Music Exam 1

The Legal Precedent

"A Little Bird Told Me" vs. "A Little Bird Told Me" a 1948 cover by white singer Evelyn Knight of a 1947 record by black singer Paula Watson, closely copying her sound and style Watson's record label sued Knight's; the courts ruled that the sounding elements of the record were not copyrighted

The Dialectics of Country

"Authenticity": traditional vs. new Context: Saturday night/Sunday Morning Style: "soft-shell" vs. "hardcore" Country crooners->"The Nashville Sound" Bluegrass, honky tonk

The Harlem Renaissance

A period in the 1920s when African-American achievements in art and music and literature flourished

Turkey trot

A popular dance of the early twentieth century. Considered scandalous because of the close contact between the dancers

The Cotton Club

A speak easy where blacks played but could not be apart of the audience One of the most famous Harlem nightspots

Ragtime

A style of music emphasizing syncopation, composed for both piano and ensembles showed engagement of African American musicians with European traditions influenced the emerging jazz style

Honky tonk

A style of postwar country and western music sometimes called "hard country" or "beer-drinking music" Born in the oil boomtowns of Texas and Oklahoma conveyed the sound and ethos of the roadside bar or juke joint

Verse-chorus

Alternates between verses with new words and a chorus with repeating words Music for each section is most often contrasting

2008

Expansion of online streaming services Grooveshark, Spotify, etc.

Fiddlin' John Carson

an American old-time fiddler and singer who recorded what is widely considered to be the first country music song featuring vocals and lyrics

Hank Williams

an American singer-songwriter and musician Regarded as one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century, Williams recorded 35

Ralph Peer

an American talent scout, recording engineer, record producer and music publisher in the 1920s and 1930s

Louis Armstrong

an American trumpeter, composer, vocalist, and actor who was among the most influential figures in jazz His career spanned five decades, from the 1920s to the 1960s, and different eras in the history of jazz

Mamie Smith

an American vaudeville singer, dancer, pianist and actress As a vaudeville singer she performed in various styles, including jazz and blues In 1920, she entered blues history as the first African-American artist to make vocal blues recordings

What is minstrelsy?

an exploitative form of musical theater that exaggerated real-life black circumstances and reinforced dangerous stereotypes during the 19th and 20th centuries

The Skillet Lickers

an old-time band from Georgia, United States When Gid Tanner teamed up with blind guitarist Riley Puckett and signed to Columbia in 1924, they created the label's earliest so-called "hillbilly" recording Gid Tanner formed The Skillet Lickers in 1926

What were the positive and negative ramifications of the expanded role of African American artists in the recording industry in the wake of "Crazy Blues?"

article encapsulate Smith's increasing fanbase, but also the uniqueness of her position in society Smith, as a woman of color, was the highest paid among Okeh Records singers This newfound ability to turn blues into money and record sales was profitable not only for musicians, but also for record companies and theaters Companies began to find out that if they could contract a blues singer they could make a quick buck ushered in a entirely new and relatively untapped musical market Before this record, music wasn't being marketed toward black audiences black folk music was idealized to fit white musical standards While this recording and these newspaper articles may still reflect the capitalist pandering that musicians are so often wont to do, they also reflect a change in the way the music industry looked at its consumers Mamie Smith and her record Crazy Blues opened up an entirely new market to the music industry while simultaneously creating a pop-culture phenomenon

What is blackface?

began in the antebellum period and endured throughout Reconstruction Jim Crow and the Great Migration, with performers collecting and adding cultural aspects from each era to their performances hints at the impact popularity complexity of the minstrel show White supremacy and the belief in black inferiority remained at minstrelsy's base even though the structure of the performances and subjects discussed in the music varied over time shaped the nation's views on race for over a century and reinforced white superiority well after the abolition of slavery While some today assume that minstrelsy's blackface has roots in the American South because of the genre's focus on black degradation and slavery, minstrelsy was born and evolved initially in the North

Alan Freed

programmed R&B-based music by black and white performers

And then there was Elvis...

music synthesized elements from rhythm & blues, country, and pop, and whose career raises many questions about the ideas of appropriation, authenticity, and genre

Novelty

music that emphasizes new ideas and new sounds Not necessarily humorous

Country blues

one of the earliest forms of blues music The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in the early 1900s

Gene Austin

one of the first crooners

Art music

opera and operetta parlor music

Ralph Peer

talent scout who recorded Jimmie Rodgers and Carter Family

In what ways is the film The Jazz Singer seen as at least partially subverting the racist history of minstrelsy?

the age of minstrelsy in American history was far from over in the twenty-first century, the racial stereotypes derived from minstrel shows can still be seen in popular culture

Syncretism

the blending of multiple traditions into one

contrasting verse-chorus form

the choruses use different music than the verses

simple verse-chorus form

the choruses use the same music as the verses alternation of verses and choruses displayed by the words, but that the music is the same

Tin Pan Alley

the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century

What types of characters were featured in minstrel shows?

the depictions of blacks in minstrel performances were exaggerated, dehumanizing and inaccurate Instead of representing black culture on stage, blackface minstrel performers reflected and reinforced white supremacy

Today

"Crossing over" transforms from a song-based phenomenon to one in which artists themselves create hybrid styles and identites that resonate with audiences Changes in technology continue to influence and be influenced by musical changes The electric guitar is established as a dominant sound in popular music The producer is established as a role within the creative process

Rise of Bluegrass (1940 -

"Folk music in overdrive" - European fiddle music infused with African American rhythmic sensibilities Bill Monroe - Father of Bluegrass § "High, lonesome sound" § "It's Mighty Dark to Travel" (1947) Typical bluegrass band § Guitar § Banjo § Mandolin § Fiddle § String Bass § 2- to 4-part vocal harmonies

From Hillbilly to Country and Western

"Hillbilly" music became increasing popular during the 1930s and 1940s More and more migration from rural areas to cities Lots of airplay in the South, extended to other regions by powerful "border stations" in Mexico Heard throughout the world on "V-discs" and on US Armed Forces radio BMI (Broadcast Music, Incorporated) established as a rival licensing agency to ASCAP, providing coverage to blues and hillbilly performers

How did the treatment of these new categories represent a change in marketing philosophies?

"Rhythm and Blues" replaced the term "race music", which records intended for distribution in African-American communities had been called since the early days of sound recording

Crossing Over

"Rock 'n' roll" came to denote R&B-influenced music performed by either black or white performers, featuring Frequent use of blues forms Boogie-woogie bass lines More raw, sometimes harsh-sounding vocals and saxophone solos Electric guitar as a primary rhythm and lead instrument Dance-friendly beats played on the drum set, usually with a heavy backbeat on the snare drum While the most successful early singles were those of white musicians like Bill Haley, a number of black musicians manipulated their image and sound to cross over as pop artists, including Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, and Liple Richard

Film

"Talkies" were introduced in 1927, and became an important means for the dissemination of popular music The Jazz Singer (1927), which featured vaudeville star Al Jolson as a blackface performer During the Great Depression, most small studios folded, and major studios consolidated power not only in film, but also in music publishing

Stephen Foster

"the father of American music", was an American songwriter known primarily for his parlor and minstrel music He wrote more than 200 songs, including "Oh!

Fats Domino, "Ain't That a Shame"

#1 "Black Singles", #10 "Pop Singles" Covered by Pat Boone Domino did have a favorable record contract, and ultimately his songs gained greater fame than covers

Pat Boone

#1 "Pop Singles"

"R & B" case study

1940s-50s urban, electric blues with performers such as Muddy Waters, Elmore James, B.B. King, Little Walter, Jimmy Reed, Howlin' Wolf originated in the 1940s as a replacement for "race records" the term used to distinguish records made by and for African Americans in the 1920s This definition persists in R&B Grammy winners

The Birth (?) of Rock

A key film: Blackboard Jungle (1955) Film centers on juvenile delinquency in an urban school Opening credits featured Bill Haley and His Comets, "Rock Around the Clock" Rock 'n' roll music seen as a source of "deviant" behaviors "[Adolescents are] definitely influenced in their lawlessness by this throwback to jungle rhythms Either it stirs them to orgies of sex and violence, or they use it as an excuse for the removal of all inhibitions and the complete disregard of the conventions of decency." - Music Journal (Feb. 1958) But..."Rock Around the Clock" was a #1 hit on the pop charts

Boogie-woogie

A blues piano style characterized by repetitive bass figures, usually in a shuffle rhythm

Tin Pan Alley

A district in New York City famous for housing the offices of music publishers and songwriters in the late 19th and early 20th century used to refer to this general model of writing and publishing songwriters exploited a collection of stock forms to prolifically produce songs for publishing and performance

Electric bass

A four-stringed guitar used in popular music, amplified through an electric speaker

The Original Dixieland Jazz Band

A group of white New Orleans musicians who made the first commercial jazz recordings Bandleader Nick LaRocca claimed that the style was invented by white musicians, leading to debates about appropriation and authenticity Featured the prototypical New Orleans style Front line of clarinet, cornet (or trumpet), and trombone, each playing an independent melody in an established musical hierarchy Back line, or rhythm section, of piano, string bass or tuba, and drums Frequent use of stop me, in which the band stops to allow a solo to stand out Melodies emphasize blue notes - notes that lie outside of typical art music scales Adds the "novelty" element of animal sounds from instruments

Electric guitar

A guitar designed for electronic amplification

Glenn Miller

A twentieth-century American composer and bandleader His band was noted for its smooth but sophisticated performances of dance numbers such as "In the Mood" and "Moonlight Serenade"

Irving Berlin

A twentieth-century American writer of popular songs His songs include "God Bless America," "White Christmas," and "There's no Business like Show Business."

Acoustic vs. electrical recording

Acoustic- analog recording is achieved by a microphone diaphragm that senses changes in atmospheric pressure caused by acoustic sound waves and records them as a mechanical representation of the sound waves on a medium such as a phonograph record Electrical Recording- Maxfield worked on what they called "electrical recording" for several years before announcing it to the public in 1924 It used microphones, an electronic amplifier, and an electromagnetic cutting stylus to make records

Dance in the Swing Era

African American dance styles became increasingly accepted and popular Dancers were as big a draw as musicians The biggest dance trend was the Lindy hop, which originated in Harlem's Savoy Ballroom Named after aviator Charles Lindberg, who made the non-stop first transatlantic solo flight in 1927 Combined elements of existing dances like the Charleston and the Texas Tommy Could be danced as a solo or couple style Allowed dancers to improvise, often in concert with musical improvisation

Classic Blues

African American music was initially spread by being incrementally assimilated into other styles Like Joplin and Europe, composers combined some elements of vernacular styles like the blues with elements of art music The success of many race records brought some black singers into the mainstream, but usually through records of Tin Pan Alley-type songs Many of the first "blues" stars were African American women who had established their careers in the vaudeville circuit Important artists include: Mamie Smith, Alberta Hunter, Ethel Waters, Ma Rainey, and Bessie Smith

Popular culture before and after WWI

After WWI, the US entered a period of prosperity and major changes Increased migration within US The "Great Migration" of African Americans from south to north A general shift from rural to urban East to West California population grows, and Los Angeles is established as entertainment center The continuation of de facto racial segregation, and the growth of white supremacist groups such as the KKK Recordings before WWI typically featured either sen>mental songs or syncopated (rag>me) songs home, etc. vs. novelty Touring entertainments like vaudeville are supplanted by cabarets Underground popular culture fueled by the strictures of prohibition (1919-33)

music after the war

After WWII, a period of prosperity and growth Music by African Americans and Southern performers became increasingly popular Rhythm & blues Country & Western Independent record labels, often specializing in "race" or "hillbilly" music, grew in the wake of the ASCAP/AFM lawsuits and strikes Chess Records (Chicago) Founded by Chess brothers, who were Polish Jews Focused on Chicago blues Atlantic Records (New York City) Founded by Ahmet Ertegun (a Turkish immigrant) and Herb Abramson Focused on Rhythm & Blues Young people especially had more money and leisure time than ever before Targeted by music industry marketing New technologies Multi-track recording (Les Paul) 33 1/3 rpm records, 45 rpm singles Radio drives record sales Companies often paid for DJs to promote singles - "payola"

How did the depictions of blackface characters change after the Civil War?

After emancipation in 1865, African American performers, seeing minstrelsy as an opportunity for advancement contributed a humanizing element to their portrayal of blacks even though they also performed in blackface

ASCAP

American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers

The End of the Swing Era

American life significantly disrupted by WWII Many musicians served in the Armed Forces Glenn Miller disappeared in 1944 plane crash Music instrument manufacturer diverted their resources to manufacturing war materiel Before the war, the music business was having issues ASCAP tried to collect licensing fees from everyone, resisted by the networks The American Federation of Musicians went on strike in 1942, banning its members from making any recordings This strife raised the profile of musicians in the areas of rhythm and blues and country music, seung the stage for a changed post-war industry

James Reese Europe

An African American musician trained in classical style he worked to advance both popular music and art music Bandleader for Vernon and Irene Castle in the 1910s Founded the Clef Club, a black musicians' association in NYC Served in WWI as bandleader for the all-black regiment, the "Hell Fighters"

Chuck Berry

An African-American rock 'n' roll musician and composer, who influenced many musicians of the 1950s and 1960s, including the Beatles and Bob Dyan.

12-bar blues

An archetypal lyrical and musical derived from African American music

A&R personnel

Artists and Repertoire The is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and the artistic and commercial development of the recording artist It also acts as a liaison between the artist and the record label

What were the methods and practices of the Northern recording companies who began making "recording expeditions" to the South?

As Lomax continued his work, his field expeditions reflected his broadening scope of interest, as can be seen in the wide variety of genres recorded during the 1939 Southern States Recording Expedition Lomax rarely wavered from his quest for old songs, however, taking advantage of the latest technologies to preserve the past The materials in this collection reflect his unstinting effort to document cultural traditions that he saw as threatened by an encroaching modern world

1920s-1930s: The Evolving Music Marketplace

As more and more people immigrated from rural areas to cities, recording companies expanded their offerings to reach new audiences Target audiences included African Americans and other minorities ("race records") as well as groups from rural and southern eras ("hillbilly music") At first, these musics marketed toward minority ethic and social groups were only released by small, independent labels These included the first African American-owned recording companies, such as Black Swan Larger labels entered the market in the mid to late 1920s

What assumptions about audiences did these categories reflect?

At the turn of the 20th century, black Americans performed in all sorts of musical genres: ragtime, vaudeville, all-black orchestras discrimination and income inequity meant that nearly no black artists were recorded Recording equipment—still in its infancy—was bulky, expensive entirely owned by white people white people didn't listen to black music except for vaudeville songs that were sung by white people in blackface

What were "rube recordings," and how were white performers able to manipulate their image as they switched between different modes of performance?

Barth downplays cultural trait lists as being the base of identification Cultural trait lists may change, but a boundary persists as long as a group identifies itself and is recognized by others as comprising a category of membership his statement about how certain situations result not from a "major aspect of structure" but "rather from historical events" proves extremely helpful in the examination of the ethnic/racial and rube identity in America People migrated to and within the country and discovered that they did not, at least initially, form a "complementarity of ethnic identities." They found that they had to live in a world constructed by the mainstream population

Count Basie Orchestra

Based in Kansas City Drew heavily on blues 12-bar blues forms Compositions based on instrumental riffs Boogie-woogie piano "One O' Clock Jump" (1937)

Defining "Country" Music

Billboard "Country" charts 1944: "Most Played Juke Box Folk Records" 1948: "Best Selling Retail Folk Records" 1949: "Country & Western Records Most Played By Folk Disk Jockeys" 1953: "Country & Western Business is Big Business!" 1956: "Most Played C&W in Juke Boxes" 1958: "Hot C&W Sides" 1962: "Hot Country Singles"

1949

Billboard Magazine reclassified "race" records as "rhythm & blues"

How were African American performers involved in minstrel shows?

Black performers during the Jim Crow era combined blackface with the newly popular genre of vaudeville and brought a black political agenda to their stage performances

Rhythm & Blues

Blanket term for black music (supplanting "race music") Included many distinct styles Jump blues (influenced by swing) Louis Jordan and the Tympany Five, "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" (1946) Two trumpets, two saxes, rhythm section Based on boogie woogie and blues forms Blues crooners doing Tin Pan Alley-type pop songs Charles Brown, "Black Night" (1951) Slow 12-bar blues with intense lyrics Other blues styles Chicago Electric blues - Muddy Waters, "Hoochie Coochie Man" Acoustic->electric guitar + harmonica Major influence on 1960s rock Vocal Harmony Groups Drew on gospel singing styles, and blues themes The Dominos, "Sixty Minute Man" • Female R&B stars Continued in the line of classic blues singers Ruth Brown, "Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean" (1952)

Chuck Berry

Blended song forms and narratives from country music with an aggressive new guitar style Wrote songs aimed at a teenage audience Like many R&B guitarists, he used a gripy sound achieved by overdriving a small amplifier His guitar licks are considered basic vocabulary of rock guitar "Maybellene" (1955) Based on a country song ("Ida Red") Chorus ("Maybellene...") based on 12-bar blues, while verse is a static harmony Tempo is relatively fast, especially for the wordy verse vocals Other hits include "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Johnny B. Goode" (1958)

Irving Berlin

Born in Temun, Russia, in 1888 fled the anti-Jewish pogrom there in 1892 Began life in America in desperate poverty found work as a musician, singer, and song plugger—someone one who marketed new songs to both professional and amateur performers By 1969, almost 900 Berlin compositions were in print

How did the African American press and white music business figures interpret the success of "Crazy Blues" differently?

Bradford's peers did not believe that he could convince anyone in a racist music industry to record a black woman singing blues He convinced Fred Hager, the recording manager of Okeh Records, to "take a chance" on a "Negro girl." Okeh reluctantly took that chance on a cold February 1920 morning when it recorded Mamie Smith singing "This Thing Called Love." The success of this song paved the way for Bradford's dreamlike August day With "tears of gladness" in his eyes, he spent eight hours that day listening to Smith record "Crazy Blues." This was the first time that blues was officially recorded Within a month of its November release, Crazy Blues sold over 75,000 copies Within a year, hundreds of thousands of copies were sold nationally Pullman Car Porters unofficially boosted the sales of Smith's record as they bought and then resold it in rural areas across the country "You couldn't walk down the street in a colored neighborhood and not hear that record. It was everywhere," said Alberta Hunter

Musical "Africanisms"

Call-and-response forms Cyclical repetition of musical figures Layering of multiple rhythmic patterns Syncopated rhythms emphasizing activity off the strong beats "buzzy" timbres in both voices and instruments prominence of drums especially those that are lower pitched stringed instruments that inspired the banjo

1960s

Cassettes developed

The "King of Swing": Benny Goodman

Clarinetist and bandleader who steered the course of jazz in the 1930s Led an initially all-white big band that learned Henderson's arrangements After struggling for a while, they were featured on NBC's Let's Dance radio show, and became massively popular, cementing swing as a dominant style Led the integration of bands by hiring black musicians, including electric guitarist Charlie Christian In the late 1930s, led a move towards smaller "combos" of 3-7 players

Musical spheres

Classical/Art music Popular/Commercial music Folk/Traditional music

The 1950s

Cold War - anti-communism Dwight Eisenhower, US president Novel - The Man In the Grey Flannel Suit House Un-American Activities Committee - McCarthy Era Growth of suburbs, conformity, consumerism See the movie Pleasantville Civil rights issues surfacing Brown vs. Board of Education (1954)

Country Crooners

Combined crooning and hillbilly sensibilities Eddy Arnold, "Bouquet of Roses" (1948) Features electric steel guitar and fiddle

"My Blue Heaven"

Composed by Walter Donaldson, with words by George Whiting, in 1924 engages with the deepest aspirations of the Tin Pan Alley target audience lyrics poetically depicting the American dream of home and family Recorded by Gene Austin in 1927 Austin was one of the first crooners - singers who created an intimate style of singing that capitalized on the properties of the electric microphone This style reinforced the sentiments of quiet intimacy and tranquility expressed in the lyrics

St. Louis Blues

Composed in 1914 by W.C. Handy Recorded by Bessie Smith in 1925 Accompanied by Louis Armstrong on cornet Overall form of AABC The A and C sections are based on the 12- bar blues form Lyrical form is aab Musical form built on three chords: I I I I IV IV I I V V I I D D D D G G D D A A D D Call-and-response is found in the lyrical form as well as in the performance

John Philip Sousa

Conducted both the US Marine Band and his own commercial ensemble Composed many marches that remain popular today made many successful recordings was critical of recorded music as a threat to music making

2015

Conflicts over streaming services and artist revenue

Cover songs and "Crossing Over"

Cross-genre covers Cross-racial covers In most cases, the original performers received nothing in these transactions, as the copyright for the songs was held by the songwriter, who was compensated

The Rise of Latin Dance Music

Cuban styles had a major impact on music in New York City Son - rural song tradition (conjuntos) Danzón - "mildly Africanized" ballroom style (orquestras) Don Azpiazú's Havana Casino Orchestra, "El Manicero" [The Peanut Vendor] (1930) Son prégon - song derived from cries of street vendors • 3+2 clave Cuban styles entered the jazz vocabulary as the "Spanish tinge"

Popular Music in the 1910s

Dance fads of the 1910s frequently featured appropriations of African American and Latin American music The foxtrot and the turkey trot were among the many novelty dances associated with syncopated music styles The tango, imported from Argentina, was increasingly popular in the US due to its appearance on stage and screen

1980s

Digital recording and CDs Music television: MTV, VH1

Flatt and Scruggs

Earl Scruggs 3-finger style banjo Made famous by theme from Bonnie & Clyde Lester Flatt Known for bass runs on guitar "Flint Hill Special" Showcases banjo, fiddle, dobro

Technologies of Rock

Electric guitar As a technology, enables the instrument to take leading role in ensembles and allows the manipulation of the instrument's timbre via electronic effects As a symbol, it carried the image of vernacular music and became a visual representation of virility and power Electric bass Models like the Fender Precision bass, introduced in 1951, cemented the importance of bass lines, and fostered increasingly independent and complex bass parts Drum kit Originally assembled for stage shows Becomes relatively standardized, with a bass drum, snare drum, a variety of cymbals, and a range of pitched "tom-tom" drums The electric guitar: Sound production relies on amplification of the strings' vibrations using an electromagnet 1932 - Rickenbacker "Frying Pan" Mostly marketed as a steel guitar 1935 - Western Swing guitarist Bob Dunn records with amplified acoustic guitar 1936 - Gibson ES-150 Sold for $150 Popularized by Charlie Chris1an and others 1948 - Fender Broadcaster Telecaster Quickly adopted by West Coast country players 1952 - Gibson Les Paul Named for the guitar and recording technology innovator 1954 - Fender Stratocaster Included the "whammy bar"/tremolo arm The transistor radio entered the market in the mid-1950s, enabling greater freedom of listening to younger audiences DJs like Alan Freed programmed R&B-based music by black and white performers The Moondog Rock and Roll Party Cleveland, 1951 NYC, 1954 Credited with popularizing the term "rock and roll" as a name for this music Freed also appeared in films that presented live performances by new artists, including Rock Around the Clock (1956), Rock, Rock, Rock! (1956), and Mister Rock and Roll (1957)

1920s

Electrical not mechanical recording thanks to advent of microphones

Duke Ellington and his Washingtonians

Ellington's compositions and arrangements showcase a combination of the orchestration characteristic of Whiteman and a style more closely linked to older African American styles "East St. Louis Toodle-oo" (1927) The continued search for novel sounds can be heard in the trumpet playing of James "Bubber" Miley, which influenced Ellington's later "jungle" sound Later big band styles are presaged by a soli section, in which the melody is played in harmony by the horns and reed instruments

The Day(s) the Music Died

February 3, 1959 A plane carrying Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Richie Valens crashes, bringing a flash of mortality to the rock 'n' roll audience The payola scandal The eruption of the system in which DJs took money to play records, played songs they had stakes in 1959 - House Committee on Legal Oversight investigation Freed, Clark called to testify Freed fired, convicted of "commercial bribery"

Ritchie Valens

First La1no rock 'n' roll star Started out in Los Angeles Recorded many songs exclusively in Spanish Was beginning to cross over with pop hits like "La Bamba" and "Come On, Let's Go" Featured in the 1958 film Go, Johnny, Go!

1887

First flat disk patented

The way a song is structured as it occurs in time is its:

Form

Elements of music

Form / structure Process / function

Which of the following is NOT true about musical genres?

Genres are exclusively defined by performers

What was the relationship between the new marketing categories and the stereotyped images of earlier minstrelsy and Tin Pan Alley songs?

George Gershwin played a prominent role in one of the most colorful eras of American popular music: the so-called age of Tin Pan Alley — roughly 1890-1930 — when popular music became big business

Cuba

Habanera - a 19th Cuban dance with European-influences steps and African-influenced rhythms

Roy Acuff and the Smoky Mountain Boys

Helped cement the country music sound, as established by the Carter Family Straight tone (no vibrato) Nasal Open harmony vocals String band instruments Fiddle, guitar, banjo, mandolin, string bass, acoustic or electric steel guitar (later the pedal steel)

What assumptions did record company executives make about the tastes of rural Southern audiences?

Hillbilly musicians and the hillbilly genre played significant roles in the acclimation of rural southern life into a modern, urbanized South With the acceptance of the hillbilly, the South assumed a social responsibility to inherent traditions and its heritage By embracing the past and welcoming an overlystereotyped figure, the mountain South was essentially condoning and accepting an often-ridiculed, regional misrepresentation As the South became more modernized and a new generation migrated to the urban centers of the North and Southwest, the need for a newer, cleaner bucolic images emerged and the hillbilly imagery and associations were acclimated into the western imagery of the cowboy or dropped altogether

Duke Ellington and His Orchestra

House band for Harlem's Cotton Club from 1927-1931 Went on to be one of the most highly regarded composers in jazz, but never the most commercially successful "The band was his instrument" Refined the art of big band composing and arranging Drew on classical music Exploited musical "exoticisms" to capitalize on both fads and the general reception of black music

What were the motivations of minstrel performers?

If slavery was the commodification of black labor, minstrelsy, with its focus on presenting authentically black songs and dances, was the commodification of black culture

After "Rock Around the Clock"

In 1955-56, pop charts back to bland and safe ballads "Yellow Rose of Texas" - Mitch Miller "Love Is a Many Spendid Thing" - Four Aces "Autumn Leaves" - Roger Williams "Sixteen Tons" - Tennessee Ernie Ford "Memories Are Made of This" - Dean Martin "Poor People of Paris" - Les Baxter Elvis

Harlem and the Cotton Club

In the 1910s and 1920s, New York City's Harlem neighborhood was a center for African American art The Harlem Renaissance (then called the "New Negro Movement") was a movement flowing from the idea of "social uplift" African Americans pursued a higher social status through education, hard work, and the creation of art Critics of this movement throughout the 20th century have charged that this tends towards assimilation into white culture at the expense of black cultural identity The Co`on Club was a white-owned club that gave white audiences the opportunity to consume African American culture as a form of tourism The musicians, dancers, and serving staff were black, but female performers in particular were hired on the basis of having lighter skin The big band sound was popularized by house bands including those of Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, and Cab Calloway

Dance music

Instrumental music came from both folk and art music Some dances and ballads shared melodies Dances emphasizing groups were later supplanted by couples' dances

The Big Band Sound

Instrumentation Rhythm Section: Piano, bass, drums (vibes, guitar, Latin perc.) Saxophone: 2 alto, 2 tenor, 1 baritone (clarinet doublers = "Reeds") Brass: Trumpets (3-5), Trombones (3-5) Singers - bands often had a singer, a "girl singer," and/or a vocal group Mills Brothers, "Paper Doll" Patterns of call-and-response between sections, soloists and ensemble, etc. "Swing" A driving rhythmic feel based on a steady pulse with accents on the second and fourth beats of a four-beat meter String bass, guitar, and bass drum all play "four on the floor" Melodic rhythms typically feature an unequal division of the beat, somewhere between two or three parts

opera and operetta

Italian, German, and British styles imported

The Swing Era (1935-1945)

Jazz-inspired dance bands became the biggest tread in music, building on the popularity of New Orleans-style jazz and mainstream artists like Paul Whiteman Syncopated musical styles came to represent the sophistication and modernity of big cities, especially NYC Large dance bands were featured on the radio, and toured extensively throughout the US This trend shows the beginnings of a shift towards younger audiences, which reinvigorated the industry after the hardships of the Great Depression While this trend shows the continued integration of American musical styles, racial disparities persisted for performers and audiences alike Venues and concerts were often segregated Bands were rarely integrated, and white bands had significantly more opportunities for performance and airplay

1940s

Jukeboxes became common

Bill Haley and the Comets, "Rock Around the Clock"

June 29, 1955 - first rock 'n' roll song to hit #1 on American pop chart (8 weeks) Rock & Roll (Rhythm & Blues) has really been around since the '40s Dismissed as "race music" - not suitable for white audiences because of "primitive rhythms, raw emotion, and sexual content" Haley says rock 'n' roll is not black or white, but American music

Paul Whiteman

King of Jazz

Elvis Presley

King of Rock and Roll

Benny Goodman

King of Swing

Don Azpiazú

Latin American bandleader during the swing era his band played music to accompany ballroom adaptations of South American and Caribbean dances.

The Mambo

Latin dance craze in the early 1950s Paired romantic ideas with a tight musical style Featured in films Pérez Prado, "Mambo No. 5" (1949); "Mambo No. 8" (1956) Inspired many imitations, some grounded in exoticism Rosemary Clooney, "Mambo Italiano" (1954)

Latin

Latin-influenced music continued to be included in the repertory of dance bands Especially tangos and various Cuban styles The "Spanish tinge" was often more generic Xavier Cugat, "Brazil" Born in Spain, grew up in Cuba Moved to Los Angeles and then NYC Capitalized on musical exoticisms "Brazil" was featured in a Disney film and highly successful as a single, later becoming a "standard" of Latin American music Mario Bauza, "Nagüe" The "Father of Latin Jazz" Musical director for Machito and his Afro-Cubans, the first New York band to fully embrace the Latin sound, including a full battery of percussion instruments Influenced young players like Dizzy Gillespie

1990s

MP3s and the Internet MP3 is a compression format for audio files Allowed for downloads, torrents, etc.

Glenn Miller

Most commercially successful band of the era 23 #1 hits Bridged the more mainstream sensibilities of Whiteman with the energy of later swing bands "In the Mood" (1939) 12 weeks at #1 Recalls structures of Tin Pan Alley, alternating 12-bar blues sections with a contrasting bridge Listen for "trick ending" and extensive dynamic (volume) changes

1950s

Multi-track recording pioneered by guitarist Les Paul leads to increasingly sophisticated recording equipment

Music Licensing and Copyright

Music licensing and copyright was established as a means for controlling the production and dissemination of music Copyright law was manipulated to monetize and control both recordings and live performances ASCAP founded in 1914 Forced all business establishments that featured live music to pay fees for the public use of music By the 1920s, ASCAP controlled a large portion of the publishing industry By the mid-1930s, their annual revenue from licensing fees neared ten million dollars

Strophic form

Music repeats in a cyclical pattern with new words

1999

Napster peer-to-peer file sharing

Lyrics

Narrative Dialect

The "Birth" of Jazz

New Orleans A more integrated city, but still divided along racial lines Whites Blacks Creoles - native-born people of Louisiana, often of mixed racial ancestry Musical entertainment was part of both high and low culture performed by the same musicians European-derived art and dance music mixed with African American styles in both ballrooms and brothels Groups drawing on ragtime and other syncopated styles were known as "hot" bands

Okeh Records

New York-based label that entered the "race record" market after the success of Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues" in 1920 Producer Ralph Peer took mobile recording units into cities and towns in the South, including Atlanta, Memphis, New Orleans, and Dallas Performers were paid $50 for recording songs The record company then owned the copyright Okeh was followed into the South by Paramount Records, based in Port Washington, WI

2000

Pandora internet radio, followed by Rhapsody

A new role: the Producer

Old (back to 1920s): A&R (Artists and Repertoire) Managed "documentation" of live performance New (late 1950s/early 60s): Musical and technical control Shaped sound of record, image of artists "musical director" Vs. the Engineer Focused on the technical aspects of recording: Microphone placement Signal processing and equipment "...manage the interface between music and machine, art and technology..."

Fats Domino

One of the first R&B artists to "cross-over" and become a pop artist

Buddy Holly

One of the most important white rock 'n' roll performers Created a distinct image for white performers, while drawing on sounds of blues, country, and R&B With his group, the Crickets, provided a model for sound of future groups like the Beatles 2 electric guitars, bass, drums Wrote most of his own songs, an important part of the emergent rock 'n' roll ideal "That'll be the Day" (1957) "Peggy Sue" (1957)

The Grand Ole Opry

Originated as a radio program at WSM Nashville in 1925 Other regional shows included the Louisiana Hayride and the WLS National Barn Dance (Chicago) Established as a cultural institution through live shows, radio, and publications Defined the image of country music as rustic Professional performances in "hillbilly" costumes linked to vaudeville tradition

Honky Tonk (1940s-1950s)

Performed in bars and taverns Introduced electric instruments (guitar, steel guitar, bass) and drums to country Singers often present an image of damaged masculinity Songs about lying, cheating, crying in beer Ernest Tubb, "Walking the Floor Over You" (1941) Electric guitar as lead instrument Hank Williams, "Hey Good Lookin'" (1951) Best known male singer of the period Recordings feature electric steel guitar

Who were the earliest performers to be marketed under these new labels?

Perry Bradford, a famous Black composer, sparked a transition that displayed the potential for African American artists Bradford persuaded the White executive of Okeh Records, Fred Hager, to record Mamie Smith, a Black artist who did not fit the mold of popular White music

backbeat

Placing a strong accent on the offbeats In a four-beat measure, the drummer typically emphasizes beats 2 and 4, creating the basic rhythm of rock music

Three popular music charts

Pop Rhythm & Blues chart (R & B) Country & Western chart (C & W)

How did the adoption of stereotyped images of rural white performers parallel the use of minstrel images in the marketing of race records?

Popular racism against Black people served to legitimize the imperial project, but for most of this period was little aimed at a visible ethnic minority in Britain "minstrel shows", where white performers disguised themselves as stereotypical black slaves for the purposes of entertainment, and the "coon songs" which were common in the music halls Black Other as the mirror image of the Victorian and Edwardian respectable gentleman and lady the Black persona could also be desired or envied

Minstrelsy

Popular theatrical entertainment begun around 1830, in which white actors in blackface presented comic routines that combined racist caricature and social criticism

Vernon and Irene Castle

Popularized modern dance styles and a new, more populist approach to ballroom dancing "Popified" dances that had been considered risqué, including the tango Attained their fame through a coordinated multimedia marketing campaign Books, films, newspapers, live performances Inspired the dancing, singing film stars of later cinema

How did the attitudes of Southern retailers and the marketing practices adopted by record labels reflect the racial politics of the early 20th century?

Prejudice and discrimination affected the development of sociology in America due to the apartness Americans created towards black people, leaving them aside to grow in isolation, far from the cities and the "white race" white people were only Americans and some Europeans

AABA

Provided a standardized form for professional songwriters

What were the two new marketing categories that were introduced in the 1920s to sell records to specific racial and regional audiences?

Race records were 78-rpm phonograph records marketed to African Americans between the 1920s and 1940s Race records were marketed by Okeh Records, Emerson Records, Vocalion Records, Victor Talking Machine Company, Paramount Records, and several other companies

African American Popular Music in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries

Ragtime Classic blues Country blues New Orleans jazz

Which of the following is true about tne "spheres" of music?

Real musicial examples often fit into more than one of these categories.

Hillbilly Records and the "Birth" of Country Music

Record companies in New York added music from the rural Southeast to their roster of "race records" Early hits included Fiddlin' John Carson's 1923 recording, "The Li`le Log Cabin in the Lane" and the recordings of Vernon Dalhart, an opera singer who began recording ballads and sen7mental songs aimed at the "hillbilly" market Carson was recorded by Ralph Peer, who originally questioned its commercial potential Peer's trips to the South included a 1927 recording session in Bristol, Tennessee, now known as the "Big Bang of Country Music" Artists included the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers Following similar practices to the recording of blues performers, artists were paid $50 for recording their songs, and the record company copyrighted the songs and recordings

Okeh records

Record label founded by Otto K.E. Heinemann in 1916 One of the most important labels in the production and marketing of "race records," which OKeh pioneered with its release of Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues" in 1920 OKeh became a subsidiary of Columbia Records in 1926

Popular Music in the Great Depression

Record sales were down as audiences turned increasingly to radio Many small blues labels went out of business The subject material of much "hillbilly" music lead to its rise as a genre, as people looked for comfort While Tin Pan Alley produced many escapist songs, other artists used music to address the plight of the American working class Singer Woody Guthrie wrote songs that demonstrate the political leanings of many "folk" musicians from the 1930s on

Fletcher Henderson, "Wrappin' It Up"

Recorded in 1934 Features the large band more typical of later groups Call-and-response between reeds and brass is featured throughout Form Introduction 4 "choruses" of ABAC Reeds ->ensemble Sax solo Trumpet solo->ensemble- >trumpet Ensemble->clarinet solo->reeds- >ensemble

1910s

Recorded music grows popular throughout the U.S

Multi-track recording

Recording different audio channels to separate 'tracks' for greater ease and effectiveness of processing than when all information is stored on a single track

Race records

Recordings of performances by African American musicians produced mainly for sale to African American listeners

1946

Reel-to-reel tape recording

Critical Listening

Repetition Contrast Variation

Buddy Holly

Rock pioneer whose 7 Top 40 hits included "Peggy Sue" and "That'll Be The Day" Tragically, he died in a plane crash just as his fame was beginning

Jimmie Rodgers

Singer and guitarist from Mississippi, famous for his "blue yodel" His incorporation of blues elements led to him being described as a "white man gone black" Provided a model for Southwestern cowboys as well as Nashville country stars Marketed himself with dual images as the working-class "Singing Brakeman," and a dapper pop star

Little Richard

Singer/pianists, perhaps the rawest of the early rock 'n' roll performers Flamboyant appearance and assertive showmanship Many songs feature vocal hooks like high-pitched "wooos" "Long Tall Sally" (1956) Turns the 12-bar blues into a verse-chorus form "Tuq Fruq" (1956) Shows the toned-down lyrics, with much more innocuous metaphors "Keep A Knockin'" (1957) "Good Golly, Miss Molly" (1958)

The Big Singers

Singers became an important focus in the wake of the AFM recording ban Frank Sinatra Made his name singing in big bands, later a star as a solo act Built a vocal style combining crooning with classical and jazz techniques "Nancy (With the Laughing Face)" AABA Tin Pan Alley-style form Orchestral backing Nat "King" Cole Singer and pianist Merged jazz and crooning "Nature Boy" (1948) Drew on a Yiddish song Cole backed by full orchestra

Urban Folk

Some audiences sought more "mature" music Folk music traditions seen as more "authentic" Group singing Amateur guitar playing Long history of social and political activism Performers skirted the boundaries of "folk" and "pop" Presented folk music as cultural heritage Covered songs by African American musicians Pete Seeger and the Weavers, "Goodnight Irene" (1950) Group had a major hit, but was later blacklisted as part of the House Un-American Activities Commidee investigation

Ballads

Songs that told a story usually in strophic form Come from an oral tradition but later circulated as printed broadsides Sometimes combined into larger narrative structures as ballad operas

The "phonograph effect"

Sound recording does more than simply record sound it has profoundly influenced modern music and musical culture Musical culture includes not only acts of creation, but also acts of consumption

Genre and Identity

Sounds Images Attitudes

Sacred music

Spirituals often emphasized text over musical complexity Jewish cantillation influenced songwriters in NYC

important forms

Strophic form 12-bar blues AABA Verse-chorus

Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller

Studio masterminds/ entrepreneurs "We don't write songs, we write records" Secured contract with record company that lev them substantial independence Songwriters Specialized in writing for black performers Wrote many "playlets" - records with an explicit story The Robins, "Smokin' Joe's Café" (1955) The Coasters, "Charlie Brown" (1959) The Coasters, "Yakety Yak" (1958)

Argentina

Tango - a dance that originated in Buenos Aires, Argentina and drew on the habanera european song and cowboy songs

The Country Blues

The "classic blues" was based on music made by musicians in rural areas such as the Mississippi Delta, East Texas, and the Piedmont region of the Southeastern USA These musicians were generally African American men who accompanied themselves on acoustic guitars, singing songs in a wide range of poetic, musical, and narrative forms Before these musicians were recorded, traces of their music were transmitted through the memories of listeners such as W.C. Handy, whose impressions were juxtaposed with ideas from formal music training Guitar techniques included playing with a slide or bottleneck, a practice with potential origins in African instruments and the Hawaiian slide guitar style The earliest recording stars of country blues included Charley Pation, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Robert Johnson

The Carter Family

The Carter Family's repertoire of ballads, sacred music, and sentimental songs set the standard for country's thematic content A.P. Carter collected songs from folk singers in rural Virginia; Peer encouraged him to copyright the folk songs, and to write new songs in the same style The Carter Family sound was foundational to early country music Nasal vocal timbres and clear harmonies Maybelle's "Carter-style" guitar playing and Sara's autoharp were influential on the sound of early country

The "Jazz Age"

The embrace of jazz and other African American-influenced music shows the growth of popular culture's importance to both society and other forms of art jazz was maligned as a deviant art form, in criticisms often echoing racist views Opportunities for musicians were still governed by segregation The most successful jazz performers of the time were Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra, an all-white ensemble Black performers like Duke Ellington typically performed in segregated spaces for all white audiences

King Oliver and Louis Armstrong

The first African American jazz recordings came in the mid-1920s, and showcase an evolving style King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, "Dippermouth Blues" (1923) Similar to ODJB, but more improvisational in its melodies The initial collective melodic section is followed by substantive individual solos Louis Armstrong and the Hot Five, "West End Blues" (1928) Recording begins with a solo cadenza by Armstrong, highlighting a shift towards the predominance of individual virtuosity Armstrong's performance includes scat singing in a call-and-response sec4on with the clarinet

Radio

The first commercial radio stations were established in 1920, and by 1927 there were over 1000 stations in the US NBC established in 1926 as the first nationwide commercial radio During the Great Depression, radio became more important than the phonograph for the spread of music

Ritchie Valens

The forefather of Chicano and Latin Rock one of the earliest Hispanic celebrities

The "Golden Age" of Tin Pan Alley

The height of the Tin Pan Alley era was in the 1920s and 1930s Songs written in the district were popular in sheet music sales and on Broadway Many songs from this era are still performed as standards The most successful composers included: Irving Berlin (1888-1989) Richard Rodgers (1902-79) Cole Porter (1891-1964) George Gershwin (1898-1937) Many successful composers, lyricists, and performers came from NYC's large Jewish community Music and theater provided a creative outlet and potential careers for immigrants who had trouble finding other work Performers included Al Jolson, Sophie Tucker, George Jessel, Jack Benny, George Burns, and Milton Berle

What are some scholarly interpretations of "Crazy Blues" as a historical document?

The importance of this record may be a bit lost on today's ears Nowadays, we expect this blues record to proceed in the manner of a dance blues from Mississippi or Chicago, that is, to consist of a string of 12-measure blues choruses But since Bradford wrote "Crazy Blues" as a theater piece for a stage singer, he embeds the blues choruses among non-blues verses So during the course of the historic three-minute side, the first chorus is 16 measures long, the second is a 12 measure blues, the third another 16 measure structure, the fourth and fifth are also blues, and the sixth chorus ends with the 16-measure theme heard earlier Everything about "Crazy Blues" is composed in both song structure and demeanor, but the controlled tempo does allow Mamie Smith some heartfelt moments during the last two choruses

Country and Western

The marketing of "hillbilly" music was extended to include other strands of Southern music Singing Cowboys Included film stars such as Gene Autry and Roy Rogers and groups such as the Sons of the Pioneers Western Swing Mixture of Southwestern fiddle tune, cowboy image, and jazz Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys "San Antonio Rose" (1938) features fiddles, electric steel guitar, big band-style vocals "New San Antonio Rose" (1940) adds trumpets and saxophones drawing on both big band and mariachi styles

How did changing economic conditions in the South affect music industry marketing strategies?

The music industry is affecting the economy is a more positive impact than vise-versa The music industry effects the economy by giving job opportunities to people, whether wanting to be a music producer or a musician This fuels citizens into excelling their careers, as well as artist growth within the city itself

The payola scandal

The practice of record companies' bribing disk jockeys to secure airplay for their records

payola scandal

The practice of record companies' bribing disk jockeys to secure airplay for their records

Robert Johnson and the Blues Mythology

The short lives of many blues performers fed into legends about their lives and their music Johnson (1911-1938) was famous during and after his lifetime for his singing and guitar playing

The Influence of Tin Pan Alley

The songwriting formulas of Tin Pan Alley are still heard in today's music The chorus of "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" is AABA! Many of the songs composed in this era were used as the basis of improvisational jazz performances, especially in bebop and other styles of the 1940s and 1950s The merging of the different "streams" music by composers like Gershwin helped define the identity of American popular music

Vaudeville

Theatrical variety shows that drew on minstrelsy and other forms of entertainment Featured a range of acts, including singers, acrobats, comedians, jugglers, dancers, and animal acts Singers helped promote sheet music sales Separate national touring circuits were established for white and black troupes

1877

Thomas Edison invents phonograph Tinfoil then wax cylinder

"Soundprint"

Timbre / color Style

The "Birth" of the Musical

Tin Pan Alley songs were frequently heard on Broadway stages After WWI, the most common type of Broadway show was the revue, a variety show included skits, songs, and dances New songs could easily be inserted into these shows Beginning in the late 1920s, musicals with a coherent story and some musical coherence begin to emerge The musical Show Boat (1927), with a score by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, was a huge success Show Boat was atypically deep, and addressed racial issues in a complex plot that showed characters experiencing genuine sorrow as well as joy The songs in Show Boat were tied to the drama, and remained linked to the story even when performed outside of the show

George Gershwin

Trained as a classical composer and pianist, Gershwin successfully combined aspects of Tin Pan Alley, art music, and jazz into his songs and other works Composed several pieces that are standard repertory for symphony orchestras, as well as many songs that are essential to the "American songbook"

1948

Unbreakable vinyl plastic 33 1/3 RPM LPs 45 RPM, 6" discs

Frank and Irene Castle

Vernon and Irene Castle were a husband-and-wife team of ballroom dancers and dance teachers who appeared on Broadway and in silent films in the early 20th century They are credited with reviving the popularity of modern dancing

Original Dixieland Jazz Band

White group from New Orleans led by the cornetist Nick LaRocca Their recording of "Livery Stable Blues" and "Dixieland Jass Band One-Step" was released in March 1917, and within a few weeks, it had sparked a national fad for jazz music.

Minstrelsy/The Minstrel Show

White performers taking on the guise of black stereotypes often to critique white society Minstrel troupes performed throughout the US greatly influenced popular culture in the 19th century Many songwriters wrote in the medium Laid the groundwork for the later vaudeville variety shows racist origins created an increased interest in and openness toward African American music

What racial stereotypes contributed to both the difficulties and ultimate success of Bradford's negotiations with Okeh Records?

White record companies invested in marketing race records vary some claiming it was "for the purpose of exploiting markets and expanding the capital of producers." Advocates of this philosophy emphasize the control that the companies had on the type and form of songs that artists could create "race records were distinguished by numerical series... in effect, segregated lists," White owned companies aimed to maintain the racial divisions in society through race records Media companies even implemented racial stereotypes in advertising to invoke Black sentiments and sell more records Others regard the investments as being motivated simply by profit, namely by the low cost of production resulting from the easy exploitation of black writers and musicians, combined with the ease of distribution to a highly targeted class of consumers who have little access to a fully competitive marketplace

Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra, "Whispering" (1919)

Whiteman carefully melded elements of jazz and more mainstream pop music, while marketing himself as the "King of Jazz" Whiteman can be read as both exploiting and promoting jazz as performed by African American musicians Whiteman's "symphonic jazz" expanded the instrument pale`e of jazz, including strings, more brass and woodwind instruments "Whispering" (1919) highlights the persistence of "novelty" sounds, featuring the "Swanee whistle"

"How Deep Is the Ocean?"

Written (words and music) by Irving Berlin in 1932 Form = Verse-Refrain (ABAC) Bing Crosby's 1932 recording shows the development of the crooning style, with a greater intimacy and musical nuance that acoustic recordings

Perez Prado

a Cuban bandleader, pianist and composer who popularized the mambo in the late 1940s He frequently made brief appearances in films, primarily of the rumberas genre The success of his orchestra and hits such as "Mambo No. 5" earned him the nickname "King of the Mambo"

Carlos Gardel

a French Argentine singer, songwriter, composer and actor, and the most prominent figure in the history of tango Gardel's baritone voice and the dramatic phrasing of his lyrics made miniature masterpieces of his hundreds of three-minute tango recordings

Rock 'n' roll

a broad genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in the United States in the early 1950s developed into a range of different styles in the 1960s and later, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom

Bluegrass

a genre of American roots music that developed in the 1940s in the United States Appalachian region The genre derives its name from the band Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys

Mambo

a genre of Cuban dance music pioneered by the charanga Arcaño y sus Maravillas in the late 1930s and later popularized in the big band style by Pérez Prado

Modal jazz

a jazz style in which the soloists base their solos on modes instead of the chord changes

Head arrangement

a musical plan and form worked up verbally by the players in rehearsal or on the bandstand

Ragtime

a musical style that enjoyed its peak popularity between 1895 and 1919 Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm

Bill Haley

a pioneering American rock and roll musician He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets

Polk Brockman

a record distributor for his father's department store in Atlanta in the 1920s when he talked a skeptical agent for Okeh Records into recording a Georgian named Fiddlin' John Carson

The "Spanish tinge"

a reference to an Afro-Latin rhythmic touch that spices up the more conventional rhythms commonly used in jazz and pop music The phrase is a quotation from Jelly Roll Morton

Crooning

a soft singing or humming

New Orleans jazz

a style of music Almost any song can be "jazzed up" with a New Orleans beat. Jazz was originally music for dancing, not listening, even though that is what modern jazz became in the 1950s and beyond has a swinging, stomping, syncopated beat that makes you want to dance

Jazz

a style of music characterized by the use of improvisation

Tango

a style of music in or time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay It is traditionally played on a solo guitar, guitar duo, or an ensemble, known as the orquesta típica, which includes at least two violins, flute, piano, double bass, and at least two bandoneóns

Western swing

a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands

The Carter Family

a traditional American folk music group that recorded between 1927 and 1956 Their music had a profound impact on bluegrass, country, Southern Gospel, pop and rock musicians as well as on the U.S. folk revival of the 1960s

Exoticism

a trend in music combining "novel" sounds with fantasy-driven extramusical imagery and ethnic caricatures Exoticist art offers dominant cultures to explore their identities and express real life prejudices and fears

Big band swing

a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section originated during the early 1910s and dominated jazz in the early 1940s when swing was most popular

Tin Pan Alley Songs

aimed at white, urban middle- and upper middle-class Americans songs were generally escapist, with little in the way of social or political commentary Both the lyrical content of songs and their typical mode of performance were linked to the predominant cultural ideals of privacy and romantic These ideals fit well with the new crooning style of singing that was facilitated by the introduction of the microphone in the 1920s

What motivated the surge in "coon songs" in the 1880s and 1890s?

aimed to be funny and incorporated the syncopated rhythms of ragtime music A coon song's defining characteristic was its caricature of African Americans In keeping with the older minstrel image of blacks, coon songs often featured "watermelon- and chicken-loving rural buffoon[s]

Bessie Smith

an African American blues singer the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s did not have an available education because her parents had died and her elder sister was taking care of her

Who was "Blind Tom"?

an African American musical prodigy on the piano had numerous original compositions published had a lengthy and largely successful performing career throughout the United States During the 19th century, he was one of the best-known American performing pianists

Scott Joplin

an African-American composer and pianist Joplin achieved fame for his ragtime compositions and was dubbed the King of Ragtime During his brief career, he wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas

Perry Bradford

an African-American composer, songwriter, and vaudeville performer

Mario Bauza

an Afro-Cuban jazz musician He was one of the first to introduce Cuban music to the United States by bringing Cuban musical styles to the New York City jazz scene

Bob Wills

an American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader Considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western swing, he was known widely as the King of Western Swing

Robert Johnson

an American blues singer, songwriter and musician His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generations of musicians. Johnson's poorly documented life and death have given rise to much legend

George Gershwin

an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned both popular and classical genres

Duke Ellington

an American composer, pianist, and leader of a jazz orchestra, which he led from 1923 until his death over a career spanning more than six decades

Count Basie

an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer In 1935, Basie formed his own jazz orchestra, the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording

Bill Monroe

an American mandolinist, singer, and songwriter, who created the style of music known as bluegrass Because of this, he is commonly referred to as the "Father of Bluegrass" The genre takes its name from his band, the Blue Grass Boys, named for Monroe's home state of Kentucky

Louis Jordan

an American musician, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s Known as "The King of the Jukebox", his highest profile came towards the end of the swing era

Elvis

born in Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1935, but spent his formative years in Memphis, Tennessee, which was an especially important city for African American music Embedded within both of these ideas are questions of cultural appropriation These questions will propel us through the rest of the class, and we'll hear Public Enemy call out Elvis in particular in their 1989 track, "Fight the Power," as someone whose success came from "stealing" from black culture This is not a cut-and-dried conclusion, though, and many fans and historians hold that Elvis's success came from a sincere, "authentic" synthesis of the cultures that surrounded him as he grew up: the music of black and white churches, various forms of rhythm and blues, country and western music, and, of course, the mainstream music that permeated the airwaves and records

strophic, or simple verse form

each stanza presents new lyrics the music is repeated over and over commonly found in older styles like the folk ballad

producer

established as a role within the creative process

the B-side to "That's All Right"

exhibits a different combination of elements, as Elvis sings "Blue Moon of Kentucky," a song by Bill Monroe, the pioneer of bluegrass The original recording of "Blue Moon" is a quintessential bluegrass waltz, with heavy lead fiddles and the "high, lonesome sound" of Monroe's voice Presley's recording transforms the somewhat mournful waltz feel of the original into a much faster 4-beat groove similar to "That's All Right." Monroe's fragile, crackling tenor is replaced by Presley's more amiable, bouncy vocals Elvis's version was so successful that Monroe's own performances of the tune later included a midway change from the waltz meter to a fast bluegrass 4-beat feel Presley's cover thus not only brought bluegrass to a wider audience, but actually impacted the genre that he was never a part of

The genre of R&B has always sounded the same

false

Thornton's performance

features raw vocals, and a raucous, loose rhythmic feel, anchored by hand claps Many listeners (then and now) have seen this track as the epitome of "authentic" blues-inflected R&B from the American South However, this song is in fact an example of the continuation of the dynamics seen the classic blues, in which an African American performer records material written in an "African American" style by white composers In this case, the authors of the song are Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who collaborated with Thornton in a Los Angeles recording studio Knowing this history of the song complicates the question posed by various critics of Presley who charged that he appropriated the song from Thornton

Hillbilly

folk music combined with elements of popular music in which the banjo, fiddle, and guitar are principal instruments: a type of music that originated in mountain regions of the southern U.S

A final original/cover pairing from Presley's early career

highlights the complexity of the cultural exchanges that propel popular culture The song in question is "Hound Dog," which was originally recorded by R&B singer Big Mama Thornton in 1953 Much of Presley's notoriety in the late 1950s stemmed from a live performance of "Hound Dog" on the Milton Berle Show, in which the singer seemed to prove critics of early rock 'n' roll right, as he danced in a provocative and overtly sexual manner Presley was reconciled with the music establishment soon thereafter, returning to TV to sing "Hound Dog" again, but dressed in a tuxedo and accompanied by an actual basset hound on the Steve Allen Show He went on to several high profile performances on the Ed Sullivan Show, which contributed to his domination of the pop charts in the late '50s

2007

iPhone and other smartphones integrate phone and MP3 player

2001

iPod introduced most successful MP3 player

2003

iTunes Music Store debuts followed by MP3 sales by Amazon, Google, and others

Tin Pan Alley

is the name given to the collection of New York City-centered music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 1800's and early 1900's

AABA, or 32-bar song form

it is largely the music that signals the pattern, but in many cases the lyrics can also point you in the right direction you will typically see 4 stanzas of 4 lines each, with no repeated sections The first, second, and fourth will usually be noticeably different in structure than the third, and in many cases the last line of the first, second, and fourth will be the same or similar This is an interesting example, because the AABA form is specifically used to show Olaf's character to be both naive and somewhat out of touch - an view many people now hold of Tin Pan Alley-type songs Note also the similarity in how the repetition of the AABA structure is to what we saw in Gene Austin's recording of "My Blue Heaven." Probably the most common form type in popular music since the 1960s is the verse-chorus form The primary characteristic of this form is the combination of stanzas containing new lyrics (verses) and stanzas whose lyrics are the same each time (choruses) Here we abandon the letter-based form analysis and label the sections as "verse" and "chorus," or V and C Although the most common iteration of this form type is a simple alternation of the sections, there are many variations that can still be considered as verse-chorus forms Some typical iterations of this form are: V C V C V C V V C V V C V V C V C C V V C V C V C V V C V C Bridge C - this version "borrows" the function of the "B" section from the AABA form At the end of any of these forms, the chorus can either be repeated or extended in any number of ways There are many, many other possible variations, but they can all still be considered as "verse-chorus form" if they are built from one of these basic formulas

Cross-genre covers

mainstream pop artists re-recorded songs that were minor hits for performers in secondary genres like hillbilly/country

Military-style brass bands

provided social activity and an outlet for patriotic and nationalistic ideas many formed in the context of the civil war

Presley's version of "Hound Dog"

recorded for RCA Records, who had signed him to an extremely lucrative contract, in 1956 Following Thornton's version, the track is driven by the combination of a snare drum backbeat and hand claps Halfway through the track, however, at 0:50, Elvis's increasingly "popified" sound is attested to by the addition of a quartet of Nashville studio singers adding jazz-inflected backing vocals to the electric guitar solo Over the next 5 years, Elvis continued this transformation from a "rocker" to a pop star, appearing in many films and recording more and more material that was closer to Tin Pan Alley than Memphis A prime example of this evolution is "Can't Help Falling in Love," an from his 1961 film and album, Blue Hawaii Here, Presley has committed fully to the crooning style, and is backed by the same vocal choir, as well as a rolling piano and an electric steel guitar that indexes both Hawaiian music and the "Nashville Sound" of country pop stars like Eddy Arnold Unsurprisingly, the form of this song is a "classic" AABA song form almost identical to the refrain of "My Blue Heaven"

Elvis's very first single

recorded in 1954 by producer Sam Phillips at Sun Studios in Memphis, encapsulates the melding of many of these different musics The first side of the 45 rpm record is "That's All Right," a cover of a 1948 R&B track by singer and guitarist Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup Listen to the original here, and note the raw, "dirty" guitar sound, the swinging drum beat, the walking bass line, and use of stoptime, in which the band drops out briefly as Elvis's version of this song--supposedly a spontaneous performance luckily captured on tape displays some important similarities and differences Elvis's acoustic strumming and a cleaner sounding lead part from Scotty Moore, and a different approach to the song's groove, with the bass alternating between a 2-beat feel and the walking bass line of the original With Elvis's part-crooning, part-blues, part-hillbilly vocals on top, this track offers something familiar to a range of listeners You may think that you heard a drummer in addition to the two guitars and string bass, but in fact, bassist Bill Black is playing "slap bass"--a unique style that is a hallmark of "rockabilly", in which the player slaps the strings to get a percussive sound in addition to the usual bass notes

Classic blues

refers to a family of genres including delta blues and country blues refers to the earliest recorded versions of African-American blues music that were preserved in the 1920s and 1930s

Elvis In the end

remains one of the most significant figures in American popular music: the "King of Rock," who was unabashedly a pop star for the majority of his career The permeability of such genre distinctions is highlighted in this performance of "Can't Help Falling in Love" by folk singer Arlo Guthrie, who argues through this performance that the collective experience of Elvis's music by people from all walks of life and even across the globe allows it to even be considered "folk" music

Song plugger

someone who performed a song, usually at a music store, to encourage people to buy the sheet music

parlor music

songs and instrumental music aimed at amateur performance were a major part of European and American musical life especially from the mid-1800s

Tin Pan Alley Song Forms

songwriters used standard forms to provide a familiar context for new melodic and harmonic ideas Verse-refrain form, with an AABA refrain Verse Usually sets up a dramatic context or emotional tone of the song Verses were the most important part of nineteenth-century popular songs, but regarded as mere introductions by the 1920s Today, the verses of Tin Pan Alley songs are rarely performed Refrain Usually made up of four sections of equal length A - the main melody, basic pattern of lyrics and a set of chord changes to support them A - The music of the A section is repeated with new lyrics, often with slight variations B - "The bridge"—new material, new melody, and new chord changes A - the melody and chords of the first secBon are repeated

Rhythm changes

the harmonic progression introduced in the chorus of Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm" (1930) and subsequently borrowed for hundreds of new tunes

Stephen Foster

the most successful composer of songs in the US in the late-19th century

Music is linked to expressions of racial, gender, and sexual identities.

true

Billboard charts

weekly ranking of songs and albums by playlist and sales numbers

12-bar blues form

which features both a repeating musical pattern and a repeating lyrical pattern based on the vernacular country blues style, but is much more standardized than actual examples from the performances documented in country blues recordings, such as Robert Johnson's "Cross Road Blues." The easiest way to recognize the blues form is by its lyrics, which are always in stanzas of three lines, following a pattern of aab Using the Roman numeral system, the chords are: I, I, I, I IV, IV, I, I V, V, I, I

Cross-racial covers

white artists re-recorded successful R&B tracks, changing sounds and/or lyrics to reach broader pop market

1857

Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville patents the phonautograph