Week 1 Themes and Streams of American Popular Music

Question 1

Music Streams

Answer 1

The European American Stream
The African American Stream
The Latin American Stream

Question 2

The African American Stream

Answer 2

Difficult to trace, as cultures were mixed when slaves were brought to Caribbean before being brought to the States

Question 3

The African American Stream: Call and Response

Answer 3

One voice calls, another answers.

Voice doesn’t always refer to human voice, can be instrument.

Question 4

The African American Stream: Repeated short phrases

Answer 4

Repetition of alternating melodies

Question 5

The African American Stream: Polyrhythm

Answer 5

Using more than one metre at a time

Question 6

The African American Stream: Syncopation

Answer 6

Accenting beats where the accent isn’t expected

Question 7

The African American Stream: Timbral complexity

Answer 7

Timbre = quality of sound

Timbral complexity = multiple or layered timbres

Question 8

The African American Stream: Improvisation

Answer 8

Improvisation

Question 9

The African American Stream: Instrumentation

Answer 9

Banjo is an African instrument

Question 10

The African American Stream: Early spirituals (Pre Gospel)

Answer 10

European religious songs performed by African individuals, using their own stylistic traits

Question 11

The Latin Stream

Answer 11

A mix of Spanish, Portuguese, French, and African traditions

Question 12

The Latin Stream 1900s

Answer 12

Cuban contradanza

Question 13

The Latin Stream 1910s

Answer 13

Tango

Question 14

The Latin Stream 1930s

Answer 14

Rumba

Question 15

The Latin Stream 1950s

Answer 15

Mambo

Question 16

The Latin Stream 1960s

Answer 16

Bossa Nova

Question 17

The European American Stream: British Ballads

Answer 17

Story songs, passed on vocally

Question 18

The European American Stream: Broadsides

Answer 18

Story songs, written down with access to printing press, on a wide piece of paper

Question 19

The European American Stream: Pleasure gardens

Answer 19

1750s-1850s in large British city parks, performances were featured for people walking by

Question 20

The European American Stream: English Ballad opera

Answer 20

Mixing of high art music and folk music, high and low art

Question 21

The European American Stream:

Answer 21

Italian opera

Question 22

The European American Stream: Dance music

Answer 22

Can be just instrumental or feature vocals, composed for dancing, strong rhythm

Question 23

The European American Stream: European folk musics

Answer 23

European folk musics

Question 24

The European American Stream: Religious musics

Answer 24

Church music from Europe

Question 25

Themes: American Fascination with African Americans

Answer 25

Fascination begins with minstrelsy. Trace the rest of that history as we’ve covered it so far.

Question 26

Themes: Cultural Translation

Answer 26

Marginal musics (like race and hillbilly) need interpreters or cultural translators when they are first introduced to mainstream culture. 
We have looked at several of these: who are they, what musics did they translate, and in what ways did they “translate” the music, or make it more palatable for the mainstream, in each case