Think of rock/pop music, and chances are you picture a guitar,
electric bass, drums and maybe a keyboard or a wind instrument like a
flute or saxophone. But in the last 60 years or so of pop music,
especially rock ‘n’ roll, musicians have done their best to bring
variety to their recordings.
10. Sitar
A sitar
You can thank George Harrison of the Beatles for bringing a
distinctive Indian sound into Western pop music, though Eric Clapton’s
Yardbirds deserve a little unsung credit, too. The Yardbirds hired a
sitar player for their song, “Heart Full of Soul,” but the track went
unreleased at that time. So it was the Fab Four track “Norwegian Wood
(This Bird Has Flown)” (as seen in
a video by a tribute band)
that introduced western ears to the plucked instrument that looks a lot
like a banjo with a long neck but produces vibrating and extended
sounds. While most prevalent in the 1960s, the instrument has been used
in recent songs, as well, such as “Don’t Come Around Here No More” by
Tom Petty, “Behind the Sun” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, “I’ll Just
Hold On” by Blake Shelton, and “Gypsy” and “Gitana” by Shakira.
9. Ersaj/Dilruba
A dilruba
Another Indian stringed instrument, which is like a cross between a
cello and a sitar, has been far less popular in western pop music. The
ersaj (or dilruba) creates a haunting atomosphere in the song
“Birds Flew Backwards” by Doves.
It is also one of the instruments frequently used by Oscar-winning
composer A.R. Rahman, who wrote the soundtrack for “Slumdog
Millionaire.”
8. Kazoo
A kazoo
If you’ve ever been a kid, you’re familiar with a kazoo. The simplest
instrument out there, it simply adds a buzzing quality to a musician’s
own voice, as he or she hums into it. Jimi Hendrix immortalized the
sound on his song,
“Crosstown Traffic,”
originally performing that section with a comb wrapped in a piece of
cellophane. He used this trick to simulate the sound of traffic. Ringo
Starr later had a high-profile guest — former band mate Paul McCartney —
play the kazoo on his song, “You’re Sixteen.”
7. Harpsichord
A harpsichord
If we were talking about popular music of the 17th and 18th
Centuries, no one would be surprised to hear harpsichord included on the
list. But the instrument was at least 200 years out of style when Bread
used the piano predecessor on the track “Everything I Own” and the
Yardbirds used it on
“For Your Love.”
Chances are, though, they probably didn’t use 200-year-old instruments.
Likely, neither did the Stranglers on their tune, “Golden Brown,” which
has a harpsichord riff, as does “Too Afraid to Love You” by the Black
Keys.
6. Xylophone/Glockenspiel
Xylophones and glockenspiels
The xylophone is an easily-recognized instrument for two reasons:
it’s used in many elementary-school music classes, and it’s prominently
featured in countless “ABC” books, since it’s one of the few nouns in
the English language beginning with the letter “X.” But the xylophone —
and its cousin, the glockenspiel — have been used on a lot of songs for
grown-ups, too. Both are percussion instruments that look like keyboards
and are played by mallets. The main difference between a xylophone and a
glockenspiel is that the xylophone is made with wooden bars, while the
glockenspiel’s keys are made from metal plates or tubes. Xylophones were
first featured on a rock song in 1962 on the track “Percolator (Twist)”
by Billy Joe and the Checkmates. Much later, it was used by Lily Allen
on “Everyone’s at It” and by the Violent Femmes on
“Gone Daddy Gone.”
The glockenspiel has been used more widely: on the U2 song “I Will
Follow”; on the Jimi Hendrix track “Little Wing”; on Radiohead’s “No
Surprises”; on Bloc Party’s “Signs”; and on The Beatles tune, “Only a
Northern Song.” Maybe it’s because metallic sounds seem more like
“rock.”
5. Uilleann Pipes/Bagpipes
Uilleann pipes
The distinctive drawn-out melodic wail of the uilleann pipes, or the
better-known cousin the bagpipes, are most often heard at events with an
Irish or Scottish cultural connection. So it’s probably no surprise
that the instruments have been used by several pop artists with Irish
and Scottish heritage. Uilleann pipes — which are the bagpipe of Ireland
and more compact than the Scottish version — were used on the U2 track
“Tomorrow,” as well as “The Sensual World” by Kate Bush, “I Want My
Tears Back” by Nightwish, and on songs by Clannad, Steve Wickham, and
The Waterboys. The Scottish version of the instrument was used most
famously on AC/DC’s
“It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Want to Rock ‘n’ Roll).”
4. Unusual Percussion “Instruments”
Even bicycles have been used as percussion instruments.
When it comes to finding unusual sounds, rock musicians often think
outside the box: or, in the case of Supertramp, for the song “Dreamer,”
they used actual cardboard boxes. Among the most creative have been a
crowbar, struck on the floor during the Martha and the Vandellas song
“Dancing in the Streets”; hitting a chunk of steel with a hammer on “Big
Bad John” by Jimmy Dean; a washing line of bottles, bits of metal and
tin on “Goodbye Girl” by Squeeze; bottles thrown on the floor and
bicycle wheels spun and hit with bottles and knives on U2′s “I will
Follow”; a fire extinguisher and pepper shaker on “Oceans” by Pearl Jam;
kitchen pots on Radiohead’s
“Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box”;
a plastic water bottle struck by a toothbrush on “Tai’ Shan” by Rush;
and a bicycle on Patrick Watson’s “Beijing.” Chances are, if it makes an
interesting sound, one day it will wind up in popular music.
3. Glass Harmonica
A mechanical glass harmonica (top) and water glasses (bottom)
Some of the most atmospheric pop songs incorporate a celestial
wailing produced by the glass harmonica. This instrument comes in a
variety of forms, but it refers to any instrument played by rubbing
glass or crystal goblets or bowls. Benjamin Franklin’s mechanical
version of the instrument was called the “armonica,” meaning “harmony.”
One of the best-known uses of the instrument is on the beginning of the
Pink Floyd track,
“Shine on You Crazy Diamond.”It’s
also been incorporated in the songs “Janie’s Got a Gun” by Aerosmith,
“Heartbeats Accelerating” by Linda Ronstadt, “As the Dawn Breaks” by
Richard Hawley, “Armistice” by Patrick Wolf, and of course by one of
today’s pop music innovators, Bjork, in the song “All Neon Like.”
2. Melodica
A melodica
If they hadn’t called themselves The Hooters, the Philadelphia
musicians who backed Cyndi Lauper before forming their own band could
easily have called themselves Melodica. You see “a hooter” was the
band’s nickname for the melodica, which is a cross between a wind
instrument and a keyboard. The distinctive instrument got a featured
role at the beginning and end of one of their biggest songs,
“And We Danced.”
Although that is probably the best-known use of the instrument in pop
music, the melodica has also been played on songs by artists as diverse
as R.E.M., Faith No More, Oasis, The Decemberists, Belle and Sebastian,
Franz Ferdinand, The Kinks, Herbie Hancock, Animal Collective and
Goldfrapp, among others. Who knew so many bands had hooters?
1. Theremin
A theremin and a tannerin
Little-known fact, most of the pop songs that sound like they use the
theremin are actually using sound-alike instruments. Why? Turns out
that the device, which is played by running your hand through an
electromagnetic field, is extremely hard to play. Case in point:
“Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys,
possibly the most famous theremin-soundalike, used an Electro-theremin,
or a tannerin, developed by trombonist Paul Tanner and inventor Bob
Whisell in the 1950s. The device, which uses a sliding knob and manual
volume control, is easier to use. Theremins or variations of theremins
were used by Led Zeppelin on live performances of “Whole Lotta Love” and
“No Quarter”; by Rush on “BU2B”; by Metallica on “Wherever I May Roam”;
by Erykah Badu on “Incense”; by the Flaming Lips on “Race for the
Prize”; by the Pixies on “Velouria”; and by Brian Jones of the Rolling
Stones on two of the band’s albums: “Between the Buttons” and “Their
Satanic Majesties Request.” For a difficult instrument, there are
certainly plenty of musicians willing to give it a whirl.
Reviewed by Unknown
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