Rock and Roll 1950s

Gospel and the Birth of Soul

Fusion of West African musical traditions

The experience of slavery

Christian practices

Life in the American South

The Great Migration transported thousands of African Americans from the South to Northern cities

Gospel’s profound influence on secular music

We listened to this earlier in the semester with Sam Cooke’s “Loveable and “Wonderful”

Gospel’s rich vocal harmonies such as the Jordanaires and the Golden Gate Quartet

Influenced Girl Groups of the late 50s and early 60s to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Elvis, etc.

Basic Elements of Gospel

Call-and-response

Complex rhythms

Group singing

Rhythmic instrumentation

Other musical genres took elements of Gospel to create new sounds

Listening and Analyzing

Southern Tones, “It Must Be Jesus” (1954)

What is the central message of the song? Who is the key figure?

Ray Charles, “I Got a Woman” (1954)

Identify the key figure mentioned

Does it remind you of any song you have heard on the radio?

Kanye West’s, “Gold Digger”

How are these songs similar, dissimilar, what has changed?

How has the central figure changed?

How is the overall meaning different?

What does sampling Ray Charles’s song do to West’s song?

Song Comparisons “Wonderful” Sam Cooke (1959)

Elvis Presley with the Jordanaires, “Too Much”

Sister Rosetta Tharpe, “Didn’t It Rain” and

Little Richard, “Tutti Frutti” (1957)

Song Analysis Songs are like portals that help you to see

the world: social, cultural, political

Personal emotional response to music

Questions of Ethnomusicology: song structure, instrumentation, etc.

Frameworks to understanding

Listening and analysis: Questions of Ethnomusicology

Timeline: placing song in historical context

Rock and Roll as a visual culture

Rock and Roll as Performance

Rock and Roll as a literary form

The music industry and technology associated with Rock and Roll

Chuck Berry “Johnny B. Good”

Instrumentation, Mood, Production, Tempo, Lyrics, Sounds like

Class Discussion using Questions of Ethnomusicology

iPad Chuck Berry

Timeline Billboard Chart from Wk 22 1958

Buddy Holly, “Rave On”

Sheb Wooley, “The Purple People Eater”

Wanda Jackson

National Guard called into Central HS in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1957

American Bandstand, joins ABC

Disneyland opens 1955

Pre-Civil Rights era

Berry was an African-American performer whose audience was significantly white

American Bandstand on ABC in 1957 brought the artists to a wider audience

Record labels such as Chess records in Chicago: Blues and R&B helped bring difference races together through music

Visual side of Rock and Roll

Elvis

Beatles

Lady Gaga

Fashion, photographic and cinematic presentation

Berry was being pitched to a teenage audience

African-American representation in film, theatre and radio

Performance The artist

The stage set

Choreography

Lighting

Venue

Fans

Culture of the music being presented

Rock&Roll as a Literary Form

Songwriting

Narrative

Storytelling

Identify five images that seem key to propelling the story it contains

Technology and Rock&Roll

How the music is delivered: record, radio, TV, iPod, etc.

Multi-track recording

Chess Records: Chicago Phil and Leonard Chess Independent record label

Major labels of the time: sun Imperial, Atlantic, King

Billboard Charts Dates back to 1936

Tracks Best Sellers in Stores

Most Played by Jockeys

Most Played in Jukeboxes

Buddy Holly Born in Lubbock, Texas in 1936

Called the, “single most influential creative force in early rock and roll”

Inspired the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, among many others

Incorporated rockabilly in his music

Formed the band The Crickets

Signed to Decca records

The Day the Music Died

February 3, 1959 Buddy Holly was killed in a plane crash along with Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson

Referenced in the song, “American Pie” by Don McLean