50s Genre - Essential Listening and Reading

50s Genre – Rock ‘n’ Roll

Essential Listing
Artist Album Year
Elvis Presley Elvis Presley 1956
Elvis Presley Loving You 1957
Jerry Lee Lewis High School Confidential 1958
Bill Haley & His Comets Rock ‘n’ Roll Stage Show 1956
Johnny Cash Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar 1957
Johnny Cash Sings the Songs That Made Him Famous 1958
Chuck Berry Rock Rock Rock 1956
Cliff Richard Cliff Sings 1959
Jim Reeves Bimbo 1954

Artist websites
www.elvis.com
www.jerryleelewis.com
www.theoriginalcomets.com
www.johnnycash.com
http://www.chuckberry.com/
www.cliffrichard.org
http://www.jim-reeves.com/

Essential Reading
http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/50smusic.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_and_roll
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/ent/A0860764.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950_in_music
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950_in_music

60s Genre - The British Invasion

60s Genre – British Invasion



Summary
The British invasion of the 1960s was a term coined by the media to describe the abundance of British music being popularised overseas, specifically in the American entertainment market. In the 1950s, Britain was still feeling the social and economic consequences of war. Naturally, British youth compared themselves to their American war time allies not only materially but also culturally. Out of this national feeling of inferiority uniquely British styles of music began to emerge from outside of London.
It was the provincial city of Liverpool that was to prove to be the hotbed of worldwide musical and cultural revolution. As a consequence of Liverpool being Britain’s primary Atlantic seaport, music became available there that was never heard in the capital. Notwithstanding, Liverpool developed a music scene fiercely independent of London. The notion of ‘Mersey beat’ amalgamated American rock’n’roll with colloquial ‘scouse’ humour.
The Beatles emerged as the best group of many from Liverpool, not only because of their catchy rhythms but their magnetic personalities. The Beatles triumphant arrival in New York in 1964 is seen as the start of the British Invasion.

Influenced By
‘Skiffle’, pioneered by Glaswegian Lonnie Donegan inspired much of what is now known as the British Invasion. It is defined as folk music with rhythmic accompaniment usually in the form of a singing guitarist. The simplicity of the style made it accessible to Britain’s budding musical youth.
The Invasions primary influence was however the exciting rock ‘n’ roll sounds coming from across the pond such as; Elvis, Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Image/Fashion
The Beatles were very much cultural rebels and personified the changing attitudes of young society. Their long hair reflected the nonconformist nature of their music. One confused reporter is said to have asked: “Does all that hair help you sing?”
American media also claimed Carnaby Street, London to be the new fashion Mecca of the world. Bands such as the Who reinforced popular ideas of what it is to be British with the Union Jack emblazoned across their promotions.

Cultural Significance
The cultural impact of the British invasion was huge. The phenomenon reflected the increase in economic independence and the end of austerity in Britain. The youth of Britain would invest in musical instruments and other such items seen as luxuries. Essentially, the movement created a sense of energy and optimism unknown before the British Invasion. In my opinion, the country must have also gained a significant amount of revenue from tourism and merchandise sales.
The genre not only had a cultural affect its domestic market but also in the US. The tragic assassination of JFK left American in a national state of vulnerability. The Beatles softened the blow of a potentially socially crippling incident and became “pivotal figures in the creation myth of the counterculture” .
Conclusively, the greater cultural effect was on Britain which became the epicentre of what was ‘happening’. The capital was known globally as “Swinging London” .

References

oldies.about.com/od/britishinvasion/British_Invasion_Bands_and_Artists.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Invasion
www.geocities.com/sunsetstrip/6742/
www.suite101.com/reference/60s_british_invasion
http://people.eku.edu/nelsonl/mus273/british.html
http://www.allthelyrics.com/articles/the_british_invasion_phenomenon-204324.htm

70s Genre - Progressive Rock

Summary
Progressive rock, commonly shortened to ‘prog’, was seen by its proprietors as the natural progression from the limited format of pop rock that guitar music had became. It sought to achieve the musical poise of jazz or classical music, and was consequently championed as ambitious and innovative. The style of music flourished fully in the 1970s and is consensually seen as a thoroughly European movement. Its primary characteristic was to draw influence from an eclectic range of inspiration, such as psychedelic rock and avant-garde music. Instrumental compositions often described as epic, were utilised to mimic classical musicianship. The use of unusual time signatures and scales also added to this effect. Moreover, the inclusion of classical pieces in songs was common, such as Cans and Brahms [Extracts from Brahms' 4th Symphony in E Minor Third Movement] by Yes. Other musical attributes of prog involve ambient soundscapes and theatrical elements used to describe scenes and events usually supporting a larger concept. Indeed, an overarching theme and story are common to most progressive rock bands this is exhibited not only through music and lyrics but also in the form of album art. Artists such as Roger Dean and Storm Thorgerson created fantastical and metaphysical designs to compliment the grandiose music that was being created.

Influenced By
Whereas rock music in 1970s America was inspired by the blues, progressive rock supplanted it with jazz or classical music. For instance, Emerson Lake and Palmer have performed arrangements of pieces by Copland, Bartók, Moussorgsky, Prokofiev, Janacek, Alberto Ginastera, and often feature quotes from J. S. Bach in lead breaks. The jazz influence can be shown most clearly through the unorthodox time signatures most commonly favoured by Rick Wakeman of Yes. Eight Miles High by the Byrds which featured a similar lead style to that of John Coltrane can be taken as a psychedelic rocks input to the progressive genre.
Although these forms of music influenced the genre, the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is cited by most progressive rock authorities as the beginning. It is viewed as the first ever concept album and a landmark of successful and influential experimentation with electronic and tape collage effects.


Influence On
Progressive rock arguably paved the way for punk since the latter was viewed by many as a rebellion against the pretentious tendencies of its predecessor. Whereas prog was about musical virtuosity punk sought to prove it could be done by anyone. In terms of actual influence, as opposed to anti-influence, prog has inspired a further ‘3 waves’ of itself spanning a further 3 decades; bands including Styx from the 1980s and Porcupine tree from the 1990s are examples of the progression of prog. Perhaps most importantly, prog inspired numerous sub-genres, including: Canterbury Scene,
Indo-Prog/Raga Rock, Italian Symphonic Prog, Krautrock, Neo Progressive and many more. The list includes everything from Avant-Prog to Zeuhl. Notwithstanding, one of my favourite styles is a clear ancestor of prog; Math rock. Math rock seeks to blend the intricacies of progressive and avant-garde rock.

Image/Fashion
For the most part prog bands were comprised of grubby polytechnic students who wore flares and duffle coats. What was lacking in terms of trendy clothing was made up for in musical genius and eccentric stage aesthetics.
That was until ELP, who adorned progs’ most recognised garment, the cape. Otherwise, Genesis lead singer Peter Gabriel wore many different colourful and exotic costumes in one show and Marillion's former lead singer Fish wore a jester costume inspired by the band's first album, Script for a Jester's Tear. Fashion was not hugely important factor to prog music since the focus was on the enormous stage theatrics. Nevertheless, progs’ most iconic image is still that of three juggernauts thundering down the rock highway with "Emerson", "Lake" and "Palmer" emblazoned across their roofs.


Cultural Significance
Progressive rocks cultural significance can be viewed as some what of a renaissance in the re-popularity of classical forms of music. It was therefore dubbed the “thinking mans music” and was a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." Consequently Britain’s role as the bastion of rock innovative rock music was galvanized by the genre.
The decline of progressive rock is often seen as part of wider commercial turn in popular music in the second half of the 1970s, during which many funk or soul bands switched to disco, and smooth jazz gained popularity over jazz fusion. Most significantly, the decline of progressive music paved the way for punk rock, which had a poignant cultural significance.


Significant Artists/Albums
Emerson, Lake and Palmer – Brain Salad Surgery

Emerson, Lake and Palmer were a super group comprising of members from King Crimson, Atomic Rooster and the Nice. The year was 1973 and Brain Salad Surgery was ELP’s fourth release. It featured controversial cover art, giving reference to fellatio, by surreal artist H. R. Giger. The album is an epic, futuristic fusion of rock and classical themes. Jerusalem was the only single but failed to be released following objections from the BBC. The album's longest composition, Karn Evil 9, which is more than 30 minutes in length, consists of three movements or "impressions", the first and third separated by an extended instrumental passage.

http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/emersonlakepalmer/albums/album/138480/review/5941199/brain_salad_surgery

Yes - Fragile

Yes are an English progressive rock band that formed in London in 1968. Fragile is their fourth album, and was the first to include synth player Rick Wakeman. It is best known for the song "Roundabout". The cover design by Roger Dean depicts a tiny planet on the front. On the back, the planet has begun to break up and the population is escaping in a wooden space glider, the idea inspired the film Floating Islands.

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/263760/review/6213024/fragile

King Crimson – In the Court of King Crimson

King Crimson is a musical group founded by guitarist Robert Fripp and drummer Michael Giles in 1969. Their debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, is widely regarded as a landmark in progressive rock. The album reached #3 on the British charts. 21st Century Schizoid Man is the renowned to be the best song on the album the lyrics consist of a short poem with one or more metaphors in every line. Many believe that the lyrics are a prophecy, telling the listener how the world will be in the 21st century

http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/kingcrimson/albums/album/215038/review/6067524/in_the_court_of_the_crimson_king

80s Genre - Hip hop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boQK_tiqjDY&feature=related

Summary

Hip hop is not only a genre of music but also a cultural movement developed by African Americans and Latinos living in the ghettos of New York in the 1970s. Hip hop music is a genre of music typically consisting of a rhythmic style of speaking called rap over backing beats performed on a turntable by a DJ. The term rap is sometimes used synonymously with hip hop music; moreover, hip hop was in its early formation known as disco rap. Rap caught on because it offered young urban New Yorkers a chance to freely express there true selves in an unlimited style, without going to any great expense.
The word ‘hip’ was used as early as 1904 in African American Vernacular referring to the notion of the ‘informed’ or ‘current’. Hip hop pioneer and South Bronx community leader Afrika Bambaataa was the first to begin using the term in a positive light to describe all of the elements of Hip Hop. Keith Cowboy of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five also stakes a claim to the coining of the phrase as he taunted a friend who had joined the US Army, by scat singing the words “hip/hop” to mimic the rhythmic cadence of the soldiers marching.
Hip hop music was popularised as a backlash against the perceived dilution of New York’s Black radio station that had began to appeal to more affluent, whiter and older audiences. Many black youths who did not feel any connection to the soulless funk and Europeanised disco that concentrated the airwaves felt socially ostracised. At the same time, block parties began to occur playing the music an older generation had seemingly abandoned. In a short space of time rappers who would emcee over the break beats of these songs had starring roles at these events.



Influenced By

As aforementioned, hip hop came about as increasing feeling of disenfranchisement within black radio excluded the inner city youth. Likewise, the commercialisation of disco, funk and soul influenced hip hop by providing it its niche, just as it had done for House music in Chicago.
Hip hop had initially started, and was therefore influenced by the Bronx. Funk and soul music were played a lot there in block parties. The DJs at these parties began separating the percussion breaks from hit songs as it became clear that these breaks were more entertaining. This technique had become widespread in Jamaica and had spread considerably in influence in the New York community via the Jamaican immigrants. A Jamaican DJ known as Kool Herc moved from Kingston to New York’s West Bronx. Here, he attempted to incorporate improvised rhymes over the dub versions of his reggae records. Kool Herc went onto form the first emcee team known as Kool Herc and the Herculoids which massively influenced Hip hop as a genre as he inspired a generation of budding emcees. I think as a result, the direction of hip hop music was therefore influenced primarily by the individual rappers who sought to express themselves politically and socially while executing keen lyrical agility. Nevertheless, as the purveyor of break-beat deejaying, where the breaks of funk songs were isolated and repeated for the purpose of all-night dance parties, Herc is credited as the leading influence of Hip hop. Lesser influences obviously derive from the records Herc played such as James Brown, Sly and Family Stone and the Last Poets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhisX4mVoDI

Influence On

The repercussions of hip hop have not been inherently musical. Early hip hop has been accredited with reduction of urban gang violence by switching physical war with competitive battles of dance and graffiti. Hip hop now appeals to a larger demographic stretching most of the globe, despite many rappers boasting about social inequality, misogyny and arms.
In terms of influence on music hip hop has played a massive role in the formation of its sub genres. The first gangsta rap album to hit the mainstream, selling 2.5 million copies, was Straight Outta Compton by NWA in 1988. NWA placed the West Coast on the hip hop map with its illicit subject matters.
Elements of hip hop became fused with other genres to create compound styles, such as the British electronic, jazz and hip hop fusion which became known as Trip Hop and was popularised by artists like Massive Attack.

Image / Fashion



Hip hop fashion encompassed the expression and attitudes of hip hop culture. It derives different elements from the various hip hop scenes in America. In the early 80s up and coming sports brands aligned themselves with the emerging style. Artists such as Run DMC began to wear these brightly coloured tracksuits as a result. Adidas shell toed trainers also became fashionable through the same means. What was perhaps most indicative of hip hop fashion was the popularisation of heavy gold jewellery which conjured the idea of wealth and prestige. It has been suggested that this was worn as a symbol to illustrate the rise of African Americans as a people. A few hip hop insiders, such as the members of Public Enemy, have made the deliberate choice not to don expensive jewellery as a statement against materialism.

Cultural / Significance
When hip hop first arrived on the scene it was bare-bones but expressive, made by young men too broke to buy instruments. It occasionally spoke out against poverty and injustice. Tracks such as Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five's "The Message" and Public Enemy's "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back" established hip hop as a possible route of protest. While most cling to the concept of "conscious" anthems, the writers would never have been heard if they were not delivered within a musical form so compelling that it forced the world to listen. Henceforth, hip hop was about beats and rhymes and rocking the party not trying to change the world. Hip hop began in a political context as a cultural movement. That’s not to say it wasn't political, it's to say that its aesthetics cannot be reduced to its politics. Indirectly however, hip hop served to increase the profile of African Americans who still by the 80s faced racial strife on a day to day basis. It did this by providing a platform for conscious hip hop artists who see their music as a tool for political and social change who felt it there place to speak out against these injustices. Hip hop was also had a cultural change in that it has created a distinctive slang that has been adopted by many different dialects across the US.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_Yc5tN30eo


Significant Artists / Albums

NWA – Straight Outta Compton
Straight Outta Compton was the second album by Compton based hip hop group NWA, originally released in 1988. The album is generally seen as the pioneering record of gangsta rap, with its constant profanity and violent lyrics, it helped to emerge the new sub-genre of hip hop. The album was a hip hop groundbreaker that went on to have an enormous impact on the evolution of gangsta rap. The album's most memorable track "Express Yourself" speaks of the ideas of free expression and the constraints placed on rappers by radio censorship.

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/128098/review/6211658/straightouttacompton

Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five – The Message
The Message is the 1982 debut album by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, a highly influential hip hop group. The track of the same name contained lyrics that were some of the first in the genre of rap to talk about the struggles and the frustrations of living in the ghetto. Rolling Stone ranked "The Message" #51 in its List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (the second highest placing for any song released in the 1980s, and highest ranking hip-hop song on the list).

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/128098/review/6211658/straightouttacompton

Sugarhill Gang – Sugarhill Gang
Sugarhill Gang is the self titled debut album by influential rap group, The Sugarhill Gang. The album was released in 1980. This pioneering group inaugurated the history of recorded hip-hop with their single "Rapper's Delight", a multi-platinum seller and radio hit in 1979. "Rapper's Delight" was a #36 hit on the US pop chart and a #4 hit on the R&B Chart and was certified 8x platinum. Although Rapper's Delight was the only charting single, the album also included the minor hit, "Rapper's Reprise".


http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/128098/review/6211658/straightouttacompton

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop_music
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop
http://www.hoodfever.com/
http://www.hip-hop.com/
http://www.oldschoolhiphop.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_school_hip_hop
http://www.zulunation.com/
http://www.daveyd.com/
Various Youtube Hip hop documentaries

Evaluation
I decided to use the genre of hip hop for my 80s blog as I feel a level of affinity to the old school variety. My first introduction to hip hop was the early Furious 5 record and the eponoymous Sugarhill album. I spent a good few hours trying to learn Rappers Delight and instantly fell in love with the playfulness of the track. I enjoy the way hip hop doesn't feel the same lyrical constraints as other music. This is exhibited especially in Rapper's Delight, through the scatting introduction.
Moreover, I still recall the first Run DMC video I witnessed. The shell-toed superstars lifing a foot at a time to the beat was one of the coolest things I had seen.
I also really enjoy African American comedy, and this undoubtedly affected my decision to explore Hip hop. The likes of 'Friday' starring NWA rapper Ice Cube meant that I enjoyed both the humour and the music.