Music quiz #2

Louis Armstrong

one of the most influential and important jazz musicians and vocalist He established certain core features of jazz (the rhythmic drive or swing and the emphasis on solo instrumental virtuosity) and profoundly influenced the development of mainstream popular singing during the 1920s and 1930s.

W.C HANDY and JAMES REESE EUROPE

popular african american bandleaders who composed ragtime arrangements specifically for dancing and white orchestras followed suit

"Race records"

recordings of performances by Af-Am musicians produced mainly for sale to Af-Am listeners

Chicago Electric Blues

Also popular in the postwar era, was derived from the Mississippi Delta tradition but was updated to an electronically amplified form reflecting the new, urban way of life. Muddy Waters aka Mckinley Morganfield began was a Mississippi delta rural blues singer, but after migrating to Chicago, switched to the electric guitar Performing with an expanded band that included a 2nd electric guitar, piano, bass, drums, and amplified harmonica ("blues harp").

Country Music In The Swing Era

Although big bands dominated the pop charts, the appeal of hillbilly music continued to grow between 1935-1945, including to many people not born in the south.

Race Records (contINUED)

A distinct Af-Am musical culture developed across the country and the 1st generation of national black music stars emerged, including Bessie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Robert Johnson.

Southern Gospel Music

A significant part of southern culture is sacred music, and many recordings were commercially successful. There are similarities and significant differences between black and white gospel styles. In the music of The Carter Family, there was no separation between secular and religious music, and they recorded both types extensively. Black gospel artists were expected to perform sacred music only. This division between secular and sacred music remained an important characteristic of Af-Am culture until the 1960s with the emergence of "soul music."

What was the most successful dance band in the 1920s, ran by who?

Ambassador Orchestra led by Paul Whiteman "The King of Jazz"

"Father of the Blues":

W.C. Handy - the most influential of the classic blues composers His biggest hit was the song "St. Louis Blues" released in 1914 by Bessie Smith, a "crossover" hit. -The song synthesizes aspects of all 3 strains of Am popular music: European Am music (Tin Pan Alley song form) -Af-Am music (12-bar blues) -Latin Am music (habanera and tango dance rhythms) -"St. Louis Blues" is a classic example of a 20-century Am popular song.

The Carter Family

This Family is regarded as one of the most important groups in the history of country music. Maybelle, who sang harmony and played an influential style of guitar playing that involved playing the melody on the bass strings while strumming the upper strings on the off-beats for rhythm.

how was jazz music initially regarded by the music industry?

as a passing fad but proved to represent an important cultural shift

What did Jewish immigrants from central and Eastern Europe play a center role in the music business during the early 20th century?

as composers, lyricist, performers, publishers, and promoters

what did "el manicero" paved the way of?

for later developments in latin music such as the rise of salsa in the 1960s

"Hillbilly" or "Old-time"

music was performed by, and mainly intended for sale to southern whites.

"Dippermouth Blues" by King Olivers Creole Jazz Band in 1923

one of the 1st recordings by black musicians from New Orleans

Early Country Music: Hillbilly Records

"Hillbilly music," which later became "country and western music," and then just "country music," developed mainly out of the folk songs, ballads, and dance music of immigrants from the British Isles (England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales) The new medium of radio was crucial to the rapid growth of hillbilly music. The 1st station to feature country artists on a regular basis was WSB in Atlanta. -The musical performers included string bands (some combination of fiddle, guitar, banjo, and mandolin), solo and duet singers, white gospel singers, Hawaiian guitar bands, harmonica players, saw players, whistlers, and yodelers. -Early country music songs provide us with a picture of life in the rural south; a way of life being radically transformed.

Ruth Brown

("Miss Rhythm") came from a background of 2 streams of black church tradition with very different musical approaches: The AME (African Methodist Episcopal) services were relatively restrained, with a piano or church organ accompaniment and Baptist services, more rough around the edges, with ecstatically emotional singing accompanied by only hand clapping and tambourine

Great Depression

(1929-1939) had a major impact on the music industry Record sales plummeted, and many small record companies were wiped out overnight. The race record market was crushed, and the most successful Af-Am musicians were those whose records were featured in mainstream record catalogs, particularly jazz-oriented dance orchestras. Although Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood movies avoided mentioning the hard times, some hillbilly and blues singers did sing songs that chronicled the suffering of the homeless and unemployed.

The original Dixieland Jazz Band

-1st recording was made in NYC in 1917 by a white group from New Orleans -they sparked a national fad for jazz music and their victor recording of "Tiger Rag" in 1918 was their biggest hit. -helped to commercialize a form of music pioneered by African American musicians

George Gershwin

-Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and An American in Paris (1928), as well as the opera, Porgy and Bess (1935). -He wrote most of his vocal and theatrical works, including more than a dozen Broadway shows, in collaboration with his elder brother, lyricist Ira Gershwin. -In 1924, George and Ira Gershwin collaborated on a musical comedy, "Lady Be Good", which included such future standards as "Fascinating Rhythm" and "Oh, Lady Be Good!". -This was followed by "Oh, Kay!", (1926); "Funny Face" (1927); "Strike Up the Band" (1927 and 1930); "Show Girl" (1929); "Girl Crazy" (1930), which introduced the standard "I Got Rhythm"; and "Of Thee I Sing" (1931), the first musical comedy to win a Pulitzer Prize. -In 1924, Gershwin composed his first major classical work, "Rhapsody in Blue" for orchestra and piano. It was orchestrated by Ferde Grofe and premiered by Paul Whiteman's concert band in New York. It proved to be his most popular work. -His most ambitious composition was "Porgy and Bess" (1935). Gershwin called it a "folk opera," and it is now widely regarded as one of the most important American operas of the twentieth century

what are some latin bands?

-Don Azpiazu and his Havana Casino Orchestra and Xavier Cugats Waldorf Astoria Orchestra played music to accompany ballroom adaptations of South American and Carribean dances -Within a year millions of Americans were taking ballroom dance lessons to learn a simplified version of the Cuban rumba

Great Depression - Woody Guthrie

-One of the singers most closely associated with the plight of the American worker -His songs of protest were a direct influence on later urban folk musicians such as The Weavers and Bob Dylan.

What makes a song a "standard"?

-Songs that endure over time continue to get re-recorded with different arrangements and in different styles, and become part of an American repertoire of songs. -Songs such as "My Blue heaven," "April Showers," and "How Deep is the Ocean?" are considered standards. -Another type of standard from this period, with a more complex form and rhythm is George and Ira Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm" -Many standards are used by contemporary jazz musicians as the basis for improvising, and many artists today continue to record standards.

Roy Acuff

-The most popular hillbilly singer of the swing era -His band used instruments derived from the string band tradition including the fiddle, banjo, and guitar.

Race Records (cont)

-The music of race records included a variety of styles (blues, gospel choirs, vocal quartets, string bands, jugband-washboard bands, as well as spoken word performances such as sermons, stories, and comic routines). -The emergence of race records set a pattern that has been repeated in the history of Am popular music many times: -Talented entrepreneurs, often connected with small independent record labels, take the lead in exploring and promoting music outside the mainstream - which eventually in some ways becomes PART of the mainstream. -The big record companies wait several years before they attempt to capitalize on the new trend.

ASCAP, The AFM, And The Decline Of The Big Bands

-The sudden decline of big bands in 1946 had to do with changes in the music business, as well as shifts in popular music away from brassy exuberance toward lushly, orchestrated, sentimental recordings by crooners. -A number of well-known musicians including Glenn Miller were killed in the war. -There were shortages in gas and vehicles, which made it difficult for bands to tour. -There were limits in the supply of shellac needed for pressing records. -The implementation of a midnight curfew and a 20% entertainment tax discouraged people from going out to hear live music -Musicians union strikes and other power struggles between facets of the music business also dealt severe blows to swing bands.

What were Tin Pan Alley (TPA) Songs About?

-Tin Pan Alley songs did not generally deal with troubling issues of the 1920s and 30s such as racism, massive unemployment, and the rise of fascism. Only a few songs even mentioned the Great Depression even though it's estimated 60% of Americans were unemployed. The Tin Pan Alley song (which was a hit) "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" in 1932 stands alone in its serious treatment of the poverty during those times. -Popular songs were designed to help people escape the pressures of daily life. The development of a singing style called "crooning" also reinforced the idea of listening to music as being a personal experience. Due to the development of the microphone, singers no longer had to shout out songs. Crooning is a softer, more intimate style of singing and singers such as Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire became known for their crooning style.

collective improvisation

-players all stimultaneously embellish their parts -another striking feature is the prevalence of syncopation

freak dances turkey trot and tango

-starting around 1910 ragtime songs gave rise to a series of dance fads loosely based on black styles the most popular being fox-trot -popular tin pan alley songs made up the majority of the repertoire -ragtime dances were considered by some to be a threat to public morality

dance team Irene and Vernon Castle

-the biggest media superstars of the years around WW1 -tango, turkey trot and other dances were popularized by them.

what did Paul Whiteman do with jazz?

-widening the market for jazz based music -hiring brilliant young jazz players and arrangers -establishing a level of professionalism -defending jazz againts moral critics -and carrying on aspects of James Europes vision of a symphonic version of jazz -jazz musics attraction as a symbol of sensuality, freedom, and fun transcended the boundaries of region, ethinicity, and class and paved the way for phenomena such as the swing era, rythm and blues and rock n roll.

when was the microphone invented?

1925, it allowed engineers to produce records of better sound quality and allowed a more intimate gentle style of signing (known as crooning)

Glenn Miller

American big band musician, arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known big bands. Miller's notable recordings include "In the Mood", "Moonlight Serenade", "Pennsylvania 6-5000", "Chattanooga Choo Choo", "A String of Pearls", "At Last", "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo", "American Patrol", "Tuxedo Junction", and "Little Brown Jug".[2] While he was traveling to entertain U.S. troops in France during World War II, Glenn Miller's aircraft disappeared in bad weather over the English Channel.

Irving Berlin

American composer and lyricist widely considered one of the greatest American songwriters in history -1st hit song "Alexander Ragtime Band - during his 60 year career he wrote 1,500 songs including the scores the scores for 19 Broadway shows and 18 Hollywood films, with his songs nominated eight times for Academy Awards. -songs became popular themes and anthems, including "Easter Parade", "White Christmas", "Happy Holiday", and "There's No Business Like Show Business". -His Broadway musical and 1942 film, "This Is the Army , with Ronald Reagan, had Kate Smith singing Berlin's "God Bless America", which was first performed in 1938. -The 1942 film Holiday Inn introduced "White Christmas," one of the most recorded songs in history. First sung in the film by Bing Crosby, it sold over 30 million records

Duke Ellington

American composer, pianist, andbig-band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions. In the opinion of Bob Blumenthal of The Boston Globe A major figure in the history of jazz, Ellington's music stretched into various other genres, including blues, gospel, film scores, popular, and classical. His career spanned more than 50 years and included leading his orchestra, composing an inexhaustible songbook, scoring for movies, composing stage musicals, and world tours.

Country Music In The Swing Era cont.

Another important aspect of the "western" element was western swing, a mixture of country fiddle music, blues, boogie-woogie, and swing music. The seminal figure in the national popularization of western swing was Bob Wills, a fiddler who formed his own group, The Texas Playboys, in 1934. Bob Wills' success was also based on his ability to hire and retain 1st-rate musicians well versed in blues and jazz as well as hillbilly and cowboy music. The guitarist Leon McAuliffe is responsible for making the electronically amplified steel guitar a permanent part of country and western music

Big Mama Thornton

Began her career as a singer, drummer, harmonica player, and comic on the black vaudeville circuit. In the 1950s she began working in LA with R&B bandleader Johnny Otis. One of the top-selling R&B records of 1953 was "Hound Dog," written by the team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller (2 white college kids at the time) who were to become a major force in rock 'n' roll.

Swing Era

Beginning in 1935, a new style of jazz-inspired music called swing, initially developed in the late 1920s by black dance bands in NY, Chicago, and Kansas City, transformed Am popular music. -The word "swing" (like "jazz," "blues," and "rock 'n' roll") derives from Af-Am English. -In the 1920s-early 1930sthe term was used to describe the rhythmic momentum created by well-played music -Between 1935-1945 hundreds of large dance orchestras dominated the national hit parade. The best known were directed by celebrity bandleaders such as Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Glen Miller. -Most of the big bands disappeared after WWII but the musical and cultural influence of swing continued to be felt strongly in postwar rhythm & blues and country and western music (Western swing.)

Rise Of The Big Singers

By 1946 the focus of popular attention had shifted away from celebrity bandleaders toward a new generation of crooners. Many of the top singers (Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Nat King Cole, Frankie Laine, Peggy Lee, and Rosemary Clooney) had begun their careers during the swing era. Frank Sinatra was the 1st star and "teen idol" to emerge. Equal in stature to Sinatra, in both musical and commercial terms was Nat King Cole, an Af-Am singer and jazz pianist

Urban Folk Music: The Weavers

During the 1950s a new genre of popular music called "urban folk" began appearing on the pop charts. The genre was a contradiction in many ways: Inspired by rural music but performed by urban intellectuals Its inspiration was the protest songs of Woody Guthrie but was used by record companies to generate huge profits The songs were seemingly harmless sing-alongs but a few years after the genre was popularized, the most well-known of the artists were persecuted for their political beliefs The 1st group to achieve success was the Weavers, a group formed in 1948 by banjo player and political activist, Pete Seeger.

Vocal Harmony Group

During the postwar era the vocal harmony group moved away from the sacred to the secular R&B market (This type of singing was eventually called "doo-wop"). The vocal harmony group most responsible for creating a new, harder-edged sound closely linked to gospel music (but with secular lyrics) was the Dominoes featuring Clyde McPhatter "Have Mercy Baby," essentially an emotional gospel performance with secular lyrics. "Have Mercy Baby," attracted an audience among white teenagers, and although McPhatter left the Dominoes to form the Drifters, the impact of his rendition of Have Mercy Baby" was profound. The record is a direct predecessor of soul music.

(WEEK 4)Race Records and Hillbilly Music

During the years between WWI and WWII (1918-1940), the music industry, which had been and still was essentially conservative and uninterested in musical diversity or experimentation, began targeting specific new audiences, and as a result, disseminated genres of music that had previously been ignored.

Kitty Wells

During this period the 1st female superstar of country music, rose to prominence.

Race Records and Hillbilly Music (cont)

Each of these genres were made up of dozens of styles but they had a number of features in common: both originated mainly in the Am south and were rooted in long-standing folk traditions both blended these older rural musical styles with aspects of current popular culture (including minstrel shows, vaudeville, and Tin Pan Alley) both grew out of the music industry's efforts to develop alternative markets during a decline in record sales both were popularized nationally by new media (records, radio, sound film) and by urban migration and both bodies of music provided the basis for forms of popular music that emerged after WWII (R&B, country and western, rock 'n' roll) extending their appeal across regional boundaries and eventually international boundaries

Jump Blues

Emerged just after WWII, was the 1st successful category of rhythm & blues. Big bands forced to downsize formed smaller combos generally made up of a rhythm section (bass, piano, drums, and sometimes guitar), and 1 or more horn players. Jump bands specialized in hard-swinging boogie-woogie-based party music, colored with humorous lyrics and wild stage performances. .

Tommy Dorsey

He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing", due to his smooth-toned trombone playing. Although he was not known for being a notable soloist, his technical skill on the trombone gave him renown amongst other musicians. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey. After Dorsey broke with his brother in the mid-1930s, he led an extremely popular and highly successful band from the late 1930s into the 1950s.

Hank Williams

He was most significant single figure to emerge in country music during the post-WWII period. Between 1947-1953 he had 36 Top 10 records on the country charts. Many of his songs have remained country favorites and are established standards of their genre. Williams exemplified the myth of the hard-living, hard-loving rambler and died at the age of 29.

Cole Porter

He was one of the major songwriters for the Broadway musical stage. Like Irving Berlin, but unlike most other successful Broadway composers, wrote both the lyrics and the music for his songs. -He wrote many Broadway shows, including "Anything Goes", "Kiss Me, Kate", "Can-Can", "Silk Stockings", and many more) and also supplied music for numerous films, notably with dancer/singer Fred Astaire. -Some of his notable songs are "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love", "What Is This Thing Called Love?", "Night and Day", "I've Got You Under My Skin", "You'd Be So Easy to Love", "In the Still of the Night", "Let's Misbehave", "Begin the Beguine."

Southern Music In The Postwar Era

In 1949 Billboard replaced the term Race records with Rhythm & Blues and changed Hillbilly to Country and Western. During the 30s and 40s millions of southerners migrated to cities across the U.S. and greatly expanded the target audience for southern-derived music. During the war a number of white disc jockeys began including black popular music in with the standard pop records, and 1949 saw the first radio station dedicated exclusively to playing music for a black audience.

what are some of the most famous professional songwriters?

Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and George Gershwin

what happened to the use of sheet music after WW1?

It moved on to phonograph records as the primary means of promoting artists and songs (1920s)

Postwar Era (cont.)

Many pop historians portray this conservative period as one of musical stagnation. A phenomenon took place in the music industry that continues today; a constant tug-of-war between the music business's efforts to predict and control the public's consumption of music with the periodic eruption of new musical fads based in youth culture. Music was now a product, sold in units, and listeners were consumers. The ability of radio stations to control the public's exposure to new recordings led to a practice called payola, in which record companies paid DJs to put their records into "heavy rotation." During the postwar era, musical genres that had been considered marginal by the industry (country and western, and race records now called rhythm& blues) came to influence the musical taste of middle-class white Americans even more strongly.

Popular Music and Technology in The Postwar Era

New technologies for the reproduction and transmission of sound and visual images were introduced during this period: Magnetic tape recording- offered a number of advantages over the established means of recording music. In the recording studio, tape was better able to capture the full range of musical sounds than the older process of recording directly onto "master" phonograph discs. In addition, tape recording allowed musicians to "punch in," (a means of rerecording over unsatisfactory parts) and "overdubbing" (a process that allowed a musician to add layers of sound to an existing recording. Some artists began to use tape to prerecord their live appearances on radio. In 1948 Columbia Records introduced the 12-inch long-playing record. Spinning at 33 1/3 r.p.m. the LP could hold 20 minutes of music on each side as opposed to the 3-4 minute 78 r.p.m. discs, LPs were made of vinyl, a more durable and less noisy material than the shellac used to make 78s. In 1949 RCA Victor introduced another new disc format, the 7 inch 45 r.p.m. single. Building on the premise of the jukebox, a listener was able to load a stack of singles with a record changer, in any order they chose. The 1st commercial FM broadcast took place in 1939 and by 1949 about 700 stations were operating in the U.S. FM radio, which used higher frequencies than AM, had better sound quality and was less subject to electrical disturbances. Television took off, initially perceived by the record industry as a threat. In 1949 retail sales of records fell drastically as people purchased television sets, but by the mid 1950s, television had become the most important medium for launching new performers and recordings.

who introduced the 1st successful all black Broadway musical "Shuffle Along" in 1921?

Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake

Mamie Smith and Okeh Records

Okeh advertised the release in black communities and an astounding 75,000 copies were sold within 1 month.

Classic Blues

One of the most influential kinds of music disseminated on race records was the blues, a musical genre that emerged in black communities of the south, especially in the Mississippi Delta region.

Race Records

Records made by Af-Am artists in the early part of the 20th century were basically in the Tin Pan Alley mode and were marketed to a mainly white audience. In the 1920s, the idea of recording material closer to Af-Am traditions and the associated idea of selling it to an Af-Am audience took hold in the record business.

Blues Ballad Style

Smooth and polished 12-bar blues The most successful blues crooner of the late 40s and early 50s was Charles Brown

Honky-Tonk

Sometimes called "hard country" or "beer-drinking music" is a style that conveyed the sound and feel of the roadside bar or juke joint. Honky-tonk vocal styles were often directly emotional, making use of "cracks' in the voice, and stylistic features from black music such as melisma and blue notes. Although honky-tonk music declined after the emergence of rock 'n' roll, the style is still heard in country music today.

Country And Western Music

The "mainstreaming " of country music continued as the core audience migrated from the south and upward into the urban middle class. The NY-based music industry had underestimated (and to an extent embarrassed by) the popularity of country music "Tennessee Waltz" was recorded by Patti Page, who sold more records than any other female in the early 1950s.

Gene Autry

The 1st successful singing cowboy and a hillbilly singer who went on to star in Hollywood cowboy movies. Autry's success established the "western" component of country and western music.

Pioneers Of Country Music: The Carter Family And Jimmie Rodgers

The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers were both "discovered" by Ralph Peer at a recording session in 1927. Both acts, by their hit records and radio appearances, had a profound influence on successive generations of country and western musicians.

Tin Pan Alley Song Form

The most common Tin Pan Alley form fused these two to produce a verse-refrain form, with the refrain being AABA. -Verses were the most important part of 19th century popular songs but were regarded as mere introductions by the 1920s, and today the verses of Tin Pan Alley songs are rarely performed.

tympany five

The most successful jump band, led by Louis Jordan who began making records in 1939.

Country (Rural) Blues

The music known as "country blues," rural blues," or "folk blues," emerged in the Mississippi Delta region The blues was the music of this impoverished black work force, and allowed a framework for recounting aspects of their experience. The blues was influenced by various types of Af-Am folk music such as story songs, work songs, and field hollers. Blues was essentially a personal form of music making.

Bluegrass Music

The pioneer of bluegrass music was Bill Monroe. Typical bluegrass instrumentation is fiddle, mandolin, banjo, guitar, and string bass.

Country And Western (cont.)

The range of country music styles in the postwar era resembles developments in rhythm & blues: There were country crooners who specialized in a smooth pop-oriented style Bluegrass musicians who focused on adaptations of traditional southern music and Honky-tonk musicians who performed in a hard-edged, electronically amplified style, singing about the trials and tribulations of migrants to the city and the changing male/female gender roles Eddy Arnold was the most popular crooner, who dominated the country charts from 1947-1954 and had 11 Top 40 hits on the pop charts as well

Rhythm & Blues

The top R&B recordings of the late 1940s and early 50s included swing-influenced "jump bands," Tin Pan Alley-style love songs performed by crooners, various styles of urban blues, and gospel-influenced vocal harmony groups.

(WEEK 5) Postwar Era 1946 - 1954

This is the period between the decline of the big bands and the rise of rock 'n' roll. The music industry grew rapidly after the war, due to the postwar economic boom and the increase in disposable income of many Americans. Record companies began to target the youth market when it was estimated that people under 21 constituted 1/3 of the total record-buying population of the U.S. Many of the hits of the late 1940s and early 50s were romantic songs performed by crooners with orchestral backing

Benny Goodman

led one of the most popular musical groups in America. Goodman's bands launched the careers of many major names in jazz, and during an era of segregation, he also led one of the first well-known racially integrated jazz groups.

What did the Tin Pan Alley composers produced?

standards and they are songs that remain an essential part of the repertoire of todays jazz and pop musicians

Refrain

the part that is usually considered "the song" today

The Recordings of Jimmie Rodgers, who is he?

was the quintessential rambler. He was the most versatile, progressive, and widely influential of all the early country recording artists. He was early country music's biggest recording star and his charismatic mystique and influence can be seen in the public images of Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, and almost every contemporary male country star. -He had a successful series of recordings called "blue yodels," which were adaptations of blues forms and contained aspects of blues performance. -His blue yodeling was described as a "high, lonesome sound," a phrase that has come to be associated with white rural music, similar in certain ways to the moans and howls heard in blues recordings by rural black artists.