New Emerging Talents

By Sarah Cropper – 24000591

Introduction

A and R, or Artist and Repertoire, is the way in which officials of commercial recording companies selectperformers and supervise the production of their recordings, Wikipedia . Throughout the course of this report I will act as an A and R agent and will be discussing the new, unsigned talents emerging from the varied genres of Pop/Rock, West Coast Rap and Avant-Garde Jazz and. I will explain the A and R techniques I used in order to find said artists and what I find particularly interesting and exciting about them. Due to circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak, I will not be able to construct one of the main A and R techniques of going to gigs and finding talent via shows. Consequently, I will be focusing mainly, on the variety of digital on-line tools I used in order to find these artists from home.

Pop/Rock

Pop/Rock is a style of music originating in the 1950s. It is a distinct genre field influenced by the beat and arrangements of Rock and Roll. However, the primary focus of the genre is to emphasise song writing and recording as a craft as opposed to Rock and Roll, which emphasises attitude (Hamelman, 2004). Pop/Rock was seen as a “softer” alternative to Rock and Roll making it easier to listen to. Consequently, it has a broader, more extensive audience that listen to it regularly, increasing its popularity. Furthermore, the fact that the “Rock and Roll craze began to die down” in the late 50s – according to the online music resource All Music (2020)- meant that genres, like pop/rock, had a huge lack of competition due to its biggest opponents no longer dominating the market. This contributed to the success of pop/rock and ultimately its rapid increase in popularity in the early to mid 60s. Artists such as Paul McCartney, Fleetwood Mac and the Beach Boys further strengthened this rise by simply adapted to the change in genre and putting out music fitting to it. The main genres that inspired Pop/Rock are, of course, Popular music and Rock and Roll. Despite having very different styles and aims, the two have one common denominator, their target audience. Both genres seem to be idolised by the younger generation. For instance, the term teenager was rarely used until the rise of Rock and Roll in order to describe the rebellious youth. Moreover, since the mid 50s, Pop has been used as a term to describe a distinct, youth centric genre further strengthening its focus on the younger generations.

Little Brother Eli:

Following:

Instagram: 1383

Twitter: 2430

Facebook: 3807

Spotify: 1062 monthly listeners

Sounds similar to: Metronomy, Alt – J, Fall Out Boy, Olly Murs

The first unsigned band I will be discussing is the up and coming group “Little Brother Eli”, a four-piece indie, pop/rock band from Oxford. I first came across the band through the social media platform, Twitter (2006). I simply searched “unsigned pop/rock bands” and, after some searching, I saw them advertising their single “Love Between Teens”. Similar to 2015, when remixes and club music began to take over popular artists like Katy Perry and Selena Gomez, the track made me feel as though it was reframing the concept of pop music as we know it today. I felt so unbelievably excited about the prospect of a changing popular in a time where it has been the same recycled beat for over 5 years now. Fair to say I, and everyone else, is ready for something different, and I strongly believe that the catalyst for this change is Little Brother Eli. Their music felt as though it would be liked universally. However, I was strangely disappointed. Disappointed at the fact that the group wasn’t more known, as I was unable to discuss them with others. I couldn’t help myself but to message everyone I knew immediately, telling each of them to listen in order to see if they felt the same as me. 

The most exciting thing about Little Brother Eli, in my opinion, is the sheer diversity and versatility of the group in terms of their sound. In many ways, the band is almost genre-fluid. For instance, in 2015 the group made, primarily, rock singles such as “Dreams” that sound greatly inspired by idolised bands such as “Linkin Park”. However, flash forward to today and you wouldn’t believe it was the same band. With songs like “Love Between Teens” and “Oops” which I can only describe as being “radio friendly” and “pop centric”. Regardless of this, it can be said that whatever phase the band is in, the music they put out has been nothing short of genius.

 Furthermore, with their versatility also comes universality. Due to the range of genres their music fits into, they’re likely to have a very broad audience of people. This encompasses people who enjoy Rock and roll, Indie or Pop. This is an exciting trait for the band to have as it means that they will have fans in some of the biggest, most popular music genres at the minute, further increasing the bands reach. In a broader sense, their music could help people connect with others who they may have never met if not for their common trait of liking Little Brother Eli.

Finally, the band has been putting out these great tracks since 2015. From this, I can gather that the band knows a lot about the industry and what they want from it. This also implies that they will be very easy to work alongside of as they already know what they’re working towards. The band has also managed to gain 1,168 monthly listeners on Spotify without any outside help, just through their art. The prospect of what the band could be with the right label is exciting to think about. 

West Coast Rap

According to Wikipedia (2019), West Coast Rap is a regional variation of hip hop/rap that encompasses artists and rappers originating from the west coast of the United States of America. The genre started dominating the radio as well as record sales around the early to mid 1990s, although its origins date back to late 1970s. This was when Alonzo Williams and Rodger Clayton began their partnership. It is said that the main catalyst for West Coast Rap stems from the 1965 “Watts Riots”, in which 34 people were killed and another 1,032 injured in the Watts neighbourhood of Los Angeles. According to history.com (2017), the residents believed that the police were abusing African American persons, causing a massive riot. This is relevant as, after this, Bud Schulberg founded the “Watts Writers Workshop” which aimed to provide the people of Watts a safe place to express themselves. From this, the “Watts Prophets” formed – a group of musicians that helped drive the west coast rap scene. 

Key artists that I believe helped make West Coast Rap popular include; Tupac Shakur, Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg. However, I believe that the artists keeping it popular today include, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem AKA Marshall Mathers and Tyler the Creator. What’s interesting about these artists, and I believe West Coast Rap as a whole, is that they all have very different styles, despite being from the same genre. For example, Kendrick Lamar makes intellectual and political music, whereas Tyler the Creator is liked for his strange characters he creates in his music and stories that he creates via these characters. Eminem, however, is known recently for his diss-tracks whereas, when he was first starting out, he was idolised for his accounts of his real life that he turned into music. This illustrates the unrestricted nature that encompasses the West Coast Rap scene.

Mars Valley

Following:

Instagram: Inapplicable

Twitter: 31k

Facebook: Inapplicable

Soundcloud: 451

Sounds similar to: Tupac, Nelly, R Kelly, Snoop Dogg

In terms of unsigned talent from this genre, I will be talking about the artist “Mars Valley”. Valley is a mysterious rapper in that there is not really any information about him, not even his name. In fact, the only forms of media I have found of his are his Twitter and Soundcloud. I found Valley through the site Unsigned.com (2006) in which you put a genre and a location into a generator. This provides a number of talents based on these requirements. Mars was one of the artists suggested to me and so I gave his music a listen. 

The first thing noticeable to me was the lyrics. He talks a lot on politics, love, loss and mental health in ways that many people will be able to relate to and understand. For instance, in the track “Bully” he raps about life growing up and describes how he is “trying to reach middle age if [he’s] lucky” and later explains how he is bothered by how America calls itself, “land of the free”.  I have provided these snippets of the track below. 

https://youtu.be/_vts3akLx6Q?t=20 – 20 – 26 seconds

https://youtu.be/_vts3akLx6Q?t=42 – 42 – 47 seconds

The way in which I perceived the track, is in relation to him being an African American living in these times of severe prejudice in the justice system of America, towards ethnic minorities. To me, it implies that he is fearful of being an African American man, in a time where black people are still being jailed or killed unjustly. I strongly believe that Valleys’ music will actually make a difference. Whether that be in making young minority groups feel less alone in their fear or giving people who may never have felt this, an indication of what it is like for people to live in fear and so, hopefully, encourage a change in behaviour.

It is also apparent that Mars Valley is greatly inspired by other west coast icons such as Tupac. However, what I believe is really exciting about Mars is that he takes inspirations from different genres, rather than other artists in the same field. For example, his song “Vacant” takes the rap style of Tupac whilst also using an intense electronic synth as the basis. He then includes a very 2000, Nelly style chorus. All these components seem as if they would not go together or merge well at all, yet somehow, he makes it work. I believe that he is pairing sounds together that nobody else would even bother trying. In my opinion, this is due to him taking inspiration from many different sectors of music and so has been able to manipulate them, creating something completely original to him, picking and choosing whatever he likes from other genres and making it work.

Over the past few years, I feel as though the style of West Coast Rap has changed drastically. For example, many popular west coast rappers have detached from what the genre started out to be, expressing emotion and using music almost like a diary to vent. I believe that Mars Valley is bringing back the origins of west coast rap and has the ability to make the old school style popular again. The majority of West Coast rap today, is focused on a catchy, 808 heavy beats, at the expense of clever lyrics. This contradicts with what Bud Schulberg wanted for the genre, in being to express feelings and emotions through words. I believe that Mars truly is channelling what was truly intended for the genre whilst also incorporating the modern day style, which will be important in weaning current fans onto lyrically based tracks. In short, he is revitalising the vintage, original rap scene whilst also keeping the new “modified” fan base in mind. 

All and all I believe that there is a huge gap in the market for artists such as Mars Valley that truly does need to be exploited.

Avant Garde Jazz

Avant Garde jazz, also known as experimental jazz, is a combination of Avant Garde art/music combined with jazz with a high focus on improvisation (Wikipedia, 2020). It originated in the 1950s and was developed in the 1960s by artists that rejected the conventions of bebop and post bop. Many who pushed Avant-garde jazz wanted to blur the line between the structured and spontaneous when it came to song composition. What I believe people like about the genre is that it breaks the “rules” that many have created for music over the years as a consequence of music theory. It allows people to express themselves freely without judgement or restrictions. They can simply do, whatever they want. Many listeners enjoy this, as they know that what the artist is performing what they believe is correct and doing it for themselves, straight from the heart, as opposed to being formulated and fabricated for the sole reason of making money, which most popular music is nowadays. Artists that I believed increased the popularity of Avant-Garde Jazz, include Alice and John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor and Charles Mingus.

Thought Gang:

Following:

Instagram: Not Applicable

Twitter: Not Applicable

Facebook: Not Applicable

Spotify: 11,529 monthly listeners.

Sounds similar to: Jaimie Branch, David Lynch

The new emerging talent I would like to discuss for this genre is the Jazz duo, Angelo Badalamenti and David Lynch, better known as “Thought Gang”. I first came across the pair whilst searching for the newest Avant Garde Jazz album releases, in order to see who is current in the genre, with it being a musical field that I am not particularly familiar on. I found myself on the website for “album of the year”, discovering that the duo had been voted for the best Avant Garde Jazz album of 2018 with their debut record, “Thought Gang”. Naturally, I wanted to see if the claims were true. I had listened to a number of different Avant Garde artists prior to the duo and hadn’t really understood the why it was so popular. However, with Thought Gang, I seemed to understand just what they were trying to do. I understood why the music wanted to make me feel uncomfortable, confused, happy or sad. Its as if your body and mind are under complete control of the music and composer. They steer you towards the emotions that they want you to feel, you can no longer decide upon them. I began to fully understand the aim of the genre as a collective and other artists as a consequence seemed to make sense. I began to enjoy the uncomfortable nature of the music as I knew it was for a reason, but yet always left in the dark as to what that reason was. Due to this, I believe that “Thought Gang” if vital in the rejuvenation of Avant Garde Jazz as it simply teaches people how to enjoy the weirdness of the genre as opposed to rejecting it.

Furthermore, “Thought Gang” uses instruments and effects ordinarily seen in stereotypical Avant Garde jazz. For example, in their song “One Dog Bark” they use a high amount of distortion on the guitar parts as well as a drum beat centred around the snare. This is typically used in a lot of Rock records as opposed to Jazz as Jazz is thought to be more mellow and so doesn’t often us a lot of high frequency, high attack snares. This is exciting to me as the duo is changing and evolving Avant Garde Jazz as we know it and is not afraid to make people feel negative emotions from their music which jazz previously aimed to help the listener escape from. Moreover, many people in today’s society prefer rock music over Avant-Garde Jazz, and so consequently enjoy the high distortion and drum heavy beat. Due to this, I believe that Thought Gang is great transition band into the world Avant Garde Jazz as it is not too dissimilar to what people enjoy listening to today. This will then make people want to invest more time listening to more Avant Garde Jazz and distinguish what they do and don’t like when it comes to the genre. 

Bibliography

AllMusic. (n.d.). Early Pop/Rock Music Genre Overview. [online] Available at: https://www.allmusic.com/style/early-pop-rock-ma0000002763 [Accessed 25 Apr.2020]

Steven L. Hamelman (2004). But is it Garbage?: On Rock and Trash. University of Georgia Press. p. 11.

History.com Editors (2018). Watts Riots. [online] HISTORY. Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/watts-riots. 

LITTLE BROTHER ELI, 2019, New single #LoveBetweenTeens out today CLICK: ampl.ink/aKKj6 #RT #follow #newmusic #NewMusicAlert #NewMusicFriday #release #Unsigned #band #music #pop #rock #single #spotify #funky #oxford #littlebrothereli #discoer #playlist #NewMusicDaily #NewMusicNews #love. [Twitter]  13 December. Available from: https://twitter.com/LittleBroEli/status/1205453076896854017 [Accessed 13 December 2019]

http://www.unsigned.com. (n.d.). West Coast California Unsigned (Independent) Rap Artists / Bands – Unsigned.com. [online] Available at: http://www.unsigned.com/browse_artists/browse_results.php?genre=rap&band_name=&imageField.x=18&imageField.y=10&country=US&state=CA&city=West+Coast&order=name [Accessed 25 Apr. 2020]. 

Wikipedia Contributors (2019). West Coast hip hop. [online] Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Coast_hip_hop

Wikipedia. (2020). Avant-garde jazz. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avant-garde_jazz [Accessed 25 Apr. 2020]