Teenage Symphonies, Hitsville USA, and More from the Early 60S.Key

Home , Surf music, The Ronettes

Warning: These slides are intended for student reference only. Distributing these slides to others, whether on campus or off, is a violation of Northwestern University’s Academic Integrity Policy.

Subject to removal if lecture attendance declines. Twistin': Teenage Symphonies, Hitsville USA, and More from the Early 60s Reminder: ! Assignment #2 due Monday, 2/17, by 11:59pm Last time: There’s something “queer” here…weirdness Youth market is about establishing boundaries of a niche group of consumers around the troubling of boundaries

= Rock n Roll But what about the “political” energies of this kind of transgression? race, gender, class, region through the prism of age

A “youthquake” developing

one last example…Bo Diddley Bo Diddley (Elias Otha Bates) b. 1928 d. 2008 Twistin': Teenage Symphonies, Hitsville USA, and More from the Early 60s How did American pop music “twist” and turn in the early 1960s?

new hybrids between

high and low

humorous and serious

black and white

male and female

democratic and hierarchical Democratic: New kinds of dancing

Hierarchical: The emergence of the producer

New hybrids, ironies of the democratic and hierarchical Democratic: New kinds of dancing

Chubby Checker b. 1941, “The Twist” (1960) Dick Clark b. 1929 d. 2012, American Bandstand, 1952-1989

Conway Twitty (b. 1933 d. 1993), Chubby Checker, Dick Clark “Land of a Thousand Dances” (1966) by…

The dance “fad” — Shift from couple dancing to single-group dancing

…Wilson Pickett (b. 1941 d. 2006) Hierarchical: The emergence of the producer

Jerry Leiber (b. 1933-d. 2011) and Mike Stoller (b. 1933) Mixing high and low: from R&B to R&R to “Sweet Soul” “Brill Building” Era Tin Pan Alley Redux?

Carole King (b. 1942) and Gerry Gofﬁn (b. 1939) Tin Pan Alley Redux?

Yes: song factories mode of production

No: new emphasis on hybrids, innovations

High and low mixed: the “single” as a “teenage symphony” The producer as a star The label as a star: Philles, Motown

The female voice…democraticizing But paradoxically through producer-based, label-based system Phil Spector (b. 1939), Wall of Sound Production, and the Girl Groups

w/ The Ronettes

Hitsville, USA: Motown and the “Sound of Young America”

Berry Gordy, Jr. b. 1929 Hybridizing place: Detroit but USA (even world) Hybridizing race: African-American owned but for a crossover audience

Surﬁn’ USA: Brian Wilson (b. 1941), The Beach Boys, and California A Subcultural Sound: Surf Music & Culture

Dick Dale b. 1937 “Surﬁn’ USA” (1963) to this: “Good Vibrations” in the studio, 1966 Wilson as writer/producer/performer = an “auteur” who does it all How did American pop music “twist” and turn in the early 1960s?