History of American Pop Music Final Study Guide

Flashcards about the History of American Pop Music

Ray Charles

Which talented composer, arranger, songwriter, and pianist had a unique vocal timbre and recorded in a variety of musical genres including Tin Pan Alley music (“Georgia on My Mind”), R&B (“What’d I Say”), and country (“I Can’t Stop Loving You”)?

Nashville Sound

Which popular music “sound” involved a sophisticated approach to the vocal presentation and instrumental arrangement of country music in the 1960s and was exemplified by artists like Patsy Cline and Elvis Presley?

James Brown

An artist who recorded the politically charged 'Say It Loud—I’m Black and I’m Proud,' anticipating important Black music.

Bob Dylan

His songs reflected a gift for poetic imagery, metaphor, and irony.

Simon and Garfunkle

urban folk duo who recorded “The Sound of Silence”.

Jimi Hendrix

Which instrumentalist and vocalist was the most original, inventive, and influential guitarist of the rock era as well as the most prominent African American rock musician of the late 1960s?

The Nashville sound of the early 1960s

which sound of the early 1960s was largely due to the influence of musicians Jim Reeves and Floyd Cramer, who helped to make artists like Patsy Cline a recording success.

Ray Charles

Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music (1962) was a concept album and a milestone in the history of American pop music that was responsible for the success of which artist

Aretha Franklin

Which 1960s singer had a resurgence in popularity and recording output in the mid-1980s.

San Francisco

Became the center for artistic communities and subcultures along with the Gays

The Doors

which band was a controversial rock band of the 1960s that was dominated by the sound of Ray Manzarek’s ornate electric organ and Jim Morrison’s deep baritone voice and poetic, often obscure lyrics

Counterculture

Term used in the 1960s to define a subculture existing in opposition to and espousing values contrary to those of the dominant culture.

Countrypolitan

A fusion of 'country' and 'cosmopolitan' that dominated the recording style of country artists in the 1960s.

King of Soul

Sam Cooke, who began his career as a gospel singer, was later dubbed the ____, and was one of this genre’s most important musical pioneers.

John Denver

Which pop-oriented country performer recorded the song “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” and won the Country Music Association’s award as Entertainer of the Year in 1975 but was despised by many in the traditional audience for country music?

Blue

Which successful rock album released in 1971 by Joni Mitchel consists of a cycle of songs about the complexities of love and is carefully designed to create a strong emotional focus clearly related to the autobiography of the Singer?

The Eagles

Recorded the song “Hotel California”.

Olivia Newton-John

Which English-born Australian recording artist scored a series of Top 10 country-pop crossover hits in the 1970s including “Let Me Be There,” “If You Love Me (Let Me Know),” and “Have You Never Been Mellow”?

Barry White

Which multi-talented African American singer, songwriter, arranger, conductor, and producer formed the Love Unlimited Orchestra, which recorded the instrumental hit “Love’s Theme”?

Bubblegum Pop

Which of the 1970s style of music describes cheerful songs aimed mainly at a preteen audience?

a new generation of teenagers and adults aged 25-40 who had grown up with rock 'n' roll and

were looking for more mature material

During the 1970s, the popular music market fell into what two categories?

Stevie Wonder

A singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer who often played most of the instruments on his recordings.

Miles Davis

Who began his career in the late 1940s playing trumpet with modern jazz pioneers such as Charlie Parker. For much of the 1950s and 60s, he played a critical role in the evolution of jazz, releasing perhaps his most creative album, Bitches Brew, in 1970

incessant bass pulse, and steady, medium-fast tempo, focus on producers and DJs who played them and a handful of singers who sang with anonymous studio

What were some of the defining features of disco music?

Oldies radio

What was the term developed for stations that played music hits of the 1950s and early 1960s, in order to appeal to the nostalgic tendencies of an older Audience?

A synthesizer

What was the term for electronic keyboards, like the popular Yamaha DX-7, and computer-generated technology that created musical sounds for recording artists during the 1970s and 1980s?

The Hammond B-3 organ

What was the name of the musical instrument that created one of the most characteristic sounds of 1970s rock recordings

Queen of Disco

Donna Summer, whose vocal style was characterized by its emphatic and expansive range, with roots in R&B and gospel, was dubbed the

Chicago

What band was a radio-friendly jazz rock band of the early 1970s that achieved the greatest long-term popularity and commercial success, particularly with their hit “25 or 6 to 4”

Willie Nelson

Which influential figure in the progressive country movement developed his career as a professional songwriter in Nashville but later settled in Austin, where he recorded the concept album Red-Headed Stranger?

Bob Marley and the Wailers

Which of the following artists blended musical elements from Caribbean folk music and American rhythm & blues in the songs “I Shot the Sheriff” and “Stir It Up”?

Velvet Underground

Which New York–based rock band formed by singer-guitarist Lou Reed and violist John Cale is frequently cited as an ancestor of 1970s punk music?

Pedro Navaja

Which song written by Rubén Blades and performed by Rubén Blades and Willie Colón tells the story of the violent demise of a street tough who attacks a Prostitute?

Eddie Palmieri

Which of the following artists was an influential figure of early salsa?

Afrika Bambaataa

An early celebrity of hip-hop music.

Michael "Wonder Mike" Wright, Henry "Big Bank Hank" Jackson, and Guy "Master Gee" O'Brien

Featured on the Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight”.

Progressive country

country is a genre inspired by the honky-tonk and rockabilly amalgam of Bakersfield country music; the singer-songwriter genre; and the country rock style of musicians like Gram Parsons

Punk

music was defined by its attitude that rejected the rebellion against authority of rock music and sought to incorporate the more conservative values of the American middle-class

The Ramones

was the first bona-fide punk rock band that was formed in 1974 in New York

Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)

What song is considered Parliament’s biggest crossover song, exemplifying the band’s approach to ensemble style.

Grandmaster Flash

Who was a hip-hop musician who adopted the mixing techniques of disco DJs, particularly

the use of headphones to synchronize the tempos of recordings and create smooth transitions

from one dance groove to the next?

Reggae

Derived from a slang term meaning “raggedy, everyday stuff.”

Garage band

Made up of young men who played mainly for themselves, their friends, and occasional high school dance.

Funk

Impulse to dance centered in urban Black communities.

Back Spinning

Turning the LP disc counterclockwise to produce scratchy sound effects.

Eddie Van Halen

Known for natural and artificial harmonics in heavy metal guitar playing.

The music industry in the 1980s

Sales of pre-recorded cassettes first surpassed those of vinyl discs.

MTV

Debuted in 1981 and changed the way the music industry operated.

Michael Jackson

Debuted the “moonwalk” at a Motown reunion concert in 1983.

Digital Recording

Samples sound waves and breaks them down into a stream of 0s and 1s.

Lionel Richie

Which recording artist penned two Top 40 country hits in the 1980s, including “Lady,” which was recorded by Kenny Rogers?

Compact Disc

One of the results of the rise in technology during 1980s that revolutionized the industry was the invention of the _____ in which the sounds that areencoded are read by a laser beam and are not subject to the same wear and tear as vinyl.

Michael Jackson’s Thriller (1982)

Forced a change in MTV’s all-white rock music format.

Kenny Rogers

was a Texas-born veteran of folk pop groups and one of the main beneficiaries of country pop’s increasing mainstream appeal.

Quincy jones

On his album Thriller, Michael Jackson worked with veteran producer ____ to create an album that achieved boundary-crossing popularity.

Prince

Pop superstar ___ was one of the most prolific artists of the 1980s he

composed, performed, and recorded more than 75 songs each year, and produced an average

of over an album per year.

Digital recording

________ recording, unlike analog recording, led to the invention of the

CD, as it takes sound waves and breaks them down into a stream of numbers

Drum machines

The sounds of __________ machines were used a great deal in 1980s dance music and rap recordings, and they relied on electronic pads that can be struck and activated by the performer

West Coast

Gangsta rap groups like N.W.A. associated with this region.

Vanilla Ice

A white rapper who achieved commercial success in 1990 with the album To the Extreme and is considered hip-hop’s icon of “wackness”.

Upper Midwest

Artists like Juan Atkins and Derrick May developed this type of music in this region.

Public Enemy

Socially engaged rap that chronicled the declining fortunes of the urban black community in songs like “Night of the Living Baseheads” is a contribution of which New York-based rap group?

Hardcore

Which genre refers to an extreme variation of punk pioneered during the 1980s by bands like the Dead Kennedys, the Germs, Black Flag, X, and the Butthole Surfers featuring riff-based songs played at fast tempos?

Poverty, addiction, and violence.

The narratives of gangsta rap often centered on dilemmas faced by urban communities, like:

Alternative

Music that challenges the status quo, not conservative audience.

Nirvana

The band ___________ can be credited with producing two multiplatinum albums that moved alternative rock’s blend of hardcore punk and metal into the commercial mainstream.

Taylor Swift

A teen sensation whose career was launched as a country artist.

Public Enemy

Organized around a core set of members who met as college students and were drawn together by their interest in hip-hop culture and political activism.

Sampling

The process of taking a portion of a sound recording and reusing it as a part of a new recording was known as ________________ and was employed heavily by rap producers to weave sound textures out of pre-recorded material

Thrash

was a harder, faster form of alternative rock that emerged in the 1990s that blended the fast tempos and rebellious attitude of hardcore with the technical virtuosity of heavy metal guitar playing.

Auto-Tune

Correct a singer's pitch and create interesting effects.

MP3

Which digital format allows sound files to be compressed to as little as one-twelfth of their original size

Radiohead

Recorded the song “Bodysnatchers” that begins with a “bone-crunching” electric guitar riff.

Apple iTunes

Became the top music retailer in the United States in 2008.

YouTube

A major outlet for music listening for popular music in the 2020s.

2015

which year did revenue from the streaming of music in the United States surpass all other sources.

Live Nation and Ticketmaster

Which companies merged in February 2009 combining the biggest concert promoter in the world with the leading ticketing and artist-management company?

Lady Gaga

Pop superstar, __________, used YouTube to build her enormous international fan base, producing videos specifically for the YouTube medium

Jay-Z

Hip-hop artist, _______ has sold over 50 million albums and holds the record for the most Grammy Awards won by a hip-hop artist as well as the most Number 1 albums on the Billboard 200 by any solo artist.

Olivia Newton-John

Who is an English-born singer who grew up in Australia who scored a series of Top 10 country pop crossover hits and, in 1974, won the Country Music Association’s award for Female Singer of the Year?

True

True of False?...... Based on record sales in Black communities, there was not much interest in rock music, as the promise of rock music as a zone of interracial interaction largely vanished

False

True of False?.......The 1970s saw little innovation by rock bands to incorporate theatricality, visual displays in performance, or creative album cover art

False

True or False?..........Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” rose to the top of the rock charts

because it was released as the only single from the album

Caribbean, folk, and R&B (FALSE)

What are some primary influecences for reggae music

1. The velvet underground

2. the stotoges

3. new york dolls

What three groups are cited as ancestors of 1970s punk?