Alternative: Pretty. Odd.

Last week we briefly talked about a very popular genre of music: Electronic. As electronic is such a massive genre it was impossible to pick just one song that can represent even a large part of the genre. This week we shall run into a very similar problem as I will talk about another huge genre: alternative. It is very difficult to define alternative music because of how diverse and large the genre has grown to be. However, some characteristics can generally be applied to the genre. Today, alternative seems to be a unique blend of rock and pop, where it consists of traditional band instruments (guitar, bass, drums, etc...), yet incorporates a lot of other unique elements and is ultimately much more "catchy". For such a popular genre, some of the songs can be, well, pretty odd.

It is almost ironic how popular alternative music is today considering how it began. Alternative started out as a branch of rock music intended to be, literally, an alternative to the mainstream rock music in the 1980s. Most of the music was independent, meaning that it was not produced by large record companies, and thus continued to remain under the radar. Today, however, alternative music can be produced under huge record companies. Some big bands today might include Coldplay, twenty one pilots, Lorde, Imagine Dragons, and Fall Out Boy. All of these bands take "rockish" music, but have their own very unique spin. I will talk about a band that you might know, Panic! at the Disco.

(Panic! at the Disco has recently come out with a new, very popular song entitled "Victorious", that I don't happen to like very much, plus the goal of this blog is to show the songs that go unnoticed, so instead I shall talk about "Nearly Witches", a song that even for alternative, is very unusual...)

The song starts off with a music teacher instructing her kids to follow her time when they sing, and the children come in singing to the beat of her snaps. The first 37 seconds of the song is just the sound of the teacher's voice, and then the choir singing in French. This is hardly the traditional way to start of a song, even for a genre as diverse as alternative. At around the 38th second, the song completely transforms. It starts off with a soft, mysterious harmony that quickly turns to a hard electric guitar. Finally when the artist starts singing at 0:55, we realize that this was not quite the song we were expecting to hear when we started off with a small French choir. From 0:55 to right before the main melody at 1:48, many different weird effects play including creaking floor boards, random shouts, noise makers, trumpets, and other fun instruments. These cool effects play throughout the harmonies of the song, a strong contrast to the straightforward melody that goes to the tune of the original French choir part of the song. The song ends with mixing the French choir with the main artist's voice, and then a sliding pitch downward, as if the song falls off.

"Nearly Witches", by Panic! at the Disco, is a very unique song indeed, but is representative of alternative music in a few ways. It has a very distinct rock vibe, is very catchy, and most of all, is not afraid to try different things throughout the song.

Image Credits, from top to bottom:
     http://img.docstoccdn.com/thumb/orig/109972539.png
     https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Panic!_at_the_Disco_2013.jpg