POP MUSIC
CHAPTER 16
Fifties Pop and Folk Rock
American Bandstand
 American
Bandstand http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=4E5xy6gjnt4
1948 Billboard
 Rhythm and Blues and Country Music earned
their own listing when the “race” record
category was eliminated.
1954 Billboard
 Three stylistic categories for their ratings –
Pop, Rhythm and Blues, and Country Music
 As the youngest generation gained influence,
the boundaries between these categories
began to blur – youthful white performers
occupied spots on the pop and rhythm and
blues charts, young white performers were on
the pop and country charts and black artists
were on the pop and R&B charts
The Music Business
 Dominated by musical theater and similar
music, until the emergence of rock
 Up to this point commercial music was aimed
at white, middle-aged, middle-class urbanites
– the music and its artists, like its target
audience, became predictable, polite and
stuck to reliable formulas
The Business
 The few black artists that were accepted into
the mainstream were only successful
because they conformed to the existing
standards
Country Music
 Country music fared better, with Hollywood
cowboys helping its image
 Country music in the 1950s however was just
as conservative and inoffensive as pop
Emergence of Rock
 With the emergence of rock, the industry saw an
unprecedented infiltration of black and young white
artists performing black material
 At first industry leaders fought against it, but
eventually accepted the new trend – they then
attempted to make it fit with their existing practices
 One such attempt was to take neat, wholesome white
artists and have them cover early rock songs in a
watered-down manner
 This actually had the opposite effect by increasing
public awareness of the original versions
Pat Boone
 Built a career on performing polite renditions
of music by Fats Domino, Little Richard and
Nat King Cole
 Ain’t That a Shame
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8dx0oE-VI
 People have typically looked down on such
practices in the past, but because rock music
was still in its infancy, it wasn’t as big of a
deal
Pat Boone, cont.
 In 1997 he recorded an album of metal
covers in big band style
 Smoke On The
Water http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFD
IrwOUdrw
 Paradise
City http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeKj
mB2DaAs
Chapter 16 – Fifties Pop
and Folk Rock
Rock and Radio
Radio
 After World War II, television became a viable
medium
 Networks essentially abandoned radio
 Radio returned to broadcasting mainly music,
typically of local interest (country or rhythm
and blues)
 Radio became an effective way to promote
rock and roll, first locally, then nationally
Disc Jockeys
 Up to this point disc jockeys mainly played music and

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


made a few announcements
With radio’s new role in the 1950s DJs became stars
in their own right
They began linking themselves more closely to the
music they played, playing music and broadcasting
live from events
Very soon the top 40 format was created
This format involves the constant rotation of only the
40 top-rated songs according to Billboard magazine
This ensured that whenever listeners tuned in, they
would hear something they liked
Disc Jockeys, cont.
 This practice made radio exposure very competitive
for record labels and made radio DJs extremely
powerful in influencing the next big hit
 This eventually leads to record labels bribing disc
jockeys to play and give special attention to their
music – known as payola
 Payola – the covert buying of airplay privileges
 FCC investigates in 1960 and it becomes something
of a scandal
PAYOLA
 in the American music industry, is the illegal practice
of payment or other inducement by record companies
for the broadcast of recordings on music radio in
which the song is presented as being part of the
normal day's broadcast. Under U.S. law, 47
U.S.C. § 317, a radio station can play a specific song
in exchange for money, but this must be disclosed on
the air as being sponsored airtime, and that play of
the song should not be counted as a "regular airplay".
 The term has come to refer to any secret payment
made to cast a product in a favorable light (such as
obtaining positive reviews).
Chapter 16 – Fifties Pop
and Folk Rock
The Beach Boys
Phil Spector - producer

One of his innovations was the girl group
 Female vocal groups had been around for a
while but not in the area of rock and roll

Basically a female version of the doo-wop
group for the 1960’s
 They would eventually serve as models for
Motown groups such as the Marvelettes and
the Supremes

Also created the “Wall of Sound” concept
The Wall of Sound
 He was notorious for wanting control over
every aspect of his music
 Sought to create a signature ‘sound’
 The “Wall of Sound” involves a large amount
of musicians, most playing the same parts as
one another – also used a generous amount
of overdubbing and reverb
The Wall of Sound
 The Wall of Sound is a music production technique
for pop and rock music recordings developed by
record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios in
Los Angeles, California, during the early 1960s.
Working with such audio engineers as Larry Levine
and the session musicians who became known as
The Wrecking Crew, Spector created a dense,
layered, reverberant sound that came across well on
AM radio and jukeboxes popular in the era. He
created this sound by having a number of electric and
acoustic guitarists perform the same parts in unison,
adding musical arrangements for large groups of
musicians up to the size of orchestras, then recording
the sound using an echo chamber.
Overdubbing
 Overdubbing – technique where musicians
are recorded a number of times on different
tracks of the tape to be played back
simultaneously
 There Goes My BabyDrifters http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K
HjZpEbjvos
The Beach Boys
 Formed in 1961 in Hawthorne California
 Consisted of Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, Mike

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Love and Al Jardine
Brian Wilson was the main songwriter; eventually
took over production
They released “Surfin’” in 1961; it soon rose to
national success
Originally their music drew upon West Coast
imagery; surfing, girls, and the endless teenage
summer
They weren’t the first or only group to incorporate this
into their music – Dick Dale, and the Surfaris
The Beach Boys, cont.
 Brian Wilson, inspired by Phil Spector began
incorporating large amounts of overdubs into his
music
 After hearing “Rubber Soul” by the Beatles, Brian
Wilson is inspired to write an album full of good
songs (their previous albums contained filler songs,
covers and comedic skits)
 The Beach Boys released “Pet Sounds” in 1966 –
although it didn’t meet with as much success as
“Rubber Soul,” it did help them compete with the
Beatles for popularity
The Beach Boys
 Surfin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s4
slliAtQU
 California Girls (from page
200) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fviwc3YeG8
 David Lee Roth
version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c
mbhfI8f_Ek
Characteristics of the Beach Boys’
Music
 Lush, often complex vocal arrangements
 Polite, cheerful sound
 Early music has beach and summertime
themes
Fifties Folk and Pop Rock
FOLK ROCK
Urban Folk Revival
 As teens graduated from high school, their
focus shifted away from cars and proms
 In college, some young people turned their
attention toward social issues, intellectualism
and the arts
 Rather than screaming at rock concerts,
these fans preferred more intimate venues,
such as coffee shops featuring cool jazz,
poetry and acoustic American folk music
Urban Folk Revival
 The urban folk revival is related to rock music
mainly because it occurred at the same time
as the rise of rock and roll
 It is considered a revival because it brought
national popularity to American folk songs
when the only people listening to it previously
were folk music enthusiasts
Woody Guthrie

Born in Oklahoma in 1912
 Songs dealt with social reform, particularly
the plight of the Oklahoma victims of the
Depression and the dust bowl of the 1930s
 This Land Is your land
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxiMrvDbq
3s
Pete Seeger
Influenced by Guthrie’s music

Makes folk music fashionable among the
middle class college crowd

Pete Seeger
“Goodnight Irene” was a number one hit
for 13 weeks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcHLCv6s
FFU
 This brought folk music into a phase of
popularity, but the left-wing politics it
promoted caused it to be forced underground
by the communist paranoia of the day
 If I Had A Hammer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSUsyzUF
cKs


Crosby, Stills, and Nash
 Teach your children (page 203)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztVaqZajq-I
BOB DYLAN

Became a passionate devotee of folk
music
 In 1961 he moved from Indiana to Greenwich
Village and tutored with Woody Guthrie
 Known for his scratchy, mumbling voice
Bob Dylan
 His protest songs were relevant to 1960s
concerns such as civil rights
 He eventually rebelled against his own
stardom first by moving from sociopolitical
topics to his own inner strife and then by
moving to an electric sound
 When he first made the change from acoustic
to electric, many of his traditional-minded
fans were caught by surprise and unhappy
Bob Dylan
 This however led to other bands using this
approach such as the Byrds - 1965 Turn
Turn Turn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaL75qLJy
Uc
 The Tmes They Are A Changin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiHWbTr4
8I0
Bob Dylan
 Blowin In The Wind
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWwgrjjIM
XA
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUX9IcSzH
X0 song and lyrics
 Lyrics
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/bob+dylan/blowi
n+in+the+wind_20021159.html
 Reminds us of Tom Petty
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUTXbga1fo
 Wallflowers 6th Avenue Heartache
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXDiGtgPL
6E
 Van Morrison Brown Eyed Girl
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqXSBeqMGo
 John Lennon Working Class Hero
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njG7p6CS
bCU
 Beatles, You've Got To Hide your Love Away
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAlrFJbGd
gw
 John was trying to sing like Bob Dylan
 Simon And Garfunkel Wounds of Silence
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YSh1XuUKE