, addressing current issues in a manner that is appealing to the current audience. The manner of appeal may involve fusing more than one original music style together. However, it should be noted that contemporary music takes advantage of the technological development of the era.
In the early 1900s, trendy contemporary music styles took advantage of the invention of the television. In the same manner, contemporary music in this day and age is taking advantage of social media, mass media, and every available avenue to propagate its ideology.Based on the aforementioned points, you can tell what contemporary music is. First, it is any form of music that is current or modern. Second, it is created based on current issues. Finally, it takes advantage of the current technological development.
When did contemporary music start?
The contemporary music period is said to have followed the modern music period. It is said to be from the late 1900s to the present day. It is safe to say contemporary music started in the early 1900s. This is considering that no musical era develops in isolation, as the preceding and other previous eras are likely to influence it. Also, the emergence of any music era is a gradual process. So, rather than saying contemporary music started around 1945, the 1900s will turn out a better way to answer the question.
What were the early features of contemporary music?
The major early features of contemporary music were the use of dissonance, merging music styles, and experimenting new approach to music. Minimalism, postmodernism, serialism, are subcategories of contemporary music that was explored in the early years.
Contemporary artists in the early days were known for making use of dissonance. They also violated a lot of the musical laws that existed for ages.
What music style is contemporary music?
Contemporary music has no particular music style. It was a term that referred to the period rather than the style of music engaged. As a result, you cannot outrightly say it was patterned in a particular manner.
However, somethings were evident across most forms of contemporary music. First, it allowed the synergy of more than one original music style. Many Afro-American music styles fall into this category.
Secondly, the use of dissonance became the order of the day for some contemporary music genres. For instance, the use of the once unconventional blue notes came to be.
Lastly, contemporary music allowed its artist to violate age-long musical laws. Many of these new approaches were opposed especially to classical music.
The bottom line is that contemporary music was mainly about the period and not the style of music engaged. It wasn’t restricted to any music form. This is as long as they were released within the stated period. Pop, jazz, funk, and rock are examples of musical styles that were termed as contemporary music.
What are the Characteristics of Contemporary Music?
The characteristics of contemporary music include the following:
1. The use of dissonant harmonies.
2. The use of uncommon and/or complex rhythms.
3. More use of brass and percussion instruments.
4. Use of electronically created and synthetic sounds.
Firstly, although contemporary music makes use of harmonies, many times it is dissonant. This is intended to give the music an unusual sound, eliciting various reactions by the audience. You see a lot of these in rock, metal, and electric music.
Secondly, the complexity of many contemporary music beats make it very different from classical and many indigenous music. Although it may draw musical resource from indigenous music, it is steps ahead in terms of rhythmic complexity. This ensures that it is not as predictable as many classical music pieces.
Thirdly, there is hardly any contemporary music style that plays down the importance of percussions in the music. This is one of the highpoints of many styles considered to be contemporary.
Furthermore, contemporary music makes extensive use of electrophones and synthetic sounds from different equipment. For example, using old computer games or PSG, 8-bit sounds can be made to give the music an unusual form, but appealing audience reaction.
Lastly, contemporary music does anything to win the hearts of the audience. This may involve the use of slangs and micmicking recent events.
These are some of the characteristics that can be attributed to contemporary music. However, they might not all be present in all styles or compositions.
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