Experimental Music
Experimental music, a title that can mean anything in particular. So therefore the name Experimental Music. From someone clanging on spoons to hitting a plastic bat with a whip…some of these kinds of images lend the name to experimental music.’
However, most interesting is the experimentation with sound and rhythm in a format that is music or gets the name music and not simply sounds or noise.
People in experimental music are trying to push the boundaries of music in all it’s forms: Rock, New Age, Jazz, Classical and Contemporary.
It is not just the experiment in sound. It is also the experimentation in notes, music, musicality forcing the question on the listener: What is Music.
Just like the evolution of Art from the 1900’s on. There have been those expanding the boundaries of Music mainly for the beginning of the twentieth century and onward.
Gustav Holst’s ‘The Planets’ was in it’s a way an experimental the of music though it did not leave the confines of musicality and melody and harmony.
American composers were more experimental up until modern times. Experimental music does not need to be atonal or noise all the time.
You can more easily find experimental music in Rock, Art Rock and sometimes progressive music and more in Contemporary music. It seems that there a lot of musicians who love the experimental take. It belies the artists sense of freedom. Experimental music seems to love freedom and yearn to be free, not wanting to be restricted by the rules of weel known music theory and foundations laid by past classics.
There are more experimental bands now then there were before. Though the alternative movement of the 1980’s seemed to be highly experimental sometimes you have bands more into the mainstream that are able to push their experimental agenda on it’s fans and sometimes it is met with success and appreciation. To play experimental music if you are up and coming or if for that matter are well established is a kind of risk not everyone is willing to take. Bandslike Pink Floyd and Radiohead are able to make experimental music that so far is accepted by most of their fans and credibility can pay off big for an experimental album or song if it overall goes well with the listeners. It is kind of gamble when the band or musicians tinker with sounds and toys and chord structures to have put out as a cd or distributed in some way and send out to the masses. Some are hits and others fall below the radar but there are always fans who dig and treasure the experimental artist or band, some solely because it is not a mainstream smash.
There are always a bunch of fans even be they a small minority who appreciate the experimental music of others. Though what might be experimental for some may not too experimental for other people. In Art Rock, in it’s experiments the premise seems to be to have the listener in awe or with questions of what he or she had just listened to. Experimental music seems to have the purpose of not conforming to traditional music and to push the imagination of what is possible for the music. Though some people may recoil from experimental music, it is that missing element which can drive music to new destinations. What may be annoying to some is what is harmonious and inspiring to others. If all music simply followed the formulas of the past and never ventured into new territory, music would be too predictable and formulaic. It is the experimenting in music which offers new principles and new ideas for future music like the bad kid in the classroom for whom without we could not see better and different tendencies around us.
It is actually a good thing for music to have experimental artists, to show something new either in sound or in music itself. As time progresses and more experimental music is played in the future. There can be a way paved for all future artists and bands and their listeners.