Wonky (also known as purple sound or aquacrunk) is a subgenre of

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

known primarily for its off-kilter or “unstable” beats, as well as its eclectic, colorful blend of genres including hip-hop, electro-funk,

8-bit In computer architecture, 8-bit Integer (computer science), integers or other Data (computing), data units are those that are 8 bits wide (1 octet (computing), octet). Also, 8-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) arc ...

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, ...

, glitch, and crunk. Artists associated with the style include Joker,

Rustie Rustie (born Russell Whyte) is a Scottish musician from Glasgow. He is associated with the Numbers label collective and first received attention for his 2007 EP ''Jagz the Smack''. He signed to Warp Records in 2009. His 2011 debut album '' Glas ...

Hudson Mohawke Ross Matthew Birchard (born 11 February 1986), better known by the stage name Hudson Mohawke, is a Scottish-American producer, composer, and DJ from Glasgow. He is known for his influential work in 21st century hip-hop and electronic music. A ...

Zomby Zomby is a British electronic musician who began releasing music in 2007. He has released music on several labels, including Hyperdub, Werk Discs, and 4AD. Zomby's influences include oldschool jungle music and Wiley's eskibeat sound. Career ...

, and

Flying Lotus Steven Ellison (born October 7, 1983), known by his stage name Flying Lotus or sometimes FlyLo, is an American record producer, Disc jockey, DJ, filmmaker and rapper from Los Angeles. He is also the founder of the record label Brainfeeder. Flyi ...

History

Wonky initially emerged in 2008 as a colorful, exuberant style drawing on hip hop,

synth-funk Post-disco (also called boogie, synth-funk, or electro-funk) is a term to describe an aftermath in popular music history circa 1979–1985, imprecisely beginning with an unprecedented backlash against disco music in the United States, leading to c ...

, glitchy

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

, and more eclectic influences, in contrast with the austere sound of the UK's ongoing dubstep and

grime Grime may refer to: * Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust * Grime (music genre), a genre of music * ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity * ''Grime'' (video game), a 2021 Metroidvania video game * "Grime", a 2022 song by Dallas Wood ...

scenes. Other influences included American hip hop producers J Dilla and Madlib, with some artists drawing more explicitly on an instrumental hip-hop sound rather than dubstep. The term "wonky" has been rejected by various artists associated with the style.

Characteristics

Wonky is known for its off-kilter rhythms and typically features garish

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

tones, melodies, and

effects Effect may refer to: * A result or change of something ** List of effects ** Cause and effect, an idiom describing causality Pharmacy and pharmacology * Drug effect, a change resulting from the administration of a drug ** Therapeutic effect, a ...

. The "unstable" sound of wonky is often achieved by producing unquantised beats, abandoning the metronomic precision of much electronic music. Artists also use heavy

sub-bass Sub-bass sounds are the deep, low-register pitches below approximately 70 Hz (C2 in scientific pitch notation) and extending downward to include the lowest frequency humans can hear, approximately 20 Hz (E0). In this range, human hear ...

, which has been attributed to synergistic effects of bass with the drug

ketamine Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic used medically for induction and maintenance of anesthesia. It is also used as a recreational drug. It is one of the safest anesthetics, as, in contrast with opiates, ether, and propofol, it suppresses ne ...

, which became popular in UK clubs during the dubstep era. BBC Music called it a style of "slightly out-of-phase beats and synthesisers that wobble woozily, like they’ve warped after being left out in the sun." Purple sound emerged in Bristol in late 2008 out of the splintering dubstep scene and took inspiration from wonky, which it is sometimes considered a part of. It incorporates

from the 1980s and G-funk production from the ’90s into dubstep, while also introducing many aspects of grime and 8-bit music (several prominent purple sound artists cite video game music as a large influence).

References

{{Hip hop Electronic music genres English styles of music

History

Characteristics

See also

References