MUS 203 Test 2 Connell

Ragtime

Combined complex forms African American rhythms, mostly piano, roots in minstrel songs, Salon music

Ragged Time

improvised variations of rag and syncopations to written melody

what African Americans did to American popular music

Scott Joplin

Greatest rag time, "Maple Leaf Rag"

Ragtime form

3 to 4 different themes,

AABBACCDD

Ragtime as Popular Music

Captured speed and youth of American life (industrialization -> speed)

Reactions to Ragtime

American Federation did not allow, thought it was evil, threat to public morality

Irving Berlin

Owned publishing house on Tin Pan Alley; wrote "God Bless America"

Stride Piano

Left hand strides up and down piano, link between ragtime and modern style

Harlem Renaissance

African American culture (high level of intellectual thought), 1920s

Rent Parties

Gain money for rent, always hires stride pianist

James Johnson

father of stride piano

Fats Waller

Stride Pianist, actor, singer, writer

Social Dancing

Fast paced and energetic, 1920s

Vernon and Irene Castle

Defined popular music, dance team of 1912, simplified dances to teach

James Reese Europe

Founded Clef Club, started Hellfighters band, hired by Vernon and Irene Castle

Clef Club

1910, African American meeting place/black musician union

Hellfighters

Military band, improvise and read music, WWI

The Charleston

Popular black dance, swinging legs, flying feet

Lindy Hop

Couples version of Charleston, adds acrobatic moves, 1930s

"Standards" during Golden Age

Use music to create new world, so popular everyone knew them

Verse Refrain Form

Verse is into, rubato and the refrain (AABA), usually slow

New Technology

Microphones (crooners), recording, 3 minute per slide

Crooning

soft, intimate vocals made possible with microphone, exemplified by Bing Crosby and Sinatra

Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra

Lady is a trump

Delta Blues

Earliest form of blues, field laborers, "Devils Music," male singers, solo, Mississippi Delta

Flexible Form

Made by solo singer, variations of verse and melody

Diddley Bow

homemade instrument, one string slide, wire on post or board, pluck w/ finer

Bottleneck Slide

Cut off end of bottle, slide on guitar string

Robert Johnson

figure of Delta Blues, claimed to have sold his soul to devil in exchange to be the greatest guitarist

WC Handy

Father of blues and industry, first noted it, teacher and composer

Race Records

Music industry category: ethnic, black, arab, Jewish, blues and gospel focus on black audience

Popular

Music Industry category: Tin Pan Alley, white urban, middle class

Hillbilly

Music Industry category: Rural southern, Country, white working class

Female Singers

Ma Rainy, Bessie Smith, Mamie, Ethel Waters,

Classic Blue Themes

themes of love, sex, sexual subjects, double entendre (hidden meaning)

Ensemble Accompaniment

Trumpets, organ, piano

12 Bar Form

Blues standard, Chorus was 12 measures; call and response

Bessie Smith

Queen of Blues, crossover appeal, saved columbia records

Rhythm and Blues

African American migration mostly electric guitars, pronounced beat

Jump Blues

developed in 30s and 40s, combines blues, jazz, and boogie boogie

Louis Jordan

Louis Jordan

singer, composer, saxophonist, crossover artist, jump blues

Boogie Woogie

Evolution of Stride Piano, "Honky Tonk Train Blues"

Electric/Urban Blues

Respond after WWII, emphasis on rhythm and dance, urban life, electronic, guitar, bars, organ, drum instruments

BB King

Icon of American music, named his guitar Lucille, electric/urban blues

Muddy Waters

Started Country blues, Mississippi Delta, discovered by Alan Lomax, urban audience, link between delta blues and modern urban blues rough growling vocals, bottleneck slide (masculinity)

Big Mama Thornton

Imposing physique and personality, Alabama-drums, worked w/ Johnny Otis, harmonic, first national hit "Hand Boy"

Ray Charles

Blind song writer, "Hallelujah I love her"

Doubleness

Division of identity in 2 situations, how you talk and act, blacks developed ways to talk to whites, "yes ma'am, yes sir"

Civil War

Escaped slaves took refugee, refused return, then called "contraband of war"

William Allen

Journalist, lobbied increase assistance to allies but oppose intervention

Fisk Jubilee Singers

Introduced spirituals to northern states, chorus with a university, first black university

Arranged Concert Spiritual

Singers who did spiritual in concerts

Holiness Church

Protestant churches believed the members have received holiness, favored emotional religious experiences

Thomas Dorsey

African American Composer, "Precious Land" "Take my hand"

Mahalia Jackson

best known gospel singer of 20th century, civil rights leader

Sister Rosetta Thorpe

gospel singer of 20th century, performed jazz and pop contexts then gospel, virtuoso guitarist,

Gospel Quartets

male singers, cappella or instruments, emerged out of holiness church, rhythmic interlocking parts, mix of gospel and jazz, blues influence

Blind Boys of Alabama

Key in Civil Rights movement

Take 6

High gospel influence, all male, vocal sextet, collaborated with Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, Dan Healey, and Dave Charles

Modern Gospel

Traditional orientation maintaining ambience

Contemporary Orientation

Focus on multicultural lenses, religion and entertainment

Traditional Orientation

Traditional orientation maintaining ambience

Precursors

Opera, Operetta, minstrelsy

Jenny Lind

"Swedish Nightingale" famous for opera, highly marketed

Musical Comedy

Earliest musical theatre, light hearted fast moving comedic story, contemporary setting

George Cohan

American songwriter, "Over There" "Yankee Doodle" "You're a Grand Old Flag" "Little Johny Jones"

Musical Play

Representational, exotic settings, serious subject matter, romantic leads, book driven

Jerome Kern

"Show Boat", American Composer, brought popular music to musicals

Rogers and Hammerstein

"Oklahoma" Songwriting duo, created music for South Pacific, Sound of Music, many prizes

Bernstein and Sondheim

"West Side Story"

Concept Musical

Ideas subject to audience, interpretation, varied setting, subject matter, idea over plot, director driven

Stephen Sondheim/Hal Prince

"Company" Developed idea of concept musical

Mega Musical

Successful up until 1950s "Sound of Music" huge budgets were downfall, exotic setting, varied subject, spectacle, romantic leads, design driven

Andrew Lloyd Weber

Mega Musical, Cats (movie) and Phantom of the Opera

Social Changes after WWII

Changes everything in American Society: Suburbia, Television, Top 40 radio, 45 rpm single

Suburbia

Baby boom teens (spend money on music and growth of suburban areas, used as something to rebel against

Television

Most popular entertainment, frees up radio space

Top 40 radio

Radios can hold in hand, play same top 40 songs all day

45 rpm Single

Made vinyl, light and durable

R&B Radio

Played black music, but DJ usually white, black slang, transmitted over geographic region

Alan Freed

Famous DJ, hosted "Rock and Roll Party"

Independent record companies

Before 1948 only 4 companies, Chess (Leonard Chess) 'blue label', Sun (Sam Phillips) 'find white man to sing like black man (elvis)'

Rockabilly

Combination of country and rock, Sun recorded both R&B and blues

Chuck Berry

Wrote about teen values, 1st "guitar hero", Records and Chess Records, wrote about girls, guitars and high school

Elvis Presley

Rock goes mainstream, 1955 contract sold to RCA

Col. Tom Parker

Elvis' manager, in many films

Industry backlash

Decline of Tim Pan Alley; Licensing organizations collected royalties, government investigation of payola (DJs payed to play certain songs), white covers of black artists

White Covers of black artists

Pat Boone (White singer) covered Little Richard (Black singer)

American society in 1960s

Vietnam, civil rights movements, counterculture

Counterculture

Way of life and set of attitudes opposed to or at variance with the prevailing social norm

British Invasion

Rolling Stones, Animeals, Searchers, Beatles (Fab Four)

Beatles

Idolized black singers, based music on American music, Paul McCarney, John Lennon George Hanson

A Hard Days Night

Movie featuring Beatles

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Variety of styles and studio techniques

San Francisco Scene

Psychedelic rock; alternative rock bands, associated with drug culture

Janis Joplin

Famous white blues singer from Texas, brought energy, hero is Big Mama Thornton

Jimi Hendrix

Rock guitarist, defies racial stereotypes early career, solo success in UK

Rock Fesitvals

Cultural events (Monterey, Woodstock)

Immigration and quotas

Immigration quotas on Arabs, 2.5 million people come over begins in 20th century, Ireland and Turkey aren't part of Arab world

Arab Music in US

2.5 million Arabs living in US, mainly in Detroit, auto industry, immigrants did not fit in