Music 008 Vocabulary

Hillbilly Music

"Country or Western Music" or simply "Country Music" developed mostly of folk songs, ballads, dance music of immigrants from the British Isles.

Honky-Tonk Music

"Hard country" "Beer drinking music" a style conveyed the sounds and ethos of the roadside bar or juke point.

Soldiers Joy

"The Kings Head" one of the most venerable, popular, and widely distributed fiddle tunes in the old time repertiore

Punk Rock

"back to basics"

Black Spirituals

19th Century, music of African American communities comprised an array of genres and styles including work songs; lullabies and game songs; story songs; and various instrumental types of music used to accompany dances and other important social events. (black slaves)

Reverb

A special effect applied to an audio signal to make it sound as if you're now hearing that sound in a tunnel or some other different room, with some depth and a bit of echo.

Verse Refrain

AABA refrain

Bridge

B Section, presents new material- a new melody, chord changes, and lyrics.

Territory Bands

Bennie Moten Orchestra and Andy Kirk's Blue Devils toured the Southwestern US developing hard swinging, powerful style with lots of room for improvised solos.

Chicago electric blues

Electric blues refers to any type of blues music distinguished by the use of electric amplification for musical instruments. The guitar was the first instrument to be popularly amplified and used by early pioneers T-Bone Walker in the late 1930s and John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters in the 1940s.

Jazz Rock

Groups Blood, Sweat and Tears, and chicago, and a variety of hybrid styled of melded rock aesthetics and instrumentation with the harmonic an rhythmic complexity and improvisational virtuosity of contemporary jazz.

Sampled

James Brown// is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a sound recording in a different song or piece.

Formal Analysis

Listening for musical structure, its basic building blocks, and the ways in which these blocks are combined- can tell us a lot about popular music.

Pregon

Machins Performance of "El Manisero" was a variant of the Cuban son called pregon, a vocal improvisation modeled on the calls of street vendors in Havana (STREET SELLER SONG)

Brass Band Concerts

One of the most important musical aspects of American Life. (Civil War through 1910's)

Rockabilly

RCA signed the rockabilly singer Elvis Presley

Spirituals

Types of music most closely associated with this period of body of sacred songs "Great Awakening"

Twelve Bar Blues

a formal concept so important in the history of American Popular Music that it demands our attention. A AND C SECTION

Radio

a new generation of celebrity performers emerged, their faces and voices familiar to the inhabitants of cities, towns, and hamlets stretching from coast to coast.

Tin Pan Alley

a term that evoked the clanging sounds of many pianos simultaneously playing songs in variety of keys and tempos.

Groove

a term that evokes the channeled flow of swinging, funky, or phat rhythms

Salsa

a type of Latin American dance music incorporating elements of jazz and rock. (a hot sauce)

Rock 'n' Roll

a type of popular dance music originating in the 1950s, characterized by a heavy beat and simple melodies. Rock and roll was an amalgam of black rhythm and blues and white country music, usually based on a twelve-bar structure and an instrumentation of guitar, bass, and drums.

Concept Album

an album conceived as an integrated sequence whole, with interrelated songs arranged in a deliberate sequence

Rock Steady

an early form of reggae music originating in Jamaica in the 1960s, characterized by a slow tempo.

Synthesizers

an electronic musical instrument, typically operated by a keyboard, producing a wide variety of sounds by generating and combining signals of different frequencies.

Hip-Hop

break dancing, grafitti, dance etc

Jukeboxes

coin operated record players installed in nightclubs and restaurants

Western Swing

concatenation of country fiddle music, blues, boogie woogie, and swing music

Booking Agencies

corporations formed to represent professional musicians and promote their music. (MCA largest)

Minstrel Show

first form of musical and theatrical entertainment to be regarded by European audiences as distinctively American in character, featured mainly white performers who artificially blacked their skin and enacted parodies of African American music, dance, dress, ad dialect.

Microphone

in 1925, electric recordings, which used a new device (microphone) replaced the older system of acoustic recording, in which performers had to project into a huge megaphone

Tonic

in music is what we refer to as the beginning and ending note of the diatonic scale that is used to compose a piece of music.

Folk Music

music that originates in traditional popular culture or that is written in such a style. Folk music is typically of unknown authorship and is transmitted orally from generation to generation.

British Ballad tradition

one of the main roots of American music and is the predecessor of such diverse genres as urban folk music, country music, and rock&roll

Up Tempo

played with a fast or increased tempo.

Vaudeville

popular theatrical form descended from music hall shows and minstrelsy, had become the most important medium for popularizing Tin Pan Alley songs

Overdubbing

record (additional sounds) on an existing recording.

Payola

record companies paid DJ's to put their music into "heavy rotation" "bribery"

Soft Rock

rock music with a less persistent beat and more emphasis on lyrics and melody than hard rock has.

Strophic

series of verses telling a story, often about historical events or personally tragedy are sun to a repeating melody.

Polyrhythmic

textures produced by many rhythms going on at the same time

Counterpoint

the art or technique of setting, writing, or playing a melody or melodies in conjunction with another, according to fixed rules.

Jump Blues

the first commercially successful category of rhythm & blues, flourished during and just after WW2

Bossa Nova

Brazilian Genre. "New Trend" a blend of samba rhythms, brazil traditions songs, west coast stle of modern jazz.

Latin Soul//Bugalu

Cuba, Puerto Rico, Latin American // Fusions of rumba and manbo with black american popular music, Biggest hit was the "Watermelon Man"

Magnetic tape recording

Developed by German/Japanese. offered a number of advantages over the established methods of recording music. (re-recording parts they didn't like, overdubbing)

Crooning

Development of a singing style reinforced these links between popular music and personal experience

Funk Music

Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid- to late 1960s when African American musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of soul music, jazz, and rhythm and blues (R&B).

Blues crooner

If Jump Bands represented the hot end of the R&B spectrum, the cool end was dominated by the blend of blues and pop singing that was sometimes called the blues crooner style.

Radio Network

In 1906, first radio program started in the US. consisting two musical selections and a poem, was broadcast from an experimental station in MASSACHUSETTS. In 1920, first 3 commercial radio stations in the US established (KDKA in PITTS, WWJ in Detroit, WJZ in Newark, New jersey)

Barbara Allen

Most cases broadsides provided only words to a song, along with an indication of a traditional melody for example, "Greensleeves" "Barbara Allen"

New Wave

Music, which developed alongside punk rock, approached the critique of corporate rock in more self consciously artistic and experimental terms. "Blondie"

Swing

New Style of Jazz-Inspired music. (played by Big Band)

Broadsides

Originally an oral tradition passed down in unwritten form, ballads were eventually circulated on large sheets of paper called=(broadsides)

Race Music

Ralph Peer. The term "race" was used in a positive sense i urban african american communities during the 1920s and was an early example of black nationalism; an individual who wanted to express pride in his heritage might refer to himself as "a race man."

Rhythm & Blues (R&B)

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated as R&B or RnB, is a genre of popular African-American music that originated in the 1940s.

Waltz

Rose to Popularity in the US(1820's), initially regarded as an indecorous exhibition" between men and women, a threat to public morality. End of century, with its lilting triple meter accompaniment; circular movements and smooth, graceful lines, had become the symbol of sophistication and romance.

Country Blues

Sometimes called classic blues - a simple form of blues in which the singer is accompanied by an acoustic guitar.

Conjuntos

Son:lat nineteenth century rural song tradition that migrated to the city where it was performed by groups called CONJUNTOS and the DANZON, a mildly Africanized style of ballroom dance music performed in urban ballrooms by larger, more formal ensembles called ORQUESTAS.

Cantillation

Style of Jewish folk songs and Klezmer. (Chanting of scripture)

Major Key & Minor Keys

The third is what gives major-sounding scales and chords their brighter, cheerier sound, and what gives minor scales and chords their darker, sadder sound.

Verse

The verse usually sets up a dramatic context or emotional tone. Although verses were the most important part of nineteenth century popular music, they were regarded as mere introductions by the 1920's and today the verses of Tin Pan Alley songs are infrequently performed.

Big Bands

a band that is larger than a combo and that usually features a mixture of ensemble playing and solo improvisation typical of jazz or swing

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

Countrypolitian

a fusion of country and cosmopolitan "Nashville Sound"

Soul Music

a kind of music incorporating elements of rhythm and blues and gospel music, popularized by African-Americans.

Gospel Music

a large body of sacred song with texts that reflect aspects of the personal religious experience of Protestant evangelical groups, first appeared in the 1850's in collections published for Sunday schools

Hook

a memorable musical phrase or riff

Blues

a musical genre that emerged in black communities of the deep south- and esp the region from the MISSISSIPPI DELTA TO EAST TEXAS

Melisma

a performance style that involved sighing, sobbing, stretching each syllable of a song out over as many melodic notes as possible.

Disc Jockeys

a person who introduces and plays recorded popular music, especially on radio or at a disco.

A&R (artists and repertoire)

a record companies responsible for talent scouting

Chorus

a repeated melody with fixed text inserted between verses

Riff

a repeated pattern designed to generate rhythmic momentum

Backbeat

a strong accent on one of the normally unaccented beats of the bar, used especially in jazz and popular music.

Rhythm

a strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound. the musical organization of time- is an important focus for performers and listeners within this broad tradition.

Strophes

a structural division of a poem containing stanzas of varying line-length, especially an ode or free verse poem.

Ska

a style of fast popular music having a strong offbeat and originating in Jamaica in the 1960s, a forerunner of reggae.

Reggae

a style of popular music with a strongly accented subsidiary beat, originating in Jamaica. Reggae evolved in the late 1960s from ska and other local variations on calypso and rhythm and blues, and became widely known in the 1970s through the work of Bob Marley; its lyrics are much influenced by Rastafarian ideas.

Bluegrass Music

a style rooted in the venerable southern string band tradition. (Bill Monroe)

Double-Tracking

a technique in which two nearly identical versions of the same vocal or instrumental parts are recorded on top of one another

Producer

convincing the board of directors of a record company to back a particular project, shaping the development of new talent, and often intervening directly in the recording process.

Covering//Cover Version

cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a previously recorded, commercially released song by someone other than the original artist or composer.

Tune Families

in music, group of melodies interrelated by melodic correspondence, particularly in general melodic contour, important intervals, and prominent accented tones. There may be differences of rhythmic pattern, mode, and text among melodies within a group.

Soli

in which all horns play the same melody together in harmony

Stoptime

in which the band stops abruptly for a few beats and one instrument plays a brief solo

Cadence

is "a melodic or harmonic configuration that creates a sense of resolution [finality or pause]." A harmonic cadence is a progression of (at least) two chords that concludes a phrase, section, or piece of music.

Pop Rock

is a fusion genre that mixes a catchy pop style and light lyrics in its (typically) guitar-based rock songs.

Tempo Rubato

is a musical term referring to expressive and rhythmic freedom by a slight speeding up and then slowing down of the tempo of a piece at the discretion of the soloist or the conductor.

Feedback

is a special kind of positive feedback which occurs when a sound loop exists between an audio input (for example, a microphone or guitar pickup) and an audio output (for example, a loudspeaker).

Southern Rock

is a subgenre of rock music and a genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country music, and blues, and is focused generally on electric guitar and vocals. (Marshall Tucker Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the Charlie Daniels Band)

Standards

is a tune or song of established popularity

Distortion

is any process that alters the sound in the harmonic (tone, timbre) domain (An effect used it many rock songs (Think Nirvana) that makes a guitar sound loud, gritty, and much more 'heavy hitting')

Monotuneo

is initiated with a vocal "call" by the lead singer, which is answered by the chorus, establishing a call-and response structure that will dominate the rest of the performance

Bar or Measure

is simply a rhythmic unit of music, consisting of one accented beat followed by one or more unaccented beat.

Progressive Country

movement inspired by the honky tonk and rockabilly amalgam of bakersfield country music. Performers wrote songs that were mere more intellectual and liberal in outlook than those of their contemporaries and were more concerned with testing the limits of the country music tradition than with scoring hits. (Wille Nelson)

Ragtime

music characterized by a syncopated melodic line and regularly accented accompaniment, evolved by black American musicians in the 1890s and played especially on the piano.

Crooners

singers who mastered the electric microphone after its introduction in 1925. (Austin was the first)

Independent record labels (indies)

specializing in hillbilly music also sprang up during the war, particularly in towns as Nashville, Cincinitti, and LA, with their large populations of Southern migrants.

Boogie Woogie

style developed in the environment of the barrelhouses, rowdy nightspots patronized by the men who worked in the lumber and turpentine camps of the area. Pianist usually repeats pattern with his left hand, down in the low range of the piano, while improvising polyrhythmic patterns with his right hand.

Countryculture

the culture and lifestyle of those people, especially among the young, who reject or oppose the dominant values and behavior of society. "Okie from Muskogee"

Top 40 Radio Programming

the idea=another attempt to control the uncertainty of the marketplace- was developed in the early 1950's by Todd Storz (disc jockey)

Timbre

the quality of a sound, sometimes called a "tone color"

Jazz Age

the recordings of ODJB helped to spark an era in American popular culture referred to as the Jazz Age. (ending of Great Depression)

Arrangement

the way in which the song is actually presented in a particular performance, may either delay elements or speed them up

Lyrics

the words of the song

Licensing and Copyright agencies

were set up to control the flow of profits from the sales and broadcast of popular music. (ASCAP)

Arranger

who decides which instruments to use as accompaniment, what key to the song should be in, how many times it should be repeated, and host of other details.

Composer

who writes music

Lyricist

who writes the words to a popular music or musical

Verses

writing arranged with a metrical rhythm, typically having a rhyme.

Mariachi

"Marriage" music played by ensembles consisting of violins, guitars, and two more trumpets.

Syncopation

"irregular" rhythms later became one important source of ragtime music.

Brill Building

(Located at 1619 Broadway) office buildings served as a based of operations, where they worked in little cubicles with pianos, all packed tightly together, turning out songs for large numbers of artist and mostly indie labels.

Vocal Harmony groups

(The Golden Gate Quartet, and secular The Mills Brothers)

Ballad

(part of folk culture) a poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas

Sound Film

(to protect the rights of the composers and music publishers) A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film.