MUSC 2150 Unit 11 questions with
complete solutions
Explain: The music industry in the late 1970s was very similar to that in the early 1950s - correct
answer ✔✔- few big labels promoting only mainstream music
- Genres that had been underground during the same period, like punk and new wave, made
noise on the fringes and occasionally broke into the mainstream, but they either remained
fringe, or evolved into a more mainstream style
- radio waves had also succumbed to the power of these labels and there was little else beyond
Album-Oriented Rock (AOR) available. However, a new format, Music Television (MTV), would
challenge the big label's domination over the traditional venues for music promotion
- dominant music was rock
Explain: Punk Rock - correct answer ✔✔- late 1960s and through the 1970s, there was a
movement in the US among some rock musicians against progressive and "corporate" rock.
- movement was against pretty much all aspects of the dominant culture
- "punk" movement became mainstream (paradoxically), both as a culture and a music, for a
brief time in the late 1970s
- Punk culture at its height was characterized by a do-it-yourself attitude: the notion that anyone
can play rock and that it doesn't have to be polished (though some were), artsy (though some
were), deeply meaningful (though some were), or commercially successful (though some were)
- It was a direct challenge to the aesthetic of hippie-driven mainstream rock
- gender bending
- studded leather, fishnet stockings, tartan pants, Mohawk hairstyles, spiked hairstyles, shaved
heads, military boots, and vinyl were all part of punk fashion
- Punk ideology embraced racial and social equality and often gender equality (we will see more
female artists in punk than there ever were in rock)
- It opposed class structures, capitalism, and consumerism
,- music and culture belonged to the lower, oppressed classes.
Characteristics of Punk Rock - correct answer ✔✔- A fast, heavy beat.
- Heavy, distorted guitar.
- Confrontational lyrics that range from ferociously angry to mildly sardonic in tone.
- Often a screamed or spoken-sung vocal timbre, though if the lyrics are sung, they tend to be a
bit nasal and amateur-sounding.
Explain: New Wave - correct answer ✔✔- more mainstream and commercial
- more ironic than angry and they tend to cite pre-1967 pop elements in their own music
- New wave is essentially the mainstream punk of the late 1970s and early 1980s
- To deal with this drop in sales, the industry continued to contract into fewer, larger labels
- These huge international labels were set up to back superstars, not engage in niche marketing:
small, independent labels continued to service the margins
Explain: MIDI - correct answer ✔✔= Musical Instrument Digital Interface. MIDI is an industry
standard protocol that allows different musical devices, such as keyboards, drum machines, and
computers, to communicate with each other
- prior to MIDI, groups using synthesizers would need to have several different ones on stage to
access the full variety of sounds offered by each
- MIDI, it is possible to have several devices running through a single keyboard or pair of
keyboards
- possible for an artist to use a wider palette of sounds without being an electronics expert
- MIDI made synthesizers more accessible, made the process of sampling and building new
tracks from these samples much easier and economical.
Early 70s: - correct answer ✔✔= New styles emerged that developed aspects of psychedelic
music
, Late 70s: - correct answer ✔✔- Consolidation of earlier styles
- Commercial rock continued to develop in the mainstream
- Punk and new wave in opposition to mainstream rock
- Rejected highly produced and sophisticated sounds of hippie bands
- In favour of simplicity central to pre-hippie rock
Explain: FM Radio Goes from Late 1960s Free Form to AOR - correct answer ✔✔- By the
beginning of the decade, FM stations were broadcasting rock music and focusing on album
charts
- Model established by Tom Donahue
- FM radio changes from free!form to AOR "album oriented rock"
- Chane accompanied by a decrease in the freedom of disk jockeys
- AOR stations were heavily formatted with:
- Program directors or consultants programing the music
- Commercial tendencies of AM
- Shorter, more "radio friendly" songs wanted (about 4!5 minutes)
- FM looked to advertising to provide profit
- Advertising rates were based on how many people are expected to listen to a
station
- Growing perceptions that AOR had abandoned the rebelliousness once central to rock
movement
- Called "corporate rock"
Explain: Show Me the Way: The Advent of the "Big Album" - correct answer ✔✔• Large!selling
albums draw corporate interest
- 500,000 records sold = gold album; 1 million = platinum
- Large multinational corporations with no previous experience in music bought up record
complete solutions
Explain: The music industry in the late 1970s was very similar to that in the early 1950s - correct
answer ✔✔- few big labels promoting only mainstream music
- Genres that had been underground during the same period, like punk and new wave, made
noise on the fringes and occasionally broke into the mainstream, but they either remained
fringe, or evolved into a more mainstream style
- radio waves had also succumbed to the power of these labels and there was little else beyond
Album-Oriented Rock (AOR) available. However, a new format, Music Television (MTV), would
challenge the big label's domination over the traditional venues for music promotion
- dominant music was rock
Explain: Punk Rock - correct answer ✔✔- late 1960s and through the 1970s, there was a
movement in the US among some rock musicians against progressive and "corporate" rock.
- movement was against pretty much all aspects of the dominant culture
- "punk" movement became mainstream (paradoxically), both as a culture and a music, for a
brief time in the late 1970s
- Punk culture at its height was characterized by a do-it-yourself attitude: the notion that anyone
can play rock and that it doesn't have to be polished (though some were), artsy (though some
were), deeply meaningful (though some were), or commercially successful (though some were)
- It was a direct challenge to the aesthetic of hippie-driven mainstream rock
- gender bending
- studded leather, fishnet stockings, tartan pants, Mohawk hairstyles, spiked hairstyles, shaved
heads, military boots, and vinyl were all part of punk fashion
- Punk ideology embraced racial and social equality and often gender equality (we will see more
female artists in punk than there ever were in rock)
- It opposed class structures, capitalism, and consumerism
,- music and culture belonged to the lower, oppressed classes.
Characteristics of Punk Rock - correct answer ✔✔- A fast, heavy beat.
- Heavy, distorted guitar.
- Confrontational lyrics that range from ferociously angry to mildly sardonic in tone.
- Often a screamed or spoken-sung vocal timbre, though if the lyrics are sung, they tend to be a
bit nasal and amateur-sounding.
Explain: New Wave - correct answer ✔✔- more mainstream and commercial
- more ironic than angry and they tend to cite pre-1967 pop elements in their own music
- New wave is essentially the mainstream punk of the late 1970s and early 1980s
- To deal with this drop in sales, the industry continued to contract into fewer, larger labels
- These huge international labels were set up to back superstars, not engage in niche marketing:
small, independent labels continued to service the margins
Explain: MIDI - correct answer ✔✔= Musical Instrument Digital Interface. MIDI is an industry
standard protocol that allows different musical devices, such as keyboards, drum machines, and
computers, to communicate with each other
- prior to MIDI, groups using synthesizers would need to have several different ones on stage to
access the full variety of sounds offered by each
- MIDI, it is possible to have several devices running through a single keyboard or pair of
keyboards
- possible for an artist to use a wider palette of sounds without being an electronics expert
- MIDI made synthesizers more accessible, made the process of sampling and building new
tracks from these samples much easier and economical.
Early 70s: - correct answer ✔✔= New styles emerged that developed aspects of psychedelic
music
, Late 70s: - correct answer ✔✔- Consolidation of earlier styles
- Commercial rock continued to develop in the mainstream
- Punk and new wave in opposition to mainstream rock
- Rejected highly produced and sophisticated sounds of hippie bands
- In favour of simplicity central to pre-hippie rock
Explain: FM Radio Goes from Late 1960s Free Form to AOR - correct answer ✔✔- By the
beginning of the decade, FM stations were broadcasting rock music and focusing on album
charts
- Model established by Tom Donahue
- FM radio changes from free!form to AOR "album oriented rock"
- Chane accompanied by a decrease in the freedom of disk jockeys
- AOR stations were heavily formatted with:
- Program directors or consultants programing the music
- Commercial tendencies of AM
- Shorter, more "radio friendly" songs wanted (about 4!5 minutes)
- FM looked to advertising to provide profit
- Advertising rates were based on how many people are expected to listen to a
station
- Growing perceptions that AOR had abandoned the rebelliousness once central to rock
movement
- Called "corporate rock"
Explain: Show Me the Way: The Advent of the "Big Album" - correct answer ✔✔• Large!selling
albums draw corporate interest
- 500,000 records sold = gold album; 1 million = platinum
- Large multinational corporations with no previous experience in music bought up record
