Rock and Roll 1950s

Gospel and the Birth of Soul  Fusion of West African musical traditions  The experience of slavery  Christian practices  Life in the American South  The Great Migration transported thousands of African Americans from the South to Northern cities  Gospel’s profound influence on secular music  We listened to this earlier in the semester with Sam Cooke’s “Loveable and “Wonderful”

 Gospel’s rich vocal harmonies such as the Jordanaires and the Golden Gate Quartet  Influenced Girl Groups of the late 50s and early 60s to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Elvis, etc.

Basic Elements of Gospel  Call-and-response  Complex rhythms  Group singing  Rhythmic instrumentation  Other musical genres took elements of Gospel to create new sounds

Listening and Analyzing  Southern Tones, “It Must Be Jesus” (1954)  What is the central message of the song? Who is the key figure?  Ray Charles, “I Got a Woman” (1954)  Identify the key figure mentioned  Does it remind you of any song you have heard on the radio?  Kanye West’s, “Gold Digger”  How are these songs similar, dissimilar, what has changed?  How has the central figure changed?  How is the overall meaning different?  What does sampling Ray Charles’s song do to West’s song?

Song Comparisons  “Wonderful” Sam Cooke (1959)  Elvis Presley with the Jordanaires, “Too Much”  Sister Rosetta Tharpe, “Didn’t It Rain” and  Little Richard, “Tutti Frutti” (1957)

Song Analysis  Songs are like portals that help you to see the world: social, cultural, political  Personal emotional response to music  Questions of Ethnomusicology: song structure, instrumentation, etc.

Frameworks to understanding  Listening and analysis: Questions of Ethnomusicology  Timeline: placing song in historical context  Rock and Roll as a visual culture  Rock and Roll as Performance  Rock and Roll as a literary form  The music industry and technology associated with Rock and Roll

Chuck Berry  “Johnny B. Good”  Instrumentation, Mood, Production, Tempo, Lyrics, Sounds like  Class Discussion using Questions of Ethnomusicology  iPad Chuck Berry

Timeline  Billboard Chart from Wk  Buddy Holly, “Rave On”  Sheb Wooley, “The Purple People Eater”  Wanda Jackson  National Guard called into Central HS in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1957  American Bandstand, joins ABC  Disneyland opens 1955

 Pre-Civil Rights era  Berry was an African-American performer whose audience was significantly white  American Bandstand on ABC in 1957 brought the artists to a wider audience  Record labels such as Chess records in Chicago: Blues and R&B helped bring difference races together through music

Visual side of Rock and Roll  Elvis  Beatles  Lady Gaga  Fashion, photographic and cinematic presentation  Berry was being pitched to a teenage audience  African-American representation in film, theatre and radio

Performance  The artist  The stage set  Choreography  Lighting  Venue  Fans  Culture of the music being presented

Rock&Roll as a Literary Form  Songwriting  Narrative  Storytelling  Identify five images that seem key to propelling the story it contains

Technology and Rock&Roll  How the music is delivered: record, radio, TV, iPod, etc.  Multi-track recording  Chess Records: Chicago Phil and Leonard Chess Independent record label  Major labels of the time: sun Imperial, Atlantic, King

Billboard Charts  Dates back to 1936  Tracks Best Sellers in Stores  Most Played by Jockeys  Most Played in Jukeboxes

Buddy Holly  Born in Lubbock, Texas in 1936  Called the, “single most influential creative force in early rock and roll”  Inspired the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, among many others  Incorporated rockabilly in his music  Formed the band The Crickets  Signed to Decca records

The Day the Music Died  February 3, 1959 Buddy Holly was killed in a plane crash along with Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson  Referenced in the song, “American Pie” by Don McLean