History of Rock

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• History of Rock
• Lecture 3
• January 5, 2007

2
Outline

• Hillbilly/Country Music
• Race Music/Blues
• Rock Roll
• 1hr.10 min.
• -10 minute break-
• 1 hr. 40 min.

3
Technology Developments

• Already Discussed in Detail
• 1877 - Edison makes first recording of human
  voice ("Mary had a little lamb") on first tinfoil
  cylinder phonograph
• 1885 - Invention of Graphophone using wax-coated
  cylinders incised with vertical-cut grooves
• 1889 - The Columbia Phonograph Co. was organized
• Successful from cylinders of marches composed by
  Sousa and performed by US Marine Band
• 1890 - First nickelodeon (later, juke box) was
  coin-operated cylinder phonograph with 4
  listening tubes
• Earned over 1000 in its first 6 months of
  operation
• 1901 - Victor Talking Machine Company formed
  (Victor Records)

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Technology (continued)

• 1902 - 12-inch shellac disc introduced known as
  78s (78 revolutions per minute)
• Could play up to 4 mins of music shaping later
  attention spans
• 1904 - Double-sided disc introduced
• 1925 - Development of the microphone allows
  electronic recording
• 1927 - Development of sound film, The Jazz Singer
  (1927)

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Technology (continued)

• Radio
• 1894 - Guglielmo Marconi invented spark
  transmitter with antenna (first radio) in
  Bologna, Italy
• 1920-23 600 radio stations licensed across US
• 1926 RCA (Radio Corp of Amer.) forms NBC
• Red Network becomes WNBC
• Blue Network becomes WABC
• 1928 Columbia Records forms CBS
• Together, these two companies control 50 of 52
  clear channels
• 1940s Television begins to challenge Radio
• FM radio suppressed

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Technology (continued)

• Radio
• 1946-48 Independent radio stations rise from 1000
  to 2000
• 1948 While large companies turn to television,
  independent radio stations become an outlet for
  Race Hillbilly music and the rise of DJ
  Personalities.
• Payola Since major labels owned most radio
  stations prior to 1947, there was no need to
  pay DJs to program their music. However, the
  rise of Independent stations and independent
  labels caught the major labels off guard. Video
• 1950s Independent radio stations purchased by
  investors (chains)
• Top 40 programming, which eliminates need for DJ
  Personalities. Radio becomes a jukebox

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Technology (continued)

• 1931 - Magnetic tape recording invented in
  Germany
• 1931 - Empire State Building opened with music
  piped into elevators, lobbies, observatories
• 1948 - Columbia introduced first 12-inch 33-1/3
  rpm micro-groove LP vinylite record (23-mins per
  side)
• 1940s 3M develops and markets magnetic tape
  (i.e. tape recorder)
• 1948 Bell Laboratories introduces transistor
• Permits independent labels to travel with gear
• Allows the development of portable radios
• 1948 CBS invent high fidelity 12-inch 33 rpm
  microgroove Long Play vinylite record and player
• 1949 - RCA Victor introduced 7-inch 45 rpm
  micro-groove Extended Play
• Development of the condenser mic
• 1952- Records surpass Sheet Music as source of
  revenue.

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Other technology

• 1965 - Phillips introduces compact cassette tape
• 1981 - Music Television (MTV) is launched
• 1982 - First digital audio 5-inch CD marketed
• 1997 - MP3.com founded in San Diego
• 2001 - Apple Computer introduced iPod portable
  music player

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• Hillbilly Music and Race Music

10

• Tin Pan Alley songs were for white, urban,
  literate, middle- and upper-class Americans. They
  remained practically unknown to large segments of
  American society, including most blacksand the
  millions of poor, white, rural Americans of
  English, Irish, and Scottish stock clustered in
  the South and across the midwest. (pg. 35)

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More Equal than Separate?

• Community men v. everyday life in the South
• Country Blues have more stylistic similarities
  than differences

• White Country musicians and Black blues artists
  were aware of and influenced by each others
  work.
• Recording labels maintained race distinctions
  regardless of the style musicians played
• "Blues or Country?"

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Father of Country Music Jimmie Rogers
(1897-1933)

• "Blue Yodel" - Jimmie Rogers (1927)
• Sold more than a million copies - Rogers was
  hillbilly music's first "star"
• It's a blues, improvisatory lyrics about
  misfortune
• Roger's trademark yodeling

13
Chester Howling Wolf Burnett

• Electric Delta Blues
• Urban Blues
• Discovered by Muddy Waters and Chess Records
• Harsh, Raspy Voice- howlin
• Tried to emulate the Yodeling of Jimmy Rogers.
• Smokestack Lightnin

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Earliest Recordings of Country

• 1923 Fiddlin John Carson (1868-1949)
• The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane The Old
  Hen Cackled
• The Farmer is the Man that Feeds Them All
• Record Companies Descend on the South
• Uncle Dave Macon
• The Carter Family
• Jimmie Rodgers

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• Jimmy Rodgers The Singing Brakeman
• Blue Yodel 1927, Muleskinner Blues 1931
• Represents the Rambling Man, (bad-boy image)
• Solo Star

• The Carter Family (A.P. or Doc, Sarah and
  Maybelle)
• Single Girl (1927)
• John Hardy (1928)
• Represents Family Values

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Outlaw v. Family Values Continues as trends in
Country Music

• OUTLAWS
• Willie Nelson
• Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain
• Merle Haggard
• Okie from Muskogee
• FAMILY VALUES
• Travis Tritt
• A Great Day to be Alive

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Traits of Hillbilly (i.e. Country) Music

• Dialect Regionalisms
• A-going, a-coming, yonder, rise you up
• Ramblin cheatin
• Instruments
• Fiddle
• Dulcimer Autoharp (folk roots)
• Banjo (from African Americans), until replaced
  with guitar
• Mandolin
• Hawaiian Steel Guitar (from 20s 30s)
• Drums, trumpet, saxes (Come from Western Swing
  in 1930s) ----- Country Western or CW
• Singing Style

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(No Transcript)
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Dissemination of Hillbilly Music

• Recordings
• Live! Radio Broadcasts
• Grand Ole Opry
• Longest running show on US radio
• Brainchild of George D. Hay in 1925
• WSM in Nashville (Owned by National Life and
  Accident Insurance)
• Proved that Country Music could effectively sell
  a product (life insurance) to working class folks.

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Records (From Independents to Major Labels)

• Early Country Music was recorded on Independent
  labels
• In 1947 Major labels begin to feature country
• MGM formed in 1946 as an outlet for the film
  companys movie soundtracks, but quickly
  expanded. They scored Hank Williams in 1947.
• MGMs status as a Major label allowed it to
  market Williams in a way that independents could
  not

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Hank Williams (1947)

• Move it on Over (1947)
• 12 bar form (Not blues AAB)
• Your Cheatin Heart (1953)
• 32 bar AABA Song Form

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Hank Williams Enduring Popularity

• Your Cheatin Heart (1962) Patsy Cline
• Long Gone Lonesome Blues (1950)
• Long Gone Lonesome Blues (1958) Marty Robbins
• Long Gone Lonesome Blues (2002) Cheryl Crow
• Jambalaya (1951)
• Jambalaya Fats Domino Jerry Lee Lewis (1962)
• Hey Good Lookin (1951)
• Hey Good Lookin Jimmy Buffet (2004)

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America in the Post-WWII Era

• Defined by political and social conformity
• Narrowly defined strictures of living
• Segregated world of white and black also
  encouraged conformity of behavior
• Exaggerated by establishment of suburbia
• Suburban lifestyle
• White picket fences and Little Box houses in a
  row
• Development of a new political ideology with
  beginning of Cold War
• McCarthyism and the red Communist scare

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First Rock Roll Song?

• Rock around the Clock Audio / (1954) Bill Haley
  and the Comets
• Note Similarity to Move it on Over!
• White Performer who successfully (?) captured the
  RB sound and style.
• Considered a Rockabilly artist (in company with
  Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly)
• Rock around the Clock appeared in the 1955 film
  Blackboard Jungle. Though it only appeared in the
  credits, it is the first RR song to ever be used
  in a movie soundtrack. This infamous film
  embodies the fears of middle-class white America,
  i.e. their children having African-American role
  models and idols.

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James DeanThe image of a rebellious
youth(Rebel Without a Cause)
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Bill Haley (Video)
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Chuck Berry

• Maybelline (1955) (Video)
• Leonard Chess for Chess Records in Chicago gave
  Alan Freed, the NYC DJ, a 1/3 of the song's
  royalites.  Why? - Payola Scandal
• Stage Antics (Duck Walk)
• Roll Over Beethoven (1955)
• -Musical Elements
• Guitar emphasis based on Chicago style and
  technique (Muddy Waters) - blues scale, bending
  the notes -Elements of country music - twangy
  guitar sound, straight - forward rhythm
• Jonnie B Goode (1958)

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"Little Richard"  Richard Wayne Penniman

• Helped established boogie-woogie piano as a
  featured instrument in R'n'R
• Has had long career, left R'n'R in 1957 to join
  the ministry returned in 1964 and still going
• " Tutti Frutti (1957)
• Musical Elements         -Plays piano with a
  gospel influence         -"Jump" blues band that
  swings hard - extreme emphasis on backbeat
          -Provocative lyrics (sexual metaphors)
• Little Richard - 1st rock 'n' roller?
• Breaks from RB label by crowning himself "the
  king of rock roll"

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Elvis Rockabilly

• Independent Labels
• Sun Records (Sam Phillips)
• Memphis Label that recorded many RB acts in the
  early 50s. (Howlin Wolf, BB King, etc.. pp. 33)
• Lost many of these artists as they moved north to
  Chicago.
• Needed to find a new kind of act to stay in
  business

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Elvis Rockabilly-continued

• If I could find a white man who had a Negro
  sound and the Negro feel, I could make a billion
  dollars.
• Elvis entered studio to record an acetate for his
  mother. (4)
• I asked him where he went to High School and he
  said Humes. I wanted to get that out, because a
  lot of people listening thought he was colored

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Elvis Rockabilly

• Mississippi to Memphis as young boy
• Very poor family
• Lived and associated closer with blacks than more
  affluent people and Northerners
• Though Northern Whites regarded themselves as
  more liberal, Southern poor Whites had much more
  in common with Blacks.

32
Rockabilly Elvis Presley

• Arthur Big Boy Crudup (1905-1974) Thats All
  Right Moma
• Blues Musician
• Elvis Thats All Right Moma (1954)
• First Song recorded by Elvis
• Notice strong Country sound (1st 5 seconds),
  also steel guitar,
• Big Moma Thorton Hounddog lyrics
• RB Musician

33
The Marketing of Elvis

• First as a CW act (Not RB or RR)
• Sold from Sun to RCA for 35,000 in 1956
• Manager Colonel Tom Parker
• Elvis to a National TV audience - 1956
• The Stage Show Jackie Gleason
• Texaco Star Theater
• Milton Berle Show
• Steve Allen Show
• Ed Sullivan Show (50K for 3 appearances)
• Marketing Elvis image
• Top 40 format
  

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Public Reactions to Elvis

• National Press
• Government Leaders
• Religious Groups
• First time in American History that we see a
  Generation Gap in Popular Culture.

35
The Big Four of SunSam Phillips

• Elvis Presley
• Johnny Cash
• Carl Lee Perkins
• Jerry Lee Lewis

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The Big Four of Sun

• Elvis Presley
• Johnny Cash
• Folsom Prison Blues (1956)
• A Boy Named Sue (1969)
• No.1 on Country Charts, No.2 on Pop Charts
• The only artist (besides Elvis Presley) to be
  inducted into both the Country Hall of Fame the
  Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!
• Carl Lee Perkins
• Jerry Lee Lewis

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The Big Four of Sun

• Elvis Presley
• Johnny Cash
• Carl Lee Perkins
• Poor Childhood
• Similar Sound and Style to Elvis
• Blue Suede Shoes (1956)
• Accident Primarily a songwriter, wrote for
  Elvis and others.
• Jerry Lee Lewis

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The Big Four of Sun

• Elvis Presley
• Johnny Cash
• Carl Lee Perkins
• Jerry Lee Lewis
• I Sold 39 dozen eggs to pay for the gas. I said,
  Youve got the time. Im going to play the piano
  and youre going to put it on tape for Sam
  Phillips. He said, Well if you feel that
  strongly about it, you must be good.
• Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On (1957) Video 9
• Great Balls of Fire (1957)
• Note the echo effect

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Suns Out of Place Child

• Roy Orbison

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Decca Records

• Major Labels
• Columbia, RCA/Victor, Decca, Capitol, MGM, and
  Mercury
• Decca
• Bill Haley His Comets
• Pehaps the connection with a major label
  permitted his music to be featured in Blackboard
  Jungle?
• Rock n Roll Trio
• Buddy Holly

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Buddy Holly

• Elvis Idol
• Strong CW influence
• Safer Image
• lacked sexuality of Presley and flamboyance of
  Little Richard
• Lyrics usually about uncomplicated teen life
• Only Rockabilly Artist to never chart as a
  country artist  
• Peggy Sue
• Not Fade Away
• Thatll be the Day
• Oh Boy (Video)
• Notice Upright Bass

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The Day the Music Died

• Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, Big Bopper (2/2/59)
• Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13 yr. old cousin in
  1958
• Elvis Presley went into the army in 1958.
• Chuck Berry arrested in 1959 for transporting 14
  yr old across state lines.
• Little Richard became a preacher!

43

• What Happened to Rock Roll next?
• Who saved Rock Roll?
• Dick Clark American Band Stand
• "Take Good Care of My Baby" - Bobby Vee (1961)
• African-American Gospel
• Phil Spector / Don Kirshner (NY)
• Berry Gordy (Motown Records 1959)