AOS2: Rock 'n' roll, pop-rock, rock

Question 1

Where did rock ‘n’ roll music come from?

Answer 1

The southern states of America, in the late ’40s and early ’50s. African-Americans moved to urban areas, where their rhythm ‘n’ blues style merged with country and western music, to form a new genre.

Question 2

What electronic effects can be added to vocal parts?

Answer 2

• Reverb
• multi-tracking
• sampling (using a short recording of someone else’s voice in a song)
• auto-tuning
• a vocoder (electronically alters a voice recording to create effects)

Question 3

Name at least 5 effects that can be put on electric guitars.

Answer 3

• Distortion/overdrive = grungy sound
• Fuzz = type of distortion
• Reverb (sounds like it’s in a large room)
• Delay (echo)
• Chorus (sounds like several guitars playing)
• Flanger and phaser (whooshing noise)
• Wah wah
• Compression (evens out variations in volume)
• ADT (same track is overlayed slightly out of time)
• Panning (antiphonal)
• Amplification

Question 4

What are the main components of a drum kit?

Answer 4

Snare drum, bass drum, tom-tom, hi-hat, symbols.

Question 5

Name 5 vocal timbres typical of rock and pop music.

Answer 5

• falsetto
• belting
• rap
• beat-boxing
• scat

Question 6

Give 5 typical features of pop-rock instrumentation.

Answer 6

• lead + rhythm guitar
• electric guitars
• drum kits
• bass guitars
• lead singer, backing singers
• pianos + synthesisers added as rock developed

Question 7

Give 8 typical contemporary guitar techniques.

Answer 7

• palm muting
• hammer ons
• pull offs
• pitch bends
• sliding
• power chords
• tapping
• slide guitars / bottleneck (glissando effect is produced by moving a bottleneck or similar device over the strings)

Question 8

What is a rim shot?

Answer 8

A drum stroke in which the stick strikes the rim and the head of the drum simultaneously.

Question 9

What is slap bass?

Answer 9

A style of playing double bass/bass guitar by pulling and releasing the strings sharply against the fingerboard. Used for effect in jazz or popular music.

Question 10

Give 4 typical rhythmic features of pop-rock music.

Answer 10

• backbeat
• straight rhythms, common time
• swing
• shuffle beat
• syncopation

Question 11

Give 6 typical features of harmony and tonality in pop-rock music.

Answer 11

• power chords (3rd omitted)
• predictable chord progressions, use of 1,4,5 (primary)
• blue notes
• 7th chords
• blues scales, pentatonic scales
• modal scales

Question 12

Give 3 typical melodic features of pop-rock music.

Answer 12

• riffs/ostinatos
• pitch bends, slides on guitars
• hooks
• blue notes
• improvisation

Question 13

What are the common structures of rock ‘n’ roll music?

Answer 13

• 12 bar blues
• Use of intros + outros
• Strophic, verse-chorus or AABA structure. Often a middle 8 / bridge where instruments have solos.
• Drum fills

Question 14

Name 6 subgenres of rock music.

Answer 14

• Hard rock
• Heavy metal
• Glam rock
• Punk rock (70s)
• Prog(ressive) rock
• Psychedelic rock (recreated hallucinations from drugs)