Group questions
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What is the difference between rock ‘n’ roll and
rock?
How has the role of recordings and performance
changed with rock in comparison to other styles?
Make a list of rock music subject matter. Can
you name any examples of altruism?
Describe the basic makeup of the rock band.
Instruments/voices….
Describe the vocal styles of rock singers.
What is the difference between rock ‘n’ roll
and rock?
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rock ‘n’ roll
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essentially white music coming out of black
rhythm-and-blues
essentially music to dance to
early-mid 1950s to late 1960s
rock
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umbrella term covering many types of music
encompasses a broad spectrum of performing
and arranging styles
outgrowth and expression of urban life and
values [as country is of rural life and values]
How has the role of recordings and performance
changed with rock in comparison to other styles?
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Recording has taken precedence over the
performance of the work.
Performances are now used to promote the
recording.
The recording itself becomes the end
product, the work of art.
Rock Subject Matter
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Love, Romantic, Real-Life, and Altruistic
What are some examples of altruism in rock
that have occurred since the 1980s?
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Band Aid (1984) to raise money for the starving in Ethiopia
We Are the World album (1985) for the starving in Africa
“The Concert for New York City” (October 20, 2001) for the
victims of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks
Others?
Other subject matter…
Sex
censored and disguised in early rock ‘n’ roll
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Overtly sexual lyrics were reintroduced by
young British groups (e.g. Rolling Stones) in
the 1960s, groups heavily influenced by
American blues music and lyrics.
Dissent
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expressions of revolt not uncommon
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identity as a vehicle of protest
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Vietnam War songs of the 1960s and early 1970s
conditions of ghetto life
The Basic Makeup of the Rock Band
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What three components make up rock’s
signature sound?
human voice (amplified with microphone)
 guitar(s) (nearly always electric); electric bass
guitar
 drum set
 Optional: keyboard, saxophone, other
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Vocal Styles
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Rock singing is highly individual, but the
heritage of the blues can be heard in the
following vocal styles.
the shout
 the cry
 the groan
 the use of falsetto
 the mumbled slur
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Rock’s Ties to Rhythm and Blues
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“Good Rockin’ Tonight” performed by
Wynonie “Blues” Harris (vocal) and his
group.
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an example of rhythm-and-blues that would
have been played on black radio stations in
large cities
recorded in 1947
What rhythm and blues elements can you identify
in “Good Rockin’ Tonight”?
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boogie-woogie bass
honking blues saxophone
shouting style of singing
backbeat (marked here with the clapping
hands)
What is a backbeat?
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heavy emphasis on beats two and four of every
measure
Comparison
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Compare “Good Rockin’ Tonight” (rhythm and
blues) and “Rock Around the Clock” (rock and
roll)
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In both: rhythm and blues elements, twelve-bar
blues form, boogie-woogie bass, backbeat,
and saxophone
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Who first recorded “Rock Around the Clock”?
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Bill Haley and His Comets in 1954
What makes one song rhythm and blues
and another rock ‘n’ roll?
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audience
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R&B: marketed to a black audience
R&R: marketed to a white audience
evolution from rhythm-and-blues to rock
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Pre-1946
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Rock and roll is a common slang term in blues lyrics to refer to sexual intercourse.
1946
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Billboard used the term to describe a record by Joe Liggins and His Honeydrippers, a Los Angeles rhythmand-blues band.
1951
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Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed began programming black rhythm-and-blues among white adolescents.
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His early radio program was called “Moondog and the Rock and Roll Party.”
1954
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Freed moved to New York. He begins referring to the music itself as rock ‘n’ roll.
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By 1954 white groups were covering popular black rhythm-and-blues recordings.
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White group Bill Haley and His Comets first record “Rock Around the Clock” in April.
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Elvis Presley records “That’s Alright Mama,” covering black musician Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup’s song. Elvis’s
version combined country with rhythm-and-blues contributing to the development of the rockabilly sound.
1955
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Hollywood film Blackboard Jungle opened with “Rock Around the Clock” helping Haley to sell 17 million
copies of the single. The song became a symbol of teenage rebellion.
1956
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Elvis Presley covers “Hound Dog,” a Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton song.
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Texan, Roy Orbison has an early hit with “Ooby Dooby.”
1957
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Texan, Buddy Holly and the Crickets have their first of a string of hits with “That’ll Be the Day.”
1964
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February 9, Beatles appear on the Ed Sullivan Show.
Reaching White Audiences
Which two important mediums brought the music of largely segregated black
Americans to white Americans?
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radio
television
Who was Allan Freed?
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white disc jockey on Cleveland radio station WJW
credited as the first person to use the term “rock and roll” for music that was
essentially rhythm and blues
brought the music of black Americans into the homes of white audiences
What was the name of Freed’s radio show?
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Moondog Rock ‘n’ Roll Party
By 1956 there were 400 “black appeal radio stations.” Two of the most famous
were:
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WDIA (Memphis)
WLAC (Nashville)
The Influence of Country Music
Early rock ‘n’ roll was virtually synonymous with rhythm and blues.
What influences added to rock ‘n’ roll around the mid-1950s
contributed to its emerging distinctiveness?
White country music
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What country music influences can be heard in Elvis Presley’s early
recordings?
All five of his first releases on Sun Records (1954-1955) all combined
one rhythm and blues song with one country song.
In the country songs, Elvis added rhythm and blues elements
In the rhythm and blues songs he added country and pop elements.
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simple, unobtrusive strumming
absence of a heavy backbeat and rhythmic complexity
“That’s All Right” - a country-inflected rhythm
and blues number.
What are the rhythm and blues elements?
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the emotion-laden bluesy inflections in the voice
the occasional flourish on the electric guitar
the hint of a boogie-woogie bass in the background
Trends from the 1960s to the Present
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Rock becomes an umbrella term for a broad
variety of amplified musics marketed for young
white audiences. What are some examples?
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Folk rock, bubblegum rock, psychedelic rock, punk
rock
The Early 1960s
Emergence of “teen idols” exemplifying a groomed and
packaged, wholesome, clean-cut look promoted or
marketed as the new face of rock
What was the “British Invasion”?
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American blues and rhythm-and-blues were
cultivated by British youth and essentially
reintroduced to America.
Beatles
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February 1964: appearance on Ed Sullivan Television
Show
Influences:
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Chuck Berry
Carl Perkins
Buddy Holly
Rolling Stones
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The survivors.
Influences:
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Bluesmen Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf
The Beach Boys
Who formed the Beach Boys?
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Brian Wilson (b. 1942)
What evidence suggests that the Beach Boys were
one of the most experimental groups of the 1960s?
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Pet Sounds (1966)
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may be rock’s first concept album
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an album conceived as an interrelated whole
“Good Vibrations” (1966)
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has been called “one of rock music’s greatest masterpieces”
contrasting soundscapes (NOT twelve-bar blues form)
instrumentation atypical of pop or rock:
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organ, flutes, and theremin
What is a theremin?
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electronic instrument invented by the Russian Leon
Theremin (1896-1993)
a box with projecting antennas that are “played” by
moving the hands closer or farther away, but never
touching them
The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations”
contrasting soundscapes
polished vocal harmonies
theremin