Conforming the Non-Conformist
Defining my Artistic Identity and Genre Style
Defining my musical style and genre is something that I have always had issues with, to put it in a box or pigeonhole, marking myself as some sort of artistic stereotype. It seems too conforming and doesn’t allow for growth and change as an artist. Definition of my musical style is electronica in a fusion of genres or collision of musical styles, with bass heavy beats, mesmerising repetitive melodies and ethereal vocals. Through recent reflection I have uncovered many similarities of my music with the genre Trip-hop, not only musically but also with the reluctance to be categorised and the socio-political, anti-establishment views. Just like Trip-hop, the genre Grunge also shared this angst of classification, was a fusion of musical styles or genres, with socio-political and anti-establishment opinions. Both these genres were a great influence musically during my lifetime. How do these compare with my own non-conformist and anti-establishment, socio-political ideologies? I believe that your Artistic Identity is formed through elements of your musical style or sound, techniques, tools or medium of creative practice and your Socio-political positioning. Why is categorisation of music into a Genre so important, and who benefits from it, the artist, the industry or the audience? Is it important for your artistic identity?
In this work I will contextualise my contribution to the music industry, comparing my music to the Trip-hop genre in relation to style, production and genre elements. I will discuss the socio-political influences of the genre and compare these with the socio-political influences of the Grunge genre and the similarities between my two musical influences and my own socio-political influences. I will finalise with if or why categorisation of music is important, and is this relevant to the artist, audience or industry, and reflect on whether this research has made me conform to a genre. This work will enable a development in my creative intentions and gain further understanding of the theoretical positions that support my creative practice, justifying my position in the arts and cultural communities and demonstrating my artistic identity.
This section will compare my musical works to Trip-hop in relation to style, production and genre elements, contextualising my contribution to the music industry. The fusion of Hip-hop and Reggae genres are the roots of the genre Trip-hop, bred out of the sound system culture of migrant city, Bristol. (Wragg. N.d, p.1). Pioneering the way was Massive Attack with album Blue Lines, released in 1991. Blue Lines was a fusion of Hip-hop, Reggae and Soul with beautiful vocals and strings. Similar to my music, an example is album Fractured (link https://soundcloud.com/orthentix/sets/fractured-full-album) which is a fusion of my musical influences of Hip-hop and Breakbeats with ethereal melodies and harmonies inspired from my musical journey of classical and African Marimba music, in an electronic format, bred out of the outdoor festival scene, in the cultural melting pot of Australia. Both Reggae and the instrument Marimba are born from African roots. The similarities continue with Hip-hop being the basis for the production techniques and Dj-ing the tool to reach the audience with both my music and the genre Trip-hop. We also share similar production techniques and applications of in the box studios and collaboration. An example of this is seen in my major musical influences like Massive Attack, whose engineer is a member of Portishead and Gorillaz collaboration with Little Dragon. The groups themselves work like individuals collaborating rather than like a band cohesively.
Jeff Wragg states that the three elements of the Trip-hop genre are a producer led outfit, opaque mediation and intertextuality. An individual or a core group of two or three people composing and producing the music is what makes a Producer Led Outfit, with the focus being an interaction between humans and technology compared with the model of music making which was socially with interaction between either a band or producers, arrangers and musicians. (Wragg. 2016, p. 43.). The application I use to music making is also with an interaction with technology, being a Producer Led Outfit myself. Wragg further explains the technological processes in recording; editing and processing sound are described as Mediation. Opaque Mediation is allowing these technological processes to show through the production almost highlighting the technological medium, unlike Transparent Mediation, which endeavours to harbour the medium that sculpted the sound. (Wragg. 2016, p. 43.). Trip-hop artists take this use of Opaque Mediation to extremes with emphasising and magnifying the aural trademark of pre digital processes that were alluded to be overlooked, such as the crackling of a vinyl record, separating media from its source and applying it in a new digital context, explained as ‘schizophonic experimentation’ by Brøvig-Hanssen. Exaggerated time stretching of audio, extreme edits and creation of unique spaces with unusual reverb applications. Evidence of Opaque Mediation is a consistency in Trip-hop production making it a main element of the genre. (Wragg. 2016, p. 44.). The use of Opaque mediation in forms of time stretching and unique reverb applications are consistent in my productions identifiable in song Fractured (link https://soundcloud.com/orthentix/01-fractured). Wragg describes Intertextuality as a form of sampling, either of another work as a quotation or reference to that particular artists or musical style, or the cultural or historical context of that musical work. Noted in Portishead’s use of Mission Impossible sample in song Sour Times, possibly unnoticeable to a regular audience. (Wragg. 2016, p. 44.). “Intertextual references are common throughout trip hop and not only reference other works but also other styles, periods and cultures” (Wragg. 2016, p. 44.). The use of Intertextuality is a common trait in my music, with use of referencing other cultures, in this example Japanese culture and the artform and philosophy of Kintsukuroi, heard in song The Wrap Around (link https://soundcloud.com/orthentix/08-the-wrap-around). Each of these Genre specific elements that mould the Trip-hop genre are comparable if not equivalent to my own productions and artistic practices. I am a Producer Led Outfit and use Opaque Mediations and Intertextuality in my musical productions.
Analysis of musical style normally focuses on the three elements; form, rhythm and harmony, explains Danielsen and Brøvig-Hanssen. Though Trip-hop can be ambiguous when it comes to these elements as is a fusion of several other styles of music, therefore is analysed by the way Trip-hop artists shape the sounds and spectral space of their works. (Brøvig-Hanssen and Danielsen. 2013, p.71.). Wragg defines Trip-hop as an umbrella genre and breaks it down to three sub genres, instrumental Hip-Hop, the Bristol sound. (Wragg. 2016, p. 44.). The two sub genres that I am focused on comparison with are the Bristol sound, artists including Portishead and Massive Attack and post Trip-hop, artists including Little Dragon and Gorillaz. Wragg goes onto explain that the three elements to analyse these sonic and spectral manipulations of the three different movements in Trip-hop are: Gestural Surrogacy, Spectra and Spartimophology. (Wragg. 2016, p. 45–47.). To analyse the Gestural Surrogacy Wragg defines the terms of analysis;
First order surrogacy refers to sonic objects outside the traditional musical structure: sounds that are not intended for musical use though we can recognise both the source and gesture. Second order surrogacy describes traditional instrumental/ vocal activity where an acknowledged performance skill is employed: the source and the gesture can be recognised. Third order surrogacy describes sound whose source and/or gesture is unknown: the relationship between sound, source and gesture is ambiguous. Remote surrogacy refers to the remnants of gesture when human interaction disappears completely: source and gesture are unknown. (Wragg. 2016, p. 45.).
Gestural Surrogacy’s of the second and third order are the common traits of post Trip-hop. Known instruments encompass the arrangement of the work with unknown instruments or textures illuminating periodically, with intention of decoration. The Bristol sound also uses Gestural Surrogacy to the second and third order but with a functional intention rather than decorative, as in these sounds encompass the arrangement of the work and without them the arrangement would sound fundamentally different. (Wragg. 2016, p. 45.). I can compare to both Trip-hop movements in relation to Gestural Surrogacy, at times I use it with functional intent, heard in the main synth in song Fractured (https://soundcloud.com/orthentix/01-fractured) and also with intent to decorate periodically as heard in song cracked golden with a weird bird flute texture (link https://soundcloud.com/orthentix/05-cracked-golden). The Spectra element of inharmonic saturation in post Trip-hop is clean and natural sounding with little use of inharmonic saturation whereas the Bristol sound uses inharmonic saturation as a main tool in processing of the spectra of instruments, distorting timbre noticeably, blending noise with note. The post Trip-hop style in relation to treatment of spectral space is with opaque density, compared to the Bristol sound with treatment of a transparent density to their spectral space. (Wragg. 2016, p. 46–47.). The method I use in the application id spectra would be similar to the post Trip-hop style with a clean and natural treatment of timbres and opaque density in regard to my processing of spectral space as heard in song Broken (link https://soundcloud.com/orthentix/03-broken). When analysing the Spartimophology, post Trip-hop employs the use of a single spatial setting while the Bristol sound uses spatial simultaneity, where the sounds are set in contradictory surreal spaces. (Wragg. 2016, p. 48.). To analyse the use of Spartimophology is my works, they use the same method of spatial simultaneity of the Bristol sound as heard in song Nothingness, with each instrument and vocal situated in its unique space (link https://soundcloud.com/orthentix/02-nothingness). To summarise style in comparison to my own works, I employ style of both the Bristol sound and post Trip-hop movements, as both are musical inspirations of mine. Mark Ronson compares musical influences and techniques of contemporary production; “We live in a post sampling era, we take the things that we love and we build on them. When we add something significant and original and we merge our musical journey to this, then we have a chance to be part of the evolution of that music that we love and be linked with it to become something new” (Ronson, M. 2014.). This section has reviewed the three key aspects of Trip-hop in relation to style, production and genre elements; through comparison to my own works I have contextualised my musical contribution to the music industry.
Moving on now to consider the Socio-political influences of the genre in comparison with my own socio-political influences. The socio-political influences behind the genre of Trip-hop are related directly to the Jamaican/Caribbean culture, post slave trade fused with the blue-collar punk influences in cultural melting pot of city Bristol, with music being the source of connections and socialisation. Both movements had anti-establishment views with beliefs in freedom of speech and freedom of expression and a do-it-yourself attitude seen in both movements, noticeable in Punk fanzines and bricollage, and the home-made speaker stacks of the Jamaican sound system scene. When the Hip-hop influence arrived from American migrants the recipe for Trip-hop was complete. (Wragg. N.d, p.1–4.). Likewise growing up in Australia, which is now is also a cultural melting pot, in a mixed race town, most of the population indigenous and has suffered oppression much like the Caribbean migrants in Bristol. This is where my musical influence of Hip-hop and my anti-establishment views were formed. The term Trip-hop has been consistently rejected by pioneers of the genre, like Massive Attack and Portishead, due to a reluctance of categorisation or stereotyping of music. Theorists believe due to sub-genre naming as cultural appropriation and a corporate merchandising strategy. (Wragg. 2016, p, 40–42.). An example of this is with Gorillaz virtual band highlighting the false idolism of celebrities, rebelling music being used as a merchandising or marketing strategy. Grunge was another musical influence, born out a fusion of Punk and Metal genres, also sharing same of these socio-political, anti-establishment views, with an opposition to categorisation of music as a commercial object, Strong explains. An example of this is the many Grunge bands feuding with their corporate record companies over artistic choices. (Strong. 2011, p, 43–44.). I too share these do-it-yourself attitude to my art with creation of all material and content made by myself or by collaboration with other artists in my close community, and a reluctance of my music to be categorised or stereotyped. Grunge music also had a socio-political view of gender equality and feminism; Strong explains “the prominent male figures of grunge, such as Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder, were vocal in their support of tolerance and equality, not just for women but also races and sexualities other than white heterosexuals. Kurt Cobain in particular enjoyed playing with gender roles, by often wearing dresses and/or make-up on stage, in film clips and on photo shoots, and wrote explicitly feminist songs” (Strong. 2011, p, 108.). Evidence of this is in Cobain lyrics in songs About a Girl and Polly. Strong further explains that women participated more creatively at this time with bands like The Pixies and Sonic Youth, and all female groups L7, Dickless and Babes in Toyland. (Strong. 2011, p, 109.). This socio-political stance on Feminism is a common thread in my creative practice, with females being misrepresented in the field of electronic music production, “in the field of music production and engineering, fewer than 5% of all professional producers and engineers are women and, overall, only six females have ever been nominated for best producer at the Brits and Grammys combined; none have won the prize” (Patel. 2015.), it’s hard to find acceptance from others in the field, with “Female Dj’s being labelled either a gimmick or a token” (Hancock. 2011.). Rodgers explains technology and music have been considered male domains, deeply rooted in gender stereotyping; she aims to re-write this history of electronic music with a Feminist intervention. (Rodgers. 2010, p, 2.). This is a massive influence on my work, to create feminine sounding music and have an authentic feminine voice in the electronic music industry is a constant thought at the time of creation. The topic of female power also ripples into my musical themes; heard in song Kunoichi Spirit (link https://soundcloud.com/orthentix/kunoichi-spirit) showing feminism as a strong political influence to my artistic identity. So far this paper has focused on the socio-political similarities in the Grunge and Trip-hop genres in comparison with my own socio-political influences and contextualised my works in the music industry through comparison with the Trip-hop genre in relation to style, production and genre elements, therefore demonstrating my artistic identity. The following section will discuss whether this research has changed my decision on conforming to a genre.
The view of reluctance to be categorised into a genre was a common similarity between my musical influences, and myself after recent reflection my opinions have changed, as genre is important to link artists with audiences, with industries being the link. Negus explains an industry produces culture and culture produces an industry. (Negus. 1999, p, 14.). Fabbri defines genre as a set of musical events that follow codifications and rules, acknowledged by a community including; musicians, artists, critics, managers, producers, engineers, writers, publicists and audience, therefore creators and those connected to organising, distributing and lining this to audience or consumers. (Fabbri. 1981, p, 6–8.). Genre is therefore important for the industry, audience and artist, to gain access to a community who enrol in your works and to define your artistic identity, within a field or community, leading me to conform to the genre Trip-hop.
Throughout this work I have identified my Artistic Identity in relation to production, style, socio-political views and genre, conforming to the electronica genre Trip-hop, redefining how my work is located in the field of music and production, supporting the theoretic position of my creative practice and justifying my position in the arts and cultural communities.
References:
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