Musc 200 226 1st Edition Lecture 19 Outline of Last Lecture I Doo Wop Continued a Ballads II Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller III Responses to Rock and Roll IV Economics of a changing music industry Outline of Current Lecture II Covers III New styles promoted by mainstream industry to distract from rock and roll a Calypso b Early Folk Music Revival c Teen Idols i Annette Funicello IV Meanings of rock and roll a Sexuality b Politically c Aestheticism Current Lecture Mainstream music industry was trying to eliminate rock and roll by a variety of methods discussed in depth last lecture o Covers economic exploitation shut down rock and roll and sent a message that white people s music was better than black people s 1950s mainstream industry began to promote a series of new styles to try and distract people from rock and roll o Calypso Trinidad pop music that focused on political themes as well as expressed sexuality in complex and elaborate forms Mainstream industry got rid of the political and sexual aspects and made it poppier It sold pretty well 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 o This was the first attempt of the mainstream music industry to distract the public from rock and roll Early Folk Music Revival in the 30s and 40s people in big cities began to get interested in rural folk music This music was often highly political and far left It wasn t huge in the 30s and 40s but there were parts of NYC and San Francisco and other big cities with groups of people interested in early folk The mainstream industry saw this and in the 50s tried to use early folk music as another distractor Mainstream got rid of anything political and again made it poppier The Kingston Trio was a popular pop folk music revival group Teen Idols mainstream industry realized that teens were a large audience and wanted in Recorded charming clean but good looking and proper white teens Boy girl next door Combined some elements of rock and roll with pop Sang speaking to the teenage experience in a G rated way Often attached dances with each singer to help sell the songs Songs and singers were heavily publicized so they sold well Annette Funicello was originally a player on the Mickey Mouse show who was signed in the late 50s and early 60s as a teen idol Signed because she was a reliable worker and already was known Promoted and rebranded as Annette Songwriters hired to write songs specifically for her Combined pieces of rock and roll with pop o But people had already been hearing rock and roll for several years now so this wasn t anything new or shocking High production quality with the best studio musicians In the 60s management promoted her in beach movies where she would always have a song to sing Listening Tom Dooley by the Kingston Trio Narrative style makes it folk like Backup singers give it a pop vibe The singing style is also pop like o No vocal tension it s low toned and almost like a crooning pop ballad Weird tension between the lyrics and the smile tone o Singing about a guy dying but the singer is smiling during it Listening The Wreck of the John B The Sloop John B by the Kingston Trio combines pop and Calypso lyrics from a Trinidad influence o they re trying to sound like they re from Trinidad Listening Tell Paul by Annette Funicello rock and roll elements overblown sax heavy backbeat jump blues instrumentation Boogie Woogie bass patterns Pop elements backup singers not a powerful voice they tried to compensate for this by using double tracking and reverb techniques to create a fuller sound no vocal techniques Listening Tell Me Whose the Girl by Annette Funicello Country pop sound Reverb and double tracked vocals Slight melisma Listening The Train of Love by Annette Funicello Backbeats Boogie Woogie bass slightly raspy voice reverb ad double triple tracking Guitar solo sort of in the Scotty Moore style But keep in mind that this is the late 50s so these techniques aren t cutting edge Listening Bikini Beach Party by Annette Funicello Ensemble coordination Early 60s beach movie song Mechanic and highly processed vocals Used the best studio musicians Song has forward momentum but the lyrics are clearly not rock and roll Meanings of Rock and Roll Rock critics began emerging around the late 60s and early 70s o Many said pop was fake and politically and sexually repressed o Said rock was politically forward sexually expressive and authentic Sexuality was more open in rock and roll but there wasn t any radical thinking o Still expressed traditional gender roles Man goes after the woman Politics were rarely dealt with actively in rock and roll o More about individualism o Rock and roll desegregated music and went against racism and in that way was politically important But many white teens didn t actively oppose segregation and listened to rock and roll because it was shocking to their parents and something exotic and new Didn t engage in any social or political activism Authenticity is difficult to measure because anything can be authentic to itself o Some say rock and roll is less commercial and more authentic but rock and roll musicians and producers wanted to make money just like those in the mainstream industry