American Popular music exam 3

VanHalen

"American Popular Music" isn't as "American" as folks like to believe. Exported and reimported, both musicians and music undergo substantial shifts through international input. Many now famous American musicians are immigrants from other countries.

Ken Kesey

Acid rock/psychedelic rock;psychotropic drugs (LSD,MDA, etal): In the 1950s the CIA thought the drug might be applicable to mind control and chemical warfare. The agency's MKULTRA research program propagated the drug among young servicemen and students.The youth culture in the1960s led to a political firestorm that resulted in its prohibition.

Led Zeppelin

After 'The Beatles' and everyone knowing the name of every member of that band, a general awareness by the public of the members of the bands, as opposed to one star musician, became more common.

Grace Slick

American singer, songwriter, artist, and former model, best known as one of the lead singers of the rock groups The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship, as well as for her work as a solo artist from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s.

Freebird

An example of memorializing rock stars through rock music.

Cello group covering rock bands like Metallica from Finland

Apocalyptica

Jefferson Airplane

Bands didn't have to be on the east coast to "make it". Lewis Carroll & the Alice in Wonderland/Alice Through the Looking Glass words conjunct with acid rock.

Linda Ronstadt

Country blues rock-singer, originally backed by the Eagles. Earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, and numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums. She has also earned nominations for a Tony Award and a Golden Globe award.

Most successful album by Pink Floyd.

Dark Side of the Moon

"Nonstrict serial chromaticism"

Era of serial music relaxed into something less strict

The Yardbirds

Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck

Allen Ginsberg

Founded literary movement (Beatniks)

Thought of as "in memorion" to Duane Allman [Allman Bros]

Freebird

Dj Kool Herk

From Jamaica, brought style of parks to New York in mid-1970's. Hip Hop came from Jamaica, like reggae and ska. Origins of American popular music are oftentimes not American, reminding us that they originally weren't either. America is a melting pot of peoples and cultures.

Blood, Seat, & Tears, Chicago Transit Authority, Tower of Power

Jazz Rock

Combination of Jazz Horn selection & rock band

Jazz rock

First San Francisco band to be signed by a major record label

Jefferson Ariplane

Leader of the Doors

Jim Morrison

died at age 27 in Paris, probably of and accidental heroin overdose.

Jim Morrison

sometimes referred to as "Lizard King" and "King of Orgasmic Rock".

Jim Morrison

Jimmy Hendrix Experience

Jimi, bass, drums- 3 players only line up for the band: Allman Brothers line up for the band: 2 lead guitars, 2 dummers.

Was backup to Little Richard and Curtis Knight and the Squires before he ever appeared as a star on his own merits

Jimmy Hendrix

Sang about the plight of the American farmer.

John Cougar Mellencamp

Author wrote "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest"

Ken Kesey

Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer

Kiss

Started trending toward more melodic, more musically interesting (beyond distortion, volume).

Kiss

Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, John Boham

Led Zeppelin

Prophet of fusion.

Miles Davis

Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck & The Yardbirds

Musicians' journeys are bigger and richer the the media would suggest; musicians don't just appear. Hendrix was backup to Little Richard and Curtis Knight and the Squires before he ever appeared as a star on his own merits. All of these hot guitarists passed through a number of portals before 'finding themselves' and emerging.

Kiss

New genres soften to appeal to the marketplace, business decisions drive the musical content, make it more accessible to the average listener (in contrast to the original intention of heavy metal)

Syd Barrett

Original member of Pink Floyd, suffered from schizophrenia. Most "love songs" by Pink Floyd actually written about him. Inspiration for "Shine on you Crazy Diamond".

Dark Side of the Moon

Pink Floyd's concept album opens a whole new world around the programme music in rock. Most or the love songs were actually written for Syd Barrett who was an original member of the band, suffered from schizophrenia. A deeper compassionate and brotherly love values are introduced

Beatniks

Precursor to the hippies, these people thrived on delivering a deeper more relevant philosophy through poetry, dealing with human quandary and the mystery of life itself. This impacted the content of American popular music song lyrics.

John Cougar Mellencamp

Protest songs/using music and iconic status to bring attention to political or social issue in the culture.

"Born to be Wild"

Pushed into the mainstream via film. Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson Starred as young rebels seeking adventure via a counterculture cross-continent chopper journey. The song used "heavy metal" as a lyric for the first time.

"Sprechtsimme"

Rap's predicesor, tracing melodic contour using a sung-speech approach.

Jazz Rock

Represented merging of all genres into new genres and subgenres. It allowed, for example, jazz musicians to play with rock musicians. Bands like Blood, Seat, & Tears, Chicago Transit Authority, Tower of Power are all good examples.

Steppenwolf

Revealed the power of the youth of the day reading strong writers, this band's song "Born to be wild" was pushed into the mainstream via anther venue: film.

Apocalyptica

Rock players seek classical genres, classical players seek rock and other genres; musicians are musicians, dodging categorization. There is an impact of specific techniques entering genres where those techniques haven't been used prior.

Pink Floyd

Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Syd Barrett, Richard Wright, Nick Mason

Jim Morrison

Seen as one of the pop culture's most rebellious and oft-displayed icons, he represented the generation gap and the youth counterculture. Also well known for improvising spoken word poetry passages while the band played live, moved toward personal journey & philosophy driving the lyrics.

Tom Donahue

Since the emergence of the concept album, the entire recording required airplay. This DJ Played entire albums without interruption.

Ted Prezybyla (Ted P.)

Somehow traveled abroad, purchasing scores from the Eastern Bloc. Sold scores at universities to U.S. students who covered them.

Goldy McJohn, Jerry Edmonton, John Kay, Larry Byrom, George Biondo

Steppenwolf

Took name from A Hermann Hesse novel

Steppenwolf

All Along the Watch Tower

The songwriter and singer don't have to be the same person, again. Bob Dylan's songs survive the test of time with a seemingly unending relevance. Jimi Hendrix's one big hit song. Hendrix also breaks the 'recipe' for a rock band lineup and allows it to be whatever it wants to be. Musicians can from a band with people they want to make music with instead of trying to fill out a formalized instrumentation. Allman Brothers, for example, use two drummers and two lead guitar players.

Booker T & the MG's

This STAX records backup band had their own separate career as a band beyond their role as studio musicians playing for numerous acts recording at STAX. This is also a reminder that recordings often use studio musicians to this day, musicians that perhaps never meet in person or ever play music together as a band in a live setting.

Thiller

This album marks the beginning of a market driven industry in music. Musicians are no longer at 'the wheel', replaced by MBA's, marketeers, and copyright lawyers. After this album, no record company wants to sell less than 30 million copies. It's like Hollywoodbox office consciousness: sales= success and the content loses its importance. The pimping of music is big business. Alternative forms arise thanks to technology and challenge the front-runners with substantive content and rougher, more real sound. This album set a "new bar" and sold 65 million copies worldwide.

Rap

Underpins Henry Van Dykes' quote "Use talents you posses..."

Janis Joplin

White, female soul singer (expressive rough style), lead singer of the psychedelic/acid rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company, and later as a solo artist with her own backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band.

The Haight/Haight-Ashbury

Young people's decisions were not always based on curltural expectations (high school, college, career); they were following their hearts, seeking to understand life and how they wanted to invent theirs. An intersection in San Francisco, abundance of bands.

Miles Davis

an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential and innovative musicians of the 20th century, together with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, and jazz fusion.

VanHalen

guitarist Eddie , vocalist David Lee Roth, drummer Alex, and bassist Michael Anthony