Music of Metzetta
The Music of Metzetta comprises a wide variety of genres, both traditional and modern. Metzetta is one of the world's largest music markets, particularly with regards to physical media which it still embraces despite the popularity and wide availability of digital music and streaming services in the 21st century.
Traditional and folk music
Chulcheo and music
The earliest extant forms of Metzettan music are vocal chants (sometimes accompanied by a simple drum) used in rituals of Chulcheo by priests.
Gugak
Metzettan traditional music is referred to as gugak, which literally means "national music." It was often played in courts for the amusement of noblemen and royalty. Gugak often employed five-note scales (pentatonic scales, however with a different selection of notes from western scales of the same name) and standardised, syncopated rhythms.
Folk music
The music of the common people; farmers, sailors and labourers were known to sing as they worked, and mothers had a wide repertoire of lullabies to soothe their children with. Today folk music is mostly reserved for performance at festivals. Folk music from other Alshari nations was known to the Metzettans, as was a very limited selection of Cronan songs. The guitar arrived in Metzetta from Crona at an unknown point in time, though this early instrument was slightly smaller and narrower than modern versions of the acoustic guitar.
War music
In antiquity, each company of soldiers would have their own song which would be played as they marched.
Arrival of western music
Prenent l'aire arrives from Burgundie
Sailors arriving in Alshar from Burgundie brought their music with them, which eventually found its way to Metzetta. This is thought to be the earliest Levantine music to reach the country, and therefore the earliest music in the western tradition to grace Metzettan ears.
Urcean traditional music
Metzettans who had visited Urcea returned with Urcean tunes and a selection of novel instruments, most notable among them being the violin. Empress Seunsi was said to be a particular fan of "river music," having supposedly kept a respectable library of vinyl records highlighting the style in her personal chambers. It is assumed the imperial family retains this collection today.
The western classical tradition
In the second half of the 1800s, a small number of Metzettans began to publish lists of foreign songs and began importing instruments and sheet music from Levantia. Chamber music (believed to be a suite for string quartet from Yonderre) was performed for Emperor Daeku, who enjoyed it and approved plans to train Metzetta's first symphony orchestra and introduce the country to the much-venerated tapestry of music the populace had as yet been unaware of. Daeku was famous for his attempts to westernize Metzetta (controversially) and this was one of his main cultural pushes into doing so.
Popular vinyl records appear
Cultural exchanges between allied countries in the Second Great War were hastened by the movement of troops between fronts, who brought their music with them. During and following the war, Urcean, Burgoignac and Acirian vinyl records began to appear on Metzettan shores.
Mainstream music
After the Second Great War, an emerging teenage market began to spend their pocket money on vinyl records, formerly purchased by adults to listen to classical, traditional and folk music. Coupled with the emergence of the album format, popular music as it is understood today was born in Metzetta.
Galant pop
First appearing in the early 40's but attaining mainstream success only after the war had concluded, so-called "Galant-pop" was heavily influenced by Burgoignac and Urcean popular styles, taking the name from a small-time classical movement in Burgundie from which the genre borrowed only superficial features. Western brass and string instruments featured heavily, introducing a new palette of sounds to the common people of Metzetta. Lyrics were upbeat and light-hearted, with sonic influences from Urcean country music in the choice of chord progressions. The Kukki Sisters were formed in this idiom.
Rock
The introduction of electric guitars, basses and drumkits ignited the Metzettan recording industry, with formerly small record companies suddenly making money hand-over-fist as teenage buyers rushed to purchase singles and albums by their new heroes. The very late 40's and 50's were dominated by rock music, with radio waves and jukeboxes constantly blasting it into the collective consciousness of the nation.
Into the 60's rock music became more experimental, with the recording desk becoming as important an instrument as the guitars. The 70's saw a return to a more raw sound but with heavier distortion and often more explicit themes. In the 80's rock took a back seat while City Ballads took over, re-emerging in the 90's when the general public grew tired of that idiom. At the end of the 00's rock's dominance was toppled by what is now referred to internationally as Metz-pop but the genre has never truly died since its introduction. In other countries rock music from Metzetta is sometimes known as Metz-rock.
Folk revival
In the 60's there was a craze for pairing acoustic guitar with traditional Metzettan instruments such as bamboo flutes and honest, introspective lyrics.
City Ballads
Originating in the 1980's, City Ballads was a genre characterised by synthesizers, smooth-jazz influences, tasteful guitar solos and lyrics revolving around life in the city, as the name implies. The genre dominated the charts for almost the entire decade but fell out of favour in the early 90's due to market saturation. The style saw a return to popularity beginning in the early 2020's among a more niche audience. Abroad it is considered a subgenre of "soft-rock" but in Metzetta it is considered distinct enough to warrant its own section in record stores.
Metz-pop
Funky electronic music centred around idols is the current form of popular music prevalent in Metzetta; while routinely derided by the older generations it has proven extremely successful with youths not only domestically but abroad as well. While formulaic from its debut circa 2010 the genre has become more experimental in an attempt to avoid stagnating after a decade of dominance as many other popular genres tend to do.
Other music
Classical music
Metzetta's first western classical performance for the general public was the highly influential concert held by the Hanzeong Symphony Orchestra in 1871 in the country's capital. The concert was organised by the government to introduce this newly discovered form of music to the masses and was very well attended and received with high praise. The programme contained pieces from Burgundie, Yonderre, Urcea and Anglei and was intended to give the audience a wide-spectrum introduction to the artform. A series of similar concerts quickly followed and more orchestras began to appear in other cities and eventually most towns were capable of putting on a decent evening's performance.
Soon after hearing the music, Metzettans began to compose their own. Shon Iksung is widely credited as Metzetta's first great classical composer, writing the music for the nation's new national anthem, Atop Mount Riwa in 1883, under the instruction of Emperor Daeku who wanted Metzetta to have a western-style national anthem, which he considered would improve the nation's standing on the world stage, as the country did not previously have one given the notion of a country having a national anthem at all was a largely western idea.
Indie scene
Independently produced music not released by a major record label has existed almost as long as the music industry itself but became more prominent in the late 80's as people considering themselves music connoisseurs began to turn away from the popular City Ballads of the day in search of music they considered more authentic. Indie musicians still often release their music on cassette tape despite the medium's complete obsolescence.
Festival music
Holidays in Metzetta often have their own associated songs and musical styles which are symbolic of each celebration. Traditional farming songs are often sung during Chusu, the harvest festival.
Jazz
Jazz was known to make the charts in Metzetta in the early days of rock but was soon pushed out of the mainstream entirely.
Foreign music
Foreign folk music is generally considered quite a niche hobby in Metzetta however books are published on the subject now and again. Foreign classical fares better and is often performed, with foreign pop occasionally known to break into the charts. The Kukki Sisters are an example of crossover success, being a Metzettan group who often covered Urcean country songs.
Avant-garde
Metzetta has produced some notable musicians in the field of avant-garde music. The final piece Shon Iksung composed before his death was a canon which would take hundreds of years to perform to completion, which is largely considered to fall under the avant-garde category today even if the label was not well-known at the time; a computer has been performing the piece to an audience of usually no one since 1982 at Galko University.
Music from other media
Music from Metzettan films, television shows and video games is usually available for purchase in record stores alongside chart music, and theme tunes have been known to make it into the charts for exceedingly popular works.
Christian music
A small corpus of Catholic music has originated from Ankae. With pipe organs being few and far between in the country, most music is vocal, though the nation has indeed still produced some virtuosic organists.
Physical media
Countless varieties of media have been employed to deliver music to the customer in Metzetta; the most successful are detailed below.
Cylinder records
Cylinders were available from the very late 1800's and were the first musical format to see any success in Metzetta, though by today's standards they were still slowly adopted. Traditional music and short classical pieces were released but the format evaporated almost overnight when the vinyl disc was brought to market.
Vinyl records
The preferred medium for pre-recorded music from their introduction in the early 20th century until compact cassettes gained dominance. An Urcean invention, Metzetta imported the technology eagerly. Initially employed for similar purposes to the older cylinder records, with classical and traditional music being released at a steady pace, Galant pop and later rock music made the product a symbol of the times. Today it is still preferred by enthusiasts over CDs and digital music.
Reel to reel tape
Initially used only by recording studios but later adopted by audiophiles for higher-fidelity home listening.
Compact cassette
Allowed the creation of personal-music players, and heavily associated with City Ballads in Metzetta.
8 Track cassette
Invented as a reliable format for car stereos but also available in home hi-fi formats.
Compact Disc
Developed in Metzetta by Miu Electronics, the compact disc revolutionised storage for all kinds of data including music.
Minidisc
Developed by Miu Electronics as a successor to the CD but never gained the same popularity, only catching on to any notable degree domestically and in Oyashima.
Instruments
Traditional
Traditional Metzettan instruments include the tanso (an end-blown bamboo flute, an example of which is part of the imperial regalia), the geomungo (a fretted bass zither), the bipa (a pear-shaped lute with five strings), the haegeum (a vertical two-stringed fiddle), the hun (an end-blown globular flute), the piri (a bamboo oboe) and assorted drums, cymbals and percussion.
Modern
Initially when it came to electric guitars and basses, Metzetta was known to mass produce large quantities of affordable instruments which were not famous for being high-quality. Quality and innovation improved as time went on, and eventually "Made in Metzetta" was no longer an in-joke for a guitarists' first instrument.
Metzetta was an innovator in the fields of synthesizers and effects units. Ankae Institute of Science and Technology created arguably the first entirely electronic synthesizer and the country remains at the forefront of the field today. Early guitar effects pedals are considered highly collectible.
Music industry in Metzetta
Record labels
Major record labels in Metzetta include Dolaji Records and Keulim Music.
Charts
The most influential music chart in Metzetta is published by the Sinmun-seda, a newspaper which began publishing weekly top-tens for singles in 1949. Nowadays the newspaper publishes weekly and annual charts for singles and albums, taking into account sales, streams and radio play.
Metzettan music abroad
The first musical act to have any success outside of Alshar were The Kukki Sisters, who rose to prominence in Urcea following the Second Great War. Today, the term "Metz-pop" has been coined to describe the popular music originating from the country, which sees popularity in East-Alshar countries such as Huoxia and Oyashima, and occasionally further afield.