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!)