Смешанные музыкальные стили

The theme of the present paper has not been chosen by chance. I have been interested in music for 10 years. Firstly, it was the acquaintance with the ABC of music literacy. Then it was hard work at classical musical compositions. Later on, when a teenager, I became interested in music of modern styles. These styles include the compositions of the genres of mix-style such as Sympho Power Metal, Rap-Core, Smooth Jazz. These styles are interesting with their musical saturation, brightness and completeness.

Smooth Jazz is similar for relaxation. It is a kind of simple music, capable for taking away our thoughts from problems, giving us an opportunity to calm down and relax.

Rap-Core is an energetic which influence a human being according to his first mood. If someone is in a good mood, this music makes it much more better. If someone in a bad mood, this music improves it step by step.

Sympho Power metal is a kind of music which does not depend on anything. On the one hand, it is the music for the soul, on the other hand, it takes the part of a determiner of an urgent matter. It helps to solve personal problems.

In my opinion, all these three styles of modern music are of some importance. Listening to music of different genres I got interested, it is possible to combine these three styles in one which could acquire the peculiarities of the previous three?

The purposes the paper under consideration are:

To collect, analyze and summarize the material about these styles of musical compositions and their representatives;
To try to prove that absolutely different styles of music can be actually combined in harmony in one composition;
To display such a musical track in practical part of this paper.

Mix-styles and perfomers

Sympho Power Metal

The usage of keyboard through traditional piano, power metal-style and to create a special atmosphere is an important part of Nightwish's original music.

Nightwish performs a blend of power metal and symphonic metal. Their music has been described as "bombastic, symphonic and cinematic, with keyboards and strings creating a gothic atmosphere." While the music of Nightwish is "laced with accessible pop sensibilities," the band is also known to be complex and multi-layered. Their approach is epic, theatrical and operatic. Critic Chad Bowar notes that the music is "always very melodic with memorable choruses and a lot of hooks."

Nightwish was early identified as pioneers in the field of female heavy metal vocalists, being laughed at in their early years as they followed bands such as The Gathering and Doro. According to Holopainen, the idea of Nightwish wasn't as brilliant as it may sound - to mix styles of female operatic vocals and metals - but it was a mere coincidence as Turunen was asked into the band while they still were an acoustic project, and then things developed by themselves. The usage of a female vocalist has however become a sort of trademark, though less so since the outbreak of new female fronted metal bands in the mid-2000s with the popularization of bands such as Evanescence, and Within Temptation and several gothic metal bands mixing female and male vocals, such as Tristania, Epica and the early Within Temptation.

An essential part of Nightwish's original sound was the soprano vocals of Tarja Turunen, until her departure from the band in 2005.

Nightwish has also been identified by some critics as a gothic metal act. Bassist and vocalist Marco Hietala describes the band's style as "melodic symphonic gothic metal." Nightwish was perceived to shift from their trademark operatic power metal style for a more "commercial" gothic sound on their albums Century Child and Once. The music of Nightwish had been "distinguished by the operatic voice" of soprano Tarja Turunen,a "charismatic frontwoman with a powerful voice". Critics observed that her vocals became less operatic with the release of Once. Following the departure of Tarja Turunen from the group, Nightwish left behind the "signature operatic vocals" of their earlier albums.

While the music of Nightwish is centered around a female lead singer, the band has also featured some male vocals on their albums ever since their debut release Angels Fall First. This debut album also included "elements of folk music and ambience" that were discarded on their subsequent album Oceanborn. Their 2007 release Dark Passion Play featured a return to folk metal territory with the songs "The Islander" and "Last of the Wilds".

Nightwish is a Finnish symphonic power metal band, formed in 1996 in Kitee, Finland. The band has sold more than 4 million CDs, DVDs and online material internationally.

Although Nightwish has been prominent in their home country since the release of their first single, “The Carpenter” (1997) and debut album Angels Fall First, they did not achieve worldwide fame until the release of the albums Oceanborn, Wishmaster and Century Child, which were released in 1998, 2000 and 2002 respectively. Their 2004 album, Once, which sold more than 1 million copies, led to Nightwish video clips being shown on MTV in the United States and inclusion of their music in US movie soundtracks. Their biggest US hit single, “Wish I Had an Angel” (2004), made it onto three US film soundtracks as a means to promote their North American tour. The band produced three more singles and two music videos for the album, as well as “Sleeping Sun”, from the 2005 “best of” compilation album, Highest Hopes, prior to vocalist Tarja Turunen’s dismissal.

In May 2007, former Alyson Avenue frontwoman, Anette Olzon, was revealed as Turunen’s replacement, and in the autumn, the band released a new album - Dark Passion Play, which has sold nearly 1.8 million copies. A tour supporting the album is currently in progress. It started on October 6, 2007 and is planned to end in mid-May of 2009. A new E.P./live album, Made In Hong Kong (And in Various Other Places), will be released in March 2009 as a MCD/DVD.

Smooth Jazz

The average smooth jazz track is on the downtempo side (most widely played tracks are in the 90–105 BPM range), layering a lead, melody-playing instrument (saxophones – especially soprano and tenor – are the most popular, with guitars a close second) over a backdrop that tends to consist of programmed rhythms and various pads and/or samples. Though much of what is played under the banner of the "smooth jazz" radio format contains vocals, this is not usually the case for music recorded with the intent of categorization as smooth jazz. Rather, the stations in question pull their vocal tracks from the work of artists like Simply Red or Luther Vandross, who are normally considered "soul" or "R&B".

Although many listeners and record companies group smooth and contemporary jazz together, the genres are slightly different. Smooth jazz is generally considered background music, whereas "straight-ahead" contemporary jazz is seen as demanding the listener's undivided attention.

Smooth jazz as a radio format has its roots in the construction of what were once called "beautiful music" stations, which generally played fifteen-minute sets consisting of instrumentals bookending a vocal song or two. The incubators of the format were specialty shows at night or on the weekends, in places such as Atlanta (WQXI-FM), Miami (WWWL-FM) and San Antonio (KTFM). The first jazz radio station to attempt to reach an audience beyond hardcore jazz fans full-time was New York's WRVR-FM, which was acquired by Sonderling Broadcasting in 1976. Under its new management, WRVR more than tripled its audience by emphasizing artists like George Benson and Pat Metheny that were crossing over to more popular formats. Other early pioneers included Russ Davis in Atlanta and "Jazz Flavours", Ross Block, Dave Caprita and Stu Grant at Love 94FM with "Sunday Morning Jazz" in Miami and Art Good at KIFM San Diego with "Lights Out San Diego".

After programmer Frank Cody began "The Wave" KTWV in Los Angeles and the simultaneous KIFM (San Diego) and the eclectic KKSF (San Francisco), another wave of "Smooth Jazz" stations banking on "The Wave's" softer sound grew quickly. Those included "Breezin' 100.7" in Milwaukee and KHIH in Denver programmed by consultant Gary Guthrie, WNUA (Chicago) consulted by Cody, WVAE and WJZZ in Detroit, WNWV in Cleveland, Ohio, and the re-launch of WQCD (CD101.9), New York. Also Love94FM [WWWL, later WLVE] in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, an early innovator with its "Sunday Morning Jazz" show went totally smooth jazz by the late eighties, not long after The Wave in Los Angeles had switched to the format. The format had been deemed "New Age" originally and radio stations like WNUA Chicago and KNUA Seattle emulated the phrase in their call letters.

In the late 80's, research firm Cody/Leach conducted a study for WNUA/Chicago; it was through the verbatim responses from listeners that the name "Smooth Jazz" was identified WNUA then adopted the slogan "Smooth Rock, Smooth Jazz". Under the direction of General Manager John Gehron, "Smooth Rock" was dropped. Cody is credited with making "Smooth Jazz" a household name, giving rise to its nationwide proliferation through the firm Broadcast Architecture, the widely syndicated “The Jazz Show with David Sanborn” and his association with saxophonist Dave Koz. Cody was also responsible for overseeing the launch of the now defunct Satellite Music Network's syndicated "Wave" format.

"Smooth jazz" has gone on to be recognized as a successful radio format, first emerging in name in the mid- to late-1980s (often, they would be transitioned from existing "new age" stations) and subsequently spreading into most radio markets within the United States and many without.

Fourplay is a smooth jazz group in the United States. The original members of the group were Bob James (keyboards), Lee Ritenour (guitars), Nathan East (bass), and Harvey Mason (drums). In 1998, Lee Ritenour left the group and Fourplay chose Larry Carlton as his replacement.

Grammy-nominated supergroup Fourplay has enjoyed consistent artistic and commercial success by grafting elements of R&B and pop to their unwavering jazz foundations. In a span of seventeen years and ten albums, the quartet has continued to explore the limitless dimensions and permutations of jazz while at the same time appealing to a broad mainstream audience.

Their first record, 1991's Fourplay, sold over a million copies and remained at the number one position on Billboard's contemporary jazz charts for 33 weeks. Their next LP, 1993's Between the Sheets, reached number one, went gold, and received a Grammy nomination. In 1995, their third gold album, Elixir, also reached the number one position and remained on the charts for more than 90 weeks.

Fourplay received a Congressional Record from the United States Congress, House of Representatives recognizing them as a distinguished members of the music industry. The award was presented by A. Robert Brown, Sr., Advisor to Congressman Ed Towns of New York at a Fourplay performance in Philadelphia. Fourplay is the only musical group in history to be recognized by the U.S. Congress.

Rapcore is a subgenre of rap rock fusing vocal and sometimes instrumental elements of hip hop with punk rock, often hardcore punk. Rapcore is often confused with rap rock and rap metal. These styles became the basis for nu metal. Rapcore originated from rap rock, a genre fusing vocal and instrumental elements of hip hop with rock. Among the first wave of bands in the genre to gain mainstream success were 311, Bloodhound Gang and Suicidal Tendencies. Rap rock and rapcore would become the basis for the nu metal genre, and some bands in this genre are known for rapping, including Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit. Although the popularity of these styles is believed to be declining, some believe that rapcore may regain popularity, with younger music fans discovering bands in the genre. The rapcore band Hollywood Undead, formed in 2005, became one of the most popular acts on MySpace, and enjoyed financial success with their debut album, Swan Songs.

Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. Since its formation in 1996, the band has sold more than 50 million albums and won two Grammy Awards. It achieved mainstream success with its debut album, Hybrid Theory, which was certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2005. Its following studio album, Meteora, continued the band's success, topping the Billboard 200’s album charts in 2003, and was followed by extensive touring and charity work around the world. In 2003, MTV2 named Linkin Park the sixth greatest band of the music video era.

Having adapted the nu metal and rap rock genres to a radio-friendly yet densely-layered style in Hybrid Theory and Meteora, the band explored other genres in their next studio album, Minutes to Midnight. The album topped the Billboard charts and had the third best debut week of any album that year. They have also collaborated with several other artists, most notably with rapper Jay-Z in their mashup album Collision Course, and many others on Reanimation.

Practical work

If you want to create a track including all mention above music styles, we should apply to a computer. It is necessary to work with the help of the program Image-Line Fruity Loops 8.

In order to make our work complete we have to use the so called VST Plug-Ins.

This is a list of Plug-Ins:

Instruments - Image-Line Sytrus, Native Instruments Battery 3, MusicLab RealStrat, TruePianos, BooBass, IK-Multimedia Miroslav Philharmonik.

Effects: IK Multimedia Amplitube Metal, Native Instruments Guitar Rig, Nomad Factory Rock Amp Legends, Nomad Factory Crystal Reverb, Fruity Limiter, Image-Line Compressor.

And, of course, we need a synthesizer Casio WK-3500 connected to a sound card as a MIDI-keyboard.

And this is the way we make up the combination of instruments:

Synthetic sample-instrument Moon Ray (Smooth Jazz)
Simple Drum Set:

bass kick, snare drum, 3 toms, hi-hat, crash, ride (Rap-Core)

Synthetic sample-instrument Bellarina (Sympho Power Metal)
Synthetic sample-instrument EuroGate (Rap-Core)
Classic Piano Steinway D (Smooth Jazz)
Guitar Fender Stratocaster with combo Marshall (Sympho Power Metal)
Guitar Les Paul 1971 with combo Marshall (Rap-Core)
String Ensemble:

3 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos, contrabass (Sympho Power Metal)

First, we write the score, edit and quantize it for each instrument. Secondly, we supply every instrument with the effects. Finally, we normalize the volume and start this track.

Conclusion

We have got acquainted with the history of some of popular musical styles, with the biographies of their creators and representatives. We have made sure that every style is unique in its own way.

Having studied all the above mentioned musical trends, their structural, instrumental peculiarities and innovations we arrived at the conclusion that these styles can be combined in a style which could be called NON-STYLE. The music of this style is rather energetic but not overloaded with sounds. I have made up the tune of this style and you will have a chance to listen to it just now.

I believe his style might be started and used in future compositions.

I wonder if the compositions of this kind will be popular with young people.