Music & Pop Culture
Birth of Pop music
Origins of popular music: 1880
Scene from the movie 'Scott Joplin'
Ragtime:
Ragtime was born as a black way to make entertainment music. This style was born in the southern USA, especially Texas, Louisiana, Mississipi, and Alabama. It used the piano as the unique instrument for two reasons:
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It was cheaper to hire only one musician.
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The piano was the most popular instrument in that time.
The piano and the melody was taken from the European music theory. The broken rhythm and the polyrhythm were taken from the African music style. It was a social music, for dancing. It was mainstream at the end of the 19th Century.
The most well-known artist of this style was the composer Scott Joplin who wrote more than a hundred pieces, like The Entertainer , Maple Leaf Rag and The Easy Winner
Barbershop Style:
Barbershop vocal harmony is a style of a cappella close harmony, or unaccompanied vocal music, characterized by consonant four-part chords for every melody note in a predominantly homophonic texture. Each of the four parts has its own role: generally, the lead sings the melody, the tenor harmonizes above the melody, the bass sings the lowest harmonizing notes, and the baritone completes the chord, usually below the lead. The melody is not usually sung by the tenor or baritone, except for an infrequent note or two to avoid awkward voice leading, in tags or codas, or when some appropriate embellishment can be created. We don't know when it was created but at the end of the 19th Century was popular. Its peak of popularity will be in the 30's.
Barbershop music is generally performed by either a barbershop quartet, a group of four singers with one on each vocal part, or a barbershop chorus, which closely resembles a choir with the notable exception of the genre of music. Some bands in this style are: The Suntones, the Ringmasters or Main Street
Main Street - Life's a Happy Song
Howard Gospel Choir - Oh Happy Day
Gospel:
Gospel is a style of music created at the beginning of the 20th Century by Afro-American communities in the U.S. Gospel music, in general, is characterized by dominant vocals (often with strong use of harmony) and referencing lyrics of a Christian nature. It was used in churches, by black communities, and it was developed during the 1900's. It is based on the Bible, specially on the Jesus Christ’s life.
Several forms of gospel music utilize choirs, piano or Hammond organ, drums, basses, guitars and increasingly, electric guitar. Rhythm used proceeded from the african music, so it’s very common to find polyrhythms and dance forms. It is also called “spirituals” or “black spirituals” Mahalia Jackson and the Golden Gate Quartet were artist from this style.
Dixieland or New Orleans style:
It was the first black music called "jazz". It became a music style for both white and black people, during the 1910's. It was developed in the Deep South of U.S: specially Lousiana and the city of New Orleans. It was a music played on the street. There was even a fictitious neighborhood called "Storyville". They used to make dances and marching music.
The instruments they played became the standard jazz instruments: Trombone, tuba, trumpet, clarinet, drums, guitar, banjo and sometimes piano. They used improvisation over a chordal succession. Most musicians were self-taught, but there were also well-educated musicians.
Most dixie songs have two parts: The first slow with a lot of improvisation and the second fast. During the 1910's Dixieland musicians went north to the cities of Chicago (Illinois) and New York City (New York). Some artist of this style were Jerry Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong
Tuba skinny - Going Back Home
Charleston:
The Charleston is a dance named for the harbor city of Charleston, South Carolina (US). The rhythm was popularized in mainstream dance music in the United States by a 1923 tune called "The Charleston". The peak year for the Charleston as a dance by the public was mid-1926 to 1927.
While the dance probably came from the "star" or challenge dances that were all part of the African-American dance called Juba, the particular sequence of steps which appeared in Runnin' Wild was probably newly devised for popular appeal. Normally, this style used brass instruments within a piano, a double bass, without percussion section. Charleston can be danced solo, or with a partner. Its simple, flexible basic step makes it easy to concentrate on styling, improvisation, and musicality. Josephine Baker was the major artist in this style.
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Today Charleston is an important dance in Lindy Hop dance culture, danced in many permutations: alone (solo), with a partner, or in groups of couples or solo dancers. The basic step allows for a vast range of variations and improvisation. Both the 20s and Swinging Charleston styles are popular today, though swinging Charleston is more commonly integrated into Lindy Hop dancing.
Swing:
Swing is a form of popular music developed in the United States during the 1920's that dominated in the 1930s and 1940s. The name swing came from the 'swing feel' where the emphasis is on the offbeat or weaker pulse in the music. Swing bands usually featured soloists who would improvise on the melody over the arrangement. The danceable swing style of big bands and bandleaders such as Benny Goodman was the dominant form of American popular music from 1935 to 1946, a period known as the swing era. The verb "to swing" is also used as a term of praise for playing that has a strong groove or drive. Notable musicians of the swing era include Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, Woody Herman, and Cab Calloway.
It was also a music for black and white people, but more influenced by white European music. Musicians were well-educated and virtuoso soloist. It grew up under the influence of the ragtime and the Dixieland.
The big jazz band was developed in this style during the 1920's: trombone, tuba, trumpet, Saxophone, clarinet, violin, double bass, piano, and the drum set. The modern drum set was invented for this music style.
It was also a dance music, with a frenetic way of dancing. It was developed in Chicago (Illinois), and it was a collective sound, with some virtuoso solos with a great use of the improvisation.
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Some swing artists were: Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington.
Lindy Hop dance compitions 2011
Some other examples of swing music:
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Louis Prima: Sing sing sing
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Benny Goodman: On the sunny side of the street
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Glenn Miller: In the mood; Moonlight Serenade
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Duke Ellington: It don't mean a thing
Country:
Country music is a musical genre that originated in the southern United States in the early 1920s. It takes its roots from genres such as folk music (especially Appalachian folk music) and blues, but also European folk music.
Country music often consists of ballads and dance tunes with generally simple forms, folk lyric and harmonies accompanied by mostly string instruments such as banjos, electric and acoustic guitars, steel guitars (such as pedal steels and dobros), and fiddles as well as harmonicas. Blues modes have been used extensively throughout its recorded history.
The term country music is used today to describe many styles and subgenres.
The origins of country music are the folk music of working-class Americans, who blended popular songs, Irish and Celtic fiddle tunes, traditional English ballads, and cowboy songs, and various musical traditions from European immigrant communities.
Instruments used in this style have changed through time, but normally it used a combination of guitars, banjos, piano, harmonica and a little percussion set. There were lots of rock bands in this style, but the first ones to success were the Carter Family and Vermon Halda
Blues:
Blues is a music genre originated by African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the end of the 1920's. The genre developed from roots in African musical traditions, African-American work songs, spirituals, and the folk music of white Americans of European heritage. The blues is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, the blues scale and specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blue notes, usually thirds or fifths flattened in pitch, are also an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove.
Blues is also characterized by its lyrics, bass lines, and instrumentation. Early traditional blues verses consisted of a single line repeated four times. But quickly the most common current structure became standard: the AAB pattern, consisting of a line sung over the four first bars, its repetition over the next four, and then a longer concluding line over the last bars. Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative, often relating the racial discrimination and other challenges experienced by African-Americans.
Blues always uses the same chord progression (I-IV-I-V-IV-I). It has its own scale, known as "Blue scale". Normally, lyrics are sad and depressed. That's why they called blues. It was the first jazz style to use the electric guitar. Instruments they usually used in blues style were: Piano, ​drum set, double bass, and electric guitar.
There are two concepts used in the blues style: Groove and Riff
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Groove: it's a rhythmical pattern, formed by very repetitive shuffles.
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Riff: It's a progression of grooves.
Some blues artist were: B.B. King, Bessie Smith, Hollin' Wolf, Muddy Waters or John Lee Hooker
B.B. King - The Thrill is gone
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Some artist of Blues style were:
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Elmore James: Dust my broom
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Bessie Smith: St. Louis Blues
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Muddy Waters: Catfish Blues
Hersal's Blues - Hersal Thomas ​
Boogie:
Boogie was an American style of music born in the 20's and it got its peak in the 30's. The boogie was originally played on the piano, but the characteristic rhythm and feel of the boogie were then adapted to guitar, double bass, and other instruments. By the 1930s, Swing bands such as Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey and Louis Jordan all had boogie hits. By the 1950s, boogie became incorporated into the emerging rockabilly and rock and roll styles. In the late 1980s and the early 1990s country bands released country boogies. Today, the term "boogie" usually refers to dancing to pop, disco, or rock music.
Some regular instruments in boogie music were piano, voices, brass instruments, and drum set. Some people said that the origin of this music is in the 19th Century ragtime. It used a fast tempo, and catchy lyrics. Some artist of this style were the Andrew Sisters, Hersal Thomas and Albert Ammon.
Boogie Woogie Stomp - Albert Ammon & his Rhythm Kings
Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy - The Andrew Sisters
The Fives - Thomas Brothes (perf. Luca Sestak)
Bebop:
Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States, which features songs characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key, instrumental virtuosity, and improvisation based on a combination of harmonic structure, the use of scales and occasional references to the melody.
Bebop developed as the younger generation of jazz musicians expanded the creative possibilities of jazz beyond the popular, dance-oriented swing style with a new "musician's music" that was not as danceable and demanded close listening. As bebop was not intended for dancing, it enabled the musicians to play at faster tempos. Bebop musicians explored advanced harmonies, complex syncopation, altered chords, extended chords, chord substitutions, asymmetrical phrasing, and intricate melodies. Bebop groups used rhythm sections in a way that expanded their role. Whereas the key ensemble of the swing era was the big band of up to fourteen pieces playing in an ensemble-based style, the classic bebop group was a small combo that consisted of saxophone (alto or tenor), trumpet, piano, double bass, and drums playing music in which the ensemble played a supportive role for soloists. Rather than play heavily arranged music, bebop musicians typically played the melody of a song (called the "head") with the accompaniment of the rhythm section, followed by a section in which each of the performers improvised a solo, then returned to the melody at the end of the song.
Some of the most influential bebop artists were Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie
Bebop - Charlie Parker
Sh-Boom - The Crew Cuts
Doo Wop:
Doo-wop is a genre of music that was developed in African-American communities of various U.S. cities as New York City or Los Angeles in the 1940s, achieving mainstream popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. Its origins are related to swing music from the twenties. Built upon vocal harmony, doo-wop was one of the most mainstream pop styles of the time. Doo-wop features vocal group harmony, nonsense syllables, a simple beat, sometimes little or no instrumentation, and simple music and lyrics. It's featured by the use of a high tenor singing the lead and a bass singer reciting the lyrics in the middle of the song. Instruments are not important but they usually used a piano, a drum set, and a bass. Lyrics are about positive love and good feelings.
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During the late 1950s, many Italian-American groups contributed a significant part in the doo-wop scene. The peak of doo-wop was in 1961. Doo-wop's influence continued in soul, pop, and rock groups of the 1960s. At various times in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, the genre has seen revivals. Doo-wop was a precursor to many of the African-American musical styles seen today. An evolution of jazz and blues, doo-wop also influenced many of the major rock and roll groups that defined the later decades of the 20th century. Doo-wop is iconic for its swing-like beats and using the off-beat to keep time. Doo-wop laid the foundation for many musical innovations, for example, R&B.
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Some artists of this style were The Platters and the Chordettes.