Styles

Ragtime

A style of dance music which became popular in the USA at the end of the 19th century and which helped to influence jazz.

It's most commonly written for piano, although you will hear versions on other instruments. In these five piano rags, listen for the left hand VAMPs and the SYNCOPATED right hand melodies.

 

Blues

Blues started as Black American folk music, developing from spirituals and work songs.

Blues music is often in 4/4 time and is mostly patterned on a 12-bar blues chord structure and on a blues scale, in which some notes are flattened. Some Blues music uses a Walking Bass Line.

Reflecting its origins in slavery, blues music tends to have sad lyrics.

Early Blues music features acoustic instruments, but from the 1930s onwards, Blues musicians increasingly used electric instruments.



Swing 

This is a Big Band JAZZ style, with a typical band consisting of a rhythm section (piano, drums bass), several saxophones/clarinets, trumpets and trombones. Listen out for the distinctive SWING rhythm on the cymbal. 

The last track in the playlist contains a good example of SCAT SINGING.



Rock' 'n' Roll

Rock 'n' Roll developed largely from Blues music in 1950s America. The Blues influence can often be heard in a 12-bar blues chord structure and sometimes a Walking Bass. Instruments used tend to be a mixture of acoustic (drumkit, piano, double bass) and electric (electric guitar).



Rock

Defined by the SQA as 'a style of music with a heavy driving beat.' It developed from Rock 'n' Roll, and usually features electric guitar, bass guitar and drumkit.

You will often hear the effects REVERB and DISTORTION used in rock. REVERB gives the effect of being played in a larger room or hall (see Track 4 in this playlist). DISTORTION creates a rough, 'dirty' sound (Tracks 1-3).

Rock songs are often built around RIFFs.


Celtic Rock

Celtic Rock mixes Celtic folk music and rock together. It normally features a mixture of traditional instruments (eg. fiddle, accordion, bagpipes) with rock instruments (electric guitar, bass guitar, keyboards etc.)



Reggae

Reggae developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. It features strong accents on the 2nd and 4th beats of the bar (often played by rhythm guitar). Bob Marley is probably the most famous Reggae artist.


Pop

You could probably argue that Pop began with the Beatles in the 1960s. It has had many influences, including Rock n Roll. It tends to feature electronic instruments such as synthesizers and keyboards as well as Rock instruments.

Most of the music in the charts in any given week could be defined as Pop; here's a link to the BBC Radio 1 top 40:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/singles