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03/31/2020 Music and Popular Culture Ethnomusicology- “Music in Culture”/”Music as Culture” Themes
● Globalization ○ The birth of popular music ○ Genera overlap and extended through the United States
● Politics of Identity intercept (Race, Class, Gender, etc) ● Appropriation ● Technology (Recording, instrumentation, electronic media, etc)
What is Popular Music? (the most broadly define)
● Music that is commercially produced for profit ● The album of that band that only you’ve heard of ● Music that is mainstream and not underground ● Music that is underground ● Pop music
Critical Media Literacy
● One of the key goal of this course ● To better to have the tools to think critically on media
Miley Cyrus - We Can’t Stop
● Originally: kids celebrity actress/ country music star(performer) ● Fashioning persona, examining persona ● Sexuality is really the key aspect of expressing this change
Stefan Anderson - We Can’t Stop (Professor’s old roommate)
● How does instrumentation and vocal change? ● How does gender change how we interpret? Is sexuality presented the same way? ● Changes his vocal to fit his own characters
04/02/2020
Tin Pan Alley ● The name of an industry, a sheet music production industry from the late 1800s to the
early 1900s ● A place, like Hollywood ● The product of the industrial age and embodies the ethos of capitalism as well
Modernization and Industrialization
● Popular culture (and music) originates with mass production ○ Because the mass production, the product become cheaper so that the middle
class could afford them ● Create more space for leisure time ● Get more money to consume stuff
Creation of Tin Pan Alley
● Philosophy - music as industry ● Arrange pre-existing songs ● Write music as well ● All written for sale as sheet music ● Personal expression is not the point, the main purpose is to sale for money ● The song writer’s name was virtually nameless ● A member of Tin Pan Alley wrote: “To those who believed that songs were inspired by
their writers’ real experiences, ‘this is just not so’. ‘The public thinks there is a romance in songwriting, but there isn’t.’ Rather than following some inner muse, songwriters’ creations were simply reactive, derived from and bound to the tastes and moods of consumers.”
Charles Harris “After the Ball” ● He condenses the verse of the song ● Reducing the verses ● Really emphasize, sometimes slows down a little bit and have a pause
Irving Berlin’s 9(8) Rules for Writing a Successful Popular Song What were these songwriters trying to do in order to make popular music for Tin Pan Alley
1. The melody must musically be within the range of the average voice of the average public singer
2. The title, which must be simple and easily remembered, must be “planted” effectively into the song
3. The ideas and the wording must be appropriate for either a male or a female singer … so that both sexes will want to sing it
a. Narrowing down your market, wanted to sale to every gender
4. The song should contain “heart interest” even if it is a comic song 5. The song must be original … success is not achieved by trying to imitate the general
idea of the great song hit of the moment 6. Your lyric must have to do with ideas, emotions, or objects known to everyone 7. Your song must be perfectly simple 8. The songwriter must look upon his work as a business (financially successful)
Song Qualities
● Emphasis on simplicity and universality ● Marketed to middle class, men and women ● Minimized verses ● Emphasis on catchy chorus ● Catchy, memorable song title
Advertising
● Traveling around and play music everywhere ● Plugging: when you play songs in public spaces and make people hear it ● Pluggers play music to potential customers
Jewish and African American Songwriters
● Uneven power and control ● Jewish
○ expansion of opportunity for economic advancement ○ Tin Pan Alley is a way for Jewish to show very largely antisymmetric to American
society ● African American
○ a way for them to assert humanity ○ downside: they wrote songs to reinforce racist stereotypes ○ Tin Pan Alley does not want them to write songs to reflect their inner thoughts
and feelings Irving Berlin, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” (1911)
● Very easy to remember, like a earworm cannot get rid off ● Calling you to participate with it
Advent of Performerless Music ● Player Piano
○ Mechanism piano: more like furniture rather than an instrument ● Phonograph留声机
○ Access to High Art for Middle Class Sound Recordings as a Commodity
● Live versus Mediated Performance ○ Media: record, video, photograph
● New ways in which to experience music Lady Gaga
● Applause ● Media:
○ big LED screens in the back for those people who cannot see here ○ Vocals are dub, pre-recorded
● Live: ○ Live and Media mix together
04/07/2020
The Blues ● Delta Bule: developed in the early 1900s ● Classic Bule (Bessie Smith): become popular in the 1920s ● Urban Blue / electric Blue: in the 40s and the 50s
● The Blues as this kind of antithesis to Tin Pan Alley in a lot of ways, like
anti-main streams ● Blues can express oneself freely ,and sexuality and romantic relationship
Movie: O Brother, Where Art Thou?
● A Blues musician Tommy Jonston ● Sale the soul
Song: Cream Crossroads
● Rock music and blue and Jazz ● AAB format: 12 bar blues
Historical Context
● Emancipation 1865 ○ free of the African American from the Southern states
● Northern Migration ○ Large working class segregation
● Work after Slavery ○ Same agricultural actions during and after the slavery ○ Roads construction, timber ○ A new legal form of slavery
Emergence of the Blues (early 1900s)
● Emerging in places in the South ● Female blues
Fascination with the “Other”
● Academic fascination by the white scholars Delta Blues
● Huddie “Leadbelly” Leadbetter, “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” (1944)
○ Not only trying to control the woman who does not love him but also a dark response of lack of control
○ The difficulties of relationship and the darkness of human nature ● “The principal theme of the country blues, and probably all blues, is the sexual
relationship. Almost all other themes, leaving town, train rides, work trouble, general dissatisfaction sooner or later reverts to the central concern. Most frequently the core of the relationship is seen as inherently unstable, transient, but with infinite scope for pleasure and exultation in success, or pain and torment in failure. This gives the blues its tension and ambiguity, dealing simultaneously with togetherness and loneliness, communion and isolation, physical joy and emotional anguish(Oakley 1972, 55)
● Relationships ● Sexuality ● Work ● Transience
Delta Blue Musical Features
● Solo Performer ● Guitar ● Gendered (Male) ● AAB Lyric Structure ● 12 Bar Chord Structure
Classic Blues
● Bessie Smith, “I Used to Be Your Sweet Mama” (1928) ● Strong female performance in the classic blue
Classic Blues as the Anti-Mainstream
● Deviated from white/mainstream subject matter ● Complicates notions of love/relationships such as domestic abuse, extramarital
relationships ● Female Empowerment ● Expression of Female Sexuality ● Women portrayed as strong and independent
Music Differences
● Classic blue is more gendered as female ● Delta blue is more gendered as male ● More Instrumentation (horns, pianos, etc.)
● Gendered (Female) Urban Blues Historical Context
● Urban Migration ● Venues: Rent Parties and Clubs
Muddy Waters, “Hoochie Coochie Man” (1954) Musical Differences
● Instrumentation changes: use of slide guitar, harmonica, and piano ● Amplification
04/09/2020
Folk (and Protest) - 1930s Story telling Political genre because it represents the people 1930’s and 40’s - Popularization of Folk
● Scholarly interest ● Alan Lomax ● The Seeger Family ● Heritage/Nationalism
Searching for “Authentic” Folk
● Authorless ● Aurally transmitted ● Uncommodifies ● It was “evaluated according to concepts of unchanging musical truth” ● Implied a static concept of folk music ● The music was simple
Greenwich Village, NYC
● Co-opting folk by the middle class ● Woodie Guthrie ● Pete Seeger
Politically Motivated
● Peace ● Socialism ● Protests about class and capitalism ● Workers Union ● Anti-Racism
Woodie Guthrie, “So Long It’s Been Good to Know You” (1935)
● Protest song ● Dust Ball: over farming, depression, no food, no money, looking for work ● Trying to humanize the spirit, showing the result of capitalism, and the suffer of
people ● Instead of sounds angry, he shows the sad atmosphere in his song
Changing Notions of “Authenticity” ● Differences:
○ Sung by middle class artist ○ Writing original music ○ Emphasized politics rather than American heritage
● Similarities ○ Anti-Commercial ○ Music of the People ○ Orally Learned
The 60’s Folk Revival
● The first time of commercial boom ● Popularity in the 50s and 60s ● Putting on the radio and get new attractions
The Kingston Trio, “Tom Dooley” (1958)
● Get inspiration from the folk music on the radio ● Folk musician started to repackaging themself ● Highly professionalized vocal, repackaging the old song to a new one ● More commercial
Revival Beginning - non-political
● Groups were clean cut/middle class ● Often artists came from urban areas ● Political messages removed ● Based off of folk tunes/styles ● (as a result), Commercially successful
Re-incorporation of Protest in Folk Genre (Civil Rights)
● In the mid 60s Bob Dylan, “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” (1965)
● Used of storytelling ● “Holds you tears, now is not the time for your tears” ● Feel the political position and perspective ● What is music different than essay
Negotiating Folk to also be Popular ● “The new urban audiences attracted to folk music may not have been as nuanced in
their tastes as the early collectors or as purist performers would have them be, but their numbers and their enthusiasm took the music world by surprise, catapulting Joan Baez with guitar and bare feet to the cover of Time in November 1962. Bob Dylan was ‘the voice of his generation’. This success was paradoxical; could a folk singer become a star? - Dunaway and Beer
● The new folk musics were more commercially made rather than the old musics that were expressing oneself on political problems
60’s - Changing Notions of “Authentic” Folk
● Political Orientation / Protest ● Sincerity Factor, but not coming from direct experience ● Complex relationship with folk/fame ● Altered/Cleaner sound (less gritty) ● Added instrumentation (drums, bass)
○ Higher quality and professionalization Modern Folk Revival - 2000s, mid 2000s The Decemberists, “The Mariner’s Revenge Song” (2005)
● Not the same political orientation as before that were lie on civil rights
04/14/2020
Country Music (1920’s to 1960’s) ● Country music is coded as a white genre, but in fact it is very a product of the
African American fluence ● Contradiction of country behavior ● Authentic, centiment, real life
The Blues Brother, “Stand By Your Man”
● How they portraying people from the South ● Throwing bottles to show their likes - uncivilized and wild
Tammy Wynette, “Stand By Your Man” (1968) Origins of Country - Old Time or “Hillbilly” Music
● Forces that “whitewash” the tradition ○ Hillbilly category is racialized as white by recording industry“ (Not only
white but also poor, to reflect the backwater culture) ○ America’s fiddle tradition is being Anglicized ○ Appropriation of Banjo by Whites, the Banjo was originally played by the
African American Bluegrass VS. Country & Western
● The subtitle of Hillbilly is Country & Western and Bluegrass ● Bluegrass: trying to make this genre different from Hillbilly making people to
respect Bluegrass more than the Hillbilly music The Beverly Hillbillies Opening and Closing Theme 1962 - 1971 Historical Backdrop
● Shifting population and settlement due to the dust ball ● Depression and agriculture issue from the dust ball causing the migration ● People moving towards a more industrial area ● A lot of rural people come to the city, people from the city starting seeing different
on those who just move to the city ● Stereotype and stigma ● Make a shared culture through migrate ● 1940s: Hillbillies became from region styles to national styles
● Country music become the umbrella genre instead of Hillbilly Hank Williams, “Move it On Over” (1947), “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” (1949)
● A big shift of style here ● A confluence of style ● Issues of racism ● He is in fact the 12 Bar blues that influenced by the African American to Country
music By the 1940’s - Development of Country Style and Ideology
● Changing Musical Style (slide guitar, double stops on fiddle) ● Content is highly personal, showing the imperfection of the individual's playing ● Sheds the Hillbilly image ● African American influence on the development of country music but it is only
associate with the white working class ● Affiliated with the White working class
Outsider Perceptions of Country by the (usually) Northern Middle Class
● To Middle Class and Northerners, Country music represented a rural and backward past during a time in which modernity and progress were valued
○ Reject Rock N Roll ● Scholarly interest in folk music fades
○ Country music started to change into an American music ● Proponents of Country Music argue for its value as national heritage
The Louvin Brothers, “My Baby’s Gone” (1959) 50’s into the 60’s - The Nashville Sound
● Smoother Sound (ex: the Louvin Brothers) ● Backing Vocals ● String Arrangements (increasing string arrangements) ● Polished Singing ● -> moving towards a “pop” aesthetic
Complicating Stereotypes
● Rural -> Attracting urban followers ● Conservative -> Performers often unable to live up to the content of their music ● Poor -> Audience is very often blue collar-middle class
● White - > Heavy African American influence within AND performance of country music
Ray Charles, “I Can’t Stop Loving You” (1962)
● It really doesn't fall in a particular genre of music ● Blues and Jazz influences ● Pain from loss ● “You take country music, you take black music, you got the same goddamn thing
exactly.” - Ray Charles ● … “The boundaries (between country and black music) were vast borderlands of
shared traditions rather than clearly demarcated lines - Diane Pecknold
04/16/2020
Rock N Roll ● Developed out of the Blues ● Explosion of popularity
(political and social climate) 1950’s: Postwar Context
● Upsides vs. Downsides ○ Upsides ○ Downsides
● Cultural shifts, expanding the whites moving from rural to urban ● “Leave It To Beaver”
Pre-Rock n Roll → Rhythm and Blues
● Primary characteristics of Rhythm and Blues ○ Strong rhythm section ○ Utilizes the blues style (not just the chord structure) ○ Composed of Jazz ensemble instrumentation (drum, bass, piano)
The change of Blues to Rock n Roll Muddy Waters, “Got My Mojo Workin’” Chuck Berry, “Maybellene” (1955)
● Aggressive, loud guitar work ● Physical movement
Chuck Berry’s Influence
● Guitar becomes central instrument ● Guitar technique is characterized by descending pentatonic double stops ● Berry adopts vocal technique from the R&B “shouters”
Rock n Roll’s Content
● Influenced by rhythm and blues ● COntent moves away from pop’s emphasis on “universal” emotions ● Adopted a more realist perspective → grittier ● Women presented as the object of desire ● As a result,Rock is a predominantly masculine genre
Emergence of Rockabilly as a Subgenre of Rock N Roll Bill Haley and his Comets, “Rock Around the Clock” (1955)
● White washed ● Transform the music accessible for whites
White Rockers into the Mainstream Elvis Presley, “Ready Teddy” (1956)
● Use a lot of African American aspect into this song Constructing the Elvis Persona
● Made him into a “bad boy” (lower class, the bad side of the town) ● Sexualization of physical performance ● Lower Class, from “other side of the tracks” ● Created into a pop culture icon (popularity extends past the music and into
movies, tv, etc) ● Embodiment of the American Dream narrative
Analyzing the Adult Backlash Against Rock N Roll
● Reflects rift in values between youths and the generation of their parents ● Discomfort with Rock’s connection to Southern and African American roots ● Challenges conservative notions of respectability ● Negative association of Rock with the body → “primitive粗糙的” and inducing bad
(sexual) behavior
04/21/2020
Teen Idols, Doo Wop, and Girl Groups ● Extremely santise
Pat Boone Tutti Frutti -- Little Richard The “Death of Rock n Roll”
● Music desexualized ● Cleaned up lyrics ● Return to traditional white, middle-class values
Ricky Nelson, “Young World“ （1962） Dick Clark and American Bandstand
● On Civil Rights: ○ Integrationist?
■ Includes African American artists ■ Excludes African American “extras”
Silhouettes -- Get A Jobs Women in the 60’s: Doo Wop and Girl Groups
● Marketed for teenagers Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, “Shop Around” (1960)
● Gender is talked about the Pat Boone ● Presents a similar ethos
Doo Wop
● Performed by African American ● Characterized by Gospel influences, quartet vocal harmonies, and scat ● Marketed for teens ● Denotes the flexibility and agency that men had to meet and discard women
The Shirelles, “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” (1961) Negotiating Gender Girl Groups
● Followed Doo Wop groups in style ● Attempted to ‘assimilate’ into mainstream popular American culture ● Offer a conservative appearance and middle-class background ● Relatable topics to a bi-racial audience (young love, parents, etc) ● Dealing with narrow spectrum respectability ● Males: romantic mobility, proactive ● Females: have a voice to express their situation, BUT reflects passivity, lack of
agency Phil Spector (and the Ronettes)
● Phil Spector - produced the Ronettes’ albums ● Developed the “Wall of Sound” ● The singer is perceived as a “worker” not as an “artist”
04/23/2020
Soul ● The ways soul changes its way in the early 50s to the late 70s ● Black power movement ● Black power became mainstream
Integration (1955-1965) Stevie Wonder, “Fingertips” (1963) Berry Gordy and Motown
● The Motown Method: ○ Standardized Songwriting ○ Funk Brother Rhythm Section (in-house band) ○ Quality Control ○ Selective Promotion ○ Family Atmosphere
The Motown Sound An upbeat, often pop-influenced style of rhythm and blues associated with the city of Detroit and with numerous black vocalists and vocal groups since the 1950s and characterized by compact, danceable arrangements.
● Upbeat and danceable rhythms ● Harmonies derived from Gospel ● Horn Section ● Conservative and Non-Threatening Values
Sam Cook, “A Change Is Gonna Come” (1963) Characteristics of Soul During Integration
● Music: upbeat, unintimidating, conservative lyrical content ● Often played down the stark differences in Blck/White socioeconomic
circumstances ● The goal was to appeal to White tastes while maintaining an African American
style Black Power (1965 - 1971)
● Voting riots
● Watts Rights - African American / drunk driving ● Civil rights
Syl Johson, “Is It Because I’m Balck” (1970)
● Pain and depression ● Anger and frustration is not hidden but foregrounded
Aretha Franklin, “Think” (1968)
● Strong female presentation Characteristics of Black Power Soul
● Topically more assertive ● Grittier, rawer sound ● Often dealing explicitly with issues of race and inequality ● Strong female roles and agency
Return to Normalcy (1971-79) Al Green, “Let’s Stay Together” (1972) Return to Normalcy (Early 1970’s )
● Civil Rights themes on decline ● Music produced in Philadelphia ● Much softer sound ● Different expressive style of masculinity ● Themes revolving around love, relationships, and sexuality
04/28/2020
The British Invasion ● The Beatles and Rolling Stones ● Similar to Elvis, similar to rock and blues
England: Mods and Rockers ● Early 60s ● Rockers: take a lot of inspiration from Rock and Roll in the United States so they
bear a lot of physical stylish stuff (the outfits and motorcycles) ● Mods: think themselves more stylish, buying expensive clothes ● Both: seen as deviates kids to the public’s fear in England ● Two groups have conflicts with each other ● While race is sort of a dominant trend of discourse that is the theme in the United
States; class in winds of being a more dominant theme of discourse in the United Kingdom, England.
Pre-America
● Doing African American Music, they were interested the music from the United States
● Influenced by Motown and Watter The Beatles, “Roll Over Beethoven” (1963)
● Throwing Rock style and more on the Mods style (Hair and clothes style) ● One of the first boy band that each one have their own characteristic
Marketing the Beatles
● Discovered by Brian Epstein, who becomes Beatles’ manager ● Presented as whole some, middle-class entertainment ● Emphasis on wittiness and working class origins ● Promotions emphasized the differing personalities of each band member ● Changed their look from Rocker to Mod ● Capturing American’s interest on music
Explaining Beatle Mania
● Teens needed to have a good time as a relief from the anxieties of Cold War tensions (mortal fear)
○ The Beatles help to relieve tension ● Growing affluence of teenagers in a consumer society
○ By the 60s there is a little bit more leisure time for teenagers, they have a little more extra to spend so they bought music
● Ritual in which alternate behavior is allowed ● Another rebellion of youth against their elders ● Success of the Beatles relieves the national depression caused by the
assassination of JFK ● Beatles shattered the “stale, empty” pop formulas that were there before (girl
groups, teen idols) Rolling Stones, “Sympathy for the Devil” (1968)
● They are marketing for a whole different image ● Taking shirt off
Differing Songwriting Approach
● Believed they could not rely on covers of American tunes as the Beatles did ○ Had to write their own music
● Closer tied to the blues and r&b than the Beatles were ● Much mure explicitly secxual in content ● Don’t look like mods, but the content spoke to what the mode culture was all
about (marginalization / unhappiness) Different Image
● No suits, or fancy haircuts ● Went to University / Art School ● Marketed specifically counter to the Beatles
○ “Bad boys” The Who, “My Generation” (1965)
● Dadaism: nothing mean anything, does not care the meanings ● Breaking instruments
Deviating from the Beatles
● Inserted “mod” ideologies ● Violence / Aggression in performance ● Music built around expression of identity and self-exploration ● Music leans toward performance
04/30/2020
Psychedelic Counterculture (Northern California)
● Background: ○ Mid 60s ○ Civil rights movement ○ Baby boomer
Politics of the Counterculture
● Anti-war ● Anti-racism ● Protest oriented ● Critical of the Government ● Increasingly liberal-minded (interested in Enlightenment) ● Sexual freedom
Country Joe and the Fish, “Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag” (1965)
● Lyrics: singing from the characteristics of blindly nationalist who support the war and people who even want to go to war
● Blindly enthusiastic supporting the United States at their own expense, they don’t even know why they do this
San Francisco: The Center of the Counterculture
● In the 60s cheap rent and safe neighborhood make it a nice place to be the center
● Hippy: drugs, LSD, marywanna / these drugs will help to increase the creativity and Enlightenment
The Psychedelic Experience, Timothy Leary
● The personal journey that is associated with LSD Jefferson Airplane, “White Rabbit” (1967)
● Smokey mood ● Visual image
Acid Rock
● Influenced by drug culture of San Fran
● Free Form - not “hit single” format ● Blues and Folk Influence ● Heavy guitar distortion ● Long solos ● Lyrics are often more socially relevant
Janis Joplin and the Holding Company, “Ball and Chain” (1967)
● Heavy blues in the music Importance of Festivals
● Bring together musically / politically like-minded individuals ● (Often white, middle-class) ● Festival acts as ritual, reinforcing collective identity ● Inversion of everyday societal rules
Woodstock (1969) Jimi Hendrix, “The Star Spangled Banner” (1969) Significance of Woodstock
● Symbolic culmination of the hippie counterculture ● Reinforced strong collective bonds ● Defined by potentiality (belief that they could change the current social / political
climate) ● Provided a model for music industry to capitalize on mass performance
Decline of the Psychedelic Counterculture
● Beatles’ next album moves away from psychedelia ● African American man gets stabbed by Hells’ Angels at Altamont Festival ● High profile artists die from drug overdoses ● Idealism and Community broken
05/05/2020
Funk: Politics Underneath the Mainstream James Brown, “Say It Loud” (1968)
● Important figure in both soul and funk Qualities of Funk
● Static Harmony - remains on one chord until reaching the bridge ● Rhythmic emphasis on beat 1 ● Emphasis on community and fun ● Groove Oriented
Baby Huey and The Baby Sitters, “Mighty Mighty” Sly and the Family Stone, “Thank You” (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) 1969 Contributions to 70’s Funk
● Sly and the Family Stone was a catalyst and blueprint for development of funk onward
● Incorporated female/white musicians into the bank ● If soul got soft in the 70’s, funk maintained a level of grittiness → “black and
proud” lives on Gil Scoot Heron, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” (1970) Parliament Funkadelic, “Chocolate City” (1975) Funk into a Philosophy
● Inverting notion of “funk” as something bad into something good ● Funk as a spiritual power ● Elaborate costumes ● Emphasis on concept albums → creation of imagined worlds ● Coded political meanings
Expressing ‘Blackness’ (and Politics) ● Messages are often coded/non-explicit ● Creation of idealistically Black-centric imagined worlds ● Embraces sexuality and “dirtiness” ● Celebrates Black vernacular
05/07/2020
Prog Rock ● Anti-commercial ● Anti-establishment ● Highly masculine white genre, very few exception ● The result of the fragmentation of acid rock ● Prog Rock is the umbrella genre of rock ● Represent international authentic sentiment
Changing Subject Matter
● Less overtly political ● More introverted and personal ● Fewer mass genres (like acid rock), and more sub genres ● New umbrella category called “progressive rock”
Rock Ideology (Nations of Authenticity)
● “Rock was something more than pop, more than rock n roll. Rock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with the romantic concept of art as individual expression, original and sincere. They claimed to be non-commercial - the organizing logic of their music wasn’t to make money or to meet a market demand.” - Simon Frith
Notions of Rock Authenticity (ctd)
● “Progressive” - asserted an artistic value ● Emphasis on the individual ● Skill and technical ability (virtuosity) ● Originality ● Non-commercial ● Masculine (still few female rock band)
○ Really difficult for a female band to exist in rock ● Incorporating the “right” styles (blues, r&b, NOT disco or pop) ● Paying your dues as a musician
The Pop Binary
● Artist perceived as products of the record label ● → no agency, no creativity, has not paid his/her dues
● Talentless - production smooths over lack of technical ability ● Incorporates undervalued genres ● Immasculine
Led Zeppelin, “Stairway to Heaven” (1971) Rock as Art David Bowie, “Space Oddity” (1969) Impact of the Music Industry - Critiquing Rock Authenticity***
● Rock is unavoidably commercial ● Producers played important role in the outcome of albums ● Labels spent large amounts of time / money promoting their artist
○ These labels are using mainstream capital strategies under the guides of anti-establishment of ideologies
● Reinforced hegemonic dominance of the white / male status quo Kiss, “Detroit Rock City” (1976)
● A crazy merchandising machine ● Promoting themselves endlessly, Kiss are almost everything ● To increase their revenue
05/12/2020
Disco Early 70’s: Beginning s of the LGBTQ Movement
● Stonewall Inn Riots (1969) Creation of Disco Clubs
● Bars → actual Disco clubs Musical Developments
● Music now operated by a DJ ● Initially listening to Soul and R&B tracks (no disco industry)
Isaac Hyes, “Theme from Shaft” (1971) Characteristics of Proto Disco
● Lush instrumentation (strings) ● Repetitive ● Overt sexuality
Donna Summer, “Love to Love You Baby” (1975) Musical Characteristics
● Sexually Charged ● Repetitive (metronomic beat) ● Continuous ● Waves of uptempo and downtempo grooves ● Musically lush and smooth - devoid of grittiness
Critiques of Disco
● In the Funk scene: ○ Devoid of soul/blackness ○ Described as mechanistic ○ Too soft; not gritty ○ Funk was kind of political focus on incorporating Black Power, disco did
not overtly address these same issues
○ However, Disco function as a haven for all these alternative, ethnics group and LGBT
● Rock ○ Lack grittiness/ assertiveness ○ No emphasis on musical virtuosity ○ Dancing not part of rock’s brand of masculinity ○ Disco became the commercial prioia, became the example of
commercialism for the prog rock fans Mainstreamization of Disco Saturday Night Fever (1977)
05/14/2020
Punk ● Social and political content: economic is not doing well, watergate, people are
losing their jobs Velvet Underground, 1969 - Heroin
● Andy Worhol became their manager, one hand to get the group gigs, and on the other hand to promote his own work
● Andy Worhol combined music with arts Iggy Pop and the Stooges, 1969 - 1969
● It has a lot of rock quality, but doesnt look the same way on virtuality ● Good stage present
Emerging Philosophy of Punk
● Anti-Virtuosity ● Anti-establishment behavior ● Nihilism ● Societal Alienation
The Ramones, Judy is a Punk - 1976
● Really strong force between the performances with the audiences Development of a Punk Subculture - Nihilism into Activism?
● Anti-Consumerist - DIY ● Wrote Fanzines (fanzines are little publication in someone’s house, manual and
physically addressing the issues of people in your own scene and subculture, sale the music in person or to the club)
● Characterized by minimal commercial success (at first) ○ Already with Ramones were starting to see this shift of how punk become
so popular, because of the success, it is hard to not become anti-commercial
● Anti-virtuousity ○ You do not need to be a good musician or instrumentation
The Sex Pistols, God Save the Queen - 1977
● Inequality in the social class ● Immigrants
Core Values of Punk in England
● Anti-Commercial ● Anti-Media ● Anti-Government/Nationalism ● Inherent contradiction lies with their ultimate involvement in the music industry
and the subculture’s subsequent commercialization The Clash, London Calling - 1979 (optional)
05/19/2020
New Wave ● Economics is not in a good place and music as well. The music industry is in a
desperate financial situation with national recession and rising oil prices. The music industry is not performing very well
● New Wave bands were much cheaper option to produce, a more cost effective way of making money
Blondie, “Hanging On the Telephone” (1978)(Skip) Talking Heads, “Psycho Killer” (1977) New Wave as a Commentary on Modernity and Normalcy Devo, “I Can’t Get No (Satisfaction)” (1978) Thematic and Musical Features
● Machinelike or robotic ● OR nervous/neurotic ● Distanced from ‘expressive” roots such as that of blues or rock ● Musically minimalist
New Wave Challenging Normalcy
● Devoid of Sexuality ● Altered states of emotionality ● Challenges uniformity ● Racially associated with whiteness ● → “New wave accepted and even celebrated the cultural contradictions and
awkwardness of its own whiteness.” - Theo Cateforis
New Wave and Irony → Looking at the Past B-52’s, “Rock Lobster” (1978) New Wave in England
Gary Numan, “Cars” (1980) ● We can see the dark mirror of the society in the song
New Wave philosophies in the Present Day
● Irony ● Bricolage ● Critiquing the past
05/21/2020
Early MTV ● Marketed as innovative and revolutionary medium
Marketing to Youth
● Focus on rock music and rock ideology (because they think it will be the most broadly and accessible genre for the whites)
● Inadvertently deemphasizes alternative genres ● Limits on-air presentations of racial and gender diversity
Michael Jackson, “Thriller” (1982) Thriller’s Effect on the Music Video
● Emphasis on cinematography ● Dance sequences, backup dancers ● Music is disembodied from its performance ● Breaks racial barrier ● Reordering of song elements to fit the visual narrative
Females in Music Videos
● More racial and gender variety Madonna, “Like a Virgin” (1984) Creating the Powerful Female
● Appearance challenges conservative respectability ● Not simply an object of desire ● Breaks down patriarchal notions of the “proper girl” (pretty and well behaved, but
not overly sexual) Madonna as an Icon
● De-emphasis on musical performance ● Up close shots of madonna ● Emphasis on appearance and body language in the video’s construction of
madonna’s persona ● Almost no other characters
Icons Creating Cultural Style
● Instead of “band merch,” department stores and clothing lines come out with styles that imitate Madonna’s music video persona
● Madonna’s MTV “Make My Video Contest” for her song, True Blue MTV Today Changing Values
● Limited music ● No longer marketed as anti-establishment ● Reality stars marketed as “anti-role models” ● Reflects differing ideologies between the older MTV generation and the new
New Marketing Strategy
● Marketing for a new demographic ● Declining profits on record sales means MTV needs new programming to keep
itself competitive (turning a profit) ● New mediums which allow instantaneous access to music videos (youtube,
bandcamp, etc), make music videos for MTV less commercially viable and functionally obsolete
05/26/2020
Hip Hop and Rap ● Graffiti
● Turntablism
● Rap
● Dacing
Hip hop is the new cutting edge of political discourse that replaced these old political
movement
Hip Hop
● Developing in the 1980’s in the New York City
Grandmaster Flash, “The Message” (1982)
● A song that is really trying to foreground this political or social commentary
Effects of Rap’s Populatization
● Rap’s populatization creates a new African American musical community
● Gives Black men a voice
● As the musicians get signed to labels, the content of the music acquires larger
audiences
● Middle-class backlash → finds aggressive Black performance threatening
● Reaganomics portrayed African American youth and Hip Hop as evidence of the
decaying morals of America
Hip Hop as a Movement
● Music acts as 1) a highly provocative form of protest music 2) an educational and
informational arena where hip hoopers identify societal problems and potential
solutions
Ice Cube, “It Was a Good Day” (1992)
Gangsta Rap as Political Discussion
● Exposes and informs to a broader audience the difficulties of urban life
● Becomes a way to express one’s ‘ghettocentric’ worldviews (address their
women audience within the ghetto)
● Rejects previous modes of social justice such as the Civil Rights Movement
● Creates a public sphere of resistance
Scholarly Critiques of Gansta Rap’s Popularity
● This particular genre and African American narrative has become so dominant
that it constructs and reinforces racial stereotypes of a singular African American
narrative
● Reinforces misogynistic values systems in African American communities
Summarizing Gangsta Rap
● Acts as a forum for discussion
● Performs resistance through sexual prowess and at times depictions of violence
● Heavily masculine sphere, dominated by men
● Develops its own criteria for ‘authentic’ performance (lyrical virtuosity, hardship,
masculinity, etc)
Queen Latifah, “UNITY” (1993)
● Saying issues of gender in the context
Salt n Pepa, “Shoop” (1994)
Female Rapper vs. Girl Group
● Girl group: men had the agency to move and sleep with women while that
women did not have that agency
● Female Rapper (Salt n Pepa): they have an agency to move and have sexual
relationship with men
○ Women are objectifying a bunch of men as they go through the music
video, and display and perform the agency to sleep with men
○ They are foregrounding their sexuality as a way performing their agency
over the ownership of their sexuality
Female Rappers Avoiding “Feminism”
● Associated feminism with whiteness and white middle-class women
○ Women of African American Rapper were not interested in aligning
themselves with feminism as a movement
● Did not want to be perceived as anti-male
05/28/2020
Native American Popular Music: popular discourses and self-representations Learning Goals
● By the end of this lecture, you will be able to: ○ Identify specific ways in which different Native American artists have
contributed to popular music in North America ○ Describe how specific Native American artist have represented
themselves and their communities through popular music ○ Explain the significance between representation and self-representation
for Native American communities Stereotypes of Native Americans in Popular Culture
● Essentializing discourse about Native Americans as pre-modern, closer to nature (primitive)
● Perpetuating a myth that Native Americans are extinct or “all gone” ● The equation of Native Americans with nature and the “ecological Indian trope”:
the representation of a romanticized, generic Native American identity “which is inconsistently deployed to trap Native peoples into a fictive, primordial role of idealized environmental stewardship” (Voyles 2016: 234)
Sympathetic Representations
● Johnny Cash (1964) - Indian Drums ○ Speaking from the perspective of a Native American ○ Recognizing histories of violence, current struggles ○ Note: the centering of the “Indian drum” as a “sonic icon” ○ Privileged white representation of Native Americans (Johnny Cash
Claimed Cherokee ancestry but later in his life acknowledge that he actually was not Cherokee)
○ Note: There are influential Native American popular-music musicians active during this time: Floyd Westerman, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Link Wray, Kim Pepper, John Trudell and others
A Tribe Called Red ● Electronic Music with strong markers of Native identity
○ Historical consciousness and rejection of colonial narratives:
○ “We have been called the Indians. We have been called Native American. We have been called hostile. We have been called paga. We have been called militant. We have been called many names.”
○ Urban image ● Technology and modernity as opposed to primitivism
○ “We live on an industrial reservation” - de-romanticizing notions of Native Americans being “outside” of industrial society
Native American Artist In the 20th century
● Link Wray - Shawnee guitarist, popularized the “power chord” ○ Comanche (1959)
■ Note: re-occurrence of drumming style that signals Native American-ness
■ Guitar style and vocal style anticipates/ influences punk and hard rock
● Jim Pepper - Muscogee saxophonist ○ Newlyweds song, Pepper Powwow (1971)
■ Note: Again, steady drumbeat as a “sonic icon” of Nativeness ■ In this case the drumming is more explicitly tied to Powwow
drumming DJ Shub - Indomitable
● How is Native identity constructed in the music and the video? ○ Powwow drum ○ “Fancy dance” regalia ○ Urban Native identity
● What sounds are familiar to mainstream pop music, and what sounds are not familiar to mainstream pop music?
○ Native American vocable singing Origins of Powwow
● Pre-colonial roots in intertribal trade gatherings, as well as war ceremonies ● Powwow also represents indigenous adaptations to colonization
○ Economic opportunity in capitalist economy ○ Way of preserving cultural practices which were otherwise criminalized ○ Pan-Native ideology and collective resistance to colonial violence
● “While most writers focus on the powwow as a means of cultural integration, there is a dynamic between tribal and inter-tribal interests.” (Herle 1994: 76)
Powwow in the Present Day
● Powwow culture becomes an important cultural terrain for self-identification for many Native groups (but not all!)