Subtle Nuances In Music That Sounds Pretty Much All The Same

What’s In A Name?

Remember the good ol’ days when your production music searches involved three criteria: style, tempo and feel (emotion)? You might only have owned a handful of CSS Music CDs and by golly you created a lot of shows with that music and were very happy with the results, thank you very much!

Fast forward to now. Thanks to the birth of the Singer-Songwriter (Simon and Garfunkel or Bob Dylan for you oldster), a bevy of new musical styles has emerged.

You may know of Indie music. But do you know the gradations of Indie music? Do you know the difference between Indie Folk and Alt Folk? Indie Rock and Alt Rock?

Here’s quick summaries of a few of the new styles you’ll see in the CSS Music catalog.

Singer-Songwriter. Typically a solo vocalist and acoustic guitar but can be enhanced with a small rhythm section. (Can also be presented without vocals.)

Indie Pop. You’ve heard this style of music for years on Apple commercials; ukelele, whistling and bells. Happy music.

Alt Pop. See Indie Pop but everything thing played more sloppily and slightly out of tune—maybe with an added synthesizer or clarinet or other unusual instrument.

Indie Country.  In the vein of traditional Country music but without that slick Nashville sound--and usually without a drummer. Can also be Americana.

Alt Country. More “cowpoke” feel and a close cousin to Bluegrass. Performances are generally quite loose; non-traditional instruments can also be used.

Indie Rock. Very pop oriented rock with catchy riffs not necessarily played on guitars. O.K. to integrate other instruments.

Alt Rock. Not be confused with Alternative Rock which is much heavier, Alt Rock is a quirky cousin of the Indie Rock sound and often use synthesizers. It’s also more quirky.

Alt Blues. The only relationship to conventional Blues is the guitar sound. No 12 bar chord progression—it’s pretty much just the main (tonic) chord with a catchy riff with an occasional chord change to keep it interesting.

There are even subgenres of these styles. And new style names pop up every day. It’s a far cry from the days of those beloved CDs but let’s face it: these times they are a changin’!