MUS 317/517: Evolution of Jazz and Rock
Quiz 2 Study Guide
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Spring 2007
Ch. 1 – Introduction
- Rock is “one of the primary forces in our society as a whole” (social, cultural,
economic, political, musical)
- Rock came from: pop, country & western, rhythm & blues
- 2 main figures: Elvis Presley, The Beatles
Ch. 2 – The Roots of Rock
- early 1950s: stability, serenity, “game plan”, general economic affluence,
television sets.
Pop music: Tin Pan alley tradition; primarily written by white, professional
songwriters. Performed by professional artists.
Characteristics: adult-oriented, re: lyrics, rhythm, melodies, tempo, etc.
* [Listen to Nat “King” Cole: “Too Young”]
- 5 major record companies controlled lion’s share of industry
The elements of music (be able to define, discuss): rhythm, tempo, melody,
harmony, timbre, texture (monophonic, homophonic, polyphonic), volume
(dynamics), form
Country and Western: small, regional audience centerd in South, SW, Midwest
- The “Grand Ole Opry”: most influential C&W-oriented radio show
Characteristics: adult-oriented, re: lyrics, melody, harmony, rhythm, form,
instrumentation. Often original material, rarely notated.
* [Listen to Hank Williams, Sr.: “Your Cheatin’ Heart”]
Instrumentation in Rock and Roll (be familiar with): guitars, voice, drums,
keyboards, saxophone.
Rhythm and Blues: most important contributor to Rock and Roll
Characteristics: black adult audience, centered in South, SW, MW,
major cities. Much based on 12-bar blues, rarely notated (freedom to
improvise), usually originals. Re: lyrics, instrumentation, rhythm,
harmony, melody.
* [Listen to Joe Turner: “Shake, Rattle and Roll”]
The Twelve-Bar Blues (read and understand) re: beats, phrases, I IV V,
AAB lyric scheme, (ex. Elvis: “Hound Dog”)
* [Listen to Elvis Presley: “Hound Dog”]
Ch. 3 – The Emergence of Rock and Roll
- 1954-1956: barriers between Pop, Country & Western and Rhythm & Blues
began to crumble.
Crossovers and Covers
- emergence of a “distinct youth culture”
Bill Haley and the Comets: C&W roots + R&B; “Rock Around the Clock”
* [Listen to Bill Haley and His Comets: “Shake, Rattle and Roll”]
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Elvis Presley: diverse musical influences (R&B, C&W, pop)
- image: mix of black and white
- in 1955: hailed as #1 “up and coming” C&W artist
- hits in 1956, incl: “Heartbreak Hotel”, “Hound Dog”
- “mind-boggling” album sales (10 million+)
- covers and crossover hits, movies
* [Listen to Elvis Presley: “Blue Suede Shoes”]
Significance of Elvis
- “musical personification of what R&R was” (biracial influence)
- “many things to many people” (versatility)
- overwhelming commercial success
- “largely because of Elvis’s pivotal impact, rock and roll moved out of
its identity as ‘teen music’ to become the popular musical style of the last
half of the twentieth century.”
Rhythm in early Rock and Roll (be familiar with this): tempo, meter, strong v.
weak beats, subdivisions (duple, triple, quadruple).
Ch. 4 – Rock and Roll: Fifties Style
3 Basic Trends: mainstream rock, rockabilly, soft rock
Mainstream Rock (lineage to R&B)
Characteristics: form (12-bar blues), vocal style, rarely notated,
instrumentation, melodic bass line, strong, heavy rhythm.
Artists: Elvis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis
Rockabilly (C&W + R&B)
Characteristics: “lighter and cleaner” than mainstream rock, centered in
Memphis (Sun Studios), “more acceptable alternative” to mainstream
rock, re: form.
Artists: Bill Haley, Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly, Everly Bros., Rick Nelson
Soft Rock (elements of pop and rock)
Characteristics: dance function, 2 distinct tracks: white, black (“doo-wop”)
Pat Boone: clean-cut, exemplified 50s soft rock. Brought many R&B
songs to national attention by covering them (e.g. “Tutti Frutti”)
- black “doo-wop” groups: usually 3-6 singers, strong lead and solid
backup vocalists. Exs: Ravens, Orioles, Crows, etc.
* [Listen to The Penguins: “Earth Angel”]
Little Richard: the “purest prototype of hard, mainstream rock”
- conflict between sacred and secular music
* [Listen to Little Richard: “Tutti Frutti”]
Fats Domino: from R&B tradition, but more refined than Little Richard
- use of falsetto voice, 8-bar song forms, boogie-woogie piano
* [Listen to Fats Domino: “Blueberry Hill”]
Chuck Berry: most important influence on electric guitar in early rock
- sophisticated lyrics, 12-bar blues
* [Listen to Chuck Berry: “Roll Over Beethoven”]
Jerry Lee Lewis: “white counterpart to Little Richard”
- C&W + gospel, black R&B (12-bar blues)
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* [Listen to Jerry Lee Lewis: “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Goin’ On”]
Buddy Holly: mostly C&W, some R&B secondhand from Elvis
- wrote most of own material; “hiccup” vocal style
* [Listen to Buddy Holly: “That’ll Be the Day”]
Others:
R&B and Gospel-influenced Rock: Lloyd Price, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke
Rockabilly: Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, etc.
Soft Rock: Paul Anka, Bobby Darin, Frankie Avalon, Johnny Mathis, etc.
Instrumental Groups: Bill Doggett, The Champs (“Tequila”), etc.
Novelties (“musical oddities”): “Witch Doctor”, “Itsy Bitsy…”, etc.
Changes in the Industry: rise of independent record labels, “chaotic” market,
sheet music sales drop, established professionals in less demand.
Radio: important early alliance with rock – “By the late 1950s, radio was
the medium for promotion and dissemination of rock.”
Payola: bribery for airplay of records (radio play determined success of
a record).
Is Soft Rock Really Rock?
Characteristics: slow to med. tempo, often triple beat division, beautiful
melodies, use of falsetto, I vi IV V chord progression, instrumentation,
AABA form, continuing popularity.
Ch. 5 – Transition: The Early 1960s
- early 60s: several early Rock and Rollers out of commission
- 1960-63: period of transition (no dominant trend)
4 Conflicting Trends 1. Vestiges of the 1950s: rockabilly and soft rock continued, little mainstream
rock.
- early 1960s “witnessed the triumph of the softer sounds”
- vocal groups, novelty songs
* [Listen to Frankie Valli, et al: “Big Girls Don’t Cry”] (vocal)
* [Listen to The Tokens: “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”] (novelty)
2. Emerging Folk Music Trend: songs “composed in the style of traditional folk
music” (personalized lyrics)
- Almanac Singers; calypso
- The Kingston Trio: acoustic, clean-cut, launched “urban folk trend”
* [Listen to The Kingston Trio: “Tom Dooley”] (“first real folk hit”)
- Peter, Paul and Mary: softer, more commercial folk, geared toward
college students and young adults. Music to “think to” (e.g. “Blowin’ in
the Wind”).
Characteristics of folk: re: vocal style, lyrics and melody, harmony,
rhythm.
Summary: serious lyrics, appeal to “older youth”, album replaced
single in importance, acoustic instruments emphasized.
3. Surfing Music: diametrically opposed views/characteristics to folk. Emphasis
on fun and electric instruments.
- Jan and Dean, The Beach Boys
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- post-surfing phase Beach Boys very creative (studio experiments).
4. The Dance Craze: R&R has been associated with dance from its beginning
* [Listen to Chubby Checker: “The Twist”] (initiated dance craze)
- many other dances created
Summary: “rock seemed to be losing its direction in a hopeless fragmentation
of the market.”
Musical Texture and the Beach Boys
- influence of Four Freshmen, Chuck Berry (compare “Surfin’ U.S.A.” to
Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen”).
“Good Vibrations” (1966): “the most creative and innovative single to be
released in rock music up until that time” (complex layering, use of
unusual instruments, etc.). The Beach Boys’ work in this period was
“just as creative, if not more so” than the Beatles at the time.
* [Listen to the Beach Boys: “Good Vibrations”]
Ch. 6 – The Beatles
Changes because of Rock and Roll:
- style: pop (soft) yielded popularity to rock (harder)
- companies: 5 majors yielded share of industry to 100s of indies
- hits: predictable hits yielded to a “dizzying sequence” of hits
- audience: white, adult-oriented yielded to youth, black-fascinated
- in early 1960s, music was “in a state of confusion”
- Nov. 22, 1963: John F. Kennedy assassinated; end of optimism, faith, hope
- U.S.’s “cultural inferiority complex”
The Early Beatles: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stu Sutcliffe,
Pete Best.
- experience playing in Hamburg
- in Liverpool, Beatles start to play at the Cavern Club. Stu Sutcliffe quits.
- Brian Epstein becomes manager of the Beatles
- George Martin (of Parlophone, subsidiary of EMI) offers Beatles record deal
- Pete Best is replaced by Ringo Starr
- early hits: “Love Me Do”, “Please, Please Me”, etc.
- re: Gerrry and the Pacemakers and the “Mersey Sound”
- “She Loves You” #1 for 2 months
* [Listen to the Beatles: “She Loves You”]
- re: British Beatlemania, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (#1)
Beatlemania American Style
- 1/64: Capitol agrees to release “I Want to Hold…” in U.S. (reaches #1 in U.S.).
Carnegie Hall concert and 2 appearances on Ed Sullivan show scheduled.
- Apr 4, 1964: Beatles held top 5 chart positions (unprecedented)
- re: books, movie released
- re: growing importance of drugs
The Middle Period: Experimentation: by late 1965, Beatles “could do no wrong”;
allowed freedom to experiment.
-re: “Yesterday” (w/string quartet): #1 in U.S., eventually became Beatles’ mostrecorded song (>2,500 covers).
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Rubber Soul, Yesterday and Today, Revolver – re: experimentation with
unusual instruments, more sophisticated lyrics, psychedelia, surreal
images, etc.
* [Listen to the Beatles: “In My Life”]
- re: more experimentation (“Eleanor Rigby”, “Yellow Submarine”, etc.)
- re: “Strawberry Fields Forever” – nostalgia, surreal lyrics; two versions layered
in studio to produce “real musical drug trip”
The Later Beatles: Revolution
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: first concept album. Very
elaborate production throughout; incl. full lyrics on album cover
(unprecedented), unusual instrumentation, etc.
THIS QUIZ WILL ONLY INCLUDE MATERIAL UP TO THIS POINT
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