Blue Suede Shoes

Rock’s first mixed gender and race band: Sly And The Family Stone. Known largely for their sound in the late sixties with as much mixture in their sound as in their band, playing a fusion of soul, rhythm and blues, funk, psychedelia, gospel, and all around high energy music. The band formed in 1967 and had a major hit on Pop and R&B charts in 1968 “Dance To The Music”, but got a much greater fan base after their amazing performance at Woodstock. They played at 3:30 am Sunday morning August 17,…

America in the 1950s was a change for the better. The post World War II America was changing; such as, new technology, cultures, and economic booms. This was the age that America was rising to becoming a better nation, while many Americans were moving up in life by moving to the middle class. The middle class in the 50s was growing as lower classes were fading slowly. Just after World War II America’s culture was changing. With the birth of Rock N Roll a new generation of music was introduced.…

Folk Music – Pete Seeger Many throughout the years have shaped folk music, however, one of the most well known folk singers was a man named Pete Seeger. As a multi-instrumentalist, Seeger played the Banjo, Guitar, Mandolin, Piano, Recorder, and the Tin Whistle. However, Seeger also did more than play music. He was also participated in activism of all kinds. He was born in New York City on May 3rd, 1919. He grew up in a household surrounded by music because both his mother and father were…

attitude cause everyone to fall in love with this Mississippi bread star. Like every other musician, Elvis had his influences. Elvis’s influences made his style so unique because it’s a mix of a few different styles of music including, African-American blues, Christian gospel, and Southern country. Presley sang both hard driving rock, rock and roll dance songs and ballads, laying a commercial foundation upon which other rock musicians would build their careers. That’s the way the music industry…

Alternative Rock Alternative rock came about in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It emerged from the independent music underground and became widely popular in the 1990s and 2000s. Actually, the word "alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream rock music. Alternative rock is a broad term consisting of music that differs greatly in terms of its sound, its social context, and its regional roots. The main type of guitar sounds in alternative rock music is the distorted guitar.…

Comparison between Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston’s Music and Personal lives. Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston. Two of the biggest music acts in the world selling hundreds and thousands of records between them. Both acts rose to fame at an early age eventually earning their stage titles; Michael Jackson ‘The King of Pop’ (The Guardian, 2009) and Whitney Houston, ‘The Voice’ (IMDB, 2012). This piece will focus on the lives of Michael and Whitney, comparing how they both gained…

Have you ever wondered why a song became so popular? Or why you always happened to get that one song stuck in your head? Well, those questions have been answered by Robert Jourdain in his nonfiction book Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy. Jourdain begins his book with the simplest aspect of sound, the first puzzle piece of how music became a worldwide sensation that can be seen in basically every culture on Earth. That puzzle piece is hearing, and how our ears have evolved to understand, interpret,…

culture in of itself. Blues and Jazz roots run deep into American History, clear back in 1600-1800’s; when slavery was a customary thing. African Americans working all day in the fields singing spiritual hymns with heavily syncopated rhythms, creating a style of music that was initially disliked called Ragtime. There laid the foundations for Blues and Jazz.…

only drum solo in the set, as well as a trumpet solo, and a melodic saxophone solo. The arrangement, done by Mark Taylor, differed from the original as it was very inspired by Latin jazz. In addition the band played the Benny Carter ballad Who’s Blue which featured one of many unorthodox but well done trombone solos. The group's last piece, Shake It But Don’t Break It, featured a heavy swing beat and ended the entire set with a short piano solo before the brass blasted…

During the civil war, John William “Blind” Boone was black and born in Miami, Missouri, May 17, 1864. Because of his brain fever, he was forced to remove his eyes. He was almost blind from birth and that was a way he named as “blind” Boone. Regardless of poverty, disability, and racism, he became a well-known composer and musician. Also, it is worth finding his valuable characteristics and understanding how his musical inspiration affected American popular music. Despite his blindness, he had…