MUSC

Riff (example)

"Smoke on the Water"

Style

A band's own sonic blueprints. Category/type of music.

Tin Pan Alley

A particular style of writing music. Found in New York, New York. Their job was to write music and it became the center of songwriting in America from about 1885-1945. Composers and lyricists hoped to make money through publishing rights, the idea was to write music that would be performed by a variety of artists and sold as sheet music.

Reverberation

Adds wide depth to the sound. "Pipeline" is an example. Used to create a pocket of empty sound.

Country

Appalachian region and southeast US.

"That's All Right Mama" (Original)

Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, 1946. Urban blues style.

"Shake, Rattle and Roll" (Original)

Big Joe Turner, 1954. Twelve bar blues throughout. This song was very risque. Very male dominated centric. Referred to as hokum blues. Appealed to younger audiences.

"Shake, Rattle and Roll" (Cover Version)

Bill Haley, 1954. Released the same year as Big Joe Turner's version. Nothing dangerous about their appearance. Sounds more rehearsed. Vocal delivery is more clean and articulate. Lyrics are a lot less risque and misogynistic.

"Blue Moon of Kentucky" (original)

Bill Monroe, 1947. All instruments representative of country music. High nasal sounding voice. A song you could waltz to.

"Peggy Sue"

Buddy Holly, 1957. Was influenced by the rock and roll style or Chuck Berry. Showed that nerds could be popular. Established his own sound which was important for listeners and practitioners of music.

Treble Effect

Changing in Volume

"The Twist"

Chubby Checker, 1960. Introduced the dance craze style of music. 12-bar blues progression. Anybody could do this dance.

"Johnny B Goode"

Chuck Berry, 1958. Starts off with recognizable guitar rift. 12 bar blues. Wrote their own songs in early rock and roll because that's where the money was. The guitar solo had come from many similar earlier songs.

Lyrics

Common for people to focus on this when they're listening to songs. Meaning of the song.

Compound AABA form

Comprised of 4 distinct sections, each A section is made up of a verse/chorus pair. The inclusion of a B section distinguishes it from verse-chorus form. We see a lot of this in the 60s and 70s.

Verse

Contains the narrative portion of the song, where the story unfolds.

Major record labels in the 50s

Decca, RCA-Victor, Columbia, Mercury, Captital, MGM

Distortion

Degrading our original sound

Timbre

Describes the quality of sound.

"Blue Moon of Kentucky" (Cover)

Elvis Presley, 1954. More of a bluesy style of music compared to Bill Monroe's. Not a song you could waltz to.

"That's All Right (Mama)" (Cover)

Elvis Presley, 1954. Was a cover of Crudup's song. This was his first single released. Was blues as well but he didn't have the same rasp as Crudup. There is no drum set in the song, strong rhythmic element comes from the standing bass.

Rockabilly

Elvis or Cash. Blend of western musical styles such as country and rock and roll.

Crossover Success

Elvis's early songs (Blue Moon of Kentucky, That's Alright Mama, etc.). Was able to bring songs over from other genres to make it their own.

"Blueberry Hill"

Fats Domino, 1956. R&B version of a song originally sang by the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Has the same lyrics, Domino had much more of a swing or rhythm and blues element. Simple band with a piano as opposed to a pop orchestra.

Skiffle

Form of British popular music, which was a form of British folk music that was rawing heavily from blues music styles in the United States.

Big Bands

From 1935 to 1945 were the most popular musical group coming out of swing and jazz and appealed to a mainstream musical audience. Leader would head orchestra. There would be vocal parts for the main leaders, but the main interest was in the instrumental portion of the song.

George and Ira Gershwin

George was composer and Ira was lyricist, wrote "I Got Rhythm", "Embraceable You," "Someone to Watch Over Me." A part of tin pan alley.

"I Heard it Through the Grapevine" (Cover)

Gladys Knight and the Pips, 1967. Comes from a female point of view, change of pronouns.

"A Mansion on the Hill"

Hank Williams, 1947. Was the first superstar of country music. Lap steel guitar gave it a Hawaiian sound. Very different instrumentation from the large ensembles heard in pop. Reflected the values on narrative in country music.

Dick Clark

Host of American Banstand

The Wrecking Crew

House band at the Gold Star recording studios in LA. Responsible for helping to create a lot of music. Phil Spector's famed "Wall of Sound" productions.

Payola Scandal

In Nov. 1959 the house special subcommittee ruled against a number of radio statios and on air personalities most of whom were closely connected with rock and roll and rhythm and blues music and musicians. ASCAP did this to BMI.

Urban Blues

In more urban areas like memphis, chicago, and new york. Muddy Waters, Big Joe Turner, Ray Charles. Less crude and more rehearsed. Full band.

Riff

Is a musical glue that is repeated throughout the entire song. Example "Smoke on the Water" (1972).

Fuzz Pedal

Is a type of distortion pedal that has a super high fain output that flattens the signal to make it fuzzy.

"Folsom Prison Blues"

Johnny Cash, 1956. We hear the strong country and western instruments and vocal performance. The danger would have appealed to younger kids. Emphasis on dangerous music. Rockabilly musical style.

Brill Building

Later version of tin pan Alley but mostly for girl groups such as the crystals and the ronnettes.

"I'm Sitting on Top of the World"

Les Paul and Mary Ford, 1953. What's unique is the sound of the guitar, it has a high pitched sound that sounded artificial. He used sound on sound recording technology. He would play back the tape at half speed and then play the solo over it so then at normal speed it would sound twice as fast. He was important to overdubbing. Was a Tin Pan Alley Song.

Overdubbing

Les Paul. "I'm Sittin on Top of the World"

"Long Tall Sally"

Little Richard, 1956. Featured a sax. Known for his howling ohs in his songs. Realized he could make more money writing his own songs. Example of Hokum Blues.

Trebel Effect

Lowers and raises the volume to get this rhythmic stuttering effect with it.

Tube Amplifier

Makes louder by sending sound through tubes but if you push past capability it leads to feedback-leads to a distorted timbre.

Brian Epstein

Manager of The Beetles. Often called the 5th member.

"I Heard it Through the Grapevine" (Original)

Marvin Gaye, 1968. Song comes from the male point of view, change of pronouns. Slower temp and darker. Released his version after Gladys made it popular.

Bridge

Musical contrast during a song. "Look For Me (I'll Be Around)"

Acoustic Guitar

Needed amplification in order to be heard on an external microphone. Was an accompanying instrument because no one really could hear it. Hollow body guitar.

Simple Verse

No contrasting sections; entire form built on the same music. ("Too Much Monkey Business")

Folk Rock

Often spoke to the general public/working class about current issues. Bob Dylan with his harmonica.

Frank Sinatra

One of the artists that helped to focus on the singer and not the band. 1940's became one of the most popular singers.

Blackboard Jungle

One of the most controversial films of controversial youth culture at this time. It dealt with teenage delinquency.

BMI

Performing rights organization, was the same as ASCAP but for rhythm and blues, rock and roll and country and western artists. Made more money than ASCAP.

Sheet Music

Primary economic source for songwriters

George Martin

Producer of The Beetles

Timbre (with example)

Quality of sound, Mick Jagger vs Sinatra, dirty vs. clean.

Contrasting Verse Chorus

Repeated sections of lyrics (that usually contain the song title); music is different from surrounding verses. ("Smoke on the Water")

Simple Verse-Chorus

Repeated sections of lyrics (that usually contain the song title); music same throughout. ("Born in the USA")

Hokum Blues

Risky, male centric songs with sexual innuendos, shake rattle and roll.

Rural Blues

Robert Johnson "Cross Road Blues" accompanying himself with his own instrument. Acoustic. More crude and less rehearsed.

Andrew Oldham

Rolling Stone's Manager

Who signed Elvis?

Sam Phillips, Sun Studios.

Electric Guitar

Solid Body guitar

Twelve Bar Blues

Subdivided into three groups of four. Common in a lot of early music. "Too Much Monkey Business"

Time Change

Taking sound a repeating it back

"Surfin' U.S.A."

The Beach Boys, 1963. Ripped off from Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen". Surf music from the west coast. Was considered disposable music.

"I want to Hold Your Hand"

The Beatles, 1963. Their first number one hit in the U.S. Had hand clapping which was very much a girl group thing to do at the time. Popular in US because they applied British accents to songs.

"A Hard Day's Night"

The Beatles, 1964. Introduced the twelve string guitar. First album. All of the songs were about puppy love and were very disposable.

"Eleanor Rigby"

The Beatles, 1966. Was a much more serious song, which wasn't characteristic of The Beetles. String orchestra.

"Pipeline"

The Chantays, 1963. Purely instrumental. Very beachy but dark sound. Claustrophobic sound. Emphasized the idea of reverberation. Made you feel like you were in the pipeline of a wave.

"There Goes My Baby"

The Drifters, 1959. Produced by Leiber and Stoller who were known for their ability to create unique sounds. Orchestra provides with strings the music. One of the early songs in which the producers made the song with its individual sound.

"You Really Got Me"

The Kinks, 1964. Culmination of the elements of a Rolling Stones-baed British Invasion band.

"The Last Time"

The Rolling Stones, 1965. First song written by The Rolling Stones on their own. Focused on the roots of American Blues.

"Be My Baby"

The Ronettes, 1963. Produced by Phil Spector with the help of The Wrecking Crew. They were known as "the wall of sound".

"Will You Love me Tomorrow"

The Shirelles, 1960. Produced by Goffin and King. Represents a more mature relationship than the one previously written (something more than a one night stand), because this one was written by a women. Primary audience were teenage girls that can empathize with the lyrics.

"My Generation"

The Who, 1965. "Hope I Die Before I get Old". Focused on celebrating idea of teenage rebellion. Sounds less polished than the Beatles. Riff based. vocal timbres. Bass Solo.

"Heart Full of Soul"

The Yardbirds, 1965. Replaced Eric Clapton with Jeff Beck. Beck's use of a fuzz box made the guitar sound a lot like the sitar which is key in psychedelic music.

Chorus

The section of music that has the song title that is repeated exactly the same more often than not. The chorus interrupts these different verse sections.

Western

Western and southwestern U.S.

Mike Stoller and Jerry Lieber

Worked with Drifters on their song "There Goes my Baby"

Goffin and King

Worked with Shirelles on "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?"

ASCAP

oldest performing rights organization. Signed mainstream pop artists. Started the Payola Scandal.