RYM Ultimate Box Set Project

We created the RYM Box Set Project to highlight not only the essential artists for every genre but albums and even suggested tracks.  It's about as easy a way to get into a genre as it gets and is a mixtape with a purpose. It was created on 2/24/09 and is still being very actively worked and expanded. If you are searching for a set try the RYM Ultimate Box Set Index which groups many of the sets in several different categories. If you see a set that's missing consider putting together a set for it if you’re an expert in it or willing to do adequate research and explore it fully. Here’s a guide on how to do just that and why I think genres are important and fascinating. See the RYM Ultimate Box Set Playlists for Youtube and Spotify playlists of many sets. If you'd be interested in assembling missing playlists for either let me know!  This is the new tumblr for spotlights on new sets everyday. This has all the news and discussions regarding the project. You can visit the main project page at rymboxset.com Youtube Playlists Spotify Playlists Tumblr Archives

[rymultimateboxset]

Mutant Disco RYM Box Set

[rymultimateboxset]

 Part of the RYM Ultimate Box Set In 1981, an underground New York label known for their influential roster of disco and no wave artists released a seminal compilation of some of their best singles. With this release, ZE Records both solidified the definition of the leftfield disco movement and gave the genre a name that stuck. The intention was to showcase the edgier, more avant-garde side of New York disco through the LP's six songs. With the 2003 CD re-issue, Ze Records has expanded upon it into a stunning two-CD set containing a total of 25 tracks and followed it up with 2 more editions covering many out of print and rare tracks from its back catalog. Mutant Disco in many ways helped usher in the original Dance Punk scene which later followed and was very different from the no wave scene that was darker, far less danceable, and far more avante-garde. Many recent anthologies, such as Strut's Disco Not Disco series and Soul Jazz's New York Noise have attempted to document the scene, but Ze Records truly represented and helped best name NYC's alternative disco scene. This set shows off the selections from the collectible original LPs, now often featured on an array of available new and old compilations. Just as important and an unusual musician to the New York disco scene was Arthur Russell who performed under a myriad of Aliases and mixed the avante-garde with rousing Disco and was a favorite of clubs from The Loft to Paradise Garage.

The List for Mutant Disco

[rymultimateboxset]

Disco Rock RYM Box Set

[rymultimateboxset]

“Disco Rock” part of the RYM Ultimate Box Set The flood of Disco in the late 70's brought forth many rock musicians who dabbled with a successful disco track or two. After all, in the ’70s, the Bee Gees transformed themselves from a pop/rock group to one of disco’s biggest acts. The mix of the genres Disco and Rock were attempts to merge two separate music camps (and a racial divide) together onto the dance floor. Many of these tracks were big hits in the day in discos and also on the billboard charts; assisting both the Disco supporters and the musicians who took part. Interestingly enough it was both Classic Rock and Disco that were both dying out by the end of 1979 when a New Wave began ushering massive change to music for the next decade. While sometimes the discussions on these songs may be "is this disco?" what often is lost is that these songs early on were always hybrids of both genres. Also note that quite often these brief "disco" periods often have the biggest sustained backlash from rock fans.

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/TheScientist/rym_ultimate_box_set__disco_rock/

[rymultimateboxset]

Disco RYM Box Set D5

[rymultimateboxset]

Disco Disc 5 - The Future and the End of an Era

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/TheScientist/rym_ultimate_box_set__disco/ Synths were brought into disco but did not overwhelm the music.  While they were groundbreaking and helped usher in Synthpop, Italo Disco, and later Techno the Electro-Disco and Euro Disco sound only played a small part of disco.  By 1980 the last disco classics ushered in before the dawn of New Wave and the eventual transition into eighties R+B, Boogie, and the very beginnings of House music. Many rock artists jumped on the Disco bandwagon by '79 as well.

[rymultimateboxset]

Disco RYM Box Set D4

[rymultimateboxset]

Disco Disc 4 - 12" Rarities https://rateyourmusic.com/list/TheScientist/rym_ultimate_box_set__disco/ Prog and Krautrock weren't the only genres to have epic 10+ minute tracks.  These essential and rare 12" versions are difficult to find and essentials pieces of Disco and reflective of the unedited 70's style. The disco era was the first era where the practice of remixing took place. Tom Moulton, Walter Gibbons, Jim Burgess, François K., François K., Shep Pettibone, and Larry Levan all were popular remixers and staples in the club scenes with their 12" vinyl remixes.

[rymultimateboxset]

Disco RYM Box Set 3

[rymultimateboxset]

Disco Disc 3 - Disco Around the World

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/TheScientist/rym_ultimate_box_set__disco/ Disco was not just a U.S. phenomenon and many of the Eurodisco and early Italo Disco were hits abroad and filtered their way back to the states in small doses.  Here's a taste of the big tracks, many from big disco producers, from abroad.

[rymultimateboxset]

Disco RYM Box Set D2

[rymultimateboxset]

Disco Disc 2: TheHeight of Disco https://rateyourmusic.com/list/TheScientist/rym_ultimate_box_set__disco/ 1977-1979 were the key years of Disco music. The release of the film and soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever in December 1977, which became the best-selling soundtrack of all time, turned disco into a happening mainstream music genre. Radioplay and an explosion of new discotheques took Disco from an underground to mainstream audience. This in turn led many non-disco artists to record disco songs at the height of its popularity. Many of these songs were not "pure" disco, but were instead rock or pop songs with (sometimes inescapable) disco influence or overtones. However, there were plenty of "true" disco classics during this period that dominated the Billboard charts or that held a more cult status.

[rymultimateboxset]

Disco RYM Box Set D1

[rymultimateboxset]

"Disco is a genre of dance music that originated in and was initially popular among African American, Gay and Hispanic communities in the United States in the early to late 1970s. Unlike the simpler, four-piece band sound of the Funk & Soul of the late 1960s, disco music often included vocalists, with several chordal instruments (guitar, keyboards, synthesizer), several drum or percussion instruments (drumkit, Latin percussion, electronic drums), a horn section, a string orchestra, and a variety of "classical" solo instruments. Not coincidentally Disco was generally a producer led genre rather than as centered as much around the artists as other genres. As a genre that introduced dj's, dance clubs, extended mixes and remixes, Disco is the true beginning and basis for all modern dance music "

Disco Disc 1: Foundation of the Sound Early Essentials from the beginning of the Disco era from 1973-1976.  These early singles show how Disco evolved from Soul, Philly Soul, Latin, & Funk. Several of these singles had 2 parts that when combined became "extended" versions, hailing in the new concept of the extended 12" which would be important for Disco dj's and record collector's alike. Most early singles were still 45's.

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/TheScientist/rym_ultimate_box_set__disco/

[rymultimateboxset]

Glam Metal RYM Box Set

[rymultimateboxset]

Glam Metal RYM Box Set

[rymultimateboxset]

Part of the RYM Ultimate Box Set "Glam Metal (also known as pop metal, hair metal) is a term used to describe the visual style of certain heavy metal music bands that arose in the early 1980s in the United States and mostly from the Los Angeles scene. It was popular throughout the 1980s and briefly in the early 1990s, combining the flamboyant look of glam rock and playing a power-chord based hard rock musical style. "Hair bands" was the term popularized by MTV in the 1990s and derives from the tendency among most such bands to style their long hair in a teased-up fashion. Musically, glam metal songs meld traditional hard rock or heavy metal songs with catchy hooks. The overall sound is much more studio-engineered than earlier styles of heavy metal.  The vocals have a softer melody, sometimes with an anthemic "sing-along" chorus. In addition, they were usually sung with a clean hard rock tone, in contrast to many other heavy metal music that often employ a more extreme vocal style." 

Get the set here!