Eclecticism in music
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Eclecticism is used to describe a composer's conscious use of styles alien to his nature, or from one or more historical styles. The term is also used pejoratively to describe music whose composer, thought to be lacking originality, appears to have freely drawn on other models (Kennedy and Bourne 2006).
Eclecticism plays an important role in critical discussions and evaluations but is somehow distant from the actual forms of the artefacts to which it is applied, and its meaning is thus rather indistinct. The simplest definition of eclecticism is that every work of art represents the combination of a variety of influences—is so basic as to be of little use. In this point of view every piece of music can be considered eclectic, because little music is based on its own. Eclecticism in music can consist of a combination of musical styles/genres, poetry and/or philosophy.
The modern trend towards eclecticism started in the 20th-century with the interplay of Jazz and classical (George Gershwin, Igor Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein, Darius Milhaud) and has continued to grow in the 21st century with the ever-increasing number of genres and influences.
Hip hop
Much of postmodern art is characterized by eclecticism: in hip-hop. The fusion of samples from different genres has become very popular. Particularly in turntablism, the branch of "dj-ing" devoted to one's use of such equipment as though it were any other. A diverse record collection, along with general know-how or "finesse" with the equipment given is seen as an object of status. In fact, the postmodernity of hip hop grows exceedingly, all the time. One such example of this might be the fact that hip-hop DJ who is known primarily by the alias Cut Chemist has an album called The Audience's Listening, which was released in 2006. Samples on this album range from Astrud and Gilberto Gil to Bruce Haack, and even Eric B. & Rakim.
See also
