Womn n rck
THE ROOTS OF POPULAR MUSIC
A STAR IS BORN (2018)
What does the film tell us?
¡ Guitars and rock are for men
¡ Pop is for women
¡ For women, the physical standards are exacting and uncompromising
WHAT IS POPULAR MUSIC?
Classical
Folk
Popular
POPULAR VS POP
¡ Linked to the emergence of the middle class
¡ Music made with the intention of wide or mass appeal
¡ Umbrella term for pop, rock, hip hop…
¡ Specific genre of popular music
¡ Emerges in the 1950s
¡ Now associated with performers such as Britney Spears
POPULAR MUSIC
¡ Industrial Revolution changes all aspects of daily life
¡ Creates new middle class
¡ Middle class has sufficient income to participate in leisure activities, activities that include music
¡ Songwriters, composers, and publishers begin writing and publishing songs to appeal to this new middle class, and they were not classical or folk songs
BLUES
¡ Emerges in Southern United States late 19th C.
¡ Country Blues ¡ Black male southerners ¡ Migrant work circuit ¡ Either no accompaniment or simple accompaniment of
banjo or guitar ¡ Reflected complexities of new life following emancipation
¡ Segregation – Jim Crow South ¡ Lack of financial security
CLASSIC BLUES
¡ African American Women
¡ Professionalized the blues
¡ Classic blueswomen sang for a living
¡ Vaudeville = variety entertainment
¡ TOBA (Theater Owner’s Booking Association)
¡ Black only circuit
¡ Mamie Smith “Crazy Blues” 1920 ¡ Huge success – proves Black audiences want to hear Black singers ¡ Race records – Black singers marketed as ”race records”
¡ Classic blues becomes popular with white Americans
COUNTRY MUSIC
1. Labelled “Hillbilly” music ¡ Used to denote music intended for white southern
listeners
2. Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains ¡ Combined traditional folk music, gospel music, and the
blues
3. Vocals are clear and often feature a “twang”
Fiddle Mandolin
Dulcimer
Banjo
Dobro
Pedal Steel Guitar
DEVELOPMENT OF COUNTRY MUSIC INDUSTRY
¡ Began in 1922 and 1923
¡ Victor Records
¡ Travelled to the south and recorded new and established southern musicians – fiddlers, string bands, singers
¡ In 1927, Ralph Peer records The Carter Family
RESPECTABILITY
¡ 19th century Ideology
¡ Defined the middle class – duty, hard work, manners
¡ Cult of Domesticity and True Womanhood
¡ Piety Purity Submissiveness Domesticity
COUNTRY AND GENDER
¡ Women were far outnumbered by men when it came to making hillbilly recordings
¡ Southern tradition held women played music in the home
¡ Entertain guests and family
¡ Women who defied the odds to perform professionally often did so under the guise of the “family member”
THE CARTER FAMILY
¡ A.P., Sara, and Maybelle
¡ A.P. – manager and songwriter
¡ Collected folk songs, hymns, gospel tunes
¡ Lesley Riddle
¡ The recordings The Carter Family made in 1927 became one of the first nationally popular Hillbilly records, initiating the birth of the country music recording industry
ADVENT OF R&B
¡ In the late 40s and early 50s, a new music is heard emanating from Black communities
¡ R&B = rhythm and blues
¡ Term coined by Jerry Wexler in 1948 to replace “race records”
¡ Drew on the blues and gospel
WHAT IS GOSPEL
¡ Rooted in African American Spirituals
¡ Combines spirituals with elements of the blues
¡ Pentecostal and Baptist churches with Black congregations
¡ Emotional music
¡ Piano, guitar, simple percussion, washboards, and eventually the organ
¡ Vocals were shouted, energetic, featured ad libs, and melisma
¡ Melisma = one syllable sung over many notes
¡ Mahalia Jackson “Move on up a Little Higher” (1948)
R&B (RHYTHM AND BLUES)
n Combines elements of blues and gospel
n Electrified instruments
n Honking, screaming, shouting vocal timbres n Timbre = quality of a sound (not volume, mood or speed)
n Backbeat
n Suggestive lyrics
BIG MAMA THORNTON
“Hound Dog”
n1952
nLeiber and Stoller
nGuitar rather than sax solo
nBackbeat
nVocals are energetic, rough, and growled
MAJORS VERSUS INDEPENDENTS
¡ Large
¡ National
¡ High Overhead
¡ Bureaucratic set up
¡ Divided functions
¡ Conservative
¡ Stability
¡ Small
¡ Regional
¡ Low Overhead
¡ One person organization
¡ Integrated functions
¡ Mavericks
¡ Short term goals
Major Label Independent Label
RISE OF R&B
¡ “Hound Dog” is promoted on independent radio
¡ “Black Appeal” radio stations
¡ Catered to African American community with African American musicians and DJs
¡ Reaches #1 on R&B chart in 1953
¡ White teenagers tune in and start buying R&B records
¡ R&B reaches a national audience
COVER PHENOMENON
¡ 1952-1956
¡ Major labels use size and power to record covers of R&B hits using white artists
¡ Change aspects of R&B hit that ”sound black”
¡ Remove suggestive lyrics
¡ Remove saxophone solo
¡ Simplify rhythm
¡ Remove rough and growled vocal timbres
“WALLFLOWER (ROLL WITH ME HENRY)”
Etta James Original
¡ Opens with male solo
¡ Saxophone Solo
¡ Piano
¡ Context is the dancefloor, but carried sexual overtones
¡ No. 1 on R&B Chart and sells 400,000 copies
Georgia Gibbs Cover
¡ Changes song title to “Dance with me Henry”
¡ Keeps piano, but omits saxophone
¡ Rhythm is sped up
¡ Vocals are clean and clearly enunciated
¡ No. 1 on the Pop Chart and sells 1,000,000 copies
ROYALTIES
• Performance royalty: paid to songwriter and publisher for any performance of their work (live, recorded, or broadcasted)
• Mechanical royalty: paid to the songwriter and publisher every time their work is manufactured and sold as a CD, video etc.
• When a cover of an R&B became more successful, sales of the R&B song suffered – less $$ for R&B singer
• Moreover, most major record labels paid the R&B artists/songwriters a flat fee to “buy” the song, circumventing future royalties
ENTER “ROCK’N’ROLL”
¡ DJ Alan Freed
¡ White DJ who hosts R&B show
¡ Wants to expand audience beyond African American listeners
¡ Coins the term ‘rock’n’roll’ to describe the R&B records he’s playing
¡ Distanced the music from its African American roots
¡ Made it ”appropriate” for white listeners (remember – it’s the 1950s!)