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America’s Musical Landscape�8th edition

Part 4:

Vernacular Musics Since Rock and Roll

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Chapter 16: Popular Music since 1970

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Popular Music Since 1970: The Mood of the Early 1970s

Protests against the Vietnam War

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Riots on college campus : Kent State

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Death of 3 rockers: Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison

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British Invasion continued

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Rolling Stones became enormously popular in the United States

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Singer-Songwriters

Bruce Springsteen aka “The Boss”

    • Wrote songs of social relevance
    • Albums include Born in the USA and Born to Run
    • Film Philadelphia (1995) with songs by Bruce Springsteen

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Joni Mitchell

    • Sang about her personal experiences using blues, rock and folk styles
    • Ever-changing musical styles and lyrical interests

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Art Rock

Rock and jazz musicians collaborate and incorporate music from other styles and cultures

    • Blood, Sweat and Tears: rock Quartet
    • Chicago: employed some jazz elements
    • Emerson Lake & Palmer: related jazz to classical music
    • Moody Blues: produced an art rock album with the London Festival Orchestra in 1967

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Disco, 1

Derived from the term “discothèque” which came to prominence in France after World War II

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First American discothèques opened in America in 1960 with elitist membership requirements

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Led to dance crazes including the Twist, the Jerk, the Watusi

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Disco, 2

1970s: referred to as “disco” and became a popular dance phenomenon

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Film Saturday Night Fever (1977)

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Punk, 1

Associated with the bar C B G B & O M F U G in New York City

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New York Dolls: punk group, made their debut at C B G B’s

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Punk, 2

Characteristics

    • Association with the art world
    • Narrow vocal range; drone-like
    • Rigid, eighth-note rhythms
    • Influenced by fashion and performance art
    • Pounding beat
    • Heavy guitar distortion
    • Relied on shock value

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Punk Bands

Television: attracted to the art of Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground, as well as the jazz improvisation of John Coltrane

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Patti Smith: professional writer, poet, and playwright as well as musician with a shocking vocal delivery

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Ramones: projected fun, spirit, raw energy

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New Wave, 1

New Wave groups imitated punk’s manner but not its substance

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New Wave became a philosophy expressed through new or progressive music

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New Wave, 2

Bands include:

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    • Talking Heads
    • B-52s
    • Cars
    • Police

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Grunge

Grunge refers to a style adopted by teenagers of the 1990s; associated with Generation X

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Originated in the Northwest

    • Sometimes called the Seattle sound
    • Combined the aggression of heavy metal with melodies reminiscent of the Beatles

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Bands

    • Nirvana: led by Kurt Cobain
    • Pearl Jam

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Electronic Dance Music

Uses synthesizers and other electronic instruments

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Varied sonorities; features both live and pre-recorded sounds in performance

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2001: Disco and new wave experience a revival

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Electronic timbres reflected everyday sounds such as phones, cash machines, alarms

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Also called house, techno, electro, nu-wave

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Pop Music and Politics, 1

Early 1960s and 1970s: peak of political pop music

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Controversy over Civil Rights and the Vietnam War inspired protest songs heard widely on pop and rock radio

    • Bob Dylan - “The Times They Are A-Changin’”
    • Buffalo Springfield - “For What It’s Worth”
    • Marvin Gaye - “What’s Goin’On?”

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Pop Music and Politics, 2

Mainstream music became generally concerned with having a good time, with exceptions

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In 2004, pop musicians were motivated to take political stands

    • Against wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
    • Urged listeners to vote in elections

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Looking Forward, Backward, and Abroad, 1

Concerts and recordings have achieved new levels of sophistication with new technology

    • Collaborations involving dead artists

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Globalization brings new sounds to the Western vernacular music experience

    • Musicians can now hear music from other nations and easily incorporate it into their own work

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Looking Forward, Backward, and Abroad, 2

At the same time, some rock musicians have returned to their roots

    • Nostalgia for earlier familiar sounds vies with the urge to explore new musical innovation

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Hip-Hop and Rap, 1

Originated in the South Bronx, New York in the 1970s

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The area was a neighborhood in ruin

    • Afro-American, Afro-Caribbean and Latino families lived there
    • Increase in gang violence as newcomers and white residents clash

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Hip-Hop and Rap, 2

Poor urban conditions spawned hip-hop culture

    • B-boying: break dancing
    • Graffiti writing: spray can painting
    • DJing: disc jockeys playing and manipulating records at parties
    • MCing: a master of ceremonies raps over recordings

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Hip-hop had origins in Jamaican culture

    • Rapping over spinning records derived from reggae

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Reggae, 1

During the 1960s, Jamaican youth created a new, hybrid music called Reggae, following the country’s independence from Great Britain

    • Harmonically simple; socially conscious
    • Drew from global popular culture to express national pride

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Reggae, 2

Reggae fused elements of North American rock, African, and Jamaican music to form a kind of “acculturated rock”

    • 1960s: popular in England
    • 1970s: popular in the United States
    • Bob Marley (1945-1981): a leading performer who became famous in the United States

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Reggae, 3

Reggae incorporates several styles, all roughly related to rhythm and blues

    • Polyrhythms are more complex
    • Bass lines are prominent
    • Tempos more relaxed

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Reggae, 4

Reggae combos consist of

    • Electric guitars, electric organ, electric bass guitar, drums
    • Studio techniques

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Toasting or dubbing: rapid spoken patter, influenced development of rap music

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Reggae: Religious and Spiritual Implications

Reggae was a vernacular music (rock) borrowed and transformed by a culture (Jamaican) other than the one that introduced it (African-American) to create a new style

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Strong religious connotations

    • Rastafarianism: a black religious movement

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Songs have urgent political content

    • Promoting the 1960s “back to Africa” movement

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The Rise of Hip-Hop, 1

Jamaicans who immigrated to the South Bronx in the 1960s introduced sophisticated turntable techniques

    • In Kingston, mobile sound systems had largely replaced live bands
    • A DJ could host dance parties for street crowds using only a turntable, amplifiers, and speakers

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The Rise of Hip-Hop, 2

DJs developed radical performance techniques

    • Backspinning, altering playing speeds, scratching

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DJs played many kinds of music including R&B hits and reggae

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The Rise of Hip-Hop, 3

Scratch DJs, also known as turntablists, are considered artists in their own right

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The turntable became a tremendously important musical instrument

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The Rise of Hip-Hop, 4

The music heard in dance clubs today is often the creation of a DJ

    • Sample-based
    • Electronically composed
    • Styles include drum-and-bass, house, and trip-hop

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Rap, 1

1970s: During parties in the South Bronx, DJs hired MCs (masters of ceremonies) to fire up the crowd

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When MCs began speaking over the rhythm of the music and trading rhymes with each other and the DJ, rap was born

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Rap, 2

Rap draws from many sources

    • African, Afro-Caribbean, and African-American rhythmic styles
    • Urban street jive
    • Radio DJs were public personalities

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Rap, 3

1970s: Rappers and DJs preserved their performances on mixtapes, which were homemade tapes made at street dances and club shows

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1979: Independent label Sugar Hill Records auditioned three unknown rappers and signed them

    • Improvised (freestyled) the song “Rapper’s Delight”
    • Became a world-wide hit
    • DJs found that dancers preferred the recording to a live DJ

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Listening Example 59

Rapper’s Delight (excerpt)

Improvised by The Sugarhill Gang

Henry “Big Bank Hank” Jackson, Guy “Master Gee” O’Brien, and Michael “Wonder Mike” Wright

Listening Guide on page 286

    • Form: Strophic. Each of the three rappers improvises a “verse,” performing a recitation over the background music
    • Meter: Duple, with a heavy backbeat
    • Text: The rappers brag about themselves, describe dance moves, tell funny stories and exhort the listeners to respond

“Rapper’s Delight” quickly reached the American Top 40, introducing America and the world to hip-hop music.

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Social Concerns, 1

Hip-hop: culture or craft?

    • White rappers claimed that hip-hop can be learned, regardless of ethnic or cultural heritage
    • Some black hip-hop musicians claim that hip-hop is a culture that one must be born into

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Social Concerns, 2

“Gangsta rap” of the late 1980s included violent and misogynistic lyrics

    • Attracted devoted listeners
    • Drew condemnation due to violent lyrics
    • Lyrics alternated between tenderness and brutality

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Back to the Roots, 1

Some rappers produce lighthearted, playful songs

    • 1990s: rap-based cartoons appeared on television

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Rap artists began to appear as actors on television and in films

    • Will Smith
    • Ice Cube

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Back to the Roots, 2

Some rappers draw on earlier black music sources

    • Kirk Franklin: melds hip-hop and traditional gospel
    • Sean Combs (P. Diddy): sometimes references earlier artists

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Music Business, 1

New technologies are continually reshaping the music business

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Popularity of home recording studios

    • Now possible to create, perform, record and market music at home
    • Individual musicians can simulate a combo or singing group

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Music Business, 2

Sound engineers: capable of complex sonic manipulation

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As certain products and processes become outdated, new techniques evolve

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Music Business: Sharing Music, 1

1999: Fans could share and download music files via free online software program Napster

    • Music industry felt the financial impact
      • Legal challenges forced Napster to discontinue its service

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2001: portable digital audio player called the iPod revolutionized the music business

    • Interfaced between the iPod and Apple’s online iTunes Store
    • Downloading music becomes quick, easy and affordable

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Music Business: Sharing Music, 2

Music purchased from the iTunes Store subjected to a digital rights management [DRM] system

    • An effort to prevent the music from being played on unauthorized devices
    • 2009: began looking for alternatives to DRMs, since they weren’t sufficiently effective

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Music Business: Sharing Music, 3

Music is easily shared on the Internet digitally

    • Some people support copyright protection
    • Others believe that consumers should be able to share, remix and reuse music
    • CD sales quickly declined

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Music Business: Marketing Music, 1

Traditionally, artists’ careers were launched and controlled by commercial labels

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In 2008, Atlantic Records reported that more than half of its music sales in the United States were digital

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Music Business: Marketing Music, 2

“Multiple rights” or “360” deals were a response to declining sales

    • Label shares earnings from recordings, live concerts, and merchandise
    • Label increases investment in marketing and developing artists’ careers

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Music Business: Marketing Music, 3

Today, some musicians bypass commercial labels by recording for independent companies

    • Corporate-owned radio stations generally do not play music from smaller labels
    • The Internet provides opportunities for music produced by independent labels to be heard world-wide
      • Blogs, artist websites, MySpace and Facebook

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Music Business: Marketing Music, 4

The Internet offers unprecedented opportunities for marketing independently produced music

    • Blogs, artist websites, MySpace, Facebook
    • Some artists offer free downloads and consumer-determined pricing

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Music Business: Marketing Music, 5

Music became more democratized

    • Free from the demands and manipulation of big-name companies
    • Free from the need to become commercially successful

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Diverse, experimental music can find an audience on the Internet

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Music Business: Marketing Music, 6

The business of music continues to evolve

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Technology, multiculturalism and the accomplishments of previous generations of pop musicians have created a pop music landscape that is more varied than ever before

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Part 4 Summary: Rock and Roll, 1

1950s: white country-western music combined with elements of Black rhythm and blues to produce rock and roll

    • Driven by the tastes of American teens
    • Featured white country singers with a Black style of delivery

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Part 4 Summary: Rock and Roll, 2

Motown: produced records by Black artists that appealed to a white audience

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Soul: brought a new intensity to and transformed rock and roll

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The British invasion

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Part 4 Summary: Rock Flirts with Country

The urban folk movement reflected the relationship between rock and country

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Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and others composed and performed folklike songs on topical subjects

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Alternative country rivals the polished sound of commercial country music

    • Blends punk and rock and roll gestures with country music

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Part 4 Summary: Jazz Since 1960, 1

Jazz in the later part of the twentieth century explored new and increasingly complex musical concepts

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Free jazz attempted to overturn preconceived notions about jazz

    • Focused on collective improvisation

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Part 4 Summary: Jazz Since 1960, 2

Fusion: melds jazz and rock

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Jazz musicians began to integrate foreign sounds into their music

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Jazz composition becomes an important field of American music

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Part 4 Summary: Popular Music Since 1970, 1

Punk, new wave, and grunge addressed social concerns

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New technologies impact:

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    • the creation of popular music
    • the marketing music
    • the consumption of music

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Part 4 Summary: Popular Music Since 1970, 2

Hip-hop culture, derived from Jamaican and African influences, evolved in the South Bronx

    • Popularity spread quickly
    • Rap artists and DJs became increasingly virtuosic

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