Crossover (music)
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Crossover is a term applied to musical works and performers that achieve popularity with mainstream audiences beyond the usual listenership of their particular genre. In other words, a crossover song is one that breaks into the mainstream audience, despite a (usually) previous lack of exposure in it.
In some contexts the term "crossover" can have negative connotations, implying the watering-down of a music's distinctive qualities to accommodate to mass tastes. For example, in the early years of rock and roll, many songs originally recorded by African-American musicians were re-recorded by white artists (such as Pat Boone) in a more toned-down style (often with changed lyrics) that lacked the hard edge of the original versions. These covers were popular with a much broader audience.
In practice crossover frequently results from the appearance of the music in question in a film soundtrack. For instance, Sacred Harp music experienced a spurt of crossover popularity as a result of its appearance in the 2003 film Cold Mountain, and bluegrass music experienced a revival due to the reception of 2000's O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Even atonal music, which tends to be less popular among classical enthusiasts, has a kind of crossover niche, since (as Charles Rosen has noted) it is widely used in film and television scores "to depict an approaching menace."[citation needed]
The largest figure to date for a crossover hit in the US has come from Grammy Award-winning country singer LeAnn Rimes, whose song "How Do I Live" sold over 3 million copies and spent a world record breaking 69 weeks on the Hot 100 chart, more than any other song in history, despite peaking only at number 2. It was also a massive hit in Europe.
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Particular works of classical music sometimes become popular among individuals who mostly listen to popular music. Some classical works that achieved crossover status in the twentieth century include the Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel, the Symphony No. 3 by Henryk Górecki, and the second movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21, K. 467 (from its appearance in the 1967 film Elvira Madigan).
Within the classical recording industry the term "crossover" is applied particularly to classical artists' recordings of popular repertoire such as Broadway show tunes, or collaborations between classical and popular performers such as Sting and Edin Karamazov's album Songs from the Labyrinth. Deep Purple's Concerto for Group and Orchestra (1969) and Gemini Suite Live (1970) are early examples of this, and Metallica's S&M (1999) is a more recent example.
The term "crossover" (or the more specific "crossover rock") was frequently used in the 1980s to describe a style of aggressive rock music. Bands who appreciated the fast hardcore punk stylings of bands like Minor Threat and Negative Approach, and equally appreciated the fast heavy metal stylings of Slayer and Metallica, began combining elements of both styles for a new musical style that became generally known as crossover thrash. The first notable band of this style were the Dirty Rotten Imbeciles. The two hotbeds of the style were located in New York City and Southern California, home to Suicidal Tendencies. Other notable bands of the era were the Crumbsuckers, Hirax, Leeway, Cryptic Slaughter, The Cro-Mags, Method Of Destruction, and Stormtroopers of Death.
Dream Theater had a very strange and unexpected crossover with their song "Pull Me Under" in the early 1990s. Their style of progressive metal was never intended for mainstream audiences, and yet the song received extensive MTV rotation and radio play.
Crossover can also refer to another very popular style that appeared in the Faith No More, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against the Machine. Sometimes, also the similar genre rapcore can jump into the definition of "crossover rock".
Besides describing music of a distinct genre that becomes broadly popular, the term "crossover" has sometimes been used to describe music that deliberately mixes genres, whether or not this music proves to be popular with a mass audience. "Fusion" is a more common term for this phenomenon. Examples include jazz fusion, Celtic fusion and worldbeat. An example of crossover of jazz and classical music is the Danish 7-piece chamber orchestra "Mad Cows Sing", which fuses composed and improvised music.love
- Szwed, John F. (2005). Crossovers: Essays On Race, Music, And American Culture. ISBN 0-8122-3882-6.
- Brackett, David (Winter 1994). "The Politics and Practice of 'Crossover' in American Popular Music, 1963-65" The Musical Quarterly 78:4.
- George, Nelson. (1988). The Death of Rhythm & Blues. New York: Pantheon Books.