Music Genres and Forms: From Ballads to R&B and Tin Pan Alley

Ballad

strophic form, choruses, and the connection to the ever popular opera

Call and Response

lead signer (or instrumentalist) and a group of singers (or players) alternate phrases

Polyrhythmic

textures produced by many rhythms going on at the same time

Timbre

the quality of sound; 'tone color'

Melody

the main idea; usually the most prominent

Waltz

a 1820s dance in triple time with a strong emphasis on every third beat; 'Indecorous exhibition'

Ragtime

(1880s) 'to rag'- African American term meaning to enliven a piece of music by shifting the melody accents to off beats

Tin Pan Alley

stretch of 28th Street in lower Manhattan where composers and 'song pluggers' produced and promoted popular songs

Vaudeville

popular theatrical form descending from music hall shows and minstrelsy

Scat singing

employing/using nonsense syllables

Verse

story telling; a group of lines of poetic text often rhyming that usually exhibit regularly recurring metrical patterns; sets up tone

Chorus

a repeating section within a song consisting of a fixed melody and lyric that is repeated in-between verses

Bridge

presents new material- a new melody, chord changes and lyrics

"A Standard"

a song that remains popular and influential long after its original release date; memorable; iconic status

"Race Music"

a marketing term developed by the record labels of the 1920s to designate records by African American artists aimed at the African American market; was replaced by rhythm and blues (R&B)

Classic blues

written by professional songwriters eager to cash in on the national fascination with 'authentic negro music'

Rural (country) blues

rural musicians played in a style closer to the roots of the tradition not recorded until the mid 1920s

12-bar blues

arrangement of four-bar bars, grouped into fours; each group of four bars corresponds to a unit line or phase in the lyrics and associated with characteristic chord changes

Hillbilly music

developed out of folk songs, ballads, and dance music from immigrants from the British isles

Crooner

a person who sang in a style that reinforced links between popular music and personal experience (the electric microphone)

Rhythm and blues

described music performed almost exclusively by black artists; a loose cluster of styles rooted in southern folk traditions and shaped by the experience of returning military and black Americans who migrated to urban areas

Cover

recording of a song that has previously been recorded by another artist or group

Distortion

a buzzing, crunchy, or 'fuzzy' tone color originally achieved by overdriving the vacuum tubes of a guitar amplifier

Stephen foster

Composer of popular minstrel show tunes such as Oh, Susanna, and My Old Kentucky Home. Sold his songs for one time payments, died broke. his situation led to stronger copyright laws

Tin Pan Alley songs

- simular tempo

- no serious meanings (romance)

- very danceable and musical theater-like

- AABA song form

-Irving Berlin; Walter Donaldson; Cole Porter; George Gershwin

general topic areas and mood behind the blues

- expressed struggles, hopes and emotions of everyday life

- loneliness, poverty, racial injustice, love and heartbreak, resillience

- The devils music

Controversial blues

- seen as sinful or immoral partly because it was associated with juke joints, drinking and dancing

- openly talked about sex, independence and suffering in controversial ways

Examples of controversial blues

- Charley Patton: song about hardships and injustice on southern plantations

- Blind Boy Fuller used humor and sharp lyrics to talk about relationships and social strugle

- Muddy waters electrified blues bringing its raw emotion to rural audiences

- B.B. King used expressive guitar playing to communicate heartbreak and human vulnerability

Radio and hillbilly music

-radios were more easily affordable than phonograms

- more people had access to them