Rock History Exam 2

What does the textbook call “the epochal musical event of 1960s America”?

Mid-decade arrival of the Beatles in America

What was the name for the mass adulation that the Beatles inspired in their fans?

Beatlemania

What were the most direct, formative influences on the music of the Beatles and other British bands of the 1960s?

1950s American rock and roll

What distinguished the Beatles from other artists of their era?

Each member was of equal importance. All sang, wrote songs, and played at least one instrument.

What led the Beatles to achieve an unmatched level of popularity?

Idea that the Beatles not only represented a musical style, but also a lifestyle

What was the British Invasion?

A flood of recordings by British bands on the American market

What does your textbook call “the first of many developments that may be seen as indicative of an accelerating receptivity in America to overt pop music influences from all over the world”

The British Invasion

Who were the members of the Beatles and what did each play?

• John Lennon and George Harrison (lead and rhythm guitar, vocals)

• Paul McCartney (bass, vocals)

• Ringo Starr (drums, occasional vocals)

Who were the Beatles’ chief songwriters?

Lennon and McCartney

Who was the Beatles’ producer and why was he sometimes called “the fifth Beatle”?

George Martin - increasingly essential role in the recording studio in the 60s

What does you textbook call “the central fact of American pop culture in the 1960s”?

The Beatles and their music

What is dissonance?

A harsh or grating sound (e.g. opening to “A Hard Day’s Night”)

What Beatles song has had the most wide-ranging and enduring popularity?

“Yesterday”

What was new or unusual about the Beatles’ “Yesterday”?

Similarity to the Tin Pan Alley style. Strings, Paul McCartney solos similar to crooning, no drums, acoustic guitar, softness to the recording.

What group does your textbook call the most popular and innovative band in rock and roll history?

Beatles

What kind of an image did the Rolling Stones have in the 1960s and with whom was it meant to contrast?

“Bad Boys” - to contrast the polished image of the Beatles

What is the Rolling Stones’ most famous record and what were its distinguishing characteristics?

“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” - unrelenting beat, buzzing guitar “hook”, self-oriented and sexual lyrics

What was the Beach Boy’s response to Rubber Soul?

Pet Sounds album

Describe Pet Sounds

• Progression from youthful optimism to philosophical and emotional disillusionment.

What is a concept album?

An album conceived as an integrated whole, with interrelated songs arranged in a deliberate sequence

What did Paul McCartney call the single greatest influence on Sgt. Pepper?

Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds album

What is probably the Beach Boys’ most famous song?

“Good Vibrations”

What marked the onset of a decline in Brian Wilson’s productivity and achievement?

Abandonment of the album Smile

What does your textbook call “the most thoroughly innovative single” of the 1960s?

“Good Vibrations”, Beach Boys

What are the unusual aspects of “Good Vibrations”?

Original form, vocal arrangement, instrumentation, chordal vocabulary of the whole song

Whose influence on Brian Wilson can be clearly heard in “Good Vibrations”?

Phil Spector. Used many of the same musicians, and same general philosophy of recording and specific studio techniques

What expectation did the Beatles’ sudden popularity lead to?

Expectation that rock groups should play their own instruments

Why did young people in the early 1960s move from rock ‘n’ roll as they became adults?

Was seen primarily as dance music for teenagers. Felt the music no longer spoke to them by the time they were 21

Why is folk music the “music of the people”?

• Associated with working-class, rural, southerners (white and black) and their social/political struggles

• Artists weren’t expected to be professional musicians

Why did folk musicians favor acoustic guitars?

Portable, readily accessible, presented no elaborate barrier between performers and audience

What part of the song was of “paramount importance in folk music”?

Lyrics

What made folk music appeal to college students in the early 1960s?

Anti-commercial, concerned with social issues, self-consciously artistic, “authentic”, even scholarly

Why was the early 1960s “a period of explosive growth fro acoustic urban folk music”

Baby boomers reaching college age, demonstrating increased cultural and political interest/awareness, and they were an expanding audience for traditional and new folk

What made Bob Dylan stand out from other urban folk artists in the early 1960s?

• Remarkable quality of his original songs

• Style of his performances - homeliness, pop-friendly, beautiful lyrics, and periodically aggressive guitar/vocals/harmonica

Why were Dylan’s early songs introduced to the Top 40 audiences by other performers?

His performance style was idiosyncratic in the context of the urban folk scene

What is probably Dylan’s best-known song and who introduced it to pop fans?

“Blowin In The Wind”, recorded by Peter, Paul, and Mary

Why was Dylan’s move to rock ‘n’ roll seen as a betrayal by many in the folk music community?

His creativity was seen as representing the whole genre. Showed older generation that, despite what rock ‘n’ roll made them believe, youth were capable of making great artistic and political statements in their music. Commercial sell-out

What qualities did Dylan bring into rock ‘n’ roll from folk music?

Politics, poetry, maturity, sincerity, and artistic potential

What four events in 1965 moved Dylan from urban folk artist to being an epochal influence on rock music?

Release of an album (Bringing It All Back Home), 2 hit singles, and a performance

What was the first folk-rock hit, who recorded it, and who wrote it?

“Mr. Tambourine Man” - recorded by The Byrds, written by Bob Dylan

How did Dylan influence rock artists?

• It was alright for rock ‘n’ roll to be seen as “adult” as it's baby boomer audience, and rock ‘n’ roll grew up into “rock”

• Showed it was ok to have a voice that wasn’t considered typically “pleasing”

Who was the first rock musician to sustain his career through albums rather than singles?

Bob Dylan

What does your textbook cite as examples of Dylan’s significance to rock culture? (5 examples)

• Rock and roll could be an art —> expanded it to adults

• Expanded the acceptable subject matter for lyrics

• With folk, brought alternative identity to rock that wasn’t primarily African American

• Rise of folk influence —> music became more inclusive and experimental

• Dylan’s voice opened the door for more than conventionally “good” singing voices

What record put an end to restrictions on length, subject matter and poetic diction in pop records?

“Like a Rolling Stone” —> 6 minutes long