Popular Music Midyear Exam

Charles K. Harris

(TPA; composed first mega hit pop song “After the Ball”; could not write music)

Scott Joplin

(Ragtime; best composer of Ragtime; used syncopation often in his songs)

Stephen Foster

(TPA; wrote over 200 songs; first professional songwriter)

John Philip Sousa

(Brass bands; “March King”; composed “Stars and Stripes Forever”, which is the U.S. official march)

James Reese Europe

(Dance music; pianist for the Castle’s; founded the Clef Club)

Louis Armstrong

(Jazz; one of the most popular musicians in the world; had a six-decade career)

Duke Ellington

(Jazz; one of the most important American musicians of the 20th century; was an experimenter)

Irving Berlin

(TPA; grew up poor; wrote ragtime-influenced pop songs)

George Gershwin

(TPA; composed the standard, “Summertime”; did the most to bridge the gap between European art music and popular music)

W.C. Handy

(Classic blues; one of his songs is “St. Louis Blues”; “Father of the Blues”)

Blind Lemon Jefferson

(Country blues; first popular country blues star; one of his songs is “Black Snake Moan”)

Patsy Montana

(Country; first female country musician to produce a hit song; was a yodeler)

Jimmie Rodgers

(Country; early country music’s biggest recording star; one of his songs is “Waiting for a Train”)

Benny Goodman

(Swing; “The King of Swing”; was a band leader)

Count Basie

(Kansas City Swing; jazz pianist; big band most closely associated with the blues tradition)

Glenn Miller

(Swing; composed “In the Mood”; The Glenn Miller Orchestra was the most popular dance band in the world at a time)

The Boswell Sisters

(Jazz; trio of sisters who sang; used ‘scat’ singing a lot)

Billie Holiday

(Jazz; performed with widely known instrumentalists; one of her songs is “God Bless this Child”)

Ella Fitzgerald

(Jazz; had a long, varied, and successful career as a singer; “Queen of Jazz”)

The Mills Brothers

(Jazz; a singing group of brothers from Ohio; longest-lived and most successful vocal group from the era)

Roy Acuff

(Country; most popular country singer of the Swing era; southern folk music)