popular music music with a broad appeal music recorded for commercial consumption often oriented...
TRANSCRIPT
Popular Music
Music with a broad appeal
Music recorded for commercial consumption
Often oriented towards a youth market
Often intended to encourage dancing
Early Pop Music Mass distribution
needed to be considered pop music
1st way music distributed to a wide audience?
Sheet music- many Americans sang and played music in own homes
Most sheet music sold in 19th century- opera, classical music, marches, minstrel music
Now playing:
Esprit du CorpsJohn Phillip Sousa
Minstrel Music White singers in blackface
exaggerating the styles of African-American song and movement
Had existed in US almost since Europeans encountered Africans
Made most popular form of mass entertainment in 19th century by Thomas Rice, who saw a crippled black stable hand named Jim Crow doing a song and dance called Jumping Jim Crow.
Rice bought the man's clothes and learned the song and dance and made it a stage routine
Changing technology- The phonograph Thomas Edison the father
of recording industry Invented the phonograph
(musical cylinder) in 1877 Music recorded on wax
and later plastic cylinders Dominant form of mass
production from 1880s-1910
Brought professional musicians into homes for first time
Changing technology- The gramophone (record player) 1887- Emile Berliner
invents the gramophone
Played a flat record- cheaper to mass produce, easier to store
Gramophone was in millions of homes by the early 20th century
Now playing:
Red Red RobinAl Jolson
Pop Music in early 1900s tended to be: Mostly European in
style (USA still looked to Europe for approval)
Enjoyed by old and young alike (phonograph / gramophone sat in centre of home controlled by head of household)
Now playing:
California Here I ComeAl Jolson
The Lost Generation
Young men disillusioned by the horrors of WW1 began to reject the values of the elder generation
Young women fought stereotypical gender roles and adopted the “flapper” lifestyle
Known as the “Lost Generation”, youth in the 1920s began to rebel against the values of the Victorian era
The Generation Gap A disconnect between
members of one generation and members of the next based on the later generation developing habits, attitudes, and preferences inconsistent with the experience of the former
Before the 1920s, culturally there was not a significant generation gap
During the Roaring 1920s, the musical tastes of the young and old began to diverge- generation gap in music has been significant since then
The Jazz Age
Nickname for the 1920s Jazz music was
developed by African Americans in the Jim Crow south (New Orleans was the centre of the jazz music scene)
Came North as Black musicians tried to escape Southern oppression, particularly during the Great Migration- Chicago & New York became centres for Jazz music
Now playing:
St. Louis BluesLouis Armstrong
Jazz- Music of Rebellion
Young, white, Americans embraced jazz music as form of rebellion because:
Roots in Black culture Loud, fast, wild,
improvised sound much different than traditional pop music
Dance that accompanied it seen as too sexual
Played at illegal speakeasies during prohibition
Now playing:
Hotter than ‘EllFletcher Henderson
Slumming
Name given to the practice of affluent, whites going to black neighbourhoods, like Harlem, to go to jazz clubs
Went to find authentic “jungle music” and for the thrill of doing something disreputable
Now playing:
Jumpin’ JiveCab Calloway
Tin Pan Alley & the White Washing of Jazz Tin Pan Alley- the New
York City-centered music industry that dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century
Saw the popularity of jazz music and wanted to make it more acceptable to wider society to increase sales
Symphonic Jazz
Effort to get rid of elements of jazz that offended older generation
Music was more arranged & orderly, played in concert halls instead of speakeasies, played by classically trained white musicians.
Now playing:
ValenciaPaul Whiteman Orchestra
Stock Market Crash = Jazz Crash During the early 1930s,
popularity of jazz waned due to unpopularity of symphononic jazz; some blamed jazz age for Depression
“Crooners” singing sad songs most popular music in these years
Record sales, attendance at clubs falls dramatically during the early years of Depression
Now playing:
Pennies from HeavenMel Torme
Swing Music
During mid-1930s, new form of jazz, “Swing”, became popular.
Mixed improvisation, up-tempo beat, danceability of hot jazz; and big bands and organization (led by a band leader) of symphonic jazz
Swing became mainstream pop music- most popular genre of its time
Now playing:
Sing Sing Sing Benny Goodman
Black Musicians During Swing Era Many Black musicians
enjoyed considerable popularity during Swing Era ( e.g. Duke Ellington, Count Basie)
However, the white musicians were the most marketable and highest paid swing artists (Benny Goodman, Glen Miller, Artie Shaw)
Faced racism or were not allowed to perform at Southern venues
Now playing:
Jumpin at the WoodsideCount Basie
Bop or Bebop Jazz Genre created in 1940s Some believe it was
created for musical reasons- gave musicians more freedom to improvise, be creative than swing
Others believe black musicians created to protest that they were not being compensated as well as white swing artists
Now playing:
Groovin’ HighCharlie Parker & Dizzy
Gilespie
Avant-Garde Jazz
Eventually, jazz became even less of a dance or pop music, more of a musicians music
Avant-garde jazz did not fit style or structure of more popular forms of jazz
End of jazz as a popular form of music (1950s)- replaced by R&B and Rock
Now playing:
A Love SupremeJohn Coltrane
Overall Impact of Jazz Initiated the Generation
Gap in Pop Culture First music of American
origin to become popular world wide- US becomes leader in world pop culture
Cultural product with African-American origins and played widely by Black musicians became popular in white society- breaking down of racial barriers
Now playing:
Take the A TrainDuke Ellington