Post on 03-Sep-2014
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American 1950s experience
! Context of economic boom of post-war America - the real victor of the second world war. New confidence in super power status.
! As British Empire fell apart American influence across the world expanded.
! Huge military bases across the world – Japan, Germany, pacific islands, etc.
! Cold War started by 1949 and with death of Stalin (1953) Russia becomes the great evil.
! Era of McCarthyism – and political witch hunts. Conformity in dress and behavior the norm.
Post War Pop
! Swing lecture. ! Mainstream Jazz of Big Band. ! Solo singers – Crooners – Bing Crosby
to Frank Sinatra, Patti Page, etc. ! Billboard Charts listings. ! Music Industry Problems – The war, the
musicians strike, low sales of records, etc.
Ethnic Divide
! Southern states still segregated and Jim Crow Acts in force.
! Ku klux Clan and lynching in place. ! Most blacks did not vote and had little
political clout. ! Big difference and separation between
Northern and Southern black communities.
The New Blues - Chicago Blues
! New forms of Urban Black Blues develops in Northern Cities in the late 40s and 50s.
! In particular amplified `Chicago’ blues becomes a phenomena in clubs.
! Chess Records (run by Chess family) make a number of black singers big stars – Howlin Wolf (Dust my broom), John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, etc.
! Increasing amplified and incorporation of more instruments into bands – drum kit, bass, saxophones, etc.
! Delta Blues ! Black Country Blues ! White Country Blues ! Jazz Combo Blues ! Skiffle
Forerunners and Influences
Robert Johnson
! Crossroads
Earlier Blues ! 50s Black blues used a musical language developed
from earlier forms. 12 bar blues, 8-bar blues, tonal bends and blue notes, call and response, spoken phrases, shouts and cries, language that is direct and pithy with full of double meaning.
! 1. Delta Blues – individual and self accompanied singers of 20s and 30s. E.g. Robert Johnson and Mississippi John Hurt. (also Texas and Eastern Seaboard styles). Recorded in the South for dislocated black communities in the Northern Industrial cities. Small sales and small independent labels. Artists get next to nothing.
! Groups Blues – string bands, Jug bands and traveling show blues.
Mississippi John Hurt
! Hot time in old town tonight
Spike driver
Post War Blues ! City Blues – either 1.piano accompanied with
male or female singers Lightnin’ Slim or 2. With string bass, drums, electric guitar and harmonica. John Lee Hooker.
! Urban Blues – big band sound with saxophones, free vocal phrases and no harmonica – often fully arranged e.g. Joe Jordan. Kansas City, Texas and Memphis – Atlantic Records – biggest and longest lasting Black (or Race label)
! Soul Music – beginnings of blues, jazz, gospel synthesis - Ray Charles.
! Folk Influence - Leadbelly - sad laments
Leadbelly
! Boll Weevil
White Country Blues
! As part of country music ! Yodeling and hiccuping style ! 12-bar blues form ! Jimmy Rodgers ! Hank Williams
Hank Williams
Chicago Blues – Muddy Waters
Jazz 1. In pre-war ear Jazz was seen as urban black music – in
contrast to Blues which was seen as essentially a country black genre.
2. During the war years Jazz becomes mainstream and is the dominant force in the big band era. Commercialisation sets in. Like Glen Miller, Louis Armstrong is a huge commercial star. White and black big bands – did not mix.
3. In the post war period – jazz effectively becomes the art music of the urban black (and some whites) while the strands of black pop come together to form rhythm and blues.
4. Jazz turns away from popular audiences with Bebop and Harp Bop etc, and fragments its styles and audiences. Charlie Parker to Miles Davis, via Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane. Occasional appearances in pop charts.
Deregulation of Radio
! Plethora of small radio stations across America give rise to cross community awareness of styles. White teenagers listing to blues, blacks to country singers, etc.
! Many black artists with up-tempo dance styles appeal to broad audiences – Big Joe Turner, Louis Jordan, Influence of Swing Jazz.
Big Joe Turner
Rhythm and Blues
! A commercial derivative of urbanised country and blues.
! Blues band accompaniment, novelty lyrics, some non-blues forms – Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard.
! Attempts to reach a wide, predominantly black audience using a relatively unadorned sound.
Bo Diddley
! Hey Bo Diddley
1955
Rock and Roll
! Honking saxes, heavy offbeat, echo effects, gimmickry, teen lyrics.
! Bill Haley, Fats Domino, Elvis Presley ! Any singer black or white who reaches
a young, predominantly white audience with something approximating a black vocal style.
Bill Haley
! Rock around the clock
Commercialisation ! Charts listings – Billboard `race’ charts changed to
rhythm and blues in 1949. Separate charts listings for country music and white pop.
! Radio air time ! TV appearances ! Magazines, fanzines etc ! Gathers pace after 1956 with Elvis ! Elvis becomes the first major pop star of the post war
era and galvanizes the industry.
Black to White
! Crossover of genre ! Cover versions ! Singing with a black blues style ! Creating Rock and Roll ! Elvis made it acceptable to white
America ! Commercial industry took off on the
back of his success
Elvis
! 1. Discovered by Sam Philips Sun Records in Memphis. Started 1950 first releases 1952 recording black artists – and country artists (also discovered Johnny Cash).
2. 19 year old truck driver Elvis had a session with Philips and made it with That’s All Right Mama – the rest is history. Taken on by RCA in 1956 and carried the label for 20 years.
3. During his career he made over 30 films, each worse than the last, 146 Hot 100 hits and 75 chart albums- but few good recordings after the first 19 months.
4. After 1962 no hits at all . Period of recluse and then attempt to reinvent himself as Las Vegas singer – a sad caricature of himself.
Hayley to Elvis
Elvis
! Heart Break Hotel
Black Artists of Late 50s
! 1. Chuck Berry ! 2. Fats Domino ! 3. Little Richard ! 4. Bo Diddley
White Artists
! Bill Haley ! Carl Perkins ! Jerry Lee Lewis
Buddy Holly ! Became the model for pop acts for much of the sixties. ! Guitar band (with the Crickets) with new innovations in studio
sound (particularly in recording drums). ! Signed with Decca in 1956 - first number one `Peggy Sue’ in
1957. ! Hiccupping vocal style a throw back to hillbilly country styles of
30s. Yet looked forward in many ways - wrote his own material, recording innovations (double tracking, etc), line up (use of strat)
! Early death stopped a promising career but he showed what was possible an electric guitar band.
White Artist of late 50s
Peggy Sue 1957
That’ll be the day – The beginning of the
guitar band 1957
Bibliography ! Clarke, Donald (1995), The Rise and
Fall of Popular Music, Penguin, London ! Covach, J and Boone, G, (1997)
Understanding Rock, Oxford, OUP ! Laughey, Dan (2006) Music and Youth
Culture, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press
! Frith, S and Goodwin, A (1990), On Rock, Pop and the Written Word, Routledge, London