Final Flashcards
Music in Clubs and Pubs
- Nightclubs and pubs: The “incubators, nurseries and archives of popular music” (Brabazon)
- Buildings are a structure for the creation and consumption of popular music
- Enable the connection between music and audience
- Paradox: on one hand there is ability for economic development, on the other hand it often results in Government, Police etc.. Trying to regulate the noise produced, drugs & alcohol consumption
- Economic development through music and entertainment
- Need to regulate/control music and noise
5 Significant Clubs/Pubs
- ) Cavern Club (Liverpool - Beatles)
- ) CBGB: Country, Bluegrass and Blues (NYC - Punk)
- ) Studio 54 (NYC - Disco)
- ) The Warehouse (Chicago - House music gets its name & start from here)
- ) The Hacienda (Manchester - New Wave & House)
Punk & Indie
- Both guitar-fuelled sounds: bar chords, power chords, speed
- Ideologies of authenticity (anyone can play this music, divorcing from corporate culture)
- Close relationship between fans and performers
- Do it Yourself Attitude (DIY)
- Responses to rock, to dance music
- Complicated relationship to the “mainstream”
- Disenfranchised youth class
Punk
- In most obvious form: lasted about 18 months (1976-1977) predominantly in New York and London
- Simple instrumentation and arrangement
- Anti-mainstream and anti-establishment values
- Reaction to class-based issues and problems (more so in UK)
- Influence on new wave, hardcore, indie
Proto-Punk in the U.S
- U.S - based garage scene
- The Kingsmen: “Louie, Louie” (1963)
- The Standells
- -> The Stooges, The Stooges (1969)
- “I Wanna Be Your Dog”
- Highly Distorted, power chords
- Charged garage rock
- Influential “proto-punk” record
Punk in the US
Geneaology of amateur aesthetic
- Ca. 1966: Velvet Underground (60’s garage bands + “rave ups” of Yardbirds, Kinks)
- Ca. 1969: Stooges/MC5
- Ca. 1973: Modern Lovers/New York Dolls
- Ca. 1975: Ramones/Patti Smith/ Talking Heads
- Ca. 1976: Sex Pistols/Clash
CBGB
- By 1974 this club was a hub for the NY scene
- Bands such as Television, Blondie, and the Ramones
- Influenced by artists/bands such as The Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, and Talking Heads
- Patti Smith & Television both regulars
The Ramones
- Original lineup: Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, Tommy (all took on last name Ramone)
- Helped define the “punk sound”
- “Wall of noise” - Legs McNeil described their sound this way as opposed to wall of sound: a rock version
- Regulars at CBGB
Punk in the UK
- Felt to have more social and political relevance than U.S. punk
- Class – subculture and British working-class youth who share same economic problems as their parents but are distinct in how they want to deal with it
- Shocking iconography that critiqued “The Sixties” as an ideology and era
- Much more press coverage of punk in the UK
- -> Subculture and style
- -> Symbolization (jacket, hairstyle becomes a theme for a problem)- Moral Panics
- -> Moral panic as marketing strategy – trying to arouse shock (Nazi symbols)
The Sex Pistols (1975-1978)
- Johnny Rotten (vocals), Steve Jones (guitar), Paul Cook (drums), Glen Matlock (bass, replaced by Sid Vicious in 1977), managed by Malcolm McLaren
- A reaction to the complexities of rock music at the time and barriers between fans and stars (mosh pits, spitting)
Caroline Coon on Johnny Rotten
“His clothes, held together by safety pins, fall around his slack body in calculated disarray” (Garbage strike at the time)
“ Millionaire rock stars are no longer part of the brotherly rock fraternity which helped create them in the first place”
- Went on TV and swore on air, got in a fight got a lot of media attention
“Sex” by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood
–> “Sex” by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood: clothing store that influenced what punks wore
Punk and Women
- Though there are many ways in which punk can be tied to an aggressive masculinity, it also presented an attack on the hyper-masculinity of rock
- Groups like The Slits taking on a confrontational femininity, reconfiguring the stage performance
The Slits (London, 1976)
- Cut (1979) - Debut album
- Produced by Dennis Bovell (experience with reggae)
- Example of a “post-punk” album
- Blend of punk, reggae, rock (beginning of the mix)
- “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” (1979)
Bonus track on Cut
Ska
Sound includes a walking bassline, a piano (keyboard) or guitar-accented rhythm on the offbeat (prominent chords falling on the & instead of 1), upstroke on guitar (light to heavier strings upwards)
- Influenced by ‘mento’, a Jamaican acoustic folk music, as well as ‘Calypso’ and R&B
- Caribbean influence as well
Ska and Reggae in a Global Context
- The influence of Jamaica on global popular music (Bob Marley)
- Colonialism + political, economic, and cultural connections between Africa, the Carribbean, the Americas and Europe
- Jamaica - English colony from 1655 - 1962 – roots by which Jamaican sounds can travel to the UK
- Early ska records were relased in Jamaica in the early 1960’s
- “Sound systems” and Djs - communal participation
- Influence on the mod subculture in the United Kingdom (both sound and style, escaping reality of working class existence)
- Sharp dress (suits etc… that Mods pick up)
Desmond Dekker
“Israelites” (1968)
- Desmond Dekker & The Aces
- First wave of Ska
- Communicates “rude boy” experience: living in the streets, searching for what you need to survive due to economy in Jamaica (“Wake up in the morning, slavin’ for bread, sir”)
- First Ska song to reach No.1 in UK, Top 10 in US (Height of popularity in 1969)
- Brings Jamaican sound to UK and US (communicates experience of minorities)
- Guitar on offbeat ** (1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &)
Rocksteady
Ska slowed in tempo, increase in bass and emphasis on offbeat
Reggae
- The arrangement slowed even further
- Double-time organ/guitar and half-time bass and drum, snare turned to sound as timbale
- Lyrics focused on Africa as homeland (attention to colonization, identity, race, class)
- Jamaican music emphasizes the importance of the bass guitar
- “Protest Music”, captures a history of diaspora –> Influence of Rastafari movement, “Zion”
50s-60s: Many Jamaicans migrate to UK + US
Chris Blackwell of Island Records
- Formed in Jamaica in 1959, relocates to London in 1962
- Moves reggae into diverse markets
Bob Marley and the Wailers - Catch a Fire
- Island Records, 1973
- Translates reggae into popular music
- Special Album opened like a Zippo lighter (Music catching fire)
- Subsequent covers had Marley smoking a large joint
- Symbolic of standing up against Institutions/ opression
Return to Ska
- 2nd wave
- 1979 onwards, “Two Tone” (also name of record label in UK) craze in UK
- Symbolizes hope of a multicultural future for Britain, racial equality, social justice
- An alternative for Britain during the Margaret Thatcher era (Lots of peoples without jobs)
- Strong emphasis on style – suits, black and white checkered patterns, dance
The Specials “A Message to You, Rudy”
- Multicultural group
- The Specials (1979), 2 Tone Records
- Originally a single by Danny Livingstone (67)
- Second wave of Ska
- Both “black” and “white” musical influences
- Energy of first wave ska, but punk influences, more percussion and horns
- Frustration and anger of youth in UK, violence and desolation in the city
Disco
- Developed on and for a dance floor
- Origins in African American, Latino and gay dance cultures (underground phenomenon)
- Carries sound of 60s soul into sexually experimental and permissive dance cultures of the 70s – “disco is a forum for liberated bodies”
- Heavily sampled in contemporary popular music
- 1977 – Saturday Night Fever and Studio 54
- Disco and gay culture moving to mainstream
The Disco Sound
- 4/4 time signature (4 on the floor)
- Syncopated bass line with open hi hat on offbeat
- Vocals and lyrics that often communicate “struggle but survival”
- Giorgio Moroder is often credited with first disco track “I feel Love” - Donna Summer)
- The “disco mix”, long version - technology
- Artifice over authenticity (60s counterculture)
“R&B Disco”
- Influenced by soul and funk (Kool and the Gang)
- Gospel oriented vocals
“Eurodisco”
- Simple, chanted vocals
- Thicker arrangements (Orchestral instruments, synthesizers), role of producer (Summer/Moroder)
“Pop Disco”
Mainstream pop artists (Bee Gees)
Disco vs. Rock Culture
“The ’60s were braless, lumpy, heavy, rough and romantic; disco is stylish, sleek, smooth, contrived, and controlled. Disco places surface over substance, mood over meaning, action over though”
Disco – “There’s gay disco and straight disco … Straight disco is heavy-duty funk, the driving sound… Gays like to hear black women singers; they identify with the pain, the irony, the self consciousness. We pick up on the emotional content, not just the physical power”
Disco’s 3 Innovations for Pop Music
- ) Lyrics: Overt sexuality instead of love/romance
- ) Altered relationships between performers and producers (producers becoming stars)
- Central figure becomes the DJ
- Dance as social interaction - ) Birth of the remix (for dancing experience) making the radio songs longer for dancing
Donna Summer, Giorgio Morder and Pete Bellotte
Love to Love You Baby” (1975)
- Released as an extended version (16+ mins)
- Moroder turned a simple lyrics into a full disco hit
- Vocals communicate overt sexuality of the genre
> Also ‘I Feel Love’
Disco Elsewhere
- ) Rod Stewart – “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?” (1978)
- ) Rolling Stones - “Miss You” (1978)
- ) Kiss - “I Was Made For Loving You” (1979)
- ) Sugarhill Gang - “Rappers Delight” (1979)
- ) Blondie - “Rapture” (1980)
- ) Madonna - “Hung Up” (2005, samples ABBA)
- ) Glass Candy - “Warm in the Winter” (2011)
World Music
“World music is a marketing term with its origins in
the 1980s, intending to brand ‘foreign’ sounds for a
‘Western’ consumer.” (Brabazon, 185)
1980: Decade of the Music Video
- A new mode of marketing and presentation – working between commerce and art
- The development of an artist’s image
–> History that dates back to promotional short films:- The Beatles in 1966
- A replacement for touring
Music Programs: Top of the Pops
MTV 1981
- A new visual language for music
- A way of connecting music to advertising
- Consumption as identity
- Why the 80s? –> Cheaper recording and editing technology and decline in live concerts
Recent Innovation in Music Videos
- Improvements in mobile screen media
- Music videos have moved beyond television
– Arcade Fire - “The Wilderness Downtown” (We Used to Wait) incorporating your own childhood home overhead views on google maps to make the music interactive
– Joanna Newsom - “Divers”
Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, The Master)
Music and Identity
- Popular music has featured a number of moments of sexual instability, challenging normative rules of love, sex, marriage, etc…
- How can voice and sound create spaces of social and sexual instability?
The Kinks - “Lola” (1970)
- Provides a context for a range of sexualities and identities
- Also represented through David Bowie – Androgynous style
Madonna
“Queen of Pop”
- Born Madonna Louise Ciccone, major popular star in music and film
- Known for constantly changing her image and style
- Frequently a subject of controversy (cultural appropriation)
- Written and produced most of her songs
Madonna and Performing Identity
- One of the first pop stars to understand the potential of music video and MTV (along with Michael Jackson)
- Visual self-presentation, choreography, and dancing
- “Virtuoso of the superficial” - Jon Pareles
- Presentation of sexuality, but also control –> A new form of feminism or dismissal of it?
Madonna and dance and style
- Dance: escape from conventions of religion and bourgeois society
- Madonna blends many pop music styles, but major influence during her early career was disco
“Lucky Star” Madonna (1983)
Through MTV, she transmits “an avant-garde downtown New York sensibility to the American masses”
Michael Jackson
“King of Pop”
- Career begins with Jackson Five and Motown
- 1971: Solo Career
- 1978: Meets producer Quincy Jones
- 1979: Off the Wall
- 1980’s & 1990s: Major figure in pop music