Sales Crowd

By Rob Jones

 Classical/Popular crossover music is massively popular today and in some circles is called Popera. The definition is generally thought of as An artist who produces a variety of show-tunes or popular tunes, when he/she would normally only record traditional, classical pieces of music. Also, collaborations between Classical and Popular artists can also be looked upon as Crossover in style; for example, ex Police singer and bass player Sting and Edin Karamazovs album Songs from the Labyrinth. Of course, there is such a wide variety of different genres these days that almost any type of music is being experimented with in this way.

Some artists are extremely criticized for their cross-overs by their die-hard fans and the fans of the songs theyre covering, as territory they shouldnt really be venturing into. Others think that new life can be breathed into an old genre and will attract a wider audience. This has been the case in quite a few cases, and in fact, is no new phenomenon.

By far though, the most popular fusion of music genre is that of classical/popular. Back in the 1950s the American tenor and film star Mario Lanza reached across his classical background to appeal to a massive audience of popular listening fans and many of his tracks made it into the music charts. His song Be my love made it to number one in the Billboard pop singles chart in 1951, and sold a total of 2 million copies worldwide; a feat no classical artist has achieved since. Lanza recorded two other million selling singles that made it into the Billboard chart.

The more popular and well known crossover artists of today include Vanessa Mae. Born in 1978, she started playing the piano at 3 and the violin at 5 years old. She has astounded audiences all over the world with her mixture of amazing violin and piano playing abilities, and her youth and exuberance. Her music style is self described as violin techno acoustic fusion, and several of her albums include her techno style. The combination of up-beat, funky sounds and her traditional, classical background makes for a great, modern sound, which is obviously why her popularity has soared.

Another crossover artist is Sarah Brightman. She was born in 1960 and is an English crossover soprano. She first came to prominence in the dance outfits Pans People and later Hot Gossip in the late seventies and early eighties. She later met Andrew Lloyd Webber when she auditioned for Cats. Sarah Brightman appeared in his adaptation of the musical Phantom of the Opera. Toward the 1990s her stage career curtailed and she pursued a solo career, which was inspired by german band Enigma. Her first release was Dive, a water themed pop album. She went on to combine electronic dance music with rock elements and classical strings. In her long and varied career, it is the way she has melded the music genres at her disposal that has set Sarah Brightman apart from other classical performers. Time to say goodbye was the result of a fantastic collaboration with Andrea Bocelli and went on to sell 5 million copies worldwide. Obviously, she had found her calling; combining her classical background and voice with a more popular sound.

Katherine Jenkins is one of todays biggest names in the crossover area of classical/popular music. Not only is she very beautiful, so therefore easy to watch, but has brought the vibrant, classical sound to the mainstream. Born in North Wales in 1980, Katherine has had massive success with her crossover music. After initially just concentrating on the classical side of her music, in 2005 she recorded an Italian version of Dolly Partons I will always love you on the album Living a Dream. After this album was released, uniquely, she held the top three places in the classical crossover music chart.

Classical/Popular crossover music exposes the general public to an area of music they wouldnt normally access and can provide not only the unexpected publicity to an artist, but gives them, (especially in Vanessa Maes case) an extra string to their bow. The magical sound that can be made from the fusion of the two is a sound that Im sure is here to stay.

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