What comes to mind when you think of a musical instrument? Do you see a guitar, a piano, a drum kit, a violin, or some other easily recognizable musical device?
Music in the modern age is oftentimes bland and tasteless. Musical structure has been planned out to an almost automated degree, and very little has been left for truly creative composition. Some of this structure is needed, such as musical theory, as it allows musicians to create an interwoven network of beautiful sounding melodies. However, the dependence on specific, familiar musical instruments, such as guitar, piano, and bass, is not necessary, and this obsession with familiarity has left modern songs sounding lifeless.
“Headshot of YouTube Musician Andrew Huang”
Music was never meant to be stagnant. At its core, all music is merely sounds: pitches emitted by certain objects that are pleasing to the ears when placed in a particular order. Sounds exist everywhere, and are created by nearly every object. Andrew Huang has utilized the vast array of sounds present in everyday life, and has composed beautiful, unique music with far more than just the standard modern instruments.
Take Andrew Huang’s song, “Water“:
“Water,” as the title suggests, is a song created entirely out of sounds emitted by water, as well as Huang’s voice. The song, which has amassed over one million views on YouTube, sounds absolutely gorgeous, and is a testament to Huang’s abilities as a singer, musician, and artist. “Water” shows the possibilities available to those who dare to think outside the box, and isolate sounds from nonconventional instruments.
Huang’s song “Drop That Beet” also creates music from unorthodox sources, but does so in a far more humorous way.
“Drop That Beet,” as the name suggests, is a song created entirely out of beets (and Andrew Huang’s voice). While not as wide-reaching in its appeal as “Water,” “Drop That Beet” proves the same point, which is that music created with unconventional sounds can be just as amazing as music made out of standard instruments.
However, the video that truly proves that modern, popular music can be created with any sounds is Huang’s “HIT SONGS OF 2016 – PERFORMED WITH HOUSEHOLD ITEMS” video.
In this video, Huang covers several popular songs using nothing but objects he found lying around his house, further proving that any sound can be utilized to make music. Huang uses bottles, pillows, an alarm clock, a lighter, and a myriad of other objects to replicate these songs to an amazingly accurate degree.
Andrew Huang is a great artist because he dares to think beyond societal constraints; Huang’s music defies modern instrumental convention, and promotes sounds that have rarely, if ever, been used to produce music. Huang’s art is unique in its appeal and deserves to be fervently listened to for many years to come.
Works Cited
Essabowser, “Headshot of YouTube Musician Andrew Huang.” Wikipedia, 2015, https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Huang_(musiker)#/media/File:Andrew_Huang_Musician_Headshot.jpg.
Huang, Andrew. “Andrew Huang.” The Magic Minute Project, Asus, Google, 2016, https://magicminute.withgoogle.com/andrew-huang.
Huang, Andrew. “ANDREW IS MUSIC.” Andrew Huang, 2017, http://andrewhuang.com/.
Andrew Huang is a musical genius. He started doing something that he liked and many people found strange, and turned it into a profession. He encourages people to follow their dreams.