Music 190W Week 7
Reading
Chapter 7; Hacker topics 11 & 12
Listening
CD 1, tracks 25-28
This chapter defines popular music in the U.S., explains the sources of today's popular music, and briefly describes the main popular styles. Much of the music discussed will be familiar.
Study questions
There are more study questions than I will be able to test you on, and more than we can discuss in class. Use them to review your reading of ch. 7. In preparation for your class meeting in week 7, choose questions you'd like to bring up in discussion.
- How is popular music defined on p.113-114?
- The music industry is a big part of popular music. How has the popularity of music been measured in business terms over the course of this century?
- On p. 114 the text claims that the shift from sheet music to electronic media as a way to distribute popular music has caused a shift from active participation to passive listening by the popular music audience. What do you think about that?
- On p. 114 the text states, "The general public is subject to...manipulation by advertising media and the music industry." Do you think your tastes in music can be manipulated by the music industry? If so, how does this work?
- Do you understand this statement p. 114: "Popular music styles, although individual songs may change songs may change rapidly as tastes change, are consistent in their overall character." Think of a style you like: which aspects change often? which aspects are consistent?
- Describe the popular music of the colonial period.
- What is "distinctly American" about Stephen Foster's music? Do you recognize any of his songs?
- Rally and protest songs have aspects of both traditional and popular music.
- Minstrel shows were created by white Americans in comic imitation of black popular culture, often in ways that we would find offensive today. They became so popular in the U.S. and Europe that black Americans began performing in them also.
- Tin Pan Alley songs were created between the 1890s and the 1950s, and form the core of the American popular song collection (our "standards", songs many musicians know). Standards are still played and sung in popular and jazz contexts. Be sure you understand the three different ways that the phrase Tin Pan Alley is used (pp. 118-119).
- Describe a typical Tin Pan Alley song in terms of the elements of music.
- In what contexts were Tin Pan Alley songs performed?
- Vaudeville shows and revues were variety shows that replaced the minstrel show.
- How is a musical different from a vaudeville show?
- What effects did the beginning of network radio in the 1920s have on the country's musical tastes?
- What was "crooning" and what did it have to do with the decline in popularity of Tin Pan Alley songs and the rise of rock and roll (p. 121)?
- Review the substyles of country; sample artists are included:
- Hillbilly (Jimmie Rodgers)
- Western Swing and Cowboy Songs (Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, Gene Autry)
- Nashville Sound (Grand Ole Opry singers, Chet Atkins, Hank Williams Sr.)
- Bluegrass (Bill Monroe, Alison Krauss)
- Contemporary Country (Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers, Barbara Mandrell, k.d. lang, George Strait, Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire)
- Black Popular music, as the text points out, is music performed by black Americans for black audiences, but, like country and rock, the appeal of black music crosses all racial and ethnic boundaries in our society. All the major styles identified as black popular music have significant white audiences.
- Be familiar with the styles of black music and representative
artists:
- Gospel (Thomas A. Dorsey, Mahalia Jackson, and contemporary gospel artists such as Take Six)
- Rhythm and Blues, an urban outgrowth of the blues after World War II (Ruth Brown, B.B. King, Fats Domino, Little Richard)
- Blues, rural and urban (Lightning Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, T-Bone Walker, Muddy Waters)
- Motown (The Supremes, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Stevie Wonder)
- Soul (1970s) (Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, James Brown)
- Rap
- Rock grew out of rhythm & blues and country, and became the dominant youth music of the last four decades. Read the brief overview of rock in the text (pp. 129-132). You can probably fill in much more information from your own experience with rock.
- Elvis personifies the blending of white and black styles that formed rock. He was well acquainted with black popular music in Memphis. His life and music has created a cultural industry, as people try to explain his impact on American society. Our music library has an excellent biography by Peter Guralnick, if you're looking for an entertaining and well-written book on music.
- Obviously, surveying such a wide range of popular styles leaves a lot out. WIU has an excellent American Popular Music course, Music 195, taught by Dr. Michael Campbell, who has written a successful textbook for the class. Next Spring I'll be teaching it.
Listening review
These listening guides will provide links to each of the sections described in the text. Listen for both the message of the song and the use of the elements of music.
"I Get a Kick Out of You," Tin Pan Alley song by Cole Porter from the musical Anything Goes. Use the description on p. 136 and the links below to follow the aaba form. Instead of the more common 8 bars per section, this song has 16 per section (not unusual, but less common). The bass is playing on beats 1 and 3, so two bass notes equal one bar.
| intro | 2 bars |
| verse | 20 bars |
| chorus | a 16 bars |
| a 16 bars | |
| b 16 bars | |
| a 16 bars | |
| b 16 bars (instrumental) | |
| a 16 bars (vocal) |
"Every Time You Say Goodbye," bluegrass performed by Alison Krauss and Union Station. See the description on p. 138.
intro(00:00-00:20)
verse 1 (00:20-00:38)
verse 2 (00:38-00:56)
chorus (00:56-01:17)
instrumental (01:17-01:36)
verse 3 (01:36-01:54)
instrumental (01:54-02:11)
chorus (02:11-02:32)
chorus (02:32-02:55)
instrumental (02:55-03:10)
Listen to entire track.
"When Can I See You," performed by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds
See the description on pp. 141-42.
intro (vamp) (00:00-00:12)
verse 1, ends with unfinished feeling
(00:12-00:48)
hook, ends with
unfinished feeling (00:48-01:20)
verse
2, ends with unfinished feeling (01:20-01:56)
hook, ends tonic (a finished feeling) at beginning
of vamp (01:56-02:28)
vamp
(02:28-02:39)
verse 3, shortened verse,
ending on tonic (02:39-02:50)
hook
(02:50-03:45)
listen to the entire track.
Terms and Concepts
- definition of popular music
- standards
- minstrel show
- vaudeville
- Tin Pan Alley
- Broadway musical
- hillbilly
- western swing
- Nashville sound
- bluegrass
- crossover
- rhythm & blues
- Motown
- Soul
- rap
- rock and roll
- rockabilly
- 12-bar blues form
- aaba Tin Pan Alley song form
Hacker handbook exercises
This week's Hacker handbook sections are very long: no. 11, other problems with verbs, and no. 12, use pronouns with care. I would like you to read the entire section. My questions on this week's quiz will focus on the items in these sections that appear most often in student writing in my classes.
For no. 11, review the information on verb tenses. The point I want to emphasize is mentioned on p. 27: "use the present tense when writing about literature [or music] or when expressing general truths." (The square brackets around "or music" show that I inserted those words into the quote.)
A piece of music exists in the present, even if it was composed or recorded a long time ago. Use the present tense to describe the events in a piece of music. Instead of:
Mozart's Symphony No. 40 began with a theme in minor mode, made a transition to major, then presented a second theme in major mode.
Use the present, because we experience the piece in the present:
Mozart's Symphony No. 40 begins with a theme in minor mode, makes a transition to major, then presents a second theme in major mode.
We do, however, use the past tense to refer to the composition of a piece, because that was an event that occurred at a specific time in the past:
Mozart's Symphony No. 40 was composed in 1788.
The topic of no. 12 that occurs most often in student writing is the misuse of who and whom. The pronoun who is used for subjects, whom for objects.
This sentence sounds awkward...
Some pieces of classical music, like Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata, carry the name of the person whom comissioned them.
...because a subject pronoun is required: "Who" is the subject of the subordinate clause "who commissioned them."
"Who" sounds awkward in this sentence...
One can guess from the titles of some pieces, like Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata, by who they were commissioned.
"by whom they were commissioned" sounds better because "whom" is the object of the verb "commissioned."
The quiz questions for this chapter will deal with the correct use of "who" and "whom."
Quiz
Take the week 7 quiz.
This file was last modified on 16 May 2000.
