Rock Music Styles A History Ch 6

Ray Charles

(1930-2004) blind from glaucoma from six. Learned piano, trumpet, saxophone, and clarinet. Learned to read and write music in braille and studied composition. Incorporated gospel elements into his R&B style which made his style "soul" music.

James Brown

(1933-2006) poor upbringing dancing on street corners for tips. In mid twenties became front man for gospel group The Swanes, that later changed to the Famous Flames when they went secular. His dramatic and energetic vocal embellishments fit well into his wild stage act, which involved rhythmic dance steps, leg splits, and drops to his knees

Sam Cooke

(1935-64) Had successful gospel group, the Soul Stirrers. Went secular with a pseudonym for fear of being called a sell-out. Sort of a teen idol for African american teens. Shot and killed in a motel by a woman who said he attacked her.

Marvin Gaye

(1939-84) A preacher's son from Washington, D.C., he had been singing gospel music and playing the organ since his youth. Berry Gordy Jr. heard him with the Moonglows while they were on tour in Detroit and invited him to record as a soloist for Motown. Soon after joining the Motown family, he also joined the Gordy family by marrying Anna Gordy, Berry's sister. Without a doubt, his most important statement to the world was "What's Going On" (1971).

Otis Redding

(1941-1967) ) became the biggest-selling singer at Stax Records. His vocal style was reminiscent of both the aggressiveness of Little Richard and the crooning sound of Sam Cooke, to which he added a tremendous amount of emotional energy. Biggest hit, "Sittin on the Dock of the Bay," recorded only three days before his death in a plane crash.

Wilson Pickett

(1941-2006) was born in Alabama but moved to Detroit, where he sang gospel music with the Violinaires. In 1959, at age nineteen, he abandoned his gospel-style grunts and shouts to sing rhythm and blues ballads with the Falcons. His old gospel vocal style returned when Jerry Wexler, his producer on the Atlantic label, sent him to record in Memphis.

"Please, please, please"

1956 James Brown, doo-wop influenced backup style, chord progression, and triplet piano style. Brown uses rythmically free vocal style with extensive use of melismas. Story is one of a singer begging for sex.

"What I'd Say"

1959 Ray Charles, call and response with backup singers incorporated. 12 bar blues structure in sections with vocals. song about one thinking of sex with allusions to dancing.

"In the Midnight Hour"

1965 Wilson Pickett backed by Booker T and the MGs. Major chords played by horns and sax in background against a constant rhythm. Story is man looking forward to sex in the midnight hour.

International Talent Management Incorporated

A sort of finishing school set up by Barry Gordy to polish Af Am artists. Maxine Powell, an African American woman who owned the Maxine Powell Finishing and Modeling School, to train Motown's performers to drop the African American modes of walking, speaking, and dancing with which they had grown up and to adopt the sense of grace and style that would be expected of members of the white upper class.

Steve Cropper

Booker T and the MGs guitarist, he was an important songwriter in the Memphis soul style, often collaborating with others to write several of the biggest hits of the soul movement. His guitar style added a country flavor to the soul style.

Stevie Wonder

Born 1950, One of the first to earn the freedom to write and produce his recordings at Motown. He got married, moved to New York, and made some significant changes in his writing and production styles. The changes were influenced by many of the same funk stylings that Norman Whitfield used in his productions for the Temptations in the late sixties.

Important soul music record production companies before Motown

Chess and Vee Jay in Chicago, Stax and Volt in Memphis, and Atlantic Records in New York.

Atlantic Records

Co-producers and writers Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler at this record company in New York were responsible for much of the success of soul singers Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, and many others. Ertegun and Herb Abramson formed this company in 1947, some time before the birth of rock- influenced soul music. From the late fifties through the sixties, was one of the primary distributors of soul music in the United States

Barry Gordy Jr.

Founder of what was first Hitsville and would become Motown, named for the Motor City, Detroit. cognition of Detroit's nickname, the "Motor City." Through the period of racial unrest and riots of the sixties, Motown artists sang of love and other human concerns with which people of all races, religions, and political beliefs could identify. He cultivated in his performers a sophisticated image, helping to bring respect and self-esteem to the African Americans who saw them as role models.

Funk Brothers

Important Motown backup band, background in playing jazz and rhythm and blues made the Motown sound different from previous doo-wop or soul recordings because it pushed them to be more active in their individual parts while not covering the singers.

Memphis Soul

In the sixties, musicians in Memphis took the gospel-based vocal styles of singers like James Brown and Jackie Wilson and combined them with the energetic rhythm and blues style of Little Richard to create their own brand of soul music. Most of the Memphis soul artists began their careers recording for the Memphis- based record company Stax or its companion label, Volt.

"What's Goin On?"

Marvin Gaye 1971, Gaye's vocals are accompanied by a very thickly arranged orchestra that includes the Funk Brothers and a group of backup singers. The electric bass and drums stand out in the instrumental accompaniment.

Booker T and the MGs

Music group that played backup for many of the Memphis soul recordings. Resulted in a fairly consistent instrumental sound across much of Memphis soul music.