Midterm I People & Places Flashcards
Muddy Waters
(McKinley Morganfield) associated with Chicago blues, progressed from rural acoustic country blues, to primitive electrification, then a radical distorted Chicago style at Chess Records with Leonard and Phil Chess
Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup
rougher jazz influenced R&B style in That’s All Right Mama, covered by early Elvis
Elvis Presley
fallen into rock, rockabilly personified, Sun Studios original rockabilly, sold to RCA in 1955, join army in 1958, becomes pop singer and lounge singer later in career
Jerry Lee Lewis
rockabilly figure from Louisiana, piano with feverish intensity and theatricality, intense bluesy, rhythmic rhythm recalled NO, influenced Elton John
Howlin’ Wolf
(Chester Burnett) came up from Mississippi before coming to Chicago in 1953, rough intense voice, shows relationship between Chicago blues and boogie music
Rolling Stones
salty vision centered more unwaveringly on rock ‘n’ roll and bluesiness, less on pop sweetness and eclecticism; ‘eternal’ rock ‘n’ roll style (southern, simple rhythm, melody, harmony, straightforwardness, blues, rich clean electrification suggesting rebellion and comfort in skin, sardonic humor); fundamental impact on ensuing rock ‘n’ roll traditions; performance artists; blues roots, Mick Jagger & Keith Richards
Robert Johnson
12 bar blues, country blues, inspiration to bluesmen and rockers
Golden Gate Gospel Quartet
heterogeneous sound world (diverse sounds brought together); ‘jubilee’ a capella
Jimmy Preston
strong gospel influence, jump band records, boogie rhythm, blues formal structure, laid down path for early rock ‘n’ roll
Fats Domino
Antoine, New Orleans R&B, piano, blues structure, playful, swinging R&B sound
Fletcher Henderson
black big band leader who played hotter music as a catalyst to the swing era
Benny Goodman
white big band leader who brought out swing era craze in 1935
New Orleans
birthplace of jazz (combining syncopation of ragtime with wailing intensity of blues and incorporation of polyphonic band style) and R&B as an important historical crossroads of many cultures
Frank Sinatra
most popular lounge act of singer dominating post WWII featured artist, swing style big bands, often comes in late, bending melodic rhythm to fit his musical ideas and emotions
Bob Wills
Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys forged western swing as a mix between swing jazz and hillbilly music
Hank Williams
honky tonk’s principal figure, simple unvarnished words with potency of melodies and performances
Louis Jordan
Louis Jordan and his Tympanny Five exemplified jump band style, early R&B singing, elements of jive (playful, witty rhythmic slang)
Chicago
origin of Chicago blues sound (intense thick distortion)
Cleveland
origin of Alan Freed’s R&B radio show on WJW in 1951 that began rock ‘n’ roll labeling of R&B, passionately musical
Bill Haley
found rock ‘n’ roll after Bill Haley and His Comets mixed R&B and western swing, experimented with polka yodeling, traditional hillbilly, hillbilly novelty, country pop, western swing, honky tonk, hillbilly swing
Memphis
Sun Studios and Sam Phillips, musical town and commercial crossroads
Alan Freed
DJ who labeled R&B as rock ‘n’ roll, Moondog’s Coronation Ball of 1952 as first rock ‘n’ roll concert, hosted WJW radio show in Cleveland, later New York City, ruined by payola scandal
New York
Alan Freed, Brill Building and professional songwriters in Tin Pan Alley for girl groups (Jerry Leiber (words) and Mike Stoller (music), Barry Mann (music) and Cynthia Weil (words), Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, Gerry Goffin (words) and Carole King (music)); folk revival center in Greenwich Village
Sun Studios
Sun Studios sound - electrification (slap bass style), hillbilly 2 beat feel plus 4 beat elements in rhythm, production of strong reverb and slap-back echo
Sam Phillips
owner of independent label Sun Studios in Memphis, its rockabilly stable
Carl Perkins
icon of early rockabilly, monotonous working class fury, sounded like he imitated Elvis on original Blue Suede Shoes
Buddy Holly
classic rock ‘n’ roll, The Crickets, death signaled end of first era of rock ‘n’ roll, transcendent musical icon that influenced Beatles and future rock generation
Chuck Berry
early rock ‘n’ roll, black rockabilly, firmly grounded in blues with thin, twanging sound, guitar based instrumentation, and fast intense style of rockabilly, created rock ‘n’ roll guitar vocabulary
Little Richard
(Richard Penniman) Seventh Day Adventist as child, influenced by gender bending R&B artist Billy Wright, feverish piano,
Dick Clark
American Bandstand, good-natured rock ‘n’ roll, whitewashed, wholesome clean and proper
Pat Boone
teen crooner from above, stayed with indie dot records, teen music dumbs down swing style
Phil Spector
wall of sound (massive, complex application of heavy reverb and extensive multitracking
Link Wray
rougher distorted sound of speaker with pencil holes, recorded the first garage rock music in 58, with influence of blues, slow monotonous 12 bar blues
Kingsmen
garage rock breakthrough hit Louie Louie heavy electrified sound, crashing drums, monotonous chord progression
Beach Boys
Brian Wilson was musical genius (Brian, Carl, Dennis Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine) always put out complete LP albums from the beginning, icons of surf music that broke out into pop scene, turned to psychedelic rock before Brian imploded
Los Angeles
surfing music?
Woody Guthrie
born in Oklahoma, music of humor, irony, idealism, talking blues of poetry in simple I IV V chord progression, folk influence for Bob Dylan
Kingston Trio
clean cut college types had upbeat easy going folk music, both hip and safe, rootsy and progressive, funny and earnest, most popular folk group in American history
Bob Dylan
incarnation of the singer songwriter (authority, profundity, self-inventive creativity), folk and beat combined together to talk about protest and change, turned electrified in 65 and became rock until he crashed his motorcycle, twangy bluesy voice, simple diatonic chord strucutres, song formats, band formats, highly poetic and heartfelt lyrics
San Francisco
associated with the Beat culture as the first counterculture of sex, drugs, jazz
Beatles
“Ain’t She Sweet” garage version of old 20s standard; George Martin as 5th Beatle; Beatles craze and Beatlemania; album covers let you watch modernism die; late modernism recording as art object; simple short chord progressions; womb of sound in rock ‘n’ roll; Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 67 concept album (LSD, Eastern spirituality)
John Lennon
gritty singer, songwriter, rhythm guitar, came up with Beatles name
Paul McCartney
sweeter lead vocal, bass, songwriter
Mick Jagger
lead singer of the Rolling Stones
Keith Richards
lead guitar of the Rolling Stones
Monkees
industrially made American Beatles, played successful clean pop rock before they took themselves seriously and were abandoned by industry
Kinks
‘Beatles effect’ to a new level, Ray and Dave Davies, stripped down straight ahead music, with electric mid 60s rock ‘n’ roll style infused with folk or country like simplicity, aggressive and repetitive, simple but complex lyrics
Eric Clapton
guitarist for Yardbirds, Bluesbreakers, Cream,
Cream
power trio of Eric Clapton (guitar), Jack Bruce (bass and harmonica), Ginger Baker (drums); Fresh Cream combined blues covers with original quirky blues-inflected songs, idol was Robert Johnson
Jimmy Page
guitarist for Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, helped define power chord with amazing lush, loud, commanding guitar
Robert Plant
vocalist of Led Zeppelin, blurs male and female qualities
Led Zeppelin
Jimmy Page (guitar), John Bonham (drums), John Paul Jones (bass), Robert Plant (vocals), name of WWII blimp that crashed and burned, helped to define idea of power chord, psychedelic rock, acoustic traditional folky guitar picking music
