Lecture 11- Popular Music Since 2000

Question 1

What new technology and platforms emerged in the 2000s?

Answer 1

digital singles and albums (2000s) have become the most common format for popular music

TV making popular music stars continues
- American Idol finalists (2002-2011) scored 351 number 1 singles and albums

Question 2

What is the best-selling physical format in music today?

Answer 2

as of 2020, vinyl records started outselling CDs and took over as best-selling physical format in music

Question 3

Who are Radiohead (how many)?
Where are they from?
When did they form themselves?
Who did they sign with?

Answer 3

• British ALTERNATIVE rock quintet
• OG from Oxford
• formed in 1980s
• signed with EMI

Question 4

What was Radiohead’s original name?

Answer 4

On a Friday

Question 5

What genres and textures did Radiohead explore?

Answer 5

-combination of hardcore punk rock
- grunge
-thick guitar-dominated textures of rock and heavy metal

Question 6

“Creep” by Radiohead:
What style?
What does it cycle through?

Answer 6

-grunge styled
-cycles through the same 4 chords

Question 7

“Fitter Happier” by Radiohead:
A short piece of what did it include?
What kind of spoken text?

Answer 7

• short piece of musique concrete with sampled musical and background sounds
• spoken text recited by Fred (a synthesized voice from Mac computers- sound like SIRI)

Question 8

What is musique concrète? How are the sounds modified?

Answer 8

• music that uses recorded sound as raw material
• the sounds are often modified through the application of audio effects

Question 9

“Bodysnatchers” by Radiohead:
What does it begin with?
What do the lyrics describe?

Answer 9

• begins with distorted electric guitar riff (continues almost throughout the song)
• lyrics describe alienation of a person incarcerated in their own body

Question 10

How do the lyrics of “Bodysnatchers” by Radiohead relate to musicians working the music business?

Answer 10

• we can think of the lyrics meaning being uncomfortable in terms of gender and that the trappings of the industry are the ones sucking the life out of the existence of musicians

Question 11

What predecessors does Radiohead fit in with in terms of genre?
What else does Radiohead relate to in terms of experimental developmental sections?

Answer 11

Fits with predecessors like ‘Nirvana, Pink Floyd” , psychedelia
- grunge and psychedelic music
- could relate to beach boys and Beatles, like good vibrations, and day in the life in terms of experimental developmental sections

Question 12

What genre does Taylor Swift draw on?
What instrument does she use?
From where?
Where did she move to and release her debut album?
What kind of crossover is she?

Answer 12

• singer-songwriter
• guitarist
• from Pennsylvania
• moved to Nashville and released her Nashville debut: a self-titled album in 2006 (PRODUCED 6 singles)
• crossover artist from country to mainstream pop

Question 13

What has taylor swift become known for?

Answer 13

-strong vocals and infectious melodic hooks

Question 14

“Love Story” by Taylor Swift:
What kind of song?
What form?
What genres does it bridge?

Answer 14

• Narrative song (ballad tradition)
• follows compound AABA form
  –> with verses, pre-choruses and choruses A section follow verse-chorus form
• bridges country and pop

Question 15

What instruments are used in “Love Story”

Answer 15

-banjo
-fiddle
-acoustic guitar

Question 16

Texture of “Love Story” Taylor Swift

Answer 16

changes in texture as song gradually builds to full texture
changes to the lyrics in choruses as story develops
modulation (3:18) upward modulation “Tricker’s key change”

Question 17

“Anti-Hero” Taylor Swift:
When was it released?
What charts did it reach and what rank?
How many seconds is the hook?
How is the melody in the pre-chorus?
What form?

Answer 17

Released in 2022 Oct
Number 1 track on the Billboard Hot 100
simple 5 second hook (drum loop)
contrasting vocal melody in pre-chorus
simple Verse Chorus form with pre-chorus

Question 18

Who is Lady Gaga?
Where is she from?
What did she do to pursue music?

Answer 18

Stefani Germanotta: Singer-songwriter, pianist and producer
from NYC
left university to pursue a performance career

Question 19

What was Lady Gaga’s debut Album?
What are the stats?

Answer 19

The Fame: sold 12 million copies
4 chart topping singles
including “Poker Face” and “Paparazzi”

Question 20

Lady Gaga grew up listening to ..

Answer 20

Divas like :
Madonna
Whitney Houston and Christina Aguilera

Pop rock and glam artists like:
Michael Jackson
David Bowie , freddy Mercury (Queen), the Beatles, Steview wonder and Elton John

Question 21

What is Lady GAGA known for?

Answer 21

Danceable hits
memorable choruses
theatrics and spectacle
powerful and sometimes rough vocals
provocative music videos
disrupting mainstream conceptions of female beauty

Question 22

“Bad Romance” Lady Gaga
What is It and what does it look back to?
what does it Strat with?
What do the drums do?

Answer 22

• Club anthem looks back to 1980s and 90s pop , Madonna and electropop
  starts with chorus and transitions to the hook : “Rah rah-ahahah
• strong drums encourages listeners to dance and move

Question 23

What does vocal versatility sound like in “Bad Romance”?
what does it alternate between?
What story does it tell?

Answer 23

Low, powerful vocals
alternate between singing (choruses) and speech (verses)
Tell the story of infatuation and toxic relationships

Question 24

Who are BTS?
when did they form?
what genre did they start in?

Answer 24

-South Korean all-male vocal septet
-formed in 2010
started in hip hop and branched out to pop and other genres
Often called “K-Pop”

Question 25

BTS lyrics are sung in … and often address …

Answer 25

Korean and English
often address mental health, coming-of-age stories, loss, self acceptance

Question 26

BTS started with their debut album ..
How successful was the album?
What is the name of the fan base?

Answer 26

2 Cool 4 Skool
-taken off and become a global phenomenon with record-setting sales and fame as legendary as the Beatles and Michael Jackson
-Has HUGE fan base, called ARMY, reminiscent of legions of fans who made up Beatlemania

Question 27

what did “Butter” BTS win?
What happened in that performance?

Answer 27

won Artist of the Year in 2021 as well as Favourite Pop Song at the American Music Awards
- a lot happened in that performance
created texture and opportunities for each member to participate in song
very mainstream pop kind of song but segments of rap are included
versatile group

Question 28

what is “Boy With Luv” by BTS?
what is the message?

Answer 28

Bubblegum K-pop hit
simple message about finding joy in little things as a way to achieve inner happiness and peace

Question 29

How did BTS extend style and practices from other artists and groups that we have studied ?
What is their appearance and what does it bring to mind?

Answer 29

they are descendant of the boy band tradition
- Mowtown groups like the Temptations, Coasters, and Boyz II Men, with their matching outfits and slick synchronized choreography
Goes back to Mowtown and artists and the Beatles
androgynous appearances bring to mind stars such as Little Richard and Prince

Question 30

What do Popular music and musicals include?
what happened between 1949 and 1969 and who did they tally more than?

Answer 30

Broadway and Hollywood
Between 1949 and 1969, fifteen different original
Broadway cast albums hit number 1 on the popular
music charts, ultimately tallying more weeks at number 1 than all of the albums by Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and The Beatles combined.” (Laurence Maslon)
* West Side Story (“Maria,” “Tonight”)
* South Pacific (“Some Enchanted Evening”)

Question 31

What are recent popular songs from Broadway and who are they by ?

Answer 31

“My shot” Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda
“Waving Through a Window” Dear Evan Hansen by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
“We Don’t Talk About Bruno” Encanto by Miranda

Question 32

What is Encanto?
who are the composers?
what is it about?

Answer 32

Musical released by Disney in 2021
composer-lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda
film follows Columbian teenager Mirabel Madrigal who struggles in her extraordinary family as the only member without a magical gift

Question 33

“We Don’t Talk About Bruno” Miranda
What does the ensemble mix together?
How were the stats for this song?
Why is the theme relatable?

Answer 33

-ensemble number that mixes Latin styles with hip hop in a “spooky ghost”
- impressive stats” longest reigning chart-topper for Disney in history of US Billboard HOt 100
universal, multi-generational appeal: the song’s theme is relatable, it pertains to family secrets and how years of gossip and repression can obscure truth

Question 34

Musical characteristics of “We Don’t Talk about Bruno”
What is the form?
What musical style?
How are verses delivered?
What happens to the texture?

Answer 34

-verse-chorus form starts with a statement of the short chorus
- Latin musical style, emphasized in the chorus (no, no, no)
-some verses are delievered melodically and some are rapped showing Miranda’s penchant for hip hop
- gradual thickening of the texture in the verses
at first verses are sung by only one or two singers, and later there are more

Question 35

Instrumentation of “We Don’t Talk about Bruno”
When does a bridge build?
What is the song called and what is it a feature of?

Answer 35

all the instrumental accompaniment drops out at the begining of verse 4
a bridge builds to the last section when Miranda weaves a web of vocal lines singing fragments of melodies earlier in the song and now are sung simultaneously
CALLED a counterpoint song, a common features of musicals and operas

Question 36

What are Jukebox musicals?
what do they consist of?
What do they owe their success to?

Answer 36

• uses previously released popular songs as its musical score
  -songs have a popular musician or group in common
  “Jukebox musical film” first coined in the 1940s in reference to motion pictures consisting largely of hit recordings
• jukebox musicals owe their success in part to their ability to trigger nostalgia

Question 37

What are jukebox scores?
What is the timespan?
What musical tastes do songs reflect?

Answer 37

• cross-section of hit tunes
• selected from significantly limited timespan (late 1950s-1980s)
  songs reflect the musical tastes of Broadway’s market: mainly white, middle-class and aging baby-boom generation

Question 38

What range of styles are seen in Jukebox scores?
What can pop music help do?

Answer 38

rock n roll (All shook up)
country (Ring of Fire)
mainstream pop (Mamma Mia)
popular music styles can help lure new younger audiences to Broadway too (Once Upon a One More Time)

Question 39

What are Bio-Musicals?
What are examples?
What outline doe they follow?

Answer 39

-subgenre of the jukebox musical
-uses singers’ chart toppers to trace the arcs of their careers
EX: bob dylan, tina turner, carole king, britney spears
follow outlines of cliches: adversity, sucess, more adversity, triumph (or collapse) before the final curtain

Question 40

To some, what are Bio-Musicals?

Answer 40

“the biographical jukebox musical is the cockroach of Broadway. It has a small head, a primitive nervous system and will probably outlast the apocalypse”
- Jesse Green, 2018

Question 41

What are Examples of Jukebox Musicals and biomusicals? What was it used for?

Answer 41

Ain’t Misbehavin’ (1978)- jukebox musical prototype
used a catalogue of period songs associated with “Fats” Waller to recreate the performance styles of black artists of Harlem Renaissance

Question 42

Pre-2000s EX of Jukebox Musicals and Bio-Musicals (NOT TESTED)

Answer 42

Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (1990)—Buddy Holly
* Smokey Joe’s Café (1995)—Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller
* Saturday Night Fever (1999)—Bee Gees

Question 43

2000s EX of Jukebox Musicals and Bio-Musicals (ONLY ONE IS TESTED)

Answer 43

Mamma Mia! (1999/2001)—ABBA (MEMORIZE FOR EXAM)
* Movin’ Out (2002)—Billy Joel
* We Will Rock You (London, 2002)—Queen
* Lennon (2005)—John Lennon
* Good Vibrations (2005)—The Beach Boys
* All Shook Up (2005)—Elvis Presley
* Jersey Boys (2005)—Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons
* Ring of Fire (2006)—Johnny Cash
* The Times They Are A-Changin’ (2006)—Bob Dylan
* Rock of Ages (2009)—Glam metal of the 1980s

Question 44

2010s EX of Jukebox Musicals and Bio-Musicals (NOT TESTED)

Answer 44

Come Fly Away (2010)—Frank Sinatra
* American Idiot (2010)—Green Day
* Viva Forever! (2012, West End only)—Spice Girls
* After Midnight (2013)—Duke Ellington
* Motown: the Musical (2013)
* Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (2014)
* Lazarus (2016)—David Bowie
* Girl from the North Country (2017)—Bob Dylan
* Jagged Little Pill (2018)—Alanis Morissette
* The Cher Show (2018)—Cher
* Clueless, The Music (2018)—songs from the 1990s, based on the movie
Clueless
* Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations (2018)—The
Temptations
* Once Upon a One More Time (2019)—Britney Spears

Question 45

What are Critical receptions of Jukebox Musicals?

Answer 45

“Put the Blame on ABBA … “- Ben Brantley
- a quote fromthe New York Times talking about Mamma Mia
- context is important time is important
- 9/11 had a huge impact on broadway and it went dark for a short while

Question 46

Who are ABBA?
When did they form
What did they win?

Answer 46

-swedish pop quartet
two guys, two girls
formed in 1974
wining the Eurovision song contest that propelled them to stardom

Question 47

What Musical characteristics are present in ABBAs Music?
What did they carefully design?
What did Michael B. Tretow create and what did he set?

Answer 47

-features simple, repetitive melodies, rhythms, harmonies and song forms
carefully designed, electic syntheses of 1970s pop and dance music
with European and Latin American popular styles
the engineer Michael B. Tretow created dense but transparent combinations of multi-tracked vocals with skillfully balanced backings setting new production standards for mainstream pop

Question 48

What happened to ABBA in 1982?
What did Benny and Bjorn do and what were 3 of those?

Answer 48

they disbanded
members persued separate careers varying degress of success
Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus moved on to writing musicals:
Chess (with lyricist Tim Rice, 1984)
Kristina från Duvemåla (1995)
Mamma Mia! (2000) with “The Winner Takes It All”

Question 49

Mamma Mia! Fun Facts
When were film versions made?
how many people have seen the musical and in how many countries?
what has it brought renaissance to?
what does it follow?
Where did it top charts?

Answer 49

Film versions have been made 2008 and 2018
54 million people have seen the musical in 40 diff countries
Mamma Mia! has brought a renaissance to ABBA’s music.
Following the London premiere in 1999, the album, ABBA
Gold, topped charts in the United Kingdom for the second time in fifteen years

Question 50

Why is Mamma Mia! a hit?

Answer 50

wide popularity of ABBA
songs are accessible and appeal to multiple generations of audiences around the world

Question 51

what is school of rock?
What was the museum of pop and culture formerly known as?

Answer 51

academia: undergrad courses and grad degrees
museums: rock and roll hall of fame in Cleaveland OH
Museam of pop culture (MoPOP and formerly the Experience Music Project in Seattle WA