rock and roll exam Flashcards
race records” and “hillbilly records” were changed to
rhythm & blues” (R&B) and “country & western”
who coins the term “Grand Ole Opry”
DJ George D. (“Judge”) Hay from WLS in Chicago, where he hosted popular “National Barn Dance” program
among first Opry stars
DeFord Bailey
among the first country music “stars” associated with the Grand Ole Opry
Roy Acuff
1940s – labour issues in music industry open door for
“race” and “hillbilly” musicians
what formed as a way for radio stations to get around paying ASCAP royalties on published music
BMI formed (Broadcast Music Inc.)
AFM Strike - American Federation of Musicians strike for royalties on recordings and…
opens door for non-union musicians (“hillbilly” and “race” aka C&W/R&B)
TV and film help make him an enormous star “The Singing Cowboy”
early on, performed many styles, including risqué tunes about gambling, drinking, sex
inspired by success of Jimmie Rodgers, he takes up “hillbilly” style, learns to yodel
Fosters wholesome image, which enhances his TV, Film, and Radio prospects
– e.g., The Cowboy Code (noble, honest, brave, fair, kind, etc)
Gene Autry
” “ spring up during Prohibition mostly run-down, “hole-in-the-wall” kind of bars in small towns and along rural highways…place to spend your Friday paycheque, cry into beer; both lamenting and celebrating wild side of life
Honky Tonk
1st female country music star
Kitty Wells
answer song to Hank Thompson’s “The Wild Side of Life,” which accuses women of seducing good men into bad behavior
“It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels”
1st song by a woman to hit #1 on Billboard Country & Western chart…same melody as great speckled bird
“It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels”
“father of country music”
Hank Williams
succeeded Duke Ellington at the Cotton Club, stylish image; popularized zoot suit. published Hepster’s Dictionary language of marginalized culture
Cab Calloway
dark topic; about a prostitute addicted to hard drugs
– scat vocal in call-and-response
– sold 1 million copies
Cab Calloway, “Minnie the Moocher”
one of first female musicians to tour with big bands; one of first black
musicians to tour with white bands
Billie Holiday
composed by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish high school teacher, who wrote the song after seeing photos of a lynching
Strange Fruit
professional musicians want share of recording industry and radio profits and instead start “ “ Strike
“hillbilly” and “race” musicians aren’t musically literate (so cannot be members of ASCAP or the AFM)
consequently, they aren’t on strike, and get more time on radio
AFM Strike
Labour issued in the music industry also contribute to the rise of the “ “ in big band music
singer
This riot started when “bobby soxers” (adolescent girls) rioted because they couldn’t get in to see Frank Sinatra
Columbus Day Riot
define rubato
expression fluctuations of tempo
define vibrato
expressive fluctuations in pitch
- massive success for black performer, including 14 Top Ten hits on pop charts
- marketed as “Sepia Sinatra”
- first African American to host a weekly radio program
- first African American performer to have a network TV show
Nat King Cole
” “ typically designates music mass-produced by a popular music industry with the express aim of commercial success
“popular music”
typically designates music used in the everyday life of common people who have no interest in commodifying and selling their music
“folk music”
father and son who have a recording machine installed in the trunk of their car and tour the southern United States
- rather than transcribe folk songs, they record them; valorize the performers, not the songs or songwriters
- seek out most remote communities, farthest away from the “corrupting” influence of mass-produced popular culture
John Lomax and Alan Lomax
discovered by Lomaxes in Angola State Penitentiary in Louisiana. Lomaxes foster myth that they helped him get out of prison
Leadbelly
- wrote songs about abject condition of the common “folk”; often explicity pro-labor, pro-working class
- takes up hobo lifestyle
- becomes model for Bob Dylan, who adopts his sound and style
Woody Guthrie
song based on 19th-century folk song about Jesse James
Jesus Christ - Woodie Guthrie
- African American sacred music
- grows out of 19th-century Spiritual tradition
- gospel incorporates elements of secular popular music into gospel
- blues elements
Gospel
- emphasizes embodied spirituality
- focus on spirit possession as took place on the original Pentecost
- “Storefront churches” in urban centres
- heavy use of call-and-response, heavy use of bodily percussion, grooves, shouting
Pentecostal Church Music (Pentecostalism)
among the first to produce religious music incorporating secular elements from popular music (i.e., Gospel music)
– born in Texas; blind from birth
Arizona Dranes
church that was hugely influential in development of rock ‘n’ roll
Church of God in Christ (COGIC)
the “Father of Black Gospel Music”
Thomas Dorsey
Mahalia Jackson performed PRECIOUS LORD, TAKE MY HAND but song was written by…
Thomas Dorsey
- female pioneer of the electric guitar that was brought up in the COGIC
- heard Arizona Dranes at age 11
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
would become enormous solo star, but started out in gospel quartet called Soul Stirrers
- -famous for falsetto voice: head voice
- -dies young under sordid, mysterious circumstances
- -considered a pioneer of Soul Music
Sam Cooke
another pioneer of Soul Music
– blind pianist and singer from Georgia
Ray Charles
both are subgenres of Rhythm & Blues, new marketing category for music by Black musicians
Jump Blues and Boogie Woogie
most successful Jump Blues artist of the 1940s
Louis Jordan
piano-driven style that emerges out of ragtime and stride piano
Boogie Woogie
played piano on TOBA circuit (Theatre Owners Booking Association;
Pinetop (Clarence) Smith
- city that becomes becomes a hotbed for Boogie Woogie pianists
- a big recording centre
- The big Easy
New Orleans
-starts by tap dancing in street (“my first instrument was the bottom of his feet”)
–develops percussive approach to piano
Professor Longhair
- song incorporates Afro-Carribean rhythms popularized by the rumba and mambo crazes of the 1930s and 1940s
- clave rhythm played on claves (Afro-Cuban percussion instrument)
- slow tempo, laid back feel described by Fess as “The Sway”
- reflects laid back attitude of residents of New Orleans, nicknamed the Big Easy
Mardi Gras in New Orleans”
- most successful Black artist in the 1950s
- major figure in the rock-and-roll explosion of the mid-1950s
Fats Domino
Sun Records was located in…
Memphis
a major destination for southern Blacks during Great Migration, Chess Records was in…
Chicago
- Atlantic Records was was struggling and on the verge of bankruptcy when Wexler signs Ruth Brown to Atlantic
- she has several huge hits that save the label
- Atlantic nicknamed “The House that Ruth Built”
It was located in…
NY
- King Records was founded by Syd Nathan and focused on R&B and Country & Western
- was one of first integrated labels
It was located in…
Cincinnati
among the most successful R&B singers on King Records
Wynonie Harris
routinely put forward as candidate for the “first rock-and-roll song ever recorded”
Good Rockin’ Tonight - Wynonie Harris
massive hit by male vocal group derived from gospel tradition, went to #1 on the R&B charts
The Dominoes, “Sixty Minute Man”
credited with “electrifying” the blues
known as the “Father of the Chicago Blues”
Muddy Waters
Baby Boom, post war prosperity, rise of teenager, rise of tv are all factors contributing in the beginning of…
rock and roll
Term “Rock ‘n’ Roll” popularized by disc jockey “ “
- among the 1st White disc jockeys to play music of Black artist
Alan Freed
White group that redid Big Joe Turner’s “Shake, Rattle, Roll”
Bill Haley and His Comets
1st Black group to break the Top 10 on the pop charts
The Chords
White group that redid The Chords “Sh-Boom”
The Crew Cuts
Wrote “Mystery Train” before Elvis covered it
Junior Parker
goes Sun Records to record a song for his mother’s birthday
elvis presley
said…“I play the guitar as if I’m playing drums. I play drum licks on the guitar.”
Bo Diddley
- great lyricist: “poet laureate of rock ‘n’ roll”
- creative use of language, rhyme schemes, flow
- major figure in bringing the electric guitar to the forefront of rock ‘n’ roll
- great stage presence
- famous “duck walk”
Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry song, lyrics make references to car culture
“Maybellene
jumped on stage and played a lewd song about anal sex, which would become “Tutti Frutti” after the lyrics were cleaned up a bit
Little Richard
was told to “go home and sin a little bit, then come back with a song I can sell.”
– developed “Man in Black”
Johnny Cash
manager Col. Tom Parker promoted who?
Elvis
Major label “ “ buys out Elvis’s contract from Sun Records for $35,000
RCA
Rockabilly artist, also came out of Sun Records, flamboyant piano player, married 13 year old cousin
Jerry Lee Lewis
among few women in early rock ‘n’ roll
wanda jackson
- appeared like the “nerdy” boy-next-door, making rock ‘n’ roll seem all the more threatening
- died in plane crash at age 22
among first of white rock ‘n’ roll stars who wrote his own material (a la Chuck Berry and Little Richard; Elvis did not write his own material)
-helped standardize what would become the classic rock ‘n’ roll ensemble
-with lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, drums (no more horns)
buddy holly
appeared like the “nerdy” boy-next-door, making rock ‘n’ roll seem all the more threatening
– died in plane crash at age 22
buddy holly
died with Buddy Holly in plane crash (Valens was 17 years old)
Richie Valens
the day Holly and Valens died was known as the ….
day that music died
founder of Sun Records, produced recordings by Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash
Sam Phillips
sub-genre of R&B/rock ‘n’ roll that emerges from gospel and barbershop quartet
– much of it is a cappella
doo wop
first all-Black group to have number 1 on pop charts, featured female singer with men
The Platters
- band name capitalizes on the new social and marketing category of “the
teenager” - integrated group from the Bronx, NY, featuring 3 Black singers and 2 Puerto
Rican singers - project safe image
Frankie Lyman and the Teenagers
How old was frankie lyman when writing “why do fools fall in love”
13
members from Italian immigrant families from the Bronx, NYC
like many immigrant groups, faced discrimination, career aided by appearance on American Bandstand
Dion and the Belmonts
African American doo wop group consisting of 5 women
The Chantels
