MUS505 - Final Exam

the motown look

- "classy", which meant appealing to white, middle class sensibilities - Motown artists not "street" in look or sound - pursuers a "presentable face of black America" ethic, to show white audiences that African Americans weren't different/scary - motown records had a "charm school" run by beauty-school owner maxine Powell

The Nashville sound

- "countrypolitan" sound (mix of country and urban pop music) - Nashville sound: sophisticated phrasing and articulation, background vocals, strings, rhythm section, honky tonk piano - contrasts with the hillbilly music heard earlier, with smaller groups, rough vocal timbre, acoustic instruments, improvisation, limited production - stars wore suits, tuxedos, evening gowns, stylized "western' outfits - Nashville becomes a "music factory" town, with songwriters, recording studios, producers, publishers, and record labels - "adult" oriented music, songs about personal relationships and pain

bill haley and the comets

- "rock around the clock", first song to be a best-seller - haley, like Paul Whitman, an important popularizer of a previously marginalized style, making black R&B palatable for a white audience - came from the "country" side of things - created a mass white audience for r&b/rock and roll - inspired young musicians to take up the guitar and play the piano in a "rock and roll" kind of way

Hip hop hit #3 - grandmaster flash and the furious five

- "the message" (1982) - early example of social realism in rap - not built on samples, but a newly composed song using keyboards and samples - hip hop contribution: not a party-oriented rap, but about the dark side of life on the streets in the bronx - precursor to socially conscious rap of KRS-one and public enemy, and gangster rap of Tupac and NWA

1980s glam/hair metal

- 1980s offshoot of heavy metal that marks a return to rock and roll as "party music" - less focus on instrumental virtuosity and the dark lyrical themes and imagery of metal - the look: male musicians with big hair, make up, often in "women's" clothing, androgynous but still very heterosexual (having the guts to be glam) - the sound: lyrics about partying, romance, and working class life; simple riffs and pop sing forms - general attempts to appeal to a female audience rather than alienate them the big bands: poison, guns and roses, bon Jovi, motley crue

thrash metal

- 1980s sub-genre of heavy metal that is characterized by its extremely fast tempos, progressive elements, and aggression - emerged in the US - incorporated the sound of British heavy metal with the speed and aggression of hardcore punk - sound elements: low-register fast or complex guitar riffs, virtuosic guitar shredding solos, double-kick drum patterns, gruff vocals with dark intelligent lyrics, Lyrical subjects (war, religion, inequality) - the big 4 American thrash bands: anthrax, megadeath, Metallica, slayer

Jefferson Airplane

- 1st "San Francisco sound" psychedelic band to sign a major record deal, spawning many imitators - formed in 1965 as a folk-rock band that played Dylan songs - embraced improvisation and open form jams - Singer Grace Slick became the most important female musician in the scene - example song "white rabbit"

the Ramones

- 1st punk rock band: formed in 1974 in NYC - high-speed, energetic, loud, short songs - image: 50s rock n' roll, blue jeans, leather jackets, sunglasses - simple sing structure: three chords, very catchy melodies, basic rock beats, 2 minutes long, no guitar solos - toured the UK in 1975 and started the punk revolution there - punk contribution: emphasis on the rock and roll basics (energy over technique, anyone can do it, and everyone should do it)

woodstock (1969)

- 3 day rock concert in upstate N.Y. August 1969 - exemplified the counterculture of the late 1960s - nearly 1/2M gather in a 600 acre field - featured many of the most popular rock artists from the 60s, including janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, the who, and the band - most iconic event of the hippy era, symbol of the peace, free love, and drug movements

Respect (1967): double coding

- Aretha franklin's most important hit "respect" recorded in 1967 - a cover of Otis Redding's original song "respect", which is about a man coming home and asking for respect from his partner for all the work he does - Aretha Franklin transforms the song by reversing the perspective of the lyric, making it into a feminist anthem - franklin's powerful delivery of the word "respect: was heard by black and "woke" audiences as a parallel to Martin Luther king's messages of the time - Franklin has received no royalties from radio play of the song, as they went to Otis Redding's estate

drake

- Aubrey drake graham, Toronto-born popular artist and basketball enthusiast - filled the space opened by Kanye West for a suburban middle class, "sensitive" artist in the rap game - generally dismissed for his rap skills, favours a mumbling, half-rapping, half-singing, heavily auto-tuned style pioneered by Kanye West - stylistic chameleon: works closely with producer Noah "40" Shebib, who is constantly looking for the latest sounds and has a keen ear for a pop hook - the most successful artist in the new streaming-based economy, has learned how to create content that works in that medium: "mixtape/playlist" albums, very long albums, features with other artists

The British Invasion (1964-1966)

- Began with the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show - British groups occupied #1 pop for 52 weeks between 1964 & 65 - Example bands: the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the who, the kinks - each of these bands synthesized African-American blues and rock'n'roll and sold it back to the home culture as popular music

Punk: anarchy in the UK

- British Invasion in reverse: the Ramones inspire young britons to take up guitars and play aggressive music - more intense social frustration with the British class system reflected in music - British youth very disillusioned by high unemployment, inflation, and racial tension - punk associated with white working-class youth subculture

Alan freed (1921-1965)

- Cleveland based DJ who played black r&b on the radio - coined the term rock n' roll as a marketing term, to make black music more appealing to white station managers - rock and roll frequent words in r&b, refer to dancing and sex - freed promoted African american musicians and their music despite resistance from society as a whole to integration - charged with accepting "payola" by the FBI, fired from the station and fined - inspired many other DJs, who adopted the term rock n' roll to refer to any music pitched to the emerging teen market

four elements of hip hop

- DJ-ing - Rap - Graffiti art - Break dancing

motown records

- Detroit-based record label, founded in 1960 by berry Gordy - largest black-owned corporation in the US at the time - virtually all African american staff - music was aimed at a crossover audience, but audience was 70% middle class white - marketed itself as "the sound of young America", appealed to mainstream youth - purposely avoided political content in the lyrics - achieved widespread international success and contributed to the integration of popular music - 57 #1 pop records - motown artists: smokey Robinson, the supremes, the temptations, gladys knight & the pip, Marvin Gaye, Stevie wonder, isley brothers, the Jackson 5, etc.

new business models - 2007

- English art-rock band Radiohead release their album in rainbows as pay-what-you-want digital download from their website, bypassing their record company

The clash

- English punk rock band, part of the first wave of british punk - "skilled" rock musicians: they all could play their instruments in conventional ways - incorporated styles reggae, ska, rockabilly, and dance music into their sound - longest surviving band of the UK punk rock era, known for many years by their fans as "the only band that matters" - punk contribution: expressed an explicit left wing, socialist political agenda in their lyrics and lent their music to political causes in which they believed

Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970)

- Guitarist, singer, songwriter, innovator - formed the first power trio: The Jimi Hendrix Experience. - Played behind his back, destroyed guitar on stage. Wah-wah and the fuzzbox. - First album, "are you experienced?" The most original, inventive, and influential guitarist of the rock era and the most prominent African American rock musician of the late 1960s. - set template for "wild man" rock guitar player

new business models - 2014

- Irish rock band U2 strike a deal with apple and their album songs of innocence was forcibly downloaded into every iTunes users library

The sample factory

- James brown's tune "funky drummer" contains a drum break that became the foundation of 1980s hip hop (sampled thousands of times, public enemy in "rebel without a pause") - parliament: the most sampled catalog of the 1990s (the foundation of dr.dre's west coast g-funk)

the "belleville three"

- Juan Atkins - Derek may - Kevin saunderson

The Kinks

- London based rock that followed the success of the Beatles in the US - pioneered "riff based" guitar rock with short, simple, distorted electric guitar parts forming the foundation of their hit songs - short songs with driving energy from strong backbeat on the drums - banned from touring in the US at the height of the British Invasion in 1965 for "bad behaviour on stage" - inspiration for later garage and punk bands, where simplicity and energy are the priority rather than melody, experimentation, and instrumental virtuosity

The Who

- London-based rock band, followed the success of the Beatles in the US - Loud, aggressive, literate rock music - influences by high-energy American r&b music - set template for "wild" rock performances: smashing instruments, feedback, distortion, explosive drum moves - godfathers of punk rock

Music media

- MTV 1981 - MuchMusic 1984 - videos worked synergistically with radio and other media to boost record sales and create a new generation of pop superstars - artists developed skills for presenting and negotiating their own images - site of consumption (advertisements, product placement, selling images) - the "video era" made artists bigger celebrities than was possible before - initially exclusively white, Micheal Jackson's "billie jean" was the first video by a black artist to be played in heavy rotation on MTV in 1983 (the other singles from Jackson's thriller album broke the colour barrier on MTV)

1980s changes

- MTV creates a new generation of "attractive" celebrities, making image more important than ever - further genre fragmentation as companies began to think globally, outside of North America and Europe - Rap becomes a huge business, presents an entirely new way of making music and a new "marketing demographic" - digital recording technology turns sound waves into 0s and 1s, allowing for much greater manipulation of sound than analog recording - gives rise to musics that are almost entirely digitally generated, such as rap and house music (the democratization of popular music as it becomes easier to make music at home) - Key new technologies: the Sony walkman, digital synthesizers, drum machines, and samplers

stax records

- Memphis-based record label from 1959-1976 - major player in formation of southern soul style - raw, gritty style propelled by powerful horns and driving rhythm section - "live" sound, rather than the studio orchestrations of motown - feature in-house songwriters, production team, and band (Booker T and the MGs) - commercial rival to motown, but on a small scale - no politics in the lyrics (functioned as party music) - features first racially integrated popular music groups - artists: otis redding, carla thomas, sam and Dave, wilson Pickett

african-american pop music in the 1970s

- Motown has continued success with "bubblegum soul" pop by the Jackson 5 (catchy dance songs about teenage love) - established 1960s artists like Marvin Gaye, Diana ross of the supremes, and Stevie wonder remained successful - "soft soul" developed by Philadelphia International records (PRI)

the brill building

- New York, 1619 Broadway - similar to Tin Pan Alley (songwriters worked in cubicles with pianos, wrote songs for artists, indie labels, and producers) - songwriting teams: Carole king and gerry coffin, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Jeff Barry and Ellie greenwich - songwriters were paid royalties for hits thanks to ASCAP - wrote for vocal groups, "girl groups" especially popular, Phil Spector a main customer for songs

East coast vs. west coast

- Notorious BIG (1971-1997): based in New York, signed to bad boy records which was owned by Sean "puffy" combs, killed in LA in a drive-by shooting by an unknown assailant - Tupac Shakur (1971-1996): based in LA, signed to death row records which was owned by Marion "suge" knight, shot multiple times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas; remains unsolved

The Beatles - yesterday (1965)

- Paul McCartney penned song - mature lyrical themes (nostalgia, sadness, growing old) - tin pan alley influence: AABA form - use of string instruments with guitar, chamber music-aesthetic - one of the Beatles' most covered songs - showed interest in song-craft and experimentation

funk

- R&B style of late 1960s/early 70s featuring stripped-down, repetitive, riff-based grooves - re-africanizatoin of pop music (dance-focused) - musical characteristics: sound over sense, polyrhythmic dance rhythms, foreground role for bass and drums, made for dancing and getting down - often political - became the sample library for hip hop

The 1960s defining moments

- The Viet Nam War (America lost its innocence, many protest songs created) - Rural-urban divide (clear separation between music)

Rock Opera

- The who pioneer the idea of long form, narrative rock music with the album and movie Tommy (1969) - Based on the story of a disabled boy who discovers he is very good at pinball - considered to be based on song-writer Pete Townsend's childhood - hit song pinball wizard

riot grrrl

- a feminist movement in the early 1990s tied to the third wave of feminism - focused on female empowerment and reclaiming the experiences and feelings of girlhood - centred around Portland Oregon and Olympic Washington - short-run homemade "zines critical to spreading RG message": encouraged. community participation and activism, reinforced the DIY approach of the movement, prompted young women to start bands - punk-style music focus on energy, aggression, and claiming space for women and sexual minorities - asserted that sexuality in rock is constructed and contested - key bands: bikini kill, sleater kinney, bratmobile

David Bowie

- a rock n' roll chameleon and icon - career defined by consistent musical innovation, reinvention, and striking visual presentation - introduced androgyny into rock star image, fluid sexuality and gender identity took "rock-as-theatre" to new heights with "high concept" albums and stage shows - created many different personas, had no fixed musical identity across his many albums - most famous stage persona: "Ziggy stardust" - an alien rock star who falls prey to the dangers of fame and destroys himself - influenced madonna, lady gaga, and prince

alternative R&B

- a style of r&b that emerged in the 1990s that fuses soul-style singing with elements of hip hop, funk, and EDM - artists often both sing and rap - recordings feature a combination of "live" instruments and samples - expands the traditional R&B lyrical themes of love and romance to include social issues, often directly addressing the violence, materialism, and sexism of gangster rap

the margins - grunge

- a subgenre of 1990s rock that was a reaction against the successful glam rock/hair metal bands of the time - grunge retained the distorted guitar sounds and intensity of heavy metal but avoided its guitar solos and other signifiers of virtuosity - grunge musicians and their fans avoided heavy metal's spectacularity of dress and appearance, preferring unfashionable clothes and unstyled hair - many grunge lyrics reflected and spoke to generational malaise: rising unemployment and other factors made it clear that this would be the first generation of Americans who would not, for the most part, be better off than their parents - the music supported the attempts of musicians and fans to fashion viable identities and find meaning and community within a social environment they saw as saturated by advertising, politically corrupt, in decline and unworthy of trust - key bands: nirvana, sound garden, hole, L7, Alice in chains, pearl jam - grunge rock opened spaces for female musicians who have traditionally been limited to positions as fans of hard rock and metal

disco (1970s)

- a type of funk, soul, and world beat-influenced pop music of the mid- to the late 1970s, intended mainly to be danced to at disco clubs - starts in black gay clubs in the 1960s, becomes mainstream, hetero-white culture by the mid-1970s - reflected by the decline of rock as dance music and the music of rebellion - elevated the DJ to the level of "musician", as disco club DJs mixed and manipulated records to extend the beats for the dance floor - formalized the use of pre-recorded music as the basis for creating new music in America - short life as "popular music", but set the template for modern "club culture" - sound: 120 bpm; relentless 4-on-the-floor kick drum; offbeat open hi-hat syncopations; cyclical song forms, elaborate studio productions; funky bass lines; chicken scratch rhythm guitar with effects - the records became the final product and the club became the place where the music was consumed - the disco beat and orchestration became a cliche in the late 70s, made it possible to "disco-ize" just about anything

Bob Dylan and urban folk music

- acoustic urban folk music developed in the early 1960s as a distinct form from rock n' roll and pop - bob Dylan emerged as a leader in the folk scene with his original songs and idiosyncratic, aggressive singing style - Dylan captures the spirit of the counterculture in the early 1960s - dylans most popular song: blowin' in the wind (topical, ambiguous lyrics, strophic form) - he became famous when other people recorded his songs, most notable when established folk group Peter Paul and Mary recorded blowing' in the wind - Dylan the most famous folk singer of his generation, part of a folk revival in american music in the early 1960s - wrote enduring protest anthems about the Viet nam war and the civil rights movement - brought poetry and literary surrealism to folk music

The Beatles - Tomorrow never knows

- after 1966 world tour the Beatles became a studio band - recorded the first psychedelic album revolver in 1966 - written by John lennon - influence of LSD and Indian music - strophic form (repeating verses with different words) - total studio construction (not a live performance) - use of innovative studio techniques

The angry women of rock

- alanis morissette's jagged little pill became a surprise hit in 1995, with the very angry single "you oughta know" - started a trend for women who sang openly about sex, weren't shy about addressing their issues with men, and used profanity - morissette and others cultivated a friendly relationship with the media - on major labels from the start, music very "produced" and radio-friendly despite the "challenging" lyrics - women were conventionally attractive and "properly" feminine - inherited the legacy of riot grrrl by setting shocking lyrics to familiar popular music - example of radical subculture (women) being pulled into the mainstream and commodified

British blues revival

- also known as London r&B - white, working class musician who discovered an affinity for African American electric blues - an elitist bohemian attitude toward "authentic music", particularly Chicago electric blues and country blues - English artists emulated the gruff directness of much African American music - example groups: the Rolling Stones, the yardbirds, the animals, cream, led zeppelin - integrated African-ameican electric blues music, and sold it back to white America as popular music

The twist

- american bandstand (nationally broadcast television program where young people danced to rock n' roll records) - was a platform for promoting records and dances - chubby checker records "the twist" (1960), a song about a dance that starts a trend of other songs about particular dance steps - an individual, non-contact, free form dance, often done facing another person - started a craze that crossed age barriers, brought rock n' roll to the centre of american culture - spawned clubs that focused on dancing to records, rather than to live bands - contributed to the creation of a distinct marketing category of popular music called "dance music"

madonna

- american pop singer, songwriter, producer, actress, dancer, author - archetypical pop star (works with songwriters, producers, engineers, studio musicians, video directors, and label promotional departments) - known for her business sense and ability to turn controversy into profit - frequent shifts in image and musical style, attempts to remain relevant through embracing new technologies and sounds - knit pop songs to beats derived from dance club music - 8 top 10 albums between 1984 and 1994, over 50 million albums sold - elevated music video to status of art

Kanye west

- american rapper, singer, and record producer - started out as a producer influenced by wu tang clan, worked with jay z - transition to rapping hindered by his lack of "street cred" as suburban, middle class person - 2004 debut the college dropout which addressed the urban/suburban divide by foregrounding his middle-class status to create a new space in the rap sphere for "middle class" rap - pioneers the use of auto-tune to create a kind of sing-rapping on 808s and heartbreak, creates the template for drake and the pop-hip hop to follow

new business models - 2015

- american rock band Wilco release they album Star Wars as a free digital download, banking on touring revenue to make their money back

ray Charles (1930-2004)

- american singer, pianist, and songwriter - vocal style: rough-edged vocal timbre using shakes, moans and other sounds to emulate the emotional intensity of African american preachers - synthesized many different elements of "American" music: had hits on the country, pop, R&B, and jazz charts - found his sound by merging sacred gospel songs with secular lyrics and dance rhythms causing controversy in the African American church community

African American musical roots - spirituals

- an oral tradition of christian-themed songs created by slaves in the United States - folk music from enslaved African americans - told Old Testament stories while also describing the hardships of slavery, often in "double coded" language - originally unaccompanied, solo or group singing

drum machines

- analogue and digital rhythm programmable machines designed to replace or supplement drummers - "synthetic" drum sound becomes key part of hip hop, pop, and electronic dance music - made it possible to compose rhythms that a human could not play, and to keep those beats going for as long as desired - key part of the "80s" sound

pop disco

- artist/songwriter based - live instruments mixed with studio instruments - pop hooks, standard pop song structure (verse/chorus) - "disco" elements in the rhythms - the bee gees, abba

The rolling stones - rock contribution

- attitude is everything in rock n' roll - life should be about sex, drugs, and rock n' roll - standard rock ensemble: two guitars, bass and drums - rock's original sources (electric blues and country) remain at the core of the music - jagger created the persona of the rock frontman and Richards as the sidekick

rock n' roll teenagers

- baby boomers attracted to rock n' roll as a symbol of rebellion and generational identification - 1950s saw the invention of the "teenager" as an identity and marketing demographic - popular music a form of resistance to the values and attitudes of the "parent" culture - prosperity of the age meant that young people had purchasing power - rock was a "safe" way for teens to assert an alternative identity to their parents - first generation to have leisure time between 13-18 - early rock n' roll song titles reflect teen life - the coasters "Charlie Brown" song specifically about and intended for a particular audience - teens recruited as performers (Frankie lemon and the teenagers) - early rock era marks shift from racial marketing to generational marketing - rock n' roll offered a bridge between previously exclusive audiences (black and white), driven by market forces

Nostalgic rock

- baby boomers become interested in the "good old days" represented by the rock music of their youth - the failures of the peace movement left audiences looking for happier times - reaction against the experimentation and "art" pretensions of late 1960s rock - focus on live style performances and traditional rock instruments - artists start writing rock songs about rock itself

The runaways and the go-gos

- bands formed by teenage musicians during the first punk explosion (1976-1980) - both featured an all-female line-up, and members who embraced the DIY ethos of punk - variously mismanaged by managers and the culture industry at large, encountered considerable sexism and sexual violence - huge influence on young girls: demonstrated that "rock music" was a construction and that teen girls could create their own worlds though punk music - punk contribution: all women, wrote their own songs and played their instruments, feminist rock and roll attitude

synth-rock

- bands that combine synthesizers with rock guitars, acoustic drums, and bass - dominated the charts in the 1980s after the initial synth-pop wave crashed - success of synth-pop led guitar-based hard rock bands to incorporate synthesizers into their sound in a quest to "modernize" their sounds - key artists: duran duran, tears for fears, the cars, rush

pink Floyd - dark side of the moon (1973)

- based on the theme of madness and what drives us to it - unified thematic contest and overall down-beat mood - sold 25 million copies, stayed on charts for 14 years - most popular concept album of all time, reflects the literary aspirations of rock songwriters - "money" uses sound effects, odd meter, and a long instrumental jam in the middle

Shania twain

- best selling female country artist of all time - brought a big, pop sound to country music that echoed stadium rock of the 1980s (set template for other country artists to follow) - provocative videos that scandalized the country establishment - videos and performances were both sex-positive and empowering

soul music

- black popular music from the 1950s that combined the raw emotionalism and singing style of sacred gospel music with secular rhythm and blues - controversially merged religious performance styles with secular lyrical themes - musical characteristics: focus on vocals, call and response, melismatic vocals, guttural vocal effects, improvisation and lyrical extemporization - instrumentation: piano, organ, guitar, bass, drums, horn section and/or background vocals

Janis Joplin (1943-1970)

- born in texas, moved to San Francisco in mid-1960s - most successful white blues singer of the 1960s, inspired by bessie smith and big mama Thornton - joined big norther and the holding company, became the main attraction - known for intense, growling vocals and ecstatic stage performances - set template for the "hippy look" and "free love" lifestyle - died of a drug overdose at 27 in 1970

black sabbath

- british pioneers of heavy metal - started out as Electric blues band, developed a new riff-based sound based on slow grooves - image: black leather jackets, jeans, christian and occult iconography, long hair and beards - sound: down-tuned, driving guitar riffs, occult and horror-laden lyrics, eerie vocals, sudden tempo shifts - focus on ensemble sound rather than virtuosic solos - pioneered slow tempo, heavy grooves which influenced sub-genres doom metal, stoner metal, and sludge metal

Philadelphia international records (PRI)

- built on the heavily orchestrated, lush string arrangements and non-political lyrics of Motown, but used a different kind of beat - began making the lush dance music that came to be called "disco" in the mid 1970s, and ended Motown's dominance on the charts

bro country

- by 2012, the most popular genre in America (based on sales) - lyrical themes of drinking, partying, trucks, and girls - emphasis on rock elements: distorted guitars, big stadium shows, bad boy image - criticized by other country musicians and commentators for its depiction of women - production techniques drawn from pop and hip hop

sister rosetta tharpe

- came from the black church music tradition, played electric guitar and sang - "crossed over" to secular music, caused some controversy by mixing sacred and secular musics - flamboyant, ecstatic performer - innovative electric guitar playing, pioneered the template for many others to follow, including chuck berry and Jimi hendrix - very famous in her time, but written out of the standard rock history - known as the "original soul sister" and the "godmother of rock and roll"

bowdlerization

- censoring texts so that they will be less offensive to the target audience - early cover verision: shake rattle and roll recorded by big Joe turner and covered by bill haley and the comets

donna summer

- church-raised singer who became the queen of disco - set template for "disco singer" as a studio artist rather than live act - #1 hit "bad girls" (song about the less legal side of night life, specifically prostitution) - solidified the connection between disco, sex, and downtown urban life in the minds of the mainstream audience

key events in the 1960s

- civil rights movement and the assassination of Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr. - the assassination of president Kennedy - the cuban missile crisis - the Viet nam war - the beginnings of the LGBTQ and modern feminist movement - popular music assumes a central role in defining the spirit of the 1960s - baby boomers began producing their own music, rather than just consuming older music - 1960s pop music charts open with #1 hit "El Paso" in jan 1960 and end with the Beatles "come together" in dec 1969 - lots of musical ground covered in the decade

buddy holly (1936-1959)

- clean cut, safe, as opposed to Elvis' dangerous sex appeal - formed a band called the crickets who inspired the Beatles - skilled guitarist, recording engineer, and songwriter - combined country, R&B, and mainstream pop - vocal style derived from country music - pioneered the standard rock band format of 2 guitars, bass and drums fronted by a singing songwriter - killed in a plane crash in 1959 with other musicians

Rural-urban divide

- clear separation between country music charts, R&B charts, and pop music charts - genres reflected social divisions as much as musical differences distinct cultural differences between rural south and urban north (youth and parent cultures) - media was a mixture of local and national

pop punk

- combines the short songs, fast riffs, and distorted guitars of 1970s punk with pop-influenced melodies and lyrical themes - a reaction against both the dark themes and general no-fun-ness of grunge and the artificiality of hair metal - songs and videos often feature humour and a general playfulness - a fixture on the charts from 1994 until the mid-2000s - achieved wide-spread popularity starting with green day's album Dookie, which produced three hit singles

nirvana

- commercial breakthrough for alternative rock came in 1991 with the release of nirvana's album nevermind - blend of hardcore punk, heavy metal, and pop moved alternative rock into the mainstream - success ended the chart domination of hair metal - second album never mind sold 10 million copies, went to #1 on the pop charts - success was difficult for songwriter Kurt cobian, overdosed on heroin, then died of a self-inflicted gun shot wound - first "alternative" rock single of the 1990s to enter the top 10

Linda Ronstadt

- country/blues rock-singer originally backed by The Eagles - toured with the doors and Neil young - debut solo album credited as the first alternative country album - became the first female "arena" rock star, one of the top pop singers of the 1970s - the only artist to have a #1 hit on the pop, R&B, and country charts at the same time

Digital synthesizers

- creating new sounds through the manipulation of sound waves and electric currents - electronically manipulating recorded acoustic sounds (sampling) - often have a keyboard interface, but not necessary - site of experimentation in art and popular music

Afro-Futurism

- cultural aesthetic that combines elements of science fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, and afrocentrism with non-western cosmologies in order to critique not only the present day dilemmas of black people, but also to revise, interrogate, and re-examine the historical events of the past

chuck berry (1926-2017)

- developed the archetype for rock n' roll guitar playing, singing, and song writing - wrote all of his own songs, addressed issues in american life - synthesized blues, r&b, and country music - put the guitar at the centre of rock music - huge influence on many musicians to follow (Elvis, the Beatles, the rolling stones, Jimi Hendrix) - Elvis got the money and adulation, but berry was the biggest influence on the sound of rock and roll

synth-pop

- develops in England in the late 1970s as a response to punk and the emergence of new electronic instruments - musicians often built their instruments from kits purchased through electronics magazines - recordings made entirely of electronic instruments (reviled by the rock press) - properly revolutionary as the instruments were entirely new, with no template for the sound - music for dancing - inspired by the German band kraftwerk, who began working with synthesizers in the mid-1970s

alternative rock in the 1980s

- develops out of the punk scene in the US, mainly in college towns - local, anti-commercial, guitar-based music that blends the DIY sensibility of punk with heavy sonic textures of hard rock and pop melodies - topical songs about social issues in contemporary America - primarily a white fan base - bands that achieved success had difficulty maintain their outsider politics - grammy awards create alternative category in 1990 - example bands: sonic youth, REM, dead Kennedys, B-52s

digital music in the 1990s

- digitization of sound made it easier to create, record, and consume music - personal computers can now do the work of a full recording studio - MP3s invented: low fi, but liberated music from the media it had pervious tied to - early example of obvious manipulation of voice: Cher "believe" (autotune as an effect, rather than a corrective) - perfected by Kanye West on 808s and heartbreak - reaction against digital music in the rock scene, where many musicians felt that these technologies were inauthentic and create artificial performances - there is a continues "low-fi: ethos in the indie rock worlds, where older, analog technologies are fetishized

Chicago house

- disco-influenced dance music named after the warehouse gay club in Chicago where it was developed - disco made by amateurs: disco drum rhythms and baselines created on cheap electronics - drum machines and bass synths could keep going all night prominent use of Roland 303 bass synth - formative producers: Frankie knuckles, phuture - many subgenres: deep house, acid house, progressive house - sound quickly appropriated by white pop singers

sam philips

- discovered elvis - said "if he could find a white man with the black sound and feel then he would be a millionaire"

rock n' roll songwriters and producers

- dominant convention in rock is that musicians write their own songs (songwriting a form of authenticity) - distinct from pop music, where a performer is not expected to have written their own material - still some songwriters, such as Lieber and Stoller, who wrote songs for elvis and others - the increasing importance of recordings and technological innovations led to a new role in the music business: the producer -producer in charge of creating a particular sound for particular artists in recording studios - producers became famous and in-demand in their own right (Phil Spector, Georg Martin, and Chet Atkins) - records no longer a representation of "live" performance, but a distinct experience

Motor city five (MC5)

- early metal - inspired by the San Francisco psychedelic rock scene, attempted to do similar things in Detroit - began as a psychedelic rock group, increasingly informed by blues, hard rock, and free jazz - often considered to be the first "heavy" group, with loud, distorted guitars and streaming vocals - precursors to punk - committed to the idea of music as revolutionary force

Hip hop hit #1 - sugar hill gang

- early rap group from the bronx - built songs from samples of other songs and floating polls of phrases - first national rap hit "rapper's delight" which was built on the instrumental track of chic's disco hit "good times" - no DJ or sampling technology, they has to hire as studio band to replicate chic's tracks - sued by chic in a royalty settlement: the first rap hit, and the first "rap lawsuit" - hip hop contribution: "rapper's delight" made rap a national music, established the practice of building new songs from samples of older songs

singles and albums

- early rock n' roll dominated by the single (7inch 45rpm double-sided disc, 4 minutes per side) - two songs: a side (the expected hit) and b side (the bonus song) - charts measured single sales and radio play - 12", 33 rpm vinyl introduced in 1948 - the 12" album format important in classical music, broadway shows, jazz, and comedy records - first pop "albums" were initially collections of unrelated songs

the electric guitar

- electric guitar becomes the iconic, dominant instrument of rock n' roll - replaces horns and piano as the lead instrument - loud, flexible, conducive to virtuosic display - represents rock musicians investment in technology - can have "effects" added to the sound: echo, distortion, feedback, wah wah - becomes a fetishized instrument: people spend a lot of money on "vintage" instruments

the rock n' roll business (1950s)

- elvis Presley's breakthrough marks the start of rock n' roll as big business - rock become the centre of the pop music business, "song factories" adapt to the new guitar-based style - record sales rose throughout the 1950s and musicians toured extensively - many people get into the record business, starting independent labels and shops to cater to local audiences and tastes - many black musicians enjoy increased exposure to the white audience when their songs were covered, but economic disparity and reduced performance opportunities remain - TV, radio, and recording allow for the development of "national" music styles, and for american music to travel abroad

the king of rock n' roll

- elvis presley: the biggest selling solo artist in any period and style - born in Mississippi, lived in Memphis - made "black" sounding music accessible to a white audience, recorded cover versions of songs by black artists - integrated R&B, country, and gospel into his sound, made rock n' roll a mass market - starred in films, became a multi media star - first hit was played on black and white radio

Dubstep

- emerged as a dance club phenomena in south London in the mid-2000s - focus on deep, sub bass sounds, engineered for club sound systems - desire to make the sound physical - uses sample of real percussion, but relatively sparse drums - informed by Jamaican dub reggae - prominent labels: skull disco, hyper dub

African American musical roots - gospel

- emerges in the 1920s, original christian songs written for performances in church services - borrow scared lyrics from spirituals, but draws on popular music forms and rhythms - virtuosic, highly melismatic singing - usually lead singer with band and backing choir uplifting messages

The Nashville sound - "pop" country

- established "rock" stars travel to Nashville to work with songwriters and producers in pursuit of a polished, mature sound - in the 1950s Nashville becomes a music industry hub comparable to New York and LA - country music offered a way for rock artists to "age", country artist traditionally older than pop artists - Example: elvis Presley "cant help falling in love" (guitars and drums replaced by strings, orchestral instruments, and background vocals, growling vocals replaced by crooning)

Alternative music

- examples: alternative rock, alternative country, alternative rap, alternative r&b - music that somehow challenge the status quo - a lucrative niche market that corporations can exploit

civil rights movement and the freedom rides

- fight against "Jim Crow" laws and official segregationist policies - despite the end of slavery, African Americans, particularly in the south, did not have the right to vote or freedom of movement - people no longer slaves, but kept from fully integrating into the prosperity of pst-war america - African american activists drawn from a coalition of church leaders and ww2 veterans - different leadership styles: Martin Luther king jr, and rosa parks preached non-violent resistance and equality, Malcom X advocated a more violent form of resistance and black nationalism

Punk (1970s)

- first alternative movement within rock - back to basics rock reacting against commercialism and pretension fo corporate rock music (disco, prog rock, heavy metal, glam rock) - attitude: rebellion against authority and rejection of mainstream values; amateur, DIY music-making - image: torn jeans, homemade clothes, confrontational haircuts - did not receive commercial success until 1990s in the US - MC5, Iggy the stooges, New York dolls

Marvin Gaye - What's Going On (1971)

- first hit LP for Motown - concept album, unifying theme of social justice - fuses soul and gospel music with political impetus of progressive rock - elaborate orchestration - demonstrated that soul and R&B could have conceptual and artistic coherence beyond 3 minute singles - starts trend of African American artists making album length statements

Run-DMC

- first hit rap album: Run-DMC raising hell (1986) - Run-DMC considered the most influential act in rap, established a hard-edged, rock-influenced style - 1st rap group to headline a national tour and be on MTV - popularized rap with the white rock audience by collaborating with white rock artists and sampling recognizable rock songs - image: hats, gold chains, track suits, untied Adidas - first rap endorsement deal: $1.5 million collaboration with Adidas after their song "my Adidas" became a hit - Run-DMC's collaboration with 70s rock group Aerosmith became a huge "crossover" hit and introduced many white listeners to rap

Little Richard (1932)

- flamboyant performer, piano player - sexually suggestive songs coded as nonsense syllables - embodied the outrageous spirit of rock n' roll (the original "wild man" of rock) - ambiguous sexuality, product of the visual medium television - formative influence on James brown, the Beatles, and prince - covered by the Beatles, who tried to emulate little Richard in sound and energy

west coast gangsta rap post deaths

- following the shootings, dr.dre and snoop left death row records - owner "Suge" knight the most feared man in hip hop continues to be in trouble with the law, charged with murder in 2015 - gangsta rap offered a highly stylized chronicle of urban life for African Americans, celebrating the gangster life of expensive cars, champagne, and attractive women - reflects the diversity of life in contemporary america - hugely popular with white suburban males - criticized for offering a bleak, stereotypical, and cartoonish view of black America, but has clearly allowed some people to profit and improve their material situations

The new wave of british heavy metal

- formalized the genre pioneered by late 1960s bands like Led zeppelin and black sabbath - sound: two guitars, loud and fast guitar solos, melodic, high male vocals, complex song forms, virtuosic musicianship - lyrical themes: mythology, Fantasy fiction, and the occult - interested in shocking the audience - embraced "outsider" status, speaking to marginalized working class youth - iron maiden, Motörhead - influenced many American 1980s metal bands such as Metallica, slayer, megadeath, and anthrax

Sex pistols

- formed in 1975 in London - punk contribution: confrontational, violent, "don't care" attitude - songs are short, aggressive, amateur-ish, low-fi - intentionally provocative songs like "god save the queen" and "anarchy in the UK" - broke up during 2-week US tour (after 26 months together)

The slits

- formed in 1976 with the merger of two bands: the flowers of romance and the castrators - experimental sound influences by reggae and dub - punk contribution: all women, unorthodox instrument playing, searches for new sounds and new ways of playing guitar, bass, drums, and electronics - toured extensively with the clash

post/pop-punk - the police

- formed in London in 1977 - punk contribution: synthesized reggae, punk, and pop - created the genre of "pop punk" with lyrics about romantic love and relationships - became one of the most successful bands of the 1980s - punk elements: short, high energy songs, no instrumental solos, focus on independent guitar, bass, and drum parts

Sly and the family stone

- formed in San Francisco - the ultimate visual and sonic representation of the hippy movement - inter-racial, mixed gender (first major band to have mixed races and mixed genders) - psychedelic soul (blended psychedelic rock and soul music with socially engaged lyrics) - appealed to the white, rock-buying public by bringing a drug informed, experimental ethos to funk music - brought funk music to a wide audience (performed at Woodstock)

itunes

- founded as an industry response to digital piracy - the plan was to replace sales of physical media with digital media (it hasn't worked)

Afrika Bambaataa

- founded universal Zulu nation: black activist, advocated for peaceful resistance and a return to African warrior culture - claimed to have coined the term "hip hop" - wrote the second national rap hit "planet rock" - hip hop contribution: pioneering use of 808 drum machine, which became an essential part of the sound of hip hop - added electronic sounds to the samples used in early hip hop

fats domino (1928-2017)

- from New Orleans, piano player and singer - played r&b that is indistinguishable from what became called rock n' roll - piano was a major instrument in rock n' roll before chuck berry popularized the guitar - enjoyed a significant career boost after Elvis popularized rock n' roll to mainstream (white) audience - merged r&b sounds with Tin Pan Alley songs, recored "my blue heaven" ( a sort of reverse cover version to appeal to a white audience)

DJ kool hert

- graffiti artist, MC, DJ, "the father of hip hop" - crate-digging party DJ - credited with inventing the basic hip hop turntable techniques, including beat-matching two records - observed that people danced hardest in the instrumental "breaks" on funk and disco records

Eminem

- grammy and Oscar award-winning american rapper, record producer - known for his highly developed rapping skills and wit - "discovered" , produced and championed by dr.dre, who became very wealthy through this association - became the "rap Elvis": white artist skills din a black music form who appealed to a white, mainstream audience - remains the biggest selling rap artist of all time

DJ's versus producers

- grey area in contemporary popular music - unlike the disco and early hip hop eras, DJs now often create their own music to play rather than playing other records - many contemporary DJs do make mixed out existing songs, much like disco DJs - the main distinctions: DJs- though they may sell their productions make the bulk of their living playing clubs and parties, most of the music DJs make is for their own use at their own events and are complete works, producers make music in their studios and release them as recordings for sale and radio play, producers often collaborate with singers or other artists allowing their beats to made into pop songs, producers might not play live they make their money making records to sell

glam rock (1970s)

- hard rock genre popular in early 1970s, mostly in the UK - artists wore costumes, makeup, and created fictitious stage personas - re-imagined rock as "theatre" - complex stage shows and influences from opera, ballet, horror movies, and "alternative" sexualities - example artists: David bowie, T.Rex, Alice Cooper, Queen, Kiss - Legacy carried on into 1980s hair metal

1st golden age of hip hop (1986-1993)

- hip hop gained mainstream (white audience-crossover) success - success of "the message" and "rapper's delight" meant that the major labels became interested in rap and its audience, and New York artists could tour the country - first "rap" sound on the pop charts was blondies rapture (1981) - def jam records co-founded in 1984 by Russell Simmons and producer rick Rubin: 1st rap indie label to get national distribution - 1988: MTV launches yo! MTV raps, a show dedicated to rap music that attracted the largest audience in channel's history - 1989: grammy awards and billboard add rap categories - MTV connected with the fastest growing audience for hip hop: young white males - videos create a new generation of black music stars

1980s business models

- horizontal integration: the process of corporate takeover of businesses in related industries (Warner bros. buying TV stations and record companies to present their content) - vertical integration: when the supply chain for raw materials and the distribution network for a product is owned by the same company (ticket master merging with live nation in 2010)

cover versions

- in the 1950s often meant a near-identical copy of a song first recorded by a black artist, then "covered" by a white artist - songs "discovered" on independent label, re-recorded by big labels - very lucrative for artists and record labels in a segregated society - black artists often not payed properly, yet some benefited from the exposure - examples "a little bird told me" by paula Watson and covered by Evelyn knight

birth of the album (1950s)

- in the late 1950s, many artists began to view the 42 minute album as a coherent composition, and the album as a narrative rather than a collection of hits - frank Sinatra one of the first to do this, reaches peak with the Beatles and beach boys in 1967 - frank Sinatra created the first "concept album" by programming songs to follow a specific narrative on his LPs - come fly with me: 15 songs on the album, all are about travel - sets the template for later pop/rock artists to view the album as a coherent document rather than collection of unreleased songs

the motown sound

- in-house songwriters and record producers: berry Gordy, "smokey" Robinson, etc, responsible for 25 top 10 hits - the funk brothers: group of Detroit studio musicians who performed on every hit from 1959 to 1971 - the sound: strong lead singer (with clear diction) and call and response backing vocals, singers drawn from local churches, string sections, elaborate horn parts, orchestral instruments, refined pop music studio production techniques, avoided blues-derived forms in favour of verse-chorus pop forms, short songs designed for radio play (no loner than 3 minutes)

Music in the 1980s

- increased concentration of record industry into multi-national entertainment conglomerates (universal, Sony, etc.) - decade started with a recession in the music industry (blamed on the rise of home videos, cable TV, video games, and illegal copying of commercial recordings) - profits rise with the huge stars and big albums of the 1980s (powered by MTV) - sales of cassettes surpasses LPs due to the popularity of the Sony Walkman - albums become a series of singles again to capitalize on the potential video play on MTV - in 1983 the compact disc (CD) was introduced - in the late 1980s people replaced LP and tape collection with CDs resulting in a huge bump in revenue for record companies

parliament/funkadelic

- influential 1970s funk group comprised of a rotation of 40 musicians - p-funk sound: heavy syncopated bass lines; loose interlocking rhythms; psychedelic guitar solos, jazz-influenced horn arrangements, r&b harmonies, call and response vocals, synthesizers - wild costumes, elaborate stage sets, science fiction themes - reconfigured black popular music as a positive moral force - embraced afro-futurism

Patti smith

- influential American singer, poet, author - "punk rock's poet laureate" (built on bob Dylan's legacy of making "literate rock") - brought feminist, queer, and intellectual perspective to punk - stripped-down band sound and growling vocals - debut album horse (1975) is number 44 on the rolling stone list of top 500 albums

The Band

- influential Canadian group defined the Americana style - incorporated wide variety of American folklore and "roots" music rose to fame as Bob Dylan's backing band when he "went electric" - began making their own records in 1969 - focused on songs and ensemble playing rather than studio experimentation and long solos - used traditional acoustic instruments along with electric guitar - had three strong singers who traded lead and backing vocals, sang in loose harmony

N.W.A.

- influential album: straight outta Compton (1988) - f*** the police called one of the greatest protests songs of all time by rolling stone magazine - disbanded in 1989, members go on to solo careers

David Mancuso

- influential early disco DJ and club owner - travelled the world looking for good dance music

Pop in the early 1960s

- initial burst of rock n' roll energy powered by Elvis priestly and chuck berry had faded - rock no longer about rebellion, as it became the dominant consumer music - new social dances developed - new models of songwriting and record production developed as young rock n' roll musicians and fans moved into positions of power in the music industry - Tin Pan Alley system of the "song factory" reinvented with motown records and the brill building - recording technology has advanced so that a record was no longer just a representation of a "live" performance, but a distinct musical performance

country/roots rock

- late 1960s "back to basics"/"return to roots" approach that was an alternative to/reaction against the experimentation of psychedelic rock - combines the instruments, energy and spirit of rock n' roll with elements of country music - musical elements: acoustic instruments (fiddles, banjos) but with rock drums and electric guitar, live-focused recordings, standard country lyrical themes of love/heartbreak/nostalgia - example artists: bob Dylan, the band, Neil young - had no impact on the core country audience, who were not interested in the sound of rock musicians playing "their music"

Heart

- led by sisters - developed a hard rock, guitar driven sound with folk influences - ann wilson was one of the greatest rock vocalists - encountered considerable sexism in the rock scene, have become feminist icons for their perseverance - continued to have hits in the 1980s with a more synthesized pop sound

CBGBs

- legendary music club located in New York City that was centre of New York punk scene in the early 1970s - country, blue grass, and blues - OMFUG = other music for uplifting gormandizers - regular bands: the Ramones, television, Patti smith, the dictators, blondie, and talking heads

San Francisco Sound

- long been a centre for "beat" and gay culture - LSD experiments conducted at the university in the mid 1960s - peak period "summer of love" 1967, distinct musical culture developed - musicians interested in iron-based, mediative, trance-inducing music that mirrored/enhanced the cannabis and LSD experience - focus on long jam sessions with open-ended forms and group improvisation - intense involvement of audience (band and listeners were on a "shared trip") - intense involvement of audience: band and listeners were on a "shared trip"

The wrecking crew

- loose collective of musicians based in LA - pioneered the idea of the "session musician", as someone who makes a living in the recording studio rather than performing live on stage - were the backing group on thousands of recordings from the late 1950s into the 1970s - employed as the "house band" by Phil Spector, provided the music for his most famous recordings with the girl groups - played the role of "ghost group", very often their playing was credited to more famous bands like the beach boys, the byrds, and the monkees - anchored by bass player carol Kaye, one of the most recorded musicians in history

the modern song machine

- max Martin: Swedish songwriter and producer working in the US (real name is Karl Martin Sandberg) - modern successor to Tin Pan Alley, the brill building, and motown records - a "ghostwriter": keeps his name and face out of the spotlight, crafts big hits for the big stars - supports the audience's assumption that their favourite artists with their own songs - has written 22 #1 hits, behind only Paul McCartney and John Lennon - insists artists sings his songs exactly as he records them on his demos - researched and perfected the modern pop song formula: the first hook has to come within 7 seconds of the start of the song - freely mixes genres in a way american producers do not

Messengers for civil rights

- message songs: secular songs that address particular social issues, political lyrics that may have subtle references to the bible, common in the civil rights era in the US, pre civil rights artists had to be very subtle with politics in music - double coding: when a word or phrase can have multiple meanings, usually refers to how an internal audience will understand something one way and an external audience will find a different meaning

The B-52s

- mixed-gender new wave band from Athens, Georgia - combined guitar with early electronic keyboards - elaborate costumes, 1950s hair styles, and gender-bending performances - outspoken queer aesthetic - brought a sense of humour and play to new wave (quirky lyrics combined with danceable beats)

Fleetwood Mac

- modestly successful British blues-rock band formed in 1967 - leader mick Fleetwood added American duo guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and singer Stevie nicks into the band - developed a soft, clean, folk-rock sound that became a staple of 1970s radio, influenced many artists who followed - 1977 album rumours spawned 4 top 10 singles and became the 8th best selling album of all time - intense personal problems and drug use plagued the band following this success - singer Stevie nicks went solo, because a feminist icon and key inspiration for many women singers and songwriters

mainstream versus underground

- most genres start as "underground" musics made by marginalized people - when a critical mass of people become aware of an underground music, it quickly becomes absorbed by the mainstream - underground musics are made "mainstream" by: changing the lyrical content (songs become about romantic love/heterosexual sex/ dancing/whatever the current concerns of the middle class are), imposing the dominant pop song forms onto the sounds, reducing the noisy challenging timbres (growling vocals become crooning, distorted guitars become clean, deep bass and synthesizer sounds become brightened) - popular music always feed on marginal and dance musics, as this is where the necessary novelty comes from

The Beatles (1960-1970)

- most influential and best-selling rock group of all time: over 1 billion albums sold - formed in 1957 in liverpool - liverpool was a port and military city so lots of records, instruments, and musicians came through town influenced by early rock n' roll - developed their skills playing all-night dance parties in germany - played covers in early shows - roots in black forms of music, successful cover of twist and shout in 1963

1980s and early 90s pop singers

- most of the big pop stars were not "songwriters" - they recorded songs written by other people and worked with producers - "big" singers: usually drawn from the black church music tradition, known for emotive ecstatic virtuosic singing, focus on the voice and the lyrics (Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Tina turner) - "small" singers: quite intimate singing style, know as much for dancing as for singing, focus on visual presentation in videos and concerts (Janet Jackson, madonna, Taylor swift)

Saturday night fever (1977)

- movie, brought disco to the (white, straight) mainstream - story links disco music/dancing with classic American theme of upward class mobility - disco club = shrine of hedonism and illicit good times - soundtrack has sold over 15 million copies, second best-selling soundtrack of all time - started a "disco craze" in pop culture, shifted the music out of its underground, gay subculture into mainstream pop culture - led to backlash and the inevitable move from popular genre to "kitsch" and camp

Cross-marketing

- music video/movie tie-ins - growth of music soundtracks

New wave

- musical movement based in the US and UK in late 1970s and early 1980s - shared certain punk elements but was more experimental and mixed with other genres (funk, disco, reggae, and ska) - fused synthesizer, sequencers, and drum machines with conventional "rock" instruments - often dance-focused - example groups: talking heads, blondie, Elvis Costello, the B-52s

Heavy metal

- musical style originating in the early 1970s - centred around displays of power: hyper-masculinity, aggression, theatricality, loud volume, prominent guitar parts with amplified distortion - standard instrumentation: lead vocals, lead electric guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, drums - classical influence: technical virtuosity on all instruments, operatic-like high-pitched male vocals, complex musical structures - prominent bass and drums - lyrical/visual themes: the occult, evil, power, the apocalypse, sexual conquest

FM Radio

- new "bandwidth" led to new stations unrestricted by previous formats - stations/DJs played longer songs, event entire albums - album oriented radio aimed at white male rock fans from 13-25 - continued divides between white and black music, enforced through radio programming - AM radio becomes increasingly focused on talk, sports, and "oldies" - by the 1980s FM radio was fully commercialized and formulaic, and artists returned to singles as the "basic unit of composition"

"new" country

- new marketing strategies and sales-tracking technology in the early 1990s made country one of the most popular genres of American music, with huge record sales - many artist achieved chart success by combining traditional country sounds with production and performance styles drawn from stadium rock - vocalists maintained the county "twang" and the steel guitar and fiddle of honky tonk, but added big pop production styles drawn from rock and pop music - lyrical subjects focused on rural heritage and the "outside" pride of rural people in an increasingly urbanized world

a crisis of folk authenticity (bob Dylan goes electric)

- on his fifth studio album Dylan used electric instruments, which caused controversy with many fans who viewed rock music as commercial and inauthentic - Dylan inspired by electric bands who covered his songs - in 1965 Dylan records the breakthrough single "like a rolling stone", which landed him on the rack charts for the first time - defining performance at the Newport folk festival in 1965, backed by electric band - Dylan repeatedly booed during these years, fans called him a traitor - Dylan's influence resulted in rock becoming more "serious" music, where intellectual and political themes could be explored

Brian wilson and the beach boys

- on the best known American groups of the 1960s (formed in 1961) - founder Brian wilson was songwriter, producers, bassist, singer, and arranger, and modelled his elaborate production style on Phil spector's - started out as a conventional rock groups, branched out (through studio technology) to create more artful music - clean cut image, with matching uniforms and vocal harmonies - initially inspired by chuck berry and by Tin Pan Alley-style song craft - influenced the Beatles with their innovative recording style, competed with them for chart hits - self-conscious second generation rock musicians - most adventurous and influential recording: "good vibrations"

Paul Simon - Graceland (1986)

- one of the biggest selling records of the 1980s - featured a collaboration between Simon and musicians from South Africa, recorded and released at the height of the apartheid era in south africa - African national congress and the UN imposed a cultural boycott on foreigners working with South Africans in any way that could be seen to bolster the regime - simon breached this boycott, but the album raised awareness of the apartheid issue in the west - influential for introducing a mainstream pop audience to sounds they hadn't heard before

patsy cline and the Nashville sound

- one of the most famous and influential country singers - worked in the Nashville system - slight vocal twang, powerful crooning style - elaborate studio arrangements: strings, backing vocals - crossed over to the pop music charts - died in 1963 in a car crash - early hit: walkin after midnight (AABA) - big hit: crazy (written by willie nelson, AABA, crossed over to pop charts)

prince

- one of the most flamboyant, controversial, influential, and popular artists of '80s - grew up in Minneapolis, still lives there in a home/studio compound called paisley park - influenced by Joni Mitchell, James brown, Jimi Hendrix; sound a combination of funk, rock, new wave, and folk - Minneapolis sound: tight funk rhythms with synths replacing horns - between 1982 and 1992 had nine albums in the top 10, sold 80 million albums, averages an album a year - mysteriously self-taught child prodigy, virtuosic guitar player - played most of the instruments on his albums himself, produced and recorded in his home studio - controlled his image and business dealings, had multiple artistic personalities over his career

Led Zeppelin

- one of the most influential and popular rock groups of all time - pioneers of hard rock/heavy metal, continued hippie aesthetic into 1970s - borrowed african-american electric blues, turned up the volume considerably - songs built from loud, distorted guitar riffs - all member virtuoso musicians - drew inspiration from many genres (blues, folk, arabic, Celtic, reggae, occult) - prototypical hard rock: flashy guitar solos, high soaring vocals, big drum sound, distorted bluesy guitar riff

folk-rock in the 1960s

- other musicians quickly seized on the commercial success of the Byrds and Dylan, and began combining folk with pop-rock instrumentation - Simon and Garfunkel: start as a straight up acoustic folk group, find commercial success by adding electric instruments to their recordings

Progressive rock

- outgrowth of psychedelic rock in UK, expanding limitations of popular music and aspiring to create serious music - less emphasis on blues; greater influence of classical music - longer compositions - sophisticated musical elements: metric/tempo/dynamic changes, asymmetrical phrasing, harmonic and timbral extensions (electronic, orchestral, effects) - integration: thematic coherence within tunes and sometimes album - lyrics: cosmic, abstract, or mystical themes (avoidance of romantic themes or sexual prowess) - spectacle: album covers, stage designs, light shows, costumes

Eric Clapton and Cream (1966-1968)

- part of second wave of the british blues revival, played riff-based blues rock - first super group (musicians who were famous in other bands first coming together) - Eric Clapton a close counter-influence to Jimi Hendrix - cream made musicianship hip in rock (elevated instrumental skill in rock to that normally accepted in jazz or classical music) - band played tight, psychedelic pop songs on record, but focused on extended improvised blues jams - borrowed directly from the country blues of Robert Johnson

Napster (1999)

- peer-to-peer file sharing allowed users to share music - shut down in 2001, but technology can not be stopped - Napster followed by Kazaa, likewise, pirate bay, etc. - many lawsuits ensued as people shared their music freely

Psychedelic rock

- pertaining to or causing a state of extreme calm, heightened sense, aesthetic perception, and hallucination and distortion of perception - "acid rock"/"the San Francisco sound" - musical characteristics: disorienting sound, surreal imagery in lyrics, non-instrumental noises, trance-inducing drones, studio manipulation

sam cooke (1931-1964)

- pioneering soul singer and songwriter - started in the soul stirrers (1950-1956), a very successful gospel group - "touch the hem of his garment", gospel hit written by sam cooke - caused controversy in the gospel community by going "secular" as a solo artist in 1957 (many church-going fans never forgave him) - starts trend of "crossing over" from black scared music to popular secular music - pop hit: "twisting the night away", connects to the twist dance raze - bigger pop hit: you send me, crooning vocals

Iggy pop and the stooges

- played loud droning, repetitive psychedelic music, to which pop improvised lyrics - violent stage shows included: physical contortions, leaping from the stage into the audience, cutting himself with broken glass, smashing his microphone against his teeth, throwing up and urinating on audiences, smashing his teeth, pouring hot wax on his body

Cultural impact - rock contribution

- pop music could be "art", rock musicians could be experimental - unprecedented popularity, still the high water mark for obsessive fan culture - created the sound of the 60s, influenced ever other artist - turned the recording studio into an instrument, creating new sounds with producer George martin - introduced the drug experience into mainstream culture - set the template for the "self contained", "progressive" rock band

the Cold War (1945-1990)

- post ww2 struggle for military and technological dominance between US and Russia - fear of communism, witch hunts for suspected communist sympathizers, many of whom were artists and intellectuals - consistent fear of nuclear war influences all levels of culture - MAD: mutually assured destruction - still an influence on international relations today, as western powers still want to control who has nuclear technology - replaced in many ways bu the "war on terror", as an attack could come at any time - nuclear fear in pop music: "forever young"

purple rain (1984)

- prince wrote, stared, and directed a semi-autobiographical movie - soundtrack made prince a crossover star - #1 LP for 24 weeks; won a grammy, had 5 hit singles - big hit: when doves cry (minimalist funk groove built from simple repetitive rhythmic layers, no bass part, all instruments played by prince)

Euro Disco

- producer-based studio constructions - orchestral instruments (strings), synthesizers, drum machines - intended as recordings for DJs to play, rather than live performances - voice as a texture, not about story-telling - singers mainly just the voice layered onto the rhythm track - donna summer, Diana ross

women in rap

- rap traditionally male-dominated, with few female stars - queen Latifah: the most important woman in early hip hop, established a female presence in the genre, performed with Africa bambaataa's native tongues collective - salt n' peppa: the Most commercially successful female-led rap group in the 1980s, powered by DJ spinderella and sex positive lyrics, debut album hot cool and vicious became the first album by a female rap group to attain gold and platinum status in America

missy Elliot

- rapper and innovation hip-hop producer - grew up singing in a church choir in virginia, subjected to domestic abuse - worked as a songwriter and producer for other artists, before producing her own music - longterm collaboration with producer Timbaland created innovative, creative video that influenced other hip hop artists - continues to be an influence on the sound of hip hop with her production work behind the scenes for other artists

the stax sound

- raw vocal performances and driving, danceable rhythmic feel - single singer with backing band featuring guitar, bass, drums, piano/organ, and horns - simple song forms: blues or two chord vamps - strong back beat on the snare drum - "ecstatic" singing derived from black church music - energy and feeling in the vocals more important than the lyrical content - designed to appeal to a local, southern audience as "party music"

Payola

- record companies paying disc jockeys to play their records

jerry lee lewis

- recorded for sun records, biggest star directly after Elvis' breakthrough - piano player, wild man rock persona - combined country and r&b to create uptempo, hard-driving rock - string of hits in the mid-1950s including "great balls of fire" and "high school confidential" - hyper-sexualized performances and song lyrics - the "chuck berry" of piano - career collapsed when he married his 13-year old first cousin when he was 22

album-oriented rock (AOR)

- rock albums made as coherent statements rather than a collection of potential hit singles - pink Floyd, led Zeppelin, king crimson

Counterculture

- rock music fans who disagreed with the Viet nam war, wanted to find new ways to structure society - 1960s youth rebellion against social norms - baby boomers maturing in the context of social unrest around Viet nam, civil rights, and increased awareness of gender inequality - many young men drafted to fight in a war they didn't believe in - music played an important role in identity formation for the boomer generation - the look, the life, ad drugs

Rock comes of age (1970s)

- rock musicians began to view what they do as art, and albums as complete artistic statements, based on the possibilities of the 12 inch LP format - albums no longer a collection of distinct singles, but the core artistic document of a rock musician - the concept album (songs structured in a narrative to tell a story) - rock music no longer just about sex, drugs, and partying, but Abel to explore complex themes of identity, mental states, social issues, and politics - stadium tours with elaborate light shows and staging become common - rock music becomes part of a network of signifiers of musicians' projects (the sound, album art, image, stage sets, stories, and videos become equally important)

rock around the clock (1954-1959)

- rock n' roll brought styles previously on the margins to the mainstream, including r&b and country music - rock n' roll not a "new" style, nor a single style, it was a marketing term for identifying an audience - marketed to the baby boom generation, which was younger than previous "youth" musics such as swing - as jazz evolved recordings, rock n' roll evolved with TV

Public enemy

- second generation rap group, founded in 1982 by chuck D, flavour flav, and DJ terminator X - innovative use of samples and drum machines - socially conscious rap in the manner of "the message" - noisy, aggressive, confrontational music concerned with civil rights and the declining fortunes of urban black communities - Chuck D raps in a deep, authoritative voice, flavour flav provided colour commentary, and terminator X composed hard-hitting beats sampled from a wide range of sources - breakthrough album in 1988 (it takes a nation of millions to how us back) - appealed to white rock fans, who responded to the energy and aggression of the music

R&B disco

- self-contained bands "live" feel - conventional funk/soul instruments: guitars, bass, drums, horns, keyboards - funk-based vamps - soulful vocals, should and group - kool and the gang, earth wind and fire

Micheal Jackson (1958-2009)

- self-proclaimed "king of pop" - singer/entertainer/songwriter since age 7 - 750 million album sales - turned pop music from a singing-and-playing to a dancing-and-performing medium - broke racial barrier on MTV: "billie jean" first black video played in 1982 - transformed music videos from promotional tools to help sell records to the definitive artistic statements of a recording artist - "thriller" (1982): #1 selling album of all-time - "thriller" video cost ten times more than average ($300,000) - first truly global superstar Elvis and the Beatles

the 1970s

- shift in priorities of youth audience from communitarianism towards materialism and conservatism following the failures of the hippy movement - baby boomer generation began to focus on nostalgia for the early rock n' roll era - rock music was the main source of profit for the music industry - cocaine replaces LSD and weed - alternative music starts to appear in reaction to the presumed excesses of mainstream music - increased entertainment industry consolidation - increased focus on "bankable" stars

garth brooks

- singer and songwriter known for integrating elements of rock music into country - the most commercially successful country artist of the 1990s, selling over 60 million records - wore a cowboy hat with a microphone attached to perform in a way similar to rock musicians - added rock growl to vocal twang - big, glossy production style on his records

janet jackson

- sister to Michael Jackson, followed his example as singing and dancing pop star - not a virtuosic singer, pioneered a more reserved, intimate vocal style - videos and live shows feature complex choreography and visuals - worked with producers jimmy jam and terry Lewis who experimented with drum machines and synths - early music an innovative fusion of rhythm and blues, rap vocals, funk, disco, and synthesized percussion - 1986 album control spawned 7 hit singles, asserted her independence from the Jackson family

independent labels flourish (1950s)

- small labels support local talent, tuned in to what the audience is interested in at the street level - small labels become the research and development wing of large labels, and remain so today - white-owned labels tried to capitalize on the success of R&B (black) songs by recording "cover versions" with white artists (little Richard and pat Boone) - this practice started the "crossover" process of black r&b onto the mainstream (white) charts - made good business sense to "cover" a song that had already proved to be successful, and to saturate the market

The talking heads

- smart, exploratory new wave band that incorporated influences from punk, funk, classical minimalism, &afro-beat - experimented with loops, cut-and-paste studio composition - geeky awkwardness became a new kind of cool in the post-punk scene - strong hooks and danceable beats anchored by Tina weymouth's monstrous bass playing - cerebral adventurousness made them critic's favourites, dance beats gave them chart hits

the new pop stardom

- social media and hip hop production styles/aesthetics have changed our understanding of what a pop star is - the Michael Jackson/madonna template: a singer/dancer/conventionally attractive artist that has been dominant since the early 1980s has begun to collapse - younger artists are more musically divers, engaged in multiple cultural fields, and directly connected to their fan base through social media - artists can now create their own music and images without corporate or professional support - the stream eco-system is less dependent on albums, and more accurately measures grass-roots listening habits, allowing for "surprise" hits from little known artists - artists aren't necessarily banking on "music" as a profession/career ,but focusing on larger cultural relevance and visibility

the social foundations of hip hop

- south bronx was a segregated neighbourhoods (predominately black, Puerto Rican, and Caribbean neighbourhoods) - poverty and crime set in as the south bronx was cut off from services and opportunities - early DJs and MCs were of Jamaican descent, Brough Jamaican-style dance parties to the bronx - hip hop was originally a dance music - hip hop developed as marginalized people found new ways to dance to music and tell their stories in harsh urban conditions - DJs used cheap available technology to make the music (drum machines, turntables)

Phil Spector

- started as a singer and performer, in the early 1960s shifted to the role of producer and songwriter - understood the importance of the sound of recordings as something other than a documentation of a live performance, and where the real money could be made - created a distinctive studio sound that superseded the particular performers he worked with, set the template for auteur producer - developed the "Wall of sound": dense instrumentation, thick texture, orchestral instruments, lots of reverb, closely recorded vocals - called his productions " teenage symphonies" because of elaborate instrumentation - worked with vocal groups primarily "girl groups" - be my baby by the ronettes

Blondie

- started out playing a CBGBs as part of the punk scene, began experimenting with synthesizers and dance rhythms - brought a punk sensibility to disco-influenced pop songs, influenced the synth pop of the 1980s - had several hits between 1978 and 1982, have sold over 40 million records - Debbie harry helped to make punk music a much more accessible space for women than the mainstream rock music scene was in the 1970s

Roxanne Shante

- started rapping at 14 in 1984, the only female member of a DJ and MC crew in queens bridge, NYC - very short recording career (15 singles over 7 years, retired at 25) - struggles to be taken seriously as a female MC, faced constant sexism, in person and in the music - first single "Roxanne's revenge" sold 250,000 copies in NYC (huge number in 1984, recored when she was 14) - paved the way for future female rappers

Detroit techno

- style of electronic dance music originations from the Detroit suburbs in the mid 1980s (synthesized soul) - inspired by disco, parliament/funkadelic, Motown, and German electronic music (attempted to make funk records without a band) - use of analog synthesizers and drum machines - experimental, futuristic, forward-thinking, yet intended for dancing: funk dance music on cheap synthesizers - clubs nights took place in warehouses and abandoned building

alternative hip hop

- style of hip hop that emerged in the early 1990s as an alternative to both the lightness of pop rap and the darkness of gangster rap - less nosy and confrontational than groups like public enemy and NWA, but with thoughtful, political, afro-centric lyrics - feature wide-ranging samples from jazz and popular music combined in often psychedelic ways called "sampledelic" - accessible sounds, but challenging ideas in the lyrics - example: a tribe called quest

west coast gangsta rap

- sub-genre of hip hop that focuses on inner-city gang lifestyle (blatant violence, sex, power, rebellion) - reaction against the "pop rap" that was dominating the charts - emerged on the west coast, where artists wanted to make music that reflected their lived experience - developed rivalry with New York rap scene - social/political commentary indebted to public enemy, but more threatening due to extreme language and imagery - very popular with suburban white youth, who pushed the album to multiplatinum sales - defined by: slow bass beats, high portamento sine wave synthesize lead, P-Funk samples, female vocals, and a laid-back lyrical delivery referred to as a "lazy drawl" - usually only 1 or 2 samples per track

sampling

- taking a portion of one sound recording, the sample, and reusing it as an instrument or element of a new recording usually with help of sampler or computer software - old school days: sample without care - early 1990s: costly court settlements reduced the number of samples used in hip hop - now: "clearing" of samples - authorization involving upfront fee and/or cut of the royalties

electronica

- term used since 1996-97 to refer to electronic dance music (currently called EDM) - music produced primarily for nightclub DJs, focused on dance-based entertainment - extensive use of synthesizers, drum machines, and sequencers (no "live version", often a single creator) - encompasses a broad set of dance music genres that out of disco and German experimental electronic music - inheritor of rocks seriousness, experimentation, rebellious stance and elitism while questioning ideas of art - future-focused: with its focus on experimentation and new technology, electronic dance music has long been plundered by pop singers looking for a "contemporary/novel" sound - pop songwriters write standard form songs on electronic music rhythms and sound (just like in the swing and ragtime eras)

the mainstream - boy bands

- term used to describe male popular music groups of the late 1990s and early 21st century - refers to groups of three or more young male vocalists in the teen-pop genre who typically perform complex dance choreography - assembled by producers and entertainment promotors, material written by professional song writers - modelled on the doo-wop vocal groups of the 1950s and the Jackson 5 in the 1970s - hugely popular with a young, female audience, dominated the charts in the 1990s

Aretha Franklin (1942-2018)

- the "queen of soul" - daughter of a well known baptist pastor and gospel singer reverend C.L.Franklin - grew up singing in the church, has always maintained connection to the church and been able to "cross back over" - overwhelming power, intensity and emotion in her singing - symbolized female empowerment and black power, wrote and arranged her songs - early hit: "think", supremely funky piano intro played by Franklin, chorus built on the work "freedom" (which had major significance in 1968

The modern celebrity (1980s)

- the "video era" made artists bigger celebrities that was possible before - record label profits depended on a limited number of high-selling albums, so certain artists received a lot of publicity in videos, TV appearances, film roles, newspapers, magazines - mass-mediated charisma founded on the idea that the fan can have a personal relationship with a star through images and sounds - artists developed skills for presenting and negotiating their own images - increased focus on appearance, older artists squeezed out of the pop conversation

The rise of the DJ in NYC

- the DJ's job: to play music that keeps the party bumping all night - disco DJs developed the technique of using two turntables to seamlessly transition between songs, or to stretch out a song that's working on the dance floor by mixing two records of the same song - producers developed ways to manipulate pre-recorded music to make it work on the dance floor - early hip hop DJs played for dancers, not to back up rappers, and borrowed the above techniques from disco DJ to funk records - Hip hop DJS looped short portions of beats, rather than the whole songs - hip hop DJs added scratching the records, making the turntable into an instrument

music of the African american church

- the black church in America is a syncretic religion - syncretic: a purposeful blend of different spiritual belief systems, African music and spiritual traditions and stories from the Christian bible - slave owners did not allow africans to keep their drums, so they made music with their voices and bodies - African traditions in the black christian church: music is central worship, ecstatic trance states, call and response between preacher and congregation - sacred music styles: spirituals, gospel

the women of rock

- the conventional narrative of rock history focuses on women as screaming fans but excludes women as creators - many black women r&b performers - the business was male-dominated, but female performers persisted - overt sexism: wanda jackson was marketed as the "female elvis", even though her music was successful on its own merits - the rebellious image of rock conflicted with socially conservative views about the role of women - country music more welcoming for female singers, many females retreated back to that scene

new business models

- the digital era means that artist now have more control over how they produce and distribute their music, but less opportunity to profit from they music - artists now aim to license their music for TV, movies, and commercials to make money from their recordings - concert tickets prices have gone up significantly - artist options: pat what you can/want, give away music, free download codes with the purchase of a vinyl record - no dominant new business model has yet emerged to replace the lost revenue from sales of recordings - streaming the current best/most used thing, but revenues are very small for most artists - in 2017 billboard starting measuring Spotify and YouTube streams to gauge hits (record sales hardly account for chart position) - streaming-based charts now calculate how many times we listen, not just when we purchased an album/song

Pink Floyd

- the drug-inspired psychedelic experience mixed with science fiction and ancient English stories of myth and magic - psychedelia as much about the magic of the UK countryside as the internal drug experience - literary inspirations: Louis Carroll, JRR Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, etc. - pioneered early psychedelic "light shows" using food colouring and overhead projectors - surreal lyrics about sci-fi and fantasy - disorienting sounds on recordings

Rebel music of the 1970s

- the emergence of a number of "alternative" musics (musics that were not aimed at the mainstream but emerged from marginalized populations) - the large amounts of money and visible excesses of the big rock stars resulted in a backlash, as the mainstream musics ceased to represent people in the same way they has in the 1960s - many these of rebel musics had overtly political lyrics, others were political because of the communities they emerged from and supported - starting in the early 1970s, developments in electronics technology began to change how popular music sounds and is produced - popular musics from other parts of the world began to make inroads in North America

the beastie boys

- the first commercially successful white act in hip hop, part of classic trend of white appropriation of black culture - shared a label and produced its Run DMC, borrows their back-and-forth group vocal style - fused hard-core punk with black hip-hop style, and a generally juvenile sense of humour - connected with young, white urban males (the benny goodman/elvis Presleys of rap) - first album licensed to ill the first rap record to top the billboard charts, incorporated a lot of rock elements - second album a commercial failure, but influential for being composed almost entirely of samples - for many white listeners, the beastie boys were the only "rap" group to which they listened

The rolling stones

- the first popular british blues group, formed in 1962 - covered Chicago-style electric blues and country blues before Richards/jagger began writing their own songs - the original "bad boys" of rock n' roll (songs about drinking, partying, and sex) - marketed as an alternative to the "safe and friendly' Beatles

the kings of rhythm - rocket '88

- the kings of rhythm record "rocket '88" in 1951 - generally regarded as the first rock n' roll song (distorted electric guitar, high energy) - sets the template for much of the rock n' roll of the 1950s to follow, as it is a song about cars, girls, and thinly veiled sexual innuendo - the car becomes the symbol of freedom, wealth, and identity in North America

Portable music - the Sony Walkman (1979)

- the most important development in "personal" audio - revolutionized how and where music was consumed - 1984: sales of cassettes eclipsed vinyl sales for the first time - cassettes led to increased "pirating" of music (copying commercially released cassettes onto blank cassettes) - for almost two decades Sony was in the enviable position of being able to force recording labels to release recordings in formats that required Sony devices or technology to be played, including the cassette and the CD, for which Sony owned a portion of the copyright

Dr.Dre

- the most important producer on the wet coast and the prototypical rap business person - G-Funk a hip hop subgenre from 1992 to 1996 associated with dr.dre and death row records - the chronic widely regarded as one of the most important albums of the 1990s, and one of the best-produced hip hop records - dr.dre launches the career of snoop, produced his first record

James brown (1933-2006)

- the most influential musician of the 20th century - prolific singer, songwriter, bandleader, and producer - nicknames: "the godfather of soul", "soul brother #1", "the hardest working man in show business" - brought ecstatic gospel singing-style to pop music - seminal force in the evolution of soul and funk, and influenced countless genres: afro-beat, rock, jazz, reggae, disco, electronic, and hip-hop - renowned for his shouting vocals, feverish dancing and thrilling live performances - most sampled musician in history

The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

- the most influential rock album of all time - 900 hours of studio time over 4 months - direct response to the Beach Boys' pet sounds - studio construction - popularized by psychedelic use - innovative in every sense - turned teen pop music into art - concept album - soundtrack to the hippy movement and the summer of love in 1967

disco sucks

- the popularity of disco led to a "disco sucks" campaign coordinated by white male rock fans - rock fans called disco "inauthentic" because of its focus on producers, DJs, synthesizers, singles, and "non-live" performances - rock fans didn't like "music for dancing", nor having their favourite artists pushed off the charts - thinly veiled racism/homophobia - the disco beat and sound gets appropriated by rock bands in the 1970s who wished to remain current and commercially viable - backlash from many rock fans when guitar-based bands used disco sounds, but many of the songs became big hits - disco becomes and important part of hip hop music in the late 1970s and techno a few years later

Chaka Khan

- the queen of funk - singer, bassist, drummer - began career in Chicago in the 1970s as the lead singer for the funk band rufus - went solo in 1978 - member of the black panthers at the height of the civil rights movement in the late 1960s - brought virtuosic gospel style singing to funk grooves - influential in funk, disco, soul, and jazz

Howlin' Wolf

- the rolling stones producer - recorded early hit little red rooster

copyright

- the song: in the form of the details represented on the sheet music (is intellectual property, the arrangement or interpretation is not) - songs "owned" by songwriters, recordings of the songs "owned" by record labels - the conception is at odds with the modern reality of recording as the dominant means of transmission and creation of popular music - remains a point of contention in contemporary copyright law - covering songs was normal practice in the 1950s, as since the Tin Pan Alley era it was not expected in the pop music business that singers would be writing their own songs - black artists/labels typically did not enjoy the legal protection that big white-owned labels did

hip hop methodology

- the story of pop music since the mid-1980s has been the influence of hip hop production styles on popular music - pop music continually borrows the sound of hip hop and rap music, usually replacing the "rapping" with singing - hip hop music production innovations: using drum loops derived from samples and/or drum machines, building songs from pre-exisitng songs, privileging electronic "artificial" sounds over traditional instruments, building songs on rhythms and bass lines rather than chord progressions, elevating the importance of the bass, treating the voice as a sound to manipulate

college folk music

- the urban folk-pop tradition continued to grow in the 1950s, appealing to younger and older white audiences who weren't interested in rock n' roll - folk music connects to notions of a simpler past, authenticity, "realness", maturity and resistance to commercialism - folk/acoustic music a consistent undercurrent in musical culture, occasionally bubbles up to the mainstream - college folk groups made LPs rather than singles before it was standard in rock

the standard and tin pan alley

- tin pan alley song styles still popular in 1950s - Tin Pan Alley songs became known as "standards": songs that are known by the majority of the mainstream population, follow a familiar formula, not attached to particular artists, performed by many different artists - Tin Pan Alley pop song model: professional songwriters and producers crafting songs for musicals, movies and artists - the tine pan alley "song factory" system continues to shape pop music (we don't expect pop artists to write their own songs

late 1940s

- top 40 charts emerge in early 1940s, modelled on the juke box - radio the primary way that people consumed music and that hits were created - record companies saturated the market trying to get hits - new music markets developed in the 1940s (country, R&B, swing; niche marketing) - african-americans spent on average twice as much on music as white Americans, even though they had less disposable income

the mainstream - girl groups

- tradition of female groups of three or more singers continues from the 1960s - modelled on the brill building and Motown girl groups of the 1960s: the ronettes and the supremes - added element of elaborate dance choreography, sexualized image - some groups assembled by producers and song writers, others are more self-contained - standard pop song forms with a R&B and hip hop elements, and occasionally lyrics addressing issue of gender equality: "girl power"

chicago soul (curtis mayfield)

- type of soul music from 1960s Chicago that featured: sweet vocal harmonies, multiple lead singers, laid-back restrained singing style (falsetto), pop sensibility influenced by motown, height clean rhythm guitar, string orchestra, no instrumental solos, quietly funky, politically conscious lyrics - classic Chicago soul by Curtis mayfield: people get ready & we're a winner (both songs became civil rights anthems)

the max Martin formula

- verse 1 - pre-chorus - chorus - verse 2 - pre-chorus - chorus - bridge/breakdown - chorus x2

The 1990s (the age of alternative)

- very difficult to determine the boundaries between the pop mainstream and the margins in the 1990s - diverse range of artists topped the charts - the idea of "alternative" or "marginal" music became a marketing term for a mass audience interested in novelty, excitement, and a sense of authenticity - major corporations accept the independent labels as their de facto research and development wings, and incest more money in monitoring local scenes for successful talent

Whitney Houston

- virtuosic singer drawn from the African-american church music scene - starts the trend of the R&B diva, "big singers" in pop music - most awarded singer of all time, 200 million records sold - only artist to have 7 consecutive #1 hits - crossed-over from R&B to pop, broke the colour barrier for black women on MTV - dance-pop style that melded drum machines, synths, and synth bass with emotive, gospel-infused vocals - cited as a key influence by almost all pop singers - troubled personal life, died tragically in 2012

responses to streaming

- when ed sheeran's album was released in 2017, thanks to streaming every song on the album was in the top 20 in the UK - drake's 2018 album scorpio may be as long as it is because artists make more money the more streams they get (scorpio was streamed 170 million times on its day of release) - Beyoncés 2016 album lemonade did not have a hard copy version until long after its release (the only way to hear it was on tidal, or to buy a digital version) - Beyoncés strategy to make money in the streaming era: release a video album to drum up fan interest, put together a huge show to make money on concert tours - unclear it artists will be able to sustain their profit margins in the future, or how much of their income will come from music, once record companies don't control the flow of music

The Beatles - I want to hold your hand (1963)

- written with the American market in mind - heavily promoted in the US by capital - first #1 Beatles record in US, launched the british invasion - produced by George Martin at abbey road studios - style brings back 1950s rock n' roll - novel chord progression; dual lead and vocal harmonies; falsetto screams - tin pan alley AABA song form

Taylor swift

- young singer/songwriter who identified as a country artist - obvious country markers are absent in later music, but are clear on first records - appealed to a younger generation of fans, drawing them to country music - disappointed many fans by "going pop"

singer-songwriter

-1960s/70s genre characterized by acoustic-based performers who write and sing their own songs - outgrowth of folk music revival - focus on authentic, unmediated, expression (story telling songs) - stripped-down acoustic based accompaniment - focus on lyrics and melody not instrumental prowess or music production - informal folk-like performance style - mature adult themes - acoustic guitar & piano

Altamont music festival (1969)

-A music festival also known as Woodstock West -hired Hell's Angels as security -everyone was high, and some people died after trying to get on stage, one was beat to death by Hell's Angels - free concert, 300,000 attendees

the mainstreaming of hip hop

1990: - MC hammer releases please hammer dont hurt em, #1 for 21 weeks, sold 10 million copies - very accessible pop sound, with non-threatening, inspirational lyrics and imagery in the videos - criticized for lack of skills as a rapper, and for selling out - opened doors for other "pop" rap artists - hit single "you cant touch this" 1991: - vanilla ice releases to the extreme, sells 11 million copies - controversial for: being white, from a middle class background, from the south, and lacking "street cred" - appealed to a white audience, the "rap Elvis" - opened doors for other white "rap" artists

Rock realism

Pete Townshend wrote about growing up, being working class, and child sexual abuse

The internet and MP3

the big business collapse - MP3 - file compression algorithm that allows for the reduction of an audio file to a fraction of its actual size - MP3 technology hated by record companies because it was developed by software engineers completely outside of the music industry, unlike LPs, cassettes, and CDs digital technology freed music from the media on which it used to be carried, the sale of which could be controlled by corporations - digital technology wiped out nearly overnight the main revenue stream of big pop artists - entertainment corporations have been struggling to get back to the huge profits they made before 2000