GOING ELECTRIC: HOW ELECTRICITY HELPED BRING THE GUITAR TO THE FOREFRONT OF POPULAR MUSIC

OVERVIEW

ESSENTIAL QUESTION How did the electrification, amplification and design of the guitar facilitate its emergence as a dominant instrument of popular music?

OVERVIEW In the early 20th century, the guitar was a purely acoustic instrument. Its limited dynamic range typically relegated it to a supporting role in ensemble performance. Surrounded on the bandstand by horns, drums and other stringed instruments, the sound of an acoustic guitar was barely audible. In the early 1930s, as advances in microphone technology raised the volume of the singer, the invention of the electromagnetic “pickup” allowed guitar players to turn up the volume as well. Situated on the body of the instrument just below the strings, the pickup created magnetic fields that converted the vibrations of the strings into electrical signals. Sent from the guitar through a cable, these signals were transmitted to an amplified loudspeaker (the “amplifier”), and the guitar became substantially louder. In 1936, Gibson introduced the ES-150 model, a mass-produced guitar that included a mounted electromagnetic pickup. As guitarists embraced the electrified instrument, the perception and uses of the guitar began to change dramatically. For instance, Oklahoma musician Charlie Christian adapted the language of jazz soloing, previously performed mostly on woodwinds, brass and piano, to the electric guitar’s fretboard, moving the instrument to a featured spot on the bandstand. As the electric guitar’s popularity increased in the 1940s and 50s, new musical styles emerged, including the Urban Blues performed by southern musicians who came north to industrial cities during the Great Migration. These musicians left rural regions such as the Mississippi Delta to seek better working conditions in large, northern metropolitan areas. Once in the North, musicians performed to larger and louder audiences, and the electric guitar helped them to be heard above the crowd.

SOUNDBREAKING: EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS FOR THE EIGHT-PART PBS SERIES GOING ELECTRIC: HOW ELECTRICITY HELPED BRING THE GUITAR TO THE FOREFRONT OF POPULAR MUSIC

OVERVIEW (CONTINUED) In the early 1950s, “going electric” was more than just a pragmatic decision, it was an idea that reflected the spirit of the times. Commercial culture was littered with products promoting an emerging vision of “modernity” in which life was improved by the newest, the fastest and most advanced...of almost everything. Razors, toasters, automobiles and guitars: all were offered as a gateway to the future. In addition to turning up the guitar’s volume, electricity was touted as making cooking, shaving and woodworking easier, quicker and more precise. These advances were in a technology’s function but promoted through its design. For instance, the stylized curves of the 1952 Fender Telecaster—the first mass-produced solid-body guitar—bore some resemblance to the “modern” shapes of both jukeboxes and the Oldsmobile “Rocket 88” sedan, all designed for the contemporary experience. When a guitarist strapped on a Telecaster he was wearing the look of the “modern” and creating new, “electrified” sounds. By the late 1960s, sales of electric guitars rose to nearly 1.5 million per year, far beyond the number sold a decade earlier. This lesson investigates how electrifying the guitar was a contributing factor to the emergence of a sound that came to define Rock and Roll and, to a large extent, mid- 20th century American popular culture. Featuring content from the PBS Soundbreaking episode, “Going Electric,” which includes the guitar playing of luminaries Charlie Christian, Pete Townsend, Muddy Waters and Jimi Hendrix, this lesson examines the spirit of curiosity, adaptation and invention that characterized the early 1950s and in the 1960s led to the guitar’s emergence as a versatile and attractive instrument for musicians and as the quintessential Rock and Roll icon.

SOUNDBREAKING: EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS FOR THE EIGHT-PART PBS SERIES GOING ELECTRIC: HOW ELECTRICITY HELPED BRING THE GUITAR TO THE FOREFRONT OF POPULAR MUSIC

OBJECTIVES

Upon completion of this lesson, students will:

1. KNOW (KNOWLEDGE): 2. BE ABLE TO (SKILLS):

• About the technology used to transform the • Analyze the effects of technological acoustic guitar into an “electric” instrument advancement on popular culture and art

• How electromagnetism can be used to transmit • Examine visual texts for information, point of sound view and argument

• About the process through which an • Evaluate the effects of technology on history electromagnetic pickup amplifi es the sound of and culture a guitar • Integrate and evaluate content presented in • How “electrifying” the guitar changed diverse media formats perceptions of the instrument as well as its role in American music ensembles

• How the emergence of the electric guitar relates to signifi cant cultural shifts in mid-20th century America, such as the Great Migration

• How the marketing of the electric guitar fi t in to 1950s commercial culture

• How the sounds of a popular instrument can refl ect broader patterns in American culture

ACTIVITIES

MOTIVATIONAL ACTIVITY:

Ask your students:

• How would you describe the guitar John Lee Hooker plays in Image 1?

• How would you describe the guitar Brian May plays in Image 2?

• Why do you think there is a “sound hole” below the strings on Hooker’s guitar but not on May’s guitar?

• Which musician do you think was making louder music? Why?

SOUNDBREAKING: EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS FOR THE EIGHT-PART PBS SERIES GOING ELECTRIC: HOW ELECTRICITY HELPED BRING THE GUITAR TO THE FOREFRONT OF POPULAR MUSIC

PROCEDURE: 1. Distribute Handout 1: The Guitar - From ways in which you think the marketing of this Acoustic to Electric. Read the handout instrument might have appealed to people out loud as a class and then ask your interested in technology in general? students: 4. Tell your students that you will now follow • Why do you think guitarists wanted the guitar the guitar through its transition from to become louder? acoustic to electric along with a group of • In what ways might the volume increase of musicians that made the same transition. the guitar affect a musical group as a whole? Play Clip 2, Soundbreaking - Blues (Possible answers may include that groups Musicians Migrate to Chicago. Ask your became louder or that they became smaller students: due to the instrument’s sound being capable of fi lling more space.) • Why does this clip suggest it was uncommon for Blues musicians in the Mississippi Delta in 2. Play Clip 1, Soundbreaking - Charlie the 1920s and 30s to use electric guitars? Christian & the Introduction of the • Why does Muddy Waters say that he, and so Electric Guitar. Ask students: many other musicians moved from Mississippi and the Delta region to Chicago and other • How does this clip suggest that the role of the northern cities? guitar changed after it became amplifi ed? • How do you think moving from a rural to • How does this clip suggest that Charlie a metropolitan area may have affected Christian changed the common perception of musicians’ opportunities to perform? In which guitar players through his work with the Benny location do you think they performed to more Goodman Sextet? What did he do that previous people? Why? guitarists had not? • How does this clip suggest these migrant 3. Break students into small groups and musicians made use of the new possibilities of distribute Handout 2: How the Guitar the electric guitar? Pickup Works and Handout 3: The Solid- • Thinking of a musician such as Muddy Body Guitar. Have students read the Waters, who moved from a rural community handouts together and then discuss the without electricity to a major city, what do following questions as a class: you think a new instrument like the electric guitar might have represented? (Encourage • In what ways do you think the electromagnetic students to consider how an electric guitar pickup led to the guitar becoming a solid-body might be a symbol of wealth and sophistication instrument? to a person who grew up poor and without electricity.) • How do you think the solid-body guitar furthered the process of making the guitar a louder 5. In preparation for the Advertising in the instrument? (Students should recognize that the Early 1950s Gallery Walk activity, display reduced resonance in the body of the instrument allowed for a more direct capturing of the sound slides 3-11 each as a separate station and eliminated feedback, which then allowed throughout the classroom. Break your amplifi ers to be turned up louder.) students into small groups, and have • Who do you think might have been most each group name a “scribe” who will take interested in making louder music? What age notes. Instruct the groups to walk the group do you think they were? gallery, spending roughly a minute at each advertisement. • Looking at the diagram included on the advertisement in this handout, are there any

SOUNDBREAKING: EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS FOR THE EIGHT-PART PBS SERIES GOING ELECTRIC: HOW ELECTRICITY HELPED BRING THE GUITAR TO THE FOREFRONT OF POPULAR MUSIC

PROCEDURE: (CONTINUED) • Does this advertisement feature any references to something other than the product itself?

• Does this advertisement seem similar to any of the other advertisements you’ve seen today?

• Add any other notes about this advertisement that stand out to you.

6. Have students return to their seats. Then discuss their notes from the Gallery Walk as a class and ask:

• Do you notice any recurring themes in these advertisements? What are they, and what do they seem to suggest about the products in general?

• In what ways is the advertising for Fender instruments similar to the advertisements for the other, non-musical items?

• Do you get any general feelings of what, in the broadest sense, these advertisements are suggesting about the mood of the time period?

• What do you think a Telecaster might have represented to a suburban teenager?

• Having seen these advertisements, what do you think a Fender Telecaster might have represented to a migrant musician such as Muddy Waters?

7. Tell your students that in the years following the release of the Telecaster, guitarists and manufacturers created other ways to change the tone of the instrument. Have students return to their groups and open Have the scribe record the group’s notes the Soundbreaking Guitar Effects TechTool. using the following questions at each Allow students a short time to experiment station: with the TechTool and the three guitar effects it simulates. Then ask the class: • What adjectives do you see used to describe this product?

• What does this advertisement suggest this product could do for you?

• What is the purpose of this product?

• Is this a completely new product, or an older product that has somehow been updated?

SOUNDBREAKING: EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS FOR THE EIGHT-PART PBS SERIES GOING ELECTRIC: HOW ELECTRICITY HELPED BRING THE GUITAR TO THE FOREFRONT OF POPULAR MUSIC

PROCEDURE: (CONTINUED) • How would you describe the sound of in each successive performance.) “distortion”? What do you think it means to “distort” a sound? 9. Play Clip 3, Soundbreaking - The Development of the Fuzz Tone. Ask your • Does distortion give you any emotional feelings that are different from a “clean” sound? students: (Encourage students to discuss whether distortion sounds “angry” or “mean” and also where they • How do you think intentionally distorted guitar usual hear the effect.) might have sounded to people invested in the ideas of “progress” offered by the products you • Why do you think the “Fuzz” effect got its name? saw on the gallery walk? (Encourage your students Does it sound different than the distortion to you? to reconcile the ideas of technology as a means of perfection and the deliberate use of something that sounds “broken.”) • How does “chorus” affect the sound? Can you tell what is happening when you use it? (Students may suggest that the sound is “doubled” and • What connection do you notice between the song chorusing is a process adding layers to the sound.) in this clip, “Rocket 88,” and an advertisement in the Gallery Walk? In what ways might the “distortion” or “fuzz” on the guitar also connect to • What adjective would you use to describe these the theme of that advertisement? (Students might effects? (Encourage your students to think if answer that the “rocket” implies space travel, and any of the sounds make the guitar “tougher” or to the ears of those only accustomed to guitar “smoother” or “scary” for instance.)performance with a pure “clean” tone, the “fuzz” might have might help a singer who feels vulnerable in the sounded “alien.”) studio? (Students might mention that splicing allows a singer to pick only the moments they like

SUMMARY ACTIVITY:

• In what ways do you think the development of the electric guitar might be related to American life more broadly in the 20th century? What do you think this new instrument might have represented to people beyond its direct musical implications?

• Can you think of any other instruments or types of music that are tied to technological developments?

• Are there any types of current music or instruments that you think represent a similar connection to technology in American culture?

WRITING PROMPTS:

1. Have students research the rise of the guitar as the dominant instrument of Rock and Roll in the years following the breakthrough success of The Beatles. Why did the guitar replace the piano as the genre’s “lead” instrument? Why did young people gravitate to the instrument? Have students research popular bands of the mid and late 1960s, sales fi gures of the guitar, and how the instrument was represented in popular culture. Students may also wish to view these other lessons on TeachRock: “The Birth of the Electric Guitar” and “The Rise of the Electric Guitar as Rock and Roll’s Dominant Symbol.”

2. Conduct a brief discussion with the class about the historical and social context

SOUNDBREAKING: EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS FOR THE EIGHT-PART PBS SERIES GOING ELECTRIC: HOW ELECTRICITY HELPED BRING THE GUITAR TO THE FOREFRONT OF POPULAR MUSIC

WRITING PROMPTS: (CONTINUED) surrounding Jimi Hendrix’s ascension to popularity in the 1960s. Topics of discussion should include how during this time in the United States, the Civil Rights Movement was occurring, the President of the country was assassinated, Martin Luther King Junior was also assassinated, the U.S. began military operations in Vietnam and anti-war protests, as well as numerous social and counterculture movements, were taking place.

3. Display Image 3 of Jimi Hendrix playing in Wilson Pickett’s band and Image 4 of the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

4. Ask students to conduct research and write a brief essay addressing either of the following questions

• How would you describe the change in Jimi Hendrix’s appearance from when he played backup in Wilson Pickett’s band to when he was the frontman of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and how does his look, along with his music, refl ect the counterculture movement of the late-1960s?

• Given the social context of Jimi Hendrix’s mainstream success in the late-1960s, why do you think that his guitar playing was identifi able and appealing to many, despite being so radical, and how might it relate to Jeff Beck’s quote in Clip 3 about the guitar sounding “threatening”?

EXTENSION ACTIVITIES:

Students may conduct the following Science Experiments via Exploratorium

• Demonstration of sound being transmitted through electromagnetic fi elds, similar to how the guitar pickup functions - Modulated Coils Experiment

• Demonstration of how an electrical signal can produce sound through a speaker - Cup Speaker Experiment

SOUNDBREAKING: EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS FOR THE EIGHT-PART PBS SERIES GOING ELECTRIC: HOW ELECTRICITY HELPED BRING THE GUITAR TO THE FOREFRONT OF POPULAR MUSIC

STANDARDS

NEW JERSEY STATE LEARNING STANDARDS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS: READING

NJSLSA.R1: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logistical inferences and relevant connections from it; cite specifi c textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

NJSLSA.R7- Intergrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visuallly and quantitatively, as well as in words.

NJSLSA.R10: Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proiciently with scaffolding as needed.

NEW JERSEY STATE LEARNING STANDARDS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS: WRITING

NJSLSA.W1: Write argyments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and suffcient evidence.

NJSLSA.W2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

NJSLSA.W4: Produce celar and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

NJSLSA.W7: Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects, utilizing and inquiry-based research process, based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

NJSLSA.W8: Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism

NJSLSA.W9: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, refl ection, and research.

NEW JERSEY STATE LEARNING STANDARDS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS: SPEAKING AND LISTENING

NJSLSA.SL1: Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively

NJSLSA.SL2: Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally

SOUNDBREAKING: EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS FOR THE EIGHT-PART PBS SERIES GOING ELECTRIC: HOW ELECTRICITY HELPED BRING THE GUITAR TO THE FOREFRONT OF POPULAR MUSIC

NJSLSA.SL3: Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric

NJSLSA.SL4: Present information, fi ndings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience

NJSLSA.SL5: Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations

NJSLSA.SL6: Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate

NEW JERSEY STATE LEARNING STANDARDS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS: LANGUAGE

NJSLSA.L1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

NJSLSA.L2: Deonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

NJSLSA.L3: Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening

NJSLSA L4: Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and ,utltiple-meaning words and phrases by using context clues, analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting general and specialized refence materials, as appropriate.

NJSLSA.L5: Demonstrate understanding of fi gurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings

NJSLSA.L6: Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain- specifi c words and phrases suffi cient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression

SOCIAL STUDIES – NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE SOCIAL STUDIES (NCSS)

Theme 1: Culture

Theme 2: Time, Continuity, and Change

Theme 3: People, Places, and Environments

Theme 4: Individual, Development and Identity

SOUNDBREAKING: EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS FOR THE EIGHT-PART PBS SERIES GOING ELECTRIC: HOW ELECTRICITY HELPED BRING THE GUITAR TO THE FOREFRONT OF POPULAR MUSIC

Theme 5: Individuals, Groups, and Institutions

Theme 7: Production, Distribution, and Consumption

Theme 8: Science, Technology, and Society

NATIONAL STANDARDS FOR MUSIC EDUCATION

Core Music Standard: Connecting

Connecting 10: Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make music. Demonstrate how interests, knowledge, and skills relate to personal choices and intent when creating, performing, and responding to music..

Enduring Understanding: Musicians connect their personal interests, experiences, ideas, and knowledge to creating, performing and responding.

Essential Question: How do musicians make meaningful connections to creating, performing, and responding? Demonstrate how interests, knowledge, and skills relate to personal choices and intent when creating, performing, and responding to music?

Connecting 11: Relate musical ideas and works to varied contexts and daily life to deepen understanding. Demonstrate understanding of relationships between music and the other arts, other disciplines, varied contexts, and daily life..

Enduring Understanding: Understanding connections to varied contexts and daily life enhances musicians’ creating, performing, and responding.

Essential Question: How do the other arts, other disciplines, contexts and daily life inform creating, performing, and responding to music?

RESOURCES

VIDEO RESOURCES FEATURED PEOPLE • Soundbreaking – Blues Musicians Migrate to Chicago • Muddy Waters • Soundbreaking – The Development of the Fuzz Tone • Soundbreaking – Charlie Christian and the HANDOUTS Introduction of the Electric Guitar • Handout 1: The Guitar - From Acoustic To Electric • Handout 2: How the Guitar Pickup Works • Handout 3: The Solid-Body Guitar

SOUNDBREAKING: EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS FOR THE EIGHT-PART PBS SERIES