Monthly Archives: May 2021

Digging the world of American Music, we came to know the distinct features of Country music and Western Music. Though these two genres are originated from the same place but they are thematically different in many aspects. During the time of World War II both the two  genres music were amalgamated and summed up in that period. The fundamental difference between country music and western music is the use of instruments like; country music is created vy lighter instruments such as; guitar, harmonica, piano, banjo, fiddle whereas western music is based on steel guitar, high range electric guitar, big bands and so on.

Country music was one of the primary genre of modern American music which comprises a rural tone. So we may call it as a old-time music. It was an incorporated form of British folk music, African-American blues, ballads, church music, urban music etc; In the year of 1920 this old-time music was first recorded and gained a vast popularity. The Carter family influenced many artists to spresd the country music worldwide. “National Barn Dance” and “Grand Ole Opry” these two popular program was started to happen regularly. The influence of such shows encouraged more recordings and arrival of so many talented musicians. Carter Family and Jimmy Rodger became the role model of later musicians. John Denver, Toby Keith,  Brad Paisley, Alison Krauss etc are some names of the famous country music artists.

In the 19^th century Western Music was originated in some parts of England, Scotland, Wales, US and Ireland. This music genre was influenced by cowboy music, and in earlier times it was sung around the campfire, “Streets of Laredo” a well-known album of that time. In later times the popularity of Western music was going to fall, Rock and Roll dominated the music industry that time. Some of the artists tried their best to survive the music, prominently Johnny Cash who stepped forward to combine the western music with the arrangements of Rock and Roll music. Then gradually by various ways Western muic came on the track again.

Pitchfork, a new name on the Music World. Though it was launched in 1995, but in the last few years it was transformed into a more updated version. This site has become one of the most trusted and popular stockpile from which we can enrich ourselves with the newest information regarding all type of “World-class” music. It has the huge expansion of the daily-coverage of Indian rock, hip-hop, electronics, trance, metallic, instrumental and as well as experimental music. We can say Pitchfork is the amalgamation of every genre of MUSIC.

Pitchfork has so many subordinate websites like Pitchfork TV and all. Altered Zones,  specially designed by Pitchfork  for underground and Do It Yourself music. In 2011 Kill Screen, has been partnered to Pitchfork, where it published some of their articles. In later times  Altered Zones   was closed. In 2012 Nothing Major, another  website  was launched by Pitchfork, though this site mainly focused on the genre of  photography and visual arts.

This website, Pitchfork was redesigned for the first time in 2016 and a lot of thing about the online world has been changed since then. This recurrence brings Pitchfork into a new time, improving functionally simplifying the experience regarding everything, like searching, browsing, reading etc.

Another side of Pitchfork is its music festival. The pitchfork music festival is such a kind of festival of multi-genre. It happens every year, though in 2020 this festival was canceled due to the pandemic this year in 2021, this festival is going to be staged very soon, people who tend to attend this festival should have the high-quality music IQ and love for music far off the contemporary music. The tentative dates are to be announced soon.

The most popular name in mainstream music during this era is Hip-hop. New artists are flourishing at their best with this music. This music genre is based on a particular rhythmic style, usually created by DJs. This breaks the chain of conventional music. Hip-hop music is widely popular by the name of Rap music also. It originated in US by some native artists and then expanded all over the world. Although hip-hop and rap music are synonymous with each other, the word hip-hop specifically emulates an intriguing type of culture comprising certain components, such as- “deejaying”, “MCing”, “turntabling” “B-boying” and many more which incorporate hip-hop dance moves, style, gestures and aspects. The elements of hip-hop culture that were the first to grab people’s attention were wall graffiti art and break dancing. The splendidly colourful mural spray wall arts are often rebellious in nature, just as are rap songs, which often are rhymed to sing of the dark truths of life in “attitude”. Although hip-hop music was predominated by African-American people, it’s roots are encased by some misconceptions, paradox and perplexities. Owing to its rise from the lanes of unemployment and destitution, this form of music has touched people’s hearts and has recently been best-selling amongst not just today’s teenagers, but also amongst the older generations.

Under the current pandemic situation of the world, the life of “live music” is at stake. Independent and show-based artists, who tend to make the bulk of their income performing live, are facing a real deal of loss in their career. The burden of cancellation of several live shows through the last year, since the pandemic struck, and the associated economic losses are taking a big toll on the artists and their art. “It’s a really surreal and scary time for everyone, but especially for the music industry,” says McNamara. The current resort to partly normalize the situation is to organize socially-distanced limited capacity live shows in new formats. This would serve as a trailer and a testimonial run, and would serve as a future-proof model for live entertainment, before the launch of full show reopening in safer future times. Although the idea of socially-distanced concerts is seemingly disheartening for the performers who are used to “cheering crowds”, this seems to be the only possible resort to make the best out of these current testing times. 

In order to make people more aware about the conservation of Live Music, the organization “Consequences of Sound” is celebrating their passion in a way where seventy artists would be delivering exclusive performances and presentations in celebration of independent music in the ongoing month. Due to the fatal effect of the pandemic situation, the world of Live Music has been doomed. So, for restricting the degradation of this unprecedented situation, CoS took a good move by their unique initiatives .The diverse lineup consists of Orchestra, Fontaines, Bomba  Estereo, Dirty Projectors, Julien Baker, Real Estate and so on. The live stream aims to charm the spectators and encourage them to donate to the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA). All ventures of CoS is going to be fruitful as these efforts would help support NIVA’s ongoing efforts regarding helping independent music venues sustain these testing times.