The document traces the origins and evolution of American music genres such as Negro Spirituals, Blues, Jazz, Bebop, Gospel, R&B, Rock and Roll, and Pop. It discusses key artists and styles for each genre, noting how they blended elements from African and American musical traditions and influenced one another over time, such as Blues providing the basis for Jazz which later incorporated Ragtime, and Gospel emerging from a fusion of Traditional Gospel with Blues and Jazz.
33115 1 Post World War II Musical Modernism .docxtamicawaysmith
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1
Post World War II
Musical Modernism
The Media Revolution
• Record companies seek out niche markets
• Columbia, Paramount
• Many marketed and sold to a black audience
• “Race records” – became popular with white
audiences also
• “Hillbilly music” marketed to rural white
southerners
• continuation of pre-1920s fiddle tradition
• fiddle contests and medicine shows
• Unregulated Mexican radio stations
• could reach Canada and China
The Media Revolution
• 1946: Television industry begins
• By 1950s, TV common in most households
• Soap operas, sit coms, variety shows, mysteries
• Radio stations begin to play more pre-
recorded music
• Disc Jockeys (DJs) become important
3/31/15
2
Record Formats
• 78 rpm records: 3-4 minutes of music
• Major record companies begin issuing
Long-Playing (LP) 33 rpm records
• Up to 26 min. per side (12”)
• Targeted at adults
• Often classical music, musical theater,
easy-listening
• 45 rpm Singles (7”)
• Marketed to teens
Pop Music
• Strong connection to Swing
• Continued innovations of popular
1930s vocalists
• Armstrong, Holiday, Bing Crosby
• Song Interpreters
• Each singer recognizable by their style
• Personality becomes part of the song
Pop Music
• Nat “King” Cole (1917-1965)
• Formed a popular jazz trio
• First black artist to host a TV show
• Several pop hits:
• “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” “Unforgettable”
• Frank Sinatra (1915-1998)
• Got his start singing with Big Bands
• Became a teen idol in early 1940s
• Formed his own record company
• “You Do Something to Me” (1950)
3/31/15
3
Woody Guthrie (1912-’67)
• Lived a wandering life
• Hobo lifestyle, inspired his poetry
• Experiences during the Depression
• Dust bowl drought, New Deal politics, unions
• Political radical
• Lyrics about social justice, inequalities
• 1940: “This Land is Your Land” written in response to
Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America”
Woody Guthrie
• “So Long, It’s Been Good to Know You” 1940
• Story about west Texas during the Dust Bowl
• Ironic jabs at religion and society
• influences folk-revivalists, singer-songwriters, and rock
musicians for years to come
Urban Folk Revival
• Guthrie, Pete Seeger form Almanac Singers
• Starts the urban folk revival
• Younger Americans seeking authenticity and
directness in music
• Qualities that were missing in pop music
• Folk songs let performers comment on current events
• Join political movements, play for rallies
• Songs of protest against social ills
3/31/15
4
Country & Western
• Folk becomes Country
• Radio broadcasts
• Nashville becomes epicenter
• 1927: The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN
• Other barn-dance radio shows pop up
• Promotes “down home” image
• as opposed to European opera
• overalls, straw hats, etc.
Post-War Country Music
• Hank Williams and Kitty Wells
...
33115 1 Post World War II Musical Modernism .docxtamicawaysmith
3/31/15
1
Post World War II
Musical Modernism
The Media Revolution
• Record companies seek out niche markets
• Columbia, Paramount
• Many marketed and sold to a black audience
• “Race records” – became popular with white
audiences also
• “Hillbilly music” marketed to rural white
southerners
• continuation of pre-1920s fiddle tradition
• fiddle contests and medicine shows
• Unregulated Mexican radio stations
• could reach Canada and China
The Media Revolution
• 1946: Television industry begins
• By 1950s, TV common in most households
• Soap operas, sit coms, variety shows, mysteries
• Radio stations begin to play more pre-
recorded music
• Disc Jockeys (DJs) become important
3/31/15
2
Record Formats
• 78 rpm records: 3-4 minutes of music
• Major record companies begin issuing
Long-Playing (LP) 33 rpm records
• Up to 26 min. per side (12”)
• Targeted at adults
• Often classical music, musical theater,
easy-listening
• 45 rpm Singles (7”)
• Marketed to teens
Pop Music
• Strong connection to Swing
• Continued innovations of popular
1930s vocalists
• Armstrong, Holiday, Bing Crosby
• Song Interpreters
• Each singer recognizable by their style
• Personality becomes part of the song
Pop Music
• Nat “King” Cole (1917-1965)
• Formed a popular jazz trio
• First black artist to host a TV show
• Several pop hits:
• “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” “Unforgettable”
• Frank Sinatra (1915-1998)
• Got his start singing with Big Bands
• Became a teen idol in early 1940s
• Formed his own record company
• “You Do Something to Me” (1950)
3/31/15
3
Woody Guthrie (1912-’67)
• Lived a wandering life
• Hobo lifestyle, inspired his poetry
• Experiences during the Depression
• Dust bowl drought, New Deal politics, unions
• Political radical
• Lyrics about social justice, inequalities
• 1940: “This Land is Your Land” written in response to
Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America”
Woody Guthrie
• “So Long, It’s Been Good to Know You” 1940
• Story about west Texas during the Dust Bowl
• Ironic jabs at religion and society
• influences folk-revivalists, singer-songwriters, and rock
musicians for years to come
Urban Folk Revival
• Guthrie, Pete Seeger form Almanac Singers
• Starts the urban folk revival
• Younger Americans seeking authenticity and
directness in music
• Qualities that were missing in pop music
• Folk songs let performers comment on current events
• Join political movements, play for rallies
• Songs of protest against social ills
3/31/15
4
Country & Western
• Folk becomes Country
• Radio broadcasts
• Nashville becomes epicenter
• 1927: The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN
• Other barn-dance radio shows pop up
• Promotes “down home” image
• as opposed to European opera
• overalls, straw hats, etc.
Post-War Country Music
• Hank Williams and Kitty Wells
...
32315 1 Origins of Rock ‘n’ Roll • Three musica.docxtamicawaysmith
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1
Origins of Rock ‘n’ Roll
• Three musical ancestors of Rock
– Country & Western
• Grand Ole Opry and image
• Controversial subjects in lyrics
– Rhythm & Blues
• 12-bar Blues, insistent rhythm, shout-style vocals
• Hokum, Boogie-woogie, Electric guitar
– Pop music
• Strong connection to jazz (Big Band Swing)
• Simple, catchy melodies
• 1950: all three coexisted in separate
markets
– Billboard magazine tracks sales of popular
music
– Separate charts for each genre
• By 1954, markets began to merge
• Crossovers: a crossover hit originates in
one market, but also succeeds in another
– “Earth Angel”—R&B song, made the pop
charts
– “Tennessee Waltz,” “Heartbreak Hotel”—
C&W hits, on pop charts
• Covers: an artist’s version of someone
else’s song
– “Earth Angel”—original by The Penguins
(R&B), covered by the Crew Cuts (Pop)
3/23/15
2
Emergence of Youth Culture
• Prior to 1950s, entertainment industry aimed
at adults
• Mid-’50s: identifiable youth culture
– Movies present images of rebellious youths
• Rebel Without a Cause, Blackboard Jungle
• New role models, dress code, slang, hairstyles
• Black leather jacket, upturned shirt collar, slicked
back hair (“ducktail” or “d.a.”)
• Record companies realize teens have
disposable income
Bill Haley and The Comets
• Haley’s band started with C&W, began
covering R&B songs
– “Shake, Rattle, and Roll” orig. by Joe Turner
– “Rock Around the Clock” orig. by Sonny Dae
• Featured on soundtrack to Blackboard Jungle
• Two months at #1 on pop charts (1955)
• Haley, born in 1927, too old to be the new
face of youth culture
• Laid foundation for Rockabilly
– R&B material, with C&W sound
Elvis Presley (1935-’77)
l Raised
in
poor
family
from
Mississippi
– Elvis
absorbed
a
variety
of
musical
influences
l R&B,
gospel,
C&W,
bluegrass,
pop
l Discovered
while
making
a
recording
for
his
mom
– Memphis
Recording
Service
and
Sun
Records
l Right
voice
at
the
right
Cme
l White
singer
with
a
black
sound
3/23/15
3
Sun Records
• Memphis, Tennessee
• Sam Phillips, founder
– Appreciated talents of R&B musicians
– Began recording them even before he started
his own label
• Brings the music to a wider audience
• Sun Records credited with discovering
Elvis
– “Hound Dog” (1957)
Importance of Elvis
l Flexible,
invenCve
vocal
style
– Always
sounds
like
himself
l Wide
popular
appeal,
crossover
success
– Records
on
country,
pop,
and
R&B
charts
l Huge
commercial
success
– Sold
over
500
Million
records
by
the
Cme
of
his
death
Mainstream Rock ‘n’ Roll
l (DJ Alan Freed, coined the term “Rock ‘n’ Roll”)
• Heavily influenced by R&B
– Little Ric ...
Page 255 8.1 objeCTives• Basic knowledge of the histor.docxsmile790243
Page | 255
8.1 objeCTives
• Basic knowledge of the history and origins of popular styles
• Basic knowledge of representative artists in various popular styles
• Ability to recognize representative music from various popular styles
• Ability to identify the development of Ragtime, the Blues, Early Jazz,
Bebop, Fusion, Rock, and other popular styles as a synthesis of both
African and Western European musical practices
• Ability to recognize important style traits of Early Jazz, the Blues, Big
Band Jazz, Bebop, Cool Jazz, Fusion, Rock, and Country
• Ability to identify important historical facts about Early Jazz, the Blues,
Big Band Jazz, Bebop, Cool Jazz, Fusion, and Rock music
• Ability to recognize important composers of Early Jazz, the Blues, Big
Band Jazz, Bebop, Cool Jazz, Fusion, and Rock music
8.2 Key Terms
• 45’s
• A Tribe Called Quest
• Alan Freed
• Arthur Pryor
• Ballads
• BB King
• Bebop
• Big Band
• Bluegrass
• Blues
• Bob Dylan
• Broadway Musical
• Charles “Buddy” Bolden
• Chestnut Valley
• Children’s Song
• Chuck Berry
• Contemporary Country
• Contemporary R&B
• Count Basie
• Country
8 Popular music in the united statesN. Alan Clark and Thomas Heflin
Page | 256
Understanding MUsic PoPUlar MUsic in the United states
8.3 inTroduCTion
Popular music is by definition music that is disseminated widely. As such, it
has been particularly significant with the twentieth-century proliferation of record-
ing technologies and mass media. Sometimes we may forget that it was not until
the 1920s that recording and playback technology allowed for the spread of music
through records. To become popular before that time, a tune had to be spread by
word of mouth, by traveling performers, and by music notation, which might ap-
pear in a music magazine or newspaper or in sheet music that could be bought at
general stores, catalogs, and music stores.
• Creole
• Curtis Blow
• Dance Music
• Dixieland
• Duane Eddy
• Duke Ellington
• Earth, Wind & Fire
• Elvis Presley
• Folk Music
• Frank Sinatra
• Fusion
• George Gershwin
• Hillbilly Music
• Honky Tonk Music
• Improvisation
• Jelly Roll Morton
• Joan Baez
• Leonard Bernstein
• Louis Armstrong
• LPs
• Michael Bublé
• Minstrel Show
• Musical Theatre
• Operetta
• Original Dixieland Jazz Band
• Oscar Hammerstein
• Protest Song
• Ragtime
• Rap
• Ray Charles
• Rhythm and Blues
• Richard Rodgers
• Ricky Skaggs
• Robert Johnson
• Rock and Roll
• Sampling
• Scott Joplin
• Scratching
• Stan Kenton
• Stan Kenton
• Stephen Foster
• Storyville
• Swing
• Syncopated
• The Beatles
• Victor Herbert
• Weather Report
• Western Swing
• William Billings
• WJW Radio
• Work Songs
Page | 257
Understanding MUsic PoPUlar MUsic in the United states
Today the success of a popular music artist is most often measured by how
many songs they sell. In the past, that meant record and CD sales, but today it es-
sentially means numbers of downloads. Recording industry executives determine
which artis.
Chapter 5: St. Louis Blues”: Race Records and Hillbilly Music, 1920s and 1930s—through The Country Blues, Charley Patton, Popular Music and the Great Depression
2. Negro Spirituals
• Year : 1720
• Slight alteration of African scales
• 1871 : Fisk Jubilee Singers(slave songs)
3. Blues
• First secular Black popular music
• Origin : New Orleans
• W. C. Handy : Father of Blues
• Other artists : Bessie Smith, Robert Johnson
4. Jazz
• Came from Blues played in Chicago
• Spirituals + Blues +New Orleans marches + ragtime =
JAZZ!!
• Congo Square
• Louis Armstrong(swing)
• Miles Davis(modal)
5. Bebop
• World War II(mid 1940’s)
• More complex in rhythm, tempo, melody than
jazz
• Charlie Parker(inserted blues-riffing, fused
other genres)
6. Gospel
• Traditional gospel + blues + jazz = GOSPEL
• Thomas Dorsey : Father of Gospel
• Mahalia Jackson : Queen of Gospel
• Influenced rock and roll and country music
7. R&B & Rock and Roll
R&B
• Also known as Rhythm and Blues
• Huge impact on introducing other
styles(pop, rock and roll, soul,
funk, hip-hop, rap)
• Louis Jordan(Father of R&B)
Rock and Roll
• Combination of blues, jazz,
gospel, and country music
• Initially led by piano/saxophone.
Later led by guitar
• Chuck Berry(Father of Rock and
Roll)
• Multi-track recording
8. Popular Music
• More commonly known as “Pop”
• Originated from rock and roll
• Mix of urban, dance, rock and roll, Latin, and country
music
• Michael Jackson : King of Pop
• Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand
