History of Popular Music
Minstrelsy
- the 1840s through the 1880s, the predominant genre in the United States -An important influence on the mainstream of American popular song -Minstrel troupes toured the United States constantly, helping create an embryonic national popular culture. -The minstrel show is the direct ancestor of vaudeville.
Don Azpiazu and His Havana Casino Orchestra (1930)
-"El Manicero (The Peanut Vendor)" -Recording opens with the clave rhythm -Complex ensemble texture with interlocking parts -Solo trumpet and solo voice
Foster's Songs
-"Oh! Susanna" -"Old Folks at Home" -"My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night" -"Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" -"Beautiful Dreamer"
Radio
-1920: The first three commercial radio stations in the U.S. were established (KDKA in Pittsburgh, WWJ in Detroit, and WJZ in Newark). -1926: The first nationwide commercial radio network was established (National Broadcasting Company [NBC]). -1927: There were over 1,000 radio stations in the United States.
Whiteman's Symphonic Jazz
-A mixture of syncopation and careful arrangement, rhythmic pep and gentility -The 1924 debut of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue Featured Whiteman's band -Whiteman widened the market for jazz-based dance music and paved the way for the Swing Era.
The Banjo
-A stringed instrument developed by slave musicians from African prototypes during the early colonial period. -The basic patterns of ragtime music were transferred from the banjo.
James Reese Europe (1880-1919)
-African American musician and bandleader -Born into a middle-class family in Mobile, Alabama -In 1889, moved with his family to Washington, D.C. -Studied violin and music theory from the assistant director to the U.S. Marine Corps Band -Moved to New York City at the age of 22 -Found few opportunities for black musicians -Played ragtime piano in cabarets -Directed the music for several all-black vaudeville revues nIn 1910, founded the Clef Club -A social club, booking agency, and trade union for African American musicians in New York City -In 1913, the Castles attended a society party in New York City where they danced to Europe's Clef Club Orchestra. -Afterward, the Castles made James Reese Europe their musical director. -From 1913 to 1918, Europe composed music for all of the Castles' "new" dance steps and provided musicians for their engagements.
John Philip Sousa (1854-1932)
-America's "March King" -The most popular bandleader of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries -He eventually became the Marine Band's conductor and later formed a successful "commercial" concert band touring the U.S. and Europe, giving over 10,000 concerts. -The band performed a mixture of marches, original works for band, and popular music of the day.
"Freak Dances":Turkey Trot and Tango
-At the beginning of the twentieth century, several changes took place in American social dancing. -Most important was the intensified influence of African American dance. -Dance fads loosely based on black styles included the turkey trot, the bunny hug, the grizzly bear, and the most popular, the fox-trot. -The turkey trot was banned in some places because it was seen as a threat to public morality.
Noble Sissle (1899-1975) and Eubie Blake (1883-1983)
-Began their career with James Reese Europe's orchestra in 1916 -In 1921, Sissle and Blake launched the first successful all-black Broadway musical, Shuffle Along. -This show included jazz-influenced songs such as "I'm Just Wild about Harry." -Portrayed romantic relationships between black characters without resorting to degrading stereotypes
Broadway and Film
-Berlin wrote songs for the Broadway stage and for sound film. -"Blue Skies," performed by Al Jolson in the first talkie, The Jazz Singer -Wrote the entire score for the Marx Brothers' debut movie, The Cocoanuts, in 1929 -The 1942 film Holiday Inn introduced "White Christmas." -The 1946 Broadway musical Annie Get Your Gun -Berlin was the most prolific and consistent of Tin Pan Alley composers. -His songwriting career spanned almost sixty years.
Irving Berlin
-Born Israel, or Isadore, Baline nThe most productive, varied, and creative of the Tin Pan Alley songwriters -His professional songwriting career started before World War I and continued into the 1960s. -It has been said that Berlin often composed from three to seven songs a week. -In 1969, the catalog of Irving Berlin compositions still available in print included 899 songs. -His most famous songs include "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "Blue Skies," "Cheek to Cheek," "There's No Business Like Show Business," "White Christmas," and "God Bless America."
Paul Whiteman (1890-1967) "The King of Jazz"
-Born in Denver, Colorado -Began studying music at the age of seven and joined the Denver Symphony Orchestra as a violist at seventeen -Initially encountered syncopated dance music in San Francisco before World War I -Soon thereafter, formed a seven-piece dance band, which played around San Francisco until 1916, when he enlisted in the navy -Had incredible commercial success -Widened the market for jazz-based dance music-and paved the way for the Swing Era -Hired brilliant young jazz musicians and arrangers
The Birth of Tin Pan Alley
-By the end of the nineteenth century, the American music publishing business had become centered in New York City. -After 1885, the established publishers were being challenged by smaller companies specializing in the more exciting popular songs performed in dance halls, beer gardens, and theaters. -These new publishing firms—many of them founded by Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe—had offices in a section of lower Manhattan, a dense hive of small rooms with pianos where composers and "song pluggers" produced and promoted popular songs. -This stretch of 28th Street became known as Tin Pan Alley, a term that evoked the clanging sound of many pianos simultaneously playing songs in a variety of keys and tempos.
Musicals
-Conceived as a highly integrated whole -On the rise by the 1940s -The partnership between Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard Rodgers, beginning in 1943 with Oklahoma!, marks the triumph of this conception.
Dance Music in the Jazz Age
-Dance bands during the 1920s and 1930s tended to specialize in one of three styles: -"Hot" --Specialized in syncopated jazz arrangements --Popular at college dances -"Sweet" --Romantic and nostalgic music --Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians -"Latin" --Music to accompany ballroom adaptations of South American and Caribbean dances --Reignited national fascination with Latin American music and ballroom dance steps
Early Jazz Bands
-Dance bands of the period typically included some combination of violin, guitar, mandolin, and string bass, and sometimes a wind instrument (clarinet or cornet). -"Hot" or "ratty" ragtime-based music was being performed in New Orleans by the 1890s, largely as an accompaniment for dancing. -This sort of music was played at dance halls or honky-tonks such as the Pig Ankle and the Funky Butt. -The rowdy contexts for social dancing encouraged the addition of instruments that could project over the noise of a boisterous crowd.
The Golden Age of Tin Pan Alley Song
-During the 1920s and 1930s, certain characteristic musical structures and styles of performance dominated popular song. -Professional tunesmiths wrote some of the most influential and commercially successful songs of the period. -The potential for fame and financial success on a previously unknown scale lured composers and lyricists with diverse skills and backgrounds.
Ragtime Music
-Emerged in the 1880s -Its popularity peaked in the decade after the turn of the century. -Ragtime initially was a piano music but gradually came to identify any syncopated music. -The term "ragtime" was used to describe any music that contained syncopation. -The word derives from the African American term "to rag," meaning to enliven a piece of music by shifting melodic accents onto the offbeats (a technique known as syncopation). -It began as an obscure folk-dance music played up and down the Mississippi valley during last quarter of the nineteenth century. -Ragtime energized popular music in America by adding rhythmic vitality (syncopation) to the music.
Revues
-Featured sequences of diverse skits, songs, dances, and performers -Shows that were obvious successors to vaudeville, with titles such as "Follies" and "Scandals," remained popular with audiences of the time.
Hollywood
-Films with synchronized sound—the "talkies"—became an important medium for promoting songs and "star" entertainers. -Los Angeles began to compete with New York City as a center of the national entertainment industry.
Jewish Immigrants
-From Central and Eastern Europe -Played a central role in the music business during the early twentieth century as composers, lyricists, performers, publishers, and promoters
Irving Berlin (1888-1989)
-Grew up poor in the Jewish ghetto of New York City -Began his career as a singing waiter -Achieved his first success writing ragtime-influenced popular songs
"After the Ball"
-Harris paid a well-known singer in a traveling theater production to incorporate "After the Ball" into his performance. -It soon became the most popular part of the play, and audiences requested that it be repeated several times during each performance. -Harris published the song himself and was soon clearing around twenty-five thousand dollars a month. -"After the Ball" was performed by John Philip Sousa's band at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1893). -Tells a tragic story of lost love in the ballad tradition -Waltz time, ¾ meter -The form is strophic (verse-chorus) -Each verse of "After the Ball" is followed by a chorus, a contrasting section consisting of a fixed melody and lyrics. -Three main sections or strophes, each made up of a verse and a chorus.
George Gershwin (1898-1937)
-His songs set new standards in excellence in terms of harmonic complexity and melodic flow. -More classically trained and ambitious than other songwriters -Sought and achieved success in the world of concert music and popular music -Influenced by jazz and blues
Europe's Society Orchestra
-In 1913, Europe's Society Orchestra became the first black group to sign a contract with a record company. -Europe's band was noted for its superior ability to perform syncopated ragtime and tango arrangements.
The Hell Fighters Band
-In 1916, Europe enlisted in the 15th Infantry Regiment of the New York National Guard. -He was soon asked by the commander to form a military band. -His troop was forbidden to fight alongside white soldiers in World War I, so the outfit was transferred to the French Army. -Europe's company was known as the "Hell Fighters." -Played several concerts in Paris -Had a successful concert tour -Made recordings for Pathe, a French company with a studio in New York -In May 1919, Europe was fatally stabbed by one of his musicians.
The Rise of the Phonograph
-Invented in 1877 by Thomas Alva Edison and, at around the same time, by a French inventor named Charles Cros -The energy from sound waves was transferred to a foil or wax cylinder, which could then be used to reproduce the original sounds.
The Original Dixieland Jazz Band
-Made the first recording with the name "jass" in New York -White group from New Orleans -The leader of the group, Nick LaRocca (1889-1961), had started playing "hot music" with other white musicians as a teenager. -Spent two years in Chicago before coming to New York City -Landed a recording contract with Victor Records. -"Livery Stable Blues" and "Dixieland Jass Band One-step" released in 1917 -Within weeks created a national fad for jazz music -Their biggest hit was their 1918 recording of "Tiger Rag," composed by LaRocca.
New Orleans's Diverse Musical Traditions
-Marching bands -Mardi Gras and funerary processions -French and Italian opera -Caribbean and Mexican music—"the Latin tinge" -Tin Pan Alley songs -African American song traditions
Brass Bands
-Military bands made up of brass instruments (e.g., trumpets, cornets, trombones, and tubas) spread rapidly during and after the Civil War. -Drew energy from the interaction of patriotism and popular culture
Tin Pan Alley and Broadway
-Mutually beneficial relationship between Tin Pan Alley Songs and Broadway shows -Close proximity -Fruitful relationship in the 1920s and 1930s -The so-called Golden Age of Tin Pan Alley song
Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton
-New Orleans jazz pianist -Took Joplin's composition and treated it as the basis for extended, rhythmically complex improvisations -Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton's version of "Maple Leaf Rag" can be heard in The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz
James A. Bland (1854-1911)
-One of the best-known and most successful composers of plantation songs The first successful black songwriter -An ex-minstrel show performer from a middle-class background -Wrote some seven hundred songs, including - "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" (published in 1878, for a long time the official state song of Virginia) and -"Oh, Dem Golden Slippers" (published 1879). -Became popular in Europe, where he performed concerts for large fees
Paul Dresser (1857-1906)
-One of the most popular composers of the early Tin Pan Alley period -Wrote a series of sentimental and nostalgic songs, including "The Letter That Never Came" (1885) and "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" (1899; later adopted as the official state song of Indiana)
What Are Tin Pan Alley Songs About?
-Predominately aimed at white, urban middle- and upper-middle-class Americans -Said little in the way of social or political commentary -Were generally escapist -Privacy and romance
Richard Rodgers (1902-79)
-Produced many of the finest songs of the period, in collaboration with lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II -Was the college-educated son of a doctor and a pianist
"Alexander's Ragtime Band"
-Published in 1911 -The song that first brought Berlin mass acclaim -Actually had little to do with ragtime as performed by the great black ragtime pianists of the day -Sold 1.5 million copies almost immediately
March Songs
-Ragtime-influenced songs that were less derogatory in content than coon songs -Owed less to the style developed by Joplin and other black pianists -George M. Cohan (1878-1942), author of "You're a Grand Old Flag" (1907)
"Maple Leaf Rag" (1898)
-Scott Joplin's first successful piece -Named after the Maple Leaf social club in Sedalia, where he often played -The piece was published in 1899 and became a huge hit, spreading Joplin's fame to Europe and beyond. -"Maple Leaf" started a nationwide craze for syncopated music.
Charles K. Harris (1867-1930)
-Self-taught banjo player from Wisconsin -Could not write down music -Dictated his songs to a professional musician -Published "After the Ball" in 1892 -First "mega-hit" pop song -Eventually sold over five million copies in sheet music
Harry von Tilzer (1872-1946)
-Sometimes referred to as the "Daddy of Popular Song" -Successful turn-of-the-century songwriter -His big hits included "A Bird in a Gilded Cage" (1900) and "I Want a Girl (Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad)" (1911). -Von Tilzer was a calculating composer: one of his hints for aspiring songwriters was to keep the tunes to a limited range so that even a baby could hum them. -The songs of Dresser and von Tilzer represent the commercial peak of the nineteenth-century parlor song.
Tin Pan Alley Song Form
-Song forms inherited from the nineteenth century -The AABA structure of "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" -Verse-and-chorus form of "After the Ball" -Verse-refrain form, with an AABA refrain -Tin Pan Alley song form had two major sections: the verse and the refrain/chorus.
Dance Music in the "Jazz Age"
-The "Jazz Age" -An era in American popular culture sparked by the success of the recordings of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band -A new subculture emerged from the white upper and middle classes -The "jazz babies" or "flappers" -The "jazzbos" or "sheiks" -This movement involved a blend of elements from "high culture" and from popular culture -The jazz craze represented the intensification of African American influence on the musical tastes and buying habits of white Americans.
New Orleans Jazz
-The earliest style of Jazz originated in New Orleans around 1900. -New Orleans contained a unique mix of white, Creole, French, Spanish, and black communities. -This cultural mix helped form a hybrid musical culture unlike that in any other American City. -The term "jazz" carried multiple meanings in New Orleans -Strictly musical references ("speeding up" or "intensifying") nA variety of sexual associations
"King" Joe Oliver and the Creole Jazz Band
-The first representative recordings of New Orleans-style jazz was made by "King" Joe Oliver and his Creole Jazz Band. -More relaxed and flowing rhythmic feeling -Syncopations smoother and less jerky -Improvisation plays a prominent role -ODJB's recordings are rooted in the past—a tradition of semi-improvised ragtime ensemble playing -The Creole Jazz Band's recordings, featuring the brilliant young cornet player Louis Armstrong, point toward the future of jazz.
Ragtime Songs
-The growing market for ragtime songs at the turn of the century suggests a continuation of the white fascination with African American music first evinced in minstrelsy. -Most popular ragtime songs were vigorous march-style songs with a few "irregular" rhythms added for effect.
Scott Joplin (1868-1917)
-The most famous ragtime composer of the era -Best known for his piano rags -Born in Texas -Began to play piano around the town of Texarkana during his teens and received instruction in classical music theory from a German teacher -His first regular job as a pianist was in a cafe in St. Louis. -Developed a "ragging" piano style, improvising around the themes of popular songs and marches in a syncopated style -Between 1895 and 1915, Joplin composed many of the classics of the ragtime repertoire -Helped popularize the style through his piano arrangements, published as sheet music -Joplin's rags were also widely heard on player pianos. -Player pianos were elaborate mechanical devices activated by piano rolls—spools of paper with punched holes that controlled the movement of the piano's keys.
Show Boat (1927)
-The musical Show Boat (1927), with score by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II), was a tremendous success. -Show Boat was, for its time, a musical show of unprecedented seriousness and depth. -There was an attempt in Show Boat to tie the songs more obviously to specific characters and situations.
Technology and the Music Business
-The record industry expanded rapidly after World War I. -The music industry increasingly relied on phonograph records, rather than sheet music, as the main means of promoting songs and artists. -The introduction of radio and the Great Depression caused a precipitous decline in the record industry. Acoustic recording -Early process for recording sound vibrations nElectric recording -Introduced in 1925; sound is converted to an electric signal Radio -Commercial stations introduced in 1920 Sound film -Introduced in 1927 -Became an important means for the dissemination of popular music
George Gershwin (1898-1937)
-The son of an immigrant leatherworker -The songwriter who did the most to bridge the gulf between art music and popular music -Studied European classical music but also spent a great deal of time listening to jazz musicians in New York City
Verse
-The verse usually sets up the dramatic context or emotional tone of a song. -Verses were the most important part of nineteenth-century popular songs. -They were regarded as mere introductions by the 1920s. -Today, the verses of Tin Pan Alley songs are rarely performed.
Racism in the Jazz Age
-The world of dance orchestras remained strictly segregated. -The most successful black dance bands of the 1920s were able to extend their appeal across racial boundaries. -During the late 1920s, white jazz fans began to frequent nightclubs in African American neighborhoods. -At Harlem's famous Cotton Club, the great jazz pianist and composer Duke Ellington developed a style that he called "jungle music," featuring dense textures and dark, growling timbres. -Most economically successful dance bands of the 1920s and 1930s were led and staffed by white musicians.
Vaudeville
-Theatrical form descended from music hall shows and minstrelsy -By the turn of the century, it had become the most important medium for popularizing Tin Pan Alley songs. -Vaudeville shows typically consisted of a series of performances presented one after the other without any overarching narrative theme.
Refrain
-Today, this is what is generally considered the "song." -It is usually made up of four sections of equal length: 1."A"—the main melody, basic pattern of lyrics and a set of chord changes to support them 2.The music of the "A" section is repeated with new lyrics, often with slight variations 3."The bridge"—new material, new melody, and new chord changes 4.A melody and chords are repeated.
"Business Bands"
-Touring bands not connected to government institutions—were an important part of the American music business. -Italian concert bands -A national phenomenon and a powerful shaper of musical taste during the late nineteenth century -Contributed to later developments in popular music and jazz
Phonograph Discs
-Two companies dominated the American market in phonograph discs at the turn of the century: -Columbia Records (formed in 1887) -Victor Talking Machine Company (1901) -1890s: The first nickelodeons—machines that played music hits for a nickel—were set up in public places. -1902: Enrico Caruso recorded a series of Opera arias in London. Victor sold over two million dollars' worth of discs after his death in 1921. -1902: Twelve-inch shellac discs were introduced.
The Jazz Craze
-Until World War I, the major influence on syncopated dance music was ragtime. -The next stage in the African Americanization of ballroom dance was the so-called jazz craze. -Began during World War I and continued through the 1920s
Cole Porter (1891-1964)
-Was born into a wealthy family in Indiana -Studied classical music at Yale, Harvard, and the Schola Cantorum in Paris
Rock 'n' Roll
-When rock 'n' roll took over the pop charts in the later 1950s, the connection between Broadway and mainstream popular song had completely dissolved.
1917-1935
-World War I: "The war to end all wars" -Migration: Country to city, South to North -Unified National popular culture—movies, telephones, phonographs, radio -Prohibition: 18th amendment to Constitution prohibited sale and transport of alcohol -Ku Klux Klan -The Great Depression -Incredible profits in the music business -Organizations were set up to control the flow of profits from mass-reproduced music. -Radio networks broadcast the latest songs and artists coast to coast. -Vaudeville entertainment went into a gradual decline—replaced by Broadway musicals.
Thomas Dartmouth Rice
A white actor born into a poor family in New York's Seventh Ward who demonstrated the potential popularity (and profitability) of minstrelsy with the song "Jim Crow" (1829), which became the first international American song hit.
Dance Music
American popular music has been closely bound up with dance and with the various social functions of dancing. The earliest examples of published dance music in the United States were modeled on styles popular in England.
The Minstrel Show
Featured mainly white performers who artificially blackened their skin and carried out parodies of African American music, dance, dress, and dialect
Stephen Collings Foster (cont'd)
Foster's success was supported by a number of social and technological factors: -Minstrel troupes performed his songs on their tours. -Sheet music -Rapid growth of public music education -Expanded domestic production of cheap pianos -The parlor
The Virginia Minstrels
Led by white banjo virtuoso Dan Emmett (1815-1904), created a lengthy stage performance that featured a standardized group of performers: -Mr. Interlocuter—lead performer who sang and provided patter between acts -Mr. Bones and Mr. Tambo—sat at either end of the line of performers.
The Grand Ball
Originally modeled on the aristocratic occasions of European royalty Provided an important public venue for Americans hoping to demonstrate their refinement and knowledge of high culture
Licensing and Copyright Agencies
Set up to control the flow of profits from the sale and broadcast of popular music ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers) -Founded in 1914 -Forced all business establishments that featured live music to pay fees ("royalties") for the public use of music
What Makes a Song a Standard?
Standards -Songs that remain an essential part of the repertoire of today's jazz musicians and pop singers -Possess a continuing appeal that surpasses nostalgia -Tin Pan Alley composers produced many standards.
Vernon and Irene Castle
The biggest media superstars of the World War I era -Husband-and-wife dance team who did more than anyone to change the course of social dancing in America -Attracted millions of middle-class Americans into ballroom classes -Established an image of mastery, charisma, and romance -Made syncopated dance acceptable to the mainstream -Created a simple way to learn dances such as the fox-trot and the tango --Fox-trot -Created by Vernon and Irene Castle -Danced to W. C. Handy's music --Tango -Developed in the late nineteenth century in Buenos Aires, Argentina -Blended European ballroom dance music, Cuban habanera, Italian light opera, and the ballads of Argentine gauchos (cowboys)
George Washington Dixon
The first white performer to establish a wide reputation as a "blackface" entertainer.
Stephen Collins Foster (1826-64)
The most influential songwriter of American popular song during the nineteenth century
Contradance or Country Dance Tradition
Until the early twentieth century, social dancing among white Americans was dominated by offshoots of the contradance or country dance tradition.