Some Negro Spirituals refer to the Underground Railroad, an organisation for helping slaves to run away. During Slavery and afterwards, workers were allowed to sing songs during their working time. This was the case when they had to coordinate their efforts for hauling a fallen tree or any heavy load. For example, prisoners used to sing ‘chain gang’ songs, when they worked on the road or some construction. But some ‘drivers’ also allowed slaves to sing quite songs as long as they were not apparently against slaveholders. Such songs could be sung either by only one or by several slaves. They were used for expressing personal feeling, and for cheering one another.
Call and response was also used in Gospel Music. This time it would be the preacher that would be shouting a certain line and the members of the church would all respond. Gospel Music is the music of Afro Americans that is always changing and adapting. From the start it was always met with challenges. Today is no different; many old members of churches think that the music is too wordly. Younger members of the church think that older members of the church just don’t understand them. During the periods of 1900-1930’2 Gospel music can be attributed to the social changes that were taking place in the country. Many black people from the South were starting to move to other areas of the US and bringing with them their form of Gospel Music. Gospel music was a form of expression for these people and was and still is music Afro-Americans want to call their own.
The second stage for Gospel Music came during the 30’s, which was called the Dorsey Era. Thomas Dorsey is referred to as the father of contemporary Gospel. His songs combined shouts and praise and emotional fervor with a contemporary style that was very much unwelcome in some churches through out the US. Into the 40’s and 50’s Gospel music began to change. They started to use ensembles and quartets were being organised. And then the quartet was accompanied by piano or organ. After WWII the Black people started to purchase these records and Gospel Music became very popular as did The Rev. Herb Brewater of Memphis who found himself as the greatest gospel songwriter of the era.
Blues is a vocal and instrumental musical form originally derived from . A form of , blues has been a major influence on later American , finding expression in , , , and as well as conventional and even modern .
Early forms of the blues evolved in the in the late and early centuries, using simple instruments such as , , and . Songs came with many different forms of structure, although the or structure based on , and chords became more popular. Melodically, blues music is marked by the use of the lowered third and dominant seventh (so called ) from the . The is frequently used in non-blues musical forms.
was one of the first trained musicians to take blues tunes and styles and present them in modern style with bands and singers. He also wrote some of the most important blues, notably the "".
New Orleans Jazz. At the beginning of the 1900’2, Jazz styles took the form of small-band music and its original credited to New Orleans. The Musical style is sometimes mistakenly referred to as ‘Dixieland’ but is less solo-oriented. Though traditional New Orleans Jazz was performed by blacks, whites and African American creoles, ‘Dixieland’ is a term for the white performers’ revival of this style. New Orleans style, or ‘Classic Jazz’ originated with the brass bands that performed for the parties and dances in the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s. Many of the musical instruments had been savaged from the confederate war which included the clarinet, saxophone, cornet, trombone, tuba, banjo, bass, guitar, drums and occasionally the piano.
Musical arrangements varied considerably from performance to performance and many of the solos embellished the melody with ornaments of improvisation. This lively new music combined syncopation of ragtime with adaptions of popular melodies, hymns, marches, work songs and the blues.
Just before the twentieth century began, a craze for ‘ragged music’ swept the United States. After enjoying great popularity for a few decades, ragtime faded, as all crazes do. But it left a permanent mark on American music. Not only was Ragtime itself one of the first widely popular styles of music that actually developed in the US but it also played a major part in the development of a style that has been called ‘Americas music’ or Jazz.
There are four main types of ragtime music. The only type still commonly heard today is the ‘classic’ instrumental rag that was so popular in ragtime’s heyday. This is usually a march-tempo piece for piano or band, with a steady ‘boom’ chick’ bass and a very syncopated or ‘ragged’ melody. Ragtime songs, many of which were not particularly ragged, and ragtime or syncopated waltzes, in ¾ meter, were also popular in ragtime’s golden age. The fourth type of ragtime began well before the ragtime era and is still practised today by jazz musicians. This is the practise of ragging an existing piece of music. To ‘rag’ a piece of music is to take a well-known tune and change the rhythm of it to make it syncopated, or ‘jazzy’-sounding. Syncopation was always a prominent feature of African-American music. While European music explored counterpoint and complex harmonies, the music of West Africa expressed most of its complexity in its rhythms. People taken from Africa to the Americans as slaves brought this rhythm complexity with them to their new countries. There it could be heard in many places; the slaves’ practise of ‘patting juba’, Afro-Caribbean dance rhythms, banjo dances, and the practise of giving familiar songs a new ‘ragged’ rhythm. The traditions of banjo dances and of ‘ragging’ were both major influences in classic ragtime.
Wherever reading and writing are not widespread, poetry is always chanted or sung. This is true of literary epics - The Bible, the Iliad and Odyssey, Beowulf - as well as those ballads and songs which are composed and transmitted orally, without ever being written down at all. This second class makes up what in simpler times used to be known as folk music. A third class might be called riddles and code songs which are ways of keeping a culture's collective knowledge and wisdom.
Set to music, important stories - even long ones - could be remembered and passed down from one generation to the next, learned simply by repeated hearing and singing. Because one of the main purposes of song was to aid memory, these songs of the oral tradition share certain characteristics - simple, repetitive melodies, repeated lines and refrains, images or dialog that can be lifted from one song and used in another. To my mind, the key feature of folk songs is economy - economy of form, of language, and even of subject matter. Most folk songs stick to the essentials: birth, death, and sex although many delve into the supernatural and the mysterious realm.
Work songs - including lullabies - are also part of the folk repertoire. Love - as a feeling - is usually not a subject for folk songs; it becomes interesting only when it's part of a story, when it's news, which usually entails sex, birth or death, preferably all together. Many people have noted that the vast majority of folk songs are tragic and violent - even humorous songs and songs for children have a tendency toward physical comedy and violence: "There was an old woman who swallowed a fly...." Folk songs are almost always weirdly amoral.
Then came along Bluegrass. This style of music introduced a young band with a totally different aspect on music they were called "Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys". They first appeared on the Grand Ole Opry in 1939 and soon became one of the most popular touring bands out of Nashville's WSM studios. Bill's new band was different from other traditional country music bands of the time because of its hard driving and powerful sound, giving traditional acoustic instruments and featuring highly distinctive vocal harmonies. This music incorporated songs and rhythms from string band, gospel (black and white), work songs and "shouts" of black labourers, country and blues music. Vocal selections included duet, trio and quartet harmony singing in addition to Bill's powerful "high lonesome" solo lead singing. After experimenting with various instrumental combinations, Bill settled on mandolin, banjo, fiddle, guitar and bass as the format for his band.
From 1948-1969, Flatt & Scruggs were a major force in introducing bluegrass music to America through national television, at major universities and coliseums, and at schoolhouse appearances in numerous towns. Scruggs wrote and recorded one of bluegrass music's most famous instrumentals, "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," which was used in the soundtrack for the film, Bonnie & Clyde. In 1969 he established an innovative solo career with his three sons as "The Earl Scruggs Revue." Scruggs still records and performs selected dates in groups that usually include his son, Randy on guitar, and his son, Gary on bass.
Bluegrass music is now performed and enjoyed around the world. In addition to the classic style born in 1946 that is still performed widely, bluegrass bands today reflect influences from a variety of sources including traditional and fusion jazz, contemporary country music, Celtic music, rock & roll ("new grass" or progressive bluegrass), old-time music and Southern gospel music.
Part 2 – Characteristics and styles
"Rock 'N Roll" is a musical genre whose 'golden age' is usually recognized as the decades of the 1950's and 1960's. This musical form had its beginnings in the blues tunes, gospel music, and jazz-influenced vocal music that became popular among African-American audiences after World War II. Then came along a new kind of blues, it featured electrically amplified guitars, harmonicas, and drummers that emphasized after beats. By the mid-1950's such performers as Little Richard, Joe Turner, and Chuck Berry were becoming popular with white audiences. Radio disc jockeys began calling their music rock 'n roll.
Rock and Roll suggests a kind of music that represents and speaks for the teenage society. This music is characterised by using a heavy beat. The earlier instruments used in this particular style of music included saxophone, piano, amplified guitar, and drums. This has later developed to electric guitar and bass, amplified drums and other electronic devices. The instruments weren’t the only aspect of change though as the main concept and idea behind rock n roll changed through time. It started off with the basic ideas of jazz and Rhythm and Blues (the music of black people at the time). This kind of music started to attract white
teenagers. Disc jockey Alan Freed was the one who introduced this music and later gave it the name of Rock n’ Roll. Then along came Elvis Presley giving a much more ‘sexual’ suggestion outraging dull adults. In time he changed the style of music by adopting a country and western style and became a national hero.
This era of Rock n’ Roll was quite a blues style tempo mainly sticking to simple time signatures without the use of any strong harmonies. The structure was based around 12 bar blues with a bass riff on the piano and improvised catchy melodies in the higher octaves. These catchy, up tempo beats and melodies such as ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ became very popular and soon got people imitating this style. Other ‘Elvis hits’ were ‘Love me Tender’ this particular song included one instrument (guitar) and backing singers. This did not included any drum beat at all and was a very slow blues style piece using ‘blues notes’ in the vocal melody and the backing vocals.
In 1963 the renewal of Rock n' Roll came when The Beatles started to play. The Beatles, for some the best rock group ever, were from Liverpool, England. Through the 60's, The Beatles
dominated the record industries and with their dominant instrumentation, which included: electric leads, rhythm, and bass guitar, drums and sometimes an electric organ, and changed the name of Rock n' Roll to just Rock. The Beatles introduced the strong use of vocal harmonies along with the use of the harmonica. With their simple 4/4 beats, medium rate tempo’s, and catchy vocal lines and lyrics the Beatles were on everybody’s radios in the 60’s. The lyrics involved a lot of repetition and call and response making them easy to remember and sing along to. The perfect harmonies used on some quite ‘in your face’ lyrics such as “Our music is capable of causing emotional instability, disorganised behaviour, rebellion and even revolution”. Lyrics such as these brought a new side to rock as most teenagers related to the lyrics and loved the catchy up beat music making the revolution of ‘The Beatles’ and introduction of ‘The Mods’ – rebellious teenagers dressing and imitating the Beatles fashion sense and ways of life.
During the 1960's many other styles of music arose from Rock like, Motown, Soul music, Jazz-rock ,Folk-rock and others.
In the 70's, the common barriers of rock broke into more divisions, like hard rock and mellow rock. Hard Rock was extremely loud and electronically amplified and Mellow Rock was
softer and with acoustic instruments. In 1972, in Jamaica, a new style of music was created called Reggae. Reggae is a mixture of rock, soul, calypso and Latin music. The king of Reggae was Bob Marley. Other styles more in rocks borders, since Reggae was more
Latin than rock, were created in the middle of this century, like: bubble gum rock, a funny playful music directed to the youngest fans, Punk Rock, and Heavy Metal, which continued the approach to Acid Rock but with a simpler musical dimension but relying upon the power of repetitiveness, loud volume, and electronic distortion.
The influence of British bands of punk, disco, reggae and pop-rock was still big in the U.S. Rock scene.
Then came Mersey beat, the musical movement that exploded in Liverpool and on Merseyside during the early sixties, involving as many as 5.000 young people who gave life to more than 600 bands. The Merseybeat scene occupies a position of great significance in the history of rock music (and not just on a European scale), in terms of both musical content and technical innovation.
Merseybeat was a time of popular music which came from Liverpool and Manchester in the early 1960s. Some of the labels were the Liverpool Sound and Scouse R&B. There were hundreds of small clubs in Liverpool alone, featuring cover bands playing a repackaged form of American rock and roll. Merseybeat was also a popular magazine found in the areas which gave the latest gossip about bands and listed them by venue.
The Beatles were part of this scene, and it is probably fair to say that they were more talented, but also luckier, than their rivals. Some of the bands became famous because their records, perhaps just for a brief period, scaled the heights of the charts. But many others remained in total obscurity, although they still occupy a place in the hearts of the fans that followed their every appearance in the clubs of Liverpool and Hamburg.
However, they are all equally important. Many of the musicians are no longer with us, while others have faded into oblivion. Some of the bands have reformed and, in spite of the advancing years of their members, continue to perform on stages throughout the world.
With The Beatles, 'Merseybeat' was huge and continued to be for a number of years until like every musical fad, it faded. Liverpool had had its moment and the world's attention moved elsewhere. “The nation was afflicted with an acute attack of mal-de-Mersey “said Bob Wooler (DJ at The Cavern) in 1971. The common misconception is that the music died and Psychedelia passed Liverpool by. Some famous artists to be involved in ‘Merseybeat and The British Invasion’ were The Beatles, The foremost, Gerry and the Peacemakers, George Harrison, Elvis Costello and many more throughout the years.
From the revolution of Rock n’ Roll came Country and Western music. Country and western was popular American music originating in the Southeast (Country music) and the Southwest and West (Western Music). The two regional styles coalesced in the 1920s when recorded material became available in rural areas, and they were further consolidated after musicians from various sections met and mixed during service in World War 11. The primary traditional difference between the two styles is that country music is simpler and uses fewer instruments, relying on guitar, fiddle, banjo and harmonica, whereas the music of the southwest tends toward steel guitars and big bands whose style verges on swing. Bluegrass, exemplified by Bill Monroe is a style of country and western music distinguished by a driving, syncopated rhythm, high pitched vocals, and an emphasis on the banjo, mandolin and fiddle.
Country and western music is directly descended from the folk songs, ballads, and popular songs of the English, Scottish, and Irish settlers of the U.S. southeastern seaboard. Its modern lyrics are about the emotions and experience of rural and (currently) urban poor whites; they often tell stories of love, crime, and prison life. Over the last 50 years country and western music has gained a nationwide audience. Since 1925 the “Grand Ole Opry,” a Saturday night performance featuring country and western singers, has been broadcast weekly from Nashville, Tenn.
Many of the musicians have been influenced by African-American blues and , but the performers and audience are almost all white. Leading performers include Hank and his son, Jimmy Rodgers, Johnny , Tex Ritter, June Carter-Cash, the , Chet , Patsy , Merle Haggard, Loretta , Tammy Wynette, Charley Pride, Charlie Rich, Dolly , and Willie . In the 1960s and 70s, country and western music significantly influenced the development of rock music. Since then, it has undergone a national revival with performers such as Ricky Scaggs, Garth Brooks, the Judds, Tanya Tucker, and Reba McEntire achieving great popularity.
Many of her songs, such as ‘Sweet Dreams’ consisted of lightly played piano, soft strings, drums played softly with brushes and backing vocals. They were often lead by the strong vocals of Patsy herself. They were in the style of a slow, power ballad with country sounding vocals. One of her bigger hits ‘Crazy’ introduced quite a strong bass line with a catchy piano melody often imitating the vocal melody. The drums were very similar in most of her songs staying soft with the use of the closed high hats. ‘Crazy’ also introduced a soft electric guitar in the back ground into the second verse bringing quite a large instrumentation range into her music.
One of Dolly Parton’s hits was D.I.V.O.R.C.E. this song was lead by the vocals and guitar. It consisted of drums, bass, guitar vocals and backing vocals. Dolly Parton had a very individual voice that later became the voice of ‘Country music’. The electric guitar gave a distinct sound of country and western music with the glissando slides. Dolly Parton also used tambourines on her music as emphasis on the high hats.
R&B music has changed quite drastically throughout time. The name ‘R&B’ used to represent the black blues music and more into the origins of black roots and folk. It now represents a more up beat ‘Hip-hop’ style type of music – very popular today. R&B clearly has its origins in the secular folk music of the American black musician - the Blues. For me, the Blues is essentially about emotional expression and is mainly a vocal medium - although there are many examples of blues instrumentals that would disagree, it is the singer who expresses the feelings of the blues; and there are a number of vocal techniques which are used to create the desired effects. There are of course a range of blues instrumentations which accompany the central vocal performance (the bending of guitar strings, the classic bottleneck of so many of the great blues guitarists, the harmonica imitating the idioms of the human voice etc.) and which clearly help to create the unique blues performance. Although much has been written on the blues, the origins of the music are not particularly well documented. It is clearly influenced by the work songs of the deep South, ragtime, church music, minstrel shows and folk, even some forms of white popular music.
Interestingly however, perhaps the first real blues recordings were made in the 1920s by the women of the blues, artists such as Ma Rainey, and the wonderful . At this stage the performances were still largely based on their stage backgrounds, backed by the leading jazz players of the day.
One of the critical external factors which moved the blues form forward was the economic migration from the American South to the cities of the North by millions of black southern workers. The blues went with them, adapting to a more sophisticated urban environment. The themes of blues songs understandably became more urban, the solo bluesman was joined by a number of other musicians and the blues combo was born. The piano, harmonica, bass and drums and, most importantly of all, the electric guitar became the cornerstone of a sound of increasing rhythmic intensity
The style of Muddy Waters consisted mainly of the whole typical blues style with a 12 bar blues chord progression to lead backed with guitars, harmonicas, and a simple time signature such as 2/2. ‘Hoochie Coochie man’ was distinguished by its catchy riff and breaks between where the vocals sang in a sort of ‘call and response’ style. The piano solo then comes in towards the end in the background to give extra ‘excitement’ so to speak. His style was very improvised and included ad-libs and extra fills for the non planned, improvised feeling.
Within this R&B mix, there was plenty of room for different band formations - and many of the bigger bands were led by singers whose previous experience had been with the great bandleaders such as Count Basie and Lucky Millinder. Both Turner and had spells with Count Basie. The smaller groups relied more on individual soloists taking the spotlight, many of the solos being taken by the alto and teno sax players in the group. It is also worth noting that the electric guitar, having played such a prominent part in the urbanisation of the blues, was here often relegated to an accompanying role - listen to Charles Brown records for example and you'll hear virtually all the solos played by Brown at the piano. This is not always the case of course, some of the greatest "jump blues" came from , with his unique and highly influential guitar work.
Of course the R&B we know today is very different from the Blues, Muddy Waters style that used to be. Today, R&B consists of an off beat rhythm often played by a drum machine, a catchy bass line that more or less leads the whole song, being very heavy and high in dynamics, a catchy riff usually played by some sort of synth sound or maybe even a keyboard and rapping on the verses with a catchy female vocals melody sang in the chorus. Some popular R&B artists today include Mary J Blije, R Kelly, Floetry, Brandy, Lauryn Hill and many more.
The psychedelic sixties was all about experimenting…the clothes…the lifestyles…the attitudes…and most certainly the music. The sixties changed the way we heard and saw everything in the world.
What was it about the psychedelic music of the sixties that was different from what had gone before? And what was it about psychedelic music that changed the music industry for better and as many would suggest for worse.
Psychedelic rock music has taken on a nebulous identity since those halcyon days of the Summer of Love, where love was free and LSD was legal. Every single pop artist of the Sixties took a detour into its murky yet somehow alluring depths during the genre's 1966-1968 heyday, even if most of these acts only stuck around at the party for the space of an album or so. The times of ‘Psychedelia’ (Flower Power and Free Love) brought such artists as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and The Beatles.
Most Music in the Psychedelic period were based around a typical 12 bar blues style structure and were using such instruments as Rhythm Guitar, Lead Guitar, Bass, Drums, and harmonicas. They were led by the strong, catchy guitar solos and repetitive bass lines. The more ‘blues style’ songs were usually at a very slow tempo giving the effect of emotion and quite often depression. The use of harmonies was usually played by the guitars or use of instrumentation rather than vocally (like The Beatles).
At the same time as this major movement in popular music was happening, so was a lot of issues such as racism and war.