chapter 1: themes and streams of American popular music _

lyrics

the words of a song

Francisco Canaro

-Performer and composer of the tango -Early 20th century -Bandleader of "Quinteto Pirincho" -Violinist

hook

A "catchy" or otherwise memorable musical phrase or pattern.

old-time music

A category that comprises string band music (ranging from fiddle and banjo duets to larger dance ensembles with guitar, mandolin, and autoharp); ballad songs, performed with or without instrumental accompaniment; sacred songs and church hymns; and a variety of functionally specialized music genres such as lullabies and work songs.

musical process

A formal analysis of the way popular music actually sounds.

Consider the following statement and choose the best response: "musicians like ai Jolson, Pat Boone, and Bessie Smith were more popular during their lifetimes than in subsequent generations, but their contributions to music paved the way for the more enduring legacies of musicians like Louis Armstrong and Chuck Berry." A ) The statement is true. B) the statement is false because Bessie Smith belongs in the category of enduring legacies alongside Armstrong and Berry. C ) The statement is false because Berry straddle both categories, with record sales far out pacing Boone's. D ) the statement is false because Al Jolson was a producer and musical entrepreneur not a performer

B

Tune families

Borrowed lyrics fit into many old-time songs because the tunes of various songs could be interchanged in the flow of performance.

James Gideon (gid) Tanner

Chicken farmer and fiddler from northern Georgia who founded and led the Skillet Lickers beginning in 1926.

Formal Analysis

Listening for musical structure, its basic building blocks, and the ways in which these blocks are combined

String band tradition

Old-time string bands drew on the traditions that English, Scots, Irish, and welsh immigrants brought with them to America.

Jean Ritchie

Performer of Barbary Allen. Folk singer and song collector. Kentucky Appalachian style and dialect.

gospel music l

Religious-themed popular music performed by both white and African American musicians. White groups such as the Carter Family performed restrained versions of traditional American hymns. Black groups drew their inspiration from the enthusiastic, deeply felt singing of black church choirs.

Carlos Gardel

Sings La Cumparasita. Responsible for the internationalization of the tango.

groove

Term originally employed by jazz, rhythm and blues, and funk musicians to describe the channeled flow of swinging, "funky," or "phat" rhythms

Rhythm

The musical organization of time.

Polyrhythmic

The simultaneous sounding of rhythms of two or more contrasting meters, such as 3 against 2, or 5 against 4 • Polyrhythms are found in abundance in African and Asian music and their derivatives.

African American slaves used language about Canaan, the promised land in the Bible, as a code when planning to escape their bondage ano flee to the northern states or canada a) true B) false

A

Dink Roberts

"Coo Coo" Af. Am music: call and response, syncopation, etc. Banjoist and songster known for his repertoire of songs and playing technique learned from older players and crossing the official color line intended to separate blacks and whites in rural North Carolina.

"Timbre" is used to describe the quality or 'tone color' of a given sound A) true B) false

A

Spirituals

Sacred songs that originated in breakaway movements such as that of the separatist baptists, who believed that their musical texts, like their religious expression, should be intensely personal, exuberant, and free from doctrinal restraints.

Montuno

Spanish term for a formal section within a performance of afro-cuban dance music (such as rumba, mambo, or salsa) • The montuno, generally the second half of a given piece, alternates a fixed vocal refrain (the Coro) with a solo vocal improvisation (the pregón), and may also include instrumental solos.

old-time music

Folk and popular styles from immigrants from other parts of Europe.

Sharecroppers

Former slaves, denied opportunities for advancement by the imposition of laws enforcing racial segregation became share croppers. They farmed on land owned by former slave masters. Purchases for farming and the landowner's Shane were deducted and the sharecropper kept the difference, or added to dept.

Consider the following statement and choose the best response: "African slaves in the Americas drew on a rich variety of cultural traditions from a huge region of the African continent to create a coherent S resilient culture of their own, which included an array of musical genres and styles including story songs, instrumental pieces used to accompany dances, and spirituals" a) the statement is true. B) the statement is false because African slaves came from a narrow band of western African lands with a homogeneous culture. C ) the statement is false because there was no tradition of instrumental music among African American culture D) the statement is false because spirituals were a product of early Irish immigrant culture.

A

Rq # 5_ what are some examples of the relationship between music and identity in American popular music?

Alot of popular music are closely tied up with stereotypes. People who listen to a certain kind of music are assumed to be a certain kind of way

Soldier's Joy

Also known as "The king's head," one of the most venerable, popular, and widely distributed fiddle tune in old-time repertoire.it is believed to have originated in Scotland.

Dance music

An important area of American popular music shaped by European influence. Country dances were popular, and in the USA developed into a plethora of variants, both Urban and rural, elite and working class, black and white.

From 1999 to 2009, what drastic shift changed the music industry? A) widely available internet-based recording technology rendered the "recording studio" obsolete. B) hip-hop music began to explore overtly political themes. C ) internet-based digital sales technologies, such as Apple's online iTunes Store. D) The seattle-based "grunge" movement became popular, replacing punk and metal.

C

Arranger

a person who adapts (or arranges) the melody and Chords of a song to exploit the capabilities and instrumental resources of a particular musical ensemble. For example, a simple pop tune written originally for voice and piano may be arranged for a jazz "big band" with many horns and a rhythm section.

dance music

closely modeled on styles imported from England and the Continent

Timbre

The "tone color" or characteristic sound of an instrument or voice, determined by its frequency and overtone components. Timbre is the aspect of sound that allows us, for example, to differentiate between the sound of a violin and the sound of a flute when both. Instruments are playing the same pitch.

Rq #2 _ every aspect of popular music that is today regarded as American in character has sprung from three broad "streams." what are the three streams?

The 3 streams are: 1 ) the European stream , 2) the African American stream, 3) the Latin American stream.

Rq #1 _ what are the main "themes" that will be studied in this book, and now do they relate to the history of American popular music?

The themes are: 1 ) listening 2 ) music and identity (individuality, gender, and race) 3) music and technology 4 ) the music business 5 ) centers and peripheries

British ballad tradition

Tradition of ballad songs from Great Britain which was brought to America. Many ballads in this tradition are published in Francis J. Child's five-volume English and Scottish popular ballads.

a cappella

sung without instrumental accompaniment

A and r ( artists and repertoine)

the department of a record company whose responsibility is to discover and cultivate new musical talent and to find material for the artists to perform— Naturally, with an eye toward commercial potential . As many artists today write and record their own material, the latter function of a& r has atrophied to some extent.

If a piece of music contains several verses that tell a story sung to repeating musical material, it would best be described as what? A)a strophic ballad B) a broadside chorus C )a strophic spiritual D) an operatic aria

A

What piece is a hugely popular example of the importation of the Cuban 'contradanzá into European art music? A ) "habanera" from bizet'S opera, Carmen B) The finale of Beethoven's ninth symphony C ) Aaron Copland's "fanfare for the common man" D) The overture to Verdi's operatic masterpiece, Don Giovanni

A

Rq #4 _ what is a ballad? Typically, what musical form does a ballad follow?

A ballad is a type of song in which a series of verses telling a story, often about a historical event or personal tragedy, are song to a repeated melody.it follows the musical form of a strophic (a song form that employs the same music for each poetic unit in the lyrics)

Broadsides

A ballad that is printed on a single sheet of paper; popular from the 17th trough the 19th centuries. Broadsides were an early form of sheet music.

Call-and-response

A characteristic feature of much African American music in which musical forces alternate with one another, usually in quick succession; these forces may be a solo singer with a chorus or backing group, sung lines with guitar or band passages, an instrumental solo with a larger instrumental group, or other groupings. This form of expression is a characteristically African phenomenon in its origins.

Producer

A person engaged either by a recording artist, or, more often, a record company, who directs and assists the recording process. The producer's duties may include securing the services of session musicians deciding on arrangements making technical decisions motivating the artist creatively; helping to realize the artistic vision in a commercially viable ways and not unimportantly, ensuring that the project comes in under budget.

composer

A person who creates a peice of music. Although the term may be used to describe the creators of popular songs, it is more commonly applied to those who create more extended, formally notated works of music.

Lyricist

A person who supplies the poetic text (lyrics) to a piece of vocal music; not necessarily the composer

Dialect

A regional speech variant; one may allude to regional musical "dialects" to describe stylistic variants of the same basic musical genre, as with Mississippi delta blues or East Texas blues.

Chorus

A repeating section within a song consisting of a fixed melody and lyric that is repeated exactly each time that it occurs, typically following one or more verses.

Strophic

A sig form that employs the same music for each poetic unit in the lyrics. __ a simple musical forma [ l: A : l] same melody l different lyrics

Riff

A simple, repeating melodic idea or pattern that generates rhythmic momentum; typically played by the horns or the piano in a jazz ensemble, or by an electric guitar in a rock'n' roll context.

Ballad

A type of song consisting usually of verses set to a repeating melody (see strophic form) in which a strong, often romantic, historic, or tragic, in sung in narrative fashion.

Mississippi John hurt

African American guitarist representative of the songster tradition. He recorded Stagolee

Lightning Washington

African American musician who recorded the work song "Long John" in 1934 with fellow convicts. In the prison he was @- it was a work song.

Black spirituals

African American slaves forged alternative interpretations of spirituals that bone double meanings of religious salvation and freedom from slavery

What is "critical listening"? A) searching lyrics for objectionable content for purposes of censorship. B) listening to the several "tracks" that make up a recording and deciding how to balance their volume and distribution r an essential skill for studio personnel C ) consciously seeking meaning in music by drawing on knowledge about both musical and historical elements. D) developing language to discuss why certain music is of no interest to you

C

Which of the following statements is an example of the interaction between advancing technology and qualitative nostalgia in popular music? A) "I wish Elvis Presley's estate would re-master his early recordings to get rid of that "slap-back" echo" B) "I think Louis Armstrong was a better trumpet player than miles bavis." a "I prefer analog recordings to digital because the tone is so much richer and warmer." D) "I didn't like any of the MTV unplugged series."

C

Which is the best-known of the English "ballad operas"? A) Kurt weill'S street scene B) Benjamin britten'S Peter Grimes C ) John Gay's The beggar's opera D) Thomas Tallis 'S book of common prayer

D

Rq #3 _ what are some musical elements of European, African, and Latin music that have influenced American popular music?

European- ballads, dance music , folk music, gospel music, old time music, British ballad tradition, string band tradition African- slavery topic, work songs, lullabies, game songs, story songs, _ Black spirituals , call-and-response, riffs, polyrhythmic textures, backbeat, wide palette of tone colors,banjo, Latin - Cuban contradanza , the Tengo. , the rumba , cha-cha -cha: alot of dances:, mariachi, dance + language

Jose ("el Negro") Ricardo

Guitarist who worked with Carlos Gardel and demonstrated the importance of Afro-Argentine musicians in the tango tradition.

Verses

In general usage, this term refers to a group of lines of poetic text, often rhyming, that usually exhibit regularly recurring metrical patterns. In the verse - refrain song, the verse refers to an introductory section that precedes the main body of the song, the refrain.

Backbeat

In rock music, the accenting of the 2nd and 4th beat of a four -beat bar.

Folk music

In the most general sense, music that is orally transmitted and closely bound up with the daily lives and customs of local communities. More specifically, a popular style of the late 1950s and early 1960s (sometimes called urban folk music) featuring guitar playing singer/songwriters who often addressed topical issues. Bob Dylan began his career as a folk singer.

"Barbara Allen"

One of the most widely performed examples of the British ballad tradition, first definitively documented in London in 1666.