Music History II at Barbados Community College.

1. www.stefanwalcott.com
music.culture.music

2.  popular music – any music which is popular
within a specific area. E.g. calypso/soca in
Southern Caribbean, Bollywood music in
India.
 Pop music – an American created genre with
defined modes of production and operation.
 Pop music’s ubiquity has ultimately led to it
influencing all ‘popular’ worldwide
expressions.

3.  The key to the
production is the
product.
 The key to the
product is
differentiation.
 Pop music is
dictated by market
forces.
 Media access is
essential.

4.  Ragtime and Minstrel songs: 1st mass
produced Pop music form.
 R.T originally an Afro-American folk form re-
interpreted and consumed by wider
community.
 However, lacked image association.

5.  Pop music is an INDUSTRY and is closely
associated with business, product, mass,
industry, image and media.
 Pop music borrows mode of operation from
industry and many of same practices.

7.  An A-American musical expression popular in
Southern and Mid-Western states in 30’s and 40’s.
 Kansas City, Oklahoma, St. Louis.
 Music was dominated by A-Americans and was
made for dancing.
 Frequently featured vocalists.

8.  R&B’s performance practices and musical
content was reconfigured.
 Southern record producers sought white
talent to perform these R+B numbers.
 Bill Haley and the Comets had 1st “R&B” hit
with Rock around the clock.

9.  Teenage Pop music of the 50s.
 Used new mediums such as television
 Used the newly invented electric guitar-
Fender Stratocaster.

10.  Elvis was the prototype
of the Pop artist.
 After his appearance
on Ed Sullivan show,
became a Pop phenom.
 T.V performances drew
more than president’s
speech.
 1958 - Sold more than
20 million dollars
worth of Elvis
merchandise.

11.  Baraka, Amiri. Blues People: Negro Music in
White America. New York: W. Morrow, 1963.
Print.
 Starr, Larry, and Christopher A.
Waterman. American Popular Music: From
Minstrelsy to Mp3. New York: Oxford
University Press, 2007. Print.