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The Sociology of American Popular Music (Soap) Unit 3

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The Sociology of American Popular Music (Soap) Unit 3 March 10, 2013 THE SOCIOLOGY OF AMERICAN POPULAR MUSIC (SOAP) UNIT 3 NOTES Rock and Roll 1 March 10, 2013 ROCK 'N' ROLL IN A HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXT Changes in the 1940s-1950s: Beginnings of Desegregation and Expanded American World View - in the years following WWII, returning veterans represented a wide range of races and ethnicities - President Harry Truman desegregated the U.S. Armed Forces in 1948, the beginning of the government's total desegregation at all levels of society - many returning soldiers brought brides home with them from overseas - many GIs began to share their broader world view, discoveries, and experiences with their friends and families - these factors contributed to a subtle but growing interest in other cultures - Americans were now becoming "more worldly," more accepting of people from backgrounds other than their own The Booming Postwar Economy - economy was strong in the U.S. after the war, and there was a growing belief that education was the key to future success - federal govt. responded in two important ways: 1) "GI Bill" was passed, providing funds to support veterans financially as they pursued their education; 2) federal and state funds set aside to build colleges/universities - there was a philosophical shift to providing higher education opportunities for all people, regardless of socioeconomic class - combination of a thriving economy and memories of the dreary, demoralizing Great Depression of the 1930s reinforced a collective hope in 1950s' adults to create a better world and future for their children --> many young people now had greater freedom to make decisions for themselves - they had more time for socializing, formed close bonds of friendship with their peers The Emerging Youth Culture and Economic Power - 1950s were a time of relative peace and prosperity - for many Americans, this new prosperity trickled down to teenagers whose earnings were no longer an essential component of the family's financial support 2 March 10, 2013 - parents wanted their children to enjoy economic and material comforts - many teens were now given an allowance or allowed to keep money earned from after- school jobs - teens now had discretionary income, giving them economic clout - the first teen movies catered to this youth market ("The Wild One," "Rebel Without a Cause," "Blackboard Jungle") - the first generation of American "teenagers" was created, and with it, a teenage identity separate from adults - teens had their own clothes, hairstyles, slang, and music (rock 'n' roll) - this "generation gap" that began in the 1950s grew to become a cultural revolution in the 1960s - rock music was everything teens wanted - it was loud, raucous, and sexual - the subject matter of rock lyrics was not profound (dancing, dating, love, cars, school), but it spoke directly to teens - rock 'n' roll was the antithesis of their parents' bland and nonthreatening songs Growth in the Music Industry - by the postwar era, the broadcast range of radio had been greatly expanded, and stations that had previously played exclusively to regional audiences were now accessible to many distant and diverse listeners, particularly at night when the airwaves were less crowded - the advent of television was soon to give the new rock 'n' roll stars a visual presence in the hearts and minds of teens - it's within this complex context of social, economic, and technological influences that rock 'n' roll was born The Birth of Rock 'n' Roll - by the late 1940s, black rhythm 'n' blues (R&B) was attracting a wider audience, many of whom where white teenagers - this phenomenon is called a crossover (a record intended for one market succeeds in another) 3 March 10, 2013 - in 1951, Alan Freed, a white disk jockey who had been influential in attracting white teenagers to the music, called the music "rock 'n' roll" - name was coined from a popular African-American slang phrase for sex that had appeared in many R&B lyrics - by the early 1950s, black R&B records were crossing over, making their way to the bottom of the white pop charts - influential record producers began to search for successful hits to "cover" by white musicians - a cover is a recording made subsequent to the original version that may or may not follow the the style or lyrics of the original - most early rock recordings were covers by white artists of black artists' previous R&B recordings - examples: "Shake, Rattle and Roll" by Joe Turner (covered by Bill Haley and the Comets), "You Ain't Nothin' But a Houndog" by Big Mama Thornton (covered by Elvis Presley) - these covers and crossovers were central factors in the erosion of racially based music boundaries and brought new stylistic influences PRIMARY MUSICAL INFLUENCES ON EARLY ROCK 'N' ROLL: 1. Rhythm 'n' Blues (R&B) - transformation in the late 1940s/early 1950s of blues forms into music that was used primarily for dancing - popular in big urban centers with large African-American populations such as Detroit and Chicago - popular with audiences who were finding the complex, intense bebop jazz styles too difficult to dance to and too hard to understand and appreciate - a few record companies had controlled recordings of blues music and they segregated the marketing of this "black" music under the category of "race records" - after WWII, when this racially based segregation was seen as increasingly offensive, the term "rhythm 'n' blues" replaced the older term 4 March 10, 2013 2. Gospel - a style of music that developed after the Civil War from the same roots as the blues - religious music that displayed characteristics of slave camp meetings and spirituals, using African traditions of call-and-response, improvisation, and the vocal stylings, rhythmic complexity and harmonic language that so frequently characterize African-American music - with the emotional involvement of the preacher and the congregation in the religious message, the music was characterized by exuberant handclapping, shouting, and dancing - many professional Gospel choirs toured and recorded in the 1930s/1940s 3. Country - developed out of the folk music traditions of immigrants from the British Isles who had settled into the mountain regions of what is now the southern and southwestern United States - with the invention of radio and the growing importance of recording technology in the late 1920s/early 1930s, this music was recorded and called "hillbilly" music and was made popular through various radio programs - in the following decades, country music developed into several styles - the ones that most influenced early rock 'n' roll were western swing (a fusion of country and jazz) and honky-tonk (amplified, danceable hard-edged style made popular in the bars and dance houses) 4. Tin-Pan Alley - name for a section in New York City lined with publishers specializing in popular songs - before radio recording, a song's popularity was determined by how many copies of sheet music it would sell - to make money, publishing firms hired lyricists and composers to create songs - one of their marketing techniques was to hire pianists and singers to "plug" a song (they would play and sing that publishing firm's songs on request by any customer who walked in the store) 5 March 10, 2013 - called "Tin-Pan Alley" because songwriter-journalist Monroe Rosenfield said the clanking and clinking of the of cheap pianos sounded to him like the rattling of tin pans (term coined between 1900 and 1903) - the term eventually was used for all the pop music from the late 19th century through the 1950s - rock 'n' roll's use of records replaced sheet music and signaled the end of "Tin-Pan Alley," but the legacy of light and easy to listen to pop music designed to be "popular" with a general audience endured Two Subgenres of Early Rock 'n' Roll: 1. Rockabilly - a fusion of "hillbilly" country music and R&B - Elvis Presley exemplified this style in his first recordings at Sun Records - "hillbilly" or country characteristics: steady metrical patterns, lead guitarist played sliding notes up the strings (like a steel guitar in country music), bass player slapped the strings across the fingerboard - "rock" characteristics: drummer emphasized the backbeats, songs were covered by white musicians of R&B recorded by African-Americans 2. Doo-Wop - African-American vocal groups that had begun singing secular versions of Gospel music used a lead singer who was accompanied by other singers who responded to the lead singer's lines - the responses included repeating a few words of the line, or singing "nonsense" syllables - "doo-wop" was the term for this kind of music, and it referred to the nonsense syllables that the backup singers used - the most successful doo-wop recordings were covers of African- American recordings by white groups, such as The Crew-Cuts' (a white group from Canada) version of The Chords' recording of "Sh-Boom" (1954) - the style was continued by the Platters, Drifters, and Coasters 6 March 10, 2013 Rock 'n' Roll's First Stars Bill Haley - his band, the Saddlemen, were country western, but sometimes performed R&B songs in a country style - changed name to Billy Hale and The Comets - created a hybrid style: country western mixed with R&B - example of this style was their biggest hit and the top-selling record of 1955, "Rock Around the Clock" (featured in the film Blackboard Jungle, a movie about 1950s teen rebellion) - the music's compelling dance rhythms, its lyrics, which spoke about teenage issues and concerns, and its rebelliousness and challenge to authority were
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