8 - Funk, Metal, Singer Songwriter Flashcards
What was the biggest starting point for heavy metal?
HENDRIX GUITAR FUCKERY (experimentation)
What distinguishes “singer songwriters”? Who helped initiate the genre?
- accompanying self (singing and playing instrument, oft guitar)
- autobiographical content now = shift away from political of folk
- FINGERPICKING
intiated:
- Bob Dylan
- before that ^ Woody Guthrie! singing “romantic image of poetic individualism”
- Hank Williams country
What was the big defining instrumental style of singer songwriter?
FINGERPICKING = rhythmic arpeggiations
–> using all fingers to pick each string so create orchestra of sound in depth
Joan Baez genre? Style/image? A main song of hers?
singer songwriter genre (although not super identified as songwriter)
- strong image personal sincerity
song: The Night THey Drove Old Dixie Down
Simon and Garfunkel style? Audience? Lyrics?
Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel
style = earnest and melodic anthems (sometimes humorous)
audience = music struck hard with collegiate
lyrics = focus on personal issues in a realistic way (similar to Bob Dylan later shift away from political)
What influence did Sijmon and Garfunkel music have on/demonstrate from singer songwriter style??
accompanying band arrangements were based around acoompaniment patterns of singer guitar (rather than based on riffs from blues rock of mid 1960s)
What are some main Simon and Garfunkel songs? What is another song we looked at that demonstrates a singer-songwriter style?
- Scarborough Fair
- Mrs. Robinson
other song: James Taylor’s Fire and Rain
How does Carole King relate to the singer songwriter genre? Artists she worked with?
songwriting!
- started prominence in Brill Building, early 1960s: the Drifters, the Shirelles
- late 1960s: bubblegum, rock, soul artists like the Monkees, the Byrds, Aretha Franklin
What other distinct songwriters wrote for the singer songwriter genre? Where were their influences from? What do these influences show about the genre?
- Joni Mitchell
- James Taylor
= ^ both influenced from folk - Carly Simon = mainstream pop and Broadway show tune influences
influences show that there is a wide variety of styles within the genre
What were the singer songwriters albums of early 1970s said to bring to music?
a new “introspective” “intimate” quality into “rock” music
What word was sometimes used to refer to singersongwriter genre? Why this word?
“gentler”
why:
- mainly solo artist with minimal accompaniments
- lyrics biographical
- high nuber of women in the genre so ofc thats because the music is “gentler” and “prettier”
= reminiscent of Janis Joplin situation - women involved means need to find some explanation rather than just incorporating women as normally as would men
What genre did pfunk come directly out of? What are some other thkings that distinguish the genre that also relate to past styles?
Motown!
distinguish
- RHYTHM (like jazz)
- bombastic presence of the group
= spirit that supports the rhythm (gospel, blues)
**irresistable :)
When did funk come into its own as a genre? What diverse bands helped make this happen? eahc og their influences/descriptosrs?
–> 1970s
bands
- War = Latin- influenced
- Tower of Power = jazz-influenced
- Kool and the Gang = jazz-influenced
- Ohio Players = earthy
- Earth, Wind, and Fire = utopian Afrocentric
- Parliament- Funkadelic = adjective-defying
Who was the mastermind of Parliament?
George Clinton
What distinct factors did George Clinton bring ot funk? Who did he bring with him that also helped the bands distinct sound?
- clear backbeat
- thicker richer texture with many contrasting, overlapping parts
- gospel rooted vocals
- horns! (James Brown;s band)
people
- Bootsy Collins! (extroverted bass lines)
- Bernie Worrells innovative synthesizer
What is the theme george clinton brought to the funk performance? Some examples of how he did this? Why this theme?
COSMOLOGICAL NARRATIVE (show the redemptive power of funk)
- enacting landing of mothership
- band performers in outlandish garb
why: make a statement saying that black people feel like aliens, wish they could go to somwhere else to express selves the way they want
What are some main funk songs?
September - Earth Wind and Fire
Flashlight - Parliament Funkadelic
Bring the Funk - Parliament Funkadelic
Get Up Offa That Thing - James Brown
Who were main intermediaries from rock to heavy metal?
- JIMI HENDRIX
- Cream
- Jeff Beck Group
What is the main idea for heavy metal?
= antithesis of the soft-rock of singer songwriters
“Imma make it dirty, offensive, abrasive, harder edged, in your face”
What are some main heavy metal/hard rock bands?
- Led Zeppelin
- Black Sabbath
- Deep Purple
How were heavy emtal bands different from the blues revival groups that came before them?
- less reverent attitude toward blues form
= no faithful recreation!
instead taking: - tonality
- riff orientation
- sexual imagery (@Mick Jagger)
- sense of aggression from some blues songs and heightening it!
= more interest in VISCERAL POWER
What audeinces did heavy metal speak to?
- lower/lower-middle class (not bourgeois)
- college students (rather than high school)
What are some examples of heavy metal songs?
The Ocean - Led Zepp
SMoke on the Water - Deep Purple
Paranoid - Black Sabbath
Persistence of Time - Anthrax
Rocket - Def Leppard
Kickstart my Heart - Motley Crue
What are two foundational guitar elements of heavy metal isntrumentstion? How define each?
- POWER CHORD = chord without the third! so no emotion and just aggressive powerful block, then magnified to BIG volume
–> regular chord has root, third (indicate mood with major = happy, minor = sad), and fifth (brings harmonic process together) - Guitar riff = distinct singular line that outlines main character of song
