This evening we were discussing music, and the topic drifted to the wide range of styles one can find in different work by the same composer. And a kind of game occurred to me:
Find, for any given composer, his or her two most opposite works. For example, Mozart’s two most antipodal compositions might be Ein musikalischer Spaß and his Requiem Mass in D Minor.
Of course, this notion of antipodal work can be found in many realms of art, from painting to dance to sculpture to theatre and film. But if you get a good list of examples in music, there’s one thing you can do in particular that you can’t do in any other artistic field: You can make a totally cool high concept record album.
I mean, if somebody managed to choose the selections just right, and came out with the ultimate “Antipodal” music compilation, I’d buy it. Wouldn’t you?
But what should go on this album? I’m open to suggestions.
Weird All Yankovic has easily the most varied musical catalog of any artist who has ever lived, having parodied virtually every genre of popular music of the last half century… Unless you consider his genre to be “comedy,” in which case his catalog is actually very narrow.
My other suggestion is Daft Punk, having gone from electronic dance music to… Whatever their latest album is. Kind of a 70s soul-influenced dance pop thing.
David Bowie might be a good one too, there’s Ziggy Stardust, and what I like to jokingly call my favorite Nine Inch Nails song, I’m Afraid Of Americans.
If you want to talk about individual musicians, and not necessarily songwriters, look no further than session musicians. Josh Freeze plays drums for A Perfect Circle, a progressive rock group, but has also played on bubblegum pop records among many, many others.
Pat Metheny
San Lorenzo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9LXJUMGfBg
Zero Tolerance for Silence (pt 1): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy-iI8fs9eQ
These are awesome! And here, another pair of antipodes:
Pat Boone singing Family Christmas Medley
Pat Boone singing Smoke on the Water