If anyone turns on the radio and listens to music in any capacity, one of the chief complaints is the boring and repetitive nature of most mainstream music. Finding new types can prove a challenge, especially if people don’t know what they’re looking for. Thankfully, with the internet and a lot of creative talent, there’s even more genres of music than ever before and way more than the mainstream radio could ever hope to cover. To help you in finding new interesting music, here are five of the most unusual genres of music.
1. Electro-Swing
The first genre on our list is the strange union between swing music or big band, which was predominantly popular from the 1930s to the 1940s with modern hip hop or electronic music. The genre emerged in its earliest forms during the 1990s with increased usage of sampling and has grown slowly in popularity. Pieces from older swing and big band era songs have found new usage as they are paired and used in arrangements by artists such as Parov Stelar and Caravan Palace. One of the most predominant tracks that people are familiar with is Yolanda Be Cool’s “We No Speak Americano” in 2010. The vintage sound paired with the more upbeat rhythms of modern dance music makes for an interesting combination that can serve to spice up your playlist.
2. Pirate Metal
This genre, as the name implies, combines elements of metal with pirate terminology and instruments usually reserved for sea chanties, such as accordions. The band members are also likely to also dress up as pirates, so there’s that. Accredited to German metal band Running Wild in the end of the 1980s, the genre borrows elements from speed and power metal and seems unconventional enough that most people probably have only heard a song or too from Alestorm in passing. While it’s not my cup of tea, the presentation that most of the performers seem so eager to provide, it makes for quite a show regardless of how you feel on the sound.
3. Chiptune
For those feeling nostalgic for old video game soundtracks, chiptune is worth taking a look. Quite simply, chiptune is music produced with or similar sounds to older computers and games that can also be combined with more modern techniques or instruments. I personally love the vintage sound cards from old 8 or 16-bit games, so I actually like this genre. Many artists of the genre find and utilize vintage consoles or find programs that allow them to emulate the sound producing modern tracks or creating their own homages to the bygone era they stemmed from.
4. Wizard Rock
Stemming rebellious ever growing desire to be different that gave rise to the genre in the first place, rock strikes home again with bands developed from and revolving around "Harry Potter." Bands of the genre stemmed from the early 2000s coinciding with JK Rowling’s "Harry Potter" series as leading bands are also conveniently named Harry and the Potters and Draco and the Malfoys. Now unlike bands that have simply produced a song that dealt with fantasy such as Led Zepplin’s “Ramble On,” Wizard Rock deals exclusively with "Harry Potter," and much like Pirate Metal features costumes and performances.
5. Danger Music
The final and most definitely strange genre of music that I was able to find is danger music. Finding its origin in the early 20th century, danger music is music literally harmful to the performer or audience. It is described as a more philosophical experience than a literal one, though personally I don’t see the appeal. Much of the sound is drawn from noise music that is the use and manipulation of noises, such as grinding glass and then adding effects onto the audio. It’s frankly kind of scary sounding and music intended to cause ear damage certainly doesn’t have the same kind of audience appeal as the others. In a particular canceled performance during the height of the Vietnam War, it was called that a bomb was to be tossed into the audience as part of the show. Danger music certainly lives up to its name.
