Hey, you know that post-Marxist-afro-cuban-experimental-Wiicore band you always reference when you're trying to impress people with your obscure taste in music? Cut it out, everybody knows it doesn't really exist. Maybe next time, try referencing one of these hilariously obscure (and real) genres instead.
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5. Spacesynth
What Is It? If you're already familiar with Spacesynth, then you don't need me to tell you that it originated in the mid-1980's. If you haven't heard Spacesynth before, just imagine taking the nerdiest and most horrifyingly cheesy elements of 80's synth music and listening to them all at once...while in outer space.
To put it more exactly, according the the folks at spacesynth.net, "Spacesynth...is instrumental upbeat synth music that focuses on melodies instead of rhythm. Driving basslines, catchy synth riffs, sci-fi influences and futuristic track titles and album covers have always been a major part of spacesynth."
Although not listed, living in your mother's basement and a lifetime of being ignored by women are also dominant elements in Spacesynth. Probably.
People Actually Listen To This?
Spacesynth has certainly lost a large chunk of its mid-80's heyday fanbase. It's unclear whether this is an indictment of the quality of the music or just something that was bound to happen once people stopped wearing pastel suits and snorting lines of coke for breakfast.
With that said, after a long absence throughout most of the 90's, some small labels such as Alpha Centauri have once again begun releasing new Spacesynth releases.
Hear It For Yourself:
Laserdance were, arguably, the biggest Spacesynth band ever. The video below is for a song called "Powerrun." That sounds like some sort of class you would take at Bally's Fitness. You know what song would be playing during that class? This one.
4. Epic Doom-Metal
What Is It?
According to the scholars at Wikipedia, "for the uninitiated, distinguishing epic doom from traditional doom may be difficult." Thanks for the help! Apparently, epic doom is just like regular ol' vanilla doom, except the dudes sing in clean, sometimes operatic voices as opposed to leaning on the "holy shit that guy sounds like Cookie Monster" style employed by some modern doom bands. It all sounds very fancy.
People Actually Listen To This?
Epic doom has a fairly decent following, mostly amongst Europeans and kids who shoot up schools. Some epic doom bands have had quite lengthy careers, most notably Candlemass, who are set to release their tenth studio album in 2009. But my vote for most awesome epic doom band ever goes to Doomsword. Check out this list of past and present Doomsword members: Deathmaster, The Forger, WrathLord, Sacred Heart, Nightcomer, The Guardian Angel, The Guardian Angel II and Dark Omen. I don't care what they sound like, I'll check out a band with names like that any day.
Hear It For Yourself:
While this video from Candlemass is certainly full of doom that one could only describe as epic, it's also chock full of epic hilarity. Do yourself a favor and forward to the 1:30 mark. That's when the lead singer hops out of a coffin and his quest to melt the heart of a young maiden begins. Hilarity and Ozzy Osbourne worship ensues.
3. Lowercase
What Is It?
Silence. That's what lowercase music is. It's silence. Silence occasionally interrupted by brief moments of barely audible noise. It's apparently an offshoot of ambient minimalism. Ambient music focuses on sound more than notes. Basically, lowercase does that too, but the sound it focuses on is silence. Sounds pretty rocking, no?
How boring is lowercase music? The album that pioneered the lowercase movement was Forms of Paper, a recording by a man named Steve Roden. It consisted solely of recordings of Roden handling different forms of paper. While he was high on crystal meth. Sorry, the crystal meth part is a lie. I'm just trying to make an album of paper shuffling sounds seem interesting.
People Actually Listen To This?
Oh yeah, of course people listen. If you'd like to be one of those people, head to the website of raster-noton, a label that currently publishes lowercase music. Fittingly, the website is a blindingly stark white background with tiny little font that you can barely read.
What Does It Sound Like?
Like soundtrack music for the most boring acid trip ever.
2. Bitpop
What Is It?
Alright Blur fans, read that slowly before you take to the comments. It says BITpop, there's no R. Speaking of no R, there is no reason why anyone should ever openly admit to listening to Bitpop. Basically, Bitpop takes all of the ecstatic joy that came with playing old school video games and removes the playing, gaming and video aspects from it.
If this sounds a bit on the geeky side, that's because it very much is. Don't let anyone tell you any differently. Slipping a bitpop reference into a conversation at a party will not make you seem edgy and underground. It will make you sound like someone whose itch for entertainment can be scratched by music meant to blend into an 8-bit background.
People Actually Listen To This?
It's got its own record label. Somebody must be listening. Bitpop pioneers Welle:Erdball played the Arvika Festival in Sweden in 2005. Festivalgoers able to recited the Konami code at the gates received free admission. Or at least they should have.
What Does It Sound Like?
Um, like a video game?
1. Nintendocore
What Is It?
There are about fifty-thousand different obscure genres that end with the word 'core'. Delving into all of the ridiculous ones would have made this list about sixty entries too long. But after scanning through them all, none stuck out quite like Nintendocore.
I don't need to even tell you that this is another entry from the video game music files. But instead of focusing exclusively on 8-bit sounds, Nintendocore mixes in elements of metal, black metal, death metal, hardcore, hardcore metal, metalcore and metal metal.
People Actually Listen To This?According to its Wikipedia page, Nintendocore is in the "near mainstream" category. That sounds like a bit of a stretch, unless there is a separate, specific mainstream in which people who rock to video game sounds rule the land. One band in particular though, HORSE the Band, have a fairly decent following. They have released several albums and have toured the world.
What Does It Sound Like?A video game. A very angry video game.
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Nick November 13th
Man that song from HORSE the band is hilarious…the video made me laugh so hard, especially the beginning.
But yeah, I think Spacesynth is my second favorite genre now.
( )Agargara November 13th
Raster-Noton releases some very good music. There’s a lot more there than the “lowercase” stuff.
Some of the artists seem really pretentious about their music there though, which is somewhat off-putting.
( )Joel Falconer November 13th
Once upon a time I quite enjoyed Candlemass. Then I saw their video clips and how ridiculous and clown-like their singer looked and behaved. Ever since, I’ve never been able to hear their songs without laughing to myself a little.
( )Brandon November 13th
another weird catagory would be the artist Crystal Castles. even though its weird, its very listenable and i love it
( )drugmule November 8th
That would be Bitpop you fool
( )suri November 15th
ROFLMAO
Koads November 13th
The insteresting thing about the Candlemass video is that it’s probably the first video by Jonas Åkerlund, who went on to make Madonna’s “Ray of Light” and Prodigy’s “Smack my Bitch Up”.
Of course, there lies a couple of years and many videos between Candlemass and Madonna.
( )Stephen Schappler November 13th
If anybody is interested in bitpop or chiptunes, check out the great documentary BLIP FESTIVAL: REFORMAT THE PLANET. It is incredibly well done, and a great film.
http://www.2playerproductions.com/video/rftp/
( )loungelizard November 13th
So it’s called Spacesynth! I always thought it’s called Synth Pop. Actually sounds very good to me. I like synth-only generated sound and I do loathe IDM by now. Why the author thinks that the music is connected to an absence of female contact is beyond me. Maybe he shouldn’t listen so much R’n'B BS!
( )Ronny November 13th
This article is a piece of cake. How dare you take down musical matters of taste in such a lousy way? Yeah, i guess you’re all down for page impressions by people starting to discuss. Congrats, you’ve got a winner here.
The community of 80s fans absolutely in love with that silly Laserdance stuff and alikes is huge, so is the whack bleep-nintendo-core scene. I guess every genre has its more or less huge fanbase.
Articles like this are just a bummer. BOOOO.
( )Ian November 13th
Spacesynth is pure fun. We need more of this kind of thing, music that isn’t pretentious. Music that is fun and knows it is silly and doesn’t pretend otherwise.
( )Scott November 14th
Somehow I knew I’d be seeing Horse the Band on this list. As far as I know they made up the Genre Nintendocore, and I’m not sure there’s any other band that’s really considered a part of the genre. You should check out their song Cutsman. I’d call it their quintessential track, and therefore the quintessential Nintendocore track. Also it’s about an enemy from Mega Man. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQo9DUqQtEg&fmt=6
( )ratchada November 14th
yeah, this type of article is so lame, really reeks of slack-jawed yokel-ism, heheh. “welllll gollly, that there don’t sound lahk any mew-sik ahhh’ve ever heeeerd…hey, let’s make fun of it!”
I’d hate to have read what this guy might’ve written in the early 80s upon hearing Sonic Youth for the first time (”dang! they cain’t even tune therrr gui-tars!” or early Detroit Techno: “hey, they think that’s music? it’s just machines doin’ it all!”
( )Less is More November 14th
raster-noton is awesome label….if you don’t understand it, it’s your problem….sorry….and lovercase!!!..wtf is this….
( )Not a fan. November 14th
I’m sorry (not really) but this is the lamest excuse for an article I’ve ever read on the entire envato network. Sure, I understand that you may not have enough content (read: tutorials) to update audiotuts as regularly as the other tut blogs, but there is no excuse for articles that simply bash obscure musical genres. While I myself may not understand the likes of Lowercase, nintendocore (i.e. HORSE the band) is mainstream around here NY, NY with many of the highschool aged.
Also, Chiptune as bitpop is more commonly known as, is less about making music that sounds like videogames as it is about using videogames (and their technology) to make music. Early chiptune (and some of it to this day) is almost the auditory version of hacking. It was about using old technology to do more and different things then its original purpose.
Next time, stick with articles that actually educate on music or genre histories. Don’t just bash niche genres because it’s easy to be ignorant about them. Also, check out “reformat the planet” and http://www.8bc.org
( )insicdesigns November 14th
I love this style of music
( )Stepaan November 15th
Well. I love 80’s, I love bitpop, and I’ve just bought a record from raster-noton (never heard about it, but I’ll definitely love it from now on). So I sould be yelling at the autor of this article too, right? But I’m not! In fact it’s very funny survey to less known genres of music and it’s even quite educational
I just don’t understand people blaming this kind of articles…
Stepaan
( )Chris McDougall November 15th
I’m glad that these genres at least have some musical gauge with which to measure them as far as instrumentation and song arrangement. Obscure musical genres and subgenres are a dime a dozen in the punk and metal communities, and oftentimes there’s no way to gauge what makes the music that certain subgenre other than lyrical content. You can thank punk for hardcore, emo, hardcore emo, emotional hardcore, screamo, power violence, etc. Metal is even worse with doom, death, power, thrash, metalcore, nu, post, sludge, celtic, viking, etc.
And for those complaining, I can’t speak for the author, but I assume from reading the article that Adam Brown probably has a few of the groups he mentioned in his music collection and isn’t being a “hater.” Lighten up.
( )Andy November 16th
There’s one additional hilarious obscure music genre: HipHop
( )Khro November 16th
“…as opposed to leaning on the “holy shit that guy sounds like Cookie Monster” style employed by some modern doom bands.”
Indeed.
( )Torley November 17th
FUnny! =^_^=
I’d love to see more producers dedicated to and relentless about merging obscure music genres with more established pop styles — the two are bound to collide eventually, but these producers would be catalysts, accelerators of sonic crossbreeding. I love hearing glitch techniques applied to chart hits (e.g., some Linkin Park, and the stutter-edit-on-choruses work that BT’s done).
“Spacesynth” sounds like it’s just a specific name for certain flavor of Italo-Disco and Eurodance, so more of an adjective than a genre? The melody sounds like something JMJ or Vangelis (aka “Vangy”) would’ve done.
Electronic music, as Ishkur has shown, has this awful habit of splitting up into too many branches without gaining strength at their precedent trunks… http://www.ishkur.com/music/
There should be a genre revolving around making excellently-produced tribute songs to Mega Man bosses: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g29FkNIGqcc
( )Oddmund November 17th
I guess this article might very well be written as joke, I have a hard time believing someone who writes for a blog that is, at least related to music, really has such a superficial understanding of these genres.
Stick to tutorials!
( )paul November 17th
lowercase “People Actually Listen To This?”
My Grandfather must have written this article.
( )Aaron November 18th
Great up. I really enjoy me some “lowercase”
( )iwiLetter.com November 19th
one more vote here for Spacesynth. Powerrun!
( )Steve Forbes November 19th
I’m just glad music hasn’t gone that way, I’d be glad to be deaf if that was the case!
Very interesting read!
( )Tyler Menezes December 4th
You forgot Whistlecore! (Look it up.)
( )MHartz December 7th
Epic Doom Metal gets me roaring with laughter.
My favorite though is Spaced-Age Bachelor Pad Music.
( )music man December 10th
kinda like that Epic Doom-Metal, not too shabby, video is messed up
( )Jeremy Comitas December 17th
Haha! My band (The Banner) just toured last month, and crossed paths with HORSE The Band in Germany. They played really well, and Erik was really friendly. Glad to see Nintendocore on the list. Funny.
( )Martin Harp December 18th
I think it is funny that there are so many supporters of these “obscure genres” stating their opinions here as: “I hate you… this band, so-and-so… is so great…” while in the same breath saying that the poster is close minded, pretentious and/or take themselves too seriously. (isn’t hypocrisy great?!)
get a clue. the OP is SPREADING THE WORD about these genres to those who otherwise may have never heard of them. If you don’t like something try letting your fingers rest for a moment. I think this was a decent post… although it has nothing to do with TUTORIALS, it is not the first of it’s kind here on AUDIOTUTS.COM. Besides, this IS in the Articles section of the site.
If you’re even old enough to buy a Playboy you’d know there’s more to it than cover-to-cover naked women. (that there was a metaphor…catch on yet?)
my 2 cents.
( )Your Name December 31st
Crystal Castles is just a ripoff of the Chiptune genre. Nothing new and nothing original at all.
And yeah reading people’s comments, I feel like my grandfather has written this article.
( )FF February 23rd
raster-noton is really interesting actually
( )ff February 23rd
Holly crap… thank you thank you thank you for information’s about Lowercase music…
( )Bitpop July 23rd
Bet you’re feeling pretty silly now that Bitpop is hitting the charts pretty hard ! La Roux and Little Boots both in the top 10. w00T! for the geeks
( )voiceofdoom September 25th
DoomSword consistently affirmed to play pure and simple “Heavy Metal” in all the interviews they did, and they also do not recognise Epic Metal as a genre in its own right.
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