‘Music is life itself’- Louis Armstrong. It soothes the soul and brightens the mood in the environment. There are different types of music, such as contemporary, traditional, and art. The word contemporary means occurring in the present-Hence; contemporary music is any style of modern music that addresses the current issues in the society or individuals’ lives in an appealing way to the existing audience.
Characteristics of Contemporary Music
Contemporary music has the following features;
- It uses dissonant harmonies-most of contemporary music has an unusual sound to evoke reactions from the audience. Some of the music types using dissonant are rock and electric music.
- Has complex or uncommon rhythms– the rhythms in contemporary music are unpredictable compared to classical and other indigenous music. The music uses unique rhythms that are a bit complex.
- It uses percussion instruments– most contemporary music uses musical instruments played by striking with the hands or a stick, such as drums, xylophones, and bells.
- It uses synthetic and electronically developed sounds– in the contemporary music world, there is extensive use of electrophones and synthetic sounds from different equipment. You will find devices such as 8-bit or old computer games to give a distinctive form to a song.
- It is appealing to the audience– contemporary musicians do anything in their songs to ensure they attract the target audience and wins their hearts.
- It has fewer lyrical melodies compared to ancient music– most contemporary music comes with fewer lyrics than traditional music.
Background of Contemporary Music
Contemporary music came after modern music. It began from 1945 A.D. to the present. It is a type of music that tried to disobey the music laws that have been followed for many years. After the period of romantic music, artists began to use different genres to compose songs. As a result, contemporary music came in, and it usually denotes the time, not the style of music.
Some composers who portrayed contemporary music in the early days through arts and poetry include Debussy (1862-1918) and Ravel (1875-1937). In the last quarter of the 19th century, new sonorities in piano music orchestration were developed and made it possible to add extra-musical materials from art and literature. It led to the introduction of new scales and chord use in music.
The contemporary era came in the last generation of the 19th century from a painting movement called impressionism. This was after the rejection of the romantic era by French painters such as Renoir, Degas, and Monet.
In the 20th century, contemporary music reflected a mixture of art and literature of the mechanistic atomic age. It brought in the appearance of sweet-sounding, pastel-colored impressionistic music that led to experiments with twelve-tone music. As a result, atonal, cerebral, disjointed, and angular music effects emerged.
Some of the subcategories of contemporary music done in the early years were;
- Minimalism– this is the use of minimal musical materials. In minimalism, you find features such as repetitive patterns, steady drones, and consonant harmony.
- Post-modernism– music produced in the post-modern era and followed aesthetical and philosophical trends in this era.
- Serialism– began with Arnold Schoenberg’s twelve-tone technique in the 19th century. It involves composing using a series of rhythms, dynamics, pitches, and other musical elements.
- Neo-romanticism– was a term that came in the early 19th century to distinguish the current romanticism from the earlier ones.
Some of the significant artists in contemporary music include Phillip Glass. Phillip’s contribution to the contemporary minimalist music world is immense. Besides, he refers to himself as a composer of music with repetitive structures and has helped in the evolution of contemporary music with shifting layers and repetitive phrases. He has worked with artists from several disciplines.
Steve Reich is also an American composer who made a remarkable contribution to minimal music development in the mid and late 1960s. He used repetitive figures, canons, and slow harmonic rhythm in his musical work to stand out. He is an excellent influencer to many contemporary composers and groups in the U.S.
Which Style Does Contemporary Music Use?
Contemporary music is more of a period of music than a particular style. However, there are different styles you can pick from most forms of contemporary music. One of the evident styles is the use of dissonance in most contemporary music genres.
Most contemporary music genres allowed artists to violate the rules and regulations in the ancient music ages. You could use different approaches to compose the song. Lastly, contemporary music brings together more than one original music style.
Hence, contemporary music defines a period and not a particular style of music. Some of the music styles that fall under the contemporary music period include Jazz, Pop, Rock, Hip-hop, Blues, and Folk.
Which Instruments Do Contemporary Music Use?
In the contemporary music world, artists heavily use digital equipment and non-orchestral music instruments. Non-orchestral instruments include piano, guitar, saxophone, and acoustic drums. Due to new technological trends, contemporary music uses digital equipment in studios for recording and publication.
Contemporary music can also use traditional musical instruments depending on the style. You can incorporate devices such as the West Africa Talking Drum and the Mbira. Also, you can use an orchestral music instrument differently in contemporary music.
So what makes music contemporary?
A piece of music is considered contemporary primarily because of the time it was composed. Hence, contemporary music refers to music genres that developed in the early and mid-1940s. It broke the norm of music and brought about a new way of doing things in the music world. As a result, contemporary artists are mostly referred to as “avant-gardist,” which means someone who often approaches things differently.
Contemporary music brought about a change in the music industry since its invention decades ago. It broke the norm in modern music in terms of the musical instruments and materials used. Artists evolved new ways of composing music, such as minimalism and serialism, in the 19th century. As a result, the term contemporary music was birthed.