...Shosanna Spill Tricia Swoope ENG 112 03 July 2010 Rock Music Rock is a popular form of music that has evolved over the past couple of decades starting in the 1950s until present day. Rock music has been known to be used as a form of expression over the years. Despite its sometimes negative and defiant lyrics, rock is a form of art that allows one to release his/her feelings through singing in an expressive tone. Later styles of heavy rock music in the 1990s, such as grunge, the typical example being Seattle's Nirvana, show influences of heavy metal but are typically not labelled sub-genres of heavy metal, as opposed to thrash metal and glam metal. The general absence of virtuosic guitar solos is perhaps one reason grunge bands haven't been considered heavy metal bands. Another key artist during this time was Megadeth, which combined the relentless, speedy thrash metal riffs with the fancy guitar soloing of speed metal like Judas Priest. Rock-n-Roll has never just been music. Heavy metal, Rhythm & Blues, Art Rock, New Wave, and the rest may be primary styles or genres but as sub-categories of rock, or rockin’ roll they do not cumulatively add up to the whole. Rock n’ Roll is a movement, a lifestyle, in many ways a belief system and all that Rock n Roll is today it owes to history: two years, no more than three when the fabric of American popular culture was torn apart and rewoven, and a new era explosively began. Rock n Roll started with slavery. To understand we must understand...
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...Professor Lori Shipley Spirituals to Rock and Roll 23 April 2016 Joan Jett Pioneers Through Rock and Roll History America has been characterized by revolutionary people changing the aspects and perspectives of its citizens through innovative acts, movements, and even through word of mouth. Martin Luther King Jr. changed the outlook of millions of Americans on the racial division in the country by using peaceful protests and eloquently delivered speeches. Benjamin Franklin and the founding fathers pioneered an idea that a country could be run by the people, which was in direct opposition to the rule they were under in Britain. These two events have set forth a phenomenon in America that allows people to challenge prototypical roles and views. When it comes to music icons that have changed the normalcy of music during their time, one would have to be Joan Jett. She was faced with the overwhelming obstacle of battling sexism and gender inequality throughout her musical career, particularly in the Rock and Roll industry in the 1970s and 80s. The music industry was changing during the 1960s in part to what Americans were experiencing; the British Invasion, the assassination of President Kennedy, the Vietnam War, and the Civil Rights Movement. Rock and Roll quickly made its way into the mainstream being a powerful voice for the cultural revolution. Rock and Roll was a man’s world during the 70s and 80s, and women rockers were unwelcomed by both the musicians and fans. Joan...
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...of Rock’N’Roll Elvis Presley paved the way for many rock n roll artists nowadays. His daring collision of country and Rhythm n Blues is now a precedent to all rock artists here now. He was a big part of getting more black singers out there with everyone else. Those who didn’t love elvis, thought of him as despicable for associating with african american artists. His dance moves were considered raunchy and risque as he was named “Elvis the Pelvis”. Elvis was powerful enough through his singing and dancing to break through those prudish 50’s and 60’s barriers. He forever changed the way of rock n roll and had the biggest effect on how it looks today. Elvis is probably one of the better people that this could have happened for. “Elvis Aaron Presley came from a small humble family who took the Christian messages of all kind being created equal” (Article 3). It’s that fact that makes it sure that he was the best person to give music a make over. He was sympathetic to african...
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...Break is only a few days old, I’ve already begun the arduous task of reading and re-reading books as well as studying for my preliminary exams this fall. I’m going to try to post reviews of some of the books periodically. This week I’m trying to get through a few fun and interesting titles to ease into it and give myself the illusion that I’m doing some pleasure reading. I spent most of today reading Glenn Altschuler’s All Shook Up: How Rock ‘N’ Roll Changed America. It’s a book I saw on several of my colleagues’ reading lists and appeals to the popular bend of both my research and major field. What I enjoyed most about the book, besides it’s fascinating subject, was Altschuler’s ability to both complicate and add texture to the traditional rock ‘n’ roll narrative. The first half of the book focuses more on the music and musicians touching on subjects such as race and sexuality. The second half looks more at rock ‘n’ roll’s relationship to the music industry and economic forces driving cultural preferences among youth....
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...Lennon, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, together changed music, culture, lifestyles, clothing style, and political attitudes. They sadistically emerged into the American pop music scene and changed it forever. Their energetic lyrics and funky beats with their grazing controversial long hair had a the youth entranced and influenced for a lifetime. Yet those weren’t the only things that had influenced many people around the world. The Beatles involvement with the politics of peace, and experimentation with hallucinogenic drugs and Indian mysticism brought a new look into meditation and a different view of society in whole. John Lennon, the lead singer of The Beatles, was 17 when he formed his first band called The Black Jacks. The band was made up entirely of classmates from the Quarry Bank Grammar School in Liverpool, and almost immediately after they started, they changed their name to The Quarry Men, to represent their school. They played Skiffle music, which was a mixture of folk, jazz, and blues which was popular in England at the time. In the summer of 1957, The Quarry Men were setting up for a performance in a church hall when another member of the band introduced Lennon to Paul McCartney, He auditioned for the band, after they had finished their set, he was immediately invited to join in October, 1957. By February 1958 Lennon’s style in music started moving increasingly away from skiffle and more towards the rock 'n' roll scene. This prompted the band's banjo player to...
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...behavior of the post World War II generation and discuss whether Rock and Roll was the cause of the dramatic behavioral changes that led teenagers astray from the conservative values of the older generation. While both Pennington and Oakley agree on some of the factors that that led to the sweeping changes in teenage behavior during this time, they differ on the conclusion of whether Rock and Roll was the culprit and whether teenage morals and values truly shifted from their conservative upbringing during this time. Pennington’s essay offers a more unbiased, balanced, substantive and consistent assessment that supports the conclusion that Rock and Roll was indeed the accelerant that ignited 1950s youth and encouraged them to adopt Rock and Roll’s values of rebellion, provocative sexual expression and racial-mixing....
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...Bible." The Beatles Bible. N.p., 2008. Web. 22 Apr. 2013. The Beatles Bible brings up many aspects of the band that may have been hidden to the general public. While The Beatles are well known for their fantastic music over the decade in which they ruled the rock n’ roll world, few people truly know about what happened behind the scenes of these rock gods. The Beatles Bible has detailed accounts of how songs were developed as well as an entire “journal” of Beatles drug usage and how these drugs might have affected their music production. With detailed and dated accounts of interviews with the band their closest companions it is possible to trace back to the time of song creation in order to truly understand the meanings behind these timeless songs. Dock, Albert. "The Beatles Story, Liverpool." The Beatles Story, Liverpool. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2013. On The Beatles Story homepage there is an interactive timeline with a detailed events schedule, which is just a mere glimpse into the hectic life that The Beatles lived. This webpage allows the reader to understand the lives of the band members outside of the band. As each member of the band progressed in their own way their music changed and understanding how and why The Beatles music varied throughout the course of their existence is a key factor in uncovering their path from garage band in Liverpool to international music icons. Kozinn, Allan. "Details of Eight Years in the Life Of the Beatles as They Worked...
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...“There used to be a way to stick it to the Man. It was called rock ‘n roll, but guess what, oh no, the Man ruined that too, with a little thing called MTV!” Jack Black rants in his hit Movie School of Rock in 2003. With their famous sign in in 1981, “Ladies and gentlemen, rock ‘n roll”, MTV has since changed the music industry forever. For the first time in history people could watch their music being played with this new 24-hour music channel. With such promotion by MTV it jump started the careers of many artists like Michael Jackson and Madonna. With only playing videos music now couldn’t just sound good, it also had to look good if you were going to be a major star. What Jack Black and many people complain about with MTV is that they may have revolutionized music but with the promotion and the major profits these huge stars were receiving, it was simply building the power of the major record industries and gatekeepers who control popular music. Since the early 80’s, MTV has continued to shape what music is popular through the emergence of videos, ratings, and big business. In this paper, I will outline MTV’s quick rise to pop culture king, racism, influence by big record companies, and how they developed the ultimate pop star. In 1980 the United States along with politics, the economy, and music was in an awkward transition. After two wars, numerous Democratic Presidents, and the worst recession to hit America in nearly 40 years, Conservative Ronald Reagan was elected promising...
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...I want to argue that he’s a champion cultural icon, the King of Rock and Roll, the Eternal Great. There are many reasons why this is true and I will lay these out in this paper. Elvis Presley is in fact, the ultimate cultural icon. He will never be replaced by anyone for many reasons. Thus, in this paper, I will argue that Elvis Presley is the ultimate cultural icon. For example, Elvis Presley and The Beatles represent the two poles of pop music superstardom. “On one side is the patriotic American truck driver with a voice that conquered the world over a two-decade career, and on the other hand, there are the four sharp-tongued Liverpudlians who came and went with the 60’s” (Webb). Former Beatle, John Lennon, once said, “Before Elvis, there was nothing” (Elvis Presley Quotes). “The question is, why Elvis? Why is Elvis—more so than Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and J.F.K.—consistently held up as an ‘icon of the twentieth century’” (Doss 2)? The reason Elvis is an icon is because he made an everlasting impression during his time. He was revolutionary. He influenced the teenage culture of the fifties and his music has shaped the styles of many recent artists. Musician Rod Stewart said, “Elvis was the king. No doubt about it. People like myself, Mick Jagger and all the others only followed in his footsteps” (Elvis Presley Quotes). Presley still has admirers of all ages: children, elderly, rock stars, and celebrities. He even touched the hearts of average people...
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...history, when rock and roll was giving birth to the Sexual Revolution and everything in America culture was about to be turned upside down. Record companies were releasing more than a hundred singles every week and the country was about to explode. Grease, generally considered a trivial little musical about The Fabulous Fifties, is really the story of America’s tumultuous crossing over from the 50s to the 60s, throwing over repression and tradition for freedom and adventure (and a generous helping of cultural chaos), a time when the styles and culture of the disengaged and disenfranchised became overpowering symbols of teenage power and autonomy. Originally a rowdy, dangerous, over-sexed, and insightful piece of alternative theatre, Grease was inspired by the rule-busting success of Hair and shows like it, rejecting the trappings of other Broadway musicals for a more authentic, more visceral, more radical theatre experience that revealed great cultural truths about America. An experience largely forgotten by most productions of the show today. Like Hair before it and The Rocky Horror Show which would come a year later, Grease is a show about repression versus freedom in American sexuality, about the clumsy, tentative, but clearly emerging sexual freedom of the late 1950s, seen through the lens of the middle of the Sexual Revolution in the 1970s. It’s about the near carnal passion 1950s teenagers felt for their rock and roll, the first art form that actually changed human sexuality...
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...According to USA today, ever since The Beatles had their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on Feb. 9 1964, over 50 years ago, fans still go mad over this group that is no longer together today, but whose music still lives on. The Beatles became an extremely popular and influential group in Rock n’ Roll and their music is still played all over the world. The impact that they made on the music industry has been noted for quite some time now but can’t be overstated enough. The members who made up this group were, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr. These four men, all from Liverpool, England, met one by one over time for their love for music. John first met Paul when he impressed him with his guitar skills one night and was then invited to join Johns group at the time, The Quarrymen. Next came George who joined the group in Feb. of 1958. The three of them joined a pair of guys whose mother owned The Casbah club and they became Johnny & the Mood Dogs, and then changed to The Silver Beetles. John Lennon dreamed up the bands final name, The Beatles, mixing ‘beat’ with ‘beetle’ like the last groups name. In 1960, the Beatles toured Hamburg, Germany and were then joined by Ringo Starr, who was previously playing with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. These were the main four men, also known as the “fab four”, who made up the group we still talk and hear about today. Brian Epstein, an English music entrepreneur, was best known in his lifetime for managing...
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...music. It is better known as popular music and appeals to a much larger variety of people. Some of the styles of music we have enjoyed are the “Classic” American Music, Early Rock ‘N’ Roll, Pop, Heavy Metal, dance-pop, and rap. Some of the great composers of the “classic” American music are Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and Richard Rodgers. Cole Porter was a major songwriter for the Broadway Musical Stage. His well known works include “Fifty Million Frenchmen”, “Can-Can”, “Anything Goes”. But his most successful musical was “Kiss Me, Kate”. Irving Berlin was responsible for over 3000 songs including the beloved song “God Bless America”, “Puttin’ on the Ritz”, and “White Christmas”. He also composed the musical “Annie Get Your Gun”. Richard Rodgers was responsible for “Oklahoma”, “South Pacific”, and “The Sound of Music” along with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. Early rock and roll became the craze in the 1950’s with a rhythmic accompaniment called rhythm and blues. Little Richard and Chuck Berry were the driving sounds behind these early beginnings. Little Richard gave us great tunes like “Tutti Frutti”, “Long Tall Sally”, and “Good Golly, Miss Molly”. Chuck Berry was responsible for “fast songs with an irresistible beat” (Yudkin, 2010). Billy Haley and the Comets got us really swinging in 1955 with “Rock Around the Clock”. Along with Bill Haley & the Comets, teenagers were rocking to the sounds of Elvis Pressley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Buddy Holly. In 1958, the Elvis fans were...
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...Music Notes: Midterm One Introduction Studying Rock: * Fan mentality: reject other forms of music * Gold Records: 500,000 copies * Platinum Records: 1 million copies Themes: * Social, political, and cultural issues * Issues of race, class, and gender * The development of the music business * The development of technology The Popularity Arc: * Mainstream popularity is the ‘peak’ * Genres tend to develop underground and aren’t written about historically during these years (subcultures) Musical Form: * The way different sections in a song are organized Rhythm: the way music sounds are organized in time; beat is the pulse Meter: organization of rhythm and beats into music * Simple; one & two & three (2 parts) * Compound; one & uh two & uh three (3 parts) * Duple (2 beats per measure) * Triple (3 beats per measure) * Quadruple (4 beats per measure) Timbre (colour): voice is: warm, smooth, rich * Chest voice, falsetto, crooner (male who sings with background jazz music) The 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s * Upheaval in politics, reflected in music * Baby boomers Chapter 1: Roots to 1955 Before Rock and Roll (Main stream music, rhythm and blues, country & western) Part 1: The World of Mainstream Pop Leading up to 1955 National vs. Regional Changes * Emergence of technology took music from a regional scope to a national level * Radio (1920’s) directed at white middle class ...
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...August 15, 16, and 17, 1969, and became a symbol of the 1960s American counterculture. Woodstock began with the following four partners: Michael Lang, the manager of a rock band, Artie Kronfeld, an executive at Capitol Records, and two capitalists, John Roberts and Joel Rosenman who supplied most of the money and the original idea. Their original plan was to build a recording studio in Woodstock, a small town in the Catskill Mountains that had become a rock music Mecca when musician Bob Dylan and his rock group called the Band settled there. To get the word out, the four partners decided to hold a concert, which they called the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. The group originally tried to have the festival in the town of Woodstock, but the citizens would not permit it. Then after much debate Michael Lang decided to move the concert to Wallkill, New York, where the people also protested, so finally he decided to move it about 70 miles away from the town of Woodstock to Max Yasgur’s dairy farm. Looking back on the sighting of the Bethel farm Lang remarked "It was magic, it was perfect. The sloping bowl, a little rise for the stage, and the lake in the background.” Woodstock had more acts scheduled to play then any other single event ever held before. They were trying to sign the biggest rock ‘n’ roll bands in America. The problem was getting the bands. Bands didn’t want to take contracts from an unproven venture, because they had no credibility. “To get the contracts, we have to have...
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...Anna Munoz Dr. Jones DISC 1313 December 4, 2015 Music and The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s All forms of Black music, from jazz to rock and roll, played an important part in the Civil Rights Movement. The songs were sung for multiple purposes and played a critical role in inspiring, activating, and giving voice to the people involved. The evolution of music during the early 1950’s and 1960’s in the Black freedom struggle reflects the evolution of the Civil Rights Movement itself. The progressive thought of the 1950s nurtured new ideas and cultures including the Civil Rights Movement and the fast spread of rock and roll. One such cultural revival occurred after the end of World War II during a time of change, prosperity and restoration. The “Puritan dicta” outlined by Baldwin represents the American ideology before the Second World War. As the first settlers of this nation, the Puritans set the mold for many common American ideologies. In the Puritan view white represented good and black represented evil, including Africans and their culture. After the war, Baldwin states that the former puritanical views of whites will be challenged. Musicians such as Elvis Presley were the first to issue this challenge to white society. Early rockers like Elvis would pave the way for social commentary in music that would add much fire to the Civil Rights Movement. To fully understand the explosion of popularity of Black music in the years following World War II, one must understand...
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