It is the student’s responsibility to retain course outlines for possible future use in support of applications for transfer credit to other educational institutions.

PROGRAM: Bachelor of Applied Music (Contemporary Music)
COURSE NUMBER: MUS. 212
COURSE NAME: Contemporary Music Theory and Improv 3
PRE-REQUISITE (S): MUS. 111 Contemporary Music Theory & Improv 2
PRE-REQUISITE FOR: MUS. 213 Contemporary Music Theory & Improv 4
CO-REQUISITE (S): None
CREDIT VALUE: 3
HOURS OF INSTRUCTION: 4 hours lecture 2 hours lab per week
SEMESTER 3

I COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course builds on a solid foundation of musical literacy and explores more advanced theoretical concepts all allow students to play, write and analyze at a higher level. Topics include advanced voice-leading concepts, melody writing, sequences and motives, diminished and whole-tone harmony, chord/scale relationships, voicing techniques, reharmonization techniques, score and part writing, instrument transpositions, roman numeral, functional, melodic and formal analysis methods and other subjects.

The Improvisation Lab component applies many of the theoretical concepts introduced in the course and develops the performer’s ability to improvise both vocally and instrumentally on standard repertoire using a variety of scales and harmonies in different musical styles (bebop, blues, funk, contemporary jazz and various Latin styles). Performance practice, stylistic nuance and the application of music theory and aural training are assessed.

II COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES
Students are required to demonstrate the following knowledge and skills to successfully complete this course:

1. Use fifth-to-ninth voice-leading lines over various chord progressions.
2. Write and identify motives and sequences and their variations.
3. Identify melodic contour, melodic direction and melodic climax tones.
4. Analyze melodies using various techniques.
5. Write, identify and perform secondary II V’s, subdominant minor chord substitutes, ascending and descending voice leading lines and other reharmonization techniques.
6. Write and identify drop 2, drop 3, and drop 2 and 4 voicings.
7. Notate and identify alternate chord voicings such as fourth or fifth voicings.
8. Demonstrate diminished and whole tone harmony.
9. Identify and perform the augmented scale.
10. Analyze chord progressions containing diminished chords, secondary II V’s, subdominant minor chords and other non-diatonic chords using roman numeral and functional analysis.
11. Identify, perform and write various chord/scale relationships
12. Demonstrate instrument ranges and transpositions.
13. Write a score and parts using standard conventions.
14. Perform various rhythmic counterpoint and independence exercises.
15. Write and identify multi-meter time signatures, hemiolas and “over the barline” rhythms.
16. Write, identify and perform various chord progressions given by the instructor.
17. Analyze compositions using harmonic, rhythmic, melodic and formal tools.
18. Demonstrate chord substitution, whole-tone and diminished scales, altered chords, and modes of the major and minor scales in jazz soloing.
19. Demonstrate technical proficiency on instrument through the in-depth study of instrumental/vocal techniques.
20. Demonstrate improvement in tone production, time feel and musicality.
21. Explain tritone substitution and its uses as an improvisational device in jazz standards.
22. Perform a record lift of a famous jazz artist improvising on a jazz standard. The student must perform this with the recorded examples.
23. Use proper jazz and Latin articulation i.e. eighth-note phrasing, swing feel, and note lengths.
24. Demonstrate the concepts of mature jazz phrasing and the use of space in solo construction.
25. Explain improvisational devices such as melodic embellishment, be-bop line construction, melodic structures, harmonic generalization, guide tones, chord scales, change running, digital patterns, enclosures, sequences, and quotes as they are used by improvisors on jazz standards.
26. Memorize and improvise effectively using the appropriate theoretical and idiomatic material from the following list of tunes:

1. “All the Things You Are”
2. “Body and Soul”
3. “Blues for Alice”
4. “Donna Lee”
5. “Emily”
6. “Have You Met Miss Jones?”
7. “How Deep is the Ocean?”
8. “How Insensitive”
9. “Kind Folk”
10. “Locomotion”
11. “On Green Dolphin Street”
12. “Recordame”
13. “Round Midnight”
14. “Speak No Evil”
15. “Stella By Starlight”
16. “What is This Thing Called Love?”

III GENERIC SKILLS
1. Personal skills: demonstrate self-awareness, self-confidence, self-direction, self-management and use resources to plan for and attain personal, career and work-related goals, within the context of a changing environment
2. Thinking skills: select and apply forms of enquiry, conduct research, think critically and creatively, make decisions, and solve problems

IV LEARNING VALUES
1. Developing students’ broader perspectives through an understanding of context.
2. Developing students’ depth and breadth of understanding of the subject matter.
3. Enhancing students’ aesthetic development through a growing appreciation of the subject matter.

V DELIVERY FORMAT
Lecture, aural and written examples, in-class performance, assignments, and class discussion.
Lab component featuring application of theoretical concepts in performance setting.

VI REQUIRED TEXTS AND SUPPLIES
Downes, Mike and Klump, Brad. Jazz and Contemporary Music Theory. 2nd ed. Toronto, ON: 2006

VII EVALUATION
Attendance 7%
Assignments and quizzes 25%
Midterm exam 15%
Final exam 20%
Improvisation Lab 33%
(Lab Attendance 3%)
(Weekly Performances 15%)
(Midterm Performance Test 5%)
(Final Performance Exam 10%)
Total: 100%

VIII COURSE SCHEDULE
WEEK I
 Review of Transposition and Chord Substitution (Scoring & Part Writing)
 Assigned reading exercises: p. 119; 123 – 126 (Jazz and Contemporary Music Theory Second Edition) *this book applies to all assigned reading
LAB: No Lab

WEEK II
 Melodic Analysis (Tension/Resolution, climax, sequences, 5th /9th voice leading)
 Assigned reading and exercises: p. 99-101; 215-216; 229
LAB: Blues with a Bridge: “Locomotion”

WEEK III
 Motives and variations (retrograde, inversion, retrograde inversion, rhythmic augmentation and diminution)
 Assigned reading and exercises: p. 203-207
LAB: Bird Blues: “Blues for Alice”

WEEK IV
 Non-Diatonic Chord Progressions (Secondary II V’s, mixed-mode II-V’s , cycle motion, tonicization)
 Assigned reading and exercises : p. 119-126
LAB: “What is This Thing Called Love?”

WEEK V
 Non-Diatonic Chord Progressions con’t (Coltrane Changes; Triple Box technique)
 Assigned reading and exercises: p. 121-122
LAB: Soloing over Non-Diatonic Chord Progressions

WEEK VI
 Advanced Metric Concepts (Multi-meter; tempo and metric modulation; hemiola,
“over-the-barline” rhythms)
 Assigned reading and exercises: p. 44-50
LAB: No Lab

WEEK VII
 Midterm written exam
LAB: Improvising using “Over-the-barline” rhythms and metric modulation

WEEK VIII
 Diminished Harmony (Diminished chord structures; harmonic function)
 Assigned reading and exercises: p. 133-138
LAB: Midterm Performance Test

WEEK IX
 Ascending/descending voice-leading (ddd)
 Assigned reading and exercises: p. 127-128
 Composition assignment (ascending and descending voice-leading)
LAB: “Have You Met Miss Jones?”

WEEK X
 Voicings (Drop 2, Drop 3, Drop 2 and 4, quartal)
 Assigned reading and exercises: p. 96-97
LAB: Transcription Assignment

WEEK XI
 Compositional Analysis (roman numeral, functional, melodic, rhythmic, formal)
 Assigned reading and exercises: p. 159-163
LAB: “Emily”

WEEK XII
 Compositional Analysis con’t (roman numeral, functional, melodic, rhythmic, formal)
 Assigned reading and exercises: p. 237-239
LAB: “Donna Lee”

WEEK XIII
 Review
LAB: Review

EXAM WEEK
 Final written examination
LAB: Final Performance Exam

IX POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
It is the student’s responsibility to be aware of the College’s Academic Regulations, and the School of Creative and Performing Arts official policies and procedures. These academic regulations may be accessed through the College’s website at www.registrar.humber.ca/acregs.html.

X ACADEMIC CONCERNS/APPEALS
Any student who has an academic concern should first discuss the matter directly with their professor. If the issue cannot be resolved, then the student is encouraged to bring it up with the program coordinator; then with the Dean (or designate) if the prior two steps were unsuccessful. Please refer to the College’s Academic Complaint and Appeal Policy for details.

XI PRIOR LEARNING ASSESSMENT AND RECOGNITION (PLAR)
Course credits may be granted in recognition of prior learning of this subject upon successful passing of a written and performance examination and payment of the PLAR fee made through the Office of the Registrar.

XII DISCLAIMER
While every effort will be made to cover all material listed in this outline, the order, content, and/or evaluation is subject to change in the event of exceptional circumstances or class needs.

SCHOOL OF CREATIVE AND PERFORMING ARTS
COURSE OUTLINE
ACADEMIC YEAR 2008/2009

It is the student’s responsibility to retain course outlines for possible future use in support of applications for transfer credit to other educational institutions.

PROGRAM: Bachelor of Applied Music (Contemporary Music)
COURSE NUMBER: MUS. 213
COURSE NAME: Contemporary Music Theory and Improv 4
PRE-REQUISITE (S): MUS. 212 Contemporary Music Theory and Improv 3
PRE-REQUISITE FOR: MUS. 308 Creative Development
CO-REQUISITE (S): None
CREDIT VALUE: 3
HOURS OF INSTRUCTION: 4 hours lecture 2 hours lab per week
SEMESTER 4

I COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course builds on a solid foundation of musical literacy and explores more advanced theoretical concepts all allow students to play, write and analyze at a higher level. Topics include advanced melodic analysis, slash chord and polychord harmony, “world” rhythms, two-part counterpoint, twelve-tone music and other topics. It culminates with a final composition project.

The Improvisation Lab component applies many of the theoretical concepts introduced in the course and develops the performer’s ability to improvise both vocally and instrumentally on standard repertoire using a variety of scales and harmonies in different musical styles (bebop, blues, funk, contemporary jazz and various Latin styles). Performance practice, stylistic nuance and the application of music theory and aural training are assessed.

II COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES
Students are required to demonstrate the following knowledge and skills to successfully complete this course:

1. Demonstrate basic counterpoint concepts.
2. Analyze melodies using various techniques for melodic analysis.
3. Write, identify and perform upper structures, slash chords and polychords.
4. Write, identify and perform pedal points and ostinato figures.
5. Effectively use slash chord, polychord harmony, pedal points and ostinato figures as compositional techniques.
6. Analyze chord progressions containing slash chords, polychords, pedal points and ostinato figures using roman numeral and functional analysis.
7. Identify, perform and write various chord/scales in relation to slash chords and polychords.
8. Demonstrate twelve-tone music and rhythmic modulation.
9. Notate, identify and perform various rhythmic structures from the music of other cultures.
10. Analyze compositions using harmonic, rhythmic, melodic and formal tools.
11. Write, identify and perform various chord progressions.
12. Complete a final composition project including 1) detailed score 2) an analysis written by the student 3) an audio or MIDI recording.
13. Demonstrate chord substitution, whole-tone and diminished scales, altered chords, and modes of the major and minor scales in jazz soloing.
14. Demonstrate methods of “outside” playing such as side-slipping, and advanced harmonic substitution.
15. Improvise slash-chord harmonies, quartal harmonies, and other post-bop harmonies.
16. Analyze melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic historically significant solos.
17. Demonstrate technical proficiency on their instrument through the in-depth study of instrumental/vocal techniques.
18. Demonstrate improvement in tone production, time feel and musicality.
19. Use concepts of mature jazz phrasing and the use of space in solo construction.
20. Play a repertoire of contemporary music reflecting a variety of styles.
21. Explain improvisational devices such as melodic embellishment, be-bop line construction, melodic structures, harmonic generalization, guide tones, chord scales, change running, digital patterns, enclosures, sequences, and quotes as they are used by improvisors on jazz standards.
22. Improvise effectively using the appropriate theoretical and idiomatic material from the following list of tunes:

1. “All the Things You Are”
2. “Body and Soul”
3. “Blues for Alice”
4. “Donna Lee”
5. “Emily”
6. “Have You Met Miss Jones?”
7. “How Deep is the Ocean?”
8. “How Insensitive”
9. “Kind Folk”
10. “Locomotion”
11. “On Green Dolphin Street”
12. “Recordame”
13. “Round Midnight”
14. “Speak No Evil”
15. “Stella By Starlight”
16. “What is This Thing Called Love?”

III GENERIC SKILLS
1. Personal skills: demonstrate self-awareness, self-confidence, self-direction, self-management and use resources to plan for and attain personal, career and work-related goals, within the context of a changing environment
2. Thinking skills: select and apply forms of enquiry, conduct research, think critically and creatively, make decisions, and solve problems

IV LEARNING VALUES
1. Developing students’ broader perspectives through an understanding of context.
2. Developing students’ depth and breadth of understanding of the subject matter.
3. Enhancing students’ aesthetic development through a growing appreciation of the subject matter.

V DELIVERY FORMAT
Lecture, aural and written examples, in-class performance, assignments, and class discussion.
Lab component featuring application of theoretical concepts in performance setting.

VI REQUIRED TEXTS AND SUPPLIES
Downes, Mike and Brad Klump. Jazz and Contemporary Music Theory. Toronto, ON: (2006)

VII EVALUATION
Attendance 7%
Composition Assignment 15%
Assignments and quizzes 10%
Midterm exam 15%
Final exam 20%
Improvisation Lab 33%
(Lab Attendance 3%)
(Weekly Performances 15%)
(Midterm Performance Test 5%)
(Final Performance Exam 10%)
Total: 100%

VIII COURSE SCHEDULE
WEEK I
 Rhythmic Counterpoint & World Rhythms (Cuban, Brazilian, West African)
 Assigned reading and exercises –p. 46-50
LAB: “How Insensitive”

WEEK II
 Slash Chords and Polychords (Upper Structure triads)
 Assigned reading and exercises –p. 141-151
LAB: “On Green Dolphin Street”

WEEK III
 Slash chords and polychords cont’d. (Harmonic Analysis, pedal points)
 Assigned reading and exercises – analysis of jazz standards with slash chords
LAB: “What is This Thing Called Love?” [Kenny Wheeler rehamonization]

WEEK IV
 Extended Tonality (Harmonic Chromaticism, Polytonality, atonality)
 Assigned reading and exercises – p. 196-197
LAB: “Kind Folk”

WEEK V
 Two-Part Counterpoint (Parallel, Oblique, Similar and Contrary motion)
 Assigned reading and exercises – counterpoint assignment
LAB: “All the Things You Are”

WEEK VI
 Two-Part Counterpoint cont’d
 Assigned reading and exercises – p. 217-218
LAB: Inside and “Outside” Playing Techniques

WEEK VII
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE WEEK (no regular classes)

WEEK VIII
 Midterm Written Exam
LAB: Midterm written exam

WEEK IX
 Major Composition Guidelines
 Major Composition assignment assigned
LAB: “Speak No Evil”

WEEK X
 Twelve-tone Music (Pitch class, tone rows, analysis)
 Assigned reading and exercises – p. 199-201
LAB: Advanced Improvisation Techniques

WEEK XI
 Twelve-tone Music cont’d. (12-tone Matrix)
 Assigned reading and exercises – p.202
LAB: Student written Tone row vamps

WEEK XII
 Review
LAB: Review

WEEK XIII
 Jury Week (no regular classes)

EXAM WEEK
 Final written examination
LAB: Final Performance Exam

IX POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
It is the student’s responsibility to be aware of the College’s Academic Regulations, and the School of Creative and Performing Arts official policies and procedures. These academic regulations may be accessed through the College’s website at www.registrar.humber.ca/acregs.html.

X ACADEMIC CONCERNS/APPEALS
Any student who has an academic concern should first discuss the matter directly with their professor. If the issue cannot be resolved, then the student is encouraged to bring it up with the program coordinator; then with the Dean (or designate) if the prior two steps were unsuccessful. Please refer to the College’s Academic Complaint and Appeal Policy for details.

XI PRIOR LEARNING ASSESSMENT AND RECOGNITION (PLAR)
Course credits may be granted in recognition of prior learning of this subject upon successful passing of a written and performance examination and payment of the PLAR fee made through the Office of the Registrar.

XII DISCLAIMER
While every effort will be made to cover all material listed in this outline, the order, content, and/or evaluation is subject to change in the event of exceptional circumstances or class needs.

Happy 2008 and Welcome to the website of Andrew Scott PhD.

Winner of the Best Jazz Artist of 2007 from the Toronto Independent Music Awards!

There is a nice article on me entitled “Jazz is just one of grad’s many cool hats” by Alex Keshen on page 62 of the September 2008 issue of the North Toronto Post.

From Canadian Musician Magazine (Volume XXIX No. 3)…"…there are a lot of good guitarists around these days including [Levon Ichkhanian, David Occhipinti, Andy Scott, and more” (Sonny Greenwich Page 50).

I’ve officially joined the rest of the world and I now have a myspace page. Here.

An article I contributed to on contemporary jazz from the National Post is here.

Email me to say “hello” andrewjacobscott (the symbol for at ) sympatico.ca

About me:

I grew up in Toronto, Canada and have been involved in music my whole life. I sang in the Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus as a youngster, played French horn in junior high school and took up the guitar at Leaside High School. My first teachers were my mother—a great piano player—and Andy Baracus at Leaside. I got interested in jazz mainly through my mom’s Oscar Peterson, Junior Mance and Dave Brubeck records. My first jazz teachers were Brian Hughes and Joey Goldstein, all of who gave me a good musical foundation and pointed me in the right direction. I attended Humber College of Applied Arts and Sciences in the music department. Here, I had the good fortune to work with some great teachers (Charles Tolliver, Don Thompson, Pat LaBarbera, Peter Harris, Ted Quinlan, Michael Farquason) and meet some amazing musicians who were masquerading as students. Around this time, I also helped start a really nice band called One Step Beyond. We were on a few compilation records, put out two albums on our own and got to tour extensively throughout North America—occasionally as the backup band for organist Merl Saunders. I also went to Arosa, Switzerland around this time and played in The Hotel Eden for four months.

In 1998, I moved to Boston and attended the New England Conservatory of Music. I earned a Masters in Historical Musicology while getting to play jazz with some great musicians. NEC was the dream school for someone with diverse interests. The scholarship was high—thanks to Greg Smith, Helen Greenwald, Peter Row, Anne Hallmark—and the music was rich and varied; I studied under such wonderful musicians as John McNeil and Gene Bertonncinni. I would have loved to stay in Boston—it is an amazing city—but I got accepted into the PhD. program of Musicology/Ethnomusicology at York University to study with Rob Bowman. In the spring of 2006 I successfully defended my dissertation/thesis “The Life, Music and Improvisational Style of Herbert Lawrence ‘Sonny’ Greenwich.” I am really happy to report that Montreal’s Vehicule Press will be publishing my book on Greenwich!

Additionally, I’ve put out two albums with Jim Clayton in a band called The Clayton/Scott Group. The band, which mainly features David French, Jake Wilkinson, Will Jarvis and Steve Heathcote (although other great musicians have worked with us) gets a lot of radio play on Max Trax, Wave 94.7 FM, The Breeze in Calgary and a number of other “contemporary” jazz radio stations. We have also been recognized for our efforts with two “Group of the Year” wins at the Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards (2005 and 2006) and a National Jazz Award Nomination for “Electric Group of the Year.” We were lucky to work with two wonderful producers—Tony Grace and Rob DeBoer of Four 80East–a group with whom I now play–for our 2nd album “So Nice.” In addition, I married a wonderful woman, have a young son and daughter, got a dog, bought a house, played just about every jazz festival in Ontario, have written for a host of good academic journals and magazines–including CODA Magazine where I’m the Managing Editor (see my CV)–and completed a record on my own featuring some “swingin’” playing by Harry Allen , Jake Wilkinson, Bernie Senensky, Louis Simao and Joel Haynes. The record is called “This One’s for Barney,” as a tribute to the late guitarist Barney Kessel, whose music I love and whom I feel was influential on my playing style. It was released on Sackville Records in late 2004.

My 2nd recording–"Blue Mercer"–is a program of mainly Johnny Mercer music. I am thrilled that New York trumpeter Randy Sandke, tenor saxophonist Mike Murley, pianist Bernie Senensky, bassist Louis Simao and drummer Joel Haynes agreed to record with me. John Norris at Sackville Records has again put out this record and I’m happy to report that the liner notes have been written by pianist/composer/Mercer collaborater Gene DiNovi, whose composition “Have a Heart” I recorded for this album. His notes can be found in the press section of this website. This recording is currently getting a lot of play on CBC and CJRT (Jazz FM).

I’m also pleased to report I recently recorded two “Generations” CDs with Gene DiNovi and Dave Young (July 2007). The first ("The Three Optimists at the Old Mill") is available on Sackville Records in the fall of 2008. The second was produced by famed jazz producer Mitsuo Johfu for his Marshmallow record company. Here is a link to the label’s website (Japanese only, however). I will be making a guitar trio record (guitar, bass, drums) for the same label sometime in 2008.

As of June 2008, I have recorded a third CD as leader for Sackville Records. The CD, tentatively titled Contrafact features tunes (or rather melodies/heads) that are based upon standard American songbook compositions: so, for example, we play Fats Navarro’s “Nostalgia” which is based upon “Out of Nowhere” and Barney Kessel’s “Vicky’s Dream” which is based upon “All the Things You Are” etc. The record features both Dan Block (on tenor and clarinet) and Jon-Erik Kellso on trumpet (and a variety of mutes) on the front line and the swinging rhythm section of pianist Mark Eisenman, bassist Pat Collins and drummer Joel Haynes. Should be out in the fall of 2008.

In addition to all of this, I teach at Humber College of Music (critical perspectives on contemporary music, sociology of contemporary music, jazz history, 2nd year music theory, reading ensemble and private guitar), the University of Guelph (jazz history, ensemble coaching and private guitar instruction), Seneca College (survey course in Canadian music) and York University (classroom and private guitar instruction). That is where this website comes in. This site is mainly a resource for my students. Here, I will post thoughts, reading assignments, listening assignments and important dates for students in my courses. Students are encouraged to email me, leave messages, ask questions, raise issues etc. which I will post on the website in order to continue the classroom discourse long after the class is over.

Thanks for visiting my site.

Andrew

Skiffle
Lonnie Donnegan was the reigning king of British pop in the late 1950s
traditional American folk songs performed on washboards, comb kazoos, a broomstick, a washtub bass and an acoustic guitar
Quarry Men was led by a 15 year old named John Lennon.
Paul McCartney joins
shared passion for American rock figures such as Little Richard, Elvis, Chuck Berry
George Harrison then joins the group.
“Johnny and the Moon Dogs” and The “Silver Beatles.”

The Beatles
return to bands and individual music makers
“Mersey Beat”
Hamburg where the band honed their disparate influences into a uniformed and recognizable sound.
Brian Epstein, became their manager
George Martin, who signs them.
page boy haircuts
Lennon and McCartney composition “Love Me Do/PS I love you” as the first single.
Musical Example: “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (1963)—good example of Mersey Beat.

The Folk Music Revival
The first generation of rock and roll fan grew up
teenagers grew up into socially conscious and sometimes politically active young men and women
folk music revival.
simplicity and the authenticity
Many folk fans, who were white and college educated, discovered this music at college courtesy of The Kingston Trio.
hootenannies
leftist political discussion

Musical Example: “Tom Dooley”

Musical Example: “Goodnight Irene” by The Weavers

Musical Example: “Day-O” by Harry Belafonte

Robert Zimmerman

Peter Paul and Mary begin their sets with a song that they heard performed by Robert Zimmerman in a darkened coffeehouse in New York
Bob Dylan “Blowin in the Wind.”
1963 Newport Folk Music Festival he was a hero, a star, a folk poet, and the voice of a generation
Dylan goes to the Newport Festival in 1965 and goes “electric.”
Musical Example: “The Times they Are A-Changin’” (1963).

Muscle Schoals
Jerry Wexler used a studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama for his Atlantic Recording artists Wilson Pickett (“Land of 1000 Dances” and “Mustang Sally”).
Like the Stax recording studio or Motown, Muscle Shoals had in-house musicians: Spooner Oldham (keys) and Jimmy Johnson (guitar)

Aretha Franklin
Grew up in Detroit
Touring with father The Reverend C.L Franklin
She was destined to be the heir apparent to Mahalia Jackson singing African American sacred music.
Franklin was signed to Columbia Records where she was marketed as a Jazz Singer.
Dropped and signed to Atlantic
Recorded at Muscle Shoal Studios
“I’ve Never loved a Man (The way I love you)”
The Queen of Soul.
String of soul classics: “I’ve Never Loved a Man,” “Respect,” “Chain of Fools,” “Baby I love you” and “Think.”
All became top 10 hits
Won the first of 7 Grammy Awards for Best R&B Performance by a female vocalist in 1967.
“Respect” (Redding): deconstructed the tune, added a feminist intensity.
“Respect” – racial respect, gender respect and musical respect.

Musical Example: “Respect” and “Think”

Bob Dylan and the Band
Bob Dylan’s electrified performance at the Newport Music Festival.
The Benedict Arnold of the folk music community.
Dylan puts together an electric folk music band featuring a group made up of largely Canadian musicians
Formerly Ronnie Hawkins back up band at the Coq D’Or in Toronto.
Levon Helm and Canadians Jaime Robbie Robertson on guitar, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson (from London, Ontario) on Keyboards and Bassist Rick Danko.
“Like A Rolling Stone”–Video

The Band
When Dylan went on the road, he took the Hawks as his backing band.
The Band rented a large pink house near Woodstock NY known as “The Big Pink.”
“Music from Big Pink” first album (Capital Records)
Influential to Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys and The Beatles
Even though its was composed and performed by a mainly Canadian group, the album has been celebrated as heartland Americana.
Musical Example: “The Night they Drove Old Dixie Down” and “The Weight” (From the Last Waltz)

Filmmaker Martin Scorsese filmed their retirement concert “The Last Waltz.”

Folk Rock and The Byrds
“Dylan meets the Beatles”
Folk-rock, the jingly jangly sound of their 12-string electric guitars—the line from Dylan’s own “Mr. Tambourine Man.”
Increasing connection between popular music and drug culture.
“Eight Miles High” focused media attention on the issue.
Afraid that the song contained hidden drug meanings, the Byrds were the first band of the psychedelic era to have their record banned by radio stations as it was suspected the song contained drug related messages.
Timothy Leary and LSD.
Musical Example: “Mr. Tambourine Man”
Electrified Dylan?

Buffalo Springfield

Neil Young
Protest music with “Ohio” by Young.

British Invasion Bands
The Rolling Stones
Rock’s first “bad boys”.
Bassist Bill Wyman, drummer Charlie Watts, Guitarist Keith Richards, Guitarist Brian Jones and Mick Jagger.
the influence of Black blues players
“Let’s Spend the Night Together” becomes “let’s spend some “time” together”
Drug culture connection
Keith Richards arrested in Toronto
The band gave a benefit concert for the Canadian National Institute of the Blind in lieu of jail time.
Musical Example: “I Can’t Get No (Satisfaction)”

The late 60’s Beatles
The group were also excellent musicians and were growing frustrated by the fact that whenever they would perform, their music was being drowned out by the screaming fans.
The Beatles withdrew and recorded a number of albums that embraced technology
The resultant album in 1967 was “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”.
“All you Need is Love”, which featured an adaptation of the French National Anthem
“The Summer of Love”
the anthem of the revolution
Musical Example: “Tomorrow Never Knows” and “A Day in the Life”

The Beach Boys
Paul McCartney claims that the inspiration for the sounds heard on Sgt. Pepper came from The Beach Boys.
“Surfin Safari”, “Surfer Girl” and “Surfin’ USA”.
Consisting of Wilson brothers
Influenced by Phil Spector and Chuck Berry.
“Pet Sounds” was the only album released of the two concept albums
The tour-de-force piece was “Good Vibrations”.

Jimi Hendrix
Dressed in the psychedelic
garb of the Monterey audience, Hendrix was a guitar hero
already a veteran of the stage, having apprenticed on the Black so-called Chitlin’ circuit of Southern nightclubs backing up Little Richard, Sam Cooke and the Ike Turner Review.
Performances were filled with ear-splitting volume, guitar distortion, pyrotechnics (such as playing with his teeth and lighting the guitar on fire) and use of the instrument as a phallic symbol.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience (Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding)
“Purple Haze”

Cream
Hendrix’s performances in England attracted local musicians.
John McLaughlin, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Kinks, the Animals, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and a young guitar player named Eric Clapton
Graffiti suggested “Clapton is GOD”
Apprenticed in a number of British rhythm and blues bands such as the Yardbirds (which also featured guitarist Jeff Beck and later Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin) and John Mayall and the Blues Breakers
Clapton formed a power trio with bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker.
Rock music’s first “super group”
Musical Example: “Crossroads”

Jenkins, Iredell “Art for Art’s Sake”

1). If language is a “reduction of thought,” that is to say that by putting something into words, do we lose an immediate connection with it? If so does music connect us to human passion more directly?

2). Through the process of musical analysis do we lose a piece of music’s emotional power in order to gain some intellectual power?

3). Why are we in a state where new music producers scorn their roots and traditionalists have trouble understanding their descendants?

4). For art to be “for art’s sake” does it need to be purely and end in and of itself, serving no ulterior purpose and be accepted on its own terms?

5). Is there a difference between making art and thinking of oneself as an artist?

6). Immanuel Kant during the Enlightenment discussed the tripartite idea cognition, duty and aesthetic taste. Discuss.

7). If art is utilitarian or ornamental, do such purposes “shackle” the artist? Do artists need to acquire a strong sense of their identity and of the intrinsic significance of the art they create in order to create freely and without interference and harassment?

8). Is “art for art’s sake” both “a declaration of artistic independence and partly an expression of the alienation of the artist from society?”

Motown
Started by Berry Gordy Jr. in Detroit, Michigan.
The most successful independent record company in history and the CEO of the largest black owned corporation in America
Assembly line consisted of skilled professional—songwriters such as Eddie Holland and Lamont Dozier, the husband and wife team of Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson, producers, arrangers and studio musicians (“The Funk Brothers”)
Listened to the finished produce on the speaker of a tiny car radio
“The Sound of Young America”
Musical Example: “You Can’t Hurry Love” The Supremes (1966).

Motown II.
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles hit “Shop Around” was the first million-seller for the label.
Robinson became a cornerstone to the Motown sound writing a series of pop masterpieces (“You’ve Really Got a Hold of Me,” “I Second that Emotion” and “Tears of a Clown.”)
Mary Wells recorded the first Motown song to go number one “My Guy.”
The Temptations combined slick choreography, produced over forty-three top 10 hits in their career including “My Girl,” “The Way You do the Things You Do” and later “Psychedelic Shack” and “Papa was a Rolling Stone.”
The Supremes=Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard
“Tears of a Clown” Smokey Robinson
“Crusin’”
“Dancing in the Streets” Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.

Rhythm and Blues
Interest in keeping races separate not only personally but also musically.
Yet Rhythm and Blues remained popular among white youth.
Record labels pondered strategies to market rhythm and blues
to make rhythm and blues broader in its appeal, they employed pop production technique.
substituted call-and-response or blues structures, gospel blues harmonies and combo arrangements with sing-along refrains, pop and vocal harmonies and elaborated orchestral arrangements (often scored and produced by Phil Spector)
“Spanish Harlem” by Ben E. King—we hear Brazilian baion rhythms (sometimes called the “cha-cha-cha” beat).

Stax Records
the Memphis Sound
James Stewart founded the company in Memphis in 1959.
originally country musicians recorded there.
changed when Stewart relocated his studio to a black neighbourhood
A core group became the studio house band
Booker T and the MG’s.
The unique southern blend of their individual blues, rhythm and blues and country styles, plus the fact that they were an integrated band, which arguably defied established social practices on race mixing and cultural exchanges, mirrored the goals of the civil right movement (Bowman 1997:3-48).
“Hip Hug Her”

Otis Redding
central to the Stax sound.
challenge closely circumscribed musical borders
he co-wrote his own music with guitarist Steve Cropper and interpreted the American songbook.
in 1966, he recorded “Satisfaction.”
he helped break down the racial and musical barriers
received airplay from white radio stations brought Redding to a new audience.
Monterey Pop Festival.
killed at the age of 26
private plane crashed en route to a concert. “Sitting On the Dock of the Bay” his only number one hit.
Musical Example: “Try a Little Tenderness”

Stax vs. Motown
lyrics dealt with all aspects of Southern life—daily experiences, relationships, social issues and some helped introduce dance fads
Rufus Thomas’s “Walkin the dog,” “Do the funky chicken” and “Do the push and Pull.”
largely unknown outside of southern black communities until Al Bell, joins in 1965
Sam and Dave, Eddie Floyd
David Porter and Isaac Hayes.
Musical Example: “In the Midnight Hour” Wilson Pickett.

Except for Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder most of Motown’s singers were “vehicles”
songwriters and producers in collaboration with the studio band presented their creation.
“produced”
less spontaneous.
lyrics focussed on teenage lyrics and issues: “Shop Around,” “Stop in the name of love,” “I heard it through the grapevine”
Musical Example: “Dancing in the Streets” Martha Reeves and The Vandellas

Soul Music
“high priest of soul,” Brother Ray Charles
The Godfather of Soul—James Brown
Queen of Soul in Aretha Franklin
Soul Music is a product of the black power movement in the United States.
student non-violent coordination committee (SNCC)
mid-1960s students increasingly impatient the slow pace of social change
“I’m black and I’m proud”

Soul became a term that was first coined and used by African Americans to describe a new and distinctive black musical genre as well as a cultural style.
Musical Example: “Cold Sweat” (1968)
“We’re a Winner” Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions” (1967).
Soul Music=“the secularization of gospel” (Jerry Wexler).
Ray Charles played “I Got a Woman.”
“I Got a Saviour (Way over Jordan)” or “Jesus is all the world to me”
Charles’s gospel and secular fusions were popular but controversial.
Musical Example: “I Got a Woman” (1954) and “I Can’t Stop Loving You” (1962).

James Brown
“Say It loud—I’m black and I’m proud”
The “rhythmic revolution”
1965 breakthrough hit “Papa’s got a brand new bag.”
The song cost Brown his white or crossover audience
many interpreted the song as a call to arms of blacks against whites.
hard working band “the Hardest working man in showbiz”
Side musicians: Maceo Parker, Bootsy Collins, Fred Wesley, Pee Wee Ellis
sing an improvised melody—loosely organized—while the band grooved on one chord, horns punctuating the response to Brown’s vocal calls.
No chord changes or little melodic variety to sustain the listener interest, rhythm and groove are it
Brown treats every instrument and voice in the group as if each were a drum.

The Protestant Work Ethic vs. The Perpetual Now

V to I tonal move
Brown’s songs as idea of instant gratification in music and the “perpetual now.”

Skiffle
Lonnie Donnegan was the reigning king of British pop in the late 1950s
traditional American folk songs performed on washboards, comb kazoos, a broomstick, a washtub bass and an acoustic guitar
Quarry Men was led by a 15 year old named John Lennon.
Paul McCartney joins
shared passion for American rock figures such as Little Richard, Elvis, Chuck Berry
George Harrison then joins the group.
“Johnny and the Moon Dogs” and The “Silver Beatles.”

The Beatles
return to bands and individual music makers
“Mersey Beat”
Hamburg where the band honed their disparate influences into a uniformed and recognizable sound.
Brian Epstein, became their manager
George Martin, who signs them.
page boy haircuts
Lennon and McCartney composition “Love Me Do/PS I love you” as the first single.
Musical Example: “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (1963).

The Folk Music Revival
The first generation of rock and roll fan grew up
teenagers grew up into socially conscious and sometimes politically active young men and women
folk music revival.
simplicity and the authenticity
Many folk fans, who were white and college educated, discovered this music at college courtesy of The Kingston Trio.
hootenannies
leftist political discussion
Musical Example: “Tom Dooley”
Musical Example: “Goodnight Irene” by The Weavers

Robert Zimmerman
Peter Paul and Mary begin their sets with a song that they heard performed by Robert Zimmerman in a darkened coffeehouse in New York
Bob Dylan “Blowin in the Wind.”
1963 Newport Folk Music Festival he was a hero, a star, a folk poet, and the voice of a generation
Dylan goes to the Newport Festival in 1965 and goes “electric.”
Musical Example: “The Times they Are A-Changin’” (1963).

Small, Christopher. “Africans, Europeans and the Making of Music.” In Music of the Common Tongue: Survival and Celebration in Afro-American Music. (J. Calder, 1987), pp. 17 – 48

1). Discuss Christopher Small’s points on “functionality,” “adaptability” and music as having an “everyday purpose” in many African societies.

2). Discuss Small’s assertion: “one might say that the intelligence of Africans is devoted to learning how to live well in the world rather than to mastering it and they do not imagine as does the scientifically minded Europeans that the latter is necessary in order to achieve the former.”

3). What of John Miller Chernoff’s homological assertion that there is a simpatico relationship that exists between the polyrhythmic variation so prevalent in African drumming and the polytheism so prevalent in African religious belief.

4). Does Small’s claim “rhythm is to the African what harmony is to the European—the central organizing principle of the art” clarify last week’s discussion of the hierarchical relationship between harmony and melody?

5). What of Small’s point that Musiking in African societies is thought of as simply social interaction—similar to talking, something that everyone does, some better than others.

Questions…

Question #1: Adorno, “Popular Music”What does Adorno mean when he says that “pop music is defined by standardization”? What does Adorno mean by pseudo-individualization? How does Adorno explain the social role of pop music?

Question #2: Keil, “Motion & Feeling Through Music”What are the critiques on Leonard Meyer’s theory as articulated by Keil? What is Keil’s point of contrasting “embodied meaning” vs. “engendered feeling” in music? What is meant by “vital drive”?

Question #3: Negus, “Identities”What is essentialism? What are the essentialist characteristics of “black music” and “white music”? Is white interest in black music simple co-option (i.e. white theft of black capital)? What does Negus mean by “articulation” and how does it offer an alternative to essentialist categorization?

Question #4: Fish, “Mixed Blood”Explain what Fish means by race being a social classification and not a biological one. How can we account for variations in physical appearance among human beings? What is hypo-descent? Contrast how most Americans define their racial categories with respect to Brazilians.

Question #5: Small, “Africans, Europeans and the Making of Music”How does Small contrast the views of music and music-making (“musicking”) between Africans and Europeans? Discuss Christopher Small’s points on “functionality,” “adaptability” and music as having an “everyday purpose” in many African societies.

Question #6: Garofalo, “From Music Publishing to MP3”Explain briefly how the “music industry” and the “record industry” were, at one time in history, different. What does “cultural imperialism” mean? How do new technologies decentralize control of music production, distribution and consumption in society? What is transculturation?

AFRICANS, EUROPEANS AND THE MAKING OF MUSIC

From Shin

Introduction - (historical background)

19C - The societies of the Western Sudan
( principal source of black slaves )
- Okoye Africans at first derided Europeans
different appearance
(Europeans did not have a black skin, full lips, and broad nostrils )

- advanced nature of west African societies
(evidence) - the name of planets in an epic of science fiction ( Ghana , Mali, Songhai … )
- Mansa Musa ( ruled over the largest domains on earth apart from the Mongol Empire )
pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324
Islam (west Africa ) → Christianity ( Africans transformed ) → syncretism ( polytheistic religions )
- Empire - permeated upwards from the smallest social units to Emperor
(lineage-based community)
The continent in the centuries before the disruption caused by the slave trade and, later, colonialism, was an orderly and well-governed place.
- Berber, traveler, Ibn Battuta → ‘Of all peoples the Negros are those who most abhor injustice
- The sultan pardons no one who is guilty of it
- A Dutch merchant’s description of the city of Benin (Nigeria)

- Henry Morton Stanley ( a pious Musselman and an intelligent humane king)
- Leo Frobenius’ comment

Trade
- Ports ( kilwa, Mombsa, and Mogadishu ) ← ———- → Indonesia, and China
( The great trading houses of Genoa and Venice knew that they were dealing not with ‘primitive’ people but with shrewd traders )
- Two characteristics of African social life
1. an absence of separation between aspects of life which Europeans are inclined to keep apart
( the political, the economic, the religious and the aesthetic )
- African religion permeates every aspect of human existence.
- Dr John Mbiti (Christian theologian) - Many branches but only one tree
- the reciprocal relationship between individual and community finds expression in a system of rites of passage (nature may bring the child into the world ) ( importance of naming ceremonies) ( responsibility for nurture )

- Davison ( in Africa ) - tribal sculpture was seldom designed to be enjoyed as “art". Rather each piece was designed to attract specific religious spirits. (example, beautiful doll)
- The art of social happiness

- Art and religion together served to reinforce the integrity of the community.
( intelligence of Africans is devoted to learning how to live well in the world. )

- Closer to nature ( Not only is much of that vast continent decidedly inhospitable to human life But also Africans have shared the same tendencies to selfishness, quarrelsomeness and murderousness)

the point is that in that continent human beings evolved ways of coping with these frailties and other kinds of potentially destructive impulses in ways that on the one hand preserved the fabric of society and on the other allowed room for individuals to work out their own development to the limit.

2. Adaptability
+ the ability to choose eclectically from a variety of sources and to profit from the potential richness of a number of perspectives simultaneously

- Tribalism ( represented as an archaic and disruptive force in present- day African states)
All probability created by 19C colonial powers with the collusion of a small number of African rulers and intellectuals.
- Terence Ranger - (pre-colonial Africa ) ‘ there rarely existed the closed corporate consensual system which came to be accepted as characteristic of “traditional” Africa.
- ‘colonial freezing of political dynamics’ with the ‘pre-colonial shifting, fluid imbalance of power and influence.’
- John Miller Chernoff - ‘between the aesthetic conception of multiple rhythms in music and the religious conception of multiple forces in the world’

- Music and Dance (the prime manifestation of the African sensibility and worldview )
- Robert Farris Thompson ( ‘the traditional choreographies of tropical Africa
constitute, I submit, complex distillations of thinking, comparable to Cartesian in point of influence and importance.’ )
- rich vocabularies ( forms, styles and techniques.)

- Distinguishing features of African music

1. music is not set apart in any way from everyday life ( but it is important ) important role ( social interaction and individual self-realization )
2. rhythm is to the African musician what harmony is to the European
3. Everyone is musical (capable of taking part in some capacity in the communal work of music making
4. improvisation is widespread and richly developed
5. music and dance interpenetrate to an extent that can scarcely be imagined in white society
- 2 aspects of African culture
1. “Africa sickness” by Alberto Moravia
2. “Dispatches from Africa by Patrick Marnham
- the North justifies its pedagogy by characterizing the African ignorant, uneducated, or impoverished.

- Slavery - ( African slaves were imported into the Americas )
a common enough institution in Africa and Europe

- Black slaves were introduced into the economy and the culture of the Americas in the history of European colonization
- the patterns of dependence and mutual influence (evolved between the slaves their masters)
- matter of the Africans and their descendants being accumulated into a stratum of American society, but rather a complex process of negotiation which affected masters no less than slaves.
- the slaves, from the movement when the first Africans were landed at James Town, were never mere passive victims of the system.
(marched to the sea and transported in a terrible voyage under conditions)
- they may have been stripped of all possessions and of the accustomed support of kin
- psychologically helpless

- Sydney Mintz and Richard price
- The Africans who reached the new world did not compose
- without evading the possible importance of some core of common values and the occurrence of situations
- at first not communities (just communities by processes of cultural exchange)
- be created on the basis of particular forms of social interaction
- struggle for survival must have been unending.

- Thomas L. Webber - ‘ The culture of black people under slavery in America can be likened to a deep river……..

- Early music of black slaves - little is known

- Richard Ligon
- Englishman , professional musician ( ‘ a very valiant man ‘ )
( balofo, African xylophone, African-style drums, and four-stringed instrument )

- process of acculturation
importance of music and dance ( means of communication and self-
definition)
at the same time, similar process of linguistic adaptation (pidgin =trade languages)
- the initial pidgin rapidly became a Creole, or true language of mixed origin, probably in the space of a generation or two.

- development of new Creole
African style words and expressions ( translated into English ) became part of the private language of the blacks because a different social and emotional situation required a different vocabulary and usage.

- External pressure

1. The discontinuation of drumming
(signal for insurrection )
Drumming is a less central , less autonomous are in North American than in Latin and Caribbean Afro-American music.
2. The absorption of European ways of music making
- Dena Epstein
3. pressures from inside the slave society itself towards a Creole music no less than to a Creole language.

- Histories of music
- Golden Age of English church polyphony and the madrigal

- Indentured servants (came to North America during the colonial period)
- members of the lower orders of English society brought with them their repertory
- repertory of songs, ballads and dances, as well as the psalms and hymn ( lower and upper classes have shared a considerable repertory of vocal and instrumental music besides the psalms ), (unchanged over 300 years)
- contrast with extensive and long-enduring repertory, practically nothing
- difference in attitude between European, and especially northern European, and African musicians significant effect on the course taken by Afro-American music )

- The European folk music = transmitter

- European musician ( Composition and performance are separate activities, and the composer dominates the performer as the performer dominates the audience. )

- African musician ( music primarily as action, as process → a rule no final form for a piece, rather a constant state of development and change.)

- When Africans and Europeans encountered one another in the Americas, the first as slaves and the second either as masters or as despised underdogs, in many cases scarcely better off than the slaves, these musical practices underwent profound modification on both sides to give us that kind of music we call Afro-American.

1960s: The Decade of Political Music
Bob Dylan as political dissident, The Beatles as political subversives
What was Little Richard as an early “gender-bender,” or Elvis’s dancing if not political?
Or the record companies releasing sanitized cover versions of recordings by The Chords or Fats Domino by The Crew Cuts and Pat Boone.

Racial and Stylistic Mixing in “Blue Moon of Kentucky.”

Bill Monroe
Hillbilly piece
Lyrics same
Appalachian waltz
Slow
Country Bass line
Elvis Presley

Rock piece
Lyrics same
4/4 groove
Fast
Bluesy bass line

Elvis in the army
Elvis Presley as rock music’s first megastar.
The Colonel, took him away from Sam Phillips at Sun Records and brought him to RCA Victor
In 1956 alone, Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” had sold 14 million records and he had starred in “Love Me Tender.”
1958 Presley was drafted into the American army and shipped off to Germany.
Help disseminate rock worldwide.
Arguably his two-year tour of duty in Germany, was politically instigated to thwart his “dangerous,” “race-mixing” influence.

Out of touch?

Buddy Holly and the Crickets

In 1957, Holly and band recorded “That’ll be the Day.”
Rockabilly with electric instruments
Full ensemble sound, studio production, drum kit, electric instruments.
Vocal “hiccups” Elvis P. style
Musical Examples: “That’ll be the Day,” “Peggy Sue” and “Not Fade Away” x2.

February 3, 1959
Plane crash kills Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the “Big Bopper” (J.P. Richardson)
Travelling to the next stop on their “Winter Dance Party”
Symbolic for “the day the music died.”

Ritchie Valens’s breakthrough record, “La Bamba”
Rock music’s first Latino star.
Musical example: “La Bamba”
“The Day the Music Died”The End of the 50s and the death of Rock n’ Roll.
Don McLean’s “American Pie.”
The aforementioned plane crash

Elvis Presley enters the army

Jerry Lee Lewis is basically banned from radio and public performance due to his marriage to his 13 year old cousin

Little Richard leaves rock and roll at the height of his career to enter the seminary

Chuck Berry goes to prison for three years in 1958 for violating the Mann Act

The Teen Idol
“Shlock Rock”
Take good-looking youngster, add fashion consultant, songwriter, arranger, PR person and the result is one teen idol. Fabian and Frankie Avalon.
Appeal was visual
Television dance party shows such as American Bandstand and Beach Blanket Bingo.
Other factors that lead to the demise of the teen idol…
They couldn’t sing

The United States was going through an economic recession during the 1960s, which was filtering down to the teenage audience.
No excess money therefore teenagers no longer had the disposable allowances
Singles (as in 45’s) featured only two songs: an apparent hit and its flipside were being replaced by full-length “Long playing” or in short LP albums.

Sam Cooke
In 1957, Sam Cooke, the son of a Baptist Preacher, lead singer for the Soul Stirrers, had a hit with “You Send Me.”
Landing in the number one position of the pop charts, Cooke represented another example of the blending of styles in rock
However, many of the gospel audience felt Cooke’s foray into the world of secular music was blasphemous.

“Twistin’ the Night Away”
one of the first R&B singers to make the successful move from a regional indie label at (Keen) to a certified major label in RCA.
Musical examples: “Wonderful World,” and “A Change is Gonna Come.”

The Brill Building
Revert to the kind of “factory system” that had its roots in the Tin Pan Alley era of the 1930s.
Collaboration among highly skilled music specialists.
Return to the commodified, traditional music-industry practices imposed a new level of professionalism on a style of music that had previously been celebrated as the embodiment of individuality and rebelliousness.
What would Adorno think?

The Brill Building
interracial and intergender collaborations became the hallmark of the so-called girl group era.
songwriters (including Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Burt Bacharach, Ellie Greenwich, Barry Mann and Cynthia Wall) and innovative producers (such as Phil Spector)
Musical Examples: “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” by the Shirelles and by Carole King
“Leader of the Pack” The Shangri-Las”

Girl Groups
The Shirelles had two Top Ten pop singles in the country.
Mantra: “Gimme a girl group, gimme a love song, gimme some strings…I need a hit.”
The Chiffons, The Crystals, The Cookies and the Ronettes.
Pre-fabricated look, tightly choreographed dance style, well crafted writing, lush string and vocal production techniques
influenced The Beatles—who covered “Baby, It’s You” and “Boys” by the Shirelles and “Be My baby” by The Ronettes.
Musical Example: “He’s So Fine” The Chiffons.

Phil Spector
December 10th 2002, Spector is suspected of murdering his girlfriend Lana Clarkson
Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller two Brill Building songwriters— “Hound Dog” and “Jailhouse Rock”
Ben E. King, the lead singer of the Drifters “Spanish Harlem.”
“The Wall of Sound” because of its grandiosity.
Musical Example: “Spanish Harlem” by Ben E. King.

Phil Spector today…

Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound”

“Let it Be”
Two versions of “The Long and Winding Road.”

Motown
Started by Berry Gordy Jr. in Detroit, Michigan.
The most successful independent record company in history and the CEO of the largest black owned corporation in America
Assembly line consisted of skilled professional—songwriters such as Eddie Holland and Lamont Dozier, the husband and wife team of Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson, producers, arrangers and studio musicians (“The Funk Brothers”)
Listened to the finished produce on the speaker of a tiny car radio
“The Sound of Young America”
Musical Example: “You Can’t Hurry Love” The Supremes (1966).

Motown II.
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles hit “Shop Around” was the first million-seller for the label.
Robinson became a cornerstone to the Motown sound writing a series of pop masterpieces (“You’ve Really Got a Hold of Me,” “I Second that Emotion” and “Tears of a Clown.”)
Mary Wells recorded the first Motown song to go number one “My Guy.”
The Temptations combined slick choreography, produced over forty-three top 10 hits in their career including “My Girl,” “The Way You do the Things You Do” and later “Psychedelic Shack” and “Papa was a Rolling Stone.”
The Supremes=Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard
“Tears of a Clown” Smokey Robinson
“Crusin’”
“Dancing in the Streets” Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.

Rock and Roll gets codified.
The name Rock in Roll works its way into popular music and culture through Bill Haley and the Comets and Freed’s radio show.
The music begins to take on its own qualities: no longer a synthesis of country and western, rhythm and blues, gospel, urban Chicago blues, soul music and more develops into its own sound and style.
Rock and Roll gains its first ‘stars:’ Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and Elvis Presley.
Rock and Roll algebra?

C&W + R&B = R&R
Little Richard = Attitude
Little Richard
Born in Macon, Georgia as Richard Penniman
“Tutti Frutti” was an afterthought
Penniman had made a demo recording of R&B songs which he mailed to Art Rupe of Specialty records in Los Angeles.
Dorothy Labostrie cleaned up the words—which were originally filled with homosexual lyrics.
In 1957, at the peak of his fame, he quit R&R and withdrew into the world of religious study and gospel singing.
Musical example: “Tutti Frutti.”

John Waters influenced by Richard.
Fats Waller influenced Richard
Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
“Maybellene” was the first of his rapid-fire hits.
Berry had come to Chicago during the early 1950s determined to break into the music business.
Recorded for Chess
Muddy Waters got Berry his audition.
In Berry we hear a stylistic blend.

Chuck Berry
His first single was a remake of “Ida Red” or “Ida May.”
Changed the girl’s name and also the name of the song to “Maybellene.”
Alan Freed’s name also shows up on the writing credits in a ploy that was used in the music business to guarantee radio play.
“Maybellene” made its way to the number one spot in the rhythm and blues charts, rose up to the number 5 position on the popular music charts and it made it to the top of the country and western music charts.
A “crossover” record.
Berry was basically inventing the quintessential rock hero.
The “duck walk.”
Musical Examples: “Maybellene,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Sweet Little Sixteen” and “Surfin’ U.S.A.” The Beach Boys.
Chuck Berry Covers

“Johnny B Good” by Peter Tosh and Chuck Berry.
“Roll Over Beethoven” The Beatles and Chuck Berry
Cover Versions
1954: The major record companies continued to retain their domination
Eight of the year’s Top Fifty pop records were released on an independent label.
One year later that figure jumped to nineteen.
The major labels immediately reacted to preserve their economic position of power. They confronted the situation with the “cover version.”
“Tutti Fruitti” Pat Boone vs. Little Richard
The Chords vs. The Crew Cuts “Sh-Boom”
Bo Diddly (Diddley)
Otha Ellas Bates.
He was a guitarist who wanted to play like Louis Jordan, but on a stringed instrument.
Hambone Hambone have you heard.
Papa’s gonna buy me a mockingbird.
And if that mockingbird don’t sing.
Papa’s gonna buy me a diamond ring. And if that diamond ring don’t shine.
“Hey Bo Diddley” by Bo Diddley, “Not to Fade Away” by The Rolling Stones and “I Want Candy” Bow Wow Wow.

Sun Records
Sam Phillips
Rocket 88
Written by Ike Turner
Recorded by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats
Following the success of Rocket 88, Phillips realized that he was missing out on something.
Achieved some success with Rufus Thomas and Junior Parker.
Musical Example “Rocket 88”
The Million Dollar Quartet (Lewis, Perkins, Presley, Cash)

Elvis Presley
Recorded with Scotty Moore (guitar) and Bill Black (bass).
Elvis recorded a total of 10 songs for Sun.
Each single featured an R&B single with a C&W flipside.
Presley’s first single was a cover of a 1946 Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup blues entitled “That’s All Right” with the B-side Bill Monroe’s bluegrass hit “Blue Moon of Kentucky.”
Musical examples: two versions of “That’s All Right” and two versions of “Blue Moon.”

Rockabilly
Blues inflected “rocking” rhythm and revved-up hillbilly drive.
Slap beat sound of the stand up bass
Echo or reverb enhanced twang of the lead guitar
Black stylized singing by a hip-swaying good-looking male with slick hair.

Elvis and The Colonel
Jerry Lee Lewis
Sam Phillips had a line up of aspiring rockabilly royalty lining up at his door.
Born in Louisiana in 1935, Lewis, like Presley, simply walked into Sun Records.
“Crazy Arms” the follow up was “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Goin’ On.”
Rocking piano chords, an incessant beat, lewd lyrical contact and sexual overtones.
Lewis was the Killer. Subsequent hits “Great Balls of Fire” “Breathless” and “High School Confidential”
In mid-1958, Lewis married Myra Brown who was both 13 years old and his second cousin.

The Everly Brothers

The Everly brothers—Don and Phil.
Teenage heartthrobs in the 1957.
“Bye Bye Love” was the first hit.
“Wake up Little Susie”

Negus, Keith. “Identities.” In Popular Music in Theory: An Introduction. (Wesleyan University Press, 1996), pp. 99 – 135 and Fish, Jefferson. “Mixed Blood,” Psychology Today (November/December, 1995).

What does Negus mean that music has been racialized through the term black music?

What of Frith’s assertion that black music is “performance over composition.” That it privileges the immediacy of melody and rhythm over the teleological desires of harmony.

Is Frith’s comment about black music being emotional “impact-full” simply veiled racism?

Discuss the idea of the mind/body split and how it manifests itself on discussions of so-called black and white music.

Is white interest in black music simple co-option: “White theft of black capital?”

Discuss Taggs’s point about black music being a performative idea not a compositional idea. How does this idea speak to Meyer’s referential and absolutist viewpoint?

What of the idea that the reason we have an idea of black music being improvisatory (rather than compositional) is because has rendered certain compositions invisible?

Review from last week.

1. Name one characteristic of country blues.

2. Name one characteristic of classic blues.

3. The twelve bar blues contains a mini form:
aab, aaa, aba, abc?

4. In this musical example, Justin Timberlake is employing what musical device that some writers suggest has its roots in African music? What is the musical device?

5. Black music was to “Race Records” what Country and Western was to ______ .

Northern Migration

Country Blues musicians (and others) head North and help paten a “northern, urban” Chicago blues style.
Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and John Lee Hooker.
Leaving behind the “Jim Crow” laws of the South.
Muddy Waters: “Got My Mojo Working”
B.B. King: demonstrating vibrato on guitar.

A Northern Paradise?

Discriminatory polices in housing, restaurants, entertainment venues and public accommodations:

1). Restricted the mobility of many Northern blacks.
2). Ghettoized them into racially stratified neighbourhoods and communities.
The condition was ripe for the establishment of a vibrant black entertainment district in nearly every major American city.

A change in classification…

Race Records becomes Rhythm and Blues.

Hillbilly Music becomes Country and Western (or just Country).

Still a “marginal” and “catch-all” term.

Rhythm and Blues—definition.
Louis Jordan
Chuck Berry
Muddy Waters
D’Angleo
Remy Shand
Mary J. Blidge
Donna Summer

World War II (1939-1945)

altered the nature of social interactions and musical entertainment business when millions of men left America to fight abroad.
the rise of women performers such as the “International Sweethearts of Rhythm” and
“The Darlings of Swing”
The draft led to personnel instability.
The war “paid” for such bands as those led by Tommy Dorsey and Glen Miller.

The Birth of The Dee-Jay
DJ’s

Independent Radio
“Canned” or recorded music marked the end of the “tuxedoed” orchestra.
The blockade on Shellac and Vinylite.
James Ceaser Petrillo and the AFM strike (1942-1944).
Small groups became the norm and the large swing bands were transformed into a smaller rhythm and blues unit.

Louis Jordan
Singer/saxophone player
The Tympani Five or Seven.
Played in the swing band of Chick Webb.
Jordan placed importance on improvisation
Characterized by a 12-bar blues structure, boogie-woogie bass lines, shuffle rhythms, solo saxophone and often en mass group singing.
Musical Example “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie” and “Let The Good Times Roll.”

Alan Freed
“Eyes of a Stranger:” The Payolas.
Freed hosted a nightly semi- classical and pop music show at Cleveland’s WJW radio.
Pitched to do a new show as more white teenagers were coming into record stores asking for the latest rhythm and blues single.
1951—Freed adopted the on-air persona the “Moon Dog” and began spinning the latest “R&B” records for teen audiences.
Independent Record Companies

Modern, Aladdin, Specialty, Imperial, Savoy, King, Chess, Duke and Peacock issued fewer recordings and accordingly, were able to reap bigger profits when they had a hit record.

Chess Records
Formed in 1949 by Leonard and Phil Chess.
Willie Dixon: musician/composer and talent scout/producer for label.
Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield) was one of Chess’ first signings.
Waters was influential to many of the Chicago Blues musicians that followed: Buddy Guy, Junior Wells and James Cotton (all who were in his band).
Influential on future generations of white rock musicians: Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield band, The Rolling Stones.

Atlantic Records
Founded in 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abrahamson – although Abrahamson got out early and Jerry Wexler took over.
First hit it big with Ruth Brown.
“The House that Ruth Built”
1954: Atlantic realized that rhythm and blues fused with gospel made satisfying music and commercially successful recordings: led to Ray Charles and The Chords.

Doo-Wop
Recorded in April of 1954, the Chords hit song “Sh-boom” was perhaps the first doo-wop song (meaning nonsense lyrics) and the first independent label single (for Atlantic) to go top 10 pop in the 1950’s and focus serious media attention on the growing rhythm and blues market.
“Crying in the Chapel” The Orioles.

Fats Domino
Singer and pianist from New Orleans
One of the most consistent and predictable hit-makers, earning more gold records anywhere from 15-22 than anyone other than Elvis and the Beatles.
“Blueberry Hill”

Les Paul and Mary Ford

Technology: Overdubbing or Sound on Sound recording
“Kashmir” Led Zepplin
“Bohemian Rhapsody” Queen
How High the Moon” Les Paul and Mary Ford.

Bill Haley and the Comets

“Rock around the Clock” entered the top 40 for only one week, peaking at number 23.
After it was featured in “Blackboard Jungle” it reached number one in the summer of 1955
Nostalgic theme song for the 50s inspired television show “Happy Days” “Rock around the clock” entered the charts a third time in 1974.

-Short sequel to Emotion and Meaning in music by Leonard Meyer
-Western through-composed music can be viewed syntactically
- Non-western styles or western compositions in performance (i.e. jazz) need more than just syntactic analysis.
-Non-Western musical traditions are almost exclusively performance traditions.

Chart comparing through-composed and performance based music.

Embodied meaning Engendered Feeling

1. Mode of Construction Composed Improvised
2. Mode of Presentation Repeated Performance Single Performance
3. Mode of Understanding Syntactic Processual
4. Mode of Response Mental Motor
5. Guiding Principles Architectonic (retentive) “Vital drive” Cumulative
6. Technical Emphases Harmony/Melody/Embellishment Groove/meter(s)/rhythm
(Vertical) (Horizontal)
7. Basic Unit “Sound term” (phrase) Gesture (phrasing)
8. Communication analogues Linguistic Paralinguistic (kinesic, proxemic)
9. Gratifications Deferred Immediate
10. Relevant Criteria Coherance Spontenaity

-Chart is based on score to a J.S Bach cello suite (Embodied meaning) and a Casals performance of that suite (Engendered feeling
-Does our mind absorb music and cause our body to subsequently react, or does our body simply react?
-Kiel, unlike Meyer, believes that muscles are perceptive and capable of remembering.
-In many cultures, music and dance are tightly intertwined.
-Styles of music intended for dance often evolve into listening-only music
-While jazz was once mainly a form of dance music, most jazz listeners are now immobile aside from head-bobbing, toe-tapping, and finger-popping.
-“The sight of the gestures and movements of the various parts of the body producing the music is fundamentally necessary if it is to grasped in all its fullness” -Stravinsky
- If music is closely tied to bodily effort, a body-based aesthetic should be built adequate to the task.
-Pianist Bill Evans compares improvised music to a Japanese visual art in which the artist is given tools and conditions (thin parchment, special brush, black water-paint) that force the painter to be spontaneous with their painting or otherwise ruin it. This Japanese art could represent the “Engendered Feeling” column on the chart, whereas an ordinary painting would be the “Embodied meaning” column.
-Pianist Paul Bley describes the process of building a body of music as a river meeting a damn and accumulating until it finally breaks through.
-Most jazz musicians would agree that it is necessary to get into a groove, track or pattern when making music.
-“Swing is a psychic tension that comes from the rhythm’s being attracted by the metre”
-Meter: an awareness of the regular recurrence of accented and unaccented beats.
-Pulse: an objective or subjective division of time into regularly recurring, equally accented beats.
-Primary goal of a drummer’s characteristic and internally consistent tap is to create as much vital drive as possible.
-Generally, two common approaches to tap: those who play “on top” of the pulse, and those who “lay back” behind it.
-Generally, two common types of bass attack: “Stringy”, light, sustained, and bass-like, and “Chunky”, heavy, percussive, and drum-like.
-Most often, chunky bassists and on-top drummers combine effectively, while stringy bassists and lay-back drummers are a good combination.
-According to Kiel, a good stringy/lay-back combination generates the best vital drive, as opposed to the best chunky, on-top team.
-Good jazz musicians are adaptable and can change their style of playing depending on who they are with.
-“Swing is possible…only when the beat, though it seems perfectly regular, gives the impression of moving inexorably ahead (like a train that keeps moving at the same speed but is still being drawn ahead by its locomotive) -Hodeir
-Jazz is often compared to things moving horizontally
-Need two distinct sets of criteria to evaluate music, depending on whether the processual or syntactic aspect is dominant.
-the greater the processual tension and gestural uncertainty a jazz piece has, the higher its value.
-While Meyer suggests that delayed gratification is essential for a piece to have a good impact, Kiel states that music which emphasizes engendered feeling stresses immediate over delayed gratification
-Pulse-meter-rhythm tensions of jazz are immensely gratifying and are constant.
-Music that stresses engendered feeling, spontaneity, and the conquest of inhibition is of far greater value to our culture than music that aims to reflect its repression, sublimation, and protestant ethic.
-We admire many painters and musicians for their sophisticated childishness rather than maturity (Picassom Klee, Thelonius Monk, Sonny Rollins, Charles Mingus)
-Theory based on jazz can be applied to music of other cultures because of the performance, dance, and improvisation traditions.

Roots of Rock

Although rock and roll music was codified in 1954 with “Rock around the Clock” (Bill Haley).
American music such as jazz and rock do result from a blending of styles, of social groups, of men and women, of different ideologies and of different class, cultural, social and racial backgrounds.

Rock, like jazz, is neither a black nor a white music.
Rather it is a synthesis of styles, such as Western Swing, folk and so-called hillbilly music, blues, rhythm and blues, gospel, country and western and the Tin Pan Alley American song writing tradition.

Congo Square (New Orleans)

African Retentions in Blues

1). Pentatonic melody. A five-note scale arguably deriving from African musical sources.
2). Rhythmically engaging music that emphasizes the “up” or “off-beats.”
3). Bent pitches, microtonal or “blue notes.” Neither major nor minor, but sit between the two. They can be seen as to represent symbolically both a tension between an African musical legacy and a superimposed Western tonality, as well as a successful resolution of this tension.
4). Instrumentation: A hodgepodge of instrumentation that included guitars, drums and horns—instruments that were more readily available and more affordable than pianos or organs.
5). Call-and response or antiphony.
6). Participatory music making.

Call-and-Response: From the Ring Shout, to the Church, to Blues to Rock.

Musical examples:

1). James Brown “preaching” from The Blues Brothers.
2). “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” by the Fisk Jubilee Singers.
3). “Dry Bones in the Valley” by Rev. J.M. Gates.
4). “Shout” by Otis Day and the Nights.
5). “Senorita” by Justin Timberlake.

African Retensions in Blues II.
6). Vocal Timbre. Hoarse, grainy or strained by European normative standards. “Sonny Boy” by Al Jolson vs. “I Feel Good” by James Brown.
7). Form: The majority of blues utilizes a 12- bar AAB form.
Stanza: line of verse (A),
the same line repeated (A)
a third line that rhymes with the first
two (B).
Form
“Oh Well, Oh Well I feel fine today.” (A) 4
“Oh Well, Oh Well I feel fine today.” (A) 4
“My Baby wrote me a letter she’s coming home today.” (B) 4

“Joe Turner Blues”

Race Records

Similarities between “race” records and “hillbilly” music.

1). Oral in nature.
2). Both music’s developed apart from the literate Tin Pan Alley tradition of song writing.
3). Both music’s owe much to the birth of the independent record company (Okeh and Black Swan).
4). Instrumentally: Acoustic guitars, harmonicas, vocals and violins were featured predominantly in both musical forms.
5). Lyrical themes. Told a familiar tale of love lost, of revenge, of problems at work and problems at home that clearly were not racially stratified, but rather were universal.

Two Blues Forms

Country Blues:

Male singer, accompanied by an acoustic guitar, maybe harmonica. Often performs solo, irregular musical form.

Examples include Robert Johnson “Cross Road Blues,” Blind Lemmon Jefferson (picture on right) playing “Black Snake Moan.”

Classic Blues

Classic Blues: Vaudeville Tradition

Smoother more theatrical singing and presentation style,
Full band accompaniment or “scintillating master of the keyboard”
Women singers and women’s themes in the lyric content.
Humour and double-entendre.
“Crazy Blues” by Mamie Smith

Bessie Smith “The Empress of the Blues”

A protégé of Ma Rainey.
Her records sold incredibly well.
Humorous and filled with sexual double-entendre.
“I Need A Little Sugar in My Bowl” and “St. Louis Blues” by Bessie Smith.

Technology
The Birth of the Independent Record Company (Chess, Sun, Atlantic, Black Swan, Okeh).
Recordings = country-wide dissemination of the music.
Sheet music publishing business—Tin Pan Alley.

Tin Pan Alley
Publishers developed a new method of production.
Constructed a national market
Surveyed potential tastes
Contracted composers—such as Jerome Kern, George Gershwin and Irving Berlin.
Established successful compositional formulae
Promoted through “plugging” techniques
“I Got Rhythm” by Ethel Merman.

“Hillbilly Music”—Two Contrasting Images

The Carter Family:
Family values, sweet sentimental acoustic song.
Musical example: “Can the Circle be Unbroken”

“Hillbilly Music”—Two Contrasting Images
Jimmie Rodgers
“The Singing Brakeman”
The “ramblin’ man” persona
Introduced the “lap steel” into country music.
Musical Example: “Blues Yodel (T for Texas).”

Post Great Migration Blues: Two Forms

Jump Blues.

Paired down jazz big bands backing up a blues “shouter” such as Jimmy Rushing (picture right known as “Mr. Five by Five”), Big Joe Turner and Big Joe Williams.
Danceable, upbeat and rhythmic style.
Musical Example “Allright, Ok, You Win” by Big Joe Williams.

Post Great Migration Blues: Two Forms
Chicago Electric Blues.
Ensemble style, electric and amplified guitars and harmonics.
Examples include Muddy Waters, T-Bone Walker and John Lee Hooker.
Musical Example “Hoochie Coochie Man” by Muddy Waters (right).

Frith, Simon. “Towards an Aesthetic of Popular Music.” In Richard Leppert & Susan McClary, eds. Music and Society: The Politics of Composition, Performance, and Reception. (Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 133 – 149.

Five Questions on Frith:

1). Discuss the concept of homology as articulated by Frith. What of his argument that there exists a link between social groups and particular sounds (eg. “rock n’ roll as youth music—Dire Straits is Yuppie USA”).

2). Why the premium placed upon ‘authenticity?’ Eg. “Good music is the authentic expression of something; bad music is inauthentic—it expresses nothing.”

3). What does Frith mean when he argues that popular music is popular not because it expresses something, but because it creates our understanding of what popularity is?

4). Why does Frith suggest that the “crudest” measure of popularity is the weekly record sales in the music press (American Billboard)?

5). What are the four “social functions of music” as Frith sees them?

a). We enjoy popular music because of its use in answering questions of identity: a place with society and ourselves.

b). Music gives us a way of managing the relationship between our public and private emotional lives.

c). Popular music shapes popular memory, to organize our sense of time.

d). Popular music is something possessed—Rock music “owned” by its fans.

Towards an aesthetic of popular music
By Scott Holyk

Introduction: the ‘value’ of popular music

-What is the source of musical value?
-a common argument among academic musicoloists is that “serious music matters because it transcends social forces; popular music is aesthetically worthless because it is determined by them (because it is ‘useful’ or ‘utilitarian’)
-sociological approach to popular music makes an aesthetic thoery possible
-is the pleasure taken from listening to popular music equal to that taken from listening to serious music?
-social forces behind serious music is also relevant to it’s analasys
-two sociological explanations for pop music: technique & technology; and social function
-"The phenomenal 1985 successes of Madonna and Bruce Springsteen are explained in terms of sales strategies, the use of video, and the development of particular new audiences. The appeal of the music itself, the reason Madonna’s and Springsteen’s fans like them, somehow remains unexamined.”
-"Everyone in the pop world is aware of the social foces that determine ‘normal’ pop music - a good record, song, or sound is precisely one that transcends those forces!”
-"as folk music rock is heard to represent the community of youth, as art music rock is heard as the sound of individual, creative sensibility. The rock aesthetic depends, crucially, on an argument about authenticity”

An alternative approach to music and society

-authenticity is a perception created in the minds of the listener
-if authenticity in pop music was absolute and objective, then it would be impossible to define
-record sales charts define what music is to be grouped into the category of ‘pop music’ and various sub-genres
-polls about popularity only serve to define what ‘popularity’ means
-popular culture “as the creation rather than the expression of the people”
-pop music tastes place us in a relationship with the artist, the mass media, and the other listeners
-fandom is more significant to music than other forms of popular culture (what about brand loyalty)
-"Other cultural forms - painting, literature, design - can articulate and show off shared values and pride, but only music can make you feel them.”

The social functions of music

-four most significant social functions of pop music:

1) identification
-"The pleasure that pop music produces is a pleasure of identification”
-"the production of identity is also a production of non-identity”
-"People not only know what they like, they also have a very clear ideas about what they don’t like”
-experiencing pop-music does not necessarily involve fantasy the way experiencing a movie does
2) mediating our public and private emotions
-helping us to express complex emotions
3) shaping popular memory in time
-music itself intensifies the experience of the present
-dance
-nostalgia
-youth and adolescence are a time of angst and emotional uncertainty, music we listen to at that time gains nostalgic weight because of the way it helps us to mediate this
4) to be owned by the fan
-your favourite song is “your” song, your favourite band is “your” band
-criticism of music that one is a fan of is often taken very personally
-"In ‘possessing’ music, we make it part of our own identity”

-"the social functions of popular music are in the creation of identity, in the management of feelings, in the organization of time. Each of these functions depends, in turn, on our experience of music as something which can be possessed.”

The aesthetics of popular music

-four aestehtic factors that enable popular music to fulfill these social functions

1) pop music’s “absorbtions of and into Afro-American forms and conventions”

2) “the development of popular music in this century has increasingly focused on the use of the voice”
-people immediately connect with the timbre of a good singing voice
-"This raises questions about popular non-vocal music, which can be answered by defining a voice as a sign of individual personality” (i.e. Charlie Parker)
-allows us to view pop music works as narratives
-image of pop musicians is not only created by music, but photos, videos, texts

3) the subdivision of pop music into sub-genres
-an analasys along these lines will apply differently to music of a different genre
-genres can be defined along marketing categories as defined by the industry
-genres can be defined “according to their ideological effects, the way they sell themselves as art, community or emotion”

Conclusion

-a description of popular music’s social functions can inform an understanding of how we value it
-personal preferences are socially determined
-"Pop tastes do not just derive from our socially constructed identities; they also help to shape them.”
-pop music shapes how we understand and form social constructs such as gender, race

Humber College “Bridging” Semester—Contemporary Music and Sociology of Music

Wednesday May 14, 2007
Andrew Scott
Important Locations
www.andrewjacobscott.com
andrewjacobscott@sympatico.ca

Tonight
1). Course syllabus.
2). Get to know the class.
3). Working definition of popular music.
4). Terminology
5). What to be listening for when you listen to popular music.
6). The Golden Age of Tin Pan Alley
7). Introduction to Adorno.

Three Forms
Folk Music
Art Music
Popular or Entertainment Music
Commerce

Mutually beneficial relationship of music and commerce.
Mediated on mass level…1st through sale of sheet music and 2nd through the recorded medium.
Symbiotic Relationship
Music and Commerce.

The most important development in the history of popular music is the invention of sound recording in 1877 by Thomas Edison (1847-1931).
1887: The development of disc recording (the phonograph) by Emile Berliner (1851-1929).
Early Recording Technology
Technology had musical ramifications
Shouting singing style
Commonplace in the Vaudeville Theatre Era
Stillted diction
Made famous by Al Jolson.

Technology had musical ramifications
The development of microphone meant singers could use dynamics.
One popular result of this was “crooning”
Singers could sing as loud (or soft) as they wished and the engineers would turn up the P.A. (Public Address) system.

Defining “pop” music.
A commonplace term.
Referring to music that is thought to be of…

1). Lesser Value than “art” music.
2). Heightened Simplicity.
Different Approaches
Linking popularity with scale of activity.
Problems = Does not count repeat listening or diverse audiences.
Therefore sales measure “sales” rather than popularity.

2nd Approach
Linking popularity with means of dissemination.
Crucial relationship between popular music and technology.
Problems = 1). divorcing the song from its technological considerations does not take away its popularity
2). All music—from the most commercial to the most avant-garde are technologically mediated for the consumer.

3rd Approach
A third approach is to link popular music with a particular class, social group or age group…specifically YOUTH.
This is divided twofold:1). “Top-Down:” An undifferentiated group of people being duped by commercial manipulation
2). “Bottom-Up:” People determine what becomes popular.

Authenticity
Music has to be seen as being “real” or “authentic” to be perceived to have value.
Authenticity can be tied to:
Era
Race
History/background of the performer
The amount of corporate/consumer meditation that is “seen” to have gone into making these musicians “stars”

Pop Music…
Historically
Geographically
Technologically
Politically
Musically
Instrumentally
Historically
Post-World War II
Rock n’ Roll entered the public consciousness in 1954 with the release of “Rock around the Clock” by Bill Haley and the Comets in the film “Blackboard Jungle”
Created its first major star in 1955 with Elvis Presley (Hound Dog and Heartbreak Hotel).

Geographically
The United States.
Mass market—southern whites and black moving to Northern urban centres.
Canada (?)
Britain (?)

Technology
Radio
Independent record companies
Recording as a means of dissemination
Ability to mass produce albums
Record players
Juke Boxes
Piggybacking “rock n’ roll” in film
Politically
Appealed to a wide cross section of youths (black and white)
Was thought to be subversive
Was thought to be sexual
Was thought to be (and sometimes was) politically outspoken

Musically
Harmonically simplistic
Strophic—vocal with musical accompaniment
Blues Based
Rhythmically based—music to dance to
Often alternates between verse and chorus structures.

Instrumentally
Vocals
Electric guitars
Bass (acoustic or electric)
Piano
Drums
Saxophone
Harmonica

Some Musical Forms
Pop Music as “Escapism” (Madonna or Tin Pan Alley)
Pop Music as “Dance Music” (Earth, Wind and Fire and Chic)
Ballad form (Simon and Garfunkel)
Blues form (The Clash, Little Richard, The Beatles)
Political or Protest Song (Bob Dylan, The Sex Pistols)
Songwriter as storyteller (Eminem, Lou Reed)

Does the music and text match?
If it is a blues tune, do the lyrics have to be blue?
In a political or protest songs, can the instruments and music also express protest?
Is a musical section capable of transferring over to a new performance and vice versa—Two versions of “Tutti Frutti” and “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction”
Does it lose or gain meaning in the process?

What to listen for…Music:

a). Ensemble: What Instruments are present?
b). Rhythmic Emphasis: What is the dominant beat? What instrument or instruments carry this beat?
c). Vocal Style: What words would you use to describe the vocal delivery? What musical styles does this vocal style come from?
d). Instrumental Solo: Is there an instrumental solo (generally defined as an improvised melody in the absence of lyrics of one verse or more in duration). What is its stylistic derivation?
e). Harmonic Structure: What chords are present?

What to listen for…Lyrics:
a). What are the song’s major themes? Does it tell a story? Suggested topical classifications: romantic, love, sex, alienation, justice / injustice, introspection.
b). Is there an explicit or underlying political or cultural message?
What to listen for…Artist History:

What are the important elements of the artist’s personal history and career that enhance your understanding of the music? This information can be divided into three areas:a). Psychological, social and economic conditions during youth.
b). Musical history.
c). Important career landmarks.

What to listen for…Societal Context
How did the surrounding political and cultural climate influence the artist and their work? This information can be divided into three areas:

a). Youth culture and its relationship to society
b). Cultural and political movements, including the struggle for civil and human rights for minorities, peace and antiwar movement and the establishment of counterculture alternatives
c). The music industry and its current point of development.
What to listen for…Stance

Which elements of the artists live performances and public actions or behaviour provide us with a clearer understanding of the music itself?

The Mind/Body Split
The Anatomically Correct Rock and Roll Doll:
Mind (Intellectual)
Heart (Emotional)
Genitalia (Sexual)
Feet (Dancing)
Tin Pan Alley
1920s-1930s
Gilded age of American “standard” songs
Often commented on the immigrant experience in the United States
Examples of Tin Pan Alley composers inlclude Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George Gerswhin
AABA form so-called popular song form

Tin Pan Alley #2
Tie in with Broadway songs and compositional style
Left the vaudeville theatrical tradition behind in favour of crooning (technologically mediated music making practices).
Pop songs as escapism

Theodor Adorno (1903-1969)
“pseudo-individuation”
Popular music as “standardized assembly-line” process
While in WAM each musical cog part of the whole (generative form), pop music is interchangeable
Criticism: Viewing pop through a lens clouded by WAM
The parameters of WAM he celebrates may have no value in discussions of pop
For example, he ignores timbre and rhythm

Faculty: Andrew Scott
Phone #: 416-675-6622 ext. 3427
Fax #: 416-252-8842
Email: andrewjacobscott@sympatico.ca
Office hours: by appointment

COURSE OUTLINE
ACADEMIC YEAR 2006/2007

It is the student’s responsibility to retain course outlines for possible future use in support of applications for transfer credit to other educational institutions.

PROGRAM: Bachelor of Applied Music – Bridging Program

COURSE NUMBER: MUS. 003

COURSE NAME: History & Sociology of Contemporary Music

PRE-REQUISITE (S): Admission into Bridging Program

PRE-REQUISITE FOR: Bachelor of Applied Music (Contemporary Music) Program

CO-REQUISITE (S): None

CREDIT VALUE: 4

HOURS OF INSTRUCTION: 4 hours per week

APPROVED BY: ___________________________ __________________
DEAN (or designate) DATE

I COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course examines the history and sociology of contemporary music in North America from the Golden Age of Tin Pan Alley to the present. Students critically analyze the influence of technology, ideology, aesthetics, class, ethnicity, race, age and gender, on various genres of music including Tin Pan Alley, rockabilly, rhythm & blues, progressive rock, heavy metal, punk rock, disco, country music, hip hop and electronica. Class discussions centre on critical reading of texts and ideas from Adorno, Small, Negus, Frith, Meyer, Hebdige, among others, with the purpose of engaging with some of the significant cultural and musical issues of our time.

II COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES
Students are required to demonstrate the following knowledge and skills to successfully complete this course:
1. Explain specifically how contemporary music in North America is made up of a number of musical streams that occasionally intersect and from which emit many stylistic tributaries.
2. Describe how music has meaning within a complex web of historical, social and cultural conditions.
3. Appreciate the diverse musical styles that make up contemporary music through the study of sound in historical and cultural context.
4. Identify and aurally differentiate among different styles of contemporary music.
5. Identify and associate select artists with specific recordings, ensembles, musical styles and eras.
6. Demonstrate an understanding of where certain musical styles originated and how they came about and influenced subsequent musical styles.
7. Apply analytical listening skills and vocabulary through the analysis of the aforementioned music as harmonic, melodic and rhythmic structures, musical forms (blues, AABA, etc.), musical instruments, timbre and orchestration.
8. Identify the major historical contributions and innovations of important musical figures like Jimmie Rodgers, The Carter Family, Bob Wills, Woody Guthrie, Mahalia Jackson Bessie Smith, Al Jolson, Bing Crosby Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Phil Spector, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Louis Jordan, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Bill Monroe and Hank Williams, Public Enemy, Eminem, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Frank Zappa, Joni Mitchell, the Sex Pistols, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Nirvana, among others.
9. Demonstrate an understanding of the history of North America as it affects the development of contemporary music and the music industry.
10. Demonstrate an understanding of important technological advances such as the invention of magnetic tape, multitrack recording, the LP record, television, FM radio, synthesizers, digital recording technologies and the compact disc, samplers, drum machines, music video, the iPod and the Internet.
11. Describe the role of the music industry as it relates to the commodification practices of music in contemporary society.
12. Read and summarize the main points of important readings in contemporary music history.
13. Describe the problems of the historian and acknowledge the presence of scholarly bias and “grand narratives.”
14. Demonstrate a critical awareness of their own existing biases and ethnocentric views toward music and culture.
15. Define and identify key sociological and musical concepts in contemporary society such as articulation, essentialism, cultural relativism, ideology, musical style, transculturation, authenticity, hegemony, modernism and postmodernism.
16. Read and demonstrate comprehension of academic articles on social theory.
17. Identify the key theoretical positions of such writers as Theodor Adorno, Christopher Small, Leonard Meyer, Simon Frith, Dick Hebdige, Keith Negus, and bell hooks, among others.
18. Locate further academic material on the sociology of music.
19. Answer questions such as what is culture? And subculture? Is race biologically or socially defined? What makes a musical performance authentic or inauthentic? What is modernism? What is post-modernism? How do commercial forces impact on the creation and mediation of art?
20. Analyze and describe the role of music as popular culture, as art, as rebellion and protest, and as expression in religious and in societal rituals.
21. Analyze and describe organizational structures of music and the music industry, as well as stratification of the music world.
22. Synthesize and critique different ideas by specific sociologists and scholars to formulate their own unique position and ideas.
23. Articulate and present their own ideas about music and society through class discussions, assigned writings and original research.
24. Participate in a Socratic form of teaching/discussion with their peers.
25. Acknowledge what C. Wright Mills calls our “sociological imagination,” a quality of mind that provides an understanding of ourselves within the context of greater society.

III GENERIC SKILLS
1. Communication skills: communicate ideas using the most suitable medium for the message, audience and purpose, speaking or writing clearly, concisely, correctly and coherently
2. Interpersonal skills: work effectively and assertively in groups or teams to achieve desired goals and resolve differing and/or opposing ideas and points of view
3. Thinking skills: select and apply forms of enquiry, conduct research, think critically and creatively, make decisions, and solve problems
4. Computer application skills: improve personal productivity by using computer application programs and technology-based communication tools.

IV LEARNING VALUES
1. Broadening students’ understanding of the evolution of knowledge through a growing awareness of the historical context of their studies;
2. Developing students’ broader perspectives through an understanding of context;
3. Enhancing students’ aesthetic development through a growing appreciation of the subject matter;
4. Developing students’ depth and breadth of understanding of the subject matter;
5. Developing students’ independent thinking and learning skills;
6. Encouraging students’ appreciation of and capacity for lifelong learning;
7. Fostering sensitivity for cultural perspectives inherent in knowledge and practice.

V METHODS OF PRESENTATION / DELIVERY FORMAT
Lecture, class discussion, Internet, group work and independent study.

VI REQUIRED TEXTS AND SUPPLIES

Cancopy Course Kit: MUS. 201 Sociology of Contemporary Music edited by Brad Klump
(available at the Humber Bookstore)

VII EVALUATION
Passing mark is 50%.
Class attendance/participation 10%
Listening Quiz #1 5%
Midterm Exam 20%
Short Written Assignment 10%
Listening Quiz #2 5%
Major Research Project 30%
Final Exam 20%
Total: 100%

VIII COURSE SCHEDULE

WEEK I Golden Age of Tin Pan Alley; Introduction to the Sociology of Music
(May Reading (all readings found in Cancopy Course kit):
Adorno, Theodor. “Popular Music.” In Introduction to the Sociology of Music. transl. by E.B. Ashton. (New York: Seabury Press, 1976), pp. 21 – 38.

WEEK II Hillbilly Records; Folk; Singer-Songwriter Musical Authenticity
(May 15) Reading:
Frith, Simon. “Towards an Aesthetic of Popular Music.” In Richard Leppert & Susan McClary, eds. Music and Society: The Politics of Composition, Performance, and Reception. (Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 133 – 149.

WEEK III Country Blues, Urban Blues, Rhythm & Blues; Music Aesthetics
(May 22) Reading:
Keil, Charles. “Motion and Feeling Through Music.” In Charles Keil & Steven Feld, Music Grooves. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), pp. 53 – 76.

WEEK IV Early Rock & Roll; Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino; Music and Identity
(May 29) Reading:
Negus, Keith. “Identities.” In Popular Music in Theory: An Introduction. (Wesleyan University Press, 1996), pp. 99 – 135.

Fish, Jefferson. “Mixed Blood,” Psychology Today (November/December, 1995).

WEEK V The In-Between Years (Motown, Phil Spector, Brill Building, Surf Music); Music and Commerce;
(June 5) Reading:
Garofalo, Reebee. “From Music Publishing to MP3: Music and Industry in the Twentieth Century. American Music (Fall 1999).

WEEK VI Soul Music, Funk & Disco
(June 12) Reading:
Small, Christopher. “Africans, Europeans and the Making of Music.” In Music of the Common Tongue: Survival and Celebration in Afro-American Music. (J. Calder, 1987), pp. 17 – 48.

WEEK VII MIDTERM EXAM
(June 19) British Invasion & Blues Revival (The Beatles, Rolling Stones)
Reading:
McInerney, Jay. “White Man at the Door” from The New Yorker [available on library reserve]

WEEK VIII Psychedelic & Progressive Rock; Music, Technology and Mediation
(June 26) MAJOR RESEARCH PROJECT ASSIGNED
Reading:

Jenkins, Iredell. “Art for Art’s Sake” in Philip P. Wiener, ed. Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas, Vol. 1 (Scribner, 1973), pp. 108 – 111.

Cohen, Sara. (1993) “Ethnography and Popular Music.” Popular Music 12(2): 123 - 138.
[available on library reserve]

WEEK IX Heavy Metal & Glam Rock; Music & Gender
(July 3) Reading:
Hebdige, Dick. “Glam and Glitter Rock: Albino Camp and Other Diversions.” From Subculture: The Meaning of Style. (New York: Methuen, 1979), pp. 59 – 61.

Walser, Robert. “Forging Masculinity: Heavy Metal Sounds and Images of Gender.” In Frith, Simon, Andrew Goodwin and Lawrence Grossberg, eds. Sound and Vision: The Music Video Reader. New York: Routledge, 1994.

WEEK X Punk and New Wave; Music and Post-Modernism
(July 10) Reading:
Hebdige, Dick. “Style as Homology and Signifying Practice.” In Frith, Simon, & Andrew Goodwin, eds. On Record: Rock, Pop, and the Written Word. (Pantheon Books, 1990), pp. 56 – 65.

WEEK XI 1980s: Music Video & Stadium Rock (Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, U2);
(July 17) Reading:
hooks, bell. “Madonna: Plantation Mistress or Soul Sister?” In Black Looks: Race and Representation. (Boston: South End Press, 1992), pp. 157 – 64.

Case Study: Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” Video

WEEK XII Hip Hop
(July 24) MAJOR RESEARCH PROJECT DUE
Rose, Tricia, “Orality and Technology: Rap Music and Afro-American Cultural Resistance.” Popular Music and Society, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Winter 1989), pp. 35 – 44.

WEEK XIII Review
(July 31) Reading:
Love, Courtney. “Courtney Love Does the Math” available at:
http://www.jdray.com/Daviews/courtney.html

EXAM WEEK Final Examination
(Aug. 7)

IX POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

It is the student’s responsibility to be aware of the College’s Academic Regulations, and the School of Creative and Performing Arts official policies and procedures. These academic regulations may be accessed through the College’s website at www.registrar.humberc.on.ca/acregs.html.

SPECIAL NOTE: Labtop computers and other wireless devices are permitted for relevant class use only. Surfing the web, checking email, and web-chatting are not examples of relevant class use.

X ACADEMIC CONCERNS/APPEALS

Any student who has an academic concern should first discuss the matter directly with their professor. If the issue cannot be resolved, then the student is encouraged to bring it up with the program coordinator; then with the Dean (or designate) if the prior two steps were unsuccessful. Please refer to the College’s Academic Complaint and Appeal Policy for details.

XI PRIOR LEARNING ASSESSMENT AND RECOGNITION (PLAR)

Course credits may be granted in recognition of prior learning of this subject upon successful passing of a written and performance examination and payment of the PLAR fee made through the Office of the Registrar.

XII DISCLAIMER
While every effort will be made to cover all material listed in this outline, the order, content, and/or evaluation is subject to change in the event of exceptional circumstances or class needs.

The Marsalis Family
Born in New Orleans.
Ellis—father (piano), Branford (Tenor Saxophone), Wynton (Trumpet), Delfayo (Trombone) and Jason (drums).
Branford and Wynton both began their careers playing with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

Jazz as a Cultural Institution
Throughout the 1970s and 80s the idea of jazz preservation gained currency: Norman Granz’s Label “PABLO” recorded Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass, Zoot Sims, Harry “Sweets” Edison and others from earlier traditions.
Chuck Israels founded The National Jazz Ensemble
George Wein promoted the New York Jazz Repertory Company.
Smithsonian began taking an interest in the music
Gunther Schuler began publishing widely on the subject.

Wynton
No major figure in jazz (not Armstrong, Ellington, Goodman, Davis, Parker nor Coltrane) gained as much fame and power, as fast and as young as Wynton.
Born 1961, performed Haydn with New Orleans Philharmonic (14), Tanglewood Festival as outstanding brass player (17), Julliard (18), performing with Blakey and Hancock (19) and signed to BOTH CBS classical and jazz at age 20.
Won Grammy award in both classical and jazz in the same year (22).

Wynton’s Band.
Sometimes featured older brother Branford (early on) but mainly Marcus Roberts (piano), Robert Hurst (Bass) and Jeff “Tain” Watts (Drums).
“Classic” conception and aesthetic…all young African-American males, wore suits,