User:RobRenger/sandbox

Epic Music is a modern classical-like musical genre derived from a wide array of genres. Strings (no matter whether they’re artificial, orchestral, layered or solo) are at the roots of Epic Music, thus a track without strings is not immediatly considered Epic. In the genre it’s about the feelings/emotions one gets when listening to a track, which sometimes (but legitimately) leads to tracks without strings also being referred to as Epic Music.

History
The first official trailer music companies which later became Epic Music producers were created in the 1990’s, with Immediate Music being one of the first starting as early as 1993. From then until the 2010’s a lot of albums and single tracks were created, however they were only available to the companies’ clients and the film industry. Until this day only few of these albums (even though Epic) have been officially, or unofficially through Internet platforms, released to the public. It was around 2005-2010 some composers started to pick up public fame for the first time, thanks to their songs being featured at special events like the Olympic Games  and the many trailers they composed for.

The genre Epic Music was officially created by it’s community when composers finally started releasing public albums in 2010. With one of the most famous first ever public Epic albums being Invincible by Two Steps from Hell. Even though a strong fanbase had already been created also by other composers like Audiomachine, TSFH “won” the whole community and showed that publicizing music which was first vaguely refered to as Trailer and Film music was a good idea. With albums being released publicly, the community grew and has kept growing ever since.

Present day
Epic Music consists of special music that is created for the public and not a specific company or studio. Seperating itself from the Trailer Music genre, Epic Music is a stand-alone genre which produces a lot of music that can be used in trailers (which then also makes it Trailer Music). If a composer makes a public Epic track for the first time, the community decides which of his or her songs will be embraced as such. Simple as that. Although people who like EM also tend to like Trailer and Film Music due to the many similarities, the community can be very good at distinguishing the three as seperate genres. EM has also proven to be similair to piano and/or Neoclassical music, however it is not that.

Youtube's succes
Since EM is a growing genre a lot of new great composers have found a home in the genre over the past few years. But not only composers profit from making songs. Official promotion youtube channels are booming business. Creating cinematics, mixes and promoting tracks daily, currently the largest ones are: Epic Music VN, Epic Music World II, Pandora Journey and ThePrimeCronus. Gathering a total of more than 1.2 million subscribers. These channels are called EMCs (Epic Music Channels).

A YouTube channel can only be considered an EMC when it’s sole purpose is promoting Epic Music. There are only a couple of hundred channels which reach this requirement, but together they form the biggest medium to spread Epic Music. They do this in several ways, the most popular ways are by uploading cinematics, mixes or daily videos. These videos are enjoyed by all kinds of people, gamers, event organisers, video creators and many more, but sometimes mostly by people who like to download songs off of YT instead of paying the artists for them.

Research shows that between 2/11/2015 and 2/05/2016, so in 6 months. 62 of the largest EMCs (all with 600+ subscribers) have earned over 271 million views. Gained over 495k subscribers and have uploaded almost 900 quality videos. As of May 2016 these channels have, if combined, more than 2,8 million subscribers, 1.32 billion views and 32 000 videos. However you can add way more views and subscribers to these numbers if you were to look at all existing EMCs or all EM tracks uploaded to youtube. (ADD CITE LINK)

Categories
Here are the most common styles used for Epic Music tracks. A track can consist of multiple styles. Please note that these different categories and names do not exist to divide the community, but to help explain what a song is like. Whichever style or feeling you like the most, everything is part of the same community and genre: Epic Music.

Vocal
A track counts as vocal if there is at least 1 lead singer in it or if vocals form a majority of the track. Any track can be vocal, from emotional to horror. An example of a vocal track is Extreme Music - Bring Me Back To Life

World
World is the somewhat modern name for folklore. So this style contains cultural or traditional music like Celtic, Nordic/Viking and Pirate. However, the community knows how to differ between these styles themselves and the ones that are Epic (Music). For example Adrian von Ziegler is currently the one of the most famous Celtic Music composers, but only few of his tracks are considered Epic. Thanks to this Epic Music has become a great place for relatively unknown composers of these styles, here are a couple of them: Epic Celtic Music Mix - Most Powerful & Beautiful Celtic Music | Vol.1

Hybrid/Rock
Hybrid means cross-genre. Tracks labeled hybrid are more likely to to sound like EDM or any other genre related to electro-type music, but they are usually specifically made to fit in the Epic genre by implementing certain feelings/emotions. Rock is said to sound the most like classical music out of all modern genres. Which is why it fits very well in Epic Music. Due to both styles' powerful arrangements, Hybrid and Rock usually go hand in hand, like in this famous track: Les Friction - World On Fire

Other (Orchestral/Choral)
This style is called “other” to represent all tracks which cannot be defined by any other name than Epic Music. Which is why feelings are used to describe what kind of tracks they are. Epic Music’s most famous song on Youtube with over 41 million views, falls under this style: Two Steps From Hell - Protectors of the Earth

Names, feelings and emotions
However, these styles aren’t enough for the community to categorise an EM track. This is why people have started using feelings, emotions or other names to describe a track. These names have over-time been unonymously accepted by the community to categorise Epic Music, because they partly manage to describe the feeling a track gives you. The words speak for themselves, just like the music: “(Most) Beautiful” is also a very common tag, but if we just assume all EM tracks are beautiful we don’t really need it. Next to these, many other names/feelings are also used to describe songs, like: Battle, Horror, Massive, Pounding, Intense, Legendary, Vengeful, Wondrous, Fantasy, Majestic and Sad. The community can come up with any new word at any time so this list will always be incomplete.
 * Emotional
 * Uplifting
 * Powerful
 * Dramatic
 * Inspirational
 * Action
 * Adventure
 * Heroic

All-time

 * Most viewed track: Two Steps From Hell - Protectors of the Earth
 * Most viewed cinematic: The Best of Epic Music 2012 | 1-Hour Full Cinematic | Epic Hits | Epic Music VN
 * Most viewed mix: 2-Hours Epic Music Mix | Most Beautiful & Emotional Music - Emotional Mix Vol. 1
 * Most subscribers: Pandora Journey
 * Most viewed channel: ThePrimeCronus

2015

 * Most viewed track: Two Steps From Hell - Victory
 * Most viewed cinematic: The Best of Epic Music 2014 | 1-Hour Full Cinematic | Epic Hits | Epic Music VN
 * Most viewed mix: World's Most Emotional Music | 2-Hours Epic Music Mix - Vol.2
 * Voted best track:Two Steps From Hell - Victory

2014

 * Most viewed track: Extreme Music - Bring Me Back To Life (Epic Powerful Vocal Rock)
 * Most viewed cinematic: The Best of Epic Music 2013 | 1-Hour Full Cinematic | Epic Hits | Epic Music VN
 * Most viewed mix: 2-Hours Epic Music Mix | Most Beautiful & Emotional Music - Emotional Mix Vol. 1
 * Voted best track: Thomas Bergersen - Empire of Angels (Sun)

Top 5 all-time views

 * 1) Two Steps From Hell - Protectors of the Earth
 * 2) The Best of EM 2012 | Epic Music VN
 * 3) Two Steps From Hell - To Glory
 * 4) 2-Hours EM Mix | Pandora Journey
 * 5) The Best of EM 2014 | Epic Music VN