Essay about Music: Red Hot Chili Peppers

Submitted By mannyyx
Words: 1102
Pages: 5

The red hot chili peppers. Good afternoon Mrs Elliot and fellow classmates.
The chili peppers have not stopped evolving their overalls since their start in 1983. Since then, they have released 16 studio albums, won seven grammys and sold 80 million albums worldwide. The band has had over a dozen different members over time, most of them being guitarists, however there are three main members of the band: Flea, the bass player who looks like Wayne Rooney, Anthony Kleidis who looked like Bruno when he dyed his hair blonde, the lead singer and rhythm guitarist and chad smith, the drummer who looks like Chad Michael Michaels. They have had 8 different guitarists, but only three main guitarists: Hiller Slovac, Dave Navarro and John Frusciante. The aim of this speech will be to depict the change in sound and feel with the change of band members and to show how their sound has changed, developed and evolved over time. During the speech I will make numerous references to the texture, structure, tempo, pitch, tone colour and volume changes that occur in their songs.
I will now proceed to read you a list of bands that Wikipedia said influenced the red hot chili peppers. Defunkt, Parliament-Funkadelic, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, Gang of Four, Bob Marley, Sly and the Family Stone, Ohio Players, Queen, Stevie Wonder, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Black Flag, Ornette Coleman, Led Zeppelin, Bad Brains, Fugazi, Fishbone, Marvin Gaye, Billie Holliday, Santana, Elvis Costello, The Stooges, The Clash, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Devo, and Miles Davis.
The red hot chili peppers are a unique blend of punk rock, alternative rock, metal, psychedelic and rap. Their sound has changed over the years though, in reference to the 20th century. Starting from there early days, I’m going to depict the red hot chili peppers change in sound since their early days, starting from their early days. The way I’m going to compare the bands is to compare the albums from that era, instead of comparing only three songs. Firstly, I will start from their second studio album, called freaky styley. Freaky Styley was released in 1985. This album is very different to what the chili peppers are now and what they were in their prime. Freaky styley has a very laid back feel, but at the same time it is fast paced. The chili peppers make use of organs and instruments a lot in this album. Most of their songs from this album have an organ piano or some sort of brass instrument playing fills. The bass in this album is very funky. Very complex and melodic fills and riffs are used by flea in this album. The rhythm guitar in this album plays very funky as well. The rhythm guitar in this album plays a very harmonic role. The guitar is usually high pitched and more consistent chords, rather than riffs. The drums play very fast in this album. The beats are generally standard and generic and very fast paced.
The next album I will discuss is arguably one of the best albums the chili peppers have released ever. The album is called ‘Blood sugar sex magik’. The album is their sixth studio album and it was released in 1991. The main change from this album to the last one is the lack of brass instruments and an organ. The lead guitarist at the time was John Frusciante, and he mostly played a very melodic role, as opposed to the harmonic role Slovac played in Freaky Styley. The album is composed of more complex riffs and chord progressions, in reference to lead guitar. The drums are not as fast paced as they were in freaky styley, but rather louder and more defined. The drums set a foundation for the song using slightly open high hats and a slower beat, unlike what they did in freaky styley. The singing is a lot more different in this album. The tempo of the singing, mainly in the verses has greatly increased in this album. Songs like ‘give it away’ and ‘suck my kiss’ have rapped verses and sung chorus’, this was almost a red