The Melting Pot Project
Participants were randomly assigned 4 genres from this list: electronic/dance music, industrial/metal, hard rock, folk, funk/r&b, blues, disco, classical, bluegrass, country, zydeco, Caribbean motifs, Asian motifs, tribal, ragtime, hip hop, jazz, Celtic, spoken word, Spanish, cadence (think soldiers chanting while they march), Indian Ragas. They were then told to mix 2 or more of the assigned genres into a single song
Here are the results!!!!
Disco Barnyard by Moonflower
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Call Center Blues by Moonflower
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Open by Hebegebes
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Strangers by Hebegebes
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Godzilla by Mark Wagner
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Surf Los Locos by George Nisula
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People Who Died by Audio Spanking
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Scroll to the bottom of the page to see more track info and see the genres the participants were assigned!
Would you like to participate?
Contact Mike at [email protected] and tell him you want in.
Mike will send you 4 genres.
One of those genres will be randomly selected from the “safety list”. These genres are considered easier to work with and include: electronic/dance music, industrial/metal, hard rock, folk, funk/r&b, blues.
Three of your genres will be selected from the "challenge" list consisting of: disco, classical, bluegrass, country, zydeco, Caribbean motifs, Asian motifs, tribal, ragtime, hip hop, jazz, Celtic, spoken word, Spanish, cadence (think soldiers chanting while they march), Indian Ragas.
You must choose at LEAST two of your assigned genres to create a piece of music that utilizes sounds, themes and/or instruments from these genres.
The intended goal is to have a piece of music that truly sounds like a blend of these genres.
◦ A good example, given hardrock/metal and Celtic as a choice, would be something by the Dropkick Murphy's
◦ A bad example, given hard rock and Indian, would be to cover a Sabbath tune on sitar.
In the latter example, while using a sitar is certainly going to provide some sounds reminiscent of Indian music, it is not quite what Mike has in mind. Nothing will be rejected, and we give you complete creative freedom!! But a blend of styles is what we are looking for.
If you find your assignments are completely beyond you, or turn you off, let Mike know and he’ll send new ones. This project should be challenging, but it shouldn't be painful. It should be fun!
Finally, send your completed Mp3 to [email protected].
The completed MP3's will be posted shortly after that.
Mike will send you 4 genres.
One of those genres will be randomly selected from the “safety list”. These genres are considered easier to work with and include: electronic/dance music, industrial/metal, hard rock, folk, funk/r&b, blues.
Three of your genres will be selected from the "challenge" list consisting of: disco, classical, bluegrass, country, zydeco, Caribbean motifs, Asian motifs, tribal, ragtime, hip hop, jazz, Celtic, spoken word, Spanish, cadence (think soldiers chanting while they march), Indian Ragas.
You must choose at LEAST two of your assigned genres to create a piece of music that utilizes sounds, themes and/or instruments from these genres.
The intended goal is to have a piece of music that truly sounds like a blend of these genres.
◦ A good example, given hardrock/metal and Celtic as a choice, would be something by the Dropkick Murphy's
◦ A bad example, given hard rock and Indian, would be to cover a Sabbath tune on sitar.
In the latter example, while using a sitar is certainly going to provide some sounds reminiscent of Indian music, it is not quite what Mike has in mind. Nothing will be rejected, and we give you complete creative freedom!! But a blend of styles is what we are looking for.
If you find your assignments are completely beyond you, or turn you off, let Mike know and he’ll send new ones. This project should be challenging, but it shouldn't be painful. It should be fun!
Finally, send your completed Mp3 to [email protected].
The completed MP3's will be posted shortly after that.
James Dryden was given these genres to work with: funk/R&B, spanish, bluegrass and ragtime, and created these songs:
Disco Barnyard by Moonflower
Written and produced by James Dryden
All instruments played by James Dryden
Harmonica by Pete Austin; produced by Michael Cleaves
Lead and Harmony Vocals: Jerry Machado; Sampled Vocals: Granny, Jed, and Jethro Clampet; Miss Jane Hathaway
This tracks attempts to combine Rhythm & Blues with Bluegrass. I had the main riff sitting in my creative pile for years, but never figured out a good way to use it - so here it be. Interestingly enough, the inspiration for the riff is from John Lennon's maniacal guitar playing on Yoko Ono's seminal track "Why" from her album Plastic Ono Band.
In fact, here is a link to the video for the track. This, to my mind, is BRILLIANTLY PSYCHO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCb0TsSIqI0
Call Center Blues by Moonflower
All instruments and vocals by James Dryden: special guest vocalist: Ervin Garai (the angry customer)
Word and music: James Dryden
This is a mix of Indian and African influence into a rock song. A (fake) sitar and dumbecs provide most of the musical accompaniment, plus a chorus of African singers (fake!!). I originally tried to do this track with my African wooden xylophone, but it was way too noise to record.
After I gave up on using the xylophone, the track came together rather quickly, and I pretty much finished it in one day.
Robert Sliger was given these genres folk, tribal, Caribbean and Celtic and created:
Open by Hebegebes
Written by Robert Sliger
A folk song played like a folk song surrounded by dozens of tribal-and-Latin-style drums.
Strangers by Hebegebes
Written by Robert Sliger and Daniel Summer
A folk song played like a Reggae (Caribbean) song surrounded by Polynesian and African tribal chants.
Mark Wagner was given these genres blues, Celtic, classical and Asian and used blues and Asian to create this song:
Godzilla by Mark Wagner
Mark Wagner on GTR, Vocals
George Nisula on Bass
Production and extra vocal by Stephen Romone Lewis
George Nisula was given these genres hip hop, zydeco, Carribbean and Spanish and combined them to create:
Surf Los Locos by George Nisula
All instruments (GTR, synths, bass...) were recorded by George Nisula
Production by George Nisula
Stephen Romone Lewis was given these genres to work with: electronic/dance, classical, bluegrass and zydeco. He used classical and electronic/dance to create:
People Who Died written by Jim Carroll
snippets of music are borrowed from J.S. Bach
Recorded by Audio Spanking
featuring John Morgan on classical GTR
Stephen Romone Lewis on vocal and synths
produced by Stephen Romone Lewis