6 - surf, folk, soul, motown Flashcards
Where did surf music come from? WHy here? Who?
came from rapidly growing suburbs in Southern California
bc progressive! So taking/took on the girl group phenomenon and donig something newer now AND bc sand, sun very removed from the corporatization of NYC and other music hubs
who = Dick Dale, real surfer and also guitarist!
Who were the face of surf music?
The Beach Boys!
Who ewre the beach boys? Style?
Family biz = 3 brothers, a cousin, and close friend
Style = jazz influenced, Chuck Berry riffs, trebly guitar timbres, lyrics abt ennui of beach-loving middle classs teens
What is the paradox with the beach boys>
able to express the middle class aspirations of ppl who were paert of americas internal westward movement and the fragile california dream! BUT they are livin it
(leaving home, hoping for new success, plant flag in new locale)
What 2 things have more than anything shifted music scene focus to west coast?
1) location (west coast phsycial beatuy)
2) recontextualizing of instruments and voice - shaping and cleaning the rougher rock and roll
What is urban folk?
folk = passed orally, preserving face to face encounters and community
BUT
urban = exists among city dwellers and shared thorugh tech
Who in general were the early urban folk performers?
black or white southerners brought/encouraged to come to NYC by ppl associated with leftist Popular Front political movement
“we want to record you and tour sound!”
What was dominant musical style of urban folk?
ballad tradition of whoite rural southerners and shared qualities with hillbilly music at the time – folk vs hillbilly differences were more sociological
= hillbilly was overtly comercial // folk associations to traditional, rural, to evoke timeless purity
**took tradiitonal rural musci and put it smacl in the urban env.
Who was Woody Guthrie? Song style? Lyrics?
defined a gneration with polotical factors in music
wrote original songs that chronicled tribulations of dust-bowl refugees
lyrics = PRO LABOUR AND WORKING CLASS
BUT populist so diff perspectives could get on board (ex; this land is your land – everyone cares about country land!)
What relates woody guthrie to bessie smith?
wrote original songs that chronicled tribulations of dust-bowl refugees from middle amer. = WG became voice for them like Bessie Smith became voice for her community
Who are the Almanac Singers? Who Pete Seeger?
Alm singers group that stressed political and social issues (civil rights, labour uniions) – was joined by Guthrie and Pete Seeger was in it too!
PS = similar to above ^, formed The Weavers that lso sanf about liberal themes **son of famous musicologist Charles Seeger
= ppl experimenting with the nessage now, not tjust the music itself
What about urban folk music made it become popular?
It was seen as the remedy/antidote to meainstram pop and early rock n roll
–> bc somehow it was the “anti-commercial” form of popular music
often most urban folk artist would not make concessions to match mass taset
Who was Bob Dylan? What did he do unique? Stage style/personality?
took notion of folk and blasts it apart, chanign face of music – dont need guitar etc for good music, sometimes just a harmonica
style = CHAPLINESQUE physical hymour, moodiness from James Dean **combining personas for inique image
= much ‘hipper’ than other “pure” folkies who projected somber earnestness
wrote his own songs!
What was one thing that helped greatly solidify Bob Dylan’s fame?
Performing at the March on Washington 1963 in front of 200,000 people, where MLK did his I Have A Dream speech
= sealed image of Dylan with the puiblic as the conscience of his generation
How did Bob Dylan’s music change?
1965 album brought threat to folk aesthetic and political vibes bc had more rock and roll beat, surrealistic lyrics drawn from poets
= shift from more explicit political messages to instead weird imaginative humour and sarcasm abstractly critiqueing society
–> about moral fabric, cultural assumptions of western society (materialism, notions of normality, taken-for-gratned beliefs of ‘reality’ ‘truth’ ‘rationality’)
