MCOM72 Week 4

Question 1

Who was the first to record sound and what did he use?

Answer 1

Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville,
France, 1850s: first to record
sound with a funnel that had a
hog’s hair bristle as a needle

Question 2

1940s (magnetic era!) (Describe the sound recording development)

Answer 2

Audiotape: reel-to-reel devices with lightweight magnetized
strands

Question 3

1958 (Describe the sound recording development)

Answer 3

Stereo: the recording of two separate channels, or tracks, of
sound

Question 4

1963 (Describe the sound recording development)

Answer 4

Cassettes are invented by Phillips; sharing and mixing is way
easier (piracy and copyrights restrictions too!)

Question 5

1970s (Describe the sound recording development)

Answer 5

Digital recording: translates sound waves into binary on-off
pulses and stores that information as numerical code and
replaces analog recording

Question 6

Compact discs (CDs):

Answer 6

digitally recorded discs, produced at lower cost than vinyl records or
audiocassettes (1983)

Question 7

MP3 format

Answer 7

developed in 1992, enables digital recordings to be compressed into smaller, more
manageable files

Question 8

Pop music:

Answer 8

music that appeals either to a wide cross section of the
public or to sizable subcultures within the larger public

Question 9

Jazz

Answer 9

As sheet music grew in popularity, jazz, an improvisational and
mostly instrumental musical form, developed in New Orleans
* Jazz absorbed and integrated a diverse body of musical styles, including blues—
music emerging from Black spirituals, ballads, and work songs from the rural South

Question 10

rock and roll

Answer 10

Cultural storm of rock and roll hit in the mid-1950s
* Music merging Black sounds of rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues guitar with white influences
of country, folk, and pop vocals
* The race question in the US

Question 11

rhythm and blues (R&B)

Answer 11

During this time, blues-based urban Black music was marketed as rhythm and blues (R&B)
* Popular with younger listeners
* Beginning of the integration of white and Black musical forms

Question 12

Soul

Answer 12

merging of R&B, gospel, pop, and early rock and roll
* These artists countered the British Invasion with
powerful vocal performances

Question 13

Folk music

Answer 13

songs performed by untrained musicians
and passed down mainly through oral traditions
* Inspires protest
* Sound of social activism
* Artists such as Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, and
Bob Dylan

Question 14

Hip-hop:

Answer 14

Black urban culture that includes rapping, cutting by deejays,
break dancing, street clothing, poetry slams, and graffiti art

Question 15

Oligopoly:

Answer 15

business situation in which a few firms control most of an industry’s
production and distribution resources

Question 16

Indies:

Answer 16

independent production houses that record music that appears to be less
commercial

Question 17

Artists direct:

Answer 17

artists who bypass all label representation, including indies, and sell
their music directly to their audience, usually through streaming services