SmoothOperator
Gold Member
Musically speaking, is the mainstream music in the US closer to Hawaii or UK?
I don't think there's any Hawaiian influence, at least to my knowledge.
The only time Hawaiian music really made it into the global or US mainstream was during the Polynesian phase from the late 40s to the early 60s.
Mainstream music is pretty global right now; I think that most top 40 songs have a healthy mix of US and European influences. I don't think there's any Hawaiian influence, at leas to my knowledge.
The only time Hawaiian music really made it into the global or US mainstream was during the Polynesian phase from the late 40s to the early 60s.
The blues and rock and roll influences in modern music, are distinctly American (although they are the combination of African rhythms with European minstrel song form), as those styles began here. However, the electronic influence and techno beat actually started in the late 19th century in Italy. By the 1940s, artists in Italy, Egypt, and France were playing electro-tape music, in which artists used tape recordings of music and other sounds, and manipulated them live to create new songs. By the 1950s, Germany had figured out how to make pure electronic music, without the use of tapes.
We saw the expansion of electronic music in the 1960s, and it eventually became popular in the 1970s and 80s.
I think at this point, mainstream music is going to be relatively the same all over the world. Case in point, I signed up for a free month of Spotify to see what all the fuss was about. In Spotify you can listen to the Top 40 in the US and the Top 40 in the world. There was a huge amount of overlap between the two, and not a lot of deviation in genre. Virtually every song on any country's top 40 list was a style of electronic music.
So for the long winded answer, but I think that the short answer is neither. Mainstream music may have some influence from the UK (not so much Hawaii), but it's so global at this point that it is hard to pinpoint geographic/cultural influences.
Where do you think all of that lap, pedal, and regular old 6 string slide guitar comes from?
Considering Hawaii is part of the US...it's not closer, it's already there.
Where do you think all of that lap, pedal, and regular old 6 string slide guitar comes from?
That is a good point, the slack key guitar and slide guitar has had a huge influence on American culture. Even the dobro in bluegrass. Though, I think these are more akin to the Koto's and Qin's of Japan and China than one might suspect, and really who knows how they ended up tuned and played that way while sitting on an island in the middle of the pacific. Interestingly enough the slide guitar is one of the few western instruments that are popular in India.
Keep in mind there is no such thing as real Hawaiian music. The hawaiian's and Polynesians only had chants. The Uke and guitar were adopted from the Portuguese who were the first cowboys in Hawaii, folk music, essentially country music was the big first influence in hawaii, motown came next in the 60's70's then reggae 70's 80's... and then what culture 'isn't rapping?
1. Love Yourself - Justin Beiber
2. Stressed Out - Twenty One Pilots
3. Work - Rihanna
4. 7 Years - Lukas Graham
5. I Took a Pill in Ibiza - Mike Posner
6. Me, Myself, and I - G-Eazy
7. Pillowtalk - Zayn Malik
8. Fast Car - Jonas Blue
9. Cheap Thrills - Sia
10. Sorry - Justin Beiber
http://top40-charts.com/chart.php?cid=35
Oh my God, I am old.
They also had drums/percussion before and after migrating over the ocean to what we call the Hawaiian Islands, some 800 years ago.
Vocally, they also had melody, not only chanting.
They also had drums/percussion before and after migrating over the ocean to what we call the Hawaiian Islands, some 800 years ago.
Vocally, they also had melody, not only chanting.
Oh my God, I am old.
Hawaiian log drumming is fairly inspiring: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kxTwUXn72N4
I've seen better videos from other islands though.