Rock Music History

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Rock Music History

• Dr. Kenneth Schweitzer
• Please sit close to
• Computer/lecture table
• We are a small class!

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• January 3, 2007
• Lecture 1
• 2 hrs (including introduction)

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• Welcome
• Social History v. Stylistic History
• Facts v. Ideas
• What is Rock Music?

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What is Rock Music?

• Instruments?
• Melody, Harmony, Timbre, Form, Rhythm?
• Defined socially by those who create it and
  listen to it?

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What of Rock?

• Why is it so popular?
• Why is it so controversial?
• Is rock just your popular music or does it
  represent something bigger?
• A fundamental shift in society?
• Nationally Globally?
• WWI, Pearl Harbor, Death of JFK, 9/11.Rock
  Roll

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Rock is Popular/Commercial Music

• What is Popular music?
• Classical v. Folk v. Popular
• Modern Notion of Popular Music Emerges during the
  period 1830s-1850s Jacksonian Era (1829-1937)
• Consumption, dissemination, association with a
  particular social group (i.e. working class)
• Connected with Industrialism

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Industrialism

• money
• migration
• technology
• literacy (music)
• civic associations (musical ensembles)

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What Popular Genres Influenced Rock

• Minstrelsy
• Vaudeville
• Tin Pan Alley (including Film Music)
• Ragtime
• Urban Blues
• Jazz
• R B
• C W
• ??

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What Non- Popular Genres Influenced Rock

• Spirituals
• Gospel
• Rural Blues
• European Ballads
• ??

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Where Did You Sleep Last Night Nirvana

• My girl, my girl, don't lie to me Tell me, where
  did you sleep last night? In the pines, in the
  pines, where the sun don't ever shine I would
  shiver the whole night through.
• Her husband was a hard-working man Just about a
  mile from here His head was found in the
  driver's wheel But his body never was found.
• My girl, my girl, where will you go? I'm going
  where the cold wind blows In the pines, in the
  pines, where the sun don't ever shine I would
  shiver the whole night through. Nirvana, 1993

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Origins of Where did you Sleep last night?

• Nirvana/Cobain credit blues legend Huddie Lead
  Belly Ledbetter (1880S-1949) who recorded the
  song in 1944.
• LYRICS
• Black girl, black girl, don't lie to me
  Where did you stay last night? I stayed in the
  pines where the sun never shines And shivered
  when the cold wind blows.

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Colorful Life

• 1918 Killed a man-sent to prison
• 1925 Wrote a song and was pardoned
• by governor of Texas
• 1930 sent to LA prison for fighting
• Discovered by Alan Lomax who was
• recording prison work songs.
• After singing a new ballad for the LA
• governor and at the request of Lomax,
• Lead Belly was again freed from prison.
• During the 50s, Lead Belly was an influential
  figure in the folk revival movement.
• During the 60s and much later, Lead Belly
  influenced countless Rock Musicians

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A Blues or a Ballad?

• Lead Belly did not compose this song?
• It is an old English Ballad
• Earliest printed version was four lines and a
  melody compiled by Cecil Sharp in Kentucky in
  1917.
• Another variant, was recorded in 1925 by a folk
  collector onto cylinder, a precursor of the
  phonograph.
• Origins of the song date back 1870s
• Over 160 known versions
• Joan Baez Pete Seeger, the country pioneers
  Dolly Parton, Bill Monroe and Chet Atkins, the
  rockers Sir Douglas Quintet and Duane Eddy, the
  pop vocalist Connie Francis and the jazz
  saxophonist Clifford Jordan.

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Complex origins of Rock Music

• A song like Where Did You Sleep Last Night
  hints towards the role of Black/African American
  and White/European American origins.
• Ironic that Cobain (and many others rockers)
  emulated a black blues man who in turn was
  emulating a white Appalachian Hillbilly!
• Consider the role of Folklorist Alan Lomax who
  secured Lead Bellys release from Jail and
  recorded so many of his songs for future
  generations.

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• All American Popular Music (including RR) is a
  blend of African and European Aesthetic Elements.
• What are these?

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Origins of Rock African European
Contributions

• Africa
• Aspects of Rhythm
• Timbre
• Dominance of Percussion
• Europe
• Instrumentation
• Form (Marches, Songs, and other genres)
• Harmony and Tonality

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African Contributions

• Most Slaves came to the New World from the tribes
  of Western Sub-Saharan Africa

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Modern Africa

• Senegal/Gambia
• Ivory Coast
• Gold Coast (Ghana)
• Nigeria/Cameroon
• Angola/Congo

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Q What is unique about the US musical
development when compared to other New World
Cultures? A Colonial Powers used different
methods to control slaves.

• British
• Separated nationalities and even families,
  ensuring very little retention of original
  culture
• Explicitly outlawed drumming.
• Permitted singing only of Christian religious
  themes

• Spanish/Portuguese
• Permitted slaves of similar nationality to live
  together (thereby encouraging retention of
  language, music, customs)
• Permitted slaves to play drums, and other
  African instruments

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Therefore. . .

• Whereas in Latin America, African descendants
  focused much creative energies on retaining and
  adapting their original musics, North American
  Blacks found creative ways to skirt their
  restrictions by combining European forms with
  African Aesthetics.
• For example
• Using stringed instruments in a Percussive manner
• Ragging or syncopating melodies/tunes.
• Theres No Hi-din Place
• Syncopated followed by straight version

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West African Performances
Today we will view and compare two performances
of Senegambian Music. (one from Senegal, one from
The Gambia)
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• Crossroad Blues
• Robert Johnson (1930s)
• Crossroads
• Cream/Eric Clapton (1969)