by Alex Barker
During my time in lockdown, I managed to find time to explore the slightly obscure side of music, which included some oddly specific sub-genres which I found highly fascinating and intriguing to listen to and research. In this article I have picked five of my favourite obscure music genres which I will share.
1: Wizard Rock
Wizard rock or, as some call it, Wrock, was formed between 2002-2004 and was mainly concentrated in the US. Their songs and performances are heavily inspired by the popular Harry Potter franchise. A couple of the most successful Wrock bands were ‘Harry and the Potters’ and ‘Draco and the Malfoys’. Even more bizarrely, six Wrockstock festivals in the US have taken place, with the most recent being held in 2013. Although I’m not really a fan of Wrock, you do have to respect and admire the sheer effort and dedication put into their music, even though it is not my cup of tea.
2: lowercase
In the 1980s a man by the name of Steven Roden decided to create a brand new genre of music which included forms of ambient music such as the crumpling of paper being looped, stretched and amplified. He only started to use the term ‘lowercase’ in 2001, just before releasing his compilation-album, fittingly called ‘lowercase-sound’. His music started to pick up the attention of media sites and in 2002 he was able to put his album in an exhibition in Saarbrucken, Germany. Some may consider his music an early form of ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response).
3: Russian Reggae
Who in the world would have thought Russians were making Reggae? Certainly not me. Unfortunately I can’t find much information about Russian Reggae or how it materialised but I have, surprisingly, found a few artists who specialise in this unique genre on the popular music streaming platform Spotify.
One of these artists, Kolya Manyu, currently has 7,379 monthly listeners as of June 23rd 2020. I recommend ‘Утренняя песня’ which translates in English to ‘Morning song’ from the album ‘Soundsystem’ released in 2014.
Also listen to equally bizarre German Reggae:
4: Vaporwave
This unusual genre of music has only been around since the last decade but has proved very popular especially among teenagers. It is a calm and relaxing combination of 80’s and 90’s new age music and meme culture. One of the aspects which makes this music so unique is the obscure aesthetics in the background of Vaporwave videos on YouTube which often complements the music. The aesthetics used range from The Simpsons, yes the television show, to Donald Trump, yes the 45th President of the USA, with a VHS style filter over clips.
5: Nintendocore/Nescore
This peculiar genre of music was first created in 1999 and pioneered by the upcoming band called ‘HORSE the band’ who were inspired by classic 8-bit video game music such as the theme tune from the original Nintendo game, ‘Super Mario Bros’ released in 1983. The band gained a moderate amount of popularity and went on to play at Hellfest (a large metal festival held in France) and at the infamous music venue ‘Whiskey a Go Go’ in California, both during their world tour in 2004. The aptly named ‘metal music archives’ website describes the genre as ‘a fusion of metalcore / deathcore / post-hardcore / cybergrind with chiptune and video game music’!
As lockdown continues, a second instalment may follow...
During my time in lockdown, I managed to find time to explore the slightly obscure side of music, which included some oddly specific sub-genres which I found highly fascinating and intriguing to listen to and research. In this article I have picked five of my favourite obscure music genres which I will share.
1: Wizard Rock
Wizard rock or, as some call it, Wrock, was formed between 2002-2004 and was mainly concentrated in the US. Their songs and performances are heavily inspired by the popular Harry Potter franchise. A couple of the most successful Wrock bands were ‘Harry and the Potters’ and ‘Draco and the Malfoys’. Even more bizarrely, six Wrockstock festivals in the US have taken place, with the most recent being held in 2013. Although I’m not really a fan of Wrock, you do have to respect and admire the sheer effort and dedication put into their music, even though it is not my cup of tea.
2: lowercase
In the 1980s a man by the name of Steven Roden decided to create a brand new genre of music which included forms of ambient music such as the crumpling of paper being looped, stretched and amplified. He only started to use the term ‘lowercase’ in 2001, just before releasing his compilation-album, fittingly called ‘lowercase-sound’. His music started to pick up the attention of media sites and in 2002 he was able to put his album in an exhibition in Saarbrucken, Germany. Some may consider his music an early form of ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response).
3: Russian Reggae
Who in the world would have thought Russians were making Reggae? Certainly not me. Unfortunately I can’t find much information about Russian Reggae or how it materialised but I have, surprisingly, found a few artists who specialise in this unique genre on the popular music streaming platform Spotify.
One of these artists, Kolya Manyu, currently has 7,379 monthly listeners as of June 23rd 2020. I recommend ‘Утренняя песня’ which translates in English to ‘Morning song’ from the album ‘Soundsystem’ released in 2014.
Also listen to equally bizarre German Reggae:
4: Vaporwave
This unusual genre of music has only been around since the last decade but has proved very popular especially among teenagers. It is a calm and relaxing combination of 80’s and 90’s new age music and meme culture. One of the aspects which makes this music so unique is the obscure aesthetics in the background of Vaporwave videos on YouTube which often complements the music. The aesthetics used range from The Simpsons, yes the television show, to Donald Trump, yes the 45th President of the USA, with a VHS style filter over clips.
5: Nintendocore/Nescore
This peculiar genre of music was first created in 1999 and pioneered by the upcoming band called ‘HORSE the band’ who were inspired by classic 8-bit video game music such as the theme tune from the original Nintendo game, ‘Super Mario Bros’ released in 1983. The band gained a moderate amount of popularity and went on to play at Hellfest (a large metal festival held in France) and at the infamous music venue ‘Whiskey a Go Go’ in California, both during their world tour in 2004. The aptly named ‘metal music archives’ website describes the genre as ‘a fusion of metalcore / deathcore / post-hardcore / cybergrind with chiptune and video game music’!
As lockdown continues, a second instalment may follow...
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