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UNIT ONE
Introduction
Rock and roll designates the first wave of rock from 1954 to 1959
Music after 1964 is considered ‘rock’
Elements to Consider
Important Themes: (all play a roll in how rock music develops)
o Social, political, and cultural issues
o Issues of race, class, and gender
o The development of the music business
o The development of technology
Changes in the music business influence rock
Popularity Arc
In many cases, a specific style will seem to appear first within a relatively restricted
geographic region and remain virtually undetected by most fans of popular music
(i.e. few rock fans knew about the punk scene in NYC)
The American Punk Style developed within this small subculture for years until it
finally broke out into the spotlight in 1978
Punk came from a small subculture into the mainstream and then retreated back into
the underground – a pattern called the popularity arc
o How did this arise?
o When did it peak in popularity?
o Does this style continue to exist in a subculture somewhere else?
Elements of Music: An Introduction
Rocket ’88 – Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, 1951
o Considered by many to be the first rock and roll record
o Contains simpleverse form; repeats a single section 8 times
o Common in rock music; no chorus
Simple Verse Form: A simple verse form consists of a series of verses, all of which use
the same underlying music. A simple verse forms contains no chorus or bridge sections,
though the verses may contain a refrain
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Instrumental Verse: A verse section that repeats the music of the verse, without the
singing and with an instrument soloing, is an instrumental verse
Bar/Measure: Musicians often count out a song saying 1,2,3,4 this is a bar of music
and the numbers represent beats. These bars have the same number of beats throughout a
song
Rhythm: Refers to the organized patterning of the temporal dimension in music. We can
refer to a rhythmic figure in the music, which is usually a short segment with a clearly
defined profile of some kind.
Meter Classification: Classifies how we feel the organization of the rhythm for a
particular song. Meters are classified as either simple or compound
Meter: Establishes how we will notate music within certain meter classification. 2/4, ¾,
and 4/4 are the most common simple meters. 6/8, 9/8, and 12/8 are the most common
compound meters.
Duple (meter): When there are two beats per bar of music, the meter is classified as
duple. Commonly notates as 2/4 if simple, 6/8 if compound
Quadruple (meter): When there are 4 beats per bar of music, the meter is classified as
quadruple. Commonly notates as 4/4 if simple, 12/8 if compound
Shuffle Rhythm: often a way of playing 4/4 that transforms it into something closer to
12/8. The four beats in a measure of 4/4 are each divided into two parts for a scheme that
goes 1 & 2 & 3 & 4. In 12/8, it would be 1& uh 2 & uh 3 & uh 4 & uh
Triple (meter): When there are three beats in a bar, the meter is classified as triple.
Commonly notated as 3/4 if simple or 9/8 if compound
Compound (meter): when we subdivide the basic beat into three equal parts, we create a
compound feel, which is notated using compound meters such as 8/8, 9/8 or 12/8
Timbre: a musical term that refers to the quality or colour of a sound. I.e. a flute vs.
trumpet – you can distinguish the difference to their tone qualities or timbres
Common Pitfalls for a Student of Popular Music
Information about rock in the popular media is designed primarily for entertainment
rather than for educational purposes
Issue of “fan mentality” (bias). As a student, we should listen to everything with an
open ear, and not ignore music we don’t like
We should not take chart positions into account
UNIT TWO
Chapter 1 – The World Before Rock and Roll
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1920s1940s
Decades shaped by WW1, WW2, and the Stock Market crash
Upheaval in world politics were reflected in the arts
Dubbed “The Jazz Age”
The World Before Rock and Roll
“Elvis the Pelvis” due to sexual behaviour
Rock and roll broke into the scene very suddenly
Rock and roll developed out of three principle sources that preceded it:
o Mainstream pop
o Rhythm and blues
o Country and western
Part 1: The World of Mainstream Pop in the Years Leading up to 1955
Important change in popular music was the national audience
Most culture used to be regional
1930s/1940s thought of as The Golden Age in the history of motion picture
Radio technology developed
However, some pop styles remained regional with others became national
There were two ways of reaching large audiences
o Broadcast via a highpower transmitter
o Link a number of local and regional stations together to form a network
Considered unethical to play records on the air – thought that by playing a record you
were trying to fool people into believing it was live
Amos n’ Andy a radio comedy; great success
Radio could make a song popular overnight
RCA: Radio Corporation of America redirected its resources from radio to television
Made money by selling advertising; targeted the middle class
Tin Pan Alley
Music publishing an influence on the music business
Sheet music principal way to sell music – concentrated in an area of NYC known as
Tin Pan Alley
Got its name from the large number of songwriters plunking out songs on the piano;
sounded like banging on tin pans
SectionalVerseChorus format in which the Chorus is something listeners recognize,
and the verse is an intro which sets the scene
A song was recorded by a series of artists; the more versions, the more money was
made by the songwriter
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ASCAP: American Society of Composers, Artists, and Publishers; copyright
organization, controlled most of the broadcasted music of Tin Pan Alley
BMI: Broadcast Music Incorporated; represented more regional rhythm and blues and
country and western styles
Singers and Big Bands
Tin Pan Alley publishers had to convince singers to sing their music
19351945 was the Big Band Era
Celebrity was the singer, musicians interchanged
Bing Crosby was the most important pop singer in this era; known for his wholesome
image and crooning
Frank Sinatra made the singer the star of the show
Pop Music
Pop music corny and stiff
Wholesome, produced for a family audience
Designed to appeal to whitemiddle class audience
Part 2: The Growth of Country and Western
Remained regional until 1945
Nashville central location
Country= folk styles found in the south east and Appalachia
Western= styles prevalent in the west and southwest
Often called hillbilly music
o Jimmie Rodgers
o Hank Williams
Bluegrass= banjo dominated, similar to jazz
By the 1950s, country and western music was known by all Americans
Was assumed to be the music of lowincome whites
Part 3: Rhythm and Blues in the 1940s and 1950s
Popular music played by the black musicians intended for a black audience
Huge music business which remained completely outside of the mainstream
Racial segregation still a problem; most whites knew nothing about Black culture
Memphis, strong black community which led to Chicago which became an important
blues centre
In 1948, black radio began to pop up everywhere
White teenagers began to take interest in rhythm and blues
Syncopation often used in R&B: an unexpected strong beat or accent
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Sung in the dialect of English common in the South
Field hollers were sung by black slaves – one person would lead off the song while
the rest of the group responded
Slide guitar a common feature in country blues
Rhythm section was any combo consisting of guitar, piano, bass, drums
Women also dominated the blues scene:
o Ma Rainey
o Bessie Smith
o Big Martha Thornton
Rhythm and blues encompassed a wide variety of music styles
o Gospel
Gospel harmony
Call and response between soloist and vocalists
o Electric Blues
Phil & Leonard Chess; two white fans of black music who started a
record label
Expressive vocals, rough instrumental, raw
These records had the most impact on rock and roll
o Atlantic and Black Pop
More polished pop sound, vocal oriented
o Doowop (Urban Vocal Music)
Singers could not afford instruments, used acapella instead
Doowop named after the syllables these singers would use in their
arrangements
Rhythm and Blues a Dangerous Influence
Parents worried about the effect of this music on white children due to racial
stereotypes
Stagger Lee Myth = that black men are driven sexually and desire white women
Popular songs can have double meanings of sexual innuendo = called Hokum Blues
UNIT THREE
Chapter 2 – The Demise of Rock and Roll and The Promise of Soul
The 1950s
Kind, simple, innocent decade
Conservative, pure – yet this decade was introduced to Playboy and rock and roll
Sexuality basically absent from TV
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No more discrimination or racial segregation
Birth and First Flourishing of Rock and Roll
1955 was the first year of rock and roll
The Baby Boom demographic helped pave the way for rock and roll, as well as the
indie label, the transistor radio, the link made in the film Blackboard Jungle between
rock and roll and teen rebellion, the chartcross phenomenon and covers, and the rise
of the DJ
Alan Freed credited with inventing the term “rock and roll”
The invention of the 45 rpm single by RCA also helped rock and roll; these records
were cheaper to produce and not as fragile to support
Still no clean dividing line between rhythm and blues and rock and roll
Rock and roll born when R&B broke into the mainstream
Rock and roll played a crucial role in the breaking down of borders between pop,
country western, and R&B
The Rise of Youth Culture in the 1950s
American society was not a pop culture devoted to teenage youth
Teens had money to spend on leisure
Listening to rhythm and blues was thought of as a social rebellion
Radio and Records
Alan Freed was a radio station announcer – at Leo Mintz’s record store, he noticed
teenagers buying R&B records – Freed decided to host a late night television show
“The Moondog Show”
He was the first DJ
Considered the father of rock and roll
To get a record played, it helped to befriend the DJs, give them incentives
This was called payola
Rhythm and blues soon began to pop up on the charts
Crossovers and Covers
By the middle of the 20th C., the music business was extremely lucrative and highly
organized
Beneficial to be able to identify trends
Magazines helped professionals keep track of the music business
Charts were divided up according to the way the professionals believed consumers
could most effectively be separated out; thus, pop charts were marketed to white,
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middle class; rhythm and blues originally called race and sepia music was directed to
blacks, and country and western was directed to lowincome whites
Crossover= when a song appears first on one chart, then appears on one of the other
two
This happens in 2 ways
o The song itself crosses over
o The song is recorded by a different artist, which is called a cover
Versions by the white singers often performed better on the charts than the originals
The First Rock and Rollers Cross Over
Fats Domino was the first early rocker to have constant crossover success
Chuck Berry was a rocker influenced by country – was thought to be white
Understanding the negative reaction of adult white listeners, he decided to make
teenager friendly music
Little Richard another flamboyant performer
The Whitening of Rhythm and Blues
Bill Haley and His Comets covered Shake Rattle and Roll; played a huge role in
whitening rhythm and blues
Pat Boone also successful – only through his cover versions
Controversy over Cover Versions
Much controversy, because covers were unfair to black artists
Arrangements were copied in great detail, only differences that the new record was on
a different label with a white artist singing it
Black artists were definitely ripped off – no royalties, only a flat fee
The Rise of Elvis Presley: In Steps Corporate America
The first rock and roller to have hits on all three charts simultaneously
Elvis grew up well versed in country music and rhythm and blues
Was signed to independent label Sun Records
Sam Phillips, the owner of Sun Records, created an “echo” effect in Presley’s early
recording called tape delay; the effect is a richer sound
Presley had a variety of vocal timbres; used vibrato
“That’s All Right, Mama” became a number one it, Elvis’ first recorded song
Grande Olde Opry spot which did not go to well due to his extravagant demeanor
Moving to record company RCA changed his music entirely
A song stylist; took control over every part of his music
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His Sun recordings were called rockabilly
o Songs recorded without drums, vocal alongside acoustic bass, guitar, and
electric guitar
o Short echo (slapback echo)
o More western and country and less R&B; faster than rock and roll, more
lighthearted and more rural dialect
His career put on hold when he entered the army
Rockabilly in the Wake of Elvis
o Carl Perkins
o Johnny Cash
o Jerry Lee Lewis
o Buddy Holly
The Day the Music Died
1950s ended with rock and roll suffering two kinds of setbacks
o Elvis left for the army, and other rock and rollers got into trouble
o Buddy Holly died in a plane crash – The Day the Music Died
The Payola Investigations
Payola scandal occurred in 1959
Record labels often paid DJs to play records on the radio for cash or other gifts
In the beginning of the 20th C, singers received payola to include particular songs in
their acts
Gatekeepers were professionals who had the power to expose a song to a broad
audience and increase record/sheet music sales
Payola began appearing in the trade magazines
Indie labels (because they supported rock and roll) posed a threat to major labels
Struggle between the two organizations that collect royalties for songwriters =
ASCAP (major pop music) and BMI (rock and roll)
Cranky opponents of rock and roll believed that the indie labels were buying their
time on air; people began to believe it was true
Payola was not illegal unless the DJ didn’t announce his gifts on air
Alan Freed and Dick Clark both involved
Freed believed payola was okay; pleaded guilty and had to leave the music business
UNIT FOUR
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Chapter 3 – The Demise of Rock and Roll and The Promise of Soul
- By the end of the 1950s, any of the important figures of rock and roll were out of the
music business
- Payola scandal shook up radio stations
- Rock and roll had demonstrated how important youth culture was to music
Splitting Up the Market: Teeny Boppers and their Older Siblings
- Teenagers = teen idols
- Older Teenagers = folk music
- Brill Building = a stylistic label that refers to a place which housed the offices of
music producers
- Songwriters would work all day writing new pop songs – when one was selected it
was matched to a certain pop group
- Teen idols were cast as ideal boyfriends
o Frankie Avalon
o Bobby Rydell
o Fabian Forte
- Termed “bubble gum music”
American Bandstand
- A TV show where teenagers would dance in a studio to current pop hits; sometimes
with a live performance
- Went from radio to TV
- Dick Clark was the host
- Controlled performances, lip synching
- Clark enforced dress and behaviour codes on the artists and the dancers, creating an
atmosphere that made parents comfortable
- Rock and roll became safe and familiar
- Introduced dancing to pop music
- “The Twist” covered by Chubby Checker – a huge phenomenon in youth culture
which expanded into the adult world due to its wide success; considered one of the
most important songs in rock and roll
- A noncontact dance that could be performed with any combination of people
- In North America, the number of nightclubs dedicated to dancing increased
dramatically in the wake of The Twist; many of these clubs were called
“discothèques” because a disc jockey and a sound system rather than a live band
provided the music.
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Folk Revival
- Collegeage listeners enjoyed folk
- Folk music address politics and society
- Folk singers were perceived to be representative of their audience, not above it
- The singers were urbanites; tended not to be a particular regional dialect associated
with the genre, nor was there usually a band or combo to accompany the singer
- Touched upon the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War
- Lyrics told stories that illustrated societal problems; meaningful
- Folk was “for the people, by the people”
- Calypso music was an underlying inspiration
o The Kingston Trio
- Folk music encouraged the purchasing of full albums
- Bob Dylan emerged from this, was seen as REAL folk rather than mainstream, pop
folk like The Kingston Trio
- Peter, Paul, and Mary were the most successful folk group of the 1960s
- Folk’s image of authenticity at this time was just conceived by the music business
- Brill Building and folk music were very similar:
o Both catered to youth
o Both were run by the same business mechanisms
Ambitious Pop: The Rise of the Producer
- Rise of the producers
- In mainstream pop, artists used songs written by professionals
- A&R (artists and repertoire) organized and coordinated the various professionals
involved in making a record
- The producer replaced the A&R – producer controlled the vision
o Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller were the first producers (19561964)
- Created the Coasters who recorded playlets – short songs that told a humorous story
- AABA form, two verses develop a story, bridge leads to climax, last verse an
epilogue
- Created the girl group – most ambitious type of music, very risky due to sexual nature
o The Chantels
o The Cookies
o The Ronnettes
- Mostly made up of black teenage girls with little experience
- Annette Funicello and Connie Francis were female teen idols
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- Phil Spector was the most ambitious and eccentric producer of the 1960s and girl
group pop
- Spector demanded total control of the recording process
- Wall of Sound – trademark sound created by recording an enormous number of
instruments in a relatively small space
- Made the recording impossible to cover because you could not distinguish the
instruments
Sweet Soul on the Rise
- Rhythm and blues with accompanying strings = soft pop
o Sam Cooke (influenced by gospel)
o Ray Charles
o Ben E. King
- The Drifters a very successful group (Ben E. King the lead)
- Ben E. King went solo and established sweet soul as a fluid lead vocal melody
supported by doowop backup vocals and counter melodies in strings
Rockabilly Popsters
- Rockabilly was now influenced by the Brill Building pop
o Everly Brothers
o Roy Orbison
o Ricky Nelson
- Everly Brothers wrote their own songs; country influence, addressed teen love
- Duet singing that influenced later acts such as Simon and Garfunkel
- Roy Orbison’s music ranges from country and western, to doowop, to rhythm and
blues, to pop
- Uses falsetto – when a male singer uses his highest vocal register
- Ricky Nelson a teen idol who tried to be like Elvis; his type of rockabilly was more
polite and controlled
Surfin’ USA: It’s Just Good, Clean, WhiteSuburban Fun
- California very far from all the pop music action
- Beach Boys created a style of music seemingly based on summer fun and surf style
- They competed with the Beatles
- Brian Wilson, the band’s lead, took over music production
- Dick Dale and the DelTones played guitarbased surf music
Baby, Baby, Baby: A Case Study in Record Production
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- All 3 songs by different artists similar
Narrative Lyrics Run Amok: The Splatter Platter
- Phase where songs portrayed teenage death, usually from car crashes
- Called “death disks” or “splatter platters”
UNIT FIVE
Chapter 4: The Beatles and the British Invasion
The 1960s
- Rise and fall of JFK
- Vietnam War and Civil Rights Movement
- 3 events occurred which helped civil rights:
o Birth control
o Equality Pay Act of 1963 which allowed equal pay among sex
o Civil Rights Act which guaranteed race equality
- Dr. Martin Luther King
- Consumer issues (automobiles came under fire)
- TV shows began to challenge domestic normalcy
- FM radio became a hippie counterculture provider
British Invasion
- The Invasion disrupted the Brill Building’s dominance of the pop music industry and
began a number of trends:
a. The rise of the singer/songwriter.
b. The acceptance of electronic experimentation and the use of electronic
effects in popular music, once the realm of only artmusic (“classical
music”) composers.
c. The repopularization of blues in North America.
- British artists less likely to gain success in America
- Britain obsessed with American culture
- “Teenager” seen as an American invention
- Britain had four major record labels: EMI, Decca, Philips
- Two radio stations: BBC, Radio Luxemburg
- Skiffle: folk music with an uptempo big band feel
Beatles as Students of American Pop
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- Formed in Liverpool in 1957, calling themselves the Quarrymen and playing skiffle
- Four month stint in Hamburg, Germany
- Played often at Liverpool’s ‘Cavern Club’
- Brian Epstein was their first manager; created their look
- First Liverpool band to go to London and sign a record
- Liverpool a seaport: advantage in record sales
Beatle Influences
- Elvis Presley covers
- Chuck Berry
- Phil Spector appreciation
Beatlemania
- Beatles a huge success
- First movie; Hard Day’s Night
- Controversy with Lennon; made a Christian comment which caused an uproar
- Beatles soon moved towards a more artistic view to songwriting; began
experimenting with effects and new elements (Tomorrow Never Knows was super
trippy)
- Used tape loops, could not repeat same effect in a live performance
- Lyrics turn to a more unconventional territory between 196466; beginning of rock
culture
- Rolling Stones; bad ass image
- The Byrds, The Who, The Kinks
- The term British Invasion primarily means that all these groups were British, played
guitars, and had long hair
- Rolling Stones and Beatles very friendly with each other
- Stones had a blues influence, loose slide guitar
- Slow start in America because their bad boy image took a while to catch on (they
would never be able to project the same image as the Beatles)
- I Can’t Get No Satisfaction – huge hit, antiBeatles, sexual
- The Yardbirds, the Animals, Spencer Davis Group
- Eric Clapton of the Yardbirds – blues driven group,
- The Kinks, the Who both do not fit into a category; very raw, Mod movement
- The rise of the Beatles transformed popular music in two ways
o Opened doors for British acts within the UK
o Opened new opportunities for British acts outside the UK
UNIT SIX
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Chapter 5: American Responses
- American artists enthusiastically engaged the British bands, borrowing elements from
both the Beatles and the bluesbased groups.
- The DoItYourself mentality of the garage bands would eventually help inspire the
punk movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
- The interest in more complex production techniques would find further expression in
the progressive rock on the 1970s.
- Folk rock an obvious response to the British invasion
- The Monkees were an American pop response to the Beatles
Folk Rock
- Bob Dylan one of the most respected pop singers in the USA
- Dylan’s songs began to take a different approach; asking questions to attempt to
understand the world
- Began using electric instruments – met resistance with traditional folk fans, they felt
betrayed
- “Positively 4th Street” was used as a fingerpointing song towards everyone who felt
betrayed by his electric guitar use
- The Byrds covered “Mr. Tambourine Man” by Dylan – rock version
- Mr. Tambourine Man brings together folk revival, girl groups, surf music, and the
British Invasion
- Simon and Garfunkel transform folk into folk rock with “the Sounds of Silence”
- Mamas and the Papas followed the folk migration westward to Los Angeles; very
poporiented
American Pop on Both Coasts
- Beatles stormed the U.S. charts in 1964 when they arrived in NYC
- Phil Spector experienced some of his greatest successes
- Beach Boys also continued to have hits, eventually moving away from surf music
- Beatles and Beach Boys both with Capitol Records, making competition even harder
- Brian Wilson, the lead of the Beach Boys, took over production and started staying
home from tour to write music
- Pet Sounds set a new standard for musical sophistication in rock music – would soon
become one of the most influential records of the 60s
- Sonny and Cher; husband and wife duo, hippie fashion
- Johnny Rivers, Gary Lewis and the Playboys
- Rascals, Lovin’ Spoonful
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- Four Seasons: Frankie Valli probably the only NYbased act least affected by the
British Invasion
Garage Bands
- Most garage bands only had one hit
- First national garage band hit was “Louie Louie” by the Kingsmen
- Rumor that the song contained foul language because it was so hard to hear
TV Rock
- Paul Revere and the Raiders, with the help of Dick Clark, would have their own
variety show on CBS, Where the Action Is
- The Monkees benefited greatly from television exposure – a cast of players was
formed to do a television series that would be supported by records
- Clear response to the Beatles’ film, A Hard Day’s Night
- Played Beatlelike music – songs written by professionals and backing tracks played
by studio musicians
- Monkees barely sang, which led viewers to discredit them
- Monkees wanted to write their own music, which resulted in their popularity fading
away
- The fact that the Monkees wanted to have control over their music is an indication of
how band member control began to seep into rock music culture
- The Archies, a made up cartoon band; bubblegum pop
Interlude: Instruments
Drums and Percussion
- Rhythm section establishes a solid foundation of rhythm and harmony that will
provide a background for singers or instrumental soloists
- Drummer establishes tempo and meter
- Snare drum, bass drum, high hat, tomtoms (ride toms, floor toms), cymbals
Electric Bass
- Lock in with the drummer rhythmically
- Bridge between rhythmic and harmonic dimensions of the music
- 4 strings, tuned below a guitar
Rhythm Guitar and Keyboard
- Rhythm guitar fleshes out the harmonic dimension by playing full chords
- Needs an amplifier
- Keyboard could also be used with rhythm guitar; however, they must be careful to not
get into each others way musically
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Singers and Solos
- Singers are the melody
- Must deliver the song in a convincing manner
Instrumental Solos
- I.e.. A saxophone, guitar solo, piano solo
- Rhythm section then supports the soloist
Horn and Strings
- Give an extra punch to the music
UNIT SEVEN
Chapter 6: Motown and Southern Soul
- Music came from Detroit, Atlanta
- Motown Records, an independent label had great success
- Motown often cast off as black pop music, considered not black enough
Black Music for White Audiences
- Berry Gordy Jr. ahead of the most important blackowned businesses in America
- Created Motown singles acceptable to white listeners
- Adapted Brill Building model
- Motown dominated by the HollandDozierHolland team
- HDH left Motown in 1967
- Motown productions created in Hitsville, USA – two adjoining houses in Detroit
- Berry Gordy put his artists through “charm school” to make them look more behaved
and classy
Motown Artists
- The Temptations a top Motown act
- Most of their music produced by Smokey Robinson
- The Supremes extended the girlgroup format to the highest reaches of commercial
success
- HDH took over production of the Supremes and made them super famous, realizing
Diana Ross was they key to success
- Supremes made HDH one of the most successful production teams – ‘Baby Love’
- Vibraphone used, as well as 2 x 4 wooden panels to create the unmistakable beat
- The Four Tops, Martha and the Vandellas (roots in gospel)
- Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, both who gained considerable control over the
making of their music
- Gaye’s influential album, ‘What’s Going On’ was his solo project
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- Motown considered assimilation into the white community – southern soul was the
opposite, wanting to embrace black culture
Atlantic, Stax, and Southern Soul
- New York based Atlantic Records enjoyed success with sweet soul, but was
beginning to employ southern soul
- Sweet soul elegant and restrained, southern soul more emotional and gospel
influenced
- Large labels often licensed a recording from a smaller label – beneficial relationship;
it relieved the smaller company of the financial commitment that pressing a large
number of records require – large companies benefited in sharing their profits
- Stax Records formed in 1960 – Atlantic and Stax shared the above relationship
- Stax studio sessions less regimented than Atlantic ones
Stax
- Otis Redding one of the most important Stax artists
- Brought the Stax sound to a larger audience; rougher than Motown
- Wilson Pickett; known for his ‘delayed backbeat’ which became regular in Southern
Soul music
- No backup vocals in Stax, loosely planned
- Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul – also signed by Stax
- Left Detroit to pursue a career in NYC
- Strongly influenced by gospel
Issues of Blackness
- Southern Soul considered truer to black culture than Motown, which is often cast off
as a sellout to the white market
- However, Motown was completely owned by blacks, where Stax had two white
owners
- Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4th, 1968 – this event heavily
affected black music; it hit Stax very hard with problems
James Brown
- James Brown the most important lack performer in the 1960s
- Was a standin for Little Richard in the 50s
- His early hits remaining in the doowop range, but soon went into funk, rhythmic
groove
- Insane stage show, had total control over his music; picked all his band members and
rehearsed with them vigorously
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- After King’s death, Brown’s music was highly respected in the black community –
his music did not try to appeal to a white audience
UNIT 8
Chapter 7: Psychedelia
- Summer of 1976: Summer of Love
- When Jimi Hendrix lit his guitar on fire in the summer of 1967, it was clear that rock
music was taking a new approach “psychedelia”
- Origins in London and San Francisco underground movement
- Psychedelic rock, also known as acid rock or “head” music, was intended to recreate
the trancelike effects of an LSD or “acid” trip. To this end, the music:
· Was hugely amplified, so it could be felt as well as heard. The point was to
engage the whole body, not just the ears.
· Was heavily distorted, especially the guitars.
· Included very long improvisatory solos or jam sessions, reflecting process over
goaldirectedness along with the meaninglessness of time.
· Included elaborate light shows during live performances to engage the sense of
sight.
- Live concerts could be hours long and individual songs could last 15 minutes or
more, making them unsuitable for both the recorded single and for traditional AM
radio. The normal time slot for radio play was about 3 minutes. This difficulty
prompted the move of acid rock onto the FM dial and the tendency for acid groups to
sell fulllength albums instead of singles.
Drugs and the Quest for Higher Consciousness
- Seeking out alternative approaches to understanding life and culture: LSD and
marijuana
- Led by author Ken Kesey and Timothy Leary, both who rejected the establishment
and emphasized the importance of hallucinogenic drugs
- LSD created by Albert Hoffman by accident in 1943 – it was tested as a truth serum
by the CIA
- Dropping acid allowed people to see new possibilities and come to a heightened
understanding
- Eastern spirituality finding its way into music; Leary’s book The Psychedelic
Experience was advocated
- Book offered a guide to acid based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead
- Beatles became students with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and began experiencing
with drugs
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- Two psychedelic approaches to music: music secondary to drugs (drugs are first –
Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd)), and drugs secondary to music (music creates a trip –
Beatles, The Doors)
- Tracks became longer and spacier
The Beach Boys and the Beatles
- Beatles moved away from Brill Building towards a more artistic method of
songwriting
- Beach Boys trying to match Phil Spectors success
- Parallel development of both bands occurred because they were both signed to
Capitol
- ‘Good Vibrations’ consumed more studio time and budget than any other song at the
time
- Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released instead of touring – idea was to
relate all songs on the album around a central theme, their memories of Liverpool
- According to EMI at the time, a single couldn’t be released on an album if both were
released in the same year so fans didn’t buy the same thing twice
- McCartney wanted to make the album using the idea of a made up band; this album
became rock’s first ‘concept album’
- All lyrics printed on album cover
- “Aleotoric” music – avant garde
- Sgt. Pepper had no single – it tried to focus the audience on the entire album
- Wilson of the Beach Boys planned a concept album SMiLE, but abandoned it and
came out with Smiley Smile
- Believe that all the drugs he did wouldn’t let him finish SMiLE – most of the music
was saved and was only recently released
- Most of the stuff the Beatles did after Sgt. Pepper was driven by organizing ideas
- Beatles lost Brian Epstein in the summer of ’67, and began their own record
company, Apple
- Because the Beach Boys and the Beatles were so successful in their experimenting,
their record companies gave them the freedom to do so, which led to other bands
popping up in the psychedelic movement
San Francisco
- Human BeIn in San Francisco, a gathering of hippies for a day of poetry and music
- Beatniks and hippies
- The hippie counterculture was inspired writers called “The Beat Generation,” who
were active in the 1950s and included (among others) William S. Burroughs, Allen
Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac. These writers were interested in exploring drug use,
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sexuality, and Eastern spirituality: interests subsequently taken up by the hippies.
The beatniks rejected the materialism and authority structures of North American
culture and provided an alternative to the conservative, white, middleclass culture to
which most of the hippies belonged. Red Dog Salon in Virginia City became the
house of psychedelia and acid dropping
- Where Jefferson Airplane began
- Ken Kesey began establishing what he called “the acid test” – Kesey and his Merry
Pranksters traveled the country on a bus titled ‘Further’ trying to enrich people by
making them try LSD and giving them slideshows and bizarre light effects
- Psychedelia absent from the radio
- San Francisco Oracle became the first hippie newspaper, which later turned into the
Rolling Stone
- Tom Donahue decided to make his own radio station just for psychedelia
San Francisco Bands
- Grateful Dead roots go back to the folk movement – guitarist Jerry Garcia was into
bluegrass, introduced to rock by the Rolling Stones
- Grateful Dead made improvisational songs that lasted longer than whole albums
- Goal in intensifying the acid experience
- Anthem of the Sun and the Psychedelic Experience makes the Grateful Dead album
seem like an extension of ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ by the Beatles
- One of the most successful live bands of the 1970s
- Jefferson Airplane; White Rabbit a surreal song borrowing lyrics from Alice in
Wonderland
- Used a Spanish bolero
- Big Brother and the Holding Company and Janis Joplin – blues in technicolour
The London Scene
- Steve Miller Band traveled to the UK to record their first album – convergence of San
Francisco and UK
- People in London going to the Spontaneous Underground (club similar to the Red
Dog)
- Swinging London: an urban lifestyle filled with glamorous night spots attended by
hip stars in colourful clothes and fashion
- UFO Club the home of psychedelic underground in London
- Evening of pyschedelia: The Fourteen Hour Technicolour Dream
London Bands
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- Two types of bands on the London scene between 1966 and 1969: those who enjoyed
commercial success in both the US and UK, and those whose success was limited to
the London underground
- Pink Floyd was the first to make it to the London underground scene
- Avantgarde music
- Cream, Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Traffic
- Donovan provided a lighter take on Psychedelia
- Most critics say that the Rolling Stones during this time period stopped trying to
imitate the Beatles and turned back to their roots in rhythm and blues
- Cream was the firs rock group to be billed as a supergroup
- “Lick blues” – building a rune around a repeating lick or riff
- Eric Clapton thought to be the best rock guitar player in the world
- Jimi Hendrix the most successful guitarists in rock history
- Despite being American, he rose out of the London psychedelic scene
- Blend of blues and pop
- Traffic and Van Morrison
- Donovan music very ‘flower power’ oriented
Los Angeles and Other Bands
- The Byrds very successful: Eight Miles High about drugs
- Crosby, Nash, Stills, and Young
- The Doors – Jim Morrison wrote songs about ‘bad trips’ with his bad boy image
- Jim Morrison the first to come up with a stage alter ego
- Iron Butterfly and Vanilla Fudge
- Iron Butterfly played very heavy music, InaGaddaDaVida a seventeen minute
song
Woodstock & Other Festivals
- Monterey International Pop Festival
- Woodstock the culmination of the era, drawing in 400,000 hippies
- Security could not control it, most fans showed up without a ticket
- Altamont Speedway festival ended the 1960s on a sour note – Stones hired Hells
Angels for security which ended in the death of a concertgoer
- Festival of Flower Children in the Woburn Abbey in Britain
- Isle of Wight, Festival in High Park
AM & FM Radio
- With the development of the FM radio in 1967, album oriented FM rock began to
develop
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- AOR: albumoriented rock
UNIT 9
Chapter 8: The Growing Rock Monster
The 1970s
- counterculture of the 1960s had become mainstream
- Nixon reached an agreement with the Vietnamese, ending the Vietnam war
- Nixon the first president to resign due to scandal
- Jimmy Carter’s presidency plagued with problems
- Feminism, “women’s liberation”
- Gay right advocating
- Television began to play shows that addressed these issues: All in the Family, the
Mary Tyler Moore Show
- Saturday Night Live would become the premiere live showcase for rock bands
- FM radio, AOR rock
- Star Wars was released and outer space became an important topic
- The 1970s was a difficult economic time for most western nations. The stock market
crash of 19731974, high unemployment and high inflation, earlier attempts by the
Nixon government to control wages and prices, as well as the movement away from
the gold standard for most western currencies, resulted in a recession in the United
States that lasted from 19731975.
- The U.S. was already reeling from the oil crisis of 1973: an embargo on oil shipments
to the U.S. by the Arab members of OPEC. The embargo was laid in response to the
U.S. resupplying Israel’s military during the Yom Kippur War that same year. Oil
more than doubled in price until the embargo was lifted the following year. The
energy crisis continued, however, into the early 1980s, the price of oil finally
peaking at about six times the price of 1970.
- The period was not an optimistic one. The music that develops in this era tends to
reflect this darker outlook or to try to escape it through fantasy. The 1970s is home to
the angriest, harshest and most bizarre and weird sounds yet encountered in the
popular music landscape.
- First half of the 1970s characterized by bands still experimenting musically while the
second half is more controversial
- Rock music becomes corporate, with big production companies with no interest in
music taking over bands
- Most of the bands these writers hate are actually now considered classic rock: Led
Zepplin, Deep Purple, etc
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- One half of people sees classic rock as a corruption, and would rather listen to
underground punk and new wave, while the other understands classic rock in the way
it has been recast over on TV and the radio in the current decade
- 70s rock a clear development of psychedelia
BluesBased British Rock
- Jimmy Page from the Yardbirds left to create Led Zepplin
- Successful British group of 1970s
- Devoted to the idea of the album and refused to release singles
- Lyrics spiritual and sexual
- Page produced all albums and layered guitar parts
- Deep Purple, influenced development of heavy metal
- Blended rock music with classical
- Black Sabbath – named after the Boris Karloff horror movie, Black Sabbath was the
gothic beginning of metal
American Blues and Southern Rock
- The Allman Brothers
- Southern rock a result of writers north and on the west coast describing bands from
the south than it was a label embraced by southern musicians themselves
- Lynard Skynard, radio friendly
- Charlie Daniels Band, more country than rock
- Santana and ZZ Top
- Santana’s success began at Woodstock, a jazz and blues band which used Latin
rhythms as accompaniment
- ZZ Top, Texas blues
- Steppenwolf, Grand Funk Railroad, the Doobie Brothers
- Aerosmith early music did not fare very well – but would become more popular with
more success
Progressive Rock
- Concept albums were the new thing
- Addressing philosophical issues and politics in their lyrics
- Raising rock to the level of classical music
- Moody Blues tried to do this
- The Who influential in this movement, growing increasingly conceptual
- Pete Townshend’s signature ‘windmill’ guitar strum
- King Crimson led the way for progressive rock by blending rock music with classical
and jazz
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- Jethro Tull and Yes: concerned with religion and spirituality
- Genesis and Pink Floyd
- Peter Gabriel of Genesis spun unique tales and acted these stories out onstage
- Pink Floyd’s fascination with madness; the Dark Side of the Moon established them
into the US
- Progressive rock remains most faithful to the hippie aesthetic
- Prime target in which punk rebelled to later in the decade
Jazz Rock Fusion and Jazz Influenced Rock
- Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane all set high jazz standards
- Jazz a soloist music, encouraging players to master their instrument
- Miles Davis wanted to play for a festival sized crowd rather than a small jazz
audience
- Frank Zappa’s music blended compositional sophistication, musical virtuosity, and
satire
- Didn’t care if his work was commercial or artistic
- “Horn bands”: Blood, Sweat and Tears and Chicago
- Made horns central to their arrangements
- Jazz rock the source of controversy – jazz traditionalists hated it because it was sell
out and rock purists rejected it because it wasn’t true rock
Glam Rock and Rock Theatre
- Alice Cooper and David Bowie both adopted on stage personas that audiences
understood was a character they were playing
- Hippie androgyny: Alice Cooper
- Gruesome, ghoulish topics, shocked many audiences with his stage performances
- Kiss took a cartoonish approach to rock theatre
- Ziggy Stardust was David Bowie’s alter ego
- Both Bowie and Cooper adopted stage personalities, but Copper enjoyed commercial
success when glam was at its peak, and BowiE’s roots like in the world of urbane
fashion consciousness – Bowie changed characters with every album
The SingerSongwriters
- Songwriters revealing their true selves rather than creating a person
- Paul Simon of Simon and Garfunkel an important singer songwriter
- Van Morisson, Cat Stevens, Elton John of the UK
- Canadian Joni Mitchell considered the most musically eclectic singer songwriter of
the decade
- Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot
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Country Rock
- Country more honest and authentic than most music on the pop charts
- Byrds headed off to Nashville to record, as well as Bob Dylan
- Creedance Clearwater Revival
- The Eagles the leaders in the California countryrock scene
- Psychedelia began to emerge into new styles in this chapter
- There was nothing to deter the idea that rock music would simply progress until 1975
- 3 things happened middecade:
o Multinational corporations got involved in the music business
o The punk movement began to form
o Disco
Interlude: Studio
Ambience
- A recording is an audio snapshot: meant to reproduce a live performance; or one can
exploit the possibilities of a recording studio and produce something impossible to
recreate
- Rock music, since Presley, has relied on the second approach, where jazz and
classical use the first approach
Reverb and Echo
- Hard surfaces reflect sound, soft ones absorb
- Every space has certain acoustic properties
- Possible to create ambience (room sound) with electronic means, called a reverb
- To record a reverb, one must record the sound as dry as possible
- An echo occurs when sound bounces back to our ears to create to images of the same
event
- Echos can make the singing voice richer and mask imperfections
EQ, Studio, and Mixing
- Height of a recording is its frequency range, depth is ambience and volume level, and
width is stereo placement
- EQ is equalization – balancing the timbres of all the instruments
- In music recorded in stereo, the engineer can control whether the sound comes from
the left or right speaker
- All three dimensions of the recorded sound are controlled from a mixing board
- Mixing board used in 2 ways: to record and to play back
Mono and Stereo
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- in the first decade, rock was released in monophic sound meaning there was only one
speaker
- by the late 1960s everything was prepared using stereo mixes
UNIT 10
Chapter 9: Black Pop and the Rise of Disco
- by the end of the 1970s, fans of rock were all white
- Youth dance culture, formed in the late 1950s by American Bandstand, continues to
develop in Soul Train, a program that showcases mainstream black pop. The
mainstream music consists of funk, soul, Motown pop, and fusions of these styles
with other genres.
- Another venue that collected black music, not all of it mainstream, was the Wattstax
concert in 1972. Sometimes called the “black Woodstock,” it was organized through
the STAX record label for the benefit of communities damaged during the 1965 race
riots in the Watts neighbourhood of Los Angeles, California.
- Sly and the Family Stone; all of the following bands were built on their success
- Blended psychedelia with black pop for white listeners
- Sly Stone was a DJ in the mid 1960s and record producer
- San Francisco music scene
- One of the few radically and sexually integrated bands of the era
- “groove”
- in Sly’s wake, bands such as Kool and the Gang, Tower of Power, War, Earth, Wind,
and Fire arose
- Marvin Gaye produced one of the first concept albums in black pop – instead of funk,
borrowed inspiration from white rockers
- Stevie Wonder pulled the elements of funk, dance grooves, and Motown to the
mainstream; in total control of his music
- Wonder’s relationship to white rock in the 70s gave him much rockradio airplay than
any other black musician except Jimi Hendrix
- Diana Ross became a solo act
- Berry Gordy left Detroit to pursuer more possibilities for Motown
- Jackson 5 were the teeny boppers of Motown
The Philadelphia Sound
- Gamble & Huff began as independents, writing songs for the R&B market
- Began their label Philadelphia International, distributing through the CBS network
who funded their label
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- Their approach, called ‘The Philadelphia Sound’ blends lyrical vocals and driving
rhythm section with elegant string arrangements provided by Thom Bell and Bobby
Martin
- Motown influence
- House band: Mother Father Sister Brother (MFSB) – provided the theme music to
Soul Train
Blaxploitation
- new genre of film in the 1970s
- Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Assss Song – realistic picture of black urban life, made
outside Hollywood establishment
- Films success made major studios realize there was money in using tough characters
in rough urban situations
- 1971 – Shaft, Isaac Hayes music for the film earned him an Oscar
- Chris Mayfield – wrote music for Superfly, widely known among white audience for
problems of black urban life, cultural ambassador to white community
James Brown
- funk closely associated with black culture in the minds of both black and white
listeners because the style had been so successfully developed by James Brown
- strongly against drug abuse
- many of his 70s tracks put more emphasis on rhythmic interlocking of instruments
than before
- George Clinton most associated with the development of funk in the 1970s
- Established one of the most successful music business operations in the second half
of the 1970s
- Moved to Detroit with the Parliaments; group changed their name to Funkadelic and
recorded with different labels using different names
- Parliament’s music was more commercial; Funkadelic’s more experimental
- Over the top stage performances
- ‘Parliafunakdelicment Thang’ collective
- Average White Band was a funk band from Scotland
Reggae Comes Ashore
- white Americans listening to Jamaican music in the 1950s, Jamaicans listening to
American pop and R&B
- could listen to American radio stations being broadcasted from New Orleans
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- hard to find records on the island, which led to the appearance of ‘sound system men’
– an entrepreneur who assembled a powerful sound system on the back of a truck and
drove it from town to town, stopping to play records
- competition arose, which led them to scratch the names of records so competitors did
not know who it was
- soon featured DJs who would talk over the records
- this began happening in NYC in the 1970s – development of rap
- in the early 1960s, New Orleans R&B began to fade, so Jamaicans provided their own
version – ska, which soon was replaced by ‘rock steady’; reggae developed out of
this
- writers often claim reggae was derived from Jamaicans playing R&B wrong
- Bob Marley and the Wailers; signed to Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, who recorded the trio
with his backup band the Upsetters
- Chris Blackwell established ‘Island Records’ in the UK, featuring artists such as Cat
Stevens
- Released Jamaican music in the British market due to the subculture of Jamaicans as
well as British kids who enjoyed it
- Two events helped broaden reggae’s audience
o Film ‘The Harder they Come’ about the rise and fall of a Jamaican pop star
o The success of Eric Clapton’s cover ‘I Shot the Sherriff’, a cover of Marley’s
song
The Rise of Disco
- dancing not very important to rock music, but a central element in black culture
- early 1970s had small clubs where dancers would dance to music all night long; New
York gay community
- since many rock bands would not go near a gay club, the gay community was forced
to find an alternative to live music, so they relied on the DJ
- Saturday Night Fever helped break disco out from the underground in 1977
- Travolta was the model for a macho, straight dancer
- Disco returned the authority of producing to the producers, records made according to
Brill Building/Motown model – but what really mattered was the song rather than the
singer
- Village People were considered the ‘gay Monkees’
- Donna Summers had a euro disco style, beat provided electronically to guarantee
precision
Disco and the Hippies
- rise of disco caused a violent reaction within the rock music community
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- antidisco rally held by Chicago DJ Steve Dahl in 1979
- slogan became “disco sucks”
- Why so much hate?
o Racial misunderstanding; disco was associated with black pop
o Disco stood in direct confrontation to the hippie aesthetic – disco not
concerned with the spiritual or social issues, it was about fun
o Disco was made by a machine; it threatened to take everything that rock had
won since the Beatles had turned rock serious
UNIT 11
Mainstream Rock, Punk, and New Wave
- punk and new wave rejected mainstream rock, and the highly produced sounds of the
hippie bands in favour of simplicity
- By the late 1970s, the music industry was again concentrated among a few
international labels, just as it had been in the early 1950s prior to the advent of rock
and roll. Instead of Tin Pan Alley, however, the dominant music was rock. Record
companies eliminated acts that were not sure moneymakers. The labels usually
signed older, proven groups to lengthy contracts, rather than take risks with new acts.
The tendency was a certain amount of homogeneity among the mainstream acts.
Mainstream rock accounted for about 80% of all music sales at this time and was
dubbed “corporate rock” by cynics. Record prices jumped $2 in two years, annoying
the public and further supported the image of “fat cat” labels and artists.
- In 1971, highfidelity, recordable cassette tapes became available for the mass
market. Over the next 10 years, the burgeoning use of these tapes to pirate albums
became an economic drain on the big record labels. It also allowed new acts to
record their music cheaply without the benefit of a recording studio. The availability
of an inexpensive recording medium helped to spur the underground music
movements, including punk, new wave, and rap.
- During the late 1960s and through the 1970s, there was a movement in the US among
some rock musicians against progressive and “corporate” rock. Eventually the
movement was against pretty much all aspects of the dominant culture. The
movement remained on the margins of society until supported by British artists. In
Britain, the “punk” movement became mainstream (paradoxically), both as a culture
and a music, for a brief time in the late 1970s. The punk movement returned to the
US through these British artists and also became briefly popular.
- Punk culture at its height was characterized by a doityourself attitude: the notion
that anyone can play rock and that it doesn’t have to be polished (though some were),
artsy (though some were), deeply meaningful (though some were), or commercially
1
successful (though some were). It was a direct challenge to the aesthetic of hippie
driven mainstream rock. Some punk fashion anticipates the grunge look of the 1990s:
illfitting thriftstore clothes that don’t match with the tears held together with safety
pins. However, the punk look ranged widely: studded leather, fishnet stockings,
tartan pants, Mohawk hairstyles, spiked hairstyles, shaved heads, military boots, and
vinyl were all part of punk fashion. Symbols and slogans intended to shock often
appeared on clothing: from the Union Jack to the swastika. Genderbending was also
part of the style: your book has a picture of Iggy Pop of the Stooges wearing fishnet
stockings in performance.
- Punk ideology embraced racial and social equality and often gender equality (we will
see more female artists in punk than there ever were in rock). It opposed class
structures, capitalism, and consumerism. The music and culture belonged to the
lower, oppressed classes. It is not a surprise, therefore, that punk first became
popular in Britain, rather than the US. Britain had (and still has) a very active class
system left over from its feudal past. And, as Covach mentions, the economic
depression in Britain was far more severe than that in the US: youth had few
prospects and were very angry about it. British punks felt a sympathetic kinship with
any group that they felt was oppressed, including blacks and immigrants, which is
why they became interested in reggae.
- Jamaica had been a British colony for almost 300 years until becoming independent
in 1962. Jamaican emigration to Britain had been steady until Britain placed heavy
restrictions on immigration in the 1960s. There was, therefore, a substantial Jamaican
subculture present in Britain in the 1970s. Some British punks blended elements of
reggae into their own music as a gesture of solidarity with the JamaicanBritish
underclass.
- Some punk sounds evolved in order to become more mainstream and commercial
(another paradox!). As Covach states, these “new wave” artists tended to be more
ironic than angry and they tend to cite pre1967 pop elements in their own music.
Lyrics are sung more often than shouted. Like punk, new wave can reflect a range of
aesthetics, from “back to basics” to sonically sophisticated and socially conscious.
The old punk didn’t disappear: punk in a variety of forms is still alive and well today,
however, it tends to remain on the fringe in its most extreme forms. New wave is
essentially the mainstream punk of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Corporate Rock
- advertising rates based on how many people expected to listen; at the beginning of the
70s, most rock stations were free form – by the end, they were heavily formatted
- long jam tracks were no longer acceptable because they did not leave time for
commercials
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- many people suspected the music being played arose to maximize advertising,
designed only for radio play
- “the big album” was a factor in the realization that more money could be made from
rock music than anyone imagined
- Peter Frampton’s ‘Frampton Comes Alive!’ exceeded expectations by selling millions
of copies
- Shows moved into stadiums and sports arenas
- The Eagles ‘Hotel California’ received big album status, Fleetwood Mac
- Often said record companies killed the music when they became obsessed with the
big album
Mainstream Rock 19751980
- mainstream rock in the 2nd half of the decade viewed as stylistic consolidation –
extends earlier styles while pulling together elements that had previously been used
to distinguish among styles
- rock bands still around since the 60s – hence why earlier styles were extended
- The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane (now Jefferson Starship)
- Boston, Foreigner, Journey adopted earlier music styles
- Cheap Trick, Van Halen power chord guitar with pop hooks
- 2 bands revamped progressive rock – Kansas, Styx
- Rush – progressive Canadian rock
- Queen inspired by late Beatles music – band was a cross between the glam aspects of
David Bowie and prog rock
- Singersongwriters often fronting bands; Bob Dylan, Elton John, Paul Simon, Billy
Joel, Bruce Springsteen
- Arpeggio: notes of a chord played in succession
Roots of Punk in the United States, 19671975
- 1977; movement called punk began to emerge, spearheaded by the Sex Pistols
- took hold of the UK, American record labels toned it down by calling it new wave
- Velvet Underground; Lou Reed, John Cale – focused on the dark side of life
- Nico came in the band at the insistence of Andy Warhol who produced the album
- Iggy Pop and the Stooges
- All bands have an aspect of confrontation; Velvets with their aesthetic, Iggy with
performance
Beginnings of the New York Scene
- New York Dolls incorporated British glam scene into their gritty music
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- Patti Smith, poet, formed the Patti Smith Group
- Richard Hell formed Television
- CBGB (Country, BlueGrass and Biues) became home to the New York punk scene
- Ramones, Blondie
Rise of Punk in the UK, 19741977
- rise of punk can be linked to economic recession in Britain
- jobs hard to find for Britain’s youth, teens prone to despair, anger, and therefore punk
became the music of that anger
- Malcolm McLaren key figure, manager of the Sex Pistols
- Signed by EMI, dropped, signed by A&M, dropped again, finally signed by Virgin
Records
- The Clash were the political protesters of punk
- Buzzcocks more pop approach to punk
- None enjoyed American success except the Clash – British punk scene did not make
the Atlantic crossing
The Rise of New Wave, 19771980
- “new wave” tamed the aggressive elements of punk, making it more artsy – punks
were angry, new wavers were ironic
- Blondie, Talking Heads
- The Cars were the first new wave band to break onto FM radio playlists
- Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Devo. B52s, The Knack
- British newwavers – Elvis Costello, The Police
- New wave completely different than the hippie aesthetic – sealed back musical
complexities and returned to topics of teen love
- New wavers making ironic references to earlier music
UNIT 12
Chapter 11: I Want My MTV
The 1980s
- defeat of Jimmy Carter, election of Ronald Reagan
- Reagan’s economic policy driven by “supplyside economics’ – lower taxes on
wealthy Americans that would inspire everyone to work harder
- Built up American military forces in hopes of crippling the Soviet Union
- Berlin Wall fell in 1989, ending the Cold War
- AIDS epidemic
- Beginning of computers
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- Cable television and AM talk radio
- Covach mentions the growth in the American economy as a feature of the 1980s;
however, it didn’t start to happen until 1983. In 1980, owing to huge jumps in
interest rates to fight the inflation of the 1970s, the American economy went into
mild recession that lasted a few months. The economy started to pick up again, but
then fell into a deeper recession from 19811982 (the dreaded “doubledip”
recession). The second recession was the result of the continuing high interest rates,
monetary control measures by the US government to curb inflation, and very high oil
prices brought on by the second energy crisis in 1979. The energy crisis was the
result of the Iranian Revolution in the same year, which overthrew the country’s
monarchy and installed a theocratic republic. Iranian oil production was disrupted,
causing panic that forced oil prices to more than double their previous levels. During
the doubledip recession, thousands of people lost their jobs and many who kept their
jobs had to take a cut in pay.
- The music industry was in trouble at the beginning of the decade, as well. Sales,
which had seen meteoric growth through the 1970s, dropped 20% between 1979 and
1982. The loss of sales is attributed by the industry to the burgeoning act of pirating
albums with home taping. However, the recessions were also a factor: people who
have no jobs or who are paying doubledigit interest on their mortgages do not have
money for music. There may be a demographic reason as well: the boomers were
beginning to hit their 30s. Music is marketed to people from 1232 years old,
research by music labels show that this group buys the most music. The boomers had
mortgages and college funds for their kids to think about. The new generation
coming in behind the boomers (generation X) was a smaller group, so even if they all
bought music regularly, the sales could still not equal those of the boomers. Other
media, such as cable TV, VCRs and video games were also competing for
consumers’ entertainment dollars.
- To deal with this drop in sales, the industry continued to contract into fewer, larger
labels. These huge international labels were set up to back superstars, not engage in
niche marketing: small, independent labels continued to service the margins. The
number of these small labels grows over the decade as the ponderous machinery of
the big labels become less able to service the gaps left between the superstars. The
big labels still want to sell albums, but not concept albums: they are too large and
cumbersome. Every song on an album was carefully produced. The hope was that
each song could be gradually sold off as a single and so keep the whole album in
circulation for as long as possible.
- One of the significant fruits of the 80s technology boom mentioned by Covach was
the development of MIDI: Musical Instrument Digital Interface. MIDI is an industry
standard protocol that allows different musical devices, such as keyboards, drum
1
machines, and computers, to communicate with each other. Prior to MIDI, groups
using synthesizers would need to have several different ones on stage to access the
full variety of sounds offered by each. With MIDI, it is possible to have several
devices running through a single keyboard or pair of keyboards. It was also possible
for an artist to use a wider palette of sounds without being an electronics expert:
MIDI made synthesizers more accessible. It also made the process of sampling and
building new tracks from these samples much easier and economical.
- punk retreated back into the underground, new wave blended into mainstream, disco
ended as quickly as it began
- MTV was established, challenging radio
- Use of film to advance careers was common in Europe
- Initially, cable was seen as necessary in areas were antenna transmission was
unsatisfactory
- Cable wanted to expand even if air transmission was available – because there were
no commercials, customers had to pay for cable, and many in the industry believed
people would never pay for something they could get free
- Therefore, cable had to offer something networks could not – so they added HBO,
sports, and MTV to their roster
- Two ideas for MTV
o Show nothing but promo videos provided by record companies
o Take a more artistic approach
- MTV’s biggest audience was white teens in the Midwest
- Controversy that it tended to privilege the visual aspects of artists over musical ones
Artists
- MTV allowed Michael Jackson to showcase his dancing
- Accused of selling out his blackness
- Madonna appealed to a white audience, driven by dance beat, sensual controversial
music
- Prince used blatant sexual images in his music videos; Purple Rain album brought
him critical acclaim
- Janet Jackson; teen actress to seductive musician
- Durran Durran, Culture Club, Olivia Newton John
- British pop acts cracked American market through MTV
- Synthesizer pop sound emerged i.e. Eurythmics
- Tears for fears
- 80s focused on the music video rather than the album, like in the 70s
- New wave continues: The Police, U2
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- College rock: REM, The Smiths
- Female new wave: GoGos, Cyndi Lauper, the Bangles
The New Traditionalists
- 2 distinct approaches to appropriated earlier rock music
o Employ these sounds and images in an ironic manner (reject corporate rock)
i.e. Devo
o Employ sounds and images in earnest i.e. The New Traditionalists
- Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, The Stray Cats, Hall & Oates,
Wham!
Revenge of the Prog Nerds and Mainstream Rock
- prog rock musicians remained active, making their music radio friendly
- Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel
- 1980s made it clear that rock artists need no longer think of their careers as only a
few years in the sun
- ACDC influenced by Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, established themselves in 1973
in Australia but did not break out into the US till the 1980s
- Critics of MTV argue that emphasis on the visual made the music less central
UNIT 13
Chapter 12: Heavy Metal, Rap, & The Rise of Alternative Rock
- MTV played a crucial role in exposing rap and heavy metal to a broader audience
- As the 1980s ended, a new underground rock scene was emerging in Seattle; grunge
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- In 1991, after a highspeed chase, Rodney King was pulled over for drunk driving
then tasered and beaten by the police outside his car. A man in a nearby apartment
taped the beating and released the tape to the media when the LAPD dismissed the
incident. Four officers were charged with the use of excessive force. They were tried
and three of the officers were acquitted, while the jury remained undecided about the
fourth.
- When news of the acquittals broke in 1992, riots erupted in Los Angeles. It took the
police, the army, the National Guard, and the Marines to restore order. More than 50
people died and more than 2000 were injured. In 1993, a federal court retried the
officers. Two were acquitted and two were sentenced to jail time. King was awarded
more than three million dollars in damages.
- Operation Hammer and the Rodney King beating led to a sharp rise in resentment
against police by many African Americans living in Los Angeles and other urban
centres. It’s likely that such resentment fed the development and growth of “gangsta
rap” on the west coast.
Gangsta Rap
- Gangsta rap is a subtype of rap that began to appear in the second half of the 1980s.
It is very graphic and often violent, vulgar, and sometimes full of rage.
- Early examples deal with issues of gang violence and police violence against blacks.
Over time, however, the genre began to glorify macho, streetwise culture as well as
misogynist attitudes towards women and hedonistic materialism. While the genre is
controversial because of its current themes, the original rise of the genre is directly
linked to American race relations.
Heavy Metal
- developed out of the aggressive aspects of the late 1960s and 1970s i.e. Iron
Butterfly, Black Sabbath
- heavy metal fans referred to as “headbangers”, heavy metal thought to be “primitive”
- music of bluecollated whites
- British heavy metal: Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden
- Heavy metal developed and sustained itself in Los Angeles: Motley Crue, Twisted
Sister
- First metal superstars were Bon Jovi, Guns n’ Roses
- By the end of the decade, these heavy metal bands were referred to as “hair bands”
- Poison took the approach to wearing makeup too far; they looked like women which
attracted female fans
- Warrant, Skid Row
- Metallica – serious minded, influenced by Motorhead
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- They were considered speed metal: fast tempos
- Thrash metal allowed for a broader range of musical textures and tempos
- Meta; bands embraced instrumental virtuosity
- Its classical music model, virtuosic solos and concept albums can be seen as the most
traditional style of rock in the 1980s
The Emergence of Rap
- origins of New York
- 2 elements of hip hop: graffiti, break dancing – came into the mainstream culture
years before rap did
- origins of rap best understood as a mix of urban art, dancing, and music
- hiphop DJs played at parks similar to Jamaican DJs, playing records at
neighbourhood parties – carry own sound system, MC, encourage partygoers
- Kool Herc, early hiphop DJ would pullup to a city park in his truck; first to use an
MC (Coke La Rock), MCs would soon turn into rappers, blending the original role of
the MC with black radio DJs
- Most radio stations had 2 turntables – Flash & Herc used two as well, but instead of
using them for seamless transitioning, they developed techniques in “break spinning”
- Took catchiest instrumental breaks or passages and used 2 copies of the same record
to prolong these sections by playing the passages over and over
- Created a new music out of recorded “samples”
- Flash popularized “scratching” – record rotated in reverse direction and forward to
create distinctive rhythm
- Afrika Bambaataa – “master of the record”; created Zulu nation, and organization
devoted to deemphasizing fighting
- Hip hop a strictly live affair; there were no records
- In 1979, Sugar Hill Records released “Rapper’s Delight”
- Rapper became the focus, mixing now serving as a backdrop
- Inspired by Sugar Hill, two college students Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin created
their own label
- Def Jam released records by LL Cool J, Beastie Boys
- Simmons made Rush Entertainment, released records by Run DMC, Fresh Prince
- Run DMC’s “Walk this Way” with Aerosmith appealed to white audience
- Def Jam produced a band of white rappers, Beastie Boys – digital technology
- Lawsuits over sampling arose everywhere
Challenging the Status Quo
- IceT “gangsta rap” due to angry matter
- NWA
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- KRSOne
- Public Enemy – influential rap group
- Queen Latifah – best female rapper Grammy in 1990
- Rap musicians take preexisting music and refashion it into something new
- Heavy metal and rap parallel; both developed followings on MTV, had “outsider”
status, emblematic lower class
Alternative Rock
- American punk and British punk very different
- Critics say America never really experience punk (there was nothing to rebel about)
- Punk did not arrive until the emergence of Nirvana and Seattle bands
- Against MTV artists and visually flashy metal bands
- Independent over major labels
- Rejected commercialism
- Post punk = Sonic Youth
Seattle’s Grunge Scene
- Nirvana’s Nevermind rose to the top of the pop charts in both UK & America
- Return to authenticity aesthetic
- Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Foo Fighters
Other Artists
- Green Day, Red Hot Chili Peppers
- Alternative scene fueled by reinterpretation of 1960s and 1970s rock styles
- Smashing Pumpkins, Oasis, Radiohead