A Brief History of American Music
Anglo
– American Ballads
The
earliest music in the colonies consisted of ballads from England and
Scotland. The prototypical ballad, Barbara
Allen, has 243 versions in American music as of 1963. The best way to pass on ballads was through
oral tradition, with each version being changed in a small manner. A great example of this is Woody Guthrie’s Gypsy
Davey, a 1930’s version of the Scottish ballad Gypsie Laddie. In addition to oral tradition, songs were
printed on single sided sheets called broadsides. These Anglo-American ballads were the
predecessor to American folk music as well as the protest music of Woody
Guthrie, Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary.
Folklorist Alan Lomax toured the country in the 1930’s collecting what
is considered the most extensive history of folk music.
Barbara Allen – Bradley
Kincaid
Gypsy Davey – Woody Guthrie /
Arlo Guthrie
American
Revolution/War of 1812
As
the colonies moved to confrontation with the British, songs began to chronicle
that failing relationship. Yankee
Doodle, a song originally written by the British in the 1740’s-50’s to poke
fun at and ridicule the American provisional army, became a symbol of colonial
pride and independence during the war. In addition to the ballads that
chronicle events of the war, Johnny Has Gone For a Soldier represents
the many songs that show the hardships of being a soldier or a soldier’s
sweetheart. The Battle of New Orleans
during the War of 1812 was memorialized in many American songs. Francis Scott Key was witness to the
shelling of Fort McHenry (Baltimore) in 1814 and wrote the stirring poem that
was later renamed The Star Spangled Banner. Another well-known song was a fiddle tune, The 8th
of January. Jimmy Driftwood used
this fiddle tune when he wrote his 1959 song, The Ballad of New Orleans,
which became a number one hit for Johnny Horton in 1969.
Yankee Doodle
The 8th of
January/ The Battle of New Orleans- Johnny Horton
Star Spangled Banner –
Francis Scott Key, 1814
Musical
Theater and Military Music
Music
in the post Revolutionary period mainly consisted of military music and musical
theater brought from England. Military
music was played to keep soldiers in step and send messages (Field music - drum
and fife) or at more elaborate functions such as officer dances and parades
(Bands of music – larger bands including oboes, bassoons, French horns and
clarinets). The most popular military
song was Washington’s March. One
popular set of lyrics written for this tune was Hail Columbia, written
by Joseph Hopkinson (son of a Declaration of Independence signer) to help raise
the national cause above sectional differences in our young nation.
Hail Columbia (Washington’s
March) – Joseph Hopkinson
Parlor
Music
Sheet
music, which included the instrumentation, began to replace broadsides (just
words) in the early 1800’s. Pianos
became more available through the middle 1800’s and Americans began to develop
the parlor. There they would entertain, usually playing piano music. Stephen Foster was one of the more prolific
writers of parlor music.
America – Lowell Mason
tunebook, 1832
Beautiful Dreamer – Stephen
Foster, 1851
Minstrelsy
The
most popular entertainment of the late 1840’s through the Civil War was
blackface minstrelsy. Usually comprised
of four entertainers (playing fiddle, tambourine, banjo and bones) they did
skits, jokes and parodies (on blacks, Irish, Jews, Germans, rural people...).
There
were two popular impersonations of blacks –
1) Jim Crow,
the ragged plantation or riverboat hand ,reckless, uncouth and joyous.
2) Zip Coon,
a citified northern dandy, with exaggerated, elegant clothes and manners.
The
greatest minstrel performer and writer, Daniel Emmett, came from the circuses
and wrote “Dixie” for the minstrel stage.
He was infuriated when the South stole it as their theme song for the
Civil War. The most prolific writer for
the minstrel stage was Stephen Foster, who wrote what he called “Ethiopian
Songs.” Minstrelsy eventually evolved
into the Vaudeville stage of the 1880’s and the Broadway Revue of the early
1900’s.
Old Folks at Home - Stephen
Foster
Oh, Susanna – Stephen Foster
Camptown Races - Stephen Foster
Civil
War
At
a time where secessionist feelings were running high, Dixie was used in
a show in New Orleans (without permission of the composer Daniel Emmett.) From there it spread throughout the South
and became the musical symbol of the Confederacy (to the dismay of
Emmett). The other song most often
associated with the war is the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Originally a camp-meeting song, it became a
marching song for union soldiers. The
original words included a reference to the martyr John Brown (“John Brown’s
body lies a-mouldering in the grave..”) and were later changed to the words of
Julia Ward Howe. George F. Root wrote
the Battle Cry of Freedom, a popular rallying song for the North. As the war moved into it’s later years the
tone of the songs changed from rallying and patriotism to reactions to the
mounting death tolls. The most famous
of these was All Quiet Along the Potomac Tonight, a song used both in
the North and South, about the death of a lonely soldier on guard duty.
Dixie – Daniel Decatur
Emmett, 1859
Battle Hymn of the Republic
– Julia Ward Howe, 1862
All Quiet Along the Potomac
Tonight – John Hill Hewitt
Slave
Songs (Spirituals)
The Civil War brought the musical culture of slaves and
their songs to the North, both from black regiments fighting for the Union and
from abolitionists coming into the South.
The African-American spiritual represents the musical/religious reaction
of Africans to the Methodist/Baptist services and hymns of the South. They grew out of “shouts” which were held
after services or in the woods, where “shouters” formed a ring and circled to
the sound of singing and hand clapping.
Spirituals borrowed heavily from biblical references, as slaves
attempted to deal with the intolerable conditions of slavery.
Moses Canaan-Canada
and the north,
Jordan River – Ohio River, Pharaoh – slaveowners,
Egypt – South
The
first written collection of spirituals, Slave Songs of the South, was
published 1867. After the Civil War,
several black colleges were formed under the Freedman’s bureau. Fisk College of Nashville formed the Fisk
Jubilee Singers to tour and let these spirituals be heard.
Follow the Drinking Gourd – The
Weavers
Sometimes I Fell Like a
Motherless Child-Van Morrison
Michael Rowed the Boat
Ashore – The Weavers
Were You There/Go
Down Moses - Mavis Stapes
Wade in
the Water - Eva Cassady
Swing Low Sweet Chariot - Raffi
Manifest Destiny
Folklore
states that the song Green Grow the Lilacs (brought here from the British
Isles) was so popular in Texas in the mid 1800’s that Mexicans began to cal the
Anglos “gringos” due to their misunderstanding of the first two words of the
song. Sweet Betsy From Pike is
a song of the gold rush, particularly to Colorado and Pikes Peak. More people migrated there from Pike
County, Missouri, than from any other location. In both California and Colorado, a pike became represented all
people from Missouri.
Green Grow the Lilacs
John Philip Sousa and the Brass Band
In the years after the Civil
War, the wind band that had been so important during the colonial and Federal
periods had developed into the brass band.
Patrick Gilmore began giving concerts for the military during and
immediately after the war, and then expanded these concerts to the general
public. In 1880, John Philip Sousa became
the director of the U.S. Marine Band and took it on tour. In 1892, he formed his own independent brass
band, which he conducted until his death in 1932.
Semper Fideles, 1888
Washington Post, 1889
El Capitan, 1896
Tin
Pan Alley (1890-1920)
Until
the advent of the phonograph and radio (1920’s), the major means by which music
was spread was sheet music. Basically,
the publishing industry of the mid 1800’s (parlor songs of composers such as
Stephen Foster) consolidated, like much of society, in the major northern
cities. Since the minstrel stage had
developed through vaudeville to the modern revue and the early musicals
(Broadway), New York became the focal point of music publishing companies. Writers would flock to a two-block area of
the city to bang out “popular” songs to be used in revues, musicals and movies. The sound of the collective pianos was
likened to sound of beating on a tin pan – thus the name Tin Pan Alley.
Take Me Out to the Ballgame
Daisey Bell – Harry Dacre,
1892
Meet
Me in St. Louis
Patriotism, WW1 and Musicals
Raised
on the vaudeville circuit in a vaudeville family, George M. Cohan made
the transition from vaudeville to Broadway musicals. Doing so in that immensely patriotic time period between the
Spanish-American War and WW1, he found his niche in music history as the great
American Patriot. The movie, Yankee
Doodle Dandy, is about his life as a composer and performer who brought
patriotism and entertainment together.
Yankee Doodle
Dandy/You're a Grand Ol Flag - George M. Cohan, 1898
Over There- George M. Cohan,
1918
Jazz
The
story of jazz begins two major population shifts in American History: European
immigration and the importation of West African slaves. The mixing of these cultures led to an array
of new musical traditions, such as jazz.
The West African emphasis on group participation, dancing,
improvisation, rhythm and percussion would have the greatest effect on
jazz. The European influences include
the concept of harmonies and the use of brass and woodwind instruments. The open culture of New Orleans
provided the necessary conditions for these cultures to mix and create. Not only was this city the most mixed of all
American cities (French, Spanish, native American, African, Caribbean and
English cultures), it was the one city in the U.S. where free blacks, slaves
and whites lived intermixed. New
Orleans had a long music and dance tradition, along with the tradition
of the brass band (funeral marches).
Ragtime
Ragtime began as music for the
piano, where the music was played “ragged” by altering the syncopation and
rhythms. This style could be applied to
old or new compositions and “ragging” reached far into other musical styles,
from orchestral to the brass band of Sousa, and the popular music of Tin Pan
Alley. The most successful ragtime
composer was Scott Joplin and his Maple Leaf Rag. Joplin and Ragtime was brought back with the
popularity of the 1970’s move, The Sting and the song The Entertainer.
Maple Leaf Rag – Scott
Joplin, 1899
The Entertainer – Scott
Joplin
Louis
Armstrong
There
is no doubt as to the most significant musician in the development of jazz –
Louis Armstrong. Armstrong grew up in
New Orleans and moved to Chicago to join the King Oliver Band. His improvisation skills on the cornet
revolutionized jazz in Chicago, and eventually New York. He also became one of the foremost jazz
singers, known for his raspy and soulful voice. Late in his career he was criticized by African-Americans for
“selling out” to the white community, particularly when he became a mainstay on
television with the Ed Sullivan Show.
Muskrat Ramble – Louis
Armstrong and His Orchestra
Paul
Whiteman and Fletcher Henderson
Both
Paul Whiteman and Fletcher Henderson initiated the development of the
big band form of jazz. Called the “King
of Jazz,” a nickname he was criticized for and did not like, Whiteman was the
most successful white band leader in the 1920’s. He hired the best white musicians and his band was known for
their ability. He is credited with
bringing jazz into the big band area with his famous 1924 concert at the Aeolian Hall in New York, where he
commissioned and debuted George Gershwin and his masterpiece, Rhapsody in
Blue. Fletcher Henderson was
the black band leader who hired the best black musicians such as Louis
Armstrong and led the way for the black bands that would follow, such as Duke
Ellington and Count Basie. As an
arranger, he is credited with the ability to make a band “swing,” where the
energy of the band would continue to drive forward. His arrangements would be used by many of the more famous swing
bands, particularly the “King of Swing”, Benny Goodman.
Rhapsody in Blue – George
Gershwin, 1924
Charleston – Paul Whiteman
and His Orchestra, 1925
The
Savoy Ballroom
No
bandleader best demonstrated the connection between the music and the dancer
than Chick Webb, who was the house band at the Savoy Ballroom in New
York from 1927 to 1939. The dancers at
the Savoy became so good and famous that they later toured as a professional
troupe. Many of the dances of the time,
like the Lindy Hop, were developed on the Savoy dance floor. In addition, the Savoy revolutionized the
concept of the “Battle of the Bands,” Webb battling such band greats as Count
Basie, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman.
The 1937 battle between Webb and Goodman, where the black band of Webb
soundly defeated the world famous white band of Goodman, has gone down as “The
Music Battle of the Century.”
Stomping at the Savoy –
Chick Webb’s Savoy Orchestra, 1934
Count
Basie
William “Count” Basie came
from Kansas City, where the blues music influenced both jazz and early rock ‘n
roll. The emphasis moved from the
woodwinds and brass to the rhythm section (piano, guitar, string bass and
drums) and blues progressions that used the brass or vocalists to “shout” above
the rhythms. His arrangements, termed
“head” arrangements since they were often unwritten, allowed more flexibility
for soloist and improvisation, lending more excitement to the performance
One O’Clock Jump – Count
Basie and His Orchestra
Benny
Goodman
Known as the “King of
Swing,” Benny Goodman is responsible for bringing swing music out into the
mainstream of American music. His 1935
Palomar Ballroom concert
in Los Angeles made him famous. The
concert was failing so badly, he figured they might as well have fun and began toreally
“swing.” The excitement from this
concert ushered in the “Swing Era.”
Young people flocked to his concerts, often rushing the stage to
jitterbug in scenes similar to what we
will see with Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and the Beatles later. Like Paul Whiteman before him, he hired the
best white musicians available. This
drive for the best musicians led him to be the first bandleader to pioneer
interracial bands.
Sing, Sing, Sing – Benny Goodman and
Orch. 1938
Glenn
Miller and World War 2
A
trombonist who led one of the most successful swing bands of the late 30’s and
early 40’s, he also moved back and forth between jazz and popular songs. He disbanded in 1942 to join the U.S. Army
Air force and organized a service band.
Entertaining exclusively in England, his plane disappeared over the
English Channel in 1944. His death was
widely mourned and he was seen as a war hero.
Much of the music of the 1940’s was specifically geared to the war and
groups such as the Andrew Sisters would forever be identified with it.
In the Mood – Glenn Miller and
Orch. 1939
Praise the Lord and Pass the
Ammunition - Kay Kyser
Boogie, Woogie Bugle Boy –
The Andrew Sisters
Duke
Ellington
In
a career that spanned over 40 years, Duke Ellington’s work transcended swing
and jazz. He is seen not only as one of
our greatest bandleaders, but as one of our greatest composers. He constantly experimented by new sounds and
combinations of instruments, and produced works ranging from swing to classical
orchestral music.
Take the “A” Train – Duke Ellington 1941
Singers
Most
of the big bands used singers to complement the instrumentation. Bing Crosby sang for Paul Whiteman, Frank
Sinatra for Tommy Dorsey and Ella Fitzgerald for Chick Webb. As the swing era developed, bands played “swing”
songs (meant to be danced
to), as well
as more popular love songs. Eventually,
the singers would become the focus of the music and leaders of popular music in
the early 1950’s. The most famous of the jazz singers, Billie Holiday,
can be classified as both jazz and blues.
Her life and career were greatly affected by drug and alcohol abuse, as
well as stint in jail for possession.
Her most famous song, Strange Fruit, is considered one of the
first and most important civil rights songs.
Dealing with the problem of lynching in the South, the song was so
controversial that her record label refused to release it. It was also very dangerous for her to sing
it below the Mason-Dixon line.
A-Tisket, A-Tasket – Ella
Fitzgerald and the Chick Webb Orchestra
Frensei – Frank Sinatra with
the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra
Strange Fruit – Billie Holiday
Recent
Revivals of Swing
In
recent years there has been a revival of both swing music and dancing. Groups such as the Brian Setzer Orchestra
and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy have brought back the music, which had left the
popular scene after WW2. The dance
show, Swing, has brought the music to Broadway.
Jump with My Baby - Big Bad Voodoo Daddy,
1998
It Don’t Mean a Thing (If it
Ain’t got That Swing)/Jumping at the Woodside
-
Swing, 2000
Bebop
(or bop)
With swing jazz becoming so
much part of the mainstream, young jazz musicians such as Dizzie Gillespie,
Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk complained that the improvisational aspects
of jazz had disappeared. Many of the
most famous bop era compositions were contrafacts, new melodies written to the
chord changes of pre-existing songs.
The most used song for this was George Gershwin’s
I
Got Rhythm. Bop was less concerned with a connection to
dance (it was very difficult to dance to) and more concerned with lightning
fast improvisational and performance skills.
It also saw the movement of jazz from the large ballrooms to the
smoke-filled, basement bars and clubs.
Straight, No Chaser –
Thelonious Monk
Groovin High – Dizzie
Gillespie Sextet (with Charlie Parker)
Modern
and Cool Jazz
Loosely
based on bop, but independent of it was the lighter, more formal and floating
sounds of cool jazz. Often known as the
West Coast Scene, this drew more from European and classical music
influences. Artists often performed on
college campuses, were more formally dressed, and the music was not to
be danced to.
Django – John Lewis and the
Modern Jazz Quartet 1954
So What (Kind of Blue) –
Miles Davis 1959
Take Five – Dave Brubeck 1959
Giant Steps – John Coltrane
Quartet – 1964
Blues
Birth
of the Blues
Blues,
also African in origin, developed in the rural areas of the South out of the
field hollers of working slaves. W.C.
Handy, the self-proclaimed “Father of the Blues,” was the first to publish
a blues song. His most famous song, St.
Louis Blues, is the 2nd most recorded song in American music
history. The earliest blues singers
were woman who originated from the minstrel and vaudeville stages, such as Ma
Rainey and Bessie Smith. Known as
the “Classic City Blues” of the 1920’s, most early recordings were made in New
York and Chicago. The Harlem Renaissance and the massive black migration to the
northern cities during and after both world wars created the blues scene of
Chicago and New York.
St. Louis Blues (W.C. Handy) – Bessie Smith 1925
Rural
Blues
The
Mississippi Delta (Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas) accounted for the origins of
rural blues in the 1930’s and male blues singers. The typical blues singer sang about the difficulty of the
solitary individual facing an indifferent and hostile world. Early rural blues singers include Robert
Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt, T. Bone Walker and Lightnin’ Hopkins. The
1960’s blues revival movement helped bring back the work (and in most cases the
artists themselves very late in their careers) of the rural blues singers. Robert Johnson in particular has been
mentioned as a driving force behind the guitar playing of Eric Clapton and
Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones.) Recent
artists have covered Robert Johnson songs from Love in Vain (The Rolling
Stones) to Sweet Home Chicago (Blues Brothers).
Sweet Home Chicago - Robert
Johnson, 1936 / Blues Brothers
Stack O’Lee Blues –
Mississippi John Hurt
Call It Stormy Monday – T. Bone
Walker
Shouting
Kansas City
An
offshoot of the blues called boogie-woogie seemed to originate from the ragtime
artists such as Scott Joplin and Jelly Roll Morton. It found a home in Kansas City in the 1930’s and would have an
impact on blues, jazz and rock n roll.
In Kansas City, this mixing of jazz and blues and boogie woogie found
jazz bands such as Count Basie using what was known as the “jump style,” or
“shouting” with the horn section. The
blues artists were likewise backed by large bands and resorted to “shouting” to
have their lyrics heard over the band. This style would eventually blend into
the rhythm and blues music of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley and the rock n roll of the
1950’s.
Every Day – Count Basie and
His Orchestra with Joe Williams
Shake, Rattle and Roll – Joe Turner
Shake, Rattle and Roll - Bill Haley and the Comets
Roll Over Beethoven – Chuck
Berry
Chicago
Blues
The
late 1940’s saw the beginning of modern urban blues, moving to an electrified
sound. Centered in northern cities, this was the heyday of the Chicago blues
scene. Artists included Howling Wolf,
John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters. It should be mentioned that the blues artists
of the 1950’s found their work somewhat ignored outside the urban blues scene,
and found a greater reception in Europe, particularly England. Therefore, it is easy to see why the British
rock artists that so impacted American music in the 1960’s (The Beatles, The
Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, etc) give so much credit to the blues in the
origins of their music.
Smokestack Lightning –
Howling Wolf
Boogie Chillen – John Lee
Hooker
Hoochie Coochie Man – Muddy
Waters, 1954
Today
The
blues are still a major part of American music today, both in the urban cities
(Chicago artists such as Koko Taylor and Son Seals) and nationally (artists
such as Robert Cray.)
Nothing But a Woman - Robert
Cray
Wang Dang
Doodle - Koko Taylor
Gospel
Beginning
as a jazz band pianist in the 1920’s, Thomas Dorsey (Father of Gospel) spent
the 1930’s writing gospel songs, searching for gospel singers throughout
Chicago’s black churches and touring with his finds. The most famous of these gospel singers was Mahalia Jackson,
who became a personal friend of the Dr. Martin Luther King and sang at the
March on Washington.
Take My Hand Precious Lord –
(Thomas Dorsey) – Mavis Staples and Lucky Peterson
(dedicated to Mahalia
Jackson)
Mahalia Jackson singing at the March on Washington
Country
and Western / Folk
Birth of the Hillbilly Industry
Originally
called hillbilly music, this music of the people (folk) of the country
developed in the mountains of Appalachia. Like all other types of music, it was
brought to the national level with the inventions of the radio and the
phonograph. Radio, in particular, was a
huge factor as stations across the border in Mexico were able to exceed limits
on wavelength size and reach people as far away as Canada. Radio “barn dances” brought in performers
from the rural areas and created a huge audience of listeners of this authentic
“hillbilly” music. The most famous of
these show was the Grand Ole Opry, which began broadcasting in 1925 from the
Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. The show was patterned after and hosted by the
former host of the Barn Dance on WGN in Chicago. When record executives realized just how big
this audience was, they went into rural America to record these artists. The most popular of these early artists was
The Carter Family, whose family music heritage still exists today.
Hollywood and the Singing Cowboy
As
we entered the 1930’s, Hollywood began to tell us all about the West as they
knew it. (Please make no assumptions concerning their historical
accuracy!) Since cowboy movies
dominated the scene, it made sense that smooth “singing cowboys” such as Roy
Rogers and Gene Autry became the definition of the music, putting the western
in Country and Western. It is important
to remember that these smooth singing crooners were no more western than a
Frederic Remington illustration of the “authentic west” drawn from a New York
City rooftop.
Depression and Birth of Modern Folk Music/Protest Music
The
poverty of the Great Depression, particularly the deep divide between the rich
and the poor, led to the work of Woody Guthrie and folk music as social
protest. Guthrie came to the forefront
as a representative of poor, rural America at the “Grapes of Wrath” concert in
1939. His song, This Land is Your
Land, was originally written as his angry response to Irving Berlin and
Kate Smith (God Bless America.) He felt
that too much of America did not have access to the greatness of America and
his original words stated, “God blessed this land for me.” Later folk-social protest singers built off
of his work, leading both to the urban folk revival of the late 50’s and early
60’s (Tom Dooley and the Battle of New Orleans) and the social and war protest
of the late 1960’s.
This Land is Your Land – Woody Guthrie 1940
Tom Dooley – Kingston Trio 1958
We Shall Overcome – Pete Seeger and others 1960
This land
was made for you and me...
Hang down your head Tom Dooley...
We shall overcome...
Working Class Country and the Honky Tonk
The
tough times of the 30’s and 40’s also led to a working class consciousness in
the rural areas that expressed itself in the countries beer joints and dance
halls (live music and jukeboxes) with hard driving songs about family, work and
love. Songs were working class
interpretations with the emphasis often on cheating, drinking and divorce; thus
the stereotypical reputation of country music. The dominant singer of the honkey tonk era was Hank Williams.
I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry – Hank Williams 1949
I Walk the Line – Johnny
Cash 1956
Bluegrass
With
country becoming very commercial, a reemphasis on the traditional sounds of the
Appalachian Mountains led to the birth of blue-grass and the work of Bill
Monroe (Father of Bluegrass). The
recent bluegrass revival has found itself in the Grammy awards given to the
soundtrack from the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou and the re-released
song, Foggy Mountain Breakdown with Earl Scruggs.
Foggy Mountain Breakdown –
Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys 1949,
2001
Blue Moon of Kentucky – Bill
Monroe, 1954 / Elvis
The
Nashville and Austin sounds
After
World War 2, country music had spread in popularity and become a national
music. With an increased emphasis on selling to a national audience, executives
began to look for a sound more palatable to the mainstream fan, rather than the
hardcore country and western music fan.
With the center of the country recording business located in Nashville,
this became known as the Nashville sound.
Emphasis on drums and guitar, moving away from the fiddle and an
increased emphasis on female singers would represent this trend. In the 1970’s, many performers rebelled
against this homogenization of country music and moved to a new and growing
center of country music, Austin Texas.
Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings led the “outlaw” movement to Austin
and reestablished the honky tonk.
Crazy – (Willie Nelson) –
Patsy Cline 1961
Stand By Your Man – Tammy
Wynette 1968
Coal Miner’s Daughter –
Loretta Lynn 1970
Don’t Let Your Babies Grow
Up to Be Cowboys – Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings
Orchestral
and an “American” character
During
the Depression, the work of the WPA in the area of the arts (photography, art,
music, dance, etc) led to the development of the uniqueness of the American
style. From the folk singing of Woody
Guthrie, to the photography of Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange, to the WPA
murals and works of Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood, regional approaches led
to the celebration of and the fulfillment of an “American” culture, during a
time of such stress and sacrifice.
Orchestral music saw this same development with the celebration of the
West and Appalachia, areas specifically targeted by the government with
electrification programs such as the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Grand Canyon Suite – Ferde
Grofe 1931
Rodeo
Appalachian Suite – Aaron
Copeland 1944
Broadway
The thirty-year period from
1927 (Showboat) to 1957 (West Side Story) was the peak for the American
musical, both in popularity and productivity.
Composers and writers wove story lines among dance numbers, “skits” or
acting scenes and musical numbers to produce an integrated show. Many of the songs that constituted “popular
music’ came from musicals as Broadway became the center of the musical world.
The time period also made the composer/writer teams the stars, as the performers
became secondary to the great composers and writers mentioned below. As the era developed, Broadway developed
more advanced musical styles. From the song and dance style (Showboat),
to the Broadway opera (Porgy and Bess), to advanced scenic backdrops and
songs that continued to develop the plot (Oklahoma) and finally to more
advanced and innovative sounds (Guys and Dolls, West Side Story), the
Broadway musical showed the same advancement and experimentation as other types
of music.
Showboat – Oscar Hammerstein
and Jerome Kern 1927
Oklahoma – Oscar Hammerstein
and Richard Rogers 1943
Guys and Dolls – Frank
Loesser 1950
My Fair Lady – Jay Lerner
and Frederick Loewe 1956
West Side Story – Stephen
Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein 1957
Fiddler on the Roof –
Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock, 1964
Oh, What a Beautiful Morning.....
Luck Be a Lady.........
Movies
By
the late 1930’s, the talking motion picture actually replaced the phonograph
and rivaled the radio as the medium to bring popular music to the people. As people looked for escapes from the
difficulties of the Depression and World War II, they flocked the great movie
palaces during the golden age of the movie.
I
Got Rhythm
– Ira and George Gershwin 1930
Wizard of Oz 1939
Gone With the Wind – Max
Steiner 1939
White Christmas – (Irving
Berlin) Bing Crosby 1942
Singing in the Rain – Arthur
Freed/Nacio Herb Brown 1952
Somewhere, over the....
Frankly Scarlett, I...
I'm dreaming of a ......
I'm singing in the.......
Rock
Rock
n Roll Origins
The
origins of rock n roll can be found in the “race records” produced by black
blues artists and jazz bands, such as Jimmy Rushing and Joe Turner. The advent of the “shout” style of jazz
bands in Kansas City, the extension of that style to vocals and the use of the
electric guitar in those blues bands led to the 1950’s rhythm and blues of
performers such as Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley.
Rhythm and blues were still considered race records, black musicians
singing for black audiences. However,
by the early 1950’s white kids were beginning to listen to these records. Country “rockabilly” artists, such as Carl
Perkins, Bill Haley and Jerry Lee Lewis fused the rhythm and blues with “rockabilly”
as disc jockey Alan Freed made rock n roll a national phenomenon. When Elvis Presley came on the scene, rock n
roll became a national craze for young people, girls in particular. The fact that many of Elvis’s early hits
were covers of blues (Hound Dog), blue-grass (Blue Moon of Kentucky)
and rockabilly country (Blue Suede Shoes) shows the significance of his
contribution to the development of American music.
Rock Around the Clock –Bill
Haley and the Comets 1954
Blue Suede Shoes – Carl Perkins,
1955 / Elvis
Jailhouse Rock -
Elvis
Great Balls of Fire – Jerry
Lee Lewis 1957
Peggy Sue – Buddy Holly 1957
LaBamba – Ritchie
Valens 1958
The
Day the Music Died and Pop
Beginning
in 1958, many of the “bad boy” leaders of rock n roll disappeared from the
music scene. Elvis was inducted in the army, Carl Perkins was severely injured
in a car accident, Chuck Berry was put in jail, and Jerry Lee Lewis became
involved in scandal when he married his 13 year old cousin. Most symbolic of these losses were the
deaths in a 1959 plane crash of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the “Big Bopper
(The Day the Music Died.) To
fill this gap producers found and trained “teen idols” such as Frankie Avalon,
Pat Boone, and Ricky Nelson. This teen idol mini-industry was centered in
Philadelphia, the home of the Dick Clark’s show, American Bandstand.
These “teen idols” did not threaten parents and portrayed a squeaky clean
image. In New York, a new Tin Pan
Alley developed in the Brill Building of Manhattan, where several teams
of writers worked “banging out” hit tunes for groups such as the Coasters, the
Drifters, and the Shirelles. The most
successful producer of the era was Phil Spector, whose “wall of sound” created
by recording techniques such as overdubbing became known as the “Spector
Sound.” Between 1959 and 1963 Spector produced hits by artists such as the
Righteous Brothers (Lovin Feelin’ and Unchained Melody) and the Ronettes (Be My
Baby). Radio stations began to play
only the top hits over and over, as the “Top Forty” was born.
Be My Baby – The Ronettes
British
Invasion
The middle 1960’s saw the
British invasion, most notably the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and its
great effects on American music.
American blues musicians in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s found much
greater acceptance in England and their music was instrumental in development
of British musicians such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Eric
Clapton. It is ironic that these groups
would then have such a major impact on American music. Showing the change from the Beatles to the
Rolling Stones, writer Tom Wolfe commented, “The Beatles wanted to hold your
hand.. the Stones wanted to burn your town down.”
I Want to Hold Your Hand –
The Beatles
Satisfaction – The Rolling
Stones
Soul
Music
Just as rock n roll had developed from the early
rhythm and blues, a new strain of black music called soul combined the
influences of Rhythm and Blues, Jazz, Blues, Country and Gospel music. Ray Charles led this movement with
raw-edged, sexually suggestive songs such as I’ve Got a Woman and What’d
I Say. For those who found Charles
too raw, particularly whites and more devout listeners, there was Sam
Cooke. Cooke brought gospel soul music
to the mainstream white audiences with songs such as You Send Me and A
Change is Gonna Come, a plea for racial equality. James Brown became known as the “Godfather of Soul” and
Aretha Franklin “Lady Soul.”
B.B. King’s song, The Thrill is Gone, is considered the
enduring legacy of blues music.
I’ve Got a Woman – Ray
Charles, 1955
A Change is Gonna Come - Sam
Cooke 1964
Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag –
James Brown, 1965
Respect – (Otis Redding) -
Aretha Franklin, 1967
Proud Mary –(John Fogerty)
Ike and Tina Turner, 1968
The Thrill is Gone – B.B.
King, 1970
Motown
Related
to soul was the sound developed by Barry Gordy and Motown Records of
Detroit. Like the car assembly line he
worked on, Gordy groomed performers with voice lessons, dance routines and
public relations work; then combined them with the best songwriters and
producers. The result was a sound that
would forever be associated with his label.
Tracks of My Tears - Smokey
Robinson and the Miracles
My Girl - The Temptations,
1964
Stop in the Name of Love -
The Supremes
If
You’re Going to San Francisco....
In
the summer of 1967 the Beatles released the album, St. Pepper’s Lonely
Hearts Club Band. This album,
considered by many to be the best and most influential rock album ever, brought
two new aspects to rock music- the concept of music as true art (both in
production and artistry) and psychedelic and drug overtones. Many saw this album as a response in art and
music to the Beach Boy’s album, Pet Sounds. This ushered in the psychedelic scene of drugs (LSD was still
legal) and free love. The center of the scene would be in San Francisco, in the
Haight –Ashbury district. Janis Joplin,
Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead would be the main bands of the era. The year 1969 would see both the peak and
the valley of the psychedelic era. The
Woodstock rock festival in upstate New York showed that young people could come
together in peace for music, as close to 400,000 people showed up and very
little trouble occurred. However, later
that year a free concert by the Rolling Stones and others at Altamont Speedway
in California led to disaster as Hell’s Angels bikers hired as security (paid
with beer!) killed a young man who apparently drew a gun while the Stones were
performing. For so many, all the hope
brought on by the success at Woodstock came crashing down at Altamont and
signified the end of the Sixties Era.
Good Vibrations – The Beach
Boys, 1966
A Day in the Life – The
Beatles, 1967
White Rabbit - Jefferson
Airplane
Light My Fire – The Doors,
1967
Purple Haze – Jimi Hendrix.
1967
Music of Protest
The
Vietnam War, the generation gap, women’s rights and civil rights presented the
issues for which music became the medium of social protest in the late 1960’s
and early 70’s. The movement began in
the folk music boom in the early sixties and the work of Bob Dylan, Peter Paul
and Mary and Joni Mitchell. It grew to
include artists from all music genres as the music reflected the major stresses
and political/social differences in American society during this era.
The Times They Are a
Changing – Bob Dylan
Blowing in the Wind – (Bob
Dylan) – Peter, Paul and Mary
We’re All Going To Die Song
- Country Joe and the Fish
For What It’s Worth –
Buffalo Springfield
What’s
Going On – Marvin Gaye
Eve of Destruction – Barry
Maguire
The times they are a changing... 1,2,3, what are we fighting for.... how many deaths will it take till we know....
Stop
children, what's that sound.... Tell me what's going on.... We're on the eve of destruction...
Diversity
Singer-Songwriters
An
extension of the folk rock of the 1960’s and the final true replacement for
Tin-Pan Alley was the era of the singer-songwriters. This term is a catch-all for the musician who wrote and
interpreted his own songs, usually with little accompaniment and in more quiet
and sedate settings. This genre would
include Paul Simon, Carol King and James Taylor. Carol King’s album, Tapestry,
sold over 10 million copies and is considered the centerpiece in this
genre.
You’ve Got a Friend – Carol
King / James Taylor
Disco
The
1970’s saw a short but influential musical style that was made for dancing
called disco. The pounding rhythm,
which emphasized every beat, allowed for the development of this new dance
style. Artists like Donna Summer and
Barry White led the era, though the centerpiece of disco would be the John
Travolta movie, Saturday Night Fever and its soundtrack by the Bee Gees.
Saturday Night Fever – Bee
Gees
LA
Country and Southern Rock
The
1970’s saw the fusion of Country and Rock in two different directions, LA
Country and Southern Rock. Both of
these styles were instrumental in bringing country into the mainstream, as the
leading artists would be seen as both Country and Rock. LA Country represented the culmination in
experimentation fusing Country and Rock begun by the Byrds in the 1960’s and
further developed by The Flying Burrito Brothers. The preeminent band in this style was the Eagles, who topped both
the Country and Rock charts throughout the 1970’s and early 80’s. Southern Rock, a regional style mixing
traditional Country, Texas style blues and Hard Rock, was led by The Allman
Brothers Band, Charlie Daniels Band, Marshall Tucker and Lynyrd Skynard.
Take It Easy – The Eagles,
1972
Freebird – Lynyrd Skynard
Heavy
Metal
In
opposition to the quiet settings of the singer-songwriters, this musical style
emerged in the early 1970’s for the large arenas. With roots in early experimentation in guitar distortion and Jimi
Hendrix, guitarists such as Jimmy Page and his band, Led Zeppelin led the
development of heavy metal. From the
70’s to today, heavy metal continues to exist.
Most heavy metal bands point to Led Zeppelin as the model of this genre.
Stairway to Heaven - Led
Zeppelin
Punk
Disgusted
by a rock scene that they felt had become boring and much too mainstream,
artists in both the U.S. (Ramones) and England (Sex Pistols; Clash) looked to
shock the music scene with the punk revolution. The American punk bands looked to origins in “garage bands” and
mostly performed in two New York clubs- Max’s Kansas City and CBGB. Emphasis was never on playing ability, but
shock value and raw, driving rock.
I Want to be Sedated – The
Ramones 1978
New
Wave
Merging
both Punk and Pop, New Wave was more commercially oriented, with songs and
styles that were much more acceptable to radio and the mainstream. The Police (Sting) and REM were the new wave
bands that had the most lasting effect.
Once in a Lifetime – The
Talking Heads 1980
Losing My Religion – REM
I
Want My MTV…
In 1981, MTV brought the music video into the
mainstream. Music television combined
the visual (previously only seen live) with the audio presentation, changing
the way Americans received their music.
Two of the performers who benefited the most from MTV were Michael
Jackson and Madonna.
Thriller – Michael Jackson
Material Girl – Madonna
Hip Hop
Born
in the African-American urban neighborhoods, this musical style had brought the
same level of controversy as the drug affected music of the 1960’s. With themes ranging from love all the way to
violence, Rap has been criticized for its portrayal and acceptance of violence,
particularly against women and the police.
It has also been complemented for its honest portrayal of life in the
black urban centers. Unfortunately, violence has often followed its artists, in
much the same way that drugs followed many artists of the 1960’s drug
music.
Rappers Delight – Sugarhill
Gang 1979
Grunge
Hard
rock in the 1990’s was dominated by Grunge, which borrowed from Punk, garage
rock and Heavy Metal. Grunge developed
in Seattle and was led by Nirvana and its lead singer Kurt Cobain. Unfortunately, Cobain’s life was cut short by
his heroin addiction and suicide in 1994.
Smells Like Teen Spirit –
Nirvana 1991
