What's That Sound? • W. W. Norton and Company, Inc.

28/11/2014 14:32

Chapter Outline
Chapter 1: The World Before Rock and Roll (Roots-1955)

Elvis Presley on television in 1956 (See Figure 1.1)

Controversy
1. Grinding hips and suggestive singing on Milton Berle's show
2. Cameras permitted to shoot only from Presley's chest up on the Ed Sullivan Show
3. Protest from adult viewers fueled their teenage children's interest
4. Clear indication that rock and roll was specifically intended for teenagers
Importance of Presley's performance on national television
1. Instant credibility
2. Reaction (good and bad) was on a large scale
3. Immediate exposure to vast segment of American society
The world of mainstream pop before 1955
National versus regional
1. Early post-nineteenth century American culture was regional
People were conditioned by immediate surroundings
Less travel
Less access to national and world news
2. Popular music styles were associated with geographic regions
Certain styles of music were popular in certain regions of the country
People played instruments themselves or went to live performances
Many Americans could read sheet music or play by ear
3. Rock and roll has roots in three styles of music
Mainstream popular music
Rhythm and blues
Country and western
Emergence of large-scale entertainment media
1. Radio was only regional until 1928
Developed at the end of the nineteenth century
Originally intended for military and maritime communications
1920: first important broadcasts by KDKA (Pittsburgh) and WWJ (Detroit)
They broadcast news, local information, and live music
2. NBC went "Coast to Coast" in 1928 with a national radio network
3. 1930s and 1940s were a golden age for motion pictures
Music was an important part of motion pictures
Motion pictures played to audiences across the country
1930s-1940s national network programming made some pop styles more national than others
1. Target audience was middle class with their appreciation for certain artists
Bing Crosby
Andrews Sisters
Big Bands
Frank Sinatra
2. National exposure caused less distinction among these styles of mainstream pop
3. Styles that remained regional were country and western and rhythm and blues
Low-income whites seemed to prefer country and western music
Low-income blacks seemed to prefer rhythm and blues
These styles kept their regional distinctions
The rise of radio networks in the 1920s
High power transmission ("Superstations") had a range of several hundred miles
Federally licensed frequencies
1. Called "clear channels," they had no local interference
2. Range could be several states
3. Some stations set up transmitters in Mexico
Called "X" stations because their call letters began with the letter X

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More powerful than allowed by U.S. government

Sometimes X stations could be heard from Mexico to Chicago
In 1928 NBC created the first network that spanned the entire country—"Coast to Coast"
1. Used ATT telephone lines to connect local and regional stations
2. Participating stations were called affiliates
Programming originated in a central location (usually New York)
Affiliates also contributed live programming
This concept is still in use in television
This is also the model for talk radio stations
3. Up until 1945 records were not played on radio
Considered unethical—that the station was trying to fool the listeners
Radio was originally all about live performance in real time
Was a positive environment for musicians—more work for them
Musicians' union worked to keep records off the air
Wide spectrum of network shows broadcast during the 1930s and 1940s
1. Radio plays and "soap operas" (continuing serial dramas sponsored by soap companies)
The Guiding Light (began in 1937)
Superman
The Lone Ranger
Amos 'n' Andy (comparable to the success of Seinfeld, M*A*S*H, or Friends)
2. The national network audience defined a national popular culture
Music was always an important part of radio
National exposure could bestow instant success
Television was introduced in the late 1940s
Corporate money and interest shifted from radio to television
RCA (Radio Corporation of America) was a key player
1. Headed by David Sarnoff
2. He was the radiotelegraph operator who decoded the Titanic SOS signal in 1912
3. Worked his way up to head of the company
4. He developed the first NBC network in 1928
Television was thought to be more appealing than just radio
Many long-running radio series moved to television (see IIID.1.a-d above)
Now there were three entertainment concepts that combined to establish a national pop culture:
1. Radio
2. Motion pictures
3. Television
As television grew, radio audiences diminished
1. Local and regional radio executives became creatively entrepreneurial
2. This new attitude toward survival plays a key role in the development of regional styles
Country and western music styles
Rhythm and blues music styles
Tin Pan Alley and the sheet music publishing industry
It was an area in New York City with a high concentration of music publishing companies
1. First half of twentieth century, sheet music was the principal way to sell music
Tin Pan Alley's music publishing companies employed staff songwriters
They worked on old pianos that seemed to sound like tin pans
Tin Pan Alley is also used as a term to describe a way of doing business in popular music
1. Thousands of songs written by professional songwriters
Irving Berlin
Cole Porter
George and Ira Gershwin
Jerome Kern
2. The Tin Pan Alley era focused on marketing the song itself
Was a contrast to rock music, which markets recordings of songs on record, tape, CD, or
MP3
Tin Pan Alley was focused on selling the intellectual property: words and music
The goal was to get as many different singers as possible to record the song their own
way
The more versions, the more royalties for the songwriter and the publisher
3. Songs were marketed to the public in various ways with the goal being sheet music sales
Most common: convince performers to include it in their performance

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"Song pluggers" working for publishers interrupted performances with their new song
Songs could be included in Broadway shows and motion pictures—especially musicals
The best guarantee of success was getting a song performed on national radio
4. Radio was dominated by big bands (1935-1945) and star singers (1945-1955)
Tin Pan Alley songs followed (with flexibility) several formal patterns
Tin Pan Alley era formal structural patterns
Sectional verse-chorus
1. Sectional verse section sets the mood of the song
2. Sectional chorus is the main section of the song that is most recognizable
Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" is best known by its sectional chorus
Most popular version sung by Bing Crosby
Featured in the movie Holiday Inn that included the entire song.
3. Sectional choruses often in a 32-measure pattern called AABA form
"Over the Rainbow" sung by Judy Garland in the film Wizard of Oz
4. The AABA form is common in rock music
Singers and big bands
Tin Pan Alley publishers, singers, and radio networks all depended upon each other to survive
1. Big bands were dance bands that included
Rhythm section of bass, drums, piano, and guitar
Horn sections of trumpets, trombones, and saxophones
2. Big bands were led by permanent leaders who were instrumentalists
Benny Goodman
Tommy Dorsey
Jimmy Dorsey
Glenn Miller
3. Singers were merely featured soloists—intended to add some variety to the act
4. Singers and musicians within the band were temporary and interchangeable
Bing Crosby (see Performance Box 1.1)
1. Most important pop singer of 1930s and 1940s
2. Relaxed crooning style generated a string of hit recordings
"Pocket Full of Dreams" (1938)
"Only Forever" (1940)
"Swinging on a Star" (1944)
"White Christmas" (1942) and (1945)
3. Had successful film acting career
In several films he co-starred with Bob Hope
4. Hosted his own radio variety show sponsored by Kraft Foods
The Andrews Sisters
1. Many hit records capitalizing on their harmony vocal arrangements
"Bei Mir bist du Schoen" (1938)
"Shoo-Shoo Baby" (1943)
"Rum and Coca Cola" (1945)
The Mills Brothers
1. Like Andrews Sisters, their style was built on harmony vocal arrangements
"Tiger Rag" (1931)
"Paper Doll" (1943)
"You Always Hurt the One You Love" (1944)
2. Both groups' singing style foreshadowed 1950s doo-wop and 1960s girl groups
Frank Sinatra
1. Like Bing Crosby, he broke away from being a big band featured singer and went solo
Sang with Harry James band
Sang with Tommy Dorsey band
2. Established the singer as the star of the show, setting the stage for future rock singers
Elvis Presley
Pat Boone
3. Went solo in 1943
Became a teen idol based upon good looks and sensual style of singing
Young girls reacted by swooning and fainting
A great example of his singing style is "I've Got a Crush on You" (1948)
He became one of the most successful singers of pop music
His career as a performer lasted well into the 1980s

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Big band era ended at the end of the 1940s due to financial hardships—too costly an enterprise.
Tin Pan Alley supplied songs to singers backed by smaller combo bands until 1955
Pop music in the early 1950s
Singer is out in front of the music—solo vocalist with instrumental background
Wholesome songs are meant for family audience: children, their parents, and grandparents
1. Patti Page
"How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?" (1953)
"Tennessee Waltz" (1950) was number one for 13 weeks
2. Eddie Fisher: "Oh My Papa" (1954)
3. Tony Bennett "Rags to Riches" (1953)
4. Johnny Ray "Cry" (1951) introduced a more emotional style of singing
5. Les Paul and Mary Ford introduced the solid body electric guitar to their vocal duo style
"I'm Sittin' on Top of the World" (1953)
6. Other female vocal stars reinforced the concept of singer backed by instrumental accompaniment
Jo Stafford: "You Belong to Me" (1952)
Kay Starr: "Wheel of Fortune" (1952)
This was the sound on the national network airwaves up through 1955
Tin Pan Alley was not ready for rock and roll
1. The broadcasters, record companies, and publishers were focused on the pop audience
2. Rock also included aspects of two other styles that were not considered important (or lucrative)
Country and western music
Rhythm and blues music
3. Big music businesses didn't understand these styles
Country and western music: two distinct regional styles until the late 1940s
"Country" music in 1920s-1930s southeast
1. Nashville became the center for recording this type of music in late 1940s
2. "Country" music was found in southeast and Appalachia
Derived from folk music of the British Isles
Earliest field recordings made by Ralph Peer known as "hillbilly music"
He recorded "Fiddlin'" John Carson and Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers
3. The Carter Family exemplify this early regional style—influenced by white gospel music
Maybell: acoustic guitar and vocals
Sarah: autoharp and vocals
A.P. : vocals
"Can the Circle Be Unbroken" (1935)
4. Roy Acuff and His Crazy Tennesseans
Included slide guitar in their sound
Slide guitar foreshadowed inclusion of Hawaiian pedal steel in later country and western
music
"Great Speckled Bird" was a hit for them in 1936
"Western" music in 1920s-1930s, California and southwest
1. Connection with Hollywood movies about cowboys
2. Gene Autry was the first of the "singing cowboy" movie stars
"Back in the Saddle Again" (1935) was a big hit for him
Roy Rogers was also extremely popular
Patsy Montana's "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" (1935) used Jimmie Rodgers-style
yodeling
Western swing
1. Big band with a cowboy twist
Radio dance band with rhythm section, horns, fiddles, steel guitar, and Mariachi trumpet
parts
2. Popularized by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys (they were also in movies)
"New San Antonio Rose" (1940) is an example of this style
Bing Crosby's 1941 version further popularized the style
Jimmie Rodgers: the first country music star
1. He was to country music what Gene Autry and Roy Rogers were to western music
2. Difference being that Autry and Rogers careers were enhanced by film appearances
3. Jimmie Rodgers's singing style was imitated by subsequent country and western singers
Yodeling: "Blue Yodel" (1927) was covered by Lynyrd Skynyrd
Rodgers was known as "The Blue Yodeler"—a rustic "back porch" image
Also known as "The Singing Brakeman"—a wandering hobo type of person

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This was just marketing, as he was known to perform in fancy decorative clothing
4. The Jimmie Rodgers image became the model for country and western artists
Superstation broadcasts of country and western music
Radio stations began broadcasting country music in the 1920s
1. WSB in Atlanta in 1922 broadcast performances by local artists
"Fiddlin'" John Carson
Git Tanner
2. WBAP in Ft. Worth
3. WSM in Nashville launched the Grand Ole Opry in 1925 and became a clear channel station in
1932
4. WLS in Chicago broadcast the National Barndance, going national in 1933 on NBC
5. NBC began a coast-to-coast broadcast of WSM's Grand Ole Opry in 1939
Country music during WWII
1. Soldiers stationed together shared music interests—especially country and western music
2. Country and western music became the most popular style among the Armed Forces
3. Southerners migrated north after the war to fill factory jobs there—bringing their music with
them
Nashville as the headquarters of country and western music in the post-WWII years
Country and western music business enterprises began moving there in the 1940s
1. Influence largely due to the impact of the Grand Ole Opry show
2. Acuff-Rose publishing company was a key element
Founded by Roy Acuff and songwriter Fred Rose in 1942
Didn't rely on printed music but rather recorded music
1946 Fred Rose signed Hank Williams as a songwriter
Their 1950 pop hit "Tennessee Waltz" expanded their financial base and influence
Hank Williams: the personification of 1950s country and western music
1. 1948 began performing on the Louisiana Hayride radio show on KWKH in Shreveport
2. First important recording was a Tin Pan Alley song, "Lovesick Blues"
3. Joined the ranks of regulars on the Grand Ole Opry in 1949
4. Hank Williams's songs and singing style
Extensive vocal inflections sounded like sincere emotional expressions
Lyrics are direct and simple—common conversational vocabulary
Autobiographical sounding lyrics and emotional delivery made him sound believable
5. Important Hank Williams songs
"Lovesick Blues"
"Your Cheatin' Heart"
"Cold, Cold Heart"
"I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry"
"Hey, Good Lookin'"
Bluegrass music and Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys
1. Developed by Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys during post-WWII period
Bill Monroe: mandolin and high vocal harmony
Robert "Chubby" Wise: fiddle
Lester Flatt: acoustic guitar and lead vocal
Earl Scruggs: banjo
2. First performed on the Grand Ole Opry in 1939—gained more popularity in the late 1940s
3. Bluegrass music was used as theme music for television and movies
The Beverly Hillbillies television show ("The Ballad of Jed Clampett")
"Foggy Mountain Breakdown" from the film Bonnie and Clyde
"Dueling Banjos" from the film Deliverance
4. Virtuosic instrumental aspects of the music overshadow vocals
5. Earl Scruggs developed a new technique called "three finger roll"
Allowed for much more complex passages
Elevated the banjo to new heights of virtuosic technique
Inspired generations of musicians to follow his example
Blues: rural (delta blues) and urban (rhythm and blues)
Beginning of the blues
1. Post-WWI sheet music by W.C. Handy was sold nationally
"Memphis Blues"
"St. Louis Blues"
2. Recordings by singer Bessie Smith

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"Down Hearted Blues"

Sold a million copies in 1923
Recorded in New York with finest jazz musicians
Delta (rural) blues
1. Robert Johnson
Enormous influence on rock guitarists of the 1960s
Sang and accompanied himself on guitar
Relaxed attitude toward meter and harmonic structure
Extremely emotional vocal style
His "Cross Roads Blues" (1936) is an excellent example of his style
It was covered by Cream in 1968
Urban blues
1. Blues musicians moved to cities and formed combos
Electric guitars
Bass
Drums
Harmonica
They used microphones to amplify the vocals
More organized structure because more than one person was involved
2. By the early 1950s Chicago was the center of electric blues
3. Records did not circulate far from the city where they were recorded
Therefore blues remained much more regional than pop music of the same time period
This is similar to what happened with country and western music at the same time
Jump blues
1. Louis Jordan and the Tympani Five
Some of his songs became popular on the pop charts
"GI Jive" (1944)
"Caldonia Boogie" (1945)
"Choo Choo Ch'boogie" (1946)
2. The Jordan approach to blues
Dance tempos and rhythms found in big band
Reduced instrumentation: rhythm section and his saxophone
Upbeat humorous lyrics and stage antics
Influenced groups like the Coasters and Chuck Berry
Blues and the music business
How the radio business works in conjunction
1. Commercial radio stations are supported by money from advertisers
They sponsor programs that are suited to an audience that would buy the sponsor's
products
The early 1950s pop audience had shifted from radio to television—this was good
2. Inventive radio executives tried broadcasting styles of music other than pop
Country and western music
Blues
3. Black audiences grew in urban areas during the 1940s
Creating a market in cities for radio stations playing music that blacks liked
Creating a market in cities for products that blacks liked
Informing blacks of advertisers that wanted their business
Due to racial segregation in those times, that was helpful information
4. Because it was broadcast, white listeners (particularly teens) could hear it too
Post-WWII independent record labels
1. Independent record labels opened specializing in rhythm and blues
Sun Records in Memphis
Chess Records in Chicago
King Records in Cincinnati
Atlantic records in New York City
2. Independent record labels were small operations
Not capable of national distribution
Capitalized on major labels' lack of interest in black music
Radio capitalized on television's lack of interest in black music
Radio and independent labels supported each other
3. Major labels at the beginning of the 1950s:

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Decca
Columbia
Rca-Victor
Mercury
Capitol
MGM
Gospel music influence
1. Southern blacks learned to sing in church
2. Harmony ideas derived from gospel music
3. Sacred song lyrics sometimes changed into secular black pop songs
4. Good example: "I Got a Woman" by Ray Charles
5. Caused controversy, considered blasphemous and/or a "sell out"
Chess Records in Chicago
1. Founded in 1947 by Caucasian blues fans Phil and Leonard Chess
2. Low-budget facilities and equipment
3. Specialized in solo singers backed by small electric bands
Howlin' Wolf: "Evil" (1954)
Muddy Waters: "I Just Wanna Make Love to You" (1954)
John Lee Hooker
Little Walter
Bo Diddley: "I'm a Man" (1955)
4. Rough-edged emotion, expressive vocals, unpolished production
5. Instrumental accompaniment combined technical skill with bravura
6. General impression conveyed was simple honesty
7. Adult-oriented lyrics
8. This style of Chicago electric blues was not meant to appeal to white middle-class tastes
Atlantic Records black pop
1. Founded in 1948 by (white blues fans) Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson
2. Atlantic records songs were more polished—kept the singer out front
Similar approach to the big band style when singers were featured performers
Incorporated some of the big band harmony, rhythm, and instrumentation
3. Singers were technically more polished
Ruth Brown
Big Joe Turner
Clyde McPhatter
Ray Charles
4. Arrangements were more structured and controlled
5. Less emphasis on instrumental solos
Doo-Wop: urban vocal music
1. Began with competing street singers in urban neighborhoods
2. Couldn't afford instruments so songs were sung a capella
3. Doo-wop refers to nonsense syllables in the vocal arrangement
4. Derived harmonic aspects of the music from church singing
5. Solo singer against vocal group accompaniment
6. AABA form derived from Tin Pan Alley style songs
7. Compound meter: beats are divided into three equal parts instead of two
8. Important groups and songs in this style:
Chords: "Sh-Boom" (1954)
The Five Satins: "In the Still of the Night" (1956)
Controversy
1. White middle-class parents disapproved of their teenage children's interest in this music
2. Disapproval largely due to negative racial stereotypes
3. Lyrics were often suggestive and sometimes blatant
4. Hokum blues contained double-entendres
5. When white artists covered rhythm and blues they cleaned up the lyrics or topic

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