BTEC Music performance Unit 43

Section 3: Hybrid and Sub-Genres

For this presentation I will providing information on the technique of using conventions to create sub genres and hybrid genres.

Overview

Hybrid genres are typically sub genres that stem directly from one genre quite easy to understand. Simply the technique is to fuse two or more genres together. The end result of this would something along the lines of ‘electro-house’ or ‘drum-step’ for example. These are the styles that I will go into detail about in the next couple of pages.

Hybrid Genres

Drumstep is a common sub genre of Drum and Bass. This subgenre is commonly known as being drum and bass that is played in half time and sharing some conventions such as sub bass and dub elements with Dubstep. This genre can also go by the name of ‘Halfstep’.

Drumstep

The Dotexe remix of (Krewella-One Minute) is a good example of drum and bass and dubstep elements can be combined to create a new heavier form of music.

Electro-House is a fusion of Electro and House Music. This genre commonly has the bass elements of modern electro however it tends to follow the more consistent drum beat patterns of house music. It also relies heavily on things such as kick sidechaining which makes the kick drum in the track more audible giving it not only more of a rhythm but more bass to it than some standard house tracks would.

Electro-House

‘Soulero – Without a twist’ is a good example of electro house.

The next few slides will showcase what I believe to be some of the more complex elements to creating sub genres.

Subgenres

The term ‘Liquid’ refers to forms of electronic music that would otherwise be known for being more bass heavy, such as Drum and Bass and Dubstep, which much less emphasis on bass and instead focus heavily more on reverb effects to give a much more ambient feel to the tracks.

A lot of liquid drum and bass tracks tend to use sampled vocals and drum samples that have low end frequencies greatly reduced.

There is also a Dubstep subgenre which goes by the name of Chillstep however that and Liquid Dubstep are very similar if not completely identical in some cases.

Liquid

The ‘Avalon EP’ by Maduk is a great example of the ambience that can be found in liquid drum and bass and also showcases the unique vocal sampling techniques.

Neuro refers to ‘Neuro Bass’ and in this case the sub genre is based upon the original genre with a lot of focus on Neuro bass as the main sound to the track. An example would be that if somebody were resample a classic swing track and then add Neuro bass the sub genre woud be ‘Neuro Swing’. The same can be said for Dubstep, which would then be referred to as ‘Neurostep’ and ‘Neurohop’ is essentially re-sampled hip hop beats with neuro bass. A lot of neuro tracks do however tend to use a lot reverb and other effects to add ambience and depth.

Neuro bass itself is quite a growly, vowel bass sound and takes a lot of resampling after creating an initial ‘Reese sound’ it could be quite commendable for an artist to be able to use it effectively.

Neuro

A great example of Neurohop is ‘Echo Box by Draygn’ It shows how using reverb and other effects on Neuro bass can create rich, ambient textures.

Glitch refers percussive glitch samples that can be used within tracks. Essentially Glitch works the same way as Neuro bass when it comes to identifying subgenres in the sense that if glitch samples were to be used with hip-hop sample it would create ‘Glitch Hop’.

Also, as with Neuro, Glitch hop tracks can be quite minimal and ambient but still sound great when they are produced well.

Glitch

The ‘Glitch hop’ track ‘Sundown’ by Sean Mackey shows the style can be used create ambient ant and bright music.

The term ‘French’ refers to resampled 70’s disco tracks that are usually used in house or electro genres to create ‘French House’ and French Electro’. There are also genres such as ‘French Touch’ however these tend to be very similar to French House.

Personally French House is one of favourite music genres due to the fact that the majority of French House songs tend to have an upbeat repetitive rhythm.

French

‘The Neighbourhood’ by ‘95 Royale’ is a great example of the way 70’s disco tracks can be recycled into modern genre’s and appeal to a modern audience.