Microgenre Moment: Baggy

Ever wanted to throw down some obscure music knowledge to impress friends and strangers alike?  In Microgenre Moment I try my best pass along some basic Wikipedia overviews and links to relevant videos to get you up to speed on a specific sub-sub-genre of music.  I guarantee these posts will grant you the intellectual high ground in your next music-centered conversation.

"Baggy was a British dance-oriented music genre popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The scene was heavily influenced by Madchester, although it was not geographically confined to Manchester. Many Madchester bands could also be described as Baggy, and vice versa. Baggy was characterised by psychedelia- and acid house-influenced guitar music, often with a funky drummer beat, similar to the work of the Happy Mondays, Northside and The Stone Roses. The scene was named after the loose-fitting clothing worn by the bands and fans."

"Bands in the indie-dance era of pop music can be divided into two camps; the acts who could be described as baggy (usually the Madchester acts and a few others such as Flowered Up from London) — and those who can be described as indie-dance (i.e. Jesus Jones, who were more techno inspired). Some baggy bands disappeared after the scene was no longer popular, and others evolved into indie rock or Britpop bands who remained popular throughout the 1990s. The Charlatans are a good examples of an ex-baggy band who retained their popularity, although little trace of the baggy sound and look remained. The baggy style became eclipsed by the grunge and Britpop genres, with many of the lesser bands forgotten."

Microgenre Moment: Florida Breaks

Ever wanted to throw down some obscure music knowledge to impress friends and strangers alike?  In Microgenre Moment I try my best pass along some basic Wikipedia overviews and links to relevant videos to get you up to speed on a specific sub-sub-genre of music.  I guarantee these posts will grant you the intellectual high ground in your next music-centered conversation.

"Florida breaks, also referred to as Florida breakbeat, is a genre of breakbeat music which, as the name suggests, is most popular in the areas around the US state of Florida but is recognized as a unique sound around the world. Florida breaks became popular in the club culture of the southeast United States during the mid and late 90s. Its sound at that time was described as 'funky' and often included recognizable samples from 80s pop, funk, and hip hop. Its current sound has a lot in common with nu skool breaks although it is also influenced by other music popular in the same area such as freestyle, electro and Miami bass. Its largest influence was in the clubs of Tampa as the more popular DJs in this genre hail from that city. More recently, Floridians have taken to calling the genre electro breaks despite the lack of electro characteristics included in the tracks, but this is most likely due to the parallel electronic dance music sub-genre of electro bass being billed at many of the same events as Florida breaks."

"While Kimball Collins and Dave Cannalte were promoting the sounds of progressive house and trance at the legendary Ahzz, DJ Stylus & D-Xtreme are considered the pioneers since it is they who inspired and introduced countless patrons of the Abyss to the genre of Breakbeat. Brad Smith and Huda Hudia were regular guest DJ's at the Abyss as they too were promoting and playing breakbeat at residencies in Tampa. The first production in Florida Breaks can be attributed to DJ Icee or now known as DJ Icey. His numerous labels and countless releases served as the pioneering sound of Florida Breaks, and he was the first to put Florida Breaks on the map globally. Later successful productions were followed by Brad Smith, Huda Hudia, & Dave London out of Tampa. It was the efforts of these first 6 artists that paved the way for other artists, who in their own right, successfully followed."

Microgenre Moment: Skweee

Ever wanted to throw down some obscure music knowledge to impress friends and strangers alike?  In Microgenre Moment I try my best pass along some basic Wikipedia overviews and links to relevant videos to get you up to speed on a specific sub-sub-genre of music.  I guarantee these posts will grant you the intellectual high ground in your next music-centered conversation.

"Skweee is a musical style, with origin in Sweden and Finland. Skweee combines simple synth/chiptune leads and basslines with funk, R&B or soul-like rhythms, overall rendering a stripped-down funky sound. The tracks are mostly entirely instrumental, though there are exceptions. The name Skweee was coined by Daniel Savio, one of the originators of the emerging sound. The name refers to the use of vintage synthesizers in the production process, where the aim is to "squeeze out" the most interesting sounds possible."

"The current producers are both newcomers and old, experienced producers from the Scandinavian Electro and electronica environment. The preferred media format of skweee enthusiasts is the 7" vinyl record. Early releases were exclusively released in this format. More recently, however, a series 12" vinyl records, digital releases and CD compilations have been released through these outlets as well."

"Skweee has during late 2008 and early 2009 started to influence the sound of dubstep. A thread started on the dubstepforum made the scene aware of skweee. Producers such as Rusko, Gemmy, Joker, Zomby, Rustie, Jamie Vex'd among others, have given their take on the sound resulting in several interesting releases on the boundary between skweee and dubstep."

Microgenre Moment: Hardbag

Ever wanted to throw down some obscure music knowledge to impress friends and strangers alike?  In Microgenre Moment I try my best pass along some basic Wikipedia overviews and links to relevant videos to get you up to speed on a specific sub-sub-genre of music.  I guarantee these posts will grant you the intellectual high ground in your next music-centered conversation.

"Hardbag was a genre of electronic dance music popular in the mid 1990s. Having evolved out of the handbag house scene in 1993-1994, the genre enjoyed massive, albeit brief, popularity, with several hardbag releases achieving positions in the upper echelons of the UK chart. It was at the time sometimes confused with Nu-NRG, yet the styles were discernibly different."

"The popularity of the hardbag genre reached its zenith in 1995 with releases by Candy Girls, Rollo & Sister Bliss and Mrs Wood all crossing over into the mainstream. Indeed, the sound began to meld with happy hardcore, evident on tracks such as "Forever young" by Interactive and "Rainbow Islands"- Seb."

"By early 1997 the hardbag craze had died down, and the sound began involving into what was to eventually become UK hard house. Labels such as Tripoli Trax expounded this sound via releases such as "Bells of revolution" by Lemon 8 and "Raise your hands" by Knuckleheadz."

Microgenre Moment: Darkcore

Ever wanted to throw down some obscure music knowledge to impress friends and strangers alike?  In Microgenre Moment I try my best pass along some basic Wikipedia overviews and links to relevant videos to get you up to speed on a specific sub-sub-genre of music.  I guarantee these posts will grant you the intellectual high ground in your next music-centered conversation.

"Darkcore is a subgenre of jungle (not be confused with the more recent developments of Hardcore) that became popular in the United Kingdom hardcore rave scene in late 1992. It is recognized as being one of the direct precursors of the genre now known as drum and bass. Darkcore was a counter movement to the happy alternative that occurred at the same time — both styles evolving from breakbeat hardcore. The name was most likely derived from the track "Darkcore" by Two Dark Troopers, released on Basement Records in 1993."

"Darkcore is characterized by layered breakbeats at around 150 to 160 bpm combined with very low frequency bass lines. In addition to these basic traits, dark themed samples such as horror movie theme music or cries for help were commonly included. As the style evolved, the almost gratuitous use of horror elements was dropped as producers relied more on simple effects such as reverb, delay, pitch shifting and time stretching to create a chaotic and sinister mood. "