music HW

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Post World War II Musical Modernism

The Media Revolution • Record companies seek out niche markets

•  Columbia, Paramount • Many marketed and sold to a black audience

•  “Race records” – became popular with white audiences also

•  “Hillbilly music” marketed to rural white southerners •  continuation of pre-1920s fiddle tradition •  fiddle contests and medicine shows

•  Unregulated Mexican radio stations •  could reach Canada and China

The Media Revolution

• 1946: Television industry begins •  By 1950s, TV common in most households •  Soap operas, sit coms, variety shows, mysteries

• Radio stations begin to play more pre- recorded music •  Disc Jockeys (DJs) become important

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Record Formats

• 78 rpm records: 3-4 minutes of music • Major record companies begin issuing

Long-Playing (LP) 33 rpm records •  Up to 26 min. per side (12”) •  Targeted at adults

•  Often classical music, musical theater, easy-listening

• 45 rpm Singles (7”) • Marketed to teens

Pop Music

• Strong connection to Swing • Continued innovations of popular

1930s vocalists • Armstrong, Holiday, Bing Crosby

• Song Interpreters • Each singer recognizable by their style • Personality becomes part of the song

Pop Music •  Nat “King” Cole (1917-1965)

•  Formed a popular jazz trio •  First black artist to host a TV show •  Several pop hits:

•  “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” “Unforgettable” •  Frank Sinatra (1915-1998)

•  Got his start singing with Big Bands •  Became a teen idol in early 1940s •  Formed his own record company •  “You Do Something to Me” (1950)

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Woody Guthrie (1912-’67)

•  Lived a wandering life •  Hobo lifestyle, inspired his poetry

•  Experiences during the Depression •  Dust bowl drought, New Deal politics, unions

•  Political radical •  Lyrics about social justice, inequalities •  1940: “This Land is Your Land” written in response to

Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America”

Woody Guthrie

•  “So Long, It’s Been Good to Know You” 1940 •  Story about west Texas during the Dust Bowl •  Ironic jabs at religion and society •  influences folk-revivalists, singer-songwriters, and rock

musicians for years to come

Urban Folk Revival

•  Guthrie, Pete Seeger form Almanac Singers •  Starts the urban folk revival

•  Younger Americans seeking authenticity and directness in music •  Qualities that were missing in pop music •  Folk songs let performers comment on current events

•  Join political movements, play for rallies •  Songs of protest against social ills

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Country & Western

• Folk becomes Country •  Radio broadcasts •  Nashville becomes epicenter

•  1927: The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN •  Other barn-dance radio shows pop up •  Promotes “down home” image

•  as opposed to European opera •  overalls, straw hats, etc.

Post-War Country Music

• Hank Williams and Kitty Wells •  heard on jukeboxes as well as radio •  smaller record labels release 7” singles

• “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” •  Kitty Wells (1952) •  Songs tackle subjects other genres avoid

•  adultery, divorce, drunkenness

Rhythm & Blues •  Term used to replace “race records” •  Includes several styles

•  Characteristics: •  strong beat (backbeat) •  use of blues style and form •  shouting vocal style

•  Hokum, Jump Bands •  Upbeat lyrics, riff-style melodies

•  Electric Blues •  Country blues played with electric guitars

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•  Hokum – blues novelty style •  Upbeat, good-humored, light-hearted •  Influential on early rock

•  Lyrically, and fast tempos •  “It’s Tight Like That”

•  By the Hokum Brothers •  Georgia Tom (piano) and Tampa Red (guitar)

•  12-bar blues •  Verse – chorus structure

Muddy Waters (1915-1983) •  born McKinley Morganfield •  Delta blues musician

•  Moved to Chicago’s south side •  First to use the electric guitar for blues

•  Added a full band: •  el. guitar, bass, drums, piano, harmonica

•  Little Walter (harmonica)

•  Other important Electric Blues artists: •  B. B. King, Howlin’ Wolf, Buddy Guy

• “(I’m Your) Hoochie Coochie Man” (1954) • Form: variant of 12-bar blues • Rhythm section

•  Independent parts, no unison playing •  Similar to N.O. style jazz •  Each instrument fulfills their role

•  Distorted guitar tones