"Shield on tongue" style, 7th century Merovingian belt buckle, with frame-style buckle mechanism on left portion. Musée Saint-Remis, Reims, France File:Beltbuckle1.JPG A conventional belt buckle with single square frame and prong Back side of original US Civil War buckle, showing bent-arrow chape-end attachment and single-hook mordant File:6 western floral.jpg The front of "western-style" ornamental belt buckle Pre 1914 Royal Military College of Canada Belt buckle; badge is removable and can be used as a pin Back side of World War II German Labor Service belt plate Box-frame "buckles" Seventh-century buckle showing naked man with spears, horned helmet, belt buckle.

A belt buckle is a buckle, a clasp for fastening two ends, as of straps or a belt, in which a device attached to one of the ends is fitted or coupled to the other. The word enters Middle English via Old French and the Latin buccula or "cheek-strap," as for a helmet. Belt buckles and other fixtures are used on a variety of belts, including cingula, baltea, baldrics and later waist-belts.

Types[link]

Belt buckles go back at least to the iron age and a gold "great buckle" was among the items interred at Sutton Hoo. Primarily decorative "shield on tongue" buckles were common Anglo-Saxon grave goods at this time, elaborately decorated on the "shield" portion and associated only with men. One such buckle, found in a 7th-century grave at Finglesham, Kent in 1965 bears the image of a naked warrior standing between two spears wearing only a horned helmet and belt.^[1]

Frame-style buckles are the oldest design. In a frame-and-prong buckle the prong attaches to one end of the frame and extends "away" from the wearer through a through a hole in the belt, where it anchors against the opposite side of the frame. The oldest styles have a simple loop or "D" shaped frame, but "double-loop" or "center post" buckles whose prongs attach to a fixed center section appear in the 8th century. Very small buckles with removable center pins and chapes were introduced and used on shoes, beginning in the 17th century, but not often for waist-belts. A "chape" is the fixed cover which attaches buckle to belt while the "mordant" or "bite" is the adjustable portion.

Plate-style "buckles" are common on western military belts of the mid-19th century, which often feature a three-hook clasp: two hooks fitting into one end of the belt and a third into the other. Officers might have a similar but more intricate clasp-style closure that featured two interlocking metal parts. In practice, the term "belt plate" refers to any flat, decorated surface on such a clasp. These precede development of modern "western-style" buckles, which feature a hinged frame affixed to one end of the belt and a simple hook clasp which enters the belt hole toward the wearer but leaves most of the buckle on the "outside" of the belt, providing an ample surface for decoration. The distance between the fixed frame or chape of a plate buckle and its adjustment prong is called the "throw."

Box-frame "buckles" are another, 20th-century style of military friction buckle, common on web belts. The box-frame buckle consists of three parts (front, back and post). An adjustable captive post sits perpendicular to the belt to press it against the outer "box," which completely surround the webbing and minimize accidental adjustments should part of the belt snag on something. There may or may not be a metal tip on the opposite "tongue" end of the belt for easier insertion.

Earlier, military-style buckles often use friction and are designed for use with cloth belts or straps. Simple friction buckles are one-piece frames with no prong whatsoever, the strap or belt winding trough a series of slots, and may more technically be called "belt slides" or "belt trims." Although technically not buckles, other fasteners such as plastic "side-clasp" or even seat belt latches are also often used on belts, and colloquially called buckles.

Rise in popularity of belt buckles[link]

Because of their strong association with military equipment, belt buckles were primarily a masculine ornament well into the 19th century.

Belt buckles became more popular as fashion accessories in the early 20th century, as the tops of trousers moved more toward the waist. "Western-style" belt buckles were largely popularized by cowboy movies in the United States and are often awarded to winners in rodeo events as prize medals or trophies, a custom later adopted by the Western States Endurance Run and a few other ultra-marathons. The large, flat surface of the western-style belt buckles make them a popular ornament or style of jewelry. Decorative "buckle sets" may contain a metal buckle, one or more matching loops which sit next to the buckle and a metal tip for the opposite, "tongue" end of the belt. "Belt plates" may be decorative covers for a plain buckle or other decorative fittings affixed to the belt itself, similar to "conchos" (from a Spanish word for "shell"). Decorative belt loops are sometimes awarded in scouting for participation in or completion of activities.

In 1979, Marvin Levine created and founded J.W. Cooper, a high-end Western wear and accessories retail store in the Falls Shopping Center Miami, FL. He began offering custom-designed belt buckles, positioning them as a high-end luxury accessory. Hand-carved trophy buckles made from semiprecious and precious metals and gemstones; and rare materials, such as 10,000-year-old mammoth ivory, offered by J.W. Cooper, made the modern buckle a sought-after status symbol in the luxury market, and it remains that today. In 1998, Marvin Levine opened the flagship J.W. Cooper store at the internationally known Bal Harbour Shops in Bal Harbour, Florida. Marvin Levine sold his interest in the stores to Todd Rauchwerger around 2001. In 2004, Rauchwerger opened the second J.W. Cooper location at The Shops at Columbus Circle in New York City. In 2005, he formed a wholesale agreement with the Japan-based Cigar Club, and since then – in addition to the company’s two U.S. locations – J.W. Cooper buckles have been sold exclusively at Cigar Club Tokyo, Cigar Club The Westin Tokyo, Cigar Club Osaka, Cigar Club Grand Hyatt Tokyo and Cigar Club Conrad Tokyo.^[2]

More recently belt buckles have become a must have fashion accessory, it has even given rise to a new form of tucking in ones shirt known simply as the "front tuck". The front tuck is just as it sounds: the front of the shirt is tucked in an attempt to show off the belt buckle. Also with a rise in technology came an explosion of graphic belt buckles. These buckles made it possible for people to more easily express them selves with graphics and slogans. One of the more popular examples of this style of buckle is seen on the television show Bones (TV series) in which the main character dons one of these buckles in a business suit emblazoned with the slogan "cocky". Belt Buckles have also seen a rise in popularity among golfers, most notably after golfer Anthony Kim wore a jeweled belt buckle displaying the initials "A.K." in a golf tournament.

References[link]

Marvin Levine 2011, "The Truth About JW Cooper"

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Belt buckles

• Roman Military Equipment: Cingulum and Balteus Retrieved 2010-07-17.
• Gold belt buckle from the ship-burial at Sutton Hoo, British Museum, Retrieved 2010-07-03.
• Belt buckle, Xiongnu type, 3rd–2nd century B.C. Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2010-07-03.
• Michael J. O'Donnell and James Duncan Campbell. American Military Belt Plates, Third Edition. Alexanderia VA: O'Donnell Publications, 2010. ISBN 978-0-9670731-2-5.
• Chris Marshall. "Buckles Through the Ages", 2002. Retrieved 2010-07-20.
• Marvin Levine. The Truth About JW Cooper 2011.

Free the Robots (born Chris Alfaro) is an underground hip hop producer from Santa Ana, California.

Style[link]

Free the Robots pulls together jazz, psychedelic music, electronic music and hip hop, with progressive melodies and devastating drums. His techniques create harmony between genres with the blending of obscure samples with analog and digital compositions.

History[link]

Free the Robots started as a side project by Chris Alfaro in 2003, while also playing with different bands, DJing, producing tracks for rappers. Having worked with so many different styles of music, Free the Robots brought everything together under one roof, allowing further exploration. With the use of samples, controllers, and other live instruments, he creates a balance between the sounds of the past, present and future. He has reached a worldwide audience since its beginnings and found its place among the top artists in this genre, sharing the stage with the likes of Prefuse 73, Flying Lotus, The Glitch Mob, Afrika Bambaataa and more.^[1] In 2010, Free the Robots shared the stage with The Gaslamp Killer and Daedelus at the Masquerade Venue in Atlanta, Georgia. His debut album Ctrl Alt Del, which features Isaiah "Ikey" Owens, was released on Alpha Pup Records in 2010.^[2][3]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• Ctrl Alt Delete (2010)

EPs[link]

• The Mind's Eye (2011)

Productions[link]

• "Least Favorite Rapper" by Busdriver on Jhelli Beam (2009)
• "DSD2" by Nocando on Jimmy the Lock (2010)
• "Unibrow" by Busdriver on Computer Cooties (2010)
• "10 Haters" by Flash Bang Grenada on 10 Haters (2011)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Free the Robots on Myspace
• Free the Robots on Tumblr
• Free the Robots on Twitter
• Free the Robots on Alpha Pup Records
• Free The Robots Interview by VibeRated.com

This article on an American electronic musician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e