Lecture 5: Big Singers; Rhythm and Blues; Country and Western

Question 1

Postwar economic boom = the rise of the middle class

Answer 1

Postwar Music Industry

Question 2

More disposable income = new peak in record sales in 1947

Answer 2

Postwar Music Industry

Question 3

1949: people under 21 made up ⅓ of the record-buying population (teenager)

Answer 3

Postwar Music Industry

Question 4

Disc jokeys playing pre recorded music on the radio becomes common in the 1930s

Answer 4

The Radio DJ

Question 5

more important in the postwar period, as they controlled what was played on the radio

Answer 5

The Radio DJ

Question 6

Small record labels paid DJs to play their records= ‘playola’ scandal of the late 1950s

Answer 6

The Radio DJ

Question 7

Founding of BMI publishing house (a reaction to ASCAP) open to southern artists kept out of union of mainstream tin pan alley

Answer 7

Marginal Music Increase in Importance

Question 8

AFM recording ban (1942-1944) opens recording to non-union musicians (Country and western, rhythm and blues)

Answer 8

Marginal Music Increase in Importance

Question 9

Migration to northern urban centres in the 30s and 40s for defence related jobs

Answer 9

Marginal Music Increase in Importance

Question 10

Radio: specialty stations appear (1949: WDIA first African American radio station)

Answer 10

Marginal Music Increase in Importance

Question 11

Records: independent labels proliferate

Answer 11

Marginal Music Increase in Importance

Question 12

Magnetic tape recording = easy recording layers of music

Answer 12

Recording Technology

Question 13

No longer limited to simply recording live performances; eventually revolutionizes what music can sound like

Answer 13

Recording Technology

Question 14

1948: Columbia Records creates 33rpm vinyl LP = Longer playing time, quieter, less breakable

Answer 14

Playback Technology

Question 15

1949: Victor creates the 45 rpm single: stackable, allows for “playlists”

Answer 15

Playback Technology

Question 16

1939: FM Radio is added to AM = eventually allows for stereo sound

Answer 16

Radio

Question 17

1946: 6000 homes in the US have tvs
1948: 3,000,000 homes in the us have tv
1949: record sales drop, recording industry sees TV as a threat at first
1951: 12,000,000 homes in the US have tv

Answer 17

TV

Question 18

By mid 50s, it is the most important medium for introducing new artists

Answer 18

TV

Question 19

Focus shifts from band leaders to singers, partly due to the AFM recording ban, which allowed singers to continue recording

Answer 19

The Rise of the Big Singers

Question 20

Solo singers: Frank Sinatra, Nat “King” Cole, Perry Como, Doris Day, Peggy Lee, Patti Page- take over mainstream music

Answer 20

The Rise of the Big Singers

Question 21

Born in New Jersey

Answer 21

Frank Sinatra

Question 22

Sang in vocal quartets and with big bands

Answer 22

Frank Sinatra

Question 23

Finally recorded solo (with choral accompaniment) during AFM strike

Answer 23

Frank Sinatra

Question 24

Became first teenage heartthrob: 1944 Columbus Day riot

Answer 24

Frank Sinatra

Question 25

Jazz pianist but recorded sentimental ballads as vocalist from 1946

Answer 25

Nat King Cole

Question 26

The most successful African American artist in the postwar era, and one of the few, along with the Mills Brothers and Louis Jordan, to cross over to mainstream pop

Answer 26

Nat King Cole

Question 27

Race music becomes rhythm and blues
Hillbilly music becomes country and western
Both genres becomes popular

Answer 27

Postwar name changes

Question 28

6 to 7 piece band

Answer 28

Southern Music in the Postwar Era:

Rhythm and blues/jump blues

Question 29

High energy

Answer 29

Southern Music in the Postwar Era:

Rhythm and blues/jump blues

Question 30

Humourous lyrics and stage antics

Answer 30

Southern Music in the Postwar Era:

Rhythm and blues/jump blues

Question 31

Louis jordan and the tympany five were the most successful- very influential on early rock and roll
Popular with with audience too, which resulted in segregated shows, or sections of the theatre or dance floor

Answer 31

Southern Music in the Postwar Era:

jump blues

Question 32

Urban blues (Muddy Waters)

Answer 32

Southern Music in the Postwar Era

Question 33

Crooners

Answer 33

Southern Music in the Postwar Era

Question 34

Vocal harmony groups

Answer 34

Southern Music in the Postwar Era

Question 35

represents “the golden age of country”

Answer 35

Honky Tonk

Question 36

use of electric guitar, pedal steel guitar , often “a percussive, insistent beat that was well-suited to dancing”

Answer 36

Honky Tonk

Question 37

themes of “family instability, the unpredictability of male-female relationships, the attractions and dangers of alcohol, and the importance of enjoying the present”

Answer 37

Honky Tonk

Question 38

The most important single figure of postwar country –personified the “hard-living, hard-loving rambler” image that Jimmie Rodgers established in the 1920s

Answer 38

Hank Williams

Question 39

hugely popular, but fired from the Grand Ole Opry for many missed shows, died in the back of his car on New Year’s Day, 1953

Answer 39

Hank Williams