American Popular Music Chapter 14
Professor Griff
"Minister of Information" with the influential hip-hop ensemble Public Enemy until he was forced to resign after making anti-Semitic comments.
Speed Metal
A sub-style of heavy metal that exudes the high level of intensity inherent in thrash metal but incorporates even faster tempos and a persistent, driving quadruple subdivision of the beat
Krist Novoselic (b. 1965 in Compton, California)
Bassist for the Seattle-based alternative rock trio Nirvana.
Jam Master Jay
DJ known for his influential work with the hip-hop trio Run-D.M.C.
Terminator X
DJ with the influential hip-hop group Public Enemy.
Hard Core
Extreme variation of punk, pioneered during the early 1980s by bands in San Francisco (the Dead Kennedys) and Los Angeles (the Germs, Black Flag, X, and the Circle Jerks). These groups took the frenzied energy if the Ramones and Sex Pistols and pushed it to the limit, paying some riff-based songs at impossible fast temps and screaming nihilistic lyrics over a chaotic wall of guitar chords. Their audiences developed the practice of "slam dancing" or "moshing." Most recordings released by independent kennels and typical disc was produced to look and sound as though it had been made in someone's basement. Few bands got contracts with major labels.
"Eazy-E" Wright
Former drug dealer, member of N.W.A. (*****z With Attitude), and later solo rap artist in the 1990s.
Ice-T (Tracy Marrow b. 1958)
In 1987, he recorded the theme song for Colors, Dennis Hopper's violent film about gang-versus-police warfare in South Central Los Angeles. Both the film and Ice-T's raps reflected ongoing changes in southern California's urban communities, including a decline in industrial production, rising rates of joblessness, the continuing effects of crack cocaine, and a concomitant growth of drug-related gang violence. Had an outlaw swagger.
Gangsta Rap
Variant of hip-hop music; its emergence was heralded nationwide by the release of the album Straight Outta Compton by N.W.A. (*****z with Attitude). It included artists such as Snoop Doggy Dogg, 2Pac Shakur, and the Notorious B.I.G. A variety of alternative rap styles emerged in the 1990s that reflected the attitudes, experiences, and dialects of particular segments of the hip-hop audience. These marginal variants of hip-hop ended up generating millions and millions of dollars in profits for the record industry.
Gretchen Wilson (b. 1973 in Illinois)
1st hit in 2004 was "Redneck Woman" and her number 1 album All Jacked Up in 2005 showed the marketability of her cultural identity. Emerged in her 30s with a fully formed artistic profile, which she has maintained consistently. The subject matter of her songs embraces many standard country subjects, demonstrated by tracks on her 2007 album One of the Boys: hard drinking ("There's a Place in the Whiskey"), hard loving ("Come To Bed"), hard losing ("Pain Killer"), and country pride ("There Goes the Neighborhood" and "Good Ole Boy"); her next album (2010) was titled I Got Your Country Right Here. Favor a strong, rock-oriented sound.
Union Station Band
A Blue Grass Band. An excellent fiddler with a high, fragile voice whose platinum recordings with Union Station helped bring blue grass to a new audience
Ali Farka Toure (1939-2006)
A guitarist and traditional praise singer (griot) from the West African nation of Mali. His style was directly influenced by American blues musicians.
King Sunny Ade
A guitarist that led the Nigerian group called the African Beats. 1982 released album Juju Music. It featured an infectious brand of urban African dance music that blended electric guitars, Christian church hymns, and Afro-Caribbean rhythms with the pulsating sound of the Yoruba "talking drum," Juju Music sold over 100,000 copies and rose to number 111 on Billboard's album chart. The African Beats' next album, Synchro System, reached as high as number 91 on the chart, but they were soon thereafter dropped by Island Records and never again appeared on the American pop charts. The fact he sang in Yoruba, a language spoken by precious few American listeners, doomed him to failure from the beginning. He did succeed in establishing a market for so-called Afro-pop music, opening the door for African popular musicians.
Sonic Youth
Alternative Rock band who were pioneers in noise rock
R.E.M.
An American Alternative rock band based in Athens, Georgia who were instrumental in bringing alternative rock into the mainstream in the 80's and 90's
End of 20th Century in music
By the end of the twentieth century, it had become almost impossible to sustain a clear-cut dichotomy between the center of American popular music and its margins. The bestselling albums of the 1990s featured an extraordinary variety of artists, and genres.
Sean "Puffy" Combs (a.k.a. Puff Daddy, P. Diddy)
CEO of the New York independent label Bad Boy Records
Dave Grohl
Drummer for Nirvana, but since Cobain's death has been the leader of Foo Fighters
Alan Jackson (b. 1958)
From Georgia. Came from a working-class background, was a car salesman and construction worker, didn't fully establish career as a country music until in his 30s. Came into prominence in the mid-1980s, still one of the top country artists. Song "Midnight in Montgomery" (1992) which pay tribute to Alabama's Hank Williams as an enduring presence in his mind, heart, and music. His range can embrace an old-fashioned, tear-jerking country waltz (like "[Who Says] You Can't Have It All" 1994); a knowing satire on those who rushed to embrace suddenly-fashionable country clothing and music in the 1990s ("Gone Country" 1994); and a gentle and touching response to 9/11 ("Where Were You [When The World Stopped Turning" 2001-2002).
World Music or World Beat
Heterogeneous category that includes artists from Africa, the Near East, and Asia—the ultimate margins of the American music industry. 1st systematically used in the late 1980s by independent record label owners and concert promoters, and it entered the popular music marketplace as a replacement for longer-standing categories such as "traditional music," "international music," and "ethnic music." A pseudo-genre, taking in styles as diverse as African urban pop (juju); Pakistani dance club music (bhangara); Australian Aboriginal rock music; and even the Bulgarian State Radio and Television Female Vocal Choir; Spanish flamenco music; Tibetan Buddhist chants; and diverse collaborations between American and English rock stars and musicians from Africa, Latin America, and South Asia.
Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music
Included artists such as George Strait, Alan Jackson, Toby Keith, Gretchen Wilson, and Taylor Swift
American Recordings
Johnny Cash-well-known rap producer Rick Rubin's signed Cash to the former's American Recordings label in the early 1990s featuring contemporary rock material. The album garnered popular attention after his death.
Chuck D
MC and songwriter best known for his work with Public Enemy.
Run
MC with the breakout hip-hop ensemble Run-D.M.C.
D.M.C.
MC with the breakout hip-hop trio Run-D.M.C. known for his edgy, rapid-fire delivery
Alternative Rock
Marketing category that emerged around 1990; it is most often used to describe bands like R.E.M., Sonic Youth, the Dead Kennedys, and Nirvana. Emerged when the underground bands made it big. Most influential indie rock bands of the 1980s were R.E.M. (formed 1980 from Georgia) and NY's Sonic Youth (formed 1981).
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Pakistani musician, primarily a singer of Qawwali, the devotional music of the Sufis
Does rap reinforce stereotypes, or does it give a realistic depiction of urban life in African American communities?
Rap music does portray some features of the urban environment and the social and political problems that are evident. However, like all stereotypes it is wrong to perceive that all of the people associated with the music is a gang member or law breaker.
O'Shea "Ice Cube" Jackson
Rapper and actor best known as a founding member of the gangsta rap ensemble N.W.A. (*****z With Attitude).
Grunge Rock
Regional style of alternative rock from Seattle that blended heavy metal guitar textures with hardcore punk. Bands from Seattle included Green River, Mudhoney, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Soundgarden. This genre and the demise of Kurt Cobain provide some insight into the opportunities and pressures facing alternative rock musicians in the early 1990s.
Ry Cooder (b. 1947 in LA)
Singer and guitarist that produced the album Talking Timbuktu. His career as a session musician and bandleader had already encompassed a wide array of styles, including blues, reggae, Tex-Mex music, urban folk song, Hawaiin guitar music, Dixieland jazz, and gospel music. The sound and sensibility of Talking Timbuktu are derived from the music of Ali Farka Toure.
Andre (Dr. Dre) Young
The most influential and economically successful member of N.W.A. He founded an independent record label (Death Row/Interscope), cultivated a number of younger rappers, and continued to develop a distinctive hip-hop production style, christened "G-Funk" in homage to the P-funk style developed in the 1970s by George Clinton, and was often sampled on Dre's productions. His 1992 album The Chronic - named after a particularly potent strain of marijuana - sold over 3 million copies and introduced his protege Snoop Doggy Dog.
Eddie Vedder (b. 1966 in Chicago)
The singer for the Seattle-based alternative rock band Pearl Jam; he collaborated with Pakistani musician Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan on the track "The Face of Love" from the album Talking Timbuktu.
Tupac (2pac) Shakur (1971-96)
Tragic victim of conflicts between East and West Coast factions within the hip-hop business. He was an up-and-coming star with Los Angeles-based Death Row Records when he was shot and killed in Las Vegas in 1996.
The Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. Biggie Smalls, 1972-97)
Worked with producer and rapper Sean "Puffy" Combs (a.k.a. Puff Daddy, P. Diddy). He was shot to death in Los Angeles in 1997.
"Holiday in Cambodia"
Written and performed by the Dead Kennedys; recorded 1980. a good example of the sensibility of early 1980s hardcore punk rock. The song appeared on the album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables The song is directed at the spoiled children of suburban yuppies, who Biafra suggests ought to be sent to forced labor camps in Cambodia-then in the grip of Pol Pot's genocidal regime-to gain some perspective on the magnitude of their own problems. The recording opens with a nightmarish display of guitar pyrotechnics, a series of Hendrix-inspired whoops, slides, scratches, and feedback that are evocative of a war zone. The band-guitar, electric bass, and drumsgradually builds to an extremely fast tempo
"What's My Name" 1993
Written by George Clinton, Gary Shider, Snoop Dogg, and David Spradley; produced by Dr. Dre; performed by Snoop Doggy Dogg; recorded 1993. Released on the album in its original, unexpurgated version and as a "clean" version on a single designed for radio airplay and mass distribution
Flavor Fav
known for a dance by that name which consisted of jerky arm movements wore comical glasses and oversize clock around his neck
Phish
American rock band noted for their musical improvising, extended jams, blending of musical genres, and a dedicated fan base. Formed at UVM in the 80s
Union Station
Influential bluegrass-inspired ensemble featuring Allison Krauss.
Smells Like Teen Spirit (1991)
Performer: Nirvana Genre: heavy metal + pop, alternative rock Date: 1991 Form: 4 chord harmonic progression, conventional formal structure: 4, 8 + 12 bar sections Lyrics: teen revolution, joke song, meaning unclear Other: sleek, focused sound, weird music video w/ janitor and kids in the gym
Filmography
Colors (1987): Dennis Hopper's violent film about gang-police warfare in South Central Los Angeles. The film and Ice-T's theme song, recorded for the film, reflect ongoing changes in Southern California's urban communities, including a decline in industrial production, rising rates of joblessness, the continuing effects of crack cocaine, and a concomitant growth of drug-related gang violence. Chicago (2002): Queen Latifah's portrayal of Matron "Mama" Morton in this film adaptation of the musical earned her an Oscar nomination and cemented her position as a mainstream entertainer. Dead Man Walking (1996): Film about a nun's attempt to redeem the soul of a convicted murderer on the verge of execution. Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's voice contributed to the haunting, mystical, and spiritual atmosphere of the film. Hype! (1996): Documentary revealing the role of Sub Pop Records in the Seattle music scene of the early 1990s. Kurt Cobain: About a Son (2006): Drawn from over twenty-five hours of videotape collected by journalist Michael Azzerad for his book about Nirvana, this critically well- received documentary offers an intimate portrait of Kurt Cobain. Nirvana: Live! Tonight! Sold Out!! (1994): Video album featuring live performances by Nirvana. N.W.A.: The World's Most Dangerous Group (2008): Made-for-TV documentary about the pioneering gangsta rap group featuring interviews and concert footage. O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000): Coen brothers' film which illustrates the power of movies to carry musical styles and artists previously viewed as marginal into the mainstream. The soundtrack encompasses several generations of country artists and recordings, and pushes bluegrass into the limelight. Pearl Jam Twenty (2011): Rockumentary directed by Cameron Crowe celebrating the Seattle-based band. Snoop Dogg: Drop It Like Its Hot (2005): Live concert featuring West Coast rapper Snoop Dogg. Tupac: Resurrection (2003): Documentary produced by the rapper's mother receiving critically positive reviews detailing the slain hip-hop artists life through music, home videos, and voice-overs. Walk the Line (2005): Biopic about the life and career of Johnny Cash. Welcome to Death Row (2001): Suge Knight's record label Death Row Records and the stable of artists he recorded (including Tupac Shakur, Snoop Doggy Dogg, and Dr. Dre) are the subject of this 2001 documentary.
House Music
Named after the Warehouse, a popular gay dance club in Chicago, it was a style of techno dance music. Many house recordings were purely instrumental, with elements of European synth-pop, Latin soul, reggae, rap, and jazz grafted over an insistent dance beat. By the mid-1980s, house music scenes had emerged in New York and London, and in the late 1980s, the genre made its first appearances on the pop charts, under the guise of artists such as M/A/R/R/S and Madonna. The Chicago house scene was pioneered by Frankie Knuckles, a DJ from New York who worked at the Warehouse from 1979-1983. He introduced NY turntable techniques to Chicago, manipulating disco records to emphasize the dance beat even more strongly.
N.W.A. (*****z with Attitude)
Pioneered West Coast gangsta rap with the release of the album Straight Outta Compton. Their recordings expressed the gangsta lifestyle, saturated with images of sex and violence straight out of the prison toast tradition. The nucleus of the group was formed in 1986, when O'Shea "Ice Cube" Jackson (b. 1969), the product of a middle-class home in South Central Los Angeles, met Andre "Dr. Dre" Young (b. 1965), a sometime member of a local funk group called the World Class Wreckin' Cru. They teamed up with Eric "Eazy-E" Wright (1973-95), a former drug dealer, and the three began working together as N.W.A., eventually adding D.J. Yella (Antoine Carraby) and M.C. Ren (Lorenzo Patterson) to the group. Ice Cube and Dr. Dre shared an interest in writing rap songs. Eazy-E used the proceeds of drug dealing to fund a record label, Ruthless Records. When they started work on their 2nd album, Straight Outta Compton, the idea of establishing a distinctive West Coast identity within hip-hop was clearly in their minds. Album released 1989, it's attitude, sound, and sensibility was indebted to earlier hip-hop recordings (Public Enemy), but were in some ways unlike anything heard before, with tracks like "**** the Police" and "Gangsta Gangsta," which were underlain by a soundtrack that mixed the sound of automatic weapon fire and police sirens with samples from funk masters; a bouncy drum machine-generated dance groove called new jack swing; and high-pitched, thin sounding synthesizer lines. Raps were harrowing, egocentric accounts of gang life, hearkening back to the bleakest aspects of the prison toast tradition. The cover of the CD reinforced the aura of danger, one of the main appeals of the group for the young suburban audience that pushed the album to multiplatinum sales. Their breakup 1989 disseminated their influence over a wider territory. In 1990s Ice Cube made AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, a more explicitly political album recorded in NY with Public Enemy and the Bomb Squad; and The Predator 1992. Eazy-E sold over 5 million albums in 1990s on his Ruthless Records label. M.C. Ren Kizz My Blazk Azz 1992. Most influential and economically successful member was Dr. Dre.
Thrash
Style that blended the fast tempos and rebellious attitude of hardcore with the technical virtuosity of heavy metal guitar playing. Continued aspects of hardcore's style and attitude. Harder, faster version of the commercially successful speed metal style. Didn't produce any superstars, Suicidal Tendencies the most famous, but it did exert an influence on alternative rock bands of the 1990s. Never developed a mass audience, it's fans remained devoted, keeping the style alive as an underground club-based phenomenon through the 1990s.
U.N.I.T.Y.
Written by Queen Latifah and Kier "Kay Gee" Gist; released 1994. Opens with a sample of jazz tenor saxophone with guitar, string bass, and drum set accompaniment and then moves into a slow, sultry, reggae-influenced groove that is anchored by a window-rattling bass riff and digitized snare drum backbeat. The reggae association is continued in the opening chorus, which Latifah performs in a languorous Jamaican patois, interrupted by more aggressive responses in an American dialect
Def Jam
Co-founded in 1984 by the hip-hop promoter Russell Simmons and the musician-producer Rick Rubin. During the 1980s, Def Jam cross-promoted a new generation of artists, expanding and diversifying the national audience for hip-hop, and in 1986 became the first rap-oriented independent label to sign a distribution deal with one of the "Big Five" record companies, Columbia Records. 1986, released the first 2 multiplatinum rap albums, Raising Hell by Run-D.M.C. and Licensed to Ill by the Beastie Boys.
Taylor Swift (b. 1989)
"Teen idol" and singer-songwriter pop phenomenon who self-identified as a country artist. Still a teen when her 2nd album, Fearless (2008), became the longest-running number 1 album of the 2000s up to that time. The music nor the lyrics reflect standard country traditions. The songs center around teen romance and heartbreak. Obvious country markers are inaudible in the music, which has a mainstream pop sheen, and she does not project a particularly noticeably southern accent. Born in Reading, Pennsylvania. Her 1st album from 2006 helps clarify her status as a country artist. Now a central figure in the overall pop landscape.
Ravi Shankar
Played the sitar and worked with George Harrison of The Beatles.
Jello Biafra (Eric Boucher, b. 1959 in Boulder, Colorado)
The lead singer of Dead Kennedys. Wrote the lyrics to "Holiday in Cambodia" which was filled with merciless sarcasm.
What are the meanings of "alternative" as it pertains to popular music styles?
"Alternative" denotes the choices available to consumers via record stores, radio, cable television, and the Internet. (1) This sense of the term is bound up with the need of the music business to identify and exploit new trends, styles, and audiences. The range of alternative genres a) Alternative dance (Pop Will Eat Itself, Everything but the Girl) b) Adult alternative pop/rock (Alanis Morissette, Dave Matthews Band) c) Alternative country (k.d. lang, Dwight Yoakam, Lyle Lovett) d) Alternative country rock (Uncle Tupelo, the Jayhawks) e) Alternative contemporary Christian music (Sixpence None the Richer, Jars of Clay), alternative metal (Rage against the Machine, Korn, Limp Bizkit) f) Alternative rap (De La Soul, Arrested Development, Lauryn Hill) Alternative pop/rock (R.E.M., Sonic Youth, Living Colour, Soundgarden, Nirvana,NineInchNails,RedHotChiliPeppers,Phish)B.Difficulttoestablishaone-size
Selena (1971-1995)
"The Queen of Tejano (Texas-Mexican) music." Born Selena Quintanilla-Perez in Lake Jackson, Texas. Father was a working musician and began performing when 10 backed by his band, Los Dinos. After financial challenges, relocated to Corpus Christi, Texas, where they made a living performing at fairs, weddings, and quinceanera. 1983 13 Selena recorded her 1st album for Freddie Records, a local independent label. Her reputation as a singer continued to spread in the region. 1989 she signed with the Latin division of EMI Records. Mid-1990s released a series of popular albums drawing on the traditional accordion band style of Texas-Mexican music, romantic ranchera song tradition of Mexico, and a pan-Latin dance music style called cumbia. 1994 played role in the film Don Juan DeMarco and won Grammy with Amor Prohibido [Forbdden Love]. 1995 she was recording her 1st English-language album and preparing for her breakthrough into the pop charts when her life took a tragic turn. Her family alerted her that Yolanda Saldivar, president of her Texas fan club, was embezzling money from the club, she fired her. She agreed to meet Yolanda at a Corpus Christi motel to retrieve paperwork for tax purposes. Became an argument, Yolanda pulled out a gun, Selena tried to run, shot in the back ran to the lobby, transported to a local hospital and died from a loss of blood.
Ani DiFranco (b. 1970 in Buffalo, New York)
A folk singer dressed in punk rock clothing, DiFranco has spent her career resisting the lure of the corporate music business, releasing an album and playing upward of two hundred live dates every year, and building up a successful independent record label (Righteous Babe Records) and a substantial grassroots following. Folk singer-songwriter. She began performing publicly at age 9, performing covers of Beatles songs. At 19 she had written over 100 original songs and relocated to NYC to pursue a musical career. 1989 recorded a demo album and pressed 500 copies of an eponymous cassette to sell at shows. The tape - a spare collection of intensely personal songs about failed relationships and gender inequality, accompanied with acoustic guitar - quickly sold out, and in 1990 she founded Righteous Babe Records to distribute her recordings more effectively. By mid-1990s, the mainstream media took notice of her homespun, low-tech music. Her 1995 album Not a Pretty Girl garnered notice from CNN and the New York Times, although it didn't appear in the Billboard charts. 1996 Dilate, an eclectic work recounting a love affair with a man, which debuted in the Top 100. The live album Living in Clip (1997) became her 1st gold album. 1998 released studio effort Little Plastic Castle. All these albums were released on her label, despite many offers from major record companies. In "Not a Pretty Girl" she blends the progressive outlook of urban folk music with the rebellious energy of alternative rock. 2006 she received the Woman of Courage Award from the National Organization for Women (NOW).
Mash-Up
A recording that digitally combines 2 or more preexisting tracks, usually by overlaying the vocal track of one song over the music track of another. Can be seen by Gloria Estefan's "Dr.Pressure," which was a collaboration with Scottish musician Mylo that combined his techno/electronica hit "Drop the Pressure" (2005) and Miami Sound Machine's 1984 single "Dr. Beat."
Gloria Estefan (b. 1957)
Born in Havana, Gloria Maria Fajardo Garcia fled Cuba with her family when Fidel Castro and the Communists rose to power in the late 1950s. 1975 she auditioned for the Miami Latin Boys, a local wedding band headed by keyboardist Emilio Estefan. Group changed name to Miami Sound Machine, and 4 years later she married Estefan. Their fusion of pop, disco, and salsa earned a devoted local following, and their breakthrough 1985 album Primitive Love which included the energetic salsa-meets-disco party song "Conga," 1st record to crack Billboard's pop, dance, black, and Latin charts simultaneously. Next album Let It Loose (1988). She took top billing, and her 1989 album Cuts Both Ways yielded her 2nd number 1 hit "Don't Wanna Lose You." In accident then resurfaced 1991 with the album Into the Light, with "Coming Out of the Dark." Throughout 1990s she stayed in the public eye, recording her 1st Spanish-language album, the international hit Mi Tierra (My Homeland) (1993). Capitalized on the late-1990s revival of popular interest in disco music with the dance album Gloria! (1998), which included the single "Oye!" Still continues her formula of alternating among dance-oriented pop, English-language love songs, and Spanish-language tracks aimed at an international Latin American audience. "Dr. Pressure" big in England. 2007 release 90 Millas, an album of original Spanish-language songs inspired by her native Cuba that featured a roster of veteran Latin musicians.
Describe the similarities and differences between East Coast and West Coast rap styles. Include significant artists.
Both categories feature their environments in the music, especially life in the major cities of New York (East Coast) vs. Los Angeles (West Coast). West Coast Rap features a gang life or anti-police sentiment environments, features funk samples and laid back and cool music. Artist examples include Tupac, Snoop Dogg, and Dr. Dre East Coast Rap features a life of poverty and crime environments, jazz samples and hard hitting or aggressive music featuring deejays and MCs. Artist examples include Nas, Mobb Deep, Gang Starr, and Biggie
Snoop Doggy Dogg (Calvin Broadus, b. 1972)
Gangsta rapper born in Long Beach, CA, he was a protégé of Andre "Dr. Dre" Young and collaborated on Dr. Dre's 1992 album The Chronic. Snoop's soft drawl and laid-back-but-lethal gangster persona were featured on Doggystyle, which debuted at the top of the album charts in 1993. The million-selling single "What's My Name?" - a so-called "clean" remix of the opening track on the Doggystyle album - gives a sense of his prowess as a rapper and Dr. Dre's distinctive G-funk production style.
Public Enemy
Founded in 1982, Public Enemy was organized around a core set of members who met as college students, drawn together by their interest in hip-hop culture and political activism. The group included the standard hip-hop configuration of two MCs—Chuck D (a.k.a. Carlton Ridenhour, b. 1960) and Flavor Flav (William Drayton, b. 1959)—plus a DJ—Terminator X (Norman Lee Rogers, b. 1966). It was augmented by a "Minister of Information" (Professor Griff, a.k.a. Richard Griffin) and by the Security of the First World (S1W), a cohort of dancers who dressed in paramilitary uniforms, carried Uzi submachine guns, and performed martial arts-inspired choreography. NY-based group that pushed for the tradition of socially engaged rap that chronicled the declining fortunes of the urban black communities. Their second album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988) was a breakthrough event for rap music. It fused the trenchant social and political analyses of Chuck D with the streetwise interjections of his sidekick Flavor Flav. Their complex verbal interplay was situation within a dense, mutlilayered sonic web created by the group's production team, the Bomb Squad. Tracks like "Countdown to Armageddon," "Don't Believe the Hype," and "Party for Your Right to Fight" turned the technology of digital sampling to new artistic purposes and effectively insisted that rap music continue to engage with the real-life conditions of urban black communities. "Night of the Living Baseheads."
Toby Keith (b. 1961)
From Oklahoma. Came from a working-class background, worked in the oil fields and as a rodeo hand. Didn't fully establish a career as a country music performer until in his 30s. Song "Should've Been a Cowboy." In "Country Comes to Town," he asserts his country roots over music that sounds for all the world like a rock anthem, lacking any obvious country markers. Released his own aggressive, flag-waving response to 9/11 with "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)" (2002). Made a stab at rapping on the clever "I Wanna Talk About Me," an attempt successful with listeners.
George Strait (b. 1952)
From Texas. Came from a working-class background, was a rancher, didn't fully establish career as a country music performer until in his 30s. Came into prominence in the mid-1980s, still one of the top country artists. Song "Heartland" (1993). Has until recently relied on professional songwriters for his material. His recordings of songs like "All My Ex's Live in Texas" (1987) and "Ace in the Hole" (1989) have become classics.
Name a few of the important styles of world music that emerged in the1980s
Grunge- An alternative rock movement of the late 1980s and early 1990s centering in Seattle, Washington, featuring a do-it-yourself, anti- mainstream rock attitude, intense vocals, and loud, unremitting accompaniments. The band Nirvana and particularly its leader singer/songwriter Kurt Cobain exemplified this movement. Hardcore-An extreme variation of punk that was pioneered during the early 1980s by bands in San Francisco and Los Angeles. These groups took the frenzied energy of the Ramones and the Sex Pistols and pushed it to the limit, playing simple riff-based songs at impossibly fast tempos and screaming nihilistic lyrics over a chaotic wall of guitar chords. Techno-Up-tempo repetitive, electronic dance music that developed in various urban club scenes during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Thrash- A variant of hardcore music which blended the fast temps andrebellios attitude of hardcore with the technical virtuosity of heavy metalguitar playing.It was a harder, faster version of the comercially successful speedmetal style.
Johnny Cash (1932-2003)
Had the largest resurgence with his series of "American Recordings" beginning in 1994. He began his career in the mid-1950s as one of the rockabilly stars of Sun Records, was acclaimed as a country artist throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and had served as the host and star of the television series The Johnny Cash Show. By the 1980s, he seemed well past his primer commercially, and well-known rap producer Rick Rubin's signing of Cash to his American Recordings label in the early 1990s appeared initially to be a rather eccentric move on the part of both. His 5 "American Recordings" proceeded to garner critical raves and popular attention. His inclusion on these albums of contemporary rock material along with the more expected country-oriented and traditional folk repertoire attached the attention and approval of a new generation and brought hit renewed fame and respect. 2 years after his death, the release if the extremely popular biopic Walk the Line brought the story of his life and the sound of his music to many additional millions of people and cemented his now-unquestionable status as an icon of American music.
k.d. lang (b. 1961 in Alberta, Canada)
Has always occupied a marginal position in the conservative world of country music. She began her career in 1982 as a Patsy Cline imitator, going so far as to christen her band the Reclines. lang never sat quite right with the Nashville establishment, who found her campy outfits (rhinestone suits and cat-eye glasses) and somewhat androgynous image off-putting. Raised in an isolated rural town on the high plains of Canada, she listened to classical and rock music as a young girl, discovering country music somewhat later when she played a Patsy Cline-type character in a college play. Early 1980s she released 2 albums on the Edmonton-based independent label Bumstead Records, but only in 1987, when Sire Records released her Angel with a Lariat, that she came to the attention of a broader audience. Her subsequent albums - 1988's Shadowland and 1989's Absolute Torch and Twang - moved toward a more traditional honky-tonk sound. A scandal over her appearance in a commercial for the "Meat Stinks" campaign of PETA led stations in the cattle-producing areas of the Midwest to boycott her records and generated an impressive volume of hate mail. 1992 officially announced her homosexuality, which led to her being christened an "icon of lesbian chic." 1990s moved toward adult contemporary pop music, becoming an "alternative" star in that category as well. Ingenue (1992) had a single, "Constant Craving" reached the Top 40. "Nowhere to Stand."
Lauryn Hill (b. 1975)
Hip-hop artist whose work is a self-conscious alternative to the violence and sexism in the work of rap stars such as Dr. Dre, the Notorious B.I.G., and 2Pac Shakur. Her commitment to female empowerment builds on the ground-breaking example of Queen Latifah, but Hill raps and sings in her own distinctive voice. Born in South Orange, New Jersey. She started her recording career with the Fugees, a New Jersey-based hip-hop trio that scored a number one hit in 1996 with their 2nd album, The Score. Hir debut solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998), extended the Fugees' successful blend of rap, reggae, and R&B. Spawned the number 1 hit "Doo Wop (That Thing)."
Vanilla Ice (Robert Van Winkle, b. 1968)
Ice's first album, To the Extreme (1990), monopolized the Number One position for sixteen weeks in early 1991, selling seven (11) million copies. When it was discovered that Van Winkle, raised in reasonably comfortable circumstances in a middle-class neighborhood, had essentially invented a gangster persona for himself - form of misrepresentation known as "perpetrating" - many fans turned their backs on him. Hip-hop's icon of "wackness" (weakness). White rapper from Florida. Widely regarded as being merely the latest in a long line of untalented white artists seeking to make a living off the fruits of black creativity.
Queen Latifah (b. 1970)
Not the 1st nationally popular female hip-hop artist (belongs to Salt-N-Pepa with Very Necessary). She is the most important woman in the history of hip-hop, in terms of both her commercial success and her effectiveness in establishing a feminist beachhead on the male-dominated field of rap music. She provided an alternative to the misogynist braggadocio of gangsta rappers, while her strong R&B-influenced voice and assertive persona evoked earlier R&B and soul artists. Born in inner-city Newark, New Jersey, Dana Elaine Owens received the nickname (Arabic for "gentle" or "pleasant") from a cousin when 8. Began rapping in high school, in college participated in Arika Bambaataa's Native Tongues collective, a group dedicated to the political consciousness of hip-hop. Debut album All Hail the Queen (1989) and spawned hit single "Ladies First" (1990), a direct challenge to the putative supremacy of male rappers. The album had R&B, reggae, and house music influences. 2nd album, Nature of a Sista 1991, not do well go on a hiatus and sign with Motown Records 1992 released Black Reign with her biggest hit single "U.N.I.T.Y." Appeared in several movies Chicago, Hairspray, and Life Support. Received several awards and released album The Dana Owens Album.
Ralph Stanley (B. 1927 in Virginia)
One of the artists featured on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) soundtrack. Was a bluegrass veteran. He and his brother Carter (1925-1966) performed as the Stanley Brothers beginning in 1946 and produced a body of outstanding bluegrass recordings. After his brother's death, his own career as the leader of the Clinch Mountain Boys, another traditional-based ensemble. Can hold his own simply as a solo vocalist, and his unaccompanied performance of the eerie tradition lament "O Death" is remarkably powerful.
Rave
One of the main venues for techno. Semipublic event modeled partly on the be-ins of the 1960s counterculture. A controversial aspect of raves - which started in England in the late 1980s and spread, in a more limited fashion, to the US - is the prevalent use by participants of a psychoactive drug called Ecstasy (MDMA), which creates visceral sensations of warmth and euphoria
"Doo Wop (That Thing)" (1998)
Performer: Lauryn HillWriter:Genre: alternative hip hop/rap w/ RNB/soulDate: 1998Form: 4 part vocal harmony, horn sectionLyrics: aspects of RNB, tells women to be more selective in sexual relationships + stop being hypocritical, strips male gangsters of tough-guy appearances (exposes them as mother-dependent, woman-beating, immature)Other: drum machine, moral parable, playful humor, lighthearted
"Night of the Living Baseheads" (1988)
Performer: Public EnemyWriter: C.D. Ridenhour + W.J. Drayton (Shocklee, Sadler, Chuck D) Genre: RNB, hip hop, rap Date: 1988 (recorded 87) Form:Lyrics: problems of cocaine, bass/base homonym, addicts like zombies, satirical Other: sampling Khalid Abdul Muhammad speech, other sampling of soul, gospel, glam rock, drums, air raid sirens, pioneering example of digital sound technology, dope jam
M.C. Hammer (Stanley Kirk Burrell, b. 1962)
Rapper from Oakland, California; hit the charts in 1990 with Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em, which held the Number One position for twenty-one weeks and sold over ten million copies, becoming the bestselling rap album of all time. His celebrity was boosted by music videos that highlighted his impressive abilities as a dancer, his appearances in corporate soft drink advertisements, and even a short-lived kid's cartoon show Hammerman. He was attacked by many in the hip-hop community for lack of skill as a rapper and for pandering to a mass audience. His success pushed rap fully into the mainstream, continuing a trend started in mid-1980s. His pop-friendly rap style opened the door for Vanilla Ice.
What is the "Seattle Sound"?
Seattle, where Nirvana honed their sound and built a local fan base, was already home to a a thriving alternative rock scene by the late 1980s. (The Pacific Northwest, while somewhat removed from the main centers of the recording industry, had twenty-five years earlier played a role in the development of garage band rock, an important predecessor of punk rock.) The group often singled out as an originator of the"Seattle Sound" was Green River (formed in 1983), whose 1988 album Rehab Doll, released on Sub Pop, helped to popularize grunge rock, blending heavy metal guitar textures with hardcore punk
Kurt Cobain (1967-94)
Singer and guitarist who founded the alternative rock band Nirvana. His recordings broke through to the commercial mainstream and popularized grunge rock. He shot himself in Seattle in 1994. Center of the Nirvana trio. From Hoquiam, Washington. Nirvana released 2 multiplatinum albums that moved alternative Rock's blend of hardcore's punk and heavy metal out of the back corners of specialty record stores and into the commercial mainstream. Met Novoselic 1985 in Aberdeen, an economically depressed logging town. His parents divorced when 8, troubling him deeply and leaving him shy and introspective. They formed Nirvana 1987 after being inspired by underground rock and hardcore and Beatles, and frustrated with the limitations of small-town working-class life. Signed by independent label Sub Pop Records 1988. Debut album Bleach (1989). 1991 sign with major labels DGC, release Nevermind 1991, which in 1991 reached number 1, displacing Michael Jackson's Dangerous. Success destroyed Nirvana. 1992 married Courtney Love, leader of an all-female alternative rock group called Hole. Rumors concerning the couple's use of heroin began to circulate, and an article in Vanity Fair charged Love with using the narcotic while pregnant, leading to a public struggle with LA child services bureau over custody of the baby. In the midst of adverse publicity, released In Utero, a return to the raw sounds of their early Sub Pop recordings. 1994 overdosed on champagne and tranquilizers, remaining in a coma for 20 hours. Believed to be an accident, but suicide note discovered. 4/8/1994 his body was discovered in his home, he had died 3 days earlier of a self-inflicted shotgun wound. Viewed as a matter of alternative music, and as a self-indulgent rock star.
Alison Krauss (b.1971 in Illinois)
Sings tradition material on the O Brother, Where Art Thou (2000) soundtrack, but whose career before she reached the age of 30 had already ranged much further from strict traditionalism than Ralph Stanley ever desired to go. A fiddling champion and bluegrass fan by the time she was 12, she quickly went on to establish her credentials as a bandleader, vocalist, and producer, as well as a valuable collaborator on numerous recordings by other artists. Collaborated with Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin to make Raising Sand in 2007. Her fine albums with her band Union Station demonstrate both her close connections to traditional bluegrass and her interest in creating a distinctive and original sound that grows out of those connections.
Techno
Style of electronic dance music that originated in the Detroit area during the 1980s. This genre encompasses literally dozens of subcategories, including jungle, drum 'n' bass, funky breaks, tribal, 'ardcore, gabba, happy hardcore, trance, trip-hop, acid jazz, electro-techno, intelligent techno, ambient, and ever-more subtly defined sub-categories each patronized by a loyal cadre of fans. Roots are often traced to the Detroit area, home of Motown, the Stooges, and George Clinton. During the early 1980s a group of young, middle-class African American men living in the predominantly white suburban town of Belleville developed a form of electronic dance music that Derrick May, a pioneer of the genre, likened to the sound that would be produced if George Clinton and Kraftwerk were stuck in an elevator with a just a sequencer. Detroit techno was grounded in a different cultural scene than that which had spawned the Motown sound; young men like May and Juan Atkins were obsessed with symbols of class mobility, Italian fashions, and European disco recordings, and they developed a form of electronic dance music that featured futuristic imagery; samples from European records; and a dry, minimalist sound that was underlain by a subliminal funk pulse.
Beastie Boys
The first commercially successful white act in hip-hop. Their early recordings represent a fusion of the youth-oriented rebelliousness of hardcore punk rock—the style they began playing in 1981—with the sensibility and techniques of hip-hop. The album Licensed to Ill, released in 1986 by Def Jam,was one of the 1st 2 multiplatinum rap albums. Not from the bronx. This rap trio's recordings were produced by Rick Rubin and released on Def Jam Records, and benefited greatly from the distribution deal signed by Russell Simmons with industry giant Columbia Records. Received criticism for ripping off a black style. 1985 signed by Def Jam Records, appeared in Krush Groove (film about hip-hop culture) and toured as an opening act. Most popular track on the album, the Top 10 frat-boy anthem "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)" established their appeal for the most rapidly expanding segment of the rap audience, young white males. Leave Def Jam Records 1988 and continued to experiment with combos of rap, heavy metal, punk, and psychedelic rock, and scored critical and commercial successes in the 1990s, culminating with the release of their 1998 album Hello Nasty. They managed to gain acceptance as legit hip-hop artists despite being white, largely by the virtue of their ability to forge a distinctive style within the parameters of an African American tradition.
Alternative Music
The term "alternative"—like the broadly equivalent terms "underground" and "independent"—is used across a wide range of popular genres, including rock, rap, adult contemporary, dance, folk, and country music. It is used to describe music that challenges the status quo; anticommercial, and antimainstream, it is thought by its supporters to be local as opposed to corporate, homemade as opposed to mass-produced, and genuine as opposed to artificial. The music industry's use of "alternative" is bound up with the need of the music business to identify and exploit new trends, styles, and audiences. Emerged as a more-or-less underground movement in the early 1980s, combined the rebellious spirit and youth appeal of rock 'n' roll with the nihilism of punk rock, and during the 1990s led to the confounding spectacle f vociferously anticommercial artists playing at corporate-sponsored rock festivals and releasing multiplatinum albums for major record companies.
Run-D.M.C.
Trio consisting of the MCs Run (Joseph Simmons, b. 1964) and D.M.C. (Darryl McDaniels, b. 1964), and the DJ Jam Master Jay (Jason Mizell, b. 1965). Perhaps the most influential act in the history of rap music, they established a hard-edged, rock-tinged style that shaped the sound and sensibility of later rap music. Their raps were literate and rhythmically skilled, with Run and D.M.C. weaving their phrases together and sometimes even completing the last few words of each other's lines. Released one of the 1st 2 multiplatinum rap albums with Raising Hell released in 1986. Did not come from the Bronx. Released on new independent label called Def Jam. They were college-educated black men, raised in a middle-class neighborhood in the boroughs of queen. Worked with Russell Simmons (Run's older brother) and producer Rick Rubin. The "beats" produced by Rubin and Jam Master Jay were stark and powerful, mixing digitized loops of hard rock drumming with searing guitar sounds from heavy metal. Run-D.M.C. was the 1st rap group to headline a national tour and the first to appear on MTV. They popularized rap among the young, predominantly white audience for rock music; gave the genre a more rebellious image; and introduced a unique sartorial style to millions of young Americans. The now familiar connection between rap music and athletic wear was established in 1986 when the Adidas corporation and Run-D.M.C. signed a $1.5 million promotional deal. "Walk This Way."
"Walk this way," Run-DMC
Walk This Way," a collaboration between Run DMC and the popular hard rock group Aerosmith, was a cover version of a song written and previously recorded by Aerosmith
