Musc 200 1st edition Final Exam Study Guide Lecture Summary 2nd Generation of Rock and Roll The Everly Brothers a second generation of rock and roll group originally wrote for the country market and therefore considered themselves to be country artists However their record label and management took advantage of their youth and steered them towards the rock and roll direction They had their first hit in 1957 with Bye Bye Love and continued to have a string of hits from 1957 1962 Then in 1962 Don and Phil Everly attempted to start their own independent careers due to increasing conflicts Unfortunately their independent careers never took off In the 80s they briefly got back together to do a few tours Some features of the Everly Brothers songs include country nasality with sweet blends emphasis on rhythm guitar reverb echo and the tremolo effect Doo Wop Doo Wop groups can also be called rock and roll s vocal groups Doo wop songs were among some of the first crossovers in the 50s and lasted until 1964 Doo wop groups typically consisted of 4 African American males backed by a small rhythm band However doo wop wasn t not limited to only that demographic There were also several Italian American groups and some integrated groups as well This style wasn t specific to a particular city it was coming out of almost every city in the U S The lyrics of most doo wop songs revolved around teenage themes which makes sense as most doo wop groups consisted of teenagers Doo wop groups can be compared with the A Capella male quartets Both had smooth harmonies wide vocal ranges and used many arrangement devices The major difference was that doo wop although the focus was still on the vocals had a band backing them up Doo wop groups also didn t have any previous gospel singers so the controversy between gospel and secularity was avoided Two quartets that were precursors to doo wop were The Ink Spots and the Mills Brothers who played jazz inflected TPA In the early 50s doo wop groups were often called street corner harmonies because small groups of teens would literally meet on the street corners in urban areas and sing to entertain themselves Many doo wop groups ended up being one hit wonders due to initially signing bad contracts If they got a hit song and wanted to do another album they would demand a better contract However the record labels saw doo wop groups as replaceable since there were so many of them Doo wop groups also didn t have a front man like rock and roll bands so the public didn t form much of a connection to particular doo wop groups So after a couple of successes many doo wop groups got cut The two main styles of doo wop were ballads and up tempo songs Up tempo songs were fast and elaborate They were backed by a standard rock and roll rhythm section The bass singer was often used for comedic effects in the intro and or outro and also used stop time breaks to add interest The singers used triplets and punchy rhythmic phrases while also singing chords and harmonizing with each other They also used vocables nonsense syllables to articulate punchy strong rhythms to drive the time and give a percussive interest Doo wop groups showed an enormous amount of creativity in arrangement The doo wop ballads were slow and romantic with a lead singer stepping forward The background singers were much simpler but the lead singer with the melody was much more ornamental and used more vocal techniques Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller Leiber and Stoller defined the roll of the independent producer They were born in 1933 in Los Angeles and grew up surrounded by R B They became some of the first white songwriters for African American artists One of their most well known songs is Hound Dog written for Big Mama Thornton and later covered by Elvis Leiber and Stoller wrote many songs specifically for Elvis after this In the 50s major music labels handled song production like a factory assembly line everything was broken down into a series of roles First the artist and repertoire A R people had to find new artists to sign Then a hired songwriter was paired with the newly signed artist The process of writing a song was sometimes broken down further into a lyricist and someone else for the melody and chords After the song was written an arranger pulled everything together to create the final arrangement Throughout this process the producer acted like a manager they ran the process but had little creative input The engineer also didn t have any creative input it was a technical role only Independent labels ended up blending many of these roles together mostly out of necessity because they didn t have the funds available to hire that many people for one song Leiber and Stoller furthered this blending of roles even more They were frustrated as songwriters because the songs they wrote didn t end up sounding how they wanted them to So they started their own record label Spark Records At Spark Records Leiber and Stoller did everything from hiring the musicians to writing arranging and producing After having several successful artists and hit songs a bigger independent label known as Atlantic Records noticed them Atlantic wanted to buy the contract for a band called the Robins Atlantic Records realized that a large part of the Robins success was due to Leiber and Stoller So instead of simply buying the contract for the band Atlantic also hired Leiber and Stoller to be independent producers Leiber and Stoller were the first independent producers They didn t see themselves as writing songs but writing records They also saw songs as playlets small plays set to audio so they had many narrative songs Responses to Rock and Roll As rock and roll was desegregating people and music many racist groups hated rock and roll Conservative groups also disliked rock and roll and spoke out against the sexualized lyrics played on the radio Because of this the music industry both major labels and independent labels agreed to censor songs Media critics explicitly attacked rock and roll to attempt to dissuade people from listening to it and purchasing records Advertisements were put in newspapers telling people not to buy or listen to African American music In April 1956 religious groups in the South were trying to get rock and roll banned by claiming it was created by the NAACP to corrupt the minds of white youth In 1956 Nat King Cole was attacked on stage during a performance The group that attacked him were white men who were part of the