What is fusion music? Well, you don’t have to be an atomic scientist to understand fusion music. Let’s look at a basic definition of fusion; ‘the union of different things by or as if by fusion; mixture; coalition.’ This definition is from New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second University Edition. So, in music, different musical elements come together, often from different musical genres. Here are some examples of fusion music;
- Reggae-Rock
- rap-rock
- Jazz-Fusion
- gypsy punk
- gypsy jazz
- folktronics
- folk metal
- folk punk
- celtic punk
- country rap
Of most of these titles, you can see which genre has been mixed with which other genre; ‘Country Rap’ is obviously country music mixed with rap music and ‘folk punk’ is folk music mixed with punk music. This is only a partial list, of course, as the combinations are virtually limitless. Being of Germanic descent, I attended several Oktoberfests and listened to ‘Umpah Bands’ play rock songs. One of the most successful types of fusion music is Country Rock.
Another term applied to fusion music is ‘crossover’. You’ve probably heard the term ‘Cross-Over Hit’, referring to a song that captured the attention of listeners in different musical genres. Fusion music often stems from a band’s desire to reach a wider audience, but can also stem from the effort to establish a unique or new sound.
Most of the musical artists that have come to prominence have had their own unique sound and this is actually the end product of this fusion process that we are talking about. While some fusion efforts are very overt, meaning they have combined one highly identifiable musical element with another highly identifiable musical element, some fusion processes are much more subtle and involve a larger number of musical elements.
To illustrate this point, I will share a brief story from when I listened to a lecture by the late great author Ray Bradbury. He knew that he was addressing an audience of young writers and he said, simply, if you want to be a writer, just read and read and read and start dating. Somehow, I understood exactly what he was saying, which was that being a writer, you don’t lock yourself in an ivory tower, you get as much exposure as possible to other authors’ writing and then this starts to show up. in a mix that reflects your own personality.
You can take just about any great music artist and track your personal favorite music artists in their music. In Beethoven, for example, we can find Mozart, Haydn, Handle and Bach, not copied verbatim, but stylistically present in the mix that is uniquely Beethoven. When we really look, we see that no musical genre has appeared out of nowhere, but rather is a product of what fusion music is.
