I’m usually not a fan of when acoustic and electronic elements collide, but Kevin Rudolf’s newest feels like the blueprint for a modern ballad. As he croons “we’ll turn a spark into a blaze of glory,” the intonation of his voice is grounded firmly in pop-rock aesthetics, yet the drop that follows doesn’t feel out of place in the slightest. Instead, its bouncy synthesizer barrage feels like the natural progression during a time in which boundaries between genres continue to melt away.
That notion makes me think about a conversation I had with a random acquaintance last night; we discussed how strange it was that fans across genres interact and enter one another’s spaces, when the music scene traditionally felt rigid in its structure only a decade ago. Maybe it’s the democratization of music via the internet, maybe it’s poptimism gone wide, but whatever the case may be, it’s a much different landscape. There’s less juicy intersectional drama between genres now, sure, but that’s a worthy expense for a time in which swathes of fans and musicians alike are breaking down sonic and social barriers for the greater artistic good.
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