Rock Prelim 2

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AOR

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Album Oriented Rock/Radio

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Camp

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Style of gay humor

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Distortion

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an alteration of a tone created either by slashing the amplifier or by a distortion pedal which overloads the signal to the amplifier. Fuzz-box and wah-wah pedals were most common in1960s and 1970s

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Fusion

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a term most commonly applied to the combination of jazz and rock to create a new genre; can also describe the combination of western and non-western styles. Generally not used in reference to folk rock or country rock, although these styles can be considered fusions.

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Interlocking riffs

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describes the rhythmic texture funk. Different instruments play different 2-bar rhythm patterns; silences in one riff are filled in by notes in another

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Power trio

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a rock ensemble consisting of drums, bass guitar, and lead guitar

power trios – configuration of rock groups from the blues revival – configuration that creates a very particular sound – allows for the lead guitarists to play very heavy chord riffs and gives space for riffs – Jimi Hendrix, cream, blue cheer, the who, led zeppelin

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Suite

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a series of short songs combined to form one long composition

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Theremin

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Instrument that makes sounds without contact

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Thumb slapping and finger popping

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bass guitar technique; thumb slaps lower strings to get them vibrating, followed by a sharp pull of the upper strings for a more percussive sound.

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Tremolo

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A regular and repetitive variation in amplitude for the duration of a single note; this is the most common meaning.

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Skiffle

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a very simple British folk music that involved little more than melody and accompaniment by a strummed acoustic guitar, and rudimentary rhythm instruments such as washboard.

Brought a lot of young kids into music .

British rockabilly.

Developed by Lonnie Donegan in mid 1950s

Skiffle legacy of “Do it yourself” amateur bands – brew handle on a washboard

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Cool jazz

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Music unfolding rather that undressing, focus on the texture, new instruments, not the chaotic sounds, but more subtle nuanced sounds, lazy music/laid back.

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Free jazz

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1960s – two guys walk in a room and start playing – idea of music comes from a place of interest/nonjudgmental – sounds not typically related to music and jazz

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“Spinning Wheel” by Blood Sweat and Tears

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Represents true jazz fusion.

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Indian ragas

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After Sgt Pepper's Beatles travel to India and meet up with the beach boys – they have a tragedy after Brian Epstein dies – lives and music was in disarray

Beatles travel to India and meet someone who teaches them how to play the sitar – Beatles come back and produce the song “Within you Without you – lyrics are engaging in Buddhist/Indian philosophy – full Indian dress, violins, tambourines, sitar.

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Funk

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• Originated with James Brown around 1965
o Development of Southern Soul characteristics
• Inspired by dance; vocal improvisations over vamped riffs
• Caribbean influence via New Orleans jazz and street music
o Two-bar grooves
o Even subdivisions of the beat
o Interlocking drum patterns
• Melody and harmony de-emphasized
o Harsh vocals from Southern Soul styles become more clipped
o Melodies become fractured
o Static harmony (long stretches of a single chord)
• Rhythm emphasized
o All instruments play interlocking riffs with lots of rests
• Silence in one riff filled in by sound in another
o Emphasis on the downbeat: other beats free for syncopation
• “Choked” or “scratch” guitar sound as percussion instrument
o Squeezing strings against frets
• Horn style: short and percussive; no long held chords
o Inspired by Count Basie’s band
• Bass guitar high in the mix; fixes two-bar groove
o Playing techniques become more percussive
• Bridge: harmonic shift and change in groove
- vocal line in southern soul was often spare, fractured, hard to determine melody, lots of space around the notes, laid back sound on the downbeat
o key characteristics of soul are primarily a melodious syncopated bass line and a hard hit on the one and interlocking grooves (all the instruments participate in the rhythmic grooves, including the voice) – have this machine of rhythm that creates a composite/highly syncopated effect – partly comes from the influence of Caribbean music because James brown lived in new Orleans.

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Mersey beat

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From Liverpool (industrial town by the Mersey River)

Bar bands play r&b, girl group songs, early rock ‘n’ roll

Bands develop a noisy and upbeat sound

Emphatic rhythm guitar and heavy “beat”

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Mods

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- Mid 1960s Urban “Mod” Bands: the Who and the Kinks
• From London; part of “British Invasion” bands
o Aggressive, high energy, amateurish, unromantic
- coming out of Britain – growing mostly out of a London working class scene, but were very fashionable in terms of hair and dress (part of youth subculture)
o Teddy Boys: pseudo Edwardian style of dress, grease back hair, narrow lapels – this style was sold to the working class
o Rockers: emerge from the Teddy Boys – align themselves with early Rnr and blues – start to wear leather jackets, motorcycles

o The Who
o The Kinks – both were self styled mod bands – up against American r&b rockers

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Blues revival

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1960s search for the perceived authentic blues – the idea is to preserve and authenticize a blues instead of creating something new

Rolling Stones – name of the band comes from a Muddy Waters song and Keith Richard and Mick Jagger were leading figures in this movement (and Eric Clapton)

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Psychedelic (also Acid Rock)

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1964-5: Bob Dylan begins to write psychedelic lyrics and use non-folk instruments

Influenced by 1950s Beat Poets: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg (Improvisatory poetry, expressing disaffection)

Stream of consciousness and image-rich free verse

1966 – Beatles – dropping acid, sensory overload, hallucinogens, new world of psychedelia – experience light and sound in a visual way. They create a sound collage that is supposed to represent what is it to be on LSD – having a mind altering and spiritually expanding experience on LSD

“Good Vibrations” – Beach Boys – psychedelic trip expressed in a collage of musical ideas

“Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite” – Beatles – Victorian psychedelic carnival piece because it matches Victorian cover art.

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Folk Rock

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Mainstream music uses technology and folk is NATURAL music (acoustic and portable instruments

Soft, fluid, not juxtaposing a lot of sounds (no affectations in the voice like Elvis)

SINCERITY – mainstream is insincere because effected by commerciality, folk musicians are suspicious about the technology and how its product is unauthentic

INTIMACY– lack of technology take down the border between the audience and the performer and one performer is communicating the audience in an intimate way)

“Mr. Tambourine Man” – The Byrds – first big folk rock hit

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Southern Rock (also Country Rock)

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Early 1970s

Reactionary attempt to return rock to its southern roots

Southern rock utilized C&W markers:
o Smooth vocal style
o Pronounced Southern accents
o Folk harmonies
o Undistorted guitars; slide guitar and steel pedal guitar
o Finger picking patterns from bluegrass
o Instruments: fiddle, banjo, mandolin, pedal steel guitar
o Emphasis on beats 1 and 3; 2-beat bass
o Drinking, yearning for home, jaded in love, ramblin’

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Dick Dale

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“King of Surf Guitar” because he originated an impressive guitar style copied by man surf instrumental groups of the early sixties. Dick Dale and the Del-Tones started out using twangy guitar styles, then developed a technique based on the tremolo (fast repetitions of notes) played used in the Middle East (plucked-string).
Beach Boys popularized this form of guitar playing.

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Bill Graham and Chet Helms

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Concert promoters during the “Summer of Love” (drugs and sexual revolution)
- “The Electric Ballrooms”
o Music and light shows that enhance drug experience
o Concert Promoters: Bill Graham (Fillmore) and Chet Helms (Avalon)

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Brian Wilson

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Beach Boys main writer and producer. Wilson came very close to the wall of sound fullness of Phil Spector’s productions. Expanded the Beach Boys from beach themes to sing about other teenage interests, such as school spirit and fast cars. Aided in writing and production for his friends, the vocal duo Jan and Dean. Wilson’s productions on Pet Sounds were thick, with many instrumental tracks layered one on top of another.

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Edgar Varèse and Karlheinz Stockhausen

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Two important composers who influenced John Lennon and Zappa

Varese – using tape loops, create a collection of sounds and silences –

Edgar Varèse (1883-1965)
o Preferred the term “organized sound” to “music”
o Poème électronique (1957): non-pitched machine noise
o Influenced Frank Zappa

Karlheinz Stockhausen (b.1928)
o “Musique concrète”: electronic and acoustic sounds; tape loops and splices
o Influences Yoko Ono
o Not easy listening

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Lonnie Donegan

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Singer/banjoist/guitarist, who became known as Britain’s “Skiffle King.” Made records that charted in the top 10, such as “Rock Island Line” and “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor”

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Erik Satie

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Caught up in a scene of new surrealists, engaged in cabaret culture, lived in a suburb of Paris and when he died they found 11 grey identical velvet suits in his closet

Link between avant-garde classical music and rock n roll – all coming together

Erik Satie (1866-1925): French composer; minimalism and ironic wit

"Vexations (1893)"; piano piece lasting 80 seconds, repeated 840 times

o 1963: John Cage organizes performance; John Cale participates

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Larry Graham

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Drummer for Sly and the Family Stone

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Brian Epstein

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Manager of a Liverpool record store, who offered to manage the Beatles. Epstein demanded that the Beatles clean up their leather-jacket, rocker image, and wear neat, matching suites, with shorter hair. Epstein got the Beatles a contract at EMI.

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George Martin

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A music producer who had no previous experience with rock music, but produced for the Beatles. Was the man in charge for getting rid of the Beatles original drummer, Pete Best, and hire Ringo Starr instead.

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Sun Ra

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1965 – emergence of black pride movement because of assassination of Malcolm X – big drive to begin exploring what it is to be a black American – emergence of African American artsy and writers, - films about what its like being in the ghetto and Africana studies come to colleges → this was to start to define and cultivate a specific African art

Sun Ra was a musician who combined this identification with African and futuristic movement – combines alien Egyptian dress in African musicians

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The Four Freshmen

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Used tight 3-4 part harmonies that Brian Wilson starts to write for the Beach Boys.

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Woody Guthrie

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One of the first musicians to show activism in music – e.g. The song “Show these fascists what a hillbilly can do” – hillbilly is associated with left wing radicalism and mainstream culture is more conservative
- influenced Bob Dylan

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Andy Warhol

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Instrumental in the career of the Velvet Underground. Did artwork for them, as well as introducing them to their singer, Nico.

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Peter Blake

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An English pop artist, best known for his design of the sleeve for The Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

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Richard Hamilton

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English artist. His association with the 1960s Pop Music scene continued as he became friends with Paul McCartney resulting in him producing the cover design and poster collage for the Beatles' White Album.

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John Mayall

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John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers were formed in 1963 and became an ever-evolving lineup of more than 100 different combinations of musicians performing under that name. Guitarists in the Bluesbreakers have included, Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor, Peter Green, and Jack Bruce.

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Yardbirds

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Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck all members of The Yardbirds. Eventually become to popular for Clapton.

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Jack Kerouac

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Part of beat culture (gritty, raw realness), emphasis on improvisation, travel, immediate experience, dissatisfaction with the mainstream, idea of spontaneity, eastern religion, open emotion – “On the Road”

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Joan Baez

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Bob Dylan has his big break in 1963 when he goes on tour with Joan Baez, a known protest singer

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John Cage

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- John Cage (1912-1992)
• Influenced by Zen philosophy, existentialism, and musical minimalism
• Experimented with new sounds and indeterminacy (aleatory music)
• 4’33’’ (1952): any number and combinations of instruments; “tacit”
o Music is whatever sounds happen during that period of time

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Greenwich Village in New York City

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1961-2: Affected rural look and “rounded” vocal sound – Bob Dylan performed traditional folk songs in Greenwich Village venues

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Los Angeles

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Beach boys high-energy music of the surf scene in LA

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Summer of Love

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1967 – emergence of the counter culture

Starts with people going to San Francisco for spring break – it was always an experimental town (Beatniks etc) with a sense of freedom that didn’t exist in LA

-Peace and love and folk ideology

-Brings more than 100,000 to SF and culminated with the Monterey Pop Festival

-Counterculture meant – want to fashion your own future, not go to college and get a job, thought the real world would just drag you down, free love/sexual revolution, free from attachment/marriage (sex outside of marriage), free love is aided by Birth Control pill, communal living, anti-materialism

- Over the course of the summer drugs got harder, more laced trips, more crime, and a lot of the kids that were idealizing the lifestyle in the beginning were down and even staged a funeral for the summer in October

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San Francisco

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It was always an experimental town (Beatniks etc) with a sense of freedom that didn’t exist in LA...

Fillmore and Avalon.

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Woodstock Festival

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1969 -

Woodstock was one of the biggest rock festivals after Monterey pop –

Sold out very quickly – people just flocked to Woodstock and overran ticket booths – up to and maybe surpassing 5,000 people –

Remarkable thing about Woodstock was it was very peaceful despite the conditions (drugs, ran out of food, bathrooms)

o Coming together of the hippies and the war protesters – Jimi Hendrix turning from a psychedelia of purple haze to a very serious expressive moment of protest.

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Newport Folk Festival

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1965: Newport Folk Festival – Bob Dylan
o Enrages fans by playing set of loud electric rock at
o Backed by Paul Butterfield Blues Band

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Monterey Pop Festival

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1967 – culmination of the meeting of subculture and counterculture

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Pet Sounds

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1966.
Brian Wilson decides to stop touring with the Beach Boys, starts doing drugs and works on his master album, Pet sounds.

- Working with Phil Spector’s studio musicians, comes out with weird, interesting, odd chord progressions

- Landmark album for all rock artists – considered the first concept album, thematically coherent – emotional journey from innocence, idea of romance and a fantasy of romance with your gf who becomes your wife, and ends with depression, idea that romance doesn’t last

- “wouldn’t it be nice” – first song, fantasy of marriage and progression, influence of Phil spector, creating his own wall of sound, a lot of non traditional rock instruments – base harmonica, harp – funny low honky sound that creates the base line is from the base harmonica

- “Caroline No” – anguish, loss of the dream which occurs at the first song, this is at the end of album – album ends with a little sound clip of a dog chasing or barking at a train which is why its called “pet sounds” but in a way it’s a fitting ending to a downer song, plaintive voice/sound complaining of broken hearted and broken sense of life – dog barking in a pointless, primal and instinctual way.

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Rubber Soul

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1965 by the Beatles. The album was notable for Harrison’s use of the sitar, an instrument native to India. Also, the growth in maturity of the Beatles could be seen in the lyrics as the songs dealt with love in more complex ways.

- tremendously innovative very quickly – constantly reinventing their own sound and putting other peoples’ into their composition

- Beach boys sound is creeping in addition to bob Dylan – sing closer more denser harmonies because of the beach boys as demonstrated in the song “No where man” – dense 3-4 part harmonies, richer sound, more serious lyric about a loneliness, not romantic, much more introspective sound
- more serious themes come into play
- startling album cover because had a psychedelic look – faces are misshaped, rubbery look, new kind of engagement with a edgy side of pop culture

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Revolver

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1966
- New level of studio effects and production quality

Songs in this album:
- “Taxman” – about the Beatles loss of money due to the various tax laws in England
• song influence of funk – base line is quite funky – creepiness coming into the vocal styles, much more serious new thing for rnr and the Beatles – setting the stage for a sober song
- Eleanor Rigby also in this album
- Revolver collage – collage of old and new pictures of the Beatles – tangled in the drawing of their ever growing hair – self consciousness about themselves as pop icons

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White Album

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The second to last album released by the Beatles in 1968. The White Album highlighted the individual performances of each of the Beatles and used a variety of music styles.

Pop art concept – cover designed by Robert Hamilton – just a white cover – about obliterating identity –

o anti packaging and anti album cover – critique of commodity culture was still there (before it was about creating a new identity) –

o once you opened it up there were pictures –

o anti identity album is two albums worth of songs about a group that was clearly fraying
- album is remarkably eclectic – the collection of the songs represented their various personalities that were sort of diverging from each other at this point – they were a group but were also now four independent people moving in different directions – irony, concepts behind it were rich.

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Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

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Released by the Beatles in 1967. Heavily influenced by the theme album “Pet Sounds,” Sgt. Pepper was literally based on a circus atmosphere with references to psychedelic drugs like LSD. Also, the Beatles placed the sounds of barking dogs at the end of Good Morning, Good Morning in a nod to the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds.

Cover is a collage made by a British pop artist – Peter Blake – includes the early Beatles pictures as pop icons – place the Beatles in this assemblage of commercial pop images – this is a funeral for the early Beatles because they have decided to stop touring all together and are making music now that is not reproducible on the concert stage because it includes studio effects – also a funeral for Paul McCartney – and celebration of the reemergence of the Beatles as a new pop identity

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We’re Only In It For The Money

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Released December 1967 – Frank Zappa
• Satire of California hippie culture and self-indulgent rock stars
• Cover satirizes Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
• Playing on commodification of the counterculture
• Printed lyrics

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The rise of concept albums

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“What’s Going On” Marvin Gaye – one of the first concept albums which addressed the seriousness of the issues and uses music to expressed political engagement

Pet sounds by Brian Wilson – considered the first real concept album

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The rise of experimentalism

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- Experimentalism in Rock N Roll – using fusions to refresh the sound

- The Experimental and Fusion Impulse

• Artistic problem: how to refresh sounds and ideas

• Borrow from other musical styles (jazz, classical, folk, country)

• Borrow from non-western musical cultures

• Use technology to create new sounds or collages of sounds

• Challenge the listener with “difficult” music and sounds
o Non-pitched sounds (distortion, feedback, static, screaming)
o Minimalism: minimal musical change over time

- people include: Eric Satie, Edgar Varese, Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage

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The effects of drugs on rock music

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1967 Summer of Love/Monterey Pop Festival – have a unique sound coming from bands partly because of the drugs – more improvisatory, folk rock sound

- blues rock merging with a folk rock sensibility – effects of drugs on sound

- drugs, especially LSD create a hypersensitive feeling, lost sense of time/lose yourself in time, surreal experience → music responds with drawn out improvisatory section, have moments of beauty and banality – this kind of along form develop and music gets much louder to contribute to the sensory overload and vibrations through the body

-stopped tuning the guitar because they were high and so they became its own sound combined with blues and folk
-
experimental scene in SF – drug induced/influences music, timelessness that creeps in.

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Music and political commentary and war protest

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- 1965 – country starts waking up to escalation of the Vietnam war and RnR becomes politically conscience, draft in US, music responds by 1967
- 1971 – Pentagon Papers released
- “Fortunate Son” Creedence Clearwater Revival

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Funk as an expression of racial politics

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1965 – get the emergence of black nationalism, black pride movement, - new interest and militancy coming from frustration with civil rights – new interest in self definition and African Americans defining their own music, literature, etc. – James brown was a figure in the black pride/nationalism movement
o starts to produce songs “say it now, im black and im proud” – on his way to rap with this song – very politicized lyrics – get the sense of how James brown really started to plug in to the black politics of the time – not quite so rhythmicized, more conversational
o James brown – has to create a very clean show for his audience, dressing in suits, by 68-9 he moves out of this look into a funk style that is more street style, natural hair, etc
o afro coming back into style – self expressive of ones culture
- funk was very political, African American dominated movement
- Sly and the Family Stone - key because they were a fusion and integrationist force coming out of san Francisco – black, white, women and men players – fuse the peace and love community of san Francisco with a direct address to racial tension
o sort of considered a super group because they crossed all boundaries – large white and black following
o open to new ideas