Legendary Musical Collaborations That Push Beyond Genre

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There is a vast amount of variety when it comes to genres, sub-genres, and styles of music. Normally, when two musical artists collaborate to create a new song, the individual artists both produce the same type of music. Occasionally, however, two groups or artists, whose music is markedly distinct from one another’s, work together and produce a masterpiece that is entirely new and groundbreaking. This article will discuss three such examples; Aerosmith and Run-DMC, Queen and David Bowie, and Eminem and Elton John. 

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Aerosmith, a rock band, and Run-DMC, a hip-hop/rap band, worked together in 1986 to create a remix of Aeromsith’s “Walk This Way”, which was originally released in 1975. The song combined the intricate guitar work characteristic to rock with the lyrical verses associated with rap. Never before had there been a mash-up of rock and rap in the same song, making this collaboration very innovative. Because of this, many people who had previously only listened to one of these genres got a taste of the other one, which helped to expand their musical horizons. Aside from the music itself, the collaboration also assisted in the effort to decrease racial inequality. Rock music had primarily white listeners, while the majority of hip-hop fans were black, and the song helped to bring these two groups of people together. 

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Another iconic collaboration between artists was “Under Pressure” by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie and the rock band Queen in 1981, which was the result of a jam session between the artists while Queen was touring in Switzerland. The song incorporates and contrasts David Bowie and Freddy Mercury’s (singer of Queen) unique singing styles, accompanied by the driving rock music that Queen is known for. The result was an energetic, dynamic, and passionate piece of music that focuses on the human struggle and the difficulty of forming meaningful relationships with others. “Under Pressure” became very popular for these reasons, and remains a classic to this day. 

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The last collaboration that will be discussed is the special performance of “Stan” by Elton John with Eminem, which occurred at the 2001 Grammy Awards show. Prior to the collaboration, Eminem had been criticized for his controversial lyrics in some of his songs, and was accused of being homophobic. It was for this reason that he decided to perform with Elton John, who is openly gay, to make a stand against sexuality-based discrimination. This aided in the destruction of restraints that held back gay people in the music industry and brought to light the harmful nature of prejudice. Their collaboration was widely well-received and is a performance that will be remembered for many years. 

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In conclusion, these collaborations illustrate how artists known for different styles of music can work together to create excellent songs, and how powerful music can be in bringing people together and bridging the gap between disparate communities.