MUSICAL JOURNEYS DVD Rock Roots Item No. 5777 ROCK ROOTS A MUSICAL JOURNEY TRACING THE ROOTS AND RHYTHMS OF AMERICAN POP MUSIC CONTENTS Ethnic Folk Music Blues Dixieland Swing Era of Big Bands Rhythm and Blues Country Music Rockabilly & Early Rock n’ Roll Regional Sounds The British are Coming! Technology and Music Rap RockRoots Rap References, Activities, Quiz, Vocabulary, Musical Styles ETHNIC FOLK MUSIC To trace the true roots of rock n’ roll we must dig deep into the past, before electric guitars, amplifiers, MTV, CD players and even record albums. The first immigrant settlers arrived in America during the 1600s and thousands more came during the 1700s and 1800s, all venturing for different reasons: prosperity, religious or political freedom, and some under the restrictions of slavery or indenture. They came from all over the world—Europe, Africa, Russia, the Middle East, the Far East—and brought with them their own culture, food, values, traditions, art, clothing, and music. This early folk music was sung and played on acoustic instruments and was limited to a small circle of people listening and often dancing. In many cases the music and dance went hand in hand. Often used as a recreational tool, music was played for fun and relaxation after a long work day. Each ethnic and cultural group had its own dance music, and each contributed to the concept of dancing to a beat—a factor that would lead to rock n’ roll. Rock Roots has selected some Irish jigs, played on mandolin, to exemplify this early acoustic, ethic folk-dance music. ©2002 Music in Motion • 800-445-0649 • fax 972-943-8906 • www.musicmotion.com 1 MUSICAL JOURNEYS DVD Rock Roots Item No. 5777 BLUES One of the most influential roots of rock n’ roll is the blues. Blues is more than a musical style: it is a feeling expressing the burden, frustration and poverty of Blacks’ lives following the slavery era. Black field hands would make up simple repetitive chants or “hollers” to help pass the long hours and ease the pain of their difficult labor. Traditionally, Black musicians would accompany themselves on old guitars and perform solo style for friends and family. One of the signature sounds of the early blues era was the use of “bottleneck” guitar playing. The musician would actually cut off the top of a bottle and slide it across the strings to produce a mournful, crying type of sound. This technique, which produces glissandos and deep vibrations, is known as "slide guitar." Today a metal "slide" usually replaces the bottleneck, but this technique is still used by some pop and rock artists. Around the 1920s, an amazing invention came along that would change music forever. The phonograph allowed music to expand beyond the family and community. The old records were 78 rpm, heavy, and contained only one song on each side. Significant to blues, recordings could be made by a musician in Alabama or Mississippi and be heard by other Blacks who had moved away from their southern homes. DIXIELAND Dixieland was born in New Orleans around 1900, and had its roots in the traditional marching band, ragtime, blues, and gospel music. Dixieland bands usually consisted of a cornet, clarinet, trombone, piano, drums and sometimes a tuba, banjo, or bass. In this style, collective improvisation—a type of musical conversation among the melody instruments—plays a major part. Like a 3-way “call and response,” the first voice (usually the cornet or trumpet) states the melodic theme, answered in turn by the clarinet and trombone, which embellish and elaborate on the melody. In addition to collectively improvising on the melody, the clarinet harmonizes in thirds or sixth, and the trombone plays simple auxiliary bass parts called “tailgating,” sliding from note to note. The piano, banjo, tuba, and bass provide harmonic and rhythmic support, and the drums usually play straight 4 beats per measure without drastic accents, true to the marching band tradition of Dixieland. Solos are infrequent and take the form of modified melodic interpretations in 2 or 4-bar phrases. ©2002 Music in Motion • 800-445-0649 • fax 972-943-8906 • www.musicmotion.com 2 MUSICAL JOURNEYS DVD Rock Roots Item No. 5777 Dixieland is a rollicking, jubilant, feel-good music of celebration, whether in Mardi Gras parades or jazz funeral parades, which you can still witness in New Orleans today. Chicago Dixieland of the 1920s differs from its New Orleans counterpart. In the Chicago band a saxophone was often added, a guitar might be substituted for a banjo, a trumpet for a cornet, and a bass for a tuba. With more instruments, solos became more important than in the ensemble sound of the New Orleans collective improvisational style. Added instruments also contributed to a more complex and hard-driving sound than the “let the good times roll” New Orleans band. Like the hustle-bustle of busy city life, Chicago Dixieland tempos got faster than in the slower-paced South, rhythm sections began to accent beats 2 and 4 in each measure, and the dominant rhythmic figure was the driving dotted eighth and sixteenth note pattern. THE SWING ERA OF BIG BANDS As musicians started meeting and playing together in cities such as New Orleans, bands developed, grew in size, and added more varied instruments, including sax, trumpet, trombone, tuba, piano, and drums The energetic, more march-like dotted eighth and sixteenth-note rhythm pattern of Dixieland mellowed into a swing- like triplet pattern in 4/4 time, while still emphasizing syncopation and stressing the off- beats (2 and 4). This new swing rhythm was ideal for dancing. Throughout World War II, dancing was a popular outlet from the stress of the times. Thanks to the technology of radio and films, Big Band swing music was universally available and popular throughout the world. Nazi Germany banned it during the war because of its African roots and American themes of freedom and individuality. People were still dancing through the 1940s as this “big” music evolved into the Big Band sound that gave us such famous bandleaders and composers as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, and Tommy Dorsey. Because Big Band music accompanied dancing, the music was usually written down or arranged rather than improvised, featuring different sections of the band more often than soloists. ©2002 Music in Motion • 800-445-0649 • fax 972-943-8906 • www.musicmotion.com 3 MUSICAL JOURNEYS DVD Rock Roots Item No. 5777 RHYTHM AND BLUES With the invention and development of the electric guitar in the late 1930s and into the 1940s, the guitar began to compete with the louder brass instruments, and in fact, became the lead instrument in many instances. The highly charged electric guitar provided a new energetic beat for dancing. The electric guitar sound, coupled with a smaller, more economical section of backing musicians, became known as Rhythm and Blues. By coupling the traditional, simple blues chord progressions with more intricate rhythms of the evolving big bands, rhythm and blues was able to reflect the harder, more gutsy urban scene in which it thrived. Artists such as B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and John Lee Hooker mastered this electric blues medium. Chicago and Memphis became the main centers for this exciting, raw, energetic musical form, and radio helped spread this new sound across America. COUNTRY MUSIC As radio proliferated in America during the 1930s and 1940s, another type of simple, danceable music grew out of the rural, agricultural culture of the South and Midwest. Rather than relying on the hard-driving dance beats so prevalent in Black rhythm and blues, this rural White folk music featured simple melodies and harmonies. It often depicted stories of the common family most people could relate to. Country music harkened back to the days of acoustic instruments, featuring guitars, fiddles, banjos, and later more exotic instruments such as the pedal steel guitar. To this day, country music retains a largely White audience and holds fiercely to traditional American values such as family, patriotism, and hard work, plus themes of nostalgia, broken relationships, betrayal, hard times, prison, and "booze." Even in songs with negative themes, country music often displays a sense of humor.in its lyrics. The Grand Ole Opry, a live radio show from Nashville, Tennessee, was the most important venue for rising new artists and is still a major showcase of country music. Aside from the Nashville-based country sound, Texas Swing and Bluegrass music also contributed to the growing country scene. Artists such as Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, and Bob Wills paved the way for many popular artists today. ©2002 Music in Motion • 800-445-0649 • fax 972-943-8906 • www.musicmotion.com 4 MUSICAL JOURNEYS DVD Rock Roots Item No. 5777 ROCKABILLY AND EARLY ROCK N’ ROLL As post World War II euphoria extended into the early 1950s, dance music was still racially separated. The two main “pop” types of dance were Black- oriented rhythm and blues, with a characteristically harder-driving beat and often more personal, sensual subject matter, and White country music, geared more toward stories, simple harmonies, and rural life. It is difficult to believe that not so long ago in certain parts of the country, radio station playlists were segregated; no Black or “race” music was allowed on certain stations. (Even Black churches objected to much blues, jazz, and early rock music, with its earthy lyrics and association with bars, roadhouses, etc.) Live music, however, has amazing powers to overcome barriers. While audiences may be prejudiced, music transcends bias; and musical performing groups, among the first to integrate, helped break down cultural, religious, and racial walls.