the world of music 7 th edition part 2 listening to american music: folk, religious, pop, and jazz...
TRANSCRIPT
The World of Music7th Edition
Part 2
Listening to American Music:
Folk, Religious, Pop, and Jazz
CHAPTER 6
American Popular Music
American Popular Music
• Tin Pan Alley
• Country
• African American influenced– Blues– Gospel– Motown– Rap
• Pop/Pock
Common Traits of Popular Music
• Music that is known by a majority of interested people at any given time
• Simple and Tuneful• Singable Lyrics• Repetitive• Three (or less) chords (typically)• Strong Beat and Regular Meter• Clear Phrases
Measuring a Song’s Popularity
• Then– measured by sales of sheet music
• Now– Radio/Jukebox play
• Billboard Magazine• The Hit Parade Radio Show• “Airplay”
– Sales• LP’s/45’s• Cassettes/8-Tracks• CD’s
– Downloads
Colonial American/Pre 20th Century Popular Music
• Opera Melodies
• Scottish and Irish Airs
• Hymns
• German Art Songs
Songs by Stephen Foster
• Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)
• Oh Susanna!
• My Old Kentucky Home
• Old Black Joe
• Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair
• Come Where My Love Lies Desiring
• Beautiful Dreamer
Minstrel Shows
• Minstrel Song• First Distinctive American
Music style– Lively, Syncopated,
“humorous”
• Written by and for Whites, sung by musicians in “Black Face”– Attempted to portray the
“Negro way of life”• Often Stereotypical and
not accurate
• Drawn from:– Popular Music– Folk Music– Songs from Italian Opera
• Eventually written by Black Composers– So it ended up as: Blacks,
portraying Whites, who were portraying Blacks…
• Preceded Vaudeville
Vaudeville Shows
• Similar to modern variety shows – typically a group of unrelated acts– Singers– Dancers– Comedians– Jugglers– Child Performers– Animals– Dramatic Sketches
Tin Pan Alley
• A place in NYC– 28th street
• Typically in Verse-Chorus form
• Where to hear Tin Pan Alley Sons– Vaudeville– Broadway Musicals– Films– Nightclubs– Radio and Recordings– Jazz Concerts
Tin Pan Alley Names
• Composers– Jerome Kern– Cole Porter– George Gershwin– Irving Berlin– Richard Rodgers
• Performers– Al Jolson– Eddie Cantor– Rudy Vallee– Kate Smith– Paul Whiteman– Bing Crosby
Broadway Musicals
• A Musical Play– Acting– Singing (but using
vernacular languages)– Costumes
• National Tours
• Then– Stirke Up the Band– Porgy and Bess– West Side Story– Oklahoma!
• Now– The Producers– Spam-a-lot– Cats– The Lion King– Phantom of the Opera
Film and Film Music
• “born” in 1927– The Jazz Singer
• Entertainment for the masses– Transports the viewer
to a different world
• Singers who Act(ed)– Then
• Bing Crosby• Frank Sinatra• Barbra Streisand
– Now• Harry Connick Jr. • Lindsay Lohan• 50 Cent• Ice-T
Radio and Recordings
• Invention of the Term “Hit”
• Folk Styles Now were preserved• Recorded specialized categories of music• Sold the recordings back to the category of people
the music came from
• Fame for Formerly Obscure Artists
• Aided the spread of Jazz
Country Music
• Hillbilly
• Cowboy Songs
• Western Swing
• Bluegrass
• Nashville Sound
Hillbilly
• Described the poor, illiterate, rural, uneducated southerners
• Viewed as “culturally and musically inferior”• Later it represented wholesome concepts in
America• Performers
– Uncle Dave Macon– The Carter Family– Jimmy Rodgers
Cowboy songs
• Dealt with Loneliness and infidelity
• When performed on solo piano:– Honky Tonk
• Propelled by the movie industry
• Singing Cowboys:– Gene Autry– Tex Ritter– Roy Rogers
Bluegrass
• Mountain Music• Instruments
– Acoustic Guitar– Fiddle– Mandolin– Bass Fiddle– Banjo
• Artists then– Bill Monrow– Lester Flatt– Earl Scruggs
• Artists Now– Alison Krauss– Nickel Creek– Nashville Bluegrass
Band
The Nashville Sound
• Grand Ole Opry
• Influential from 1957-1971
• Made Nashville an important city in the American Music Industry
• Obscured roots of country
• Musicians– Roy Acuff– Chet Atkins
Contemporary Country
• Honky-Tonk
• Bluegrass
• Cowboy Music
• Mainstream or Traditional Country
• Young Country
• Success measured by tours and concerts
Popular Music with African-Americans
• Motown• Gospel• Rhythm and Blues (R+B)
– Race Records• Recorded speciality types of music marketed for African-Americans
• Boogie Woogie• Soul
– An extension of R+B– Name changed in 1969 by Billboard mag– Picked up where Motown left off
• Rock– A combination of “Black” music (R+B) and “White” music (C+W)– Originally segregated, but Brown v. BOE changed that– Rockabilly – Southern C+W plus Rock
British Invasion
• Served mostly Urban Whites• In England, it is influenced by American R+B
– Everly Brothers– Buddy Holly– Chuck Berry– Little Richard
• Groups– The Beatles– The Rolling Stones– The Who– Pick Floyd
• Strongly Influenced Future Rock Bands
New Technologies Create Rock Genres
• Sound Amplification• Studio Manipulations• Synthesizers• MIDI
Sampling• Mixing
• Acid Rock• Art Rock• Blues Rock• Folk Rock• Gospel Rock• Industrial Rock• New Wave• Punk• Southern Rock• Metal
Rap and Hip-Hop
• Embraced Technology• Socially Aware• Led by Black Males
• New use of the Turntable/Record Player as an instrument– Scratching– Turntabalism
• From Urban Arts– Street Poetry– Graffitti
• “Tagging”
– Break Dancing