MUSIC 15 (History of Rock) [Second Edition] Dr. Larry H. Grandy Shasta College Important note: This text (free online) is NOT designed to replace course lectures and it contains only a fraction of course subject matter (especially regarding important musicians and specific music examples). It is created simply to assist students as a brief limited synopsis of basic course materials and as a study guide. For academic success in MUS 15 it is absolutely essential students attend all course lectures for the complete course materials and the vital cognitive/analytical directed listening of the many music examples used for aural evaluations and analysis of the representative examples of the different styles and musicians of the Rock genre.
2 Table of Contents Chapter Page Preface 4 Chapter 1: The Elements of Music 5 Chapter 2: The Roots of Jazz (Predecessor of Rock) 12 Chapter 3: The Blues 14 Chapter 4: Jazz Styles (1890-1945): A Brief Overview 19 Chapter 5: 1950s Trivia 29 Chapter 6: Rock Before Rock 30 Chapter 7: Sun Records, Rockabilly, Bill Haley, and Elvis Presley (1950s) 35 Chapter 8: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, 40 Fats Domino, Everly Brothers, and Doo-Wop (1950s) Chapter 9: The Teen Idol Era (late 50s/early 60s) 44 Chapter 10: 1960s Trivia 46 Chapter 11: Twist Music and the Dance Craze (early-mid 1960s) 47 Chapter 12: The Girl Vocal Groups (early-mid 60s), Phil Spector, and Male Vocal Groups (early-mid 60s) 49 Chapter 13: The Southern California Sound (early-mid 60s) 50 Chapter 14: Folk-Rock (early-mid 60s) 52 Chapter 15: Motown and Soul (1959-70) 55 Chapter 16: The Beatles (1960-70) 60 Chapter 17: The British Invasion and the Continuing Mass Promotion 85 to the Young Teenage Market (mid-late 1960s) Chapter 18: Northern California Sound and Psychedelia 88 (mid/late 60s, early 70s) Chapter 19: Hard Rock (late 1960s, early 1970s) 92 Chapter 20: Pop and Rock Music Festivals (late 60s/early 70s) 93
3 Chapter Page Chapter 21: Jazz Styles and Commercial Jazz/Rock (1960s/70s) 97 Chapter 22: Electric Folk Rock and Singer/Songwriters 102 (mid 60s/70s) Chapter 23: Emergence of "Country-Rock" (late 60s/70s) 104 Chapter 24: 1970s Trivia 105 Chapter 25: Heavy Metal (early-mid 1970s) 106 Chapter 26: Theatrical Rock (late 1960s and 1970s) 108 Chapter 27: Art Rock and Stadium Rock (1970s and beyond) 110 Chapter 28: Shock Rock (1970s and beyond) 112 Chapter 29: Glam Rock (1970s & 1980s) 114 Chapter 30: Soul Pop, Funk, and Reggae (late 1960s/1970s) 115 Chapter 31: Disco (late 1970s, early 1980s) 118 Chapter 32: Mainstream Rock, Punk, and New Wave (mid-late 70s, early 80s) 119 Chapter 33: Early Rap (1970s/80s) 124 Chapter 34: 1980s Trivia 126 Chapter 35: MTV 127 Chapter 36: New Pop Superstars of the 1980s 129 Chapter 37: 1980s "Alternative" Rock 133 Chapter 38: Heavy Metal and "Hair Metal" Bands (1980s) 135 Chapter 39: 1990s Trivia 137 Chapter 40: The Continuation of "Alternative" Rock (1990s) 138 Chapter 41: Girl Power & Boy Power (1990s) 139 Chapter 42: Final View 141
4 Preface During this course we will be making two simplistic observations of "popular" music history within the Western music culture (particularly the American Popular styles). Additionally, especially within the 20th and 21st centuries in America, Popular music styles can become extremely personal to its listeners. First, there are two basic characteristics required for the "function" of popular music. One, the music must be "simple" to understand by the population it services. Two, the music must be danceable to the population it services. Both of these are variable and change over history. Second, there are literally two sides to the popular music "coin." 1) One side is the "entertainment/fun value" and is totally subjective. The entertainment value involves whether the audiences enjoy and have "fun" with the music. It is variable depending upon the listeners and there is no "right or wrong" because this aspect is subjective. What is entertaining/fun might change over history. What was entertaining with one generation might not be with another generation. 2) The other side of the popular music "coin" is the "musicality/musicianship" value and is completely objective. Unlike the entertainment value, musicality/musicianship does not change over time. What is high quality musicality in 1750 would still be high quality in 1950. Musicality/musicianship are the objective technical aspects of the music creation such as the quality of musical skills of the musicians, the skill used during performance/creation of the music, the quality of compositional construction (melody, harmony, form, timbres, etc.) of the song and/or lyrics, and other important musical aspects. Both sides of the popular music "coin" are important but usually the music that "survives the test of time" would have been strong with both sides of the "coin" (especially the musicality/musicianship side). Lastly, the popularity of the music and/or musicians may have absolutely nothing to do with the actual quality of the music. Some extremely popular music can be the highest quality while conversely other very popular music can be quite low quality. In any year a song and/or musician may be very popular with heavy airplay and praise yet twenty years later that same musician and/or song may never be listened to or is actually forgotten. This class will use important music of its historical time but some will actually have more "lasting" power and musical quality than others. Both sides of the musical coin are important to the study of popular music history. Hopefully this class will give you some tools to make your own musical decisions about popular music.
5 1. THE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC Music consists of common elements that are found throughout all musical cultures. These common elements are: 1) Timbre; 2) Pitch; 3) Dynamics; 4) Duration; and 5) Silence. Within these five common music elements are various sub-elements that may or may not be found in all musical compositions. Throughout the centuries, musical thought or theory has developed differently among cultures. Today, music history or cultural styles can be very broadly defined under categories such as Western musical development, Eastern musical development, and other music developmental categories or cultural styles. Within these broad categories, musical cultures can be more specific. For example, under Western Music, we can include music of Western Europe or the United States, while under Eastern music, we can place music of India or Japan. Within these broad musical categories, certain common similarities exist. For example, within Western music (music of the Western musical culture, not Country and Western music), the use of the major-minor tonality system is common for all the sub-styles of Western music, while the Eastern musical cultures usually include a more "nasal" vocal production as a common musical ingredient. There are many differences and similarities in the music of the Earth's cultures, but the only common elements found in all musical cultures are the five elements mentioned earlier: Pitch, Timbre, Dynamics, Duration, and Silence. (Throughout this course we will focus on music of the Western musical culture so most of the studied common elements will involve music of Western heritage). The vibration of an object such as a string, a reed, or a drumhead generates musical sounds. The buzzing of lips or the vibration of an audio speaker will also generate musical sound. In a guitar, the guitar string vibrates when plucked or
6 strummed. Vibrating lips produces the trumpet sound. An enclosed volume of air that vibrates as it is split generates the flute s sound. A vibration is characterized by its amplitude (extent of its vibration) and by its frequency (number of vibrations per second). The greater the frequency, the higher the pitch or sound. The louder the sound, the greater the amplitude. Each pitch is determined by a specific number of vibrations per second. The piano has a basic sound or pitch range of about 30 cycles per second (low pitch) to approximately 4000 c.p.s. (highest sound). "Cycle per second" is abbreviated with the letters "c.p.s." Pitch is defined as the highness or lowness of sound. If a piano key is struck on the far left of the piano keyboard, a low-pitched sound will be produced while inversely, if a piano key on the far right of the keyboard is struck, a high-pitched sound will be produced. There is a wide range of aural pitches available to musicians today, ranging from the very low pitches (perhaps the low pitches of a tuba, string bass, electric bass, or synthesizer) to very high pitches (such as the high pitches of a piccolo, violin, electric guitar, or synthesizer). Within the major element of Pitch are two important "sub-elements" of melody and harmony. These two sub-elements are very important even though they may not be used in all music. Melody is the horizontal element of pitch or musical texture and it may occur either without any addition (monophonic), in combination with other melodies (polyphonic, contrapuntal, counter-melodies), or with harmonies (homophonic). Melodies may consist of scale-like passages, skips, leaps, and/or combination of scales and leaps. A melody can portray a wide variety of sounds, styles, or emotions. Some melodies can be very jagged, angular, or chaotic sounding. They can also be very smooth, calm, and restrained. Most melodies in popular music seem to be simple and
7 easy to sing, while melodies in more extravagant art forms are more demanding and complex. (The preceding sentence is an over simplification and one can find many styles of melodies in different types of music. There is no connotation of musical quality assigned to the words "simple" or "complex.") An example of a smooth, calm melody can be heard in Glenn Miller's theme song, "Moonlight Serenade." In contrast to the smooth melody is the jagged, skip filled melody of Duke Ellington's theme song, "Take the 'A' Train." A simple definition of harmony could be "the sounding of two or more tones/pitches at the same time." Under the sub-element of harmony, chords or chord progressions can be important aspects. A chord is the sounding of three or more pitches/tones. Traditional chords usually consist of three tones (triad chord), four tones (seventh chord), five tones (ninth chord), six tones (eleventh chord), and seven tones (thirteenth chord). Usually simple harmonies (commonly found in popular music such as rock, country, and folk), consist primarily of triads, while more complex harmonies (commonly found in classical and jazz), utilize seventh, ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth chords. An example of a song with simple chords would be Chuck Berry's "Maybelline" while a song with complex chords would be Charlie Parker's "Orinthology." Remember there is absolutely no quality connotation with the simple or the complex in music. Some simple music is excellent while other simple music is low quality and the same holds true with complex music. Two predominant types of chordal sounds are called: 1) major chords, and 2) minor chords. Some musicians simplistically state that major chords seem to have a brighter, happier sound while minor chords present a darker, more somber mood. The Western harmonic musical heritage is predominantly constructed on these two types of chords and the harmonic system is called the Major-Minor tonality (This system was
8 fully developed by the early 1700s and was considered quite experimental by the society of the time). Chords can be thought of as individual "words" in musical "sentences." These musical sentences are called chord or harmonic progressions. The musician has many different words (chords) to use in his or her musical vocabulary. The next major element of music is Timbre. Timbre (pronounced "tamber") can also be called tone color. Each musical instrument produces a unique aural "fingerprint" or timbre; thus a flute will sound different from a guitar. To our ears the flute sounds different from a guitar just as to our eyes the color blue looks different from red (unless of course you are color-blind). As with visual colors, aural colors can be mixed, thus forming a different or hybrid musical timbre or tone color. If a trumpet and a trombone play the same melody on the same pitches, our ears will hear a mixed timbre that will sound different from either the trumpet or trombone played alone. Musicians have almost an unlimited palette of timbres to choose from. How do these timbres sound different to our ears? As mentioned before, all instruments (and voices) produce unique instrumental timbres; yet these timbres are really produced by composite sounds that actually result from the simultaneous sounding of many pure sounds called partials (or overtones). The lowest and predominant partial is called the fundamental and this is the one that the ear identifies as the actual pitch of the sound. But in addition to the fundamental, there are other partials that are not heard distinctly but are nevertheless very important to the specific timbre of the sound. The reason that these other partials are not actually heard distinctly is their amplitude or intensity is much less than that of the fundamental. All of the instrument's partials or overtones combine to form its unique timbre. Each partial in a flute sound has unique varying amplitude, much like each human has a
9 unique fingerprint. Our ears can discern these tonal fingerprints and can differentiate between the timbres. Combining instruments (each with its unique musical fingerprint of partials), can create new timbres much like a chef creates a spicy chili. The chili may taste different from another chili because of its proportions of certain ingredients. Musical timbre is the same except that musical timbre is tasted by our ears and not by the taste buds. Another common element of music is Dynamics (some call it Amplitude). Quite simply, this is the loudness or softness in music. Some music might be loud almost continuously (such as Heavy Metal) while other music may be entirely soft. Probably most music uses varying degrees of loudness and softness. In Western music, certain terms are used to designate volume. Piano, as a dynamic marking indicates, soft while forte suggests a loud volume. There are other terms used to suggest various shadings of dynamics (mezzo-piano {medium soft}, mezzo-forte {medium loud}, pianissimo {very soft}, and fortissimo {very loud}). If a musical tone starts soft and builds to loud, we use the term "crescendo" while the opposite, loud to soft, is called "decrescendo." The fourth major element is Duration. Duration is defined as how long does the sound last. In other words, does your ear hear the tone for 1/4 of a second or does it hear it for ten seconds? The duration of musical sounds can be very short, very long, or an endless variety of combinations of long and short sounds. A sub-element of duration is "rhythm." Rhythm is used throughout life. Our hearts beat to a rhythm, we walk to a rhythm, the waves at a beach roll with a rhythm, and so forth. Rhythm in music is a very important sub-element of duration, and in some popular music, it may actually be the most important musical ingredient.
10 Rhythm in music contains the duration quality of sounds. Sometimes rhythm may be entirely free of constant pulse (beat) but in most popular music, rhythm occurs in a constant pulse formula. Normally in popular music, rhythm is metrical with a repetition of sound, either felt or heard. This felt or heard reoccurring pulse is called the beat. The beat is what we dance to, clap our hands to, or stomp our feet with. Sometimes the beat is very strong (such as in hard-driving jazz or rock), or it may be very subtle and fragile. The beat is a constant force; yet the speed of the beat (tempo) can vary greatly. Many times the tempo (speed of the beat) depends upon such elements as musical mood or emotion. Romantic ballads will usually have a slow tempo while up-tempo jitterbug dance pieces of the 1940s and 1950s will have a fast beat. In other words, beat does not have just one speed but it has an infinite number of possibilities. During songs created for dance, tempos usually remain constant but if the song is primarily for listening, the tempo might be variable. Popular music usually has beat patterns in groups of twos, threes, their multiples, or their combinations. For example, if the music has a two beat pattern it would be counted: 1,2/1,2/1,2/1,2 etc. (with the combination beats of strong/weak) while a three beat pattern would be counted, 1,2,3/1,2,3/1,2,3 etc. (with the combination beats of strong/weak/weak). Each beat would be of equal duration or length. In most rock music the beat pattern is called 4/4 (also known as "common time"). 4/4 is defined musically with each beat unit having four equal length beats (multiples of two) but each beat is not stressed equally. 4/4 time would be counted: 1,2,3,4/1,2,3,4; etc. In 4/4, the first and third beats are considered "strong" (which means those beats are stressed) while two and four are considered "weak" (which means those beats are not stressed). Strong and weak beats are the ebb and flow of
11 duration. Usually in popular music, words and/or harmonies change on strong beats while the weak beats are enhanced, providing a forward drive or momentum. In rock drumming, the bass drum usually provides the kick for the strong beats while the snare drum and hi-hat (the two small cymbals which open and close together) accent the weak beats. Most popular music, including jazz and rock, enhance or accent the weak beats. This enhanced stressing of weak beats is called syncopation. If the music is grouped in three beat patterns (1,2,3/1,2,3) the first beat is strong followed by weak beats of two and three. Whatever the beat pattern, the first beat of the grouping is called the downbeat. Even though most jazz and rock music combines the beat in patterns of twos or threes, some music (especially some styles of jazz) group beats into units of varying lengths. These types of groupings are called odd-meters. For example, a piece of music could be written in 5/4 (perhaps grouped 3+2) and would be counted: 1,2,3,4,5/1,2,3,4,5 etc. with beats one and four being strong while beats two, three, and five being weak ({1,2,3}+{1,2}). The final common element of all music is silence. Even though music is an aural art form, silence is an important element. Without silence, music would become just an indistinguishable mush of sound. Silence can provide the clarity in music. Music is a combination of many ingredients that will vary according to the style of music and the creativity of the composer and musician. The five elements of music (Pitch, Timbre, Dynamics, Duration, and Silence) are found in all music, but the subelements, melody, harmony, and rhythm, may not be found in all music. Review questions: 1) What are the common elements of music? 2) What are important "sub-elements" of music? 3) How is Western music rhythm organized and constructed?
12 Basic Characteristics: 1) Common Elements: Pitch, Timbre, Duration, Dynamics, and Silence. 2) Important sub-elements : Pitch (melody/harmony), Duration (rhythm). 3) Beat/Pulse Groupings/Patterns. 2. THE ROOTS OF JAZZ (Predecessor of Rock) Where did jazz originate? What musical, social, and cultural ingredients combined to form jazz? These questions, and their respective answers, are important for the student of Popular music history to investigate Jazz is the only major international indigenous American art form and it is truly a cultural product of the United States. Western and African musical culture were the seeds of jazz, but America was the soil where jazz grew and prospered. Jazz is not music of any one culture but is actually a blending of a variety of traditions, heritages, and philosophies. During the early history of America, slavery was a standard practice. Slaves were forcibly brought from Africa to America. While in America, the displaced Africans (including African musicians who brought their musical traditions and talents with them) would learn from already established Western musical theories and performance practices. At the same time, Western musicians would learn African musical theories and performance practices from the African musicians. Traditional African culture places a great emphasis on music, perhaps more than Western societies. Music is an important aspect of many of the day-to-day activities of the traditional African societies and entire communities participated in the actual creation of the music. As a musical expression, early African music placed a great emphasis on rhythmic activity with a more simplistic use of melody and harmony. African rhythms can be sophisticated, "layered," and complex while the melodies and
13 harmonies can be simple. This strong emphasis on musical tradition and usage was brought with the African populations during their forced exile of slavery to America. While in America, these new African-Americans still expressed themselves through their musical traditions. Since they were in America, their old musical traditions could not be reproduced exactly for many reasons, including not being allowed to use traditional African instruments. To understand a comparable situation, let us assume that we have a fictional American rock band that is forcibly taken to a foreign country. While in slavery, the rock musicians still desire to create their music. Unfortunately, their new "owners" give them permission to perform their rock music, but the rock band is not allowed to use any electric guitars, an electric bass, a drum set, keyboards, or any type of electronic instruments. This would cause quite a problem for the rock band, but if they have a strong enough desire to create their music, they would have to find a way to do so with the resources (instruments etc.) that were available to them. This imaginary scenario was exactly what the African musicians faced as slaves in America. Along with finding new instruments, the African musicians were being exposed to the Western musical culture. This exposure was a vital essence to the evolution of jazz and Popular music. These new sophisticated, advanced, and complex Western melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, and aural traditions affected the African musicians tremendously. Of course, White musicians were also being affected by what they heard from the African musicians. As time passed, the give and take between the African and Western musical traditions would blossom into what would be called Jazz. To this day, elements that started with the African slaves can still be heard in jazz and rock. One example still in use is the African "call and response" method of early African songs. In a call and response, the soloist sings a portion of a melody while the group responds afterwards (much like a musical question and answer).
14 Another example is "pitch-bending" or purposeful unstable pitch. During the advent of jazz, the musicians would bend pitches for expressive purposes. This bent pitch catches our ears because the ear does not know where the pitch will actually end up, thus creating a musical surprise. Countless jazz and rock musicians use this technique today. Listen to a rock lead-guitar solo and count all the pitch-bends utilized. Most of today's synthesizers even have a pitch-bend device built in. The roots of jazz are from African and Western musical traditions blended together. Over a period of many years, these traditions exchanged musical qualities and slowly evolved into jazz. The African emphasis on complex layered rhythm, improvisation (creation of new music, within certain music limitations, during live performance), purposeful unstable pitch, and "call and response" combined with Western theoretical musical construction including Western music s complex melodies/harmonies, timbres, and forms created a new music for all musicians and audiences to enjoy. As the jazz musical tree grew, other sub-styles of music grew from the trunk of jazz. Music styles such as Rhythm and Blues, Soul, Funk, Rap, and Rock and Roll are all descendants of jazz and the jazz heritage. Review questions: 1) What musical aspects from traditional African music combine with musical aspects from traditional Western music for the development of Jazz? Basic Characteristics: 1) Traditional African music culture: Complex/layered rhythms, improvisation, unstable pitch, and call and response. 2) Traditional Western music culture: Complex melody and harmony, timbres, compositional forms. 3. THE BLUES Before we enter the first major style of Jazz and Rock, one form of music must be examined first. This form of music is not exactly a style but more of a musical
15 foundation. This foundation is found in many styles of both jazz and rock as well as in many other styles of popular music, including country, gospel, and even some contemporary classical compositions. The broad term used to denote this musical foundation is The Blues. The origin of the Blues is not etched in stone. Over a period of many years, a more or less standardized blues scale and harmonic progression has been established, but these standardized concepts can and are performed in a wide variety of musical expressions. Blues can be sad, happy, slow, fast, vocal, instrumental, or just about any style or form the musician creates. In reality, The Blues can represent almost anything! One possible theory on the evolution of the standard "blues scale" (starting arbitrarily on C: C, Eb, F, Gb, G, Bb, C) is the perhaps the African Pentatonic scale (C: C, D, E, G, A, C) was influenced by the Western diatonic/major scale (C: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C) and slowly combined to form the hybrid blues scale. As mentioned earlier, bent notes were in standard usage in the early days of jazz, thus this pitch bending could have created the loose tonal center of the "flat-third", "flat-fifth", and "flat-seventh" of the blues scale. These "unstable" blue-notes give the blues one of its special qualities. Along with the blues scale, a standard blues harmonic progression has developed. This progression is now known as the 12 bar blues (I, I, I, I, IV, IV, I, I, V, IV, I, I). Each Roman numeral consists of one bar of four beats (if in a four-beat grouping) and the pattern will probably keep repeating itself throughout the blues composition. Of course there are variations on the blues scale, along with the harmonic progression, but once again, the preceding is considered standard practice. Traditional blues lyrics are usually simple but they are at times very poignant. Many blues lyrics are written in iambic pentameter. When blues lyrics are written in the iambic pentameter style, the twelve bar blues chord progression will be broken down
16 into three equal segments (four bars each). The first section of lyrics (called the "A" section) usually repeats (second "A") with a different lyric (called the "B" section) comprising the last section of four bars. The full lyric can be represented as "A A B". An example of this style is Ma Rainey's, "Don't Fish in My Sea." My daddy come home this mornin' drunk as he could be, (A) My daddy come home this mornin' drunk as he could be, (A) I knowed by that he's done got bad on me. (B) He used to stay out late, now he don't come home at all, He used to stay out late, now he don't come home at all, I know there's another mule kickin' in my stall. If you don't like my ocean, don't fish in my sea, Don't like my ocean, don't fish in my sea, Stay out of my valley, and let my mountain be. I ain't had no lovin' since God knows when, I ain't had no lovin' since God knows when, That's the reason I'm through with these no good triflin'men. Never miss the sunshine till the rain begin to fall, Never miss the sunshine till the rain begin to fall, You'll never miss you ham till another mule be in your stall. The history of blues vocal performance is generally divided into two broad categories. Each category represents an approximate era. The first era existed from the mid to late l800s to the early l930s. This first era contained two generally recognized performance styles. The first style can be called country/rural blues (not to be confused with the much later Country Western Blues) while the second style can be called city/urban blues. Country/Rural blues were originally almost entirely sung by men with very simple accompaniments and instrumentation. The male blues singer would sing his blues song with perhaps just an acoustic guitar as background. The lyrics were simple,
17 told stories, could discuss any topic, and the sound of the music was raw and unpolished. Some of the most famous blues singers of this style were men such as Robert Johnson, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Blind Lemon Jefferson. City blues singers consisted of men and women vocalists. The sound of city blues had a much more polished and sophisticated sound than country blues. Instead of just a simple background, the city blues singer might use a small instrumental combo to back the vocals. Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Chippie Hill were some of the most famous blues vocalists of this style. After 1930, the blues performance style began to change. Along with the blues vocalists, some instrumentalists started to create excellent performances of the blues. At times, a great blues artist could perform on an instrument as well as sing. Early blues instrumentalists copied vocal performance style, but as musical time progressed, some vocalists actually began to copy the emerging blues instrumentalists. Some of the great blues vocalists from this era were Joe Turner (later to influence early Rock and Roll), Joe Williams, and Jimmy Rushing (Both Williams and Rushing sang with the great Count Basie band). Blues performers who could sing and play instruments were greats such as Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, B.B. King, and Ray Charles. As mentioned earlier, the blues format is used in many styles of popular music. Some examples include: "Rock Around the Clock" performed by Bill Haley and the Comets (1954); "409" by the Beachboys (1961); "Reeling and Rockin" by Chuck Berry (late 1950s); "In the Mood" performed by Glenn Miller (1941); "Hound Dog" performed by Elvis Presley (1957); and "Can't Buy Me Love" by the Beatles (1965). The blues is a music foundation that developed over a period of years. There would be more Blues styles after Country/Rural and City/Urban developed and Blues is
18 found within many styles of music today. It can represent many emotions and musicians still find it fresh and usable. Review questions: 1) What are the differences/similarities between Country/Rural Blues and City/Urban Blues? 2) What is the AAB lyric pattern in The Blues? Basic Characteristics: 1) Two early blues styles: Country/Rural and City/Urban. Both styles were "story telling" music. 2) Country/Rural was a folk music not designed for large scale "entertainment," was very personal, and not designed for dance. Urban/City was "commercial" music designed for entertainment, was more elaborate, and was heavily recorded during the early recording industry in the 1920s.
19 4. JAZZ STYLES (1890-1945): A Brief Overview Throughout Western history and culture what is called "Popular Music" usually must satisfy two primary, basic conditions: 1) the music must be danceable and 2) the music must be easy to understand by the population it services. Both of these "conditions" can vary dramatically over time, cultures, and generations. What once was "danceable and easy to understand" in the 1700s might not be today. For example, one of the greatest composers in Western music history, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, might have been considered a "Rock star" in his day and much of his music could be danced to with specific dances and dance steps. However, today we no longer dance to Mozart and we treat his incredible music as serious Classic music to be intensely listened to usually within fine performance venues such as concert halls. One of Mozart's primary ensembles he used for his music, the symphony orchestra, is not usually thought of as ensembles to create dance music today. Perhaps in our future what today we think of as Rock music and Rock band instrumentation will only be heard in concert halls and would not be danceable. There might be a new unknown genre in the future taking the place of Rock music as the popular music that is danceable and easy to understand. Beginning in the late 1800s, a new form of American music would begin and it will be one of America's great gifts to our world, Jazz! This genre would progress through a huge musical evolution and will become the direct music ancestor to Rock music. Music historians indicate without Jazz, there would be no Rock music as we know today. Everything in Rock today (with the exceptions of electronic instruments and computer technologies) had their origins directly within the styles of the important music genre, Jazz. Musical aspects that might be considered purely from Rock actually had their origins during jazz styles. For example, the concept of a "Music Video" actually began in the 1930s via the "soundies." Soundies were very similar to today's music
20 videos but without the visual sophistication today's media equipment and technologies can provide. Even examples of the concept of rap vocalizations can be discovered during the Big Band Era of the 1930s and 40s. Rock musicians owe a significant musical debt to the many important and influential jazz musicians who produced their incredible music before Rock evolved. The first major style of jazz and perhaps the first popular American style of music was Ragtime (1890-1915). This style was usually performed by a solo piano style even though during the Ragtime era some ragtime ensembles did exist, usually only at wealthy establishments. Since Ragtime is usually a solo instrumental style, the music developed as a powerful piano sound and the piano needed to literally be a complete band-in-a-box. The left hand plays bass notes, chords, and provides a steady beat while the right hand plays melodic lines (usually heavily syncopated). This style of playing is difficult and physically demanding. Along with the powerful sound of Ragtime, its melodic lines involve a generous amount of intricate syncopation. During the era of Ragtime radio, television, movies with sound, and stereos had not yet been invented therefore other means of home entertainment were needed thus we have the invention of the "Player Piano." Many music historians call the Player piano one of the most important inventions ever within Western music's evolution. Player pianos became very popular in America during the late 1800s and are the direct ancestor of today s home entertainment systems. Citizens could have live music in their homes, even if they could not play an instrument, simply by purchasing a player piano. These mechanical instruments used piano rolls as a source of music. Piano rolls were sold at music stores and the Ragtime artists made the piano rolls (copied by mass-
21 production). With these player pianos, Ragtime could be heard in all towns throughout America. Ragtime was the popular music of its time (songs were generically called rags ), the music was used for entertainment, dancing and serious listening just as Rock is today. Ragtime could be heard at home, in night clubs, dance halls, saloons, and concert halls. The most important ragtime performer and composer was Scott Joplin. Joplin was a classically educated musician who even composed opera. The second major jazz style was New Orleans Dixieland (1900-1920). During the early part of the twentieth century, New Orleans established itself as a major metropolitan area with a vibrant economy created by New Orleans active sea port. As with other economic centers throughout history, the arts usually blossom within such areas of economic power. When Venice, Italy in the 1500s and 1600s was an economic power, the music of the Renaissance and early Baroque eras found a fertile cultural soil to grow and evolve. France and Germany in the 1700s and 1800s were both economic powers with a resulting artistic expansion occurring within each country's society. The United States of the early 1900s had the same economic expansion and power, which once again allowed the arts to flourish, and New Orleans was a center of this new opportunity. Several key physical, cultural, and economic phenomena existed in New Orleans that had a profound effect on the new style of jazz. First, the New Orleans Creole (French and African-American heritage) population had the tradition of serious, classical musical training which, when mixed with the less sophisticated oral musical tradition, slowly evolved into a new jazz style. Second, a tradition of a special type of funeral procession was very popular in New Orleans. This funeral procession involved the use
22 of a marching band. Throughout history, mobile musicians had been used during funerals, but in New Orleans, the musicians were used in a special manner. As the marching band led the funeral procession to the cemetery on the outskirts of the city, the band would play slow, somber music. After the ceremony, the band would again play somber music until the procession reached the gates of the cemetery where the marching band would spontaneously start to play an up-tempo, happy style of music. This fast and lively style of music would lead the funeral procession back to town and hopefully help to psychologically lift the mood of the mourners. Third, moveable parties or entertainment parades were extremely popular and these needed live, portable, outdoor music supplied by New Orleans Dixieland bands. Fourth, along with other aspects of New Orleans' strong economic base, the city had a special 32 block section of town that was called Storyville. Storyville was New Orleans' city sanctioned and regulated "red-light" district. Within each block of Storyville were usually at least four two-story houses of prostitution. The bottom floor usually was a saloon, while the top floor contained rooms for their "business" propositions. These saloons, as with many nightclubs of today, strove to have the newest and most popular music of the time performed live during business hours for their customers' enjoyment and relaxation. As New Orleans Dixieland began to evolve, a standard instrumentation consisted of trumpet, clarinet, trombone, banjo, tuba, and drums. These bands also had to march during parades and funeral processions; thus the above instruments were all capable of being portable, loud (without amplification) and available for a marching band. The "wind section" had the trumpet usually providing the melody with the clarinet and trombone supplying harmonies while the "rhythm section" used the tuba for a bass line,
23 banjo for chords, and drums set the rhythmic beat. This New Orleans Dixieland rhythm section is the ancestor of Rock's rhythm section. During World War I, New Orleans became a major transport center for American military troops so thousands and thousands of young Americans were able to hear New Orleans Dixieland during their brief visit to New Orleans. The third major jazz style was Chicago Dixieland (1920s). The 1920s in American history is remembered both as the "Roaring Twenties" (due to the immense social, political, and economic changes) and the "Jazz Age" (due to substantially increased availability and role of Jazz within American society). After World War I, America was a new world super-power with a full decade of great economic prosperity. Hemlines of dresses were rising, along with the stock market, and the mood of the American people soared. Women were finding new political power due to being allowed to vote for the first time in U.S. history and were discovering new social freedoms especially within the "Flapper" movement. American society was in an experimental mode and jazz, America's music, was in the forefront of American society. Chicago of the 1920s was a thriving metropolis, even though gangsters and organized crime (including Al Capone) controlled the city government, Chicago would provide a fertile soil for a new style of jazz. In the 1920s, radio gained national success and became very important to American society. Many homes had a radio as a standard feature and the population could listen to live broadcasts daily. Included in these broadcasts were jazz musicians and their music. All of America could hear the new art form, jazz. Along with radio, the recording industry was beginning. The home phonograph was made available to the American public and jazz musicians began to make recordings for the listening public. Even though the recording technology of the 1920s was very
24 crude compared to today's standard, the public clamored for this new entertainment medium. Along with the general public, musicians could listen to other artists' recordings and learn from them. The recording industry not only provided income to musicians and exposed the public to their music it was also an educational device for the musicians themselves. Chicago-style Dixieland differed from the previous style of New Orleans Dixieland in several ways. Chicago Dixieland groups were generally larger, with additions of more wind instruments, such as saxophones or perhaps extra trumpets. Improvised solos became more elaborate and technical. The quality of the musicians' technical musical training improved. Slowly the acoustic guitar replaced the banjo and the more agile string bass replaced the tuba. Since these bands did not have to march, as the New Orleans bands did, pianos and other non-portable instruments could also be added to the Chicago style Dixieland bands. The actual musical compositions became more elaborate, with more complex harmonies, melodies, and written sections. These new compositions included actual beginnings and endings to the songs, along with written backgrounds during improvised solos. Many songs used contrasting and alternating sections of written music followed by improvisational sections. Some musicians rising to prominence during this era were 'Jelly Roll' Morton (piano/composer) and the jazz immortal, Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong (trumpet/vocals). Armstrong was so important to the evolution of jazz that some people even call him the "father" of jazz. As Armstrong aged, other jazz musicians would call him "Pops" as a sign of respect. Armstrong was one of the first great individual soloists in jazz history and his improvisational advances helped to determine that post-armstrong solos were usually individual and not group improvisations as was the case in earlier styles. Satchmo was
25 also one of the first jazz musicians to refine a rhythmic concept which abandoned the stiffness of ragtime, employed swing eighth note patterns, and used a style of playing that almost sounded as if he were playing behind the beat. All of these elements combined to form a more relaxed feeling or what later became known as the jazz swing feeling. Along with his trumpet performance, Armstrong had a unique singing style that was also an influence on jazz singers. He popularized a form of vocal jazz improvisation called "scat" singing. In scat, the jazz vocalist improvises with syllables instead of words and the improvised melodic line is similar to the sound of an instrumentalist improvising. Louis Armstrong was one of the first great American popular musicians. Not only was he an excellent musician, he was also an exciting entertainer. Armstrong could make audiences enjoy themselves the world over. The fourth, and perhaps most important jazz style for Rock's evolution, was Big Band Swing (1930-45). Big Band Swing was America's most popular style ever due to its incredibly broad appeal. It would be the last American popular style to be equally enjoyed by all ages, geographical regions, and ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. During World War II this style helped to raise morale and unify the nation. Big Band Swing soon would be associated with all things "American" to the international community. The stock market crash of 1929 set the stage for the following economic destruction that would become known as the Great Depression. After the economic boom and social expansion of the 1920s, America experienced a significant change. At the peak of the depression, the work force had a twenty-five percent unemployment rate combined with a large percentage of people under-employed (without
26 governmental assistance programs such as Welfare, Unemployment Insurance, and Social Security). During the very early thirties as people's incomes dropped, numerous small nightclubs started to fold because they did not have the financial resources to continue operations. What the entertainment industry soon discovered was that if larger nightclubs were opened, the proprietor could charge less per customer and still make a profit by drawing a larger number of customers. To fill these new, larger nightclubs with a musically pleasing volume of sound, bands slowly had to enlarge their instrumentation. By enlarging the band's instrumentation, a foundation was developing which helped create a new style of jazz. A standard instrumentation evolved during this era. This standard instrumentation consists of the woodwind or saxophone section (five saxophones: two altos, two tenors, and one baritone), the trumpet section (four trumpets), the trombone section (four trombones), and the rhythm section (piano, guitar, string bass, and percussion). The trumpet and trombone sections combined are called the brass section. Some of the wealthier big bands even included vocalists and string sections as an optional instrumentation. The largest big bands could be up to fifty musicians though most were around twenty musicians. Even though the preceding instrumentation is considered the "standard", many of the famous bands altered it to create their own unique sound. Generally speaking, big band music was for dancing, and during this era dancing was hugely popular. The jitterbug dance evolved during the swing era, and the big band audiences loved the jitterbug dancing as well as slow dancing to the big band's ballads (a ballad is a slow, usually romantic, big band composition). People loved to dance at dancehalls, nightclubs, dance competitions, and even dance social clubs. Millions of Americans adored watching and were amazed by professional dancers such as Fred
27 Astaire, Ginger Rodgers, Eleanor Powell, Gene Kelly, and the Nicolas Brothers. People especially enjoyed watching these professional dancers in many movies of the time. During the depression people wanted to forget their hard times, and dancing, along with listening to big band swing, was just the entertainment and escape Americans needed. Even small towns had a large dance hall that could possibly hold up to five thousand dancers. During dances, at which the major bands would perform, part of the audience would rush the stage just to listen to the musicians (very similar to rock concerts today) while the remainder of the audience would dance. The recording industry grew in power and influence during this era. To fit within the time allotment of the records (usually 2 1/2 to 3 minutes), the bands had to record brief, powerful versions of songs that lasted much longer when performed live. These records were listened to at home, on the phonographs of the time, or perhaps the records were enjoyed on the many jukeboxes located in places of business throughout America. The jukebox will become an important tool for the entertainment industry from about 1930s-1960s and popular music (jazz and the later rock styles) recordings would focus, along with home use, on radio and jukeboxes. The American population (especially the younger segment) clamored to hear the newest recordings and the live performances of their favorite bands. Many big bands were also used in Hollywood movies. Musicians could help promote or sell the movie and Hollywood used many of the popular big bands as a drawing card. There were many important musicians in this era including the "King of Swing," Benny Goodman (clarinet). Along with his excellent clarinet ability and his impeccable musical leadership, Goodman also helped to break down the racial barriers in the entertainment world. By hiring great African-American musicians such as Lionel Hampton (vibraphone) and Teddy Wilson (piano) and by Goodman's refusing to perform
28 if all of his musicians were not allowed to participate (some communities, movies, and concerts would not accept racially mixed bands), Goodman helped to force society to liberalize racial barriers. Glenn Miller (trombone) was another popular big band leader. His band's classic, "In the Mood," could almost be thought of as the theme song of the big band era. Miller joined the armed services (as did many musicians) during World War II and helped in the war effort by performing throughout the world (Miller was killed during the war while on active duty). Glenn Miller was also one of the first popular musicians to recognize the value of "visuals" during performance. William "Count" Basie (piano) was another extremely popular major musician and band leader. His music and band always swung and were outstanding improvisers. During the Big Band era both the recording industry and radio expanded dramatically and would become driving forces in the future of American popular music. These industries would become especially important to the evolution of the Rock genre and these industries will expand even more in the 1950s and beyond. By the mid 1950s, Jazz (Bop and Cool jazz) was stretching the boundaries of popular music to its very limits and a new style of music to be known in the future as Rock and Roll would evolve to become the new American popular art form. Jazz continued to expand into new musical territories where perhaps a popular music cannot easily travel. Jazz had become a true art form, the only indigenous major international American art form. Jazz had not only made its mark in America, but now had become important to the international music scene. Review Questions: 1) What are the musical characteristics and important musicians of Ragtime, New Orleans Dixieland, Chicago Dixieland, and Big Band Swing? 2) Why was Jazz so important to Rock history and evolution? 3) How is dance associated with Jazz?