MUH 2019 Exam 1 Study Guide NOTE Use this document as a guide to specific topics to focus on in preparation for the exam Songs marked with LISTENING will be played during the exam A complete list of possible songs to be played during the exam Additional songs to be mentioned in test questions are included throughout the topical overview In addition included below is a list of Brackett chapters from which questions will be drawn These questions will be taken directly from discussion questions in the Daily Participation Worksheets All questions are scantron multiple choice Brackett chapters Chapter 1 Irving Berlin in Tin Pan Alley Chapter 6 Blues People and the Classic Blues Chapter 12 The Producers Answer Back Chapter 16 The House that Ruth Brown Built Introduction to the Study of Popular Music Theodor Adorno the Frankfurt School o His opinion of popular music and culture industries Aerman philosopher social scientist music critic Was critical of communism and fascism Viewed popular music as a strongly negative force in society and as a tool for subjugation of the masses saw popular music as a cheap escape from boredom Quotation listening Passive listening public believed passive listening public led to people not paying attention to the actual meaning of the music which allowed for easy manipulation Connections to political control subjugation The Music Industry Key Themes o Mainstream vs margins of industry Vertical vs horizontal integration Vertical integration when one firm engages in different parts of production growing raw materials manufacturing transporting Horizontal integration is the consolidation of many firms that handle the same part of the production process monopoly Copyright the exclusive legal right to print publish perform film or record literacy artistic or musical material and to authorize others to do the same Mainstream designed to appeal to the wildest possible audience for largest market base Marginal styles and artists often associated with marginalized groups of people in American society site of new and innovative musical ideas influences that inject life into mainstream ex rock independent record label 1 Major vs Independent record labels Major record labels o Part of larger conglomerates with obligation to stockholders and motivated by profit margin o Musically conservative o Enormous marketing and distribution resources Independent record labels o Regarded as agents of musical innovation o Romanticized conception as politically engaged and supoortive of the artist o Important contributions to the development of new previously marginalized musical styles Atlanta records sun Motown sub pop Tin Pan Alley Structure and business model o Composers songwriters Live performances considered advertisements on behalf of publishers Complete separation of singer and song writer Musicians hired to promote company product Devaluation of performing original music Promotion through song plugging and vaudeville o Publishers after 1885 establish emt of small publishing companies inmanhattan increased value of sheet music because of public music education led to the popularization of amateur piano playing in the home o Song pluggers musicians hired to promote publishers songs sang outside of department stores streets and theaters backstage of vaudeville shows to convince theatre managers to promote songs later signed contracts with a single company Tin Pan Alley standard song form o My Blue Heaven Form AABA Song Form Four sections of equal length Verse sets dramatic tone Refrain presents main melody Thematic content Privacy historically restricted to elites new reality of the middle class idealized goal of owning a home and domestiv life home as a place for courtship family image of cozy parlor Romantic love precursors in European song and literary traditions vantage point of the 1st person singing about love reflected both lyrical content and vocal delivery Themes of song lyric content Vaudeville vs crooning vocal style 2 o Romantic sentiment in songs led to Intimate vocal delivery soft and tender tone Contrasted earlier theatrical style of projection Exemplified by Al Jolson o Crooning Different psychological experience Intimate setting personal serenade Sung to rather than sung at Al Jolson vaudeville pop star career overlapped era of vaudeville stage and new popular music media singing style reflected the loud stage voice exaggerated gestures frequently performed in blackface Irving Berlin o Career and importance most prolific creative of tin pan alley song writers career spanning 1910s 1960s jewish immigrant began as a singing waiter then song plugger also wrote for the new york theatre o Songwriting process Race Records and Blues Definition of the blues Tin Pan Alley songs infused with rag time o Musical form twelve bar blues o Marketing category pioneered by small independent record labels broad label for rural southern rooted traditions of African American musical expression o Folk traditions southern folk music new blend of urban environment and rural roots Differences between country and classic blues o Classic blues songs composed for Tin Pan Alley o Country blues originated in the deep south Missippi delta to East Texas migrants to northern cities Similarities Differences between Race Records and Hillbilly Records o Similarities originated in American south rooted in long standing folk music traditions blended rural styles and popular culture industry targeting alternative markets distributed across the country by new media foundations for forms of popular music that emerged after WW11 o Differences race records were recording by African American musicians produced for African American listeners Hillbilly music aka old time music was produced by and intended for sale to southern whites The 12 bar blues form Classic Blues songs composed for Tin Pan Alley middle class black song writers o W C Handy father of the blues o Bessie Smith empress of the blues LISTENING St Louis Blues Similar to AABA structure A section lament specifications of place and situation St Louis Woman 3 B section contrast like a bridge not a 12 bar blues structure mini abab sections song within a song change to minor key Final section really C diff from A Smith s use of blue bent notes in recordings Country Blues o Origins musical and social characteristics Intensive cotton farming in the deep south formerly largest population of slaves in north America music of the impoverished black
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