Popular Music Final Exam

Music Vocabulary and Technology

Strophic form

Verses are all set to the same music (same music, different words)

Verse-refrain song form

Usually verse-refrain-refrain

• Tin Pan Alley songs

• Refrain is the main part of the song (usually AABA where B is the bridge)

Ballad

Songs that tell a story in a narrative fashion

Chorus (jazz)

Statements of the melody and/or harmonic pattern

• A complete go-through

Montuno

A repetitive rhythmic piano style

• Commonly used in Afro-Cuban and salsa

• High energy

Call-and-response

One musical phrase (call) is followed by another (response)

• “Musical dialogue”

Riff

A simple, repeating melodic idea or pattern that generates rhythmic movement

Soli scoring

Instruments play melody together, sometimes in harmony

Blue notes

Notes that are lowered in pitch/frequency or bent for emotional effect

Scat singing

Improvising using nonsense syllables

Crooning

A soft, gentle, and emotional singing style

• More intimate than shouting

Yodeling

A vocal technique where singers rapidly switch between low and high-pitched notes

• Abrupt vocal changes

Duple meter

Two beats per measure

Triple meter

Waltz/three beats per measure

• “One two three, one two three”

Syncopation

Emphasizing the space between the strong beats

• Accents are placed on beats that are typically weak, creating a sense of off-beat or unexpected rhythm

Polyrhythm

Two or more different rhythms/meters are played simultaneously

Consonance

Relatively stable harmonies and free of tension (“pretty” harmonies)

Dissonance

Sounds perceived as harsh, clashing, or unpleasant when played together

Polyphonic

Many melodies all at once (collective improvisation)

Tone color/timbre

Quality of sound, differentiation between instruments

Rubato

Slowing down or speeding up the rhythm to enhance the emotional impact and musicality of a piece, without changing the overall duration of the performance

Overdubbing

The process of recording new audio over existing pre-recorded tracks

• Led to multi-track recording

Backbeat

Emphasizes the “off-beats” (the beats that fall between the main downbeats)

Stop-time technique

Where the rhythm section (usually drums, bass, and sometimes piano) temporarily stops playing, creating a space for a soloist to improvise

Power chord

A simple chord consisting of only the root note and the fifth of a scale, often used in rock and metal music

Digital looping

The repetition of a musical phrase or section, creating a continued musical texture

Phonograph/Edison wax cylinder

Cylinders made of wax (very fragile)

Sound waves are physically imprinted by performing into recorder

Machine turns imprinted sound waves back into sound

Piano roll

For player pianos

Holes punched in paper tells piano which notes to play

Gramophone

Invented in 1887 by Emile Berliner

Etched discs, covered with shellac

78 rpm records

Holds one song per side

Usually made of shellac (very heavy and brittle)

45 rpm records

A vinyl record that spins at 45 revolutions per minute on a record player

“7-inch single”

1950s-60s

Holds one song per side (3-4 minutes)

33-1/3 rpm records

Usually made of vinyl

Holds around 20 minutes of music per side (40-45 minutes total)

Electric microphone

Before 1920s, all recording was acoustic

1925: electric recording process developed (more sensitive to sound)

Commercial radio

The music played by radio stations to attract certain audiences

Top 40 radio

FM v AM

• FM: Superior sound quality, greater bandwidth, reduced interference

• AM: Broadcast over longer distances, requires less complex circuitry

Jukeboxes

A coin-operated machine for playing singles (one song)

Television

Developed for consumers in 1939

Live and recorded music

Mid-1950s: used to launch new music

Magnetic tape

Uses a recording head to magnetize the tape in a pattern that corresponds to the audio signal, which can then be played back by another head

Developed in 1930 and widespread after WWII

Audio cassette tapes

A small, plastic container that holds a strip of magnetic tape, which can be played on a cassette deck or player (rewritable)

1979 Sony Walkman, late 1970s: boomboxes

1984: sales surpassed vinyl

Digital audio workstations (DAWs)

Software the allows users to record, sample, and mix on their computers or smartphone

MP3

Audio encoding format (1/12th of the original size)

Streaming

2005: Pandora

2008: Spotify

2015: Tidal

Music videos

Promoted songs and artists

Primary way of introducing songs

Worked together with radio and records

Compact discs (CDs)

Digital

1982: introduced for sale

1990: recordable CDs introduced

2000s heyday

Auto-tune

Software that digitally alters the pitch/frequency and timbre of a voice

Now used for timbre effects

Often built into DAWs

iPod

Purchase and download MP3s and carry them with you

YouTube

Launched in 2005

Launching stars, widely spreading music

2018: 51% of music consumption