Week 8 blog

"Chirpy Cheep Cheese" by Jeff Salamon
Summary: The article is a somewhat old intro to the Happy Hardcore genre which shines it in a somewhat negative light (as hinted in the title). The author describes the genre as being somewhat ‘gay’ because of its happy, sped up, female vocals while not exactly targeting a homosexual audience. The “helium [localed]” music is a mashup of several genres including disco, breakbeat, and many other genres while being a direct descendant (according to the author) of ‘kiddiecore’ and ‘jungle’ music. The music (was) largely underground, especially in the US, but started to gain popularity in the UK thanks to passing interest from fans of the jungle and kiddiecore genres.
Analysis/Reflection:While I agree with the author that the genre is somewhat ‘cheesy,’ I feel that the author is too harsh when describing the genre. One possible explanation for the authors harshness could be the lack of good happy hardcore songs back when he wrote the article (like he said, there were very few accessible happy hardcore tracks). That said, I greatly enjoy the genre, it being one of my favorites. I look past the cheese and enjoy the happy vibe that the music gives off, but I also understand that many people are not able to look past the ‘cheese,’ as with most underground music, and dismiss it as ‘bad’ because it is not mainstream. This reminds me of ‘the Science of Hit Music’ article I blogged about earlier, which describes this phenomena of people tending to favor music they know is liked by others.