MUSIC--Week 2 Listening and Hip Hop

Listening and Musical Terms

• pitch→ fundamental unit of musical sound. Also called a single “not”

• Timbre→ tone colour. The acoustic properties that give each instrument/voice it’s unique sound

  • how we differentiate between different sounds, instrument and voices

  • distinguishing characteristic between instruments and voices

  • timbre is also what we identify as different voices. Can classify different timbres with descriptive words

• Rhythm→ timing of attacks (notes) in a composition. The measurement of musical events in time

  • sound, can have rhythm straight forward like one clap every beat

• Beat or pulse→ the fundamental unit of time in a composition. Consists of a point of attack (downbeat) and a point of release (upbeat)

  • beat is used here as its musical term (all musics)

  • “beat” in hip hop is also the instrumental track composed for someone else to sing or rap

• Accent→ accent certain rhythms

• Groove→ rhythmic interplay between two or more rhythms, can create another rhythm on top of an existing one.

  • especially important for hip hop

  • different kind of grooves and the interplay between rhythms can be sometimes hard to describe

• Metre→ pattern of recurring cycles of beats/pulses (a) Duple: multiples of 2 (march-feel); (b) Tripe: multiples of 3 (waltz-feel). Metre is the grouping of beats into multiplies of 2s or 3s. Those groups are called bars or measures

• Melody→ singled pitches sounded in succession

  • normally what you sing along

  • notes in time

• Phrase→ melodic/lyrical line that represents a complete thought. Length of a phrase is generally two to four bars in length: about the average time an untrained singer is able to deliver a melody without having to take a breath

  • relatively short

• Bar→ groupings of 2 or 3 is a bar

• Contour→ shape of a motive or phrase: (1) Ascending, (2) Descending, (3)Pendular (low, high, low), (4) Iterative (single note thats repeated

  • how a melody is shaped

• Ornamentation→ decorative devices used to add flourishes to a melody or harmony

  • every syllable there are multiple notes for that syllable

• Singing Styles→ (a) Melismatic: two or more notes sung to one syllable; (b) syllabic: one note/syllable

• Harmony→ result produced when two or more pitches are heard simultaneously

• Chord→ harmony where three or more notes are sounded simultaneously

• Chord Progression or Harmonic Progression→ succession of two or more words

• Texture→ “fabric” of a composition or section of music

  • monophonic→ single or solo, single instrument or voice in a melody line

  • homophonic→ layers of voice, combo of instruments and voice. Ex: empire state of mind

  • polyphonic→ multiple melody lines of similar interest

• Call and Response→ an antecedent and consequent relationship between distinct phrases and/or rhythms

  • highest level of a texture

• Riff→ repeated pattern designed to generate rhythmic momentum

  • repeated and has some sort of rhythmic capability

• Hook→ memorable musical phrase or riff

• Layering→ multipde different parts performed simultaneously. often systematic and additive

• Lick→ short musical phrases, usually recognizable by members of the culture. May not be hooks (a highly memorable phrase that is integral to the piece).

Musical Form

form→ succession of repeated and/or varied musical patterns

formal analysis→ analysis of form, a way of grouping sections of a piece. Form is the basic structure. Most pieces on the radio today have a verse-chorus structure: verses that are different from each and a chorus that is the same at different times- the part that you would sing along to the most. In music analysis, we label sections with upper-case letters: A,B,C etc. For a verse/chorus structure and similar ones, we will write them according to their name for clarity

• few main forms in hip hop

  1. Strophic: A/A

  2. Da Capa: AABA

  3. Verse/Chorus

  4. Verse/Chorus/Bridge

• Strophic form(A/A): Sequence of verses with same melody

  • example of strophic form is a 12-bar blues. Idea is that we have the same (or very similar) verse (a melody or combination of melody and harmony) that is repeated with different lyrics in each verse. Ever sung “You are my sunshine” or “Mary had a Little Lamb”, those are strophic too. The verses repeat the same melody with only a change in lyrics

• Da Capo (AABA): Sequence of verses (A sections) with one contrasting section (B section) called the Bridge

  • in this form, we usually focus on the verse. Or in another words the verse is usually most memorable. Another way of knowing that the form is AABA is that there is a return of the A section at the end. Bridge literally “bridges” the repeated parts

  • AABA very typical in jazz

• Discussion:

  • the recording was sampled by Jay-Z and Kanye in “Otis”, with a significant drop in pitch, and perhaps slightly slower. Repeated sample becomes the backdrop for rapping, and repeated throughout without a bridge or a chorus. We could say this piece is a strophic

• Verse/Chorus: Sequence of verses with repeated contrasting section called a chorus

  • usually focus is the chorus. That is what is more memorable, is likely what you memorize first when learning to sing along

  • “Lets talk about Sex”(1990), most verses have rapping and the choruses have singing with lyrics of the title

• Verse/Chorus/Bridge: insertion of contrasting material (bridge) in a verse/chorus form. The bridge is usually places in the last half of piece

  • AABA used to be popular. Important because the idea of the B section is to provide contrasting material and create interest in comparison to the A section

  • verse-chorus forms can be expanded by adding a bridge, becomes a standard way that songwriters extend the length of songs. Bridge is usually placed toward the end and before a final chorus

Hip Hop is a Culture

• different uses of the ter m “hip hop” that are related to the culture, but also external to it, such as marketing categories for fashion or soft drinks

• “Hip hop is a culture. That culture is a dynamic of practices that became a hybrid from African American, Carribean, and Latino communities, largely in the South Bronx area of New York City”

• poverty, narcotics and gangs were issues for these communities in the 1960s-1970s

• new york, especially area like Bronx had large immigration from the Caribbean (islands) and Latin America

• related artforms of hip hop are also called the “4 pillars” of hip hop: DJing (records traditionally on turntables), MCing (rapping), breaking (dance), and graffiti (visual art)

  • all of these especially in the 1970s were all expression of a particular point of view within the same culture

• Rap→ this definition emphasizes the “commercial product that gave priority to the rapper.” We will take this on faith(for now) but will learn a deeper history later. The author is trying to distinguish rap from hip hop: rap as music, hip hop as culture

4 Pillars, Radio and DJs

• DJs

  • organized and supplies the music for parties. this was a practice brought from jamaica in the 1960s to set up loudspeakers for outdoor(community) parties

  • DJs on radio: first broadcast in 1920. Radio hosts-the DJs”- were already creating entertainment between music. In the 1940s, R&B was an African American dance music, mostly based on blues styles. Instrumentation came from jazz, where big bands of 18-25 players couldn’t survive the economics of World War II and created small bands with a singer to play dance music

  • R&B became Rock ‘n’ Roll in the 1950s, mostly as a marketing tool

    • Rock ‘n’ Roll was coined by a personality DJ named Alan Freed

    • was a DJ on radio, noticed a lot of white teens requesting for black R&B records, used the slang for sex Rock n Roll to distance the music from black origins

  • DJs from the 1950s became important for organizing and packaging music for consumption

• Radio

  1. radio stations can be regional or national, large national stations and regional stations in the Southern USA would reach parts of Mexico and the Carribean

  2. WDIA was formed as the first radio station specifically for African American music in 1947. WDIA received a license in 1954, broadcasting mostly blues and R&B across the USA and into the Caribbean

     • African American personality DJs became popular at WDIA and had a larger impact across the USA

     • early 1950s Black Appeal Radio became a large segment of the radio marketplace, led by black personality DJs like Al Gibson in Chicago and Jack the Rapper

     • Black Personality DJS became prominent in the Southern US cities like New Orleans, also broadcasting R&B through the US and Caribbean

  3. Top 40 Radio: selection of the ‘best’ most sold songs that a DJ puts in constant rotation

     • started by a DJ called Todd Storz in Nebraska in the early 1950s

     • cost efficient method for purchasing a low number of hit songs and was originally an attempt to control the public’s exposure to new recordings on AM radio

     • R&B was playing right next to mainstream and country favourites. Result was a decreased diversity of songs but an increased diversity of styles

     • these conditions led to a significant increase in black music across the USA by 1960s. The DJ was seen as a promoter and salesman: someone who could entertain, support musicians and new songs, organize functions around that industry and create connections with other products

     • records exported from the US to the Caribbean played a large role in exchange between musical styles. Connections between black music, and communities. It is in the spirit that we can see(and hear) interactions in black music that developed through tech(radio and records) in the 1950s and 60s

• MCs/Breaking/Graffiti

  MCs

  • DJs and MCs took on specified roles

  • competitive nature of rapping that DJs would focus on music, and the separation of DJ and MC roles opened room for further development of rap

  Breaking

  • called breakdancing

  • “break” short fragment from a records that is isolated and repeated by the DJ-usually a rhythmic part

  • “breaking” is directly related to that practice and its terminology

  Graffiti(visual art)

  • graffiti is an example of how hip hop culture spread throughout NYC in the 1970s with a “diverse membership” of races, class, age and gender

  • graffiti has become a commonplace, whether subsidized as public art, in media, or unauthorized expression

Listening: R&B and Ska

• transnational exchange of music between USA and Caribbean countries. Important because these musics began a solidary(of sorts) from the African diaspora, leading to the early years of hip hop

• although the songs may sound different in style they are related in an African diaspora of shared musical resources and of an interplay between R&B and Caribbean music during the 1950s and 1960s

“Shake, Rattle and Roll”

• Big Joe Turner, widely known to American audiences and also broadcast and sold in the Caribbean

• saxophone played “honking” solos and the singer was a shouter. The piece has piano riffs, a horn section (saxophones), and a call and response (exchange between the singer and horns), honking sax solo

• form is 12-bar blues that is repeated

“Never Grow Old”

• influence of R&B was widespread through the Caribbean as well and not just in sound

• “Toots and Maytals” this group began as Ska singers in the early 1960s with a distinct style, yet popular features from R&B like horn solos (in this example, trumpet), and a pronounced backbeat. There is also call and response in the vocals: repeated when they sing overlapping parts of “never” and “grow old”

African Diaspora

• proto-hip hop and old school

• commerical rap

• hardcore and the mainstream

• mainstreamed and still a black music

• diaspora→ any group of people who have spread or become dispersed beyond their traditional homeland or point of origin; the dispersion or spread of a group of people in this way; an instance of this. Also: the countries and places inhabited by such a group, regarded collectively

• common use of African diaspora is to reference people who were displaced during the transatlantic slave trade. Displacement is global(not just north american). African diaspora is also regarded in the sense of collective community

• 80% of African displaced to North and South America by the slave trade. The UK and Europe also play an important part in defining connections in the diaspora

• enslaved people lived together from different cultures, many slaves didn’t share the same background

• musically there isn’t a line that can be drawn directly from Africa to the West. An extension how “tradition is dynamic, not static, and can adapt to new situations”

• traditions at least in music, have African retentions: ways of making music that were (are) widespread through Africa, Period of modernism from 1900-1960s, had a rapid increase in cultural exchange and common interest in the diversity of traditions with African retentions