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New age music has become the most popular form of contemporary electronic music. Unlike the other variants, new age has become popular with a global mainstream audience, even more so than the most commercial strains of contemporary chill out. Although similarities do exist between new age and ambient music – both styles were influenced by the same pioneers, ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

Cantus firmus technique, in which a pre-existent melody forms the basis of a new composition, lends itself well to musical homage, and it is likely that the selection of cantus firmi was often influenced by the dedicatee or patron. This might mean the choice of a favourite song, or a section of plainchant whose text held some ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

In his brief, meteoric career, Guitar Slim (1926–59) electrified the blues in more ways than one. While most bluesmen didn’t alter their style as they moved from acoustic to electric guitar in the Forties and Fifties, Slim developed a uniquely electric style, utilizing a 150-ft (46-m) (some say 350-ft/107-m) cable between his guitar and amplifier and creating ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin

New-wave guitarist Bernard Sumner (b. 1956) was born in Salford, Manchester. Seeing the Sex Pistols in Manchester in June 1976 inspired Sumner and Peter Hook to acquire their first instruments, guitar and bass respectively. Originally called Warsaw, later Joy Division, they recruited drummer Stephen Morris and singer Ian Curtis for their band, making some self-produced records ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin

The acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter Nick Drake (1948–74) was a tragic figure in the English folk-rock community. His beautiful if bleak songs became fully appreciated only after decades had passed since he succumbed to an overdose of anti-depressant medication. Born Nicholas Rodney Drake, he spent his childhood in Burma and on his parents’ estate in Warwickshire. A bright youth and ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin

The last of the triumvirate of guitar legends who played with The Yardbirds, Jimmy Page became an icon of rock guitarists in the 1970s with Led Zeppelin. Elements of his playing style have been copied to the point of cliché in the years since Led Zeppelin dominated the rock world, but as the originator, Page developed the heavy-metal ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin

Martin Pugh grew up in England during the 1960s and 1970s. As a young musician influenced by rock’n’roll, Pugh developed his progressive, blues-and-folk-influenced style with his first band, known as The Package Deal, who performed in Devon and Cornwall in the early 1960s. Martin soon moved to London and joined Carl Douglas (‘Kung Fu Fighting’) and The ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin

Driven by a fierce intelligence, a relentless pursuit of social justice and a wide-ranging taste in sounds and songs, Tom Morello (b. 1964) was the driving force behind the bands Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave. Morello has won Grammys and performed around the world inspiring and uniting people with music. Known for innovative guitar solos and varied, ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin

Joe Walsh (b. 1947) was born in Kansas and spent his childhood in Ohio and his high-school years in New Jersey before returning to Ohio to attend college at Kent State. He played bass in various bands before adopting guitar for a stint in the local group The Measles from 1965 to 1969. That led to a spot with Cleveland-based trio ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin

The rise of opera in the early Baroque period provided increased musical opportunities for women, especially as singers, but also as composers. One of the earliest female opera singers was Vittoria, who worked for the Medici court in Florence. Her career was overshadowed by that of another Medici employee, the composer and singer Francesca Caccini, who ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

For many veterans of the punk era, new wave is not a genre at all. The term was coined by the music press to encompass acts who were influenced by punk, but less overtly rebellious and with more traditionally crafted pop skills. New wave acts traded largely on a back-to-basics desire to revive the short, sharp thrill of ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

Born out of a reaction to both punk and 2-Tone’s politics and anti-star stance, the British synth-pop wave of the early 1980s brought almost instant change to the UK pop scene. Moreover, the US success of the principal protagonists signalled the biggest ‘British Invasion’ since The Beatles and The Rolling Stones transformed American pop in the 1960s. Mixing a ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

The UK garage scene began in London in the 1990s when enterprising DJ’s such as Norris ‘Da Bass’ Windross and Karl ‘Tuff Enuff’ Brown set up after-hours parties in the capital’s pubs for clubbers reluctant to end the revelry after spending the evening at one of London’s new superclubs, such as The Ministry Of Sound. ‘We used to pitch it ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

Disco may have died after it went overground in the late 1970s, but one New York DJ continued spinning his favourite tunes at the same club from 1977 to 1987 – Larry Levan. Though Levan’s DJing style was wildly eclectic, the smooth, soulful flavours he favoured would become known as ‘garage’ – named after the club Levan ruled ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

When The Sugarhill Gang and Kurtis Blow made an impact on the mainstream pop charts in 1979, rap was immediately palmed off as a novelty. However, the style not only survived, but has proved to be so influential that, in varying degrees, pop, rock, heavy metal and reggae have all borrowed from hip hop ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer
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