[ANPPOM-L] Novas fusões e novos gêneros na música pop

Seg Ago 20 14:13:22 BRT 2007

Saiu no Wall Street Journal, 20 de Agosto de 2007

Music's New Mating Ritual

As genres are fused, cryptically named hybrids emerge; the story behind
'gypsy punk'

By JOHN JURGENSEN
August 18, 2007; Page P1

Indie Hindi, socaton, skurban. You may feel like you need a dictionary the
next time you go shopping for music.

The music world is getting thick with hybrids, or cryptically named blends
of established styles. Indie Hindi, for example, is traditional Indian
vocals tinged with edgy American-style rock. Socaton is dance music that has
elements of rap, calypso and reggae. The number of genres is up more than
40% over the past four years, by one measure -- Gracenote, which maintains
the music-classification system used by major sites like Yahoo and iTunes,
now recognizes more than 1,800 genres. It recently added "hyphy," a jittery
form of hip-hop from the San Francisco area.

Defying standard genres has traditionally been a risky move for bands in
part because it's difficult for retailers to figure out where to place them
on the shelves. But increasingly, fans are finding music in less
conventional ways -- like perusing strangers' online playlists, or following
a trail of links on MySpace -- paving the way for bands to define themselves
in more exotic ways. Bands are also keenly aware of the recent commercial
success of blended genres like reggaeton, a Jamaican-Latin-rap mix, and
popera, radio-friendly songs done with operatic vocals.

[Fusic image]Even some genres that don't hit commercial high notes are
finding followings. Take "nerdcore hip-hop," rap music that revolves around
geeky subjects like videogames and J.R.R. Tolkien books. The father of the
movement, Damian Hess, performs often around the country and says he makes a
comfortable living selling his albums and merchandise. But nerdcore hasn't
registered with mainstream listeners. Fans of the genre have fallen short in
a petition drive to get MySpace to add nerdcore to its list of 127 genres.

Mr. Hess, who goes by "MC Frontalot," is hardly discouraged. "Top of the
esoteric fringe is really the ideal place," says Mr. Hess, who sports a
short-sleeve shirt and necktie on stage. (See <http://frontalot.com/>  Mr.
Hess's Web site.)

Jazz singer Jacqui Naylor decided to try something different after getting
one too many requests for "My Funny Valentine" during a tour of Japan in
2001. Her arranger and piano player Art Khu came to her with a translation
of AC/DC's hard-rock anthem "Back in Black" as an instrumental vamp. Into
that, Ms. Naylor wove the familiar melody to "My Funny Valentine."

The process, which Ms. Naylor calls "acoustic smashing," marked a turning
point in her career. Her first two albums of straight-ahead jazz didn't get
much notice outside jazz circles. But her most recent albums, including "The
Color Five," have gotten play on some rock stations. Her next album:
"Smashed for the Holidays," which includes a fusion of "Santa Claus Is
Coming to Town" and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama."

This is, of course, not the first time musicians have blended styles to
create genres (that's how rock 'n' roll came about), but the number of
sub-niches has been growing at a remarkable clip. It's being fueled by the
migration of music online and a "mashup" culture that has spawned everything
from spoof movie trailers to fan-made music videos. At dance clubs this
summer, DJs are spinning "baile funk," a dance-rock fusion from Brazil.
Recently at No. 2 on the Billboard pop chart was the crossover hit "Party
Like a Rockstar," a rap-mashed-with-distorted-guitar number by the "hood
rock" group Shop Boyz.

Anoushka Shankar

[Anoushka Shankar]

A new album from this sitar player and DJ Karsh Kale has Indian and
electronic influences, a blend called "desi dance."

Jacqui Naylor

[Jacqui Naylor]

In her "acoustic smashes," Ms. Naylor sings the melody of jazz standards
over well-known rock instrumentals.

• Hear an audio sample of Jacqui Naylor's "Summertime": Windows
<mms://media.marketwatch.com/wsj/Audio/20070817/summertime/summertime.wma>
Media | Real
<http://media.marketwatch.com/wsj/Audio/20070817/summertime/summertime.rm>
Audio.

Bonde do Role

[Bonde do Role]

This trio mixes "baile funk" from its native Brazil with punk riffs and
electronic samples. The group starts a U.S. tour next month.

• Hear an audio sample of Bonde do Role's "Solta o Frango": Windows
<mms://media.marketwatch.com/wsj/Audio/20070817/solta_o_frango/solta_o_frang
o.wma>  Media | Real
<http://media.marketwatch.com/wsj/Audio/20070817/solta_o_frango/solta_o_fran
go.rm>  Audio.

Meanwhile, Falguni Shah, a classically trained Indian vocalist who records
under the name Falu, uses the term "indie Hindi" to describe her New York
band's sound. (Her producer coined the term.)

While everyone from the bands to bloggers to fans come up with the names for
new genres, ultimately it falls to music-cataloging companies like Gracenote
and All Media Guide to decide whether to acknowledge them for posterity.

Gracenote, in Emeryville, Calif., supplies the information that pops up when
you put a CD in the computer, like the title, artist and genre.

About 40 music analysts, including some working in Japan, Russia and other
countries, use an internal Web site to nominate genres. They make their case
by citing important bands and media mentions. A small group of editors makes
the final call. Not all the genres are new -- among some 30 currently on the
table are several subcategories of folk music, including "prison songs" and
"hokum," a blues style marked by comedic patter.

While the editors agreed to add "hyphy," the San Francisco rap sound, "snap
music," which has inspired dance crazes in the South, was deemed a passing
fad. Meanwhile, some newer music-recommendation services like Pandora and
iLike are moving in the other direction and doing away with genre labels
altogether.

Marketers smell an opportunity in the proliferation of genres. Klee Irwin, a
Los Angeles-based entrepreneur whose main business is selling vitamins via
infomercials he hosts, has launched a group of rapping skateboarders called
Board Bangers. His idea draws on the growing number of black skaters, a
culture merge referred to as "skurban." His hope is to sell Board Bangers
music and merchandise to suburban white kids. (See Board Bangers' Web site.
<https://www.boardbangers.tv/> )

Mr. Irwin says he spent $150,000 building a recording studio, and more than
$1 million on 19 music videos to promote the group's debut, including an
upcoming album release. He had to audition over a hundred teenagers to find
his crew. "Every time we found cool, aggressive street skaters, they
couldn't rap very well," he says.

• Hear an audio sample of Falu's "Dum Maro Dum": Windows
<mms://media.marketwatch.com/wsj/Audio/20070817/dummarodum/dummarodum.wma>
Media | Real
<http://media.marketwatch.com/wsj/Audio/20070817/dummarodum/dummarodum.rm>
Audio.

Write to John Jurgensen at john.jurgensen em wsj.com

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