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Strange music and other unearthly experiments As we may have spotted Fri Aug 01, 2014 8:26 am
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[size=36]As we may have spotted over the years, music takes on many forms. But one form, perhaps we weren't expecting, was when music doesn't sound very musical at all. Here is a celebration of non-conventional music, from four minute silences and various other unearthly experiments.[/size]
Image from gettyimages
Just as art can transcend into absolutely anything, from a traditional Monet painting to Tracey Emin's un-made bed, the same can be said for music. Anything can be music, even, say, not-music. Confused? Alright, it's time to get experimental.
First up, music that doesn't actually require that much sound...
[size=36]Minimalist Music
You know the old phrase, "less is more", right? Well in the New York downtown 60s scene, a bunch of musicians really started to take that sentiment on board.
The idea to enjoy the silence started with a San Francisco underground movement called The New York Hypnotic School. Soon enough, the idea of breaking down music was causing mini ripples all over the US.
Composer Michael Nyman is one of the earliest musicians to play around with the idea - which looks at the way sounds make pulses, and subtlety, rather than say, tunes. Then came along a man called John Cage, who said this...
Image from gettyimages[/size]
[size=36]...and made this.
Entitled "4.33", the clue is in the title what this piece of 'music' is about - John Cage compiling an entire orchestra, the musicians approaching their instruments, and then - the dealbreaker - not actually playing them.
The song did seep into mainstream ears too, when the annual Facebook campaign to keep the current X Factor winner off the Christmas No.1 spot, in a project entitled "Cage Against the Machine" in homage to the previous success of Rage Against the Machine's toppling Joe McElderry in 2009. On this occasion, silence did not fall - but the avant garde experiment certainly brought minimalist music into the limelight. [/size]
Music without music exists in many forms throughout history, with scores of composers choosing instead to read between the lines. Focussing on the algorithms and the nuances of music instead of, well, the actual audio aspects, have inspired art installations and experiments in 'imaginary instruments'. Numerous musicians you may have heard of have experimented with the idea, including Wilco, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and Sigur Rós. During one performance, the rock-duo White Stripes played a gig that consisted of one chord.
That's one way to fill an album, folks.
The idea has indeed helped people with partial deafness get more in touch with their music, focussing on the rhythms instead to get their feet moving.
[size=36]Mainstream goes Strange
The surge of experimental music amplified during a renaissance of electronic music in the 90s - particularly the frightening tunes of Aphex Twin and The Prodigy, who provided whopping controversy for some of their music videos, including Come to Daddy, which portrayed a bunch of psychopathic children with sumperimposed faces terrorising old ladies. The horror movie-esque tunes (which among several subgenres, dubbed 'drill and bass') of Aphex Twin have since been dubbed, " "among the most interesting music ever created with a keyboard and a computer".
Similarly, film-maker David Lynch likes to jump from the avant garde films to his own mad musical offerings, with most of his film's music in his charge.
[/size]
[size=36]The Fluxus Movement
The Fluxus Movement is another bizzare blend of art and music, taking inspiration from the DADAists (a surrealist art movement) from the 60s.
Unlike minimalist music, Fluxus is everything but - incorporating lively and often completely bonkers performance art heavily into the tunes.
Yoko One certainly knows how to ignite a good knees up, shown here inviting members of the audience to cut off her clothes as she sang.
The network of artists that started it off, would do anything from destroying a piano, to..to.. making a salad. Lady Gaga, you have met your delicious match. [/size]
[size=36]When pop goes strange
As well as specialist music movements, the blur between mainstream and avant-garde continues to linger in today's charts.
*Lou Reed makes 'worst album of all time'
Velvet Underground frontman's experiment with the experimental led to nationwide uproar and the most 'returned album of all time', when he made Machine Metal Music, an album full of incomprehensible noises and metallic whirring - making listening to the LP not such a perfect day.
*Jarvis Cocker goes electro-anonymous
After the poptacular days of Pulp, Cocker experimented with a new look (ditching the famous glasses, and opting for a disenfranchised skeleton outfit) and formed a secret band called Relaxed Muscle under the pseudonym "Darren Spooner". Not anyone we'd particular be after spooning though, really. Eventually, their identities were discovered, and Jarvis went back to the beige jackets.
[/size]
[size=36]Do you like your music with a pinch of salt?
Tell us some of your favourites, whilst you gander at our favourite musicians-meet-controversy stories to accompany this deranged lot.
[/size]
Image from gettyimagesJust as art can transcend into absolutely anything, from a traditional Monet painting to Tracey Emin's un-made bed, the same can be said for music. Anything can be music, even, say, not-music. Confused? Alright, it's time to get experimental.
First up, music that doesn't actually require that much sound...
[size=36]Minimalist Music
You know the old phrase, "less is more", right? Well in the New York downtown 60s scene, a bunch of musicians really started to take that sentiment on board.
The idea to enjoy the silence started with a San Francisco underground movement called The New York Hypnotic School. Soon enough, the idea of breaking down music was causing mini ripples all over the US.
Composer Michael Nyman is one of the earliest musicians to play around with the idea - which looks at the way sounds make pulses, and subtlety, rather than say, tunes. Then came along a man called John Cage, who said this...
Image from gettyimages[/size][size=47]If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience.[/size]
[size=36]...and made this.
Entitled "4.33", the clue is in the title what this piece of 'music' is about - John Cage compiling an entire orchestra, the musicians approaching their instruments, and then - the dealbreaker - not actually playing them.
The song did seep into mainstream ears too, when the annual Facebook campaign to keep the current X Factor winner off the Christmas No.1 spot, in a project entitled "Cage Against the Machine" in homage to the previous success of Rage Against the Machine's toppling Joe McElderry in 2009. On this occasion, silence did not fall - but the avant garde experiment certainly brought minimalist music into the limelight. [/size]
Music without music exists in many forms throughout history, with scores of composers choosing instead to read between the lines. Focussing on the algorithms and the nuances of music instead of, well, the actual audio aspects, have inspired art installations and experiments in 'imaginary instruments'. Numerous musicians you may have heard of have experimented with the idea, including Wilco, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and Sigur Rós. During one performance, the rock-duo White Stripes played a gig that consisted of one chord.
That's one way to fill an album, folks.
The idea has indeed helped people with partial deafness get more in touch with their music, focussing on the rhythms instead to get their feet moving.
[size=36]Mainstream goes Strange
The surge of experimental music amplified during a renaissance of electronic music in the 90s - particularly the frightening tunes of Aphex Twin and The Prodigy, who provided whopping controversy for some of their music videos, including Come to Daddy, which portrayed a bunch of psychopathic children with sumperimposed faces terrorising old ladies. The horror movie-esque tunes (which among several subgenres, dubbed 'drill and bass') of Aphex Twin have since been dubbed, " "among the most interesting music ever created with a keyboard and a computer".
Similarly, film-maker David Lynch likes to jump from the avant garde films to his own mad musical offerings, with most of his film's music in his charge.
[/size]
[size=36]The Fluxus Movement
The Fluxus Movement is another bizzare blend of art and music, taking inspiration from the DADAists (a surrealist art movement) from the 60s.
Unlike minimalist music, Fluxus is everything but - incorporating lively and often completely bonkers performance art heavily into the tunes.
Yoko One certainly knows how to ignite a good knees up, shown here inviting members of the audience to cut off her clothes as she sang.
The network of artists that started it off, would do anything from destroying a piano, to..to.. making a salad. Lady Gaga, you have met your delicious match. [/size]
[size=36]When pop goes strange
As well as specialist music movements, the blur between mainstream and avant-garde continues to linger in today's charts.
*Lou Reed makes 'worst album of all time'
Velvet Underground frontman's experiment with the experimental led to nationwide uproar and the most 'returned album of all time', when he made Machine Metal Music, an album full of incomprehensible noises and metallic whirring - making listening to the LP not such a perfect day.
*Jarvis Cocker goes electro-anonymous
After the poptacular days of Pulp, Cocker experimented with a new look (ditching the famous glasses, and opting for a disenfranchised skeleton outfit) and formed a secret band called Relaxed Muscle under the pseudonym "Darren Spooner". Not anyone we'd particular be after spooning though, really. Eventually, their identities were discovered, and Jarvis went back to the beige jackets.
[/size]
[size=36]Do you like your music with a pinch of salt?
Tell us some of your favourites, whilst you gander at our favourite musicians-meet-controversy stories to accompany this deranged lot.
[/size]
- The controversial music video
- The strangest Christmas albums
- The oddest cover versions
