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 by fusion; mix; coalition.’ This definition is from New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College 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 heard ‘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 across different genres of music. Fusion music often stems from a band’s desire to reach a broader audience, but it can also stem from an effort to establish a unique or new sound.

Most of the music artists that have stood out 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, that is, they have combined one highly identifiable musical element with another highly identifiable musical element, some fusion processes are much more subtle and involve a greater number of musical elements.

To illustrate this point, I’ll share a brief story of listening to a lecture by the late great author Ray Bradbury. He knew 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 as a writer, you don’t lock yourself in an ivory tower, but you get as much exposure as possible to other authors’ writings, and then this starts to show. in a mix that reflects your own personality.

You can take almost 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 genre of music has come out of nowhere, rather it is a product of what fusion music is.