Exploring the Evolution and Influences of American Popular Music, Study notes of Latin language

Download Exploring the Evolution and Influences of American Popular Music and more Study notes Latin language in PDF only on Docsity! CHAPTER ONE: THEMES AND STREAMS OF AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC Chapter Outline Introductory Perspectives A. Goals 1. Think creatively and critically about popular music 2. Listen to popular music and learn something about its history and the people and institutions behind it 3. Cover a wide range of music from the nineteenth century to the 1990s and beyond B. Popular music 1. Created with commercial success in mind 2. Popularity measured in numbers (e.g., how many albums sold, how many Number One hits) 3. Can be compared with styles that differ in intent as well as musical result a) Popular—strives to be commercially successful b) Classical—art for art’s sake c) Folk—created anonymously and passed down orally from generation to generation without the thought of commercial gain CHAPTER ONE: THEMES AND STREAMS OF AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC d) Definition is problematic because many pieces of music cross the boundaries of pop, classical, and folk. (1) “Garage band” tradition of rock music—more similar to folk music than popular music (2) Difficult to separate the “artistic” from the “popular” in music such as a piano rag by Scott Joplin or the Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band C. In broad terms, popular music 1. is mass-produced and disseminated via the mass media, 2. at various times has been listened to by large numbers of Americans, and 3. typically draws on a variety of musical traditions. D. Within the landscape of popular music, various styles, audiences, and institutions interact in complex ways. This landscape is always in motion, always evolving. II. Theme One: Listening A. Critical listening 1. Listening that consciously seeks out meaning in music a) How music is put together b) Its cultural significance CHAPTER ONE: THEMES AND STREAMS OF AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC 2. Listening to and studying popular music is not simply analyzing a song but also studying interpretations by particular performers. 3. Traditional musicology, which focuses on the written scores that serve as the model for performances in classical music, is often of little relevance in helping us understand popular music. D. Terms specific to popular music and this course 1. Riff—a repeated pattern designed to generate rhythmic momentum 2. Hook—a catchy musical phrase or riff 3. Groove—the channeled flow of “swinging” or “funky” or “phat” rhythms 4. Timbre—the characteristic sound of an instrument or voice a) Sometimes called “tone color” b) Plays an important role in establishing the “soundprint” of a performer c) Vocalists have distinctive and easily recognized timbre—any knowledgeable listener will be able to identify the singer by the “grain” of his or her voice. (1) Louis Armstrong (2) Frank Sinatra CHAPTER ONE: THEMES AND STREAMS OF AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC (3) Johnny Cash (4) Aretha Franklin (5) Neil Diamond (6) Bruce Springsteen (7) Bonnie Raitt (8) Dr. Dre (9) Bono d) Many instrumental superstar performers also have highly memorable “soundprints.” (1) Jimi Hendrix (2) Eric Clapton (3) Eddie Van Halen (4) Kenny G e) Other instrumentalists are unknown to the general listening public although their soundprints are very familiar. (1) James Jamerson, the master bassist of Motown CHAPTER ONE: THEMES AND STREAMS OF AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC (2) King Curtis, whose gritty tenor saxophone is featured on dozens of soul records from the 1960s (3) Steve Gadd, studio drummer, who played on records by Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Barbra Streisand, Steely Dan, and Paul Simon during the 1970s f) Recording engineers, producers, arrangers, and record labels may also develop unique “soundprints.” (1) The distinctive “slap-back” echo of Elvis Presley’s early recordings on Sun Records (2) The quasisymphonic teen pop recordings produced by Phil Spector (3) The stripped-down, “back to basics” soul sound of Stax Records in Memphis (4) The sampled bass drum explosions used by engineer Steve Ett of Chung House of Metal g) The production of a particular “sound” often involves many individuals performing different tasks. E. Lyrics 1. In many cases, lyrics are designed to be one of the most immediately accessible parts of a song. CHAPTER ONE: THEMES AND STREAMS OF AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC 2. To celebrate important events in their lives, to help them make money, war, and love C. To understand the cultural significance of popular music, we must examine 1. the music—its tones and textures, rhythms, and forms; and 2. the broader patterns of social identity that have shaped Americans’ tastes and values. IV. Theme Three: Music and Technology A. Technology has shaped popular music and has helped disseminate it. 1. Printed sheet music in the nineteenth century 2. The rise of the phonograph record 3. Network radio 4. Sound film in the 1920s 5. Digital recording 6. Computerized sampling 7. Internet-based radio B. Older technologies often take on value as tokens of an earlier, often claimed “better,” time. CHAPTER ONE: THEMES AND STREAMS OF AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC 1. Old forms of musical hardware and software—music boxes, player pianos, phonographs, sheet music, 78s, 45s, and LPs—become the basis for subcultures made up of avid collectors. C. The relationship between human musicality and technology is evolving. 1. Technology has long been used to manipulate the public into buying certain kinds of music, but it is also a way for people to exert creative control over the music in their lives. a) Guitar Hero is an instance of the multiple, contradictory possibilities built into the latest music technologies. (1) helps nonmusicians develop their sense of musical form and their rhythmic skills, but high score is not in essence a musical accomplishment (2) means of promoting contemporary musicians and introducing young gamers to the rock music of decades past V. Theme Four: The Music Business A. The production of popular music typically involves the work of many individuals performing different roles. B. From the nineteenth century until the 1920s, sheet music was the principal means of disseminating popular songs to a mass audience. This process typically involved a complex network of people and institutions: CHAPTER ONE: THEMES AND STREAMS OF AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC 1. The composer and lyricist, who wrote a song 2. The publishing company, which bought the rights to it 3. The song pluggers, who promoted the song and convinced big stars to include it in their acts 4. The stars themselves, who toured a circuit of theaters, controlled by yet other organizations 5. The consumers, who bought the sheet music and performed it at home C. The rise of radio, recording, and movies as the primary means of popularizing music added many layers of complexity to this process. D. Today, hundreds of people will have had a hand in producing the music you listen to. E. The music business relies on predicting popular musical tastes and trends. F. The relationship between “majors” and “indies” has been an important factor in the development of American popular music. 1. Majors a) Large record companies b) Lots of capital and power c) Tend to be more conservative 2. Indies a) Small, independent labels operating in marginal markets CHAPTER ONE: THEMES AND STREAMS OF AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC A. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, American popular music was almost entirely European in character. B. The cultural and linguistic dominance of the English meant that their music (e.g., folk ballads, dance music) became a mainstream around which other styles circulated. C. Ballad 1. A type of song in which a series of verses telling a story are sung to a repeating melody 2. Often about a historical event or personal tragedy 3. Strophic musical form 4. Originally, these ballads were passed down through an oral tradition, but they were eventually written down and circulated on large sheets of paper called broadsides. D. Pleasure gardens 1. A forerunner of today’s theme parks 2. The most important source of public entertainment in England between 1650 and 1850 3. One of the main venues for the dissemination of printed songs by professional composers 4. In the 1760s, the first American pleasure gardens opened in Charleston, New York, and other cities. CHAPTER ONE: THEMES AND STREAMS OF AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC E. The English ballad opera tradition—also extremely popular in America during the early nineteenth century 1. These stage productions drew on ballads, some of which had previously been circulated as broadsides. 2. The Beggar’s Opera (1728) by John Gay a) Perhaps the best known of the English ballad operas b) Designed to counter the domination of the British stage by Italian composers and musicians 3. The main characters in ballad operas were common people, rather than the kings and queens of imported operas; the songs were familiar in form and content; and the lyrics were all in English rather than Italian. 4. The pleasure gardens and ballad operas both featured songs produced by professional composers for large and diverse audiences. 5. Melodies were designed to be simple and easy to remember, and the lyrics focused on romantic themes. F. The English folk ballad tradition 1. Popular in America 2. Songs were reworked to suit the life circumstances of new immigrants. CHAPTER ONE: THEMES AND STREAMS OF AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC 3. In the early twentieth century, folklorists interested in continuities with English traditions were able to record dozens of versions of old English ballads in the United States. a) Songs are preserved mainly by folk music enthusiasts. b) The core of the tradition lives on in contemporary country and western music musical forms and storytelling techniques. c) Vocal qualities derived from the Anglo-American tradition continue today as markers of southern white identity—notably the thin, nasalized tone known as the “high, lonesome sound.” G. Irish, Scottish, and Italian influence on early American popular song. 1. Copies of Thomas Moore’s multivolume Irish Melodies (a collection of Moore’s poems set to Irish folk melodies, published in London and Dublin between 1808 and 1834) were widely circulated in the United States. 2. Scottish songs such as “Auld Lang Syne” (written probably in the late seventeenth century and still performed today on New Year’s Eve) also enjoyed wide popularity. H. Italian opera 1. By the first decades of the nineteenth century, Italian opera was also very popular in the United States. CHAPTER ONE: THEMES AND STREAMS OF AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC 7. European-derived musical styles have each contributed to mainstream popular music while maintaining a solid base in particular ethnic communities a) Cajun (Acadian) fiddling b) Jewish klezmer music c) The Polish polka—an energetic dance, quite different from the “refined” style of polka discussed above K. European religious music 1. The Europeans who came to America also brought many styles and traditions of religious music to our shores. a) Echoes of synagogue cantorial in Tin Pan Alley songs b) Christmas music VIII. African American Stream A. African American culture 1. Between one and two million people from Africa, about 10 percent of the total transatlantic traffic in slaves, were forcibly brought to the United States between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. 2. It is misleading to speak of “black music” as a homogeneous entity. CHAPTER ONE: THEMES AND STREAMS OF AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC 3. Black culture took different forms in Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, and the United States, shaped by the particular mix of African and European (and in some cases American Indian) source traditions, and by local social conditions. B. The genesis of African American music involved two closely related processes. 1. Syncretism, the selective blending of traditions derived from Africa and Europe 2. The creation of institutions that became important centers of black musical life (e.g., families, churches, voluntary associations, schools) C. Certain features of African music form the core of African American music and, by extension, of American popular music as a whole. 1. Call-and-response forms, in which a lead singer and chorus alternate, the leader allowed more freedom to elaborate his part 2. Repetition a) Regarded as an aesthetic strength b) Many forms are constructed of relatively short phrases—often two to eight beats in length—that recur in a regular cycle. c) These short phrases are combined in various ways to produce music of great power and complexity. CHAPTER ONE: THEMES AND STREAMS OF AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC d) In African American music, repeated patterns are often called riffs. 3. Multiple repeating patterns interlock to form dense polyrhythmic textures (textures in which many rhythms are going on at the same time). 4. One common West African rhythm pattern has generated many variants in the Americas, including the hambone riff, popularized during the rock ’n’ roll era by Bo Diddley, Johnny Otis, and Buddy Holly. 5. African singers and instrumentalists often make use of a wide palette of timbres. a) Buzzing tones are often created by attaching a rattling device to an instrument. b) Singers frequently use growling and humming effects. 6. In West African drumming traditions, the lead or master drummer often plays the lowest-pitched drum in the group. a) This emphasis on low-pitched sounds may be a predecessor of the prominent role of the bass drum in Mississippi black fife-and- drum ensembles. b) “Sonic boom bass” aesthetic in rap music (the whoooomp! created by heavily amplified low-frequency signals) IX. Latin American Stream CHAPTER ONE: THEMES AND STREAMS OF AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC 2. Tourist-oriented style performed by Desi Arnaz’s orchestra on the “I Love Lucy” TV show F. Salsa 1. Emerged in the 1960s 2. A rumba-based style pioneered by Cuban and Puerto Rican migrants in New York City 3. The stars of salsa music include the great singer Celia Cruz and bandleader Tito Puente. 4. In the 1980s, Miami Sound Machine created a commercially successful blend of salsa and disco music. 5. “World beat” musicians such as Paul Simon and David Byrne began to experiment with traditional Afro-Cuban rhythms. G. Brazilian music 1. The Brazilian samba, another dance style strongly rooted in African music 2. Carioca a) The variant of samba that had the biggest influence in the United States b) A smooth style developed in Rio de Janeiro CHAPTER ONE: THEMES AND STREAMS OF AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC c) Boosted in the 1940s by the meteoric career of Carmen Miranda, who appeared in a series of popular musical films 3. Bossa nova (“new trend”) a) A cool, sophisticated style of Brazilian music b) Became popular in United States during the early 1960s c) “The Girl from Ipanema” (1964) H. Mexican music 1. The two best-known Mexican-derived styles today a) Conjunto acordeon (“accordion band”) music, played in northern Mexico and Texas b) Mariachi (“marriage”) music, a staple of the Mexican tourist trade, performed by ensembles made up of guitars, violins, and trumpets 2. Country and western music has been influenced by Mexican styles since at least the 1930s. 3. Mexican immigrants in California (Chicanos) have also played an important role in the development of rock music. a) Ritchie Valens’s 1959 hit “La Bamba,” based on a folk tune from Veracruz CHAPTER ONE: THEMES AND STREAMS OF AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC b) Guitarist Carlos Santana, who developed a mixture of salsa and guitar-based rock music in the late 1960s c) Recordings of traditional Mexican songs by Linda Ronstadt d) Hard-rocking style of the Los Angeles–based band Los Lobos