Backbeat
beats 2 and 4; essential component of rhythm
Riff
the series of nots, chord pattern or musical phrase that is repeated
usually short
a short melody that often gets repeated; appeared often in Motown melodies
Minstrelsy
Blackface performance (white people performing black arts)
designated as America’s first type of popular music
supported racism
showed disdain for the attitude of elite/genteel society
enforced ugly racial stereotypes
instruments: banjo bones and tambourine, fiddle
“Boatman’s Dance,” Dan Emmett
George Washington Dixie – “city slicker,” “country bumpkin”
Timothy “Daddy” Rice
imitated an African-American dance-step called the “cakewalk” and called is “Jumpin’ Jim Crow”
Cakewalk
african-american parody of white americans making the grand entry to a social dance, usually accompanied by rhythms of exemplified syncopation
Black Vaudeville
theatrical genre of variety entertainment
groups would follow a geographical itinerary
Ragtime
originated through the mississippi valley
introduces syncopated african-american rhythm into popular music
enlivens music by shifting melodic accents off the beat in a bouncy beat(aka syncopation)
additive rhythm thattakes groups of beats and strings them together linearly (ex. 12 beats divided 3-2-3-2-2)
marching band music contributed the regular “oom-pah” bass common in ragtime pieces
provided music for social dances such as turkey trot, chicken scratch and bunny hug
Coon Songs
accompanied a simplified version of piano ragtime music
fascination of black people by white people
Scott Joplin
famous ragtime composer
developed ragging piano style, improvising around the themes of popular songs and marches in a syncopated style
composed “Maple Leaf Rag” (1899)
Syncopation
rhythmic complexity with accents off the down beat
Jim Crow
permanent character in minstrelsy
characterized/stereotyped black people
Crossovers
songs that cross over into different genres
ex: country songs become pop or top billboard songs
12 bar blues
I I I I/IV IV I I /V IV I I

(1111,4411,5411)

Classic Blues
follows 12 bar blues
piano is dominant
sounds more professional than country blues
more commonly performed by women
Ma Rainey
famous classic blues singer
“mother of the blues” and mentor to Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith
famous blues singer sang “Backwater Blues”
Keith-Albee
vaudeville theatre chain (keith-albee-orpheum-co)
Commodity
term used to describe the creation of music as a product to sell
(ie- the development of the record)
Sheet Music
used to be popularly sold so anyone could perform it any way they wished to.
people became more interested about a particular artist’s version of a song and songs started to be identified by who recorded them, rather than who wrote them
Tin Pan Alley
located in NYC- produced sheet music and popular songs
named after the barrage of different sounds that could be heard coming out of windows as songwriters worked
notion of crossing the racial divide
Composers
the person who creates the music, either by notation or oral tradition
Arrangers
the person who prepares and adapts an already written composition in a different way
Publishers
the people responsible for ensuring artists and composers are paid when their material is used commercially
Pluggers
the person responsible for advertising songs and getting them to radio stations
AABA
song form for TPA songs
first two lines are repeated, then new lyric line introduced
Irving Berlin
Berlin was the most prolific and consistent of TPA composers
Hokum Blues
urban style, salacious lyrics
ex: Tampa Red – “It’s Tight Like That”
sexual innuendos
Tampa Red
hokum blues band – sings “It’s Tight Like That” and “I’m Gonna Get High”
“Georgia Tom” Dorsey
Thomas A. Dorsey is regarded as the father of black gospel
piano player of the Hokum Brothers
“uplifting and bright lyrics”
“It’s Tight Like That”
recorded by Tampa Red
novelty son, syncopation, dance like beat
sexually suggestive lyrics
verse/refrain form (4 bars tell a story; eight repeat the refrain)
no piano (only guitar and voice)
Boogie Woogie
a style of piano-based blues that became very popular in the late 1930s and early 1940s
mainly associated with dancing
repetitive bass figure outlines blues harmony
shuffle beat
right hand plays riffs idiomatic to piano
associated with the dance, the jitterbug
Robert Johnson
sings “Come On In My Kitchen”
country blues; sold soul
Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter
BMI writer
played major role in redefining music
country
Alan Lomax
famous ethnomusicoligist/folklorist in the 1940s
interviewed Lead Belly, Muddy Waters, Jelly Roll Morton- with Library of Congress
Pinetop Smith
Clarence “pine top” Smith
sang “Pine tops boogie woogie”
Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield)
Chicago/Electric Blues
“I’m your hootchie cootchie man”
Chess Records
Benny Goodman
“Glory of Love”
Example of Doo-Wop
W.C. Handy, “St. Louis Blues”
contains jazz genre
hybrid approach, blending aspects of Tin Pan Alley style with blues
hybridization contributed to the blues entering mainstream of American popular music
cornet replies with call and response
Dixieland Jazz
original dixieland jazz band
“Livery Stable Blues” (1917)
1st commercial recording of jazz
Big Band Swing
Count Basie’s “Jumpin’ at the Woodside”
four-beat rhythm
simple harmony
Ralph Peer
coined the term “race records”
most associated with commercial field recordings
Oral Tradition
record companies used terms race/hillbilly music
considered blues, jazz, country music today
Race Records
renamed rhythm and blues in 1948 a the urging of Paul Ackerman
Rise of Radio
1930’s, independent radio stations discovered that a set of recorded songs provided for a suitable show on the radio
Grand Ole Opry
big time country radio station
Okeh/Black Swan/Columbia/RCA Victor/Dekka Records
record companies
Fiddlin’ John Carson
won the Atlanta Old Tim Fiddler’s Convention many times
recommended to peer by Polk Brockman to record
The Carter Family
country music
“Wildwood Flower” (1928)
traditional features; vocal quality (nasal, unadorned, no vibrato, straightforward rendition of the melody) and no drums, horns, riffs or other influences from pop or jazz
Bill Monroe
classical bluegrass tune
Jimmie Rodgers
innovator of country music
sings “Blue Yodels” and “Waiting for a train”
early “white take” on black music
Roy Acuff
american country music artist
accredited with moving the genre from it’s early string band and “hoedown” format to the star singer based format that helped make it internationally succesful
sings “Wabash Cannon Ball”
Nashville Sound
formed during the late 1950s as a sub-genre of american country music
replaced the chart dominance of honky tonk music (most popular in 1940s and 1950s)
Jerry Wexler
music journalist/music producer
regarded as one of the major record industry players behind the music from the 1950s through the 1980s
claimed to have coined the term “rhythm and blues”
integral in signing and/or producing many of the biggest acts of the last 50 years (Ray Charles, the Allman Brothers, Chris Connor, Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan)
Billboard
streams of popular music kept discrete on charts
black pop had only 6% of the markets, so charts didn’t look impressive in relation to other music
streams eventually aligned, emphasizing hillbilly, country and R music
Brill Building
a center of activity for the popular music industry
many music publishers had offices in this building and publishers sent out song pluggers to radio stations
over 120 independent music businesses in the building by the 1960s
Victrola
phonographs with the turntable and amplifying horn tucked away inside a wooden cabinet
done for visual aesthetics, not sound
intention was to produce a phonograph that looked more like furniture than a machine
Shellac
type of varnish records
more durable and expensive- 33’s
33’s vs. 45’s
33’s- single records that lasted 3-5 minutes. made of shellac
45’s- made of vinyl and were used for albums. had the ability to record longer on each side
ASCAP vs. BMI
BMI allowed songwriters outside of TPA to collect royalties from teh use of tehir songs in the broadcast media
boosted western and R&B music
ASCAP
American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers
BMI
Broadcasting Music, Inc.
Disc Jockeys
DJ’s -responsible for helping r music cross the racial divide
targeted a new demographic, the youth of America in post WWII
Rhythm and Blues
replaced the term “race music”
Chess Records
american record label based in Chicago, illinois
specialized in blues, r, soul, gospel music, early rock and roll, and occasional jazz releases
Acuff Rose Records
publishing firm headquartered in Nashville
Imperial Records
a US based label started in 1947 by LEw Chudd and reactivated in 2006 by label owner EMI
Sun Records
a record label founded in Memphis, Tennesse
starting operations on March 27, 1952
Atlantic Records
record company founded by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. “the house that ruth brown built”
Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson
both were producers at Atlantic Records who worked closely with Ruth Brown, and are responsible for developing a style that fused elements of blues, jazz and pop (r)
Ruth Brown
female r artist who worked for Atlantic Records
the first and most well known African American female r artists
Ray Charles
was able to tweak gospel songs into his own r songs
was in charge of his own music production, didn’t have producers
“I Got a Woman” -gospel style, pre soul to soul
developed own kind of country music
Jump Blues
an up tempo blues played by small groups of horns
popular in the late 1930’s and 1940’s
an extension of the boogie-woogie craze
Louis Jordan
“Choo Choo ch’boogie”
example of jump blues
Big Joe Turner
“Roll ’em Pete” (1938) boogie woogie at a faster tempo
Soul Stirrers
“Jesus I’ll Never Forget” (doo-wop)
helps transition from gospel to soul
Sam Cooke
lead of the Soul Stirrers
eventually left and became a successful pop sings/sex symbol
Crossover
a term applied to musical works or performers appearing on two or more of the record charts which track differing musical tastes or genres
Cover
when another artist takes a hit song and copies it with some adaptations to cash in on a hit success
Syncretism
when two cultures come together, elements of both may combine to form something new that didn’t exist in either culture.
occurs in urban centers where you have people from various cultures
ex: New Orleans
Chuck Berry
took backbeat from jump band r&b
8 beat rhythm from fast boogie woogie
brought guitar to foreground of the sound