Styles
The styles we are going to be looking at are:
Skiffle
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Rock & Roll
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60’s pop
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Country Music
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•
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Rock
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Disco
Synth Pop
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Punk
Skiffle
Skiffle is a type of popular music with jazz, blues
and folk influences.
It usually uses homemade or improvised
instruments.
It originated as a term in the United States and
become popular in Britain in the 1950’s.
Improvised Jug Bands playing Blues and
Jazz were common in the American South
during the early decades of the 20th
Century.
They used instruments such as the
washboard, jugs, washtub bass, musical
saw, comb-and-paper kazoos, as well as
more conventional instruments such as
acoustic guitar and banjo.
The term Skiffle disappeared from
American music in the 1940’s.
Skiffle might have been largely forgotten if not
for its British revival in the 1950’s.
British skiffle grew out of the developing postwar British jazz scene, which saw a move away
from swing music and towards authentic ‘trad’
jazz.
It was the success of skiffle recordings and
the lack of a need for expensive instruments or
high levels of musicianship that set off the
British skiffle craze.
Rock & Roll
‘The Blues had a baby, and they called it Rock &
Roll.’
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll or rock 'n'
roll) is a genre of popular music that originated and
evolved in the United States during the late 1940’s
and early 1950’s.
Features
Original Songs – Buddy Holly &
Chuck Berry wrote original songs. This
inspired new and upcoming musicians
like The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and
The Beach Boys, who turned Rock & Roll
songwriting into an art form.
Cultural Impact- Rock and roll
has a larger cultural impact beyond its
musical influence. Early rock heroes like
Elvis and Little Richard were revered for a
sense of rebellion and cultural ethos.
American youth soon began to emulate
their rock heroes in terms of hairstyle,
clothing and attitude.
The Guitar Hero One of the
-
other significant characteristics of rock
and roll was the stripped down
instrumentation, and the emergence of
the guitar as a solo instrument. Prior to
rock n' roll, music had been dominated by
big bands and sophisticated
arrangements.
60’s Pop
As the late fifties gave way to the early
sixties, the rockabilly stars of the previous
decade (the Everlys, Elvis, Roy Orbison)
were still having hits, but the older popmusic stars were fading away as they
struggled to find material that would click
with this new and energetic generation of
kids.
There were 4 pockets:
Doo wop & Girl Groups- There
origins come from acapella groups. They relied
strongly on their handlers to pick the material,
set up the recording and produce the product.
R&B and Soul Scene -
included many talented people who often
didn't receive the popularity of lesstalented white groups, because of
barriers and prejudices against buying
"race" records. Later in the decade, after
the British groups acknowledged their
debt to soul music, and as the civil rights
movement inspired black pride, the
general American public rediscovered
these performers.
California Scene - first
dominated by instrumental surf groups like the
Surfaris, the Crossfires, and Dick Dale & the Deltones. Dale, the "King of Surf Guitar," in
particular helped define how modern rock guitar
solos would sound. Then the Beach Boys added
vocal harmonies to the surf sound. This surf-&drag, fun-in-the-sun sound was so popular that
the style showed up all over the place, even in tv
theme songs such as the Munsters and Hawaii
Five-O.
Motown - The Motown record label in
Detroit was founded by Berry Gordy Jr., and
while its recording stars were all black, still you
couldn't necessarily call this totally black or
"soul" music. Instead, Gordy controlled the
performing styles, clothes, even hairdos of his
artists, grooming them for success in the wider
mainstream American audiences. Among the
many successful performers who recorded for
Motown, one ought to mention Marvin Gaye, who
was first to take control of his own career and
insist on artistic control over his recordings.
The Beatles
The Beatles were one of the most successful bands who
helped reshape western Pop music.
They helped to create a distinctly British sound which used:
British (rather than American) accents
standard song forms
distinctive chord sequences and vocal harmonies
rhythmic guitar work
simple melodies
clever lyrics
Rock
Rock music is a genre of popular music that
originated as “rock and roll” in the 1950’s,
and developed into a range of different
styles in the 1960’s and later, particularly in
the United Kingdom and United States.
Musically, rock has centered on the Musically, rock
has centered on the electric guitar, usually as part
of a rock group with electric bass guitar and
drums. Often piano, Hammond Organ or
synthesizers are included.
Usually in 4/4 time with verse – chorus structure.
Since the term rock began to be used in preference
to rock and roll from the mid-1960s, it has often
been contrasted with pop music, with which it has
shared many characteristics, but from which it is
often distanced by an emphasis on musicianship,
live performance and a focus on serious and
progressive themes.
Disco
Disco is a genre of Dance music.
Well-known late 1970s disco performers
included ABBA, Donna Summer, The Bee Gees,
KC and the Sunshine Band and Gloria Gaynor.
a time signature of 4/4
a fast tempo
four-on-the-floor rhythms
guitar driven energy often with syncopated bass lines
luscious orchestral arrangements
vocals with reverb
verse and chorus structure
escapist lyrics about love and dancing
Four-on-the-floor is a drum style
where the bass drum plays on all four
beats of the 4/4 bar and the hi-hat
cymbal plays on the offbeats.
Synth Pop
Synth Pop is a genre of popular music that first
became prominent in the 1980’s and features the
synthesizer as the prominent instrument.
Characteristics are its use of synthesizers, drum
machines and sequences to replace all other
instruments.
Many synthpop musicians had limited musical
skills, relying on the technology to produce or
reproduce the music. The result was often
minimalist, with grooves that were "typically woven
together from simple repeated riffs often with no
harmonic 'progression' to speak of”
In the late 1980s, duos such as Erasure and Pet
Shop Boys adopted a sound that was highly
successful on the US dance charts but by the end
of the decade synthpop had been abandoned.
Artists such as La Roux, Lady Gaga and Owl City
rivived synthpop for a short period of time.
Punk
Punk is a rock music genre that developed between
1969 and 1976 in the United States, United Kingdom,
and Australia.
Punk bands created fast, hard-edged music, typically
with short songs, stripped-down instrumentation,
and often political, anti-establishment lyrics. Punk
embraces a DIY ethic; many bands self-produced
recordings and distributed them through informal
channels.
By late 1976, bands such as the Sex Pistols, The
Clash and The Damned in London, and Television,
Patti Smith, and the Ramones in New York City
were recognized as the vanguard of a new musical
movement. The following year saw punk rock
spreading around the world, and it became a major
cultural phenomenon in the United Kingdom.
Typical punk rock instrumentation includes one or
two electric guitars, an electric bass, and a drum
kit, along with vocals. Songs tend to be shorter
than those of other popular genres. Most early
punk rock songs retained a traditional rock 'n' roll
verse-chorus form and 4/4 time signature.
Punk rock vocals sometimes sound nasal, and
lyrics are often shouted instead of sung in a
conventional sense, particularly in hardcore
styles. Shifts in pitch, volume, or intonational style
are relatively infrequent. Complicated guitar solos
are considered self-indulgent and unnecessary,
although basic guitar breaks are common.
8 Track Recording
The eight track tape recording system was popular
from 1965 to the late 1970’s. It was a great
commercial success and paved the way for all
sorts of innovations in portable listening.
This built the path for multi-track recording which
came in later years.
The Original Ampex 8-Track recorder was an
internal project. The recorder stood over 7feet and
weight 110kg. 8 tracks were chosen because that
was the number of 0.070inch recording tracks with
0.060 guard tracks that would fit into 1inch
recording tape (the largest available at the time).
These are the track widths used in all professional
analog multitrack recorders excepts 24 track
recorders.
Atlantic records was the first record company to
use a multi-track recorder in their studio.
In professional audio setting
today, audio engineers may use
64 tracks or more for their
recordings, utilizing one or more
tracks for each instrument
played.
Stereo LP
http://www.diffen.com/difference/Mono_vs_Stere
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CD Player
A CD player is an electronic device that plays
audio compact discs. CD players are often a part
of home stereo systems, car audio systems,
and personal computers. They are also
manufactured as portable CD player devices.
The process of playing an Audio CD, touted as a digital audio
storage medium, starts with the plastic polycarbonate disc,
an analogue medium that contains the digitally encoded
data.
The data is read out by loading the disc in the player's
mechanism that scans the spiral data track using a laser
beam. The tracking control is done by analogue amplifiers
and then the high frequency analogue signal read from the
disc is digitized, processed and decoded into analogue audio
and digital control data which is used by the player to
position the playback mechanism on the correct track, do the
skip and seek functions and display track, time, index and, on
newer players, title and artist information on a display placed
in the front panel.
The invention of the CD player was a breakthrough in
the entertainment industry. This was the gateway into
new technology for gaming consoles, computer
systems and DVD players. The music scene changed
dramatically as well. Before the CD player, casette
and eight-track tapes had poor sound quality and
were prone to damage. The CD player offered digital
quality sound without feedback noise, as well as
more entertainment options.
In the late 1970s, Sony collaborated with Philips Electronics
and Polygram to design a new type of music player. The first
CD player was in production for two to three years before it
was available to the public. CDP-101 was the first
commercialized CD player on the market. Even though other
companies began producing CD players. Sony and their
partners started the trend and their products were less
expensive than their competitors'. The initial player retailed
for an astounding $900 and was officially on sale on October
1, 1982. Along with the CD player, Sony released over 50 CDs
around the same period. The first CD was "52 Street" by Billy
Joel.
Multi Track recording
Multi track recording (MTR)—also known as multi
tracking, double tracking, or tracking—is a method of sound
recording that allows for the separate recording of multiple
sound sources to create a cohesive whole.
Multi tracking became possible with the idea of
simultaneously recording different audio channels to
separate discrete "tracks" on the same tape—a "track" was
simply a different channel recorded to its own discrete area
on tape whereby their relative sequence of recorded events
would be preserved, and playback would be simultaneous or
synchronized.
The process was conceived and developed by
Ross Snyder at Ampex in 1955 resulting in the first
8-track machine which used 1-inch tape. This 8track recorder was sold to Les Paul for $10,000. It
became known as the "Octopus". Les Paul, Mary
Ford and Patti Page used the technology in the late
1950s to enhance vocals and instruments. From
these beginnings, it evolved in subsequent
decades into a mainstream recording technique.
Multi-track recorders also differs from early stereo and three track
recorders that were available at the time in that they can record
individual tracks while preserving the other tracks. The original
multi-channel recorders could only record all tracks at once.
By the late 1970s, 3M, introduced the first digital multi-track
recorder. It utilized 1 inch wide tape and recorded 32 tracks. Unlike
analog tape, edits could not be accomplished with a grease pencil,
razor blades and splicing tape. So a secondary 4 track editing & mix
down recorder was also created with an electronically controlled
edit controller to make effective digital edits. This early system used
a 16-bit digital "word". Unfortunately, the only converters of the day
were 12 bit & 4 bit. So 2 were cascaded/daisychained to create the
necessary 16-bit word for 96 DB of dynamic range. The signal was
then sampled faster than any other digital recordings made up till
that time at 50,000 times per second a.k.a. 50 kHz. It was known to
be the best sounding of all the later digital multi-track recorders.
Although multitrack recording can be performed in either analog or digital
format, as we mentioned, the music industry has switched over to digital -and for good reason. Bartlett explains that digital has several advantages
over analog. For starters, digital yields higher sound quality and steady
pitch, and you'll get none of the hiss sound or distortion that can plague
analog recordings. (Of course, some musicians might prefer the hiss and
distortion from analog, but that's a matter of taste.) Digitally, you can choose
to record everything on a computer, allowing you to view and edit waveforms
of the recorded music with ease.
In terms of multitrack recording, digital can offer you more tracks -- perhaps
only limited by the amount of computer space you have. With digital, it's also
easier to fix mistakes, as well as use random access to skip to a particular
part of a song to edit. Sending the digital files long distances is a breeze,
too. Instead of mailing physical analog tape reels, digital files can be sent
over the Internet.
And because you won't have to buy expensive tape or maintain tape
recorders, digital studios can be significantly less costly. Amazingly, Bartlett
says you can put together a respectable digital home studio for less than
$2,000, which would be just as good or better than a $100,000 studio back
when analog was standard.