Rock Music Exam 1

Musical Form def.

Describes the structure and organization of a song

Why is it. important to understand musical form?

Help us hear new things in the music and observe similarities between songs that are a different style

Beat def.

Regular, underlying pulse in music

Beats are grouped into units called ___

measures (also referred to as bars)

Meter def.

Recurring pattern of strong and weak beats found in piece of music

4 Dif. Types of beat patterns

Duple meter, triple meter, simple meter, compound meter

Duple meter def.

refers to music whose beat pattern (meter) is divisible by 2

Triple meter def.

refers to music whose beat pattern (meter) is divisible by 3

SImple meter def.

Refers to music whose individual beats are divisible by 2

Compound meter def.

Refers to music whose individual beats are divisible by 3

SImple Verse Form def.

Consists of a series of verses, all of which use the same underlying music (similar to a church hymn)

First rock and roll song

Rocket ‘88 by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (1951)

What was used to write Rocket ‘88?

Simple verse form which each verse built on a chord progression called 12-bar blues

12-Bar Blues def.

A common chord configuration with four-beat measures that fall into three groups of four; this pattern can repeat throughout the entire song

Doo-Wop Progression def.

A series of four chords that often repeats through most of the song

Doo-Wop music associated with

Mostly 1950’s doo-wop music, also many pop styles.

Bridge def.

Provide contrast to the more important parts of a song, such as the verse and chorus

AABA Form

32-bar scheme with four 8-bar phrases

Full Reprise def. (AABA)

When entire AABA pattern is repeated

Partial Reprise def. (AABA)

When part of the AABA pattern is repeated ( most often BA or ABA)

What does the Rhythm Section do for artists?

Lays a solid foundation for group members who focus on the melody

Drummer establishes ____ of a song

tempo, meter, and “feel” of the song

Rhythm guitarist def.

Provides the foundational harmony by playing full chords on either an electric or acoustic

instrument

What is a rock song?

Rock repertoire is not simply a collection of songs, but a collection of specific

recordings of songs

2 ways to approach a recording and meaning

1. Consider it as an “audio snapshot” : reproduction of live performance

2. Exploits possibilities of a recording studio: produces sound impossible to do at live performance

Reverb def.

Artificially created ambiance, or room sound

Echo def.

Occurs when a sound bounces back to the listener to create two sonic impressions of the same even

Equalization (EQ) def.

The process of adjusting the frequencies of sounds

Mixing board def.

Allows recording engineers to control the dimensions of recorded sound and can be used to record sounds or to play them back

1920’s, 30’s, and 40’s shaped by these 3 crucial events:

1. end of WW1 1918

2. Stock Market Crash 1929 led to Great Depression 1929-1939

3. WW2 1939-1945

1920’s was called what

“The Jazz Age” because of relief and freedom

1930’s

Stock Market crash ended feeling of freedom. 11 million Americans unemployed.

Radio Technology developed in….

Late 1800’s

Where and what was Tin Pan Alley

New York City, where business of sheet music for mainstream pop music happened.

What did Tin Pan Alley advertise?

Aimed at selling a song itself, not specific recording of a song

Most Tin Pan Alley Songs followed what pattern

a sectional verse-chorus format with an introductory verse and a chorus in AABA form

Big Band Era years and what happened

1935-1945: played Tin Pan Alley songs that emphasized instrumentalists for dancing

How is Tin Pan Alley songs opposite from Rock songs?

Singers were used to provide variety, and not be the focus

How did Frank Sinatra start?

Performed with big bands

When did Frank Sinatra go solo?

1942

How did Frank Sinatra pave the way for rock music?

Made the singer the focus, not the band

Who was Les Paul

A leading guitarist during the Big Band Era who was a master of many styles

What did Les Paul invent?

One of the first solid body electric guitars, collaborating with the Gibson Guitar company in 1951

Overdubbing def.

Invented by Les Paul, meaning sound-on-sound recordings.

Who invented the technique of recording sound at half speed for playback at full speed, creating a higher pitch

Les Paul

Country music before 1945

Mainly regional style music found in southeast and Appalachia

Who was Ralph Peer?

Looked for “hillbilly music” and credited with capturing some of the earliest recordings of this music.

Western music def.

portrayals by Hollywood of cowboys and life on the open prairie

2 Early singing cowboys of 1940’s

Gene Autry and Roy Rogers

Western swing def.

Was a style that put a cowboy twist on big band music and incorporated fiddles, steel guitar, and sometimes mariachi music

Who was Jimmie Rogers

An important figure in early country music in the late 1920s and 1930s

2 Nicknames of Jimmie Rogers

1. The Blue Yodeler

2. The Singing Brakeman

What was the “image” of Jimmie Rogers

Often portrayed a wandering hobo image based on rustic stereotype

2 Factors that helped country and western radio grow

1. Grand Ole Opry: became clear-channel station in 1932

2. National Bardenence: out of Chicago in 1933

What was the dominant vehicle for country that attracted people the Nashville?

Grand Ole Opry

Acuff-Rose 1942

Rather than relying on sheet music, focused on having songs preformed and recorded by country artists

Hank Williams singing style

An emotional singing style that projected sincerity

When did Bluegrass music develop?

post WW2 era

Who set the mold for bluegrass music?

Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys

What does bluegrass music showcase?

Virtuosic instrumental soloing

Why is Earl Scruggs important in bluegrass music?

Credited with advancing banjo technique by developing a style of playing known as the “three-finger roll”

What is rhythm and blues music

Following WW2, music performed by Black musicians and intended for Black audiences

Blues Music early artist W.C. Handy

Helped bring R&B music mainstream and sold a song nationally

Blues Artists Bessie Smith million dollar hit

1923: Down Hearted blues

Why was Bessie Smith important to blues music

Many early blues recordings in the 1920s & ’30s were the result of record companies attempting to repeat Bessie Smith’s success

What is the capital for blue music?

Memphis, aswell as Chicago and Detroit

Major record labels that catered to mainstream music around blues music time

Decca, Mercury, RCA-Victor, Columbia, Capital, and MGM

Indépendant labels in Memphis, Chicago, and New York

Memphis: Sun records

Chicago: Chess records

New York: Atlantic records

How did Chicagos electric blues scene develop

From Chess Records (1947), by Phil and Leonard Chess

Ike Turner

Served as a talent scout for chess records, searched in churches and bars.

What did Atlantic Records in NY attempt to do

Attempted to bring rhythm and blues to a broader audience with a more mainstreamed sound

3 artists from Atlantic records

Ruth Brown, Big Joe Turner, Ray Charles

What was the stagger lee myth

A racial stereotype that held that young black men were often defiant, sexually driven, and that white women were their greatest conquest

Where did Stagger lee myth get its name

A folksong about the murder of Billy Lyons by Stag lee Shelton in St. Louis on Christmas 1895.

Hokum Blues def.

Popular songs containing sexual double entendres in their lyrics

What technology changed in the 1950’s that helped with music

People spent more time in their cars, which had AM radio.

When was the rise of youth culture in music

1950s

What did post-war period mean for teenagers

First period to have a pop culture devoted exclusively to teenagers

Why did teenagers like listening to R&B?

It was an act of social rebellion

“First year” and wave of rock and roll

1955 to 1960

Who was Alan Freed?

A DJ who help R&B break into mainstream

Cover def.

A new version of a song

Crossover def.

When a record or song holds a position on more than one of the three types of charts

3 dif charts that tracked listening populations

1. R and B

2. Country and western

3. mainstream pop

Who was Antoine Fats Domino

One of the first early rockers to have consistent crossover success

Where was Fats based

New Orleans, recorded for Imperial records

What was Fats style of music

Easy going style, played on piano

Chuck Berry

based in St Louis, for chess records. song “maybellene” crossed from R&B to pop charts in 1955

Who was Chuck Berry inspired by

Love of country music

Berrys intention with his songs

To appeal to the average teenager

Berrys song mostly written in what form

Simple verse, simple verse-chorus, based on 12 bar blues.

First person to be inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Chuck Berry, 1986

Who was Little Richard

One of the most flamboyant performers in early rock years, recorded for Hollywood-based specialty label

Why did Little Richard struggle

His style made it difficult to transfer to mainstream pop

What did Little Richard do in 1957?

Left performing and entered the ministry of seventh-day adventist church

What was little Richards hit that was on both pop and R&B charts?

Tutti Fruitti

What does “whitening” of R&B mean?

The practice of changing the lyrics and music of rhythm and blues songs to appeal to white listeners

Important artist for whitening R&B

Bill Haley

Who covered old R&B music to whiten it?

Pat Boone

Main thing Elvis Presley did FIRST

First rock and roll artist to to draw intense interest from major record labels and have hits on all three charts