Music exam 1

Music Genres & Styles:

1. Minstrel Show – A form of 19th-century American entertainment featuring skits, music, and dance, often performed in blackface, which reinforced racial stereotypes.

2. Phonograph/Records – Early sound recording and playback technology that revolutionized music consumption.

3. Ragtime – A syncopated, piano-based musical style popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, exemplified by Scott Joplin.

4. Tin Pan Alley – A New York-based music publishing industry (late 19th–early 20th century) that produced popular songs and sheet music.

5. Jazz – A genre originating from African American communities in the early 20th century, characterized by improvisation, swing rhythms, and blues influences.

6. Race Music/Records – A term from the early 20th century referring to music recorded by and marketed to Black audiences, including blues, jazz, and gospel.

7. Hillbilly Music – Early country music from the rural South, often featuring folk influences and simple instrumentation.

8. Blues (Classic & Country) –

   • Classic Blues – Often performed by female singers (e.g., Bessie Smith) with a jazz-influenced backing band.

   • Country Blues – A rawer, acoustic style associated with rural male performers (e.g., Robert Johnson).

9. Swing Music – A jazz subgenre from the 1930s-40s featuring a strong rhythm and big band instrumentation.

10. Big Band Music – Orchestral jazz ensembles with brass, woodwind, and rhythm sections, popular in the swing era.

11. Mambo – A Cuban dance music style blending Afro-Cuban rhythms and jazz influences, popularized in the U.S. in the 1940s-50s.

12. Rhythm & Blues (R&B) – A term for African American popular music evolving from blues and jazz in the 1940s, eventually leading to rock and soul.

13. Country and Western – A broad genre of American music blending folk, blues, and cowboy traditions, evolving into modern country music.

Methods of Transmission:

1. Phonograph/Records – Allowed music to be recorded, mass-produced, and distributed widely.

2. Radio – Became a major way to transmit music, especially in the 1920s-50s.

3. Live Performances – The primary method before recording technology, including vaudeville and revues.

4. Sheet Music – Before recordings, songs were distributed in written form for home performance.

5. Television & Film – Helped popularize new styles of music (e.g., rock & roll on TV in the 1950s).

Musical Forms & Techniques:

1. Strophic Music – A song structure where the same melody is repeated with different lyrics (e.g., folk songs, hymns).

2. Verse/Chorus Form – A common song structure where verses tell a story and the chorus is repeated (e.g., pop songs).

3. Crooning – A soft, intimate singing style popularized by male singers like Bing Crosby, made possible by microphones.

4. Revue – A theatrical show with musical numbers, sketches, and dance, but without a continuous plot.

5. Book Musical – A musical with a strong narrative structure, where songs are integrated into the storyline (e.g., Oklahoma!).

Music Industry Terms:

1. Payola – The illegal practice of record companies paying DJs to play specific songs on the radio.

2. Cover Version – A new performance of a previously recorded song, sometimes used to market Black artists' songs to white audiences.

3. Plugging – The promotion of songs by publishers to get radio play or performances by artists.

4. Head Charts – Jazz or swing band arrangements played from memory or basic outlines rather than written scores.

5. Scatting – A jazz singing technique using improvised, wordless syllables (e.g., Ella Fitzgerald).