Every musical style will obviously not be covered on this website, so in order to provide a wider view of how different styles express apocalyptic themes, the following two genres will be discussed briefly:
Electronic
Aphex Twin (Richard D. James)
In the release "Come to Daddy" Richard James begins the EP with a vision of futuristic dystopia with the song "Come to Daddy, Pappy Mix." The song is filled with demonic sounds and voices which mainly say, "I want your soul, I will eat your soul...." This heavy dark track is followed by a beautiful instrumental, "Flim", depicting futuristic utopia. This appears to suggest that after apocalypse calm arrives. If you interpret "Come to Daddy" as the end of the world, then "Flim" is the exact opposite, in which everything is ideal and harmonious. Thus, both of these songs offer an interpretation of utopia and dystopia, the grotesque and the sublime, in a genre that suggests a vision of the future.
Click on the Aphex Twin logo below to go a site that has Flim and Come to Daddy to download:
Michael Card
Another approach to interpreting the apocalypse comes
from a religious context. Contemporary Christian artist Michael Card
expresses his view on the Book of Revelation in his album, "Unveiled Hope".
From the title we can see that his slant is that the apocalypse offers
hope and salvation, as opposed the view that it is a time of evil and mayhem,
as the rock and rap groups I discussed thought. Thus, apocalypse
can have a positive reaction from artists and people who interpret scripture
and the theme of apocalypse in this manner. Similar to what we saw
in pop music, this offers another example of how people in higher social
classes generally have a more hopeful view of this theme.
Click here for links to Michael Card and Unveiled Hope
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