P1S1: Mass Culture, 1951-1967

music term: overdrive

quality of sound (e.g., the quality of the guitar / messy, discrepancies)

music term: vocal grain

quality of voice (e.g., strain, projection)

music term: straight-eighths

rhythm change (e.g., more stable; repetitive)

define/explain: ecosystem of music production

artist, song, recording, songwriter, performers, radio stations, music labels, performing rights organizations (PROs), music unions

politics: shift from "pre-rock and roll" to "rock and roll"

shift with the performing rights organizations and the unions

politics: ASCAP and BMI

• songwriters started under ASCAP

• 1940s: a dispute where ASCAP wanted more money for their writers (bigger audiences and radio making more money) -- b/c of the increased revenue

• BMI made their own org.

culture: demographics of BMI

black artists, jazz musicians, not-so-polished performers (younger artists, more rural sounds)

politics: AFM Strike (1942-1944)

• strike against companies

• music from live to recorded

• instrumentalists weren't performing as much anymore

culture: what era of music shined during the AFM Strike?

"doo-op" since they aren't in the music unions anymore (the singers prodcued the music since instrumentalists were goings out of style/on strike)

culture/tech: spoils of war (WWII)

• bands got smaller after the war b/c of how expensive it was to travel, obtain gas, and travel restrictions

• magnetic tape changed recording (was used in Nazi propaganda - found by Jack Mullin)

• birth of AMPEX (for recording): fidelity and editing (like splicing)

• made AM radio more affordable, easier, and flexible

• also new material for vinyl discs (shellac; cheaper)

Genre/music term: Pattin' Juba

• Stono Rebellion (1739)

• hand-clapping

music term: "Bo Diddley Beat"

made in Bo Diddley's band ("I Want Candy"); a polyrhythm

technology/culture: 1951-1958

• new small recording studios, "independents"

• jukebox industry

• venues, "breakfast clubs" (where working-class Black people frequented; they'd stay open till breakfast)

Genre: jump-blues

artists like T-Bone Walker, Louis Jordan, and Wynonie Harris

labels: the independents

specialty records; chess records; holiday records; and sun records

explain: specialty records

• Art Rupe; LA

• sourced artists from Breakfast Clubs

• Little Richard

• participatory discrepancy

• straight-eighths

music term: participatory discrepancy

rhythm- the shuffle (train) beat coming from the uneven sounds of the train wheels on the tracks (e.g., swing, out-of-tune)

label: chess records

• Leonard and Phil Chess; Chicago

• Jackie Brenston and Ike Turner

• production = "amplifier" and "overdrive"

• the singer-songwriter (i.e., Chuck Berry)

label: holiday records

• Dave Miller; Chester, PA

• Bill Haley cover of "Rocket 88" = "rockabilly"

• "slap bass" (notable to the "rockabilly" feel)

culture: what was happening b/w white artists and black songs during this era?

white artists would perform black artistry to sell to the bigger white audiences (mirror covers)

labels: sun records

• Sam Phillips; Memphis, TN

• Arthur Crudup, "that's all right" (1946)

• Elvis Presley, "that's all right" (1954)

music terms: slap bass and slapback echo

• slap bass = rockabilly rhythm (slapping the bass to create an infliction)

• slapback echo = a short, realistic echo created by a series of speakers during live recording

culture: explain the new audiences (1951-1958)

teenagers who were fairly well-off; post-scarcity

politics: teenage audiences

• 1938, Fair Labor Standards Act (legal beginnings of the "teenagers") -- suspended child labor

• 1946, baby boom

• formal education

• surplus of time and money (and little supervision)

people: Alan Freed

• AM Radio

• "Moondog Rock n' Roll Party"

• “The Big Beat” - 1957-1958 (cancelled b/c a black man and white woman danced together)

  • comeback show - rock and roll concerts (Alan was arrested on the charges of rioting and anarchy

politics term: payola

sewed doubt in the rock and roll industry -- assumed it was only famous b/c ppl were paying off certain types of music

regulation: what did the payola investigations (and FCC Report on Chain Broadcasting) lead to

the breaking up of AM Radios (from 800 stations to 2000 stations) AND a shift from national to local broadcasting

culture/genre: what resulted from the shift to national to local broadcasting

rock and roll became more experimental since the risk of a local station is much lower than a national one

culture: how does Elvis become more mainstream in 1956

moves to RCA

label: BMI Artists Turnover

• literally a rapid turnover of BMI artists (e.g., Buddy Holly dies, Chuck Berry arrested, Jerry Lee Lewis marries cousin, Presley joins army and begins acting, and Little Richard quits music for Christianity)

genre: during this era (late 1950s), what became the new "rock and roll band"

artists/performers/songwriters

Labels: Motown vs Stax

Motown = [pop] VERSUS Stax = [soul]

People: Berry Gordy

• motown records

• "what if music is made like cars? like assembly lines?"

• the Funk Brothers (band) -- team of songwriters -- bring in singers to churn out the music

people: notable motown instrumentalists

• james jamerson (bass- bernadette, you can't hurry love)

• benny Benjamin (drums)

• pistol allen (drums- bernadette, you can't hurry love)

people: notable stax instrumentalists

[Booker T and the MGs, "Green Onions"]

• booker t. jones (organ)

• steve cropper (guitar)

• lewie stember (bass)

• al Jackson, jr. (drums)

genre: notable elements to the stax sound

• slower tempos

• spare instrumentation

• delayed backbeat

• 12/8 rhythm

• catharsis - the expression is beyond the body, needs to be let loose