Popular Song - p116 (OCR)

Question 1

what transformed the idea of popular song?

Answer 1

invention of recording

Question 2

in the 20th century, what did they use instead of recordings?

Answer 2

made their way around the world through printed music

Question 3

why were there so many songs produced? (good and bad)

Answer 3

US publishers vied with each other to sell the newest songs, competition caused this, the successful ones were then recorded and broadcast

Question 4

what was the centre of the publishing industry?

Answer 4

Tin Pan Alley (West 28th Street New York)

Question 5

Where did Tin Pan Alley get it’s name?

Answer 5

cacophony of music coming from the windows of the various publishers as they tried out, bought and sold songs. There was a huge market for easy to play songs, due to many homes owning a piano and singing and playing songs for entertainment

Question 6

what sort of power did publishers have?

Answer 6

once your song was accepted, publishers could be ruthless in their demands.
a publisher might insist on changes (extra verses, new lyrics or structure) in line with their view of the business of selling the music

Question 7

who are ‘pluggers’?

Answer 7

salesmen whose job was to get the song performed in as many places as possible

Question 8

how many copies of sheet music were sold in 1917 in the US?

Answer 8

2 billion copies

Question 9

what is ‘head voice’ and ‘chest voice’?

Answer 9

chest voice - low and middle ranges, powerful, controlled, diction is clearest, and tone and expression can be varied

head voice - high end of the voice, bright, exciting, difficult to control in tone and accuracy and expressive

Question 10

what is ‘the passaggio’

Answer 10

part of the voice between the chest voice and the head voice, it is sometimes called ‘the break’, singers aim to move smoothly between registers, achieving consistency of tone in the passagio

Question 11

what is sometimes known as a ‘belt’?

Answer 11

a full chest voice used loudly at a pitch above the natural passaggio

Question 12

what is it called when your voice goes higher than the head voice?

Answer 12

falsetto register (male), flageolet/ flute register (female)

Question 13

how would instruments be grouped in a big band in the 1930s?

Answer 13

• woodwind/reeds -> clarinet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone
• brass -> trumpet, trombones
• rhythm section -> piano, guitar, drum kit, (double) bass
• Some arrangers use standard orchestral instruments like strings and French horn
• String-based orchestration is common in arrangements for film and musical theatre
• orchestral instruments such as flute, oboe, harp, French horns and tuba can also be found

Question 14

how did some agents or publishers sneakily make money?

Answer 14

• income from radio and recordings generated enormous sums for the writers of successful songs, it became important to be included on the credits for a popular song, but some agents/publishers took advantage of their position to take a share of the credit for songs to which they had minor contribution

Question 15

what was the impact of the gramophone (record player)?

Answer 15

transformed popular song, with recording and the radio, their singing could become famous to listeners who had never been to their live performances

Question 16

where there lots of radio stations?

Answer 16

1920s, radio stations multiplied, in America anyone could set up a radio company in their own city (unlike UK with the BBC as their national broadcasting organisation) , soon there were dozens of stations, competing for advertising revenue by attracting listeners with the best shows, companies would become involved in sponsoring radio shows (later television) as a form of advertising

Question 17

why did technology advance quickly?

Answer 17

technology was rudimentary to start with, the competition between radio stations helped to spur improvements in the technology of recording sound, recording companies benefited from the advances made in radio

Question 18

before the 1950s how long was the limit for recording?

Answer 18

limited to 3 minutes of playing time, the disc format involved a playback speed of 78rpm (revolutions per minute), so the disc ran out of space quickly

Question 19

in the 1950s how long could you record for?

Answer 19

speed reduced to 33rpm, allowing up to 30 minutes of playing on one side of a 12 inch disc, known as LP (the long playing record)

Question 20

in the 1950s what was the new disc made out of?

Answer 20

the new dics was manufactured in vinyl, achieving a much higher sound quality than the brittle shellac that had been used for the 78s

Question 21

why was the LP significant?

Answer 21

allowed for longer songs, so allowed record companies to sell more songs on one disc

Question 22

how was the 78rpm disc laid out?

Answer 22

contained 2 songs, Side A song and Side B songs, companies still released records in this format (although from the 1950s these were on smaller 45rpm vinyl discs)

Question 23

what gave rise to the ‘single’?

Answer 23

because of Side A and Side B format, the single became the cheapest standard format for the most popular songs and could easily be stacked in jukeboxes

Question 24

how were singles laid out?

Answer 24

hit song on Side A, with a ‘bonus’ song on Side B

Question 25

what was the most common structural pattern?

Answer 25

32 bar song form, AABA: 2 A section, 8 bars each, a B section of a bars based on new material and harmony (sometimes known as the bridge) followed by a final A section, this structure is memorable and satisfying

Question 26

what are other structural patterns?

Answer 26

some 32 bars long, eg ABAS, ABCD, others using different lengths and different proportions