Kate Bush

: This article is about the singer/songwriter. Kate Bush is also a character in the Japanese anime television series, Victory Gundam.

Musical Style

Even in her earliest works where the piano was a primary instrument, she wove together many diverse influences, melding classical music, rock, and a wide range of ethnic and folk sources, to produce a uniquely impressive amalgam, and this has continued throughout her career. More than one reviewer has used the term "surreal" to describe much of her music, for many of the songs have a melodramatic emotional and musical surrealism that defies easy categorization. It has been observed that even the more joyous of the pieces is often tinged with traces of melancholy, and even the most sorrowful have elements of a unique vitality struggling against all that would oppress it. The unapologetic use of her voice as an instrument to convey a broad range of emotional intensity and subtlety is one thing that characterizes nearly all that she does.

Related Topics:
Piano - Classical music - Rock - Folk - Surreal

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Kate Bush has tackled sensitive and taboo subjects long before it has become fashionable to do so; "Kashka From Baghdad" is a song about a gay male couple; "Breathing" explores the results of nuclear fallout. Her lyrics are highly literate and reference a wide array of subject matter, often relatively obscure, such as Wilhelm Reich in "Cloudbusting", or G. I. Gurdjieff in "Them Heavy People".

Related Topics:
Gay male - Nuclear fallout - Wilhelm Reich - G. I. Gurdjieff

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The lush arrangements, complex production and intelligent, thoughtful lyrics can sometimes mask the fact that Kate Bush is a peculiarly witty writer and that comedy is not only a big influence on her - she has cited Monty Python, Woody Allen, Fawlty Towers and The Young Ones as particular favourites - but also a significant component of her work.

Related Topics:
Monty Python - Woody Allen - Fawlty Towers - The Young Ones

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