High Spirits 2: Culture Club

1 Culture club

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Nashville –country and western

The USA – a music city tour 1 Leggi il brano e scrivi sulla cartina i nomi delle città e i tipi di musica del riquadro. Detroit Nashville New York Seattle country and western grunge rock hip hop Motown

Nashville, Tennessee country and western

Country & western Motown

Country and western music developed from the Detroit, Michigan, in the north-east of the USA, folk music of immigrants to the USA during the was once famous because of its car factories. nineteenth century. The immigrants came from Its nickname was Motor City. A lot of migrants, Eastern Europe and made their homes in the mostly black, came to the factories to get jobs. south of the USA, in the state of Tennessee. The In 1959 a songwriter called Berry Gordy left his immigrants sang sad songs about their lives in job at one of the factories and started a record a new country – songs about love, hard work label called Motown Records. He created the and suffering. ﬁrst girl group and boy bands, and described the music as ‘the sound of young America’. The Nashville, the capital of Tennessee, is also the music was fun, easy-to-remember pop songs. capital of country and western music. In the All the singers were black, smart and good- 1920s, a national radio programme called looking, and some were very young. Michael The Grand Ole Opry began there. It became Jackson was originally a Motown artist with his a very popular live show. Many country and brothers in the band, The Jackson Five. Other western singers, including Elvis Presley, started great Motown stars included Stevie Wonder and their careers on this show. Marvin Gaye. 2

2 Rispondi alle domande. ES 1 Where did the ﬁrst country and western singers come from?

2 What is The Grand Ole Opry?

3 When did the Motown record label begin?

4 What was Detroit’s nickname?

Hip hop 5 Which Motown group was Michael Jackson in? Hip hop describes the music, dance and graffiti that began in the 1970s in the Bronx area of 6 What does ‘rapping’ mean? New York, on the north-east coast of the USA. Black DJs began to talk over the records that they 7 How did hip hop spread around the world in played. They called this ‘MC-ing’, or ‘rapping’. the 1980s? The words of rap songs were often about racial or social problems. In the past, the many gangs in New York had a culture of fighting. Rapping, 8 What two music genres developed into grunge break-dancing and graffiti competitions began rock? to replace this fighting culture. Later, rap records became popular with white people in the city’s night clubs. In the 1980s, music videos and the 3 4.02 Ascolta la canzone. Decidi a quale MTV television channel made hip hop popular all over the world. genere musicale appartiene: se al country and western, al Motown, all’hip hop o al grunge.

Presentazione orale 4 Project Prepara una presentazione orale sui tuoi gusti musicali. Prendi degli appunti usando le seguenti domande per aiutarti. Parla per circa 2 minuti. ES T s What are your favourite types of music? s Why do you like them? s Which particular singers and bands do you like? s Are there any types of music that you don’t like? s Why don’t you like them? Grunge rock Look! Around 1990 grunge rock began in Seattle, Assicurati di saper fare degli esempi durante una in Washington State on the north-west coast of presentazione orale. the USA. Grunge rock developed from punk s for example per esempio rock and heavy metal. The bands dressed in I really like relaxing classical music, for ‘anti-fashion’ clothes and played loud guitars. example, music by Mozart or Chopin. Their songs were often very negative. Grunge like became popular all over the world for a few s come / quale years. Nirvana, the most successful grunge My favourite singers are American hip hop like rock band, became even more popular after its artists De La Soul. singer, Kurt Cobain, died in 1994.

Glossary

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