Friday, January 23, 2015

Late 20th Century-Early 2000s Hip-Hop Music Videos

 Hip-hop has been a lot of things to a lot of people. It was originally the "poor man's music" or "street music". Everything from Jamaican style "Dub" or "Dubbing", to it's latter follower "House Music" from Chicago. Everything in it from disco-tech, to funk, to R&B, remixing, sampling, electronic, and even techno, and Pop elements. It was originally an up-beat dancey music, but can also be a more down-tempo.

Hip-hop often is unapologetic, usually, and often has self expression of celebrating the individual self, and accomplishments. It can be flashy & "Ghetto Fabulous" or Ritzy & Posh, to something on the sidewalk, old decaying buildings, and people in comfortable sporty clothing, or even silk pajamas. It can have any number of flavors, styles, and themes. What Hip-Hop generally tends to be was about the underdog classes, especially American Minorities and ethic group sub-cultures, however, it has become so popular with anyone, and everyone that it transcends classes, skin color, and is embraced the world over, and even now exists in pretty much any language. 

What does Hip-Hop mean to you? For some it's sexy people, for others it's the regular every-day urban folks.

Well, since I love film/video, visuals, and arts, there are some styles that come and go, and return again... but, that's what's great about remixing... it can be with sound, but visual styles also.


When Janet Jackson grew up very wealthy, and sheltered, she didn't know how to express how she felt inside, until she began to experiment with various themes, she made a 1980s synth-pop style album which was a sensation. Her following albums became very Hip-Hop & R&B oriented, but this perfectionist driven "chair dance" choreographed number lives on forever.



By the end of the 1990s, Pop music began weaving it's way back into popularity, and so did Hip-Hop music. Artists frequently make homages to this legendary musician, and many others.











Well, that was fun!

J Cole 728x90  Album

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Gypsets, Bohemians, and Mori Girls Music II


Again, what exactly do Gypsets, and Bohemians all listen to?
Well, they're all Free spirits. A little of this, a little of that, lots of fusion....
Anything goes, really...

How about some David Starfire?











Some commercialized stuff:

















Mori Girls:









Monday, January 12, 2015

An Intro to: Gypsets, Bohemians, and Mori Girls Music I

Just what exactly do Bohemians & Gypsets or Gypsetters listen to?

It can range from rock'n roll, to folk, the world or New Age, and fusion, to even techno, and ravers...

I've seen the trend going in and out for a while, but it never really does seem to just go away, does it?

usually, when you think of Mori Girls, the "Forrest Girls", or nemophilists, you would think of the woodlands, Japanese folks music, or Japanese singer-song-writer hippie guitar music, or Celtic...

But, when you're a Free Spirit, I suppose anything goes....

Wanderlust and wandering, with trance, or trip-hop. The dreamy, the whimsical, the otherworldly, the ethereal, the esoteric, or the Earthy...



Bland, sleepy, and light vocals:








Folksy and Country-ish...






Folksy/Bluesy:










Electronic/Electric/Poppish




Chill/Trip-hop/Electro:






Random Cholo Fusion Gypsets! Awesome find with electric bass guitar with vlog clip:






Mori Girls:


















Ravers:




















..... well, too bad Love Parade ended in 2010. Those were quite lovely! A Free Spirit's Dream!

Anyways, thanx for reading this blog...

I'm always finding more stuff like this...

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

2014 Sign of The Times Music Video Art Oddity Motifs

This is a re-post of a previous blog post I did on another blog of mine. 

2014 Sign of The Times Music Video Art Oddity Motifs

In case you haven't noticed by now (those whom know me, or know of me) I love Techno & dance music! LOVE IT! I also love VIDEO & FILM.

This year, I've noticed a major trend in the styles of music video art being produced. I'm more than sure you are familiar with the strange meme style copy-cats of videos like "Harlem Shake", and dance music videos by Psy like "Gangnam Style" & "Gentleman"  in which the viewer is drawn into a video eddited world of strange visuals, and strange yet catchy beats...

Well, this year, music video directors take their music video art/craft through this very strange direction, with often times gritty visuals, to the very pretty yet raw scenes, incorporating slow motion (high speed cameras) photography with creative video editing or sped-up video, in which it's like you're inside of a very strange dream, when suddenly any number of strange things happen, that range from the very weird, to the awkward, uncomfortable, and inappropriate -making you experience an emotional shock of: OH MY GOD! WHAT JUST HAPPENED??? DID I JUST SEE THAT???? And, then it gets stranger & stranger from there! And it hits you with some more!

You will notice unusual usage of body parts, body part close-up scenes, creative unusual angled shots, body parts, gestures, or postures uncommon to the norm enhancing the "shock" experience of the viewer, as well as a very House & Hip-Hop flavor to the music, including dubbing, looping, sampling, and creatively edited to synch with the music. It's quite reminiscent of Stephen Chow HK films, but on steroid, and then on acid to boot.

Don't believe me????

Well, here they come! And, they get stranger, and weirder as they go down the page!

But... a word of CAUTION: These may be SO NSFW!
















Dubstep & Glitch-hop Fusion

Here are some mixes I have done since I started my 8Tracks profile. Dubstep has become way more popular than I ever thought it would. I remember when i used to HATE 2-step garage music in the 90s, because it bored me... But, but the mid-late 2000s many musical artists on the West Coast (USA) began playing with the 2-step beat, and adding sampling, dubbing, loops, mixing trance & Eurodance synth, glitching it, and adding what is most signature of the contemporary styles which is the wobble bass distortions, as well as mixing in analogue musical instruments or the electric equivalents.

The 2-step has gone from something I would/could never dance to, then to what we now call "dubtsep" which I find to be quite dancey. It's marvelous for popping & locking, tribal fusion, isolation moves, and is VERY popular with hoop dancers. I hear it in pop music now, and have even seen competitive ice skaters preform to it.











Whimsical & Enchanted

When I first started this blog, I quickly realized that all of the rules had changed, and the opportunity to use ads was restricted, and even tho' I have several blogs,and have posted for years, I wasn't qualified to have ads yet...

Well, I signed in today, and now they are allowing me...

So, here it comes.

Here are just a few mixes I made this year with a whimsical feel.
















Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Chinese National Music

I lived in The Peoples' Republic of China several times, for long periods of time. A type of music you will frequently see on TV funded by the government is this style. It's generally always by females, that do a traditional style of nasal high pitched singing, and their are academies that teach JUST this. Other styles will be Chinese Opera styles, of which there are several.

They also incorporate folk music, styles of Chinese traditional ensemble music similar to a Western Symphony, or even grand orchestras with a Western Classical music. Contemporary versions also can have a fusion of pop influences such as electric guitars, electric violins, with traditional instruments, and more.

The video art almost always had pretty girls, or dancers, or effeminate men, sometimes children, ballet, or national scenery, architecture, or whatever. Nationalism can be a theme, or Ancient cultural themes, or folksy themes like holidays, hutongs, scholar's gardens, animals, and more.


Ironically, not everyone loves this kind of music. Many young people call it "tai putong" or too normal or unoriginal. But, when you find the videos posted online they start racking up views like crazy.


Here's some: