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MUSIC 2II3 > Lecture 1 - Introduction to Studying Popular Music > Flashcards

Lecture 1 - Introduction to Studying Popular Music Flashcards

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1
Q

What is Popular Music? What are some examples?

A

an umbrella term that encompasses a wide set of styles and genres including hip hop, grunge, country, and heavy metal, blue grass.

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2
Q

How is popular music different than other forms of music? Do they start out this way?

A

popular music has usually had infrastructure capable of wide distribution to a large audience.

they don’t usually start out this way. these artists have to grow and define their label first and then find that mechanism to allow them to reach a large audience.

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3
Q

Big Mama Thornton - What song did she make in what year and who else made a cover of it? Who wrote and composed this song?

A

she made ‘ain’t nothin’ but a houndog’ in 1952 and Elvis Presley made a cover of it in 1956.

Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller composed the song.

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4
Q

Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys - What song, year and tradition? What did Bill Monroe’s voice sound like and what to do scholars refer to his voice as?

A

Song, year and tradition: ‘It’s Mighty Dark to Travel’ in 1947 when the string band tradition was heard on the country radio.

His voice sounded like a high tenor voice with a thin quality.

Scholars say that this type of voice is a characteristic of country music; referred to as a high lonesome sound.

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5
Q

What instruments are present in ‘It’s Mighty Dark to Travel’ by Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys? What does the band show with the instruments? What are they known for?

A

mandolin, banjo, fiddle with vocals coming in and out.

The band shows how fast they can move their fingers to play those instruments.

They are known for having a lively spirited feel to them.

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6
Q

The Supremes - What song? What year? What kind of group? who was the front person of this group? how did they start out?

A

Song: ‘Can’t hurry love’

Year: 1966

Group: all female group

Front person: Diana Ross because she had her career as a soloist

they started out struggling but when they found their groove, they almost kept up with the Beatles

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7
Q

Nine Inch Nails - What song? What year? Written by who? About what? Who wrote a cover?

A

song: ‘hurt’

Year: 1994

Trent Reznor

about self-harm, drug abuse, heroin addiction

Cover by Johnny Cash

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8
Q

What 6 ways are our personal music tastes shaped?

A
  1. early opinions and interactions with music
  2. social groups
  3. rebelling against parents can be expressed through music
  4. gender
  5. age
  6. making new friends
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9
Q

In the 1400’s, what did composers used to rely on to get their music heard? What piece of technology made it easier for composers to get their music out?

A

they used to rely on scribes (handwritten copies) and oral transmission. the rise of the printing press helped in 1436.

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10
Q

Why are there so many roles (composers, lyricists, performers, sound engineers, etc.) in the music business?

A
  1. to help diminish the risk of this industry because it is unpredictable
  2. to help get the attention of consumers to these songs in hopes that we have another big hit
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11
Q

What is a center?

A
  1. would take ideas from the periphery because they fit the social look
  2. would imitate the periphery because it was their voices that were being heard
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12
Q

What is the periphery? Who was the music oriented towards? Why?

A

the periphery are the artists and performers who did not get music attention or big platforms to have their voices heard. the periphery is where the innovation lied

they were imitated by the center because they fit the social look - them being white, middle or upper-class, protestant, urban people who the music was oriented towards their tastes because they would be the ones buying and using the music

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13
Q

What 6 groups made up the peripheral music making in the US?

A
  1. African Americans
  2. poor southern whites
  3. working-class people
  4. jewish and latin American immigrants
  5. members of the LGBTQ+ communities
  6. adolescents
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14
Q

Where does popular music come from? What allows for music to be portable?

A

immigrants (migration) through CD’s, memories, or written. technology allows music to be portable (move with us through CD’s)

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15
Q

What are the forms of musical transmission?

A
  1. oral transmission
  2. written transmission
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16
Q

Why do people migrate?

A
  1. voluntary migration
  2. forced migration which is more common because of reasons like war or famine
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17
Q

What is the history of immigration in the US? Why is it like this?

A

1850-1860: 2.6 million
1880-1890: 5.2 million
1900-1910: 8.8 million

this is because of technological innovations such as the change from sailing ships to steamships around **1860 made ocean crossings faster, safer, and cheaper

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18
Q

What are the 2 reasons why immigrants brought their music with them to the US?

A
  1. association with worship/religious practices
  2. music for pleasure to build communities and connect themselves to their homeland and with other immigrants to share their background
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19
Q

What are the 3 streams of traditions that have helped shape popular music?

A
  1. African American music
  2. Latin American music
  3. European American music
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20
Q

Who was the African American stream composed of?
Which country did they come from?
What was it home to?
Why was music important to them?

A
  • the regions from which slaves were taken
    -current day Senegal to Angola
  • home to a huge variety of languages, cultures, and musical genres and practices
  • musical expression was a means of survival for slaves in the US
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21
Q

How was the African American Stream transmitted?

A
  • much of it was oral transmission
22
Q

What are the 10 characteristics of music of the African American stream?

A
  1. improvised performances
  2. syncopated ryhtms
  3. use of percussion instruments like drums and handclapping
  4. call-and-response textures
  5. virtuosic vocal soloists performing extended story songs
  6. combinations of short, repetitive phrases
  7. polyrhythmic textures
  8. wide palette of timbral colours
  9. dancing + movement
  10. use of banjo
23
Q

Improvised performances

A

make up the song as we go along

24
Q

Syncopated rhythms

A

instead of emphasizing the main beats of the measure, we’re bringing more emphasis in unexpected places

25
Q

Use of percussion instruments

A

percussion instruments are like drums and hand-clapping
- drums of different shapes and sizes were used with their own unique timbre
- various patterns of hand-clapping

26
Q

What is timbre?

A

personality or ‘colour’ of sound

27
Q

call-and-response textures

A

when we have a main person or a smaller group (a leader) and a larger group and they are in conversation with one another, imitating or echoing with each other

28
Q

virtuosic vocal soloists**

A
  • performing extended story songs and telling a story through a song
29
Q

polyrhythmic textures

A

rhythms in different meters happening simultaneously
- many beats at the same time

30
Q

What were black banjo players referred to as? What does it mean? What do we call it now?

A

they were referred to as hillbilly’s (black hillbilly music)

hillbilly is a derogatory term that is referring to white, uneducated, rural country music

now we call it country music

31
Q

“Coo Coo” - What type of song? Who was it performed by? What kind of African American characteristics are present?

A

a banjo song

performed by songster Dink Roberts

characteristics present: call-and-reposnse between the singer and instrument, syncopation (emphasis on weaker beats), short-repeated phrases, improvisation

32
Q

What is a songster?

A

a term for a musician that predates the blues era. a performer who might be at barn parties, house parties, different social gatherings, providing some musical entertainment and background music

33
Q

What did Dink Roberts used to do? What is catching?

A

he would catch songs from other performers and do his own covers for pre-exisiting songs

it means covering a song

34
Q

What did black musicians abandon the banjo for? Who did they leave the banjo for? What tradition the banjo take a place in?

A

they abandoned it for the guitar

they left the banjo for white country musicians

it took a place within the string band tradition, particularly bluegrass

35
Q

“Stagolee” - Who was it performed by? What did he work as? Who was he approached by in what year?

A

performed by Mississippi John hurt

he worked as a sharecropper because they were often slaves or offsprings of slaves and he had to purchase farming equipment and sell crops. sharecroppers owned some portion of land

he was approached by a scholar of music in the 1960’s** and recorded music with him because on his free time, John made music

36
Q

Who was Mississippi’s songs covered by? What characteristics are present in ‘Stagolee’?

A
  • covered by Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, Beck
  • virtuoso fingerpicking guitar style, interlocking patterns, call-and-response texture between voice and guitar, improvisation, syncopation
37
Q

Latin American Stream - Latin America was colonized by who? What countries does Latin America include? What are the typical Latin American styles?

A
  • by Southern European countries such as Spain, Portugal, and France
  • includes Caribbean, South America, and Mexico
  • contradanza, habanera, rumba, salsa, tango, and mariachi
38
Q

What languages are spoken in Latin America?

A

Spanish, Portugese, French

39
Q

Tango - Where does it come from? Where are the styles and traditions from? What is it?

A

Argentina, particularly Buenos Aires

traditions and styles from Cuba, Africa, Italy and Spain

a dance for couples with a recurring **4-beat pulse, specific postures, steps and close physical contact

40
Q

What is Tango associated with? What do the performers do?

A
  • associated with dance, sexuality, recklessness and danger. these feelings are supposed to emit from the performers so the audience gets wrapped up in those emotions and feelings as well
  • they are making music, they are responding to it with the different instruments on stage - playing the tango then they dance the tango, a dance usually for man and woman
41
Q

Postures in the Tango - What does the male do? What does the female do?

A

male stands straight or tilted forward slightly with a rigid upper body. he moves forward dominating the woman so that she is forced to retreat

female follows the man and is frequently made to dip and bend backward

42
Q

Common steps in the tango

A
  • circular dance and moves counterclockwise

standard motions
promenade position: basic starting position
swivel: a sliding turn on one foot
fan: female partner is swung out to one side by male

43
Q

“La Cumparista” - Who was it performed by? What is it and what year did it become that? Story about what?

A
  • Carlos Gardel
  • a sung tango (in 1910 the tango moved from feet to mouth)
  • story about unrequited love
44
Q

What does the sung tango usually express? What instruments are found in the Tango?

A

very melancholy and depressing reflecting difficult socio-economic conditions from which the tango emerged from in Buenos Aires

  • instruments like guitar but mostly accordion and bandonian
45
Q

Who was the person most responsible for bringing the sung tango to an international stage?

A

Carlos Gardel
he brought it to the US and Europe

46
Q

How many instruments in “La Cumparista” and why?

A

1 instrument and voice because it allows for the voice to be fully exposed and clearer lyrics for full intimacy

47
Q

Mariachi - When and where did it originate? What is it? How many in the band? What instruments?

A

mid 19th century in western region Mexico

the name of a Mexican and Mexican-American instrumental ensemble combining plucked and bowed instruments with trumpets

7-11 in band of males but that is changing (some of them sing)

string instruments like Guitarron and Vihuela (provide the rhythmic and harmonic framework) and 2 trumpets and 3 or more violins supply the melody

48
Q

What is mariachi music like? What elements may also be present in mariachi?

A

lively spirited and encourages us to move

dance and vocal element

49
Q

What is a guitarron? What is a Vihuela?

A
  • large, 6-stringed, acoustic bass guitar with a big belly
  • small, 5-stringed rhythm guitar
50
Q

Where do mariachi bands perform? What types of music to mariachi bands play?

A
  • church, birthdays, mother’s day celebrations, engagements, baptisms, and religious ceremonies like funerals
  • traditional dances with lively rhythms including polkas and waltzes, folk songs, novelty pieces, bilingual adaptations of pop tunes
51
Q

“Son de la Negra” - Who was it performed by? What year? What instruments? What is a vibrato?

A
  • mariachi vargas de Tecalitlan
  • 1897
  • 1 trumpet, violins, vihuela, guittaron, harp
  • vibrato is when a pitch or note has a shake to it. it helps the note blossom
52
Q

Listen to:

A

1.The Coo Coo
2. Stagolee
3. La Cumparista
4. Son De La Negra

MUSIC 2II3 (13 decks)

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