Good Rockin’ Tonight
Tin Pan Alley (1880-mid 1950s)
Genre of popular music that arose in the late 19th to early 20th century
in New York City
West 28th St. between Broadway & Sixth Ave.
Tin Pan name came from the sound of pianos furiously pounded by
the so-called song pluggers
Music distributed by sheet music (for home consumption)
Professional songwriters dominated the time period (George Gershwin
& Irving Berlin)
Wrote for pop music, Broadway, & film
Eventually Tin Pan Alley tradition was replaced by the Rock & Roll
tradition
Tin Pan Alley
Characteristics:
Written by a professional
(often non-performing)
song writers
Sophisticated arrangement
Syncopated rhythm
(accents on unexpected,
weak beats)
Clever, well-crafted lyrics
Striving for upper-class
sensibilities & mainstream
respectability
Primary audience---adults
Tin Pan Alley
The Birth of the Blues
Rock & Roll comes from the Blues
Blues – derived from American slaves (mainly came from
West Africa)
Sang together as they worked, call & response technique, sang
about problems, used their bodies as drums
Work songs – designed to synchronize manual labor such as
swinging an axe or pounding railroad spikes
Kept alive by rote memorization & an oral tradition
Blues – turned into Gospel at African-American churches
Foundation of Rock & Roll
During the Great Migration, more than 100,000 African
American laborers moved from the south to the urban north.
The brought along with them their music & memories.
1920’s the phonograph and the rise of commercial radio
began to spread Hillbilly music & the blues.
This led to an appreciating of American vernacular music,
both white & black.
The effect of blending several regional musical styles &
cultural practices ultimately gave birth to 1950s Rock & Roll.
Great Migration
Many former slave families left the south in the Post WWI
era. Pulled by manufacturing jobs in the North and friendlier
conditions.
Chicago was a primary location – a.k.a. “The Home of the
Electric Blues”
Big Bill Broonzy, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Tampa Red,
Sleepy John Estes, Sonny Boy Williamson
“You Shook Me” - Willie Dixon, Led Zepplin
The Rise of “Roots Music”=
The Blues AND Country Music
The Blues
1920s – Mississippi Delta
Blues
1930s – Urban Blues
1940s – Jump Blues
1950s – Rhythm & Blues
Rock & Roll --- 1952
Country Music
1920s – Cowboy Songs
1930s – Hillbilly Music
1940s – Country Swing
(Country & Western)
“Roots Music” (Vernacular
Music)
Regional popular & folk music
Played by amateur musicians
Not formally taught
Spread through an oral tradition
Roots Music Pioneers
John Lomax
Played a central role in preserving, recording,
and promoting American Folk songs
Cowboy Songs & Other Frontier Ballads (1910)
Songs of the Cattle Trail & Cow Camp (1919)
American Ballads & Folk Songs (1934)
Negro Songs as Sung by Lead Belly (1936)
Our Singing Country (1941)
Folk Song U.S.A. (1947)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qWpAgoJHUk
http://www.mtv.com/news/1432225/moby-journeysthrough-the-past-for-alan-lomax-samples/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UXpmvu35Fk
Huddie “Lead
Belly” Ledbetter
(1888-1949)
Discovered by John & Alan Lomax
Popular entertainer playing “oldfashioned” blues
Lead Belly’s Last Sessions (1948)
contained songs that became the
springboard to the 1960s folk
revival:
The House of the Rising Sun
The Midnight Special
Rock Island Line
Goodnight, Irene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYrK464nIeY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0OFF3q4Pxk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5tOpyipNJs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A-4VGfx5lU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ1oZVGmTr0
Mississippi Delta Blues (19001930)
Also known as “country blues”
Primarily by male African-American itinerant laborers
Lyrics expressed poverty, homelessness, unfaithful love,
penitentiary life, alienation
Vocal style – fierce singing style similar to that of field hollers
Instruments – slide guitar, harmonica
Rhythm – fluctuating & uneven
Ex. Son House (1902-1988) & Robert Johnson (1911-1938)
Robert Johnson
He embodies the spirit of the rocker; a man and his guitar telling his story
to the world.
Robert Johnson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsB_cGdgPTo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MCHI23FTP8
Chicago Blues (1930-1960)
Bar room drinking music
Rough, raspy, crude vocals
Instruments—
Electric guitar
Amplified harmonica
Piano
Drums
Muddy Waters (1915-1983)
One of the most important Chicago
Blues Masters
The Rolling Stones derived their
name from Muddy Waters’ song
“Rolling Song”
From Clarksdale, Mississippi
Sold his last horse to buy a guitar
from Sears for $2.50
Lived as a tenant farmer and
musician in MS until he moved to
Chicago in 1943
Muddy Waters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5IOou6qN1o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ4NFsw4bOU
The Big Bang of Country Music
Bristol Recording Sessions, 1927 – by Victor Talking
Machine Company (RCA)
Country
Players
Ralph Peer
The Carter Family
Jimmie Rogers
Hank Williams, Sr. (1923-1953)
Blended Country and Western with the Blues
Bing Crosby (1903-1977)
First entertainer to use the tape recorder
No one had ever considered pre-recording radio programs!
“Indies”
1st commercial tape recorders became available shortly after
WWII
Small independent labels – Chess, Sun, & Atlantic records –
emerged riding the wave of interest in R & B
“Indie” records began filling the jukeboxes in the inner cities
in the early 1950s
White teenagers became infatuated with the new sound
“Indies”
Atlantic – NY (Ahmet Ertegun, Herb Abramson, & Jerry
Wexler) Recorded early stars including Ruth Brown, Big Joe
Turner, Ray Charles, Clyde McPhatter, and Ben E. King
Chess – Chicago (Leonard & Phil Chess) recorded Muddy
Waters, Bo Diddley, Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, Sonny Boy
Williamson, Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, Jackie Benston,
Chuck Berry. Through its U.K. subsidiary Pye label, was
largely responsible for the emergence of British Blues
Sun Studios – Memphis (Sam Phillips) Birthpalce of the
rockabilly sytle of rock. Recorded Howlin’ Wolf & Ike
Turner
Alan Freed
Cleveland disk jockey
Began playing R & B records using the term “rock and roll”
to disguise the music’s black origins
A relatively unknown blues euphemism for sex & partying
The Phonograph Record
10-inch, 78 rpm shellac record (1930-40s)
12-inch, 33 rpm “long-playing” record (LP) (1948,
Columbia)
7-inch, 45 rpm single (1949, RCA)
5-inch, 200-500 rpm Compact Disc (1982, Phillips)
RCA 45 rpm Record Player
Big Band
Big Band Swing
Music was the most
popular style during
WWII
Touring was
curtailed by
rationed gas and
rubber
Jump bands were a
scaled down version
of swing bands with
a jazzy, bouncy beat
New Orleans Jump Blues
1940s forefather of rhythm & blues
Style characteristics—
Big band swing style dance music
Small ensemble (1-2 horns, piano, guitar, drums, & bass)
Bouncy, upbeat rhythm
Boogie-woogie piano rhythm
Geared toward younger audiences
More mainstream & commercial than other blues styles
Louis Jordan & his Tympany
Five
New Orleans “Jump Blues” King
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdQJ3Q0uhYE
Quick Review of Styles
From Blues to “Rhythm & Blues”
1920-1930 – Mississippi Delta Blues
1930s – Urban Blues Types
Chicago Blues
Memphis Blues
Kansas City Blues
Texas Blues
New Orleans Blues
1940s – New Orleans Jump Blues
Late 1940s – Rhythm & Blues