R&P Post 3: Music genres that interest me

I have a very varied taste in music, and I like songs from many different genres, though I generally tend to avoid genres such as heavy metal and hard rock.


Jazz

One of the genres I particularly like is Jazz, and the sub-genres that fall under it, particularly funk and acid jazz. Acid jazz uses elements of jazz, funk and hip-hop, and  the style of the genre is often characterised by long, repetitive compositions. Typical ensembles include horns, a full rhythm section, a vocalist that may sing and rap and often a DJ. I researched some music videos in the genre, and found two examples; "Virtual Insanity" by Jamiroquai and Cantaloop by Us3.


Both of these music videos featured a singer/rapper, and revolved mostly around performance, with Cantaloop including performance shot for instrument players. Virtual Insanity seemed to be more of a unique idea, with the performer dancing on moving walkways with the scene and furniture changing. Obviously that would be very hard to recreate, but performance would probably be easy to do in our music video.

Hip Hop

Jay Z

Another genre I'm fond of is Hip Hop, I first became interested in the genre after listening to albums by Nujabes, who focused on a lot of instrumental hip hop and also mixed hip hop, rap and jazz  samples. I then went on to develop an interest in older hip hop artists, such as J Dilla and A Tribe Called Quest, and also rappers such as Dr Dre and Eazy-E. More recently I have become in current hip-hop artists like Kendrick Lamar and MF Doom. Music videos in the genre usually seem to glorify urban neighbourhoods and the subculture of hip hop musicians, but there has also been a commercialisation of the genre and this had led to genre changing somewhat, with artists such as Kanye West and Jay Z portraying themselves as an elite and focusing on materialism.


House
I first got into house music after a recommendation from a friend, who was very into the music. I listened to music by artists such as Aphex Twin, David Guetta and Phuture (below is a House song I particularly like); I found that I tended to prefer Deep House, perhaps because it contained elements of jazz and funk. I think this genre could be useful for a music video, as since there is not usually a focus on lyrics, the video itself could be more conceptual than with other genres.