mus 505: popular music and culture...• sound: two guitars, loud and fast guitar solos, melodic,...
TRANSCRIPT
Themes and Connections• Contemporary
representations of the themes, histories, and sounds in today’s lecture
Learning OutcomesHistorical Context• 1970s: reactions against mainstream rock,
rebellious alternative musics, gay liberation, development of electronic instruments, emergence of Hip Hop culture and sampling
Genres• British Heavy Metal, Disco, Punk, Pop Punk,
Hardcore, New Wave, Rap/Hip Hop
Key Terms• Rebel music, alternative, heteronormative culture,
Punk/DIY, Sampling, Breaks, DJ, MC, the Dozens, Turntablism, Conscious Rap
Course Themes• Creative use of technology, relationship of
mainstream to marginal music cultures, African American musical responses to marginalization
Rebel Musics of the 1970s• 1970s saw the emergence of a number of
“alternative” musics, meaning musics that were not aimed at the mainstream but emerged from marginalized populations
• The large amounts of money and visible excesses of the big rock stars resulted in a backlash, as the mainstream musics ceased to represent people in the same way they had in the 1960s
• Many of these rebel musics had overtly political lyrics, others were political because of the communities they emerged from and supported
• Starting in the early 1970s, developments in electronics technology began to change how popular music sounds and is produced
• Popular musics from other parts of the world began to make inroads in North America
The New Wave of British Heavy Metal• Formalized the genre pioneered by late 1960s
bands like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath• Sound: two guitars, loud and fast guitar solos,
melodic, high male vocals, complex song forms, virtuosic musicianship
• Lyrical themes: mythology, fantasy fiction, and the occult
• Interested in shocking the audience• Embraced “outsider” status, speaking to
marginalized working class youth • Example bands: Judas Priest, Iron Maiden,
Girlschool, Motörhead• Influenced many American 1980s metal bands such
as Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax
New Wave of British Heavy Metal
Judas Priest: “Breaking the Law”
New Wave of British Heavy Metal
Iron Maiden - “The Number of the Beast” (1982)
New Wave of British Heavy Metal
Girlschool - “C’mon Let’s Go”
Disco• A type of funk, soul, and world beat-influenced
pop music of the mid- to late 1970s, intended mainly to be danced to at disco clubs
• Starts in black gay clubs in the 1960s, becomes mainstream, hetero-white culture by the mid-1970s
• Reflected the decline of rock as dance music and the music of rebellion
• Elevated the DJ to the level of “musician”, as disco club DJs mixed and manipulated records to extend the beats for the dance floor
• Formalized the use of pre-recorded music as the basis for creating new music in America
• Short life as “popular music”, but set the template for modern “club culture”
• David Mancuso - influential early disco DJ and club owner, travelled the world looking for good dance music.
Stonewall Riot - 1969
The Loft
Disco
• Original “disco” songs start appearing in the mid-1970s• Prototypical disco song: Love Unlimited Orchestra
- “Love’s Theme” (1973) on Philadelphia International Records
• Sound: 120 bpm; relentless 4-on-the-floor kick drum; offbeat open hi-hat syncopations; cyclical song forms, elaborate studio productions; funky bass lines; chicken-scratch rhythm guitar with effects
• Set the template for modern club culture: DJ, lights, big sound system, late night/all night dancing, drug consumption
• The records became the final product, and the club - not radio or stage - became the place where the music was consumed
Disco
The Rise of the DJ in New York City• The DJ’s Job: to play music that keeps the party bumping all night• How to do this job:
i. Spend your days collecting records of great dance music that people want to hear (or that the DJ thinks they will dance to even if they don’t know the tunes)
ii. Both follow the crowd’s energy and guide the crowd’s energy over the evening
iii.Keep the music going continuously - this was very difficult in the age of vinyl
• Disco DJs developed the technique of using two turntables to seamlessly transition between songs, or to stretch out a song that’s working on the dance floor by mixing two records of the same song
• Producers developed ways to manipulate pre-recorded music to make it work on the dance floor
• Early extended remix - “Ten Percent” by Double Exposure• Early Hip Hop DJs played for dancers, not to back up rappers, and
borrowed the above techniques from Disco DJ to Funk records• Hip Hop DJs looped short portions of beats, rather than whole
songs• Hip Hop DJs added scratching the records, making the turntable
into an instrument
3 Types of DiscoR & B Disco
• Self-contained bands, “live” feel
• Conventional funk/soul instruments: guitars, bass, drums, horns, keyboards
• Funk-based vamps
• Soulful vocals, solo and group
• Example bands: Kool and the Gang, Earth Wind and Fire, Chic
• Example: “Good Times” by Chic (1978)
• “Jive Talkin’”• Blend of 2 types• Pop hooks/form• Artist-based
3 Types of DiscoEuro Disco
• Producer-based studio constructions
• Orchestral instruments (strings), synthesizers, drum machines
• Intended as recording for DJs to play, rather than live performances
• Voice as a texture, not about story-telling
• Singers mainly just the voice layered onto the rhythm track
• Example artists: Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, Diana Ross
• Example: “I Feel Love”, Donna Summer (1977)
3 Types of DiscoPop Disco
• Artist/songwriter based
• Live instruments mixed with studio instruments
• Pop hooks, standard pop song structures (verse/chorus)
• “Disco” elements in the rhythms
• Example artists: The Bee Gees, Abba
• Example: “Staying Alive”, The Bee Gees (1977)
Donna Summer• Church-raised singer who
became the Queen of Disco• Set template for “disco singer”
as a studio artist rather than live act
• #1 hit: “Bad Girls”• Song about the less-legal side of
the night life, specifically prostitution
• Solidified the connection between disco, sex, and downtown urban life in the minds of the mainstream audience
• Other disco divas who worked in similar ways: Patti LaBelle, Gloria Gaynor, Diana Ross
Saturday Night Fever• Movie “Saturday Night Fever” (1977) brought
disco to the (white, straight) mainstream• Story links disco music/dancing with classic
American theme of upward class mobility• Disco club = shrine of hedonism and illicit good
times• Soundtrack has sold over 15 million copies,
second best-selling soundtrack of all time• Started a “disco craze” in pop culture, shifted
the music out of it’s underground, gay subculture into mainstream pop culture
• Led to backlash and the inevitable move from popular genre to “kitsch” and camp
Saturday Night Fever
Travolta’s climactic solo dance number:changing disco from a form of communal expression to an individual
skill-set to be mastered and performed
Disco Takes Over The WorldThe disco beat and orchestration became a cliche in the late 1970s, made it possible to “disco-ize” just about anything…
Disco Sucks• The popularity of disco led to a “Disco
Sucks” campaign coordinated by white, male rock fans
• Rock fans called disco“inauthentic” because of its focus on producers, DJs, synthesizers, singles, and “non-live” performances
• Rock fans didn’t like “music for dancing”, nor having their favourite artists pushed off the charts
• Thinly veiled racism/homophobia, as disco was popular with:• the Gay community • the Latino/Black community• Women
Disco Sucks
Disco Sucks/Rocks• The disco beat and sound gets appropriated
by rock bands in the 1970s who wished to remain current and commercially viable
• Backlash from many rock fans when guitar-based bands used disco sounds, but many of the songs became big hits
• Examples:
• Rolling Stones - “Miss You” (1978)
• KISS - “I Was Made For Loving You” (1979)
• Disco becomes an important part of hip hop music in the late 1970s and techno a few years later
The Rise of Reggae• Mixture of Caribbean folk music and American R&B,
developed in Jamaica• First music style to emerge outside of North America
and Europe to become popular in the “West”• Usually features political lyrics about social justice,
addressing the situation of poor Jamaicans • Emphasis on bass and drums, bass has strong melodic
character, often the main “hook” of the song
• Characteristic “up stroke” on the guitar, where the guitar plays on the upbeats
• Innovative recording techniques, studio engineers/producers became as popular as the artists
• Became known in US and Europe through the hit movie “The Harder They Come” and its soundtrack
Bob Marley (1945 - 1981)• Bob Marley became the face of reggae
internationally.
• Devoted Rastafari, skilled songwriter, impassioned singer and performer
• Mixed Parentage - father was a white English plantation overseer, mother was black
• Became “Third World’s” first international recording star, first non-American black artist to have an impact on US popular music
• Formed “The Wailers” with Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer in 1963
• 1966 visit of Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie to Jamaica changed The Wailer’s musical and spiritual course
• Signed to UK-based Island Records in 1972, took a message of social justice, freedom, and protest to the world stage
• Example: “Get Up, Stand Up”
The Reverse Elvis• Marley Became famous internationally
following white, English guitarist Eric Clapton’s cover version of “I Shot The Sheriff” (1974)
• Bob Marley’s “I Shot The Sheriff” (1973)
• What is similar and or/different about these two versions?
Punk
Henry Rollins
Punk• First “alternative” movement within rock,
1975 - 1978• Back to basics rock reacting against
commercialism and pretension of corporate rock music (disco, prog rock, heavy metal, glam rock)
• Attitude: rebellion against authority and rejection of mainstream values; amateur, DIY music-making
• Image: torn jeans, homemade clothes, confrontational haircuts
• Did not receive commercial success until 1990s in US
• Early bands: Iggy and The Stooges, MC5, The New York Dolls
Iggy Pop and the Stooges• Born James Newell in Ann Arbor, Michigan• Formed The Stooges in Detroit, who played loud,
droning, repetitive psychedelic music, to which Pop improvised lyrics
• Violent stage shows included:• physical contortions• leaping from the stage into the audience• cutting himself with broken glass• smashing his microphone against his teeth• throwing up and urinating on audiences• smashing his teeth, pouring hot wax on his body
• Signed to Elektra Records • Raw Power (1973), produced by David Bowie• The Stooges - “Search and Destroy” (1973)
Iggy Pop and the Stooges
Live in Cincinnati - 1970
CBGB’s• Legendary music club located in
New York City that was center of New York punk scene in the early 1970s
• CBGBs: Country, Blue Grass, and Blues [OMFUG= Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers]
• Regular bands: The Ramones, Television, Patti Smith, The Dictators, Blondie, and Talking Heads.
Patti Smith (b. 1946)• Influential American singer, poet, author
• “Punk rock’s poet laureate” - built on Bob Dylan’s legacy of making “literate” rock
• Brought feminist, queer, and intellectual perspective to punk
• Stripped-down band sound and growling vocals
• Debut album Horses (1975) is number 44 on the Rolling Stone list of top 500 albums
• Example: “Gloria” from debut album Horses (1975): reinterpretation of Van Morrison song with proto-punk sensibility and queer point of view
The Ramones• 1st punk rock band: formed in 1974 in NYC
• High-speed, energetic, loud, short songs
• Image: ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll - blue jeans, leather jackets, sunglasses
• Simple song structures: three chords, very catchy melodies, basic rock beats, 2 minutes long, no guitar solos
• Toured the UK in 1975 and started the punk revolution there
• Punk contribution: emphasis on the rock and roll basics: energy over technique, anyone can do it, and everyone should do it
• Example: “Blitzkrieg Bop” (1976)
The Runaways and The Go-Gos• Bands formed by teenage musicians during the
first punk explosion - 1976 to 1980
• Both featured an all-female line-up, and members who embraced the DIY ethos of punk
• Variously mismanaged by managers and the culture industry at large, encountered considerable sexism and sexual violence
• Huge influence on young girls: demonstrated that “rock music” was a construction and that teen girls could create their own worlds through punk music
• Punk contribution: all women, wrote their own songs and played their instruments, unashamed sex positive, feminist rock and roll attitude
• The Runaways rebel yell: “Cherry Bomb” (1976)
• The Go-Gos: “Tonite” (1981)
• British Invasion in reverse - The Ramones inspire young Britons to take up guitars and play aggressive music
• More intense social frustration with the British class system - reflected in music
• British youth very disillusioned by high unemployment, inflation, and racial tensions
• Punk associated with white working-class youth subculture.
Punk: Anarchy In The UK
Sex Pistols• Formed in 1975 in London, UK
• Created and managed by Malcom McLaren - a kind of punk “boy band”
• Punk contribution: confrontational, violent, “don’t care” attitude
• Songs are short, aggressive, amateur-ish, low-fi
• Debut LP: Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols (1977), hugely influential
• Intentionally provocative songs like “God Save The Queen” and “Anarchy in the UK”
• Broke up during 2-week US tour (after 26 months together)
• Example: “God Save The Queen” (1977)
The Clash• English punk rock band, part of the first
wave of British punk
• Formed in 1976
• “Skilled” rock musicians: they all could play their instruments in conventional ways
• Incorporated styles reggae, ska, rockabilly, and dance music into their sound
• Longest surviving band of the UK punk rock era, known for many years by their fans as “the Only Band That Matters”
• Punk contribution: expressed an explicit left wing, socialist political agenda in their lyrics and lent their music to political causes in which they believed
• Class war classic: “London Calling” (1979)
The Slits• Formed in 1976 with the merger of two
bands: The Flowers of Romance and the Castrators
• Experimental sound influenced by reggae and dub
• Punk contribution: all women, unorthodox instrument playing, searched for new sounds and new ways of playing guitar, bass, drums, and electronics
• Toured extensively with The Clash
• Debut album Cut one of the classics of the era
• Example: “Instant Hit” (1979)
Post/Pop-Punk: The Police• Formed in London in 1977 by Stewart
Copeland (drums), Andy Summers (guitar) and Gordon Somner aka Sting (bass, vocals)
• Punk contribution: synthesized reggae, punk, and pop
• Created the genre of “pop punk” with lyrics about romantic love and relationships
• Became one of the most successful bands of the 1980s
• Punk elements: short, high energy songs, no instrumental solos, focus on independent guitar, bass, and drum parts
• Key song: “Next To You” (1978) - Punk speed and energy with pop hooks and lyrical themes
New Wave• Musical movement based in the US and UK in
late 1970s and early 1980s
• Shared certain punk elements (faster tempos, stripped down arrangements, alienated lyrics, DIY-ethos) but was more experimental and mixed with other genres (funk, disco, reggae and ska)
• Fused synthesizers, sequencers, and drum machines with conventional “rock” instruments
• Often dance-focused
• Example groups: Talking Heads, Blondie, Elvis Costello, and the B-52s
• Key Song: Devo - “Whip It”, 1980
Blondie• Founded by singer Debbie Harry and guitarist
Chris Stein
• Started out playing a CBGBs as part of the punk scene, began experimenting with synthesizers and dance rhythms
• Brought a punk sensibility to disco-influenced pop songs, influenced the synth pop of the 1980s
• Had several hits between 1978 and 1982, have sold over 40 million records
• Debbie Harry helped to make punk music a much more accessible space for women than the mainstream rock music scene was in the 1970s
• Big Hit: “Heart of Glass” (1978)
The Talking Heads• Smart, exploratory new wave band that
incorporated influences from punk, funk, classical minimalism, & Afro-Beat
• Together from 1974 - 1991
• Experimented with loops, cut-and-paste studio composition
• David Byrne’s geeky awkwardness became a new kind of cool in the post-punk scene
• Strong hooks and danceable beats anchored by Tina Weymouth’s monstrous bass playing
• Cerebral adventurousness made them critic’s favourites, dance beats gave them chart hits
• Example Song: “Once In A Lifetime” (1980) - inspired by Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat, constructed in the studio by Brian Eno from instrumental jams
The B-52s• Mixed-gender New Wave band from Athens,
Georgia
• Combined guitar with early electronic keyboards
• Elaborate costumes, 1950s hair styles, and gender-bending performances
• Outspoken queer aesthetic - some members were gay, founding guitar player died in the early days of the 1980s AIDS crisis
• Brought a sense of humour and play to New Wave: quirky lyrics combined with danceable beats
• Example Song: “Rock Lobster” (1980) - inspired by surf music, 1960s girl groups, and Yoko Ono
The Origins of Hip Hop• Music emerges from the South Bronx, a
predominantly African American, Puerto Rican, and Caribbean neighbourhood in New York
• 1963: Cross Bronx Expressway constructed, cutting the neighbourhood off from the rest of the city
• Poverty and crime set in as opportunities and services were reduced
• Early Hip Hop DJs and MCs were of Jamaican descent, brought Jamaican-style dance parties to the Bronx
• Hip Hop was originally a dance music, with the DJ the central figure
• DJs used cheap, accessible technology to make the music - drum machines, turntables
• Hip Hop developed as a response by marginalized people trying to dance and tell their stories in harsh urban conditions
The Musical Foundations of Hip Hop
The Dozens: verbal game of rhyming and wit
The Musical Foundations of Hip Hop
Sound Systems: outdoor dance parties hosted by a DJ and MC on the weekends in Jamaica. Stared in the 1950s
The Musical Foundations of Hip Hop
Jamaican Toasting: 2 turntables and 1 mic, talking/singing over pre-recorded instrumental track
The Musical Foundations of Hip Hop
1960s African American “beat” poetry: Intellectual movement that fused music and poetry
DJ Kool Herc• Born in Kingston, Jamaica, April 16 1955
• Immigrated to South Bronx, 1967
• Replicated the Sound System parties of his youth in Jamaica in the Bronx, but with African American Funk music rather than Reggae
• Set up speakers in parks and basements and played for dancers
• Observed that people danced the hardest in the instrumental “breaks” on funk and disco records
• Credited with inventing the basic hip hop turntable techniques, including beat-matching two records and playing just short edits of a song
• Allows a “toaster” to get on the mic to hype up the crowd as in Jamaica, a role that eventually becomes the modern “MC”
DJ Hollywood• Born in Harlem NYC in 1954
• Widely credited as the first rapper in the Hip Hop style
• Spun records at parties, and talked over them to hype up the crowd
• His DJ sets involved interacting with the crowd by singing, rhyming, and call and response over records he was playing
• Rapped over whatever the popular funk and disco dance tracks were at the time
• Introduced the idea of flow: connecting phrases together to tell a story with rapid-fire rhyming and word play
• Helped create the MC role, which eventually came to surpass the DJ at the centre of hip hop
• Didn’t make records early on, was strictly a live performance
Four Elements of Hip Hop
DJ-ing Rap
Break dancingGraffiti Art
Hip Hop Hit #1: Sugar Hill Gang• Early rap group from the Bronx
• Built songs from samples of other songs and floating pools of phrases
• First national rap hit: “Rapper’s Delight” (1979), which was built on the instrumental track of Chic’s disco hit “Good Times” (1979)
• No DJ or sampling technology, they had to hire a studio band to replicate Chic’s tracks
• Sued by Chic’s Nile Rodgers in a royalty settlement: the first rap hit, and the first “rap lawsuit”
• Hip Hop Contribution: “Rapper’s Delight” made rap a national music, established the practice of building new songs from samples of older songs
Sampling• Sampling: taking a portion of one sound
recording, the sample, and reusing it as an instrument or element of a new recording usually with help of sampler or computer software
• Old School days: sample without care
• Early 1990s: Costly court settlements reduced the number of samples used in hip hop
• Now: “clearing” of samples - authorization involving an upfront fee and/or a cut of the royalties
• Example: James Brown’s “Hot Pants Road” and Public Enemy’s “Fight The Power”
Hip Hop Hit #2: Afrika Bambaataa• Born in South Bronx, 1957• Founded Universal Zulu Nation: black
activist, advocated for peaceful resistance and a return to African warrior culture
• Wrote the second national rap hit: “Planet Rock” (1982)
• Sampled “Trans Europe Express”, by German electro-pioneers Kraftwerk
• Listeners said: “Planet Rock sounded like a space ship landing in the ghetto”
• Hip Hop contribution: pioneering use of 808 Drum Machine, which became an essential part of the sound of hip hop
• Added electronic sounds to the samples used in early hip hop
Hip Hop Hit #3: Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
• Third rap hit: “The Message” (1982)
• Early example of social realism in rap
• Not built on samples, but a newly composed song using keyboards and samplers
• Hip Hop Contribution: Not a party-oriented rap, but about the dark side of life on the streets in the Bronx
• Precursor to socially conscious rap of KRS-One and Public Enemy and gangster rap of Tupac and N.W.A
Homework
Reading: Chapter 13