DO NOT COPY SURVIVA+ GUIDE ED. 1 Page 1 of 25 [email protected] Modern Popular Music MUH 2019 Comprehensive Study Guide - Terms: o Popular “Pop” Music: the difference between classical music and folk music Mass produced Draws upon existing musical traditions o Critical Listening: examines positive and negative meanings o Environmental Music: pioneered by the Muzac Company o Formal Analysis: listening for musical structure, its building blocks and the ways in which they are combined o Musical Process Riff: a repeated pattern designed to generate rhythmic momentum Hook: a memorable musical phrase or riff Groove: a term that evokes channeled flow of swinging, funky of “phat” rhythms Timbre: the quality of sound (a.k.a ‘tone color’) o The Musical Business Composer & Lyricist: write songs and identify the performer’s strengths Arranger: identifies instruments to assist singer A&R (Artist & Repertoire): seek talent Producer: convinces board members to back a project, develop new talent, intervenes in the recording process o Centers v. Peripheries Centers: big recording cities (Ex: NYC, LA or Nashville) Peripheries: areas that have been historically excluded politically and economically from the mainstream o Sources of Popular Music Ballad: a type of song that relies on verses to tell a story, often are songs about tragedy (called a ‘strophic’) R&B (Rhythm & Blues) - Popular Music & Identity o Popular Music Mass produced Accessed through multimedia Listened to by many Draws and builds on preexisting musical traditions Relates to people, place, socio-political condition, and institutions Dependent on producers o Identity & Difference Gender - Social constructions o We try to discern what makes a person male or female Race - A social construction of biological differences - Socially inherited o Racism is learned Ethnicity - Language - Dialect - Homeland - History - Religion - Fashion, cuisine, art, musicDO NOT COPY SURVIVA+ GUIDE ED. 1 Page 2 of 25 [email protected] Age - Important because: o Generational differences and/or similarities o Cultures based on age o The importance of youth culture in popular music Disability/Ability/Bodily Difference Sexuality - Gay or straight - The broad spectrum of sexual practices and identities Place: a space that we assign meaning to - Basic Concepts o Three Streams of Popular Music European/American African American Hispanic/Latino American o American (Popular) Culture Socially agreed upon behavioral patterns Products/creations that are shared and valued Influenced by history and memory o Philosophy Theodor Adorno (German Philosopher) - Argues that music industry created the illusion that music defines our individual taste and is not needed - Music manipulates our beliefs - The Minstrel Show & Stephen Foster o The first form of musical and theatrical entertainment acknowledged by Europeans to be distinctly American o Began in 1800s o Influential to many later styles and genres o What was a performance like? Whites performed their conceptions of black ideas (dress, dance, dialect) Stock characters: Zip Coon, Jim Crow Songs performed were known as Ethiopian songs, plantations songs or coon songs Black performers were known as blackface performers o Minstrelsy Highly offensive Possible Origins: cultural expression of race and marginalization (downgrading) of blacks by urban whites in NYC o Early Minstrelsy Songs performed were based on Irish and Scottish melodies - Considered exotic to the English Early Performers - George Washington Dixon - Thomas Dartmouth Rice o Late 1800s Minstrelsy Standardized for success and profits Institutionalized racism Standards of Musical Ensemble - 4 men in blackface - Bones and tambourine, violin and banjo - Mr. Interloculer: made jokes, etc. o Minstrel Groups The Virginia Minstrels led by Dan Emmett - The standard ensemble - Mix of comedy, parodies of plantation lifeDO NOT COPY SURVIVA+ GUIDE ED. 1 Page 3 of 25 [email protected] - References of sex and violence Christy’s Original band of Virginia Minstrels by E.P. Christie - Good musicians - Sentimental and vocal ballads - Toned down subjects (wider audience than The Virginia Minstrels) - Performed compositions by Stephen Foster - Depicted in the film Swanee River (1939) Stephen Foster - Wrote “Camp Town Races” - First composer of American Popular Music - Master of the hook - Wrote sentimental songs, plantation/minstrel songs - “Old Folks at Home” o His biggest hit, a plantation song - “Oh! Susanna,” “Jennie with the Light Brown Hair” o Minstrelsy in the 20th Century Theater and movies Race records Successful in blues and jazz genres Al Jolson - Jazz singer - Jewish-American Performer in 1930s - Loved black culture, performed blackface - Tin Pan Alley o Rise of the music industry in the late 1800s Produce hit songs for a profit Produce and sell sheet music Large markets for songs performed at venues Could sell upwards of 1,000,000 copies Publisher on 28th Street in NYC started Tin Pan Alley Composers would sit in rooms with a piano and write songs all day - Called Tin Pan Alley because of the piano “tin” sounds Song Plugger: promoters of the songs - Went to department stores, clubs, etc. and performed the music in hopes of selling sheet music o Vaudeville (at the turn of the century) Traveling variety groups Helped to popularize Tin Pan Alley songs Lucrative business Tin Pan Alley paid performers to sing the music o Styles and Influences Influential to the 20th Century tunes, forms and styles Influenced by Minstrelsy o What were Tin Pan Alley songs about? Privacy: the home, middle class life Romance: first person point of view, new love, love, lost love Racial and Sexist themes: gendered language, ignorance about races, blacks, Chinese, Hispanics, Hawaiians o Songs “After the Ball”: written by Charles K. Harris - Published in 1892 - First megahit - 5 million copies sold - Made $25,000 a month by selling copiesDO NOT COPY SURVIVA+ GUIDE ED. 1 Page 4 of 25
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