MUS505 Final Exam with Complete Solution

MUS505 Final Exam with Complete Solution The Standard (Standards) - Tin Pan Alley songs were still popular in the 1950s and became known as______ Songs were known by the general mainstream population Not attached to a particular artist, performed by different artists follows a familiar formula Tin Pan Alley Pop Song Model - professional songwriters and producers crafting songs for musicals, movies, and artists "Song factory" system keeps shaping pop music artists are not expected to write there own songs Top 40 Charts - Emerged in the early 1940s modeled on the jukebox Payola - record companies paying disc jockeys to play their records Copyright - The song - as represented by sheet music - is intellectual property songs were "owned" by songwriters Recordings of the songs "owned" by record companies This conception is at odds with the modern reality of recording as the dominant means of transmission and creation of popular music Black artists/labels typically did not enjoy the legal protection that big white-owned labels did Rock 'n' Roll - brought styles previously on the margins to the mainstream, including rhythm and blues and country music Not a new style, nor a single style. It was a marketing term for identifying and audience Marketed to the Baby Boom generation, which was younger than previous "youth musics" such as swing like jazz evolved with recordings, this genre evolved with TV Cold War - Post WW2 struggle for military and tech dominance between US and Russia MAD - Mutually assured destruction Nuclear fear in Pop Music: "Forever Young" Consistent fear of nuclear war influences all levels of culture fear of communism, witch hunts for suspected communist sympathizers, many of whom were artists and intellectuals Rocket 88 - The Kings of Rhythm record Regarded as the first rock 'n' roll record Distorted guitar, high energy sets the template for much of the 1950s rock 'n' roll to come song about cars and girls, and thinly veiled sexual innuendos Alan Freed - Cleveland-based DJ who played black rhythm and blues on the radio Coined the term Rock 'n' Roll as a marketing term, making black music more appealing to white audiences Promoted African American musicians and music despite resistance from society as a whole to integration Charged with accepting payola by the FBI, fired from the station and fined Inspired other DJs who adopted the term Rock 'n' Roll to refer to any music pitched to the emerging teen market Rock 'n' Roll Teenagers - Baby boomers were attracted to rock as a symbol of rebellion and generational identification 1950s saw the invention of the "teenager" as an identity and marketing demographic Popular music was a form of resistance to the values and attitudes of "parent" culture Prosperity of the age meant young people had buying power Rock was a safe way for teens to assert their alternative identity to their parents First generation to have leisure time between 13-18 Early rock song titles reflect teen life Early rock era shifts marketing from racial to generational rock offered a bridge between previously exclusive audiences (black and white), driven by market forces Cover Versions - In the 1950s often meant a near-identical copy of a song first recorded by a black artist, then performed by a white artist Songs "discovered" on independent labels, re-recorded by big label Very lucrative for artists and record labels in a segregated society Black artists often not payed properly, yet some benefited from the exposure Bowlderization are early examples of this, lyrics were changed and censored to be less offensive to target audiences Singles - Dominated early rock 'n' roll 7 inch, 45rpm double sided disc, 4 minutes per side Two songs: the A side (the hit) and the B side (the bonus song) charts measured in sales of these and radio play Albums - 12", 33rpm vinyl introduced in 1948 first of them were initially collections of unrelated songs In late 1950s, artists viewed the 42 minute ____ as a coherent composition and as a narrative, not a collection of hits Frank Sinatra created the first of Concept____ Sets the template for later pop/rock artists to view ___ as a coherent document College Folk Music - The urban folk-pop tradition continued to grow in the 1950s, appealing to younger and older white audiences who weren't interested in rock'n'roll music connects to notions of a simpler past, authenticity, "realness", maturity, and resistance to commercialism a consistent undercurrent in musical culture, occasionally bubbles up to the mainstream Civil Rights movement - movement in the United States beginning in the 1960s and led primarily by Blacks in an effort to establish the civil rights of individual Black citizens Message Songs - Secular songs that address particular social issues political lyrics that may have subtle references to the bible Common in the civil rights era in the US Pre-Civil Rights (1965): artists had to be very subtle with politics in music, more about description Song Factory - Originally Tin Pan Alley Reinvented with Motown records and the brill building Recording Technology had advanced so that a record was no longer just a representation of a "live" performance, but a distinct musical product Dance Music - distinct marketing category of popular music American Bandstand - nationally broadcast television program where young people danced to rock'n'roll records Was a platform for promoting records and dances Chubby Checker records "The Twist" (1960), a song about a dance that starts a trend of other songs about particular dance steps An individual, non-contact, free form dance, often done facing another person Started a craze that crossed age barriers, brought rock'n'roll to the centre of American culture Spawned clubs that focused on dancing to records, rather than to live band The Brill Building - in New York, 1619 Broadway Songwriters were paid royalties for hits thanks to ASCAP Similar to Tin Pan Alley - songwriters worked in cubicles with pianos, wrote songs for artists, indie labels, and produce Wrote for vocal groups - "Girl Groups" especially popular, Phil Spector a main customer for songs Wall of Sound - Developed by Phil Spector