Musc 200 226 1st Edition Lecture 18 Outline of Last Lecture I 2nd Generation of rock and roll a The Everly Brothers II Doo Wop Rock and Roll s Vocal Groups a Social context b Sounds and Styles Outline of Current Lecture II Doo Wop continued a Ballads III Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller IV Responses to Rock and Roll V Economics of a changing music industry Current Lecture Doo Wop Continued Ballads o Lead melody singer steps in font and shows of o Background singers much simpler Listening Sincerely by the Moonglows Crossover R B song Background vocals have support only Melisma during the bridge Lead plays with dynamics to make it emotional and intense Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller Defined the roll of the independent producer Born 1933 in Los Angeles These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute o Grew up surrounded by r b o Two of the first white songwriters to write for African American artists o Wrote Hound Dog for Big Mama Thornton Wrote many songs for Elvis In the 1950s the production process of a major music label worked like an assembly line o Everything was broken down into a series of roles o Artist Repertoire people had to find new artists to sign and then once they were signed pair them with songs written by hired songwriters Songwriting could even be divided into a lyricist and the other with the melody and chords o Arranger took the song from the songwriters and pulled everything together for the final arrangement o Producer was like the manager ran the process but had little creative input o Engineer was a technical role and also had no creative input Independent labels blended these roles together mostly out of necessity because they didn t have tons of money o Leiber and Stoller furthered this blending L S got frustrated as songwriters when the songs they wrote didn t end up sounding how they imagined it So they started their own record label Spark Records o They did everything writing arranging hiring musicians producing etc After having several successful artists and hit songs a bigger independent label Atlantic Records noticed them o Atlantic wanted to buy the contract for a band called the Robins o But Atlantic knew that a big part of the Robins success was due to L S o So they hired L S as independent producers 1st independent producers L S didn t see themselves as writing songs but writing records They saw songs as playlets small plays set to audio o Had many narrative songs Listening Black Denim Trousers by the Cheers L S wrote and produced o Could be called the real artists of the track Chorus verse form Cheesy sound efects The singers are just part of the arrangement o This record is the work of the producers Last line of the last verse leads to the first line of the chorus making you reinterpret the end with a diferent angle o Same songwriting technique that TPA often used Responses to Rock and Roll Explicit and formal racist groups deeply hated rock and roll o Rock and roll was desegregating people and music Many conservative groups spoke out against the sexualized lyrics being played on the radio o The music industry both major labels and independent agreed to censor Explicit attacks on rock and roll by media critics Advertisements were put in newspapers telling people not to buy or listen to African American music April 1956 religious groups in the South tried to get rock and roll banned by claiming it was created by the NAACP to corrupt the minds of white youth 1956 Nat King Cole was attacked on stage during a performance by a group of men who were part of the White Citizens Council o Would have been killed if not for security stepping in o Cole didn t have a rock and roll sound he sang mainstream TPA pop so he was targeted strictly because of his race Listening Unforgettable by Nat King Cole Definitely not rock and roll TPA Attacked because he was African American and had a mixed race audience Economic Side The economic rise of rock and roll was essential to the music industry By the late 50s rock and roll was a huge source of revenue which was mostly made by independent labels 1955 16 of the top 10 records were rock and roll o By 1959 independent labels share of the pop market expanded o by 1959 43 of them were Independent labels made up almost 2 3 of the market Most major labels had very few rock and roll songs or artists o It was controversial music and they didn t want to risk losing money o Racism o Aesthetic many in the mainstream music industry didn t understand the sound or how the music worked They were used to the lush and rich sounds of TPA but rock and roll was entirely diferent Even if they wanted to they didn t know how to produce it Independent labels had a fluid approach to the production process which led to the sound of rock and roll o Major labels were too large to be able to have blurred roles ASCAP didn t like rock and roll partly because so many rock and roll artists signed with BMI for their royalty rights instead of ASCAP The mainstream music industry stayed away from rock and roll and ended up being destroyed ASCAP tried to come back o Mid 50s enlisted politicians to attack rock and roll o 1953 ASCAP sued BMI for conspiring with radio stations to keep ASCAP of the air o 1956 the same allegations against BMI came back o Nothing came of this 1958 ASCAP accused BMI of payola paying radio stations to play their music o ASCAP didn t believe that people actually wanted to listen to rock and roll 1958 bill presented before Congress to prevent people from buying BMI stock o This was a false accusation Payola had been going on since the 1890s with early TPA 1960 Alan Freed was arrested for taking bribes o Bribery was occurring everywhere but the focus was on any stations that played rock and roll o Radio stations started playing less rock and roll to avoid trouble with ASCAP Another way ASCAP tried to come back was through covers of popular rock and roll songs A major label would have a pop artist record a crossover or a rock and roll song as a pop version Would put all of their marketing power behind it to crush the original The covers would remove any features associated with African American music The major labels saw themselves as improving the rock and roll songs In some cases the pop versions actually helped the original get more popular but usually the original versions were lost Listening Sh Boom by the Chords vs the cover