Chapter 36: Rock
Rock: Music of Rebellion
Antecedents of Rock
• Rhythm and Blues
– Descended from a laid-back, riff-based bluesy swing
– Small rhythm section (piano, guitar, bass, and drums)
accompany a few saxophones and other “horns”
– Unambiguous duple meter
– 12-bar blues over a walking bass style called boogie woogie
Rock and Roll
• Term coined by pioneering radio disk jockey Alan
Freed (1921-1965)
• Music disseminated through radio broadcasts
• Freed’s broadcast’s were replayed in Europe
• “Rocking and Rolling”: old nautical term referring to
the motion of boats
– Term applied to movements
during religious ecstasy and dance
• Elvis Presley (1935-1977)
– Career began performing “hillbilly music,” singing
gospel music in church, and listening to blues and jazz in
the black neighborhood of Memphis
– Combined genres of indigenous American black and
white rural music
– 149 songs appeared on Billboard’s “Hot 100 Pop Chart”
– 1956 recording and TV performance of “Hound Dog”
– Movie roles
• Buddy Holly (and the Crickets)
– 12-bar blues without the blue notes
– Twangy guitar strumming and snareless locomotive
drumming
• Pat Boone, “Fats” Domino, “Little Richard” Penniman
Rock
• The Beatles (1960-1970): John Lennon, Paul
McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr
– Performance on The Ed Sullivan Show February 9, 1964
had profound effect on music and culture
– Developed an unprecedented ability to create original,
fresh sounds with radical experimentation in both
songwriting and studio recording
– Thematically unified concept album: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely
Hearts Club Band
British Invasion
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The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Cream
Harder edge
Lengthy instrumental improvisations
Guitar Riff: An improvisatory flourish that becomes a
motive
• Rhythmic ostinato
– The Stone’s “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” (1965)
• Use of 12-bar blues
– Cream’s “Crossroads” (1969)
• Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970): The most original,
influential rock guitarist
– Wide range in harmonic variety
– Expanded range of the amplified guitar, creating an
assortment of noises, vocal effects, and electronic sounds
Soul, Motown, and Funk
• Stemmed from the political, social, and economical
circumstances of black American during the 1950’s and
1960’s
• Motown
– Stax record label (Memphis)
– Motown Records (Detroit) founded by Berry Gordy
– Martha and the Vandellas, The Supremes, The
Temptations, the Four Tops
• Soul
– Gospel-rooted style
– Musical complexity found in the arrangements and
musicianship
– Spontaneity and improvisation in live performances
– Ray Charles
• Funk
– Invented by “Godfather of Soul” James Brown
– Blend of soul, jazz, and R&B
– Brought black Pentecostal preaching, shouting, and freec
conversational manner to pop music
Punk and New Wave
• Punk Rock
– Highly politicized style, mid-1970’s
– Fast, hard-edged music with short, simple songs
– Musical escapism with a self-destructive and nihilistic
approach
– Basic verse-and-chorus form of earlier pop
– Crude amplified sounds, fast driving rhythms, unassuming
timbres, simple harmonies
– The Ramones (1976), the Sex Pistols (1977)
– The Clash combined punk aesthetic with Jamaican music
(1979)
– Helped renovate rock back to its working-class, garage
band roots
Metal
• Introduction of the powerchord by the Kinks in “You
Really Got Me” and “All the Day and All the Night”
– Triad lacking the major or minor third
• Sliding of chords along the neck of the instrument in
parallet motion
• Early 1970’s: Louder, chordal sound and high volume
• Surrealistic themes, paranoid delusions, and dark, dreary
subjects; Adolescent angst
• Deep Purple and Black Sabbath
• Late 1980’s: Fresh sound of Metallica
Rap
• Originated as an African American style in the early
1970’s in New York’s South Bronx
• DJ Kool Herc (Jamaican-born Clive Campbell)
developed imitation of Jamaican practice of using
“sound systems’’ to play music at parties
– Isolated choice portions of the tracks (the “break” and
created loops and extended portions using two term tables
• “Break dancing”
– MC (Master of Ceremonies) and DJ
• The Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight”: First
recording with the work rap in the title
• Run DMC: First rap artists to achieved major
commercial success
• Novel and authentic sound whose broad appeal crossed
racial and social boundaries
Grunge
• Generation X: Born around 1975
• Dark, brooding, introspective songs first arose in and
around Seattle
• A type of alternative rock inspired by punk
• Kurt Cobain and Nirvana: Nevermind (1991)
– Wide mix of rock and pop styles
– Absurdist lyrics
– “Smells Like Teen Spirit”: “A teen revolutionary song”