Musiccounterculture.com Home page


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shuddersome Soundscape #5: Twin Tales

Image
Let me first start off with a jubilation: At last! October has graced us with its presence once again! Now that that moment of silliness is out of our systems, let us proceed with the music. One band that I find always plunges me into the Halloween spirit is Type O Negative. Anytime in the year when I find myself longing for this special season, I can simply play a Type O track, and I am instantly transported back to the crisp, pumpkin-fraught weeks of October. So appropriately, this band is the centerpiece to start off the month of honour.  Also, as this is the first Shuddersome Soundscape post of October, I shall grant you two songs rather than just the one. Thusly, here are two featured tunes, both from the album World Coming Down (1999): "Creepy Green Light" and "All Hallows Eve." Type O Negative can be described as gothic metal, or "Gothedelic," in frontman Peter Steele's words, as their sound fuses classic gothic metal with 1960s psychedelia. As...
Read more

Shuddersome Soundscape #12: A Final Treat...or Trick

Image
After a glorious several weeks of dark escapades and moonlit festivities, we have reached the end of the Spooky Season. Throughout this, I've enjoyed gifting you a menagerie of songs from different reaches of the subcultural music world. This week, we shall wrap up this series with a brief, final spotlight on a classic tune that encapsulates the theme of our ghoulish Soundscape. For a last hurrah, this is the aptly-named "Halloween" by Siouxsie and the Banshees.  Like I said, I shall be brief. Siouxsie and the Banshees, formed in London, England in 1976, originally rose to prominence as a unique presence in the punk scene. A major cause of this may have been their artful, experimental instrumentation and innovative guitar techniques, all of which earned them the additional title of "art rock." Their pivotal 1981 album Juju , from which our song comes, lent a largely influential hand to the flowering post-punk genre, the precursor to gothic rock. Although Siouxsi...
Read more

Beat

Image
  Background The multi-faceted world of Post-World War II America set the stage for Beat culture to take root. As the country recovered from the horrors of the war, the economy experienced a boom which put more disposable income in the hands of Americans, leading to a rise in consumer culture. Advertisements and popular culture emphasized the mass produced and the artificial as cornerstones of the average American household. This trend very closely mimicked the transformation of marketing and the fixation of novel goods that took shape back in the Gilded Age. Although plastic had been invented in the 19th century and was used extensively in the 1930s and 1940s, it wasn’t until after the war that it surged in the markets and entered the everyday home environment, alluring Americans with its convenience, affordability and supposed disposability. Popular and consumer culture intersected frequently and gave rise to crazes, often in the realms of beauty or entertainment. Music itself fe...
Read more