Music is a getaway for many people and for these many people that getaway can be diverse in the industry of melodic tunes, lyrical decisions and instrumental combinations. Chart music is an obvious choice for music discoveries as it’s simply what is popular in the mainstream and is also easily accessible. However many genres of music remain neglected because of the standard UK Top 40 and most people believe that if an artist or band isn’t in the charts then they aren’t popular or not worth a listen. That’s where the audience of this generation are wrong.
Venturing out from your musical preferences can be difficult - maybe you don’t know what else there is, what you’ll like or how to find something new. The mundane output of pop, dance and house music the charts are feeding us does become tiring, however movie soundtracks can be a great journey to an exploration of many newfound and distinct genres.
“Beauty Behind The Madness” - The Weeknd’s seventh studio album, which made a feature in the long-anticipated and controversial 2014 movie 50 Shades of Grey, centres itself around the musical genre PR&B. The genre is a stylistic alternative to R&B that has also recently been popularised by the likes of singers and songwriters Frank Ocean and Miguel. The main difference to R&B is that this genre includes some elements of rock, EDM and hip-hop and the lyrics often carry mysterious and dark meanings and connotations.
One track from the album “Earned It” made its debut in the movie 50 Shades of Grey and because of this gained instant popularity and focus on the album and its other tracks. Shortly afterwards tracks including “Can’t Feel My Face” and “The Hills” and their music videos were released and achieved success by hitting the charts and becoming a favourite amongst a range of listeners. The track “Often” which was the first to be released from the album a year ago also proceeded to thrive and too gained recognition following the fame of the movie’s popular number.
Despite The Weeknd’s disparate genre the popular tracks are not unheard of to make an appearance in bars and nightclubs accompanied by a remixed touch to convert the sounds to a more stereotypical dance-style feel; distancing from the mysterious deeper noises that are associated with PR&B.
When the artist, properly known as Abel Tesfaye, commented in an article with TIME on his relationship with the controversial “alternative R&B” he is usually associated with, he said: “Alternative R&B is in my soul. It’s not going anywhere. When I put out songs from House of Balloons in 2010 people said I made R&B cool again. I’m assuming that’s when the label was created.
“I feel honored that a good part of today’s music is inspired by it, consciously or subconsciously. The only way I could have done that was to be ambitious and grand. That’s what I want to do with Beauty Behind The Madness. I want to make pop cool again, and the only way I can do that is by being ambitious and grand.”
Artists known for their pop genre’s including Ed Sheeran and Lana Del Rey both make their appearance in the collection of tracks and add their own music styles to the mix to enhance the sounds and form a twist on the artist’s PR&B song structure. Labrinth is also featured on the track "Losers", bringing a hip-hop element to the album as well.
Musical sounds explored in this album range from high-pitch soft harmonising to heavy drum sets. The genre of the album definitely doesn’t fail to make use of a diverse range of instrumental and digital audio concoctions to form a genre that ensures it stands out completely from the regurgitated tracks that make it popular to date.
The album features prominently themes ranging from drugs, sex and women to the feeling of entrapment in a range of social contexts. The selection of lyrics displayed in most of the tracks carry mostly negative and dazed connotations, implying a sense of feeling lost or dissatisfied.
The first released track from the album “Often” is an overtly sexual musical piece that talks about women and sex using a provocative approach, leaving virtually nothing to the imagine. During the narrative of this track the artist makes himself out to be almost an expert in the field and boasts about his way with women.
Several more of his popular tracks on the album including “Dark Times” and “Tell Your Friends” make reference to drugs and lighten the theme in a casual and non-serious way. Other tracks on the album explore a narrative suggesting that the use of drugs can lead to a feeling of being socially and mentally ambushed, especially seen in the context of “The Hills”.
Postmodernism is largely demonstrated within the album as the contents strive to and ultimately do achieve a movement in the musical art of generic R&B. A skeptical interpretation of an original art genre is worked upon by the artist to produce a postmodern concept that works and accomplishes a new evolution of music.
So, all in all The Weeknd smashes it again; providing us with an array of fantastic tracks for some unique and enjoyable listening.
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