American Pop Music

Obbligato-

A 2nd melody playing under the main melody.

Gospel-

A family of religious music styles: there is white & black. Black= most profound influence om popular music by far. Created around 1930's by Thomas Dorsey and others, gospel has influenced popular singing, especially rhythm and blues since the early 1950's.

Doo-wop-

A pop oriented R&B genre that typically features remakes of pop standards or pop-style originals sung by black vocal groups. Doo-wop died out in the early 1960's with the rise of the girl groups and Motown.

Scat singing-

A type of wordless singing, usually at a fast tempo, in which the singer uses nonsense syllables in place of lyrics. Typically scat singers imitate instrumentals.

Rockabilly-

According to Carl Perkins, a country take on rhythm and blues, performed mainly by white Southerners, that combined elements of country music with rock and roll. Most Popular in the mid 50's.

Surf music-

Describes the late 1950's early 1960's rock styles that glorified the Southern California lifestyle.

Payola scandal-

The late 1950's scandal that resulted from the investigation of the practice of record companies' bribing disc jockies to secure airplay for their recordings.

Overdubbing- Overdubbing-

The process of recording an additional part onto the existing recording.

Multitrack recording-

The process of recording each part of a performance separately, then mixing them into a complete performance. The Beatles, along with their producer George Martin, were amoung the first to take full advantage of multitrack recording techniques.

Bebop-

what scat singing gave, new jazz sound of the 40's. "be-bop" are the syllables that end a scattered stream of notes.