Definitions

Question 1

12-bar blues

Answer 1

Three line verses: first repeats, third is new and

rhymes with first. Each line contains 4 bars (x3 =12)

Question 2

Acoustic guitar

Answer 2

A guitar that has a hollow body which amplifies the vibrations of the strings and does not require electrical amplification.

Question 3

Atlantic Records

Answer 3

An American record label, founded in 1947 which originally specialised in African-American R&B and soul recordings.

Question 4

‘Autobiographical effect’

Answer 4

The impression that the song is directly relaying events from an individual’s life.

Question 5

Beatlemania

Answer 5

The intense fan frenzy directed towards the English rock band the Beatles in the 1960s.

Question 6

Chorus

Answer 6

The part of your song where all of your instruments and singers come together to play and sing in unison, usually at the end of each verse.

Question 7

Coda

Answer 7

The concluding section of a piece of music.

Question 8

Refrain

Answer 8

Any line or group of lines that repeat several times in a song lyric.

Question 9

Verse

Answer 9

The verse is the section of a song structure that tells the story.

Question 10

The Brill Building

Answer 10

At 1619 Broadway, New York. Its name is synonymous with an approach to songwriting that changed the course of music.

Question 11

The British Invasion

Answer 11

A cultural phenomenon in the mid-1960s when rock and pop music acts from the UK and other aspects of British culture, became popular in the United States.

Question 12

Chicago blues rock

Answer 12

A music genre consisting of Mississippi blues mixed with hillbilly synonymous with artists such as Chuck Berry.

Question 13

Clave

Answer 13

A rhythmic pattern used as a tool for temporal organisation in Afro-Cuban music and is included in genres such as Rumba, Salsa and Mambo.

Question 14

Conjunct

Answer 14

A melody that moves smoothly in distinct steps or intervals, and in a connected way.

Question 15

Disjunct

Answer 15

A melodic line that moves by leaps and skips rather than in steps.

Question 16

Crossover

Answer 16

A term applied to musical works or performers who appeal to different types of audience (e.g. appearing on two or more of the record charts).

Question 17

Distortion

Answer 17

The deformation of the waveform at the output of the device, usually due to overload, generating a “dirty” signal.

Question 18

Doo-wop

Answer 18

A genre of R&B developed in the 1940s by African American youth, mainly in the large cities of the upper east coast including New York.

Question 19

Evangelicalism

Answer 19

Worldwide movement which maintains the belief that the essence of the Gospel consists of the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ’s atonement.

Question 20

‘Hard’ rock

Answer 20

A sub-genre of rock music that began in the mid-1960s, with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements.

Question 21

Identity politics

Answer 21

Identity politics are political positions based on the interests and perspectives of social groups with which people identify.

Question 22

The Jesus Movement

Answer 22

An Evangelical Christian movement beginning on the West Coast of the United States in the late 1960s and spreading throughout North America, Europe, and Central America..

Question 23

The Jesus Movement

Answer 23

An Evangelical Christian movement beginning on the West Coast of the United States in the late 1960s and spreading throughout North America, Europe, and Central America.

Question 24

Memphis Rockability

Answer 24

One of the earliest styles of rock and roll, dating back to the early 1950s in the US and was a blend of country and R&B.

Question 25

Minstrelsy

Answer 25

An American form of entertainment developed in the early 19th century that mocked people specifically of African descent.

Question 26

Motown

Answer 26

Music released on or reminiscent of the US record label Tamla Motown, the first black-owned record company in the US.

Question 27

Newport Folk Festival

Answer 27

The Newport Folk Festival is an American annual folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in July 1959.

Question 28

Pop charts

Answer 28

A ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period of time.

Question 29

Producer

Answer 29

An individual that manages the sound recording and production of a performer’s music, which may range from recording one song to recording an album.

Question 30

Psychedelia

Answer 30

A diverse style of rock music inspired by psychedelic culture, which is centred around hallucinogenic drugs.

Question 31

Race records

Answer 31

78-rpm phonograph records marketed to African Americans between the 1920s and 1940s primarily containing race music.

Question 32

R&B charts

Answer 32

A specific pop chart concerning the R&B genre.

Question 33

Riff

Answer 33

A short repeated phrase in popular music and jazz, typically used as an introduction or refrain in a song.

Question 34

Sound-box

Answer 34

The hollow chamber that forms the body of a stringed musical instrument and provides resonance.

Question 35

‘Spanish tinge’

Answer 35

An Afro-Latin rhythmic touch that spices up the more conventional rhythms commonly used in jazz and pop music.

Question 36

Swing

Answer 36

A form of popular music developed in the United States that dominated in the 1930s and 1940s. The name came from the ‘swing feel’ where the emphasis is on the off–beat or weaker pulse in the music.

Question 37

Tape loop

Answer 37

Loops of magnetic tape used to create repetitive, rhythmic musical patterns or dense layers of sound when played on a tape recorder.

Question 38

Tin Pan Alley

Answer 38

The collection of music publishers and songwriters who were based on West 28th Street, NYC and who dominated the popular music of the United States in the early 20th century.

Question 39

The ‘wall of sound’

Answer 39

A popular music production technique, developed in the 1960s, in which a number of musicians perform the same instruments in unison and the resulting sound is re-recorded in an echo chamber.

Question 40

Woodstock

Answer 40

A three-day festival of popular music held in 1969 in Woodstock, near New York City. Most of the people there were hippies.

Question 41

The Wrecking Crew

Answer 41

A loose collective of session musicians based in Los Angeles whose services were employed for thousands of studio recordings in the 1960s and early 1970s.