American 20th Century Music - Literature review Example

American 20th Century Music This essay will consider the development of music in America during the 20th century, in particular looking at the differences from the music of native Americans, in style , content and purpose, and then on through time to the development of rock and roll in the 1950s. This will be done by considering three main genres:- Country Music Big Band Blues Rock Native American music was acoustic and did not include metal instruments or electronics. Densmore (1936) is cited by InfoPlease (2015) as describing how it was mainly vocal, most often choral, although some groups prefer solo singing. The music is melodic, with no harmonies or polyphony, although at times there is antiphonal singing between a soloist and the chorus. The singing is almost always accompanied, most often by drums, and rattles are also used. The wind instruments used are, in the main, flutes and whistles. According to Indians .org ( 2015) the songs are often passionate, and often serve a religious purpose in that they are used to invoke the spirits, to ask for healing or rain. Country Music One of the nearest styles to the native American music in 20th century styles is perhaps country music, in that acoustic instruments are used, and like some native music, often the singer is a soloist. Jimmy Rogers, born in 1897, is also known as the father of country music, is a well known example. Unlike native Americans Rogers recorded his music, and broadcast on radio, in the first instance in February 1927 ( Jimmie Rogers , father of country music , undated). His performance was seen as bring music which was very different from what the station, WWNC in North Carolina, normally broadcast. By August of the same year Rogers was making his first record. One song recorded was ‘The Soldier’s Sweetheart’ ( Song Lyrics, 2015) , a true ballad in that it tells a story, in this case relating back the First World War. A ballad can be defined as :- A simple song, especially one of sentimental or romantic character, having two or more stanzas all sung to the same melody ( Dictionary.com, 2015). This telling of a story in song is typical of country music. More unusually it is sung by a man, but from a young woman’s point of view. Often country music songs are very personal and purport to relate to real life incidents in the singers life, or ones they know about, as in Garth Brooks ‘Unanswered Prayer ‘ or Jeannie Riley’s ‘Harper Valley PTA’ ( Country Outfitter, 2004). Country music is however most often melodic sung by a soloist , or quite small groups , and doesn’t have the back and forth between soloist and chorus of native music. Hank Williams (1923 – 1953)was often described as country music’s first superstar . Having first learned music from his mother, a Baptist church organist ( Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 2015). , he carried over the native American practise of using music as prayer in his Christian country songs such as ‘The Blind Child’s Prayer.’ ( Song Lyrics, 2015), although he did sing songs from other genres too, as in ‘Your cheating heart’. Williams, from Alabama, had spina bifida which tended to mean he didn’t mix very much with other children. Instead he listened to music on the radio, and learned to play both folk, country music on his guitar, and also blues from an African-American street musician, Rufus Payne. Another style he adopted was singing what are described as ‘outlaw songs’, and, according to his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame biography, it was this which led to the success of others such as Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 2015). There are a number of different styles of country music. Early country music is said to have been was brought down from the Appalachian mountains, and so was heavily influenced by the Celtic origins of many of the people (About Entertainment, 2015). Roy Acuff is important in the country music world because he became a publisher of country music ( About Entertainment, 2015) , and was the first person inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame within his lifetime. He had the nickname ‘King of country music, and he worked to bring southern music into the mainstream. Another style is bluegrass, which is linked to banjo’s rather than using guitar’s, or combines these as with the duo Flatt and Scruggs. Flatt played the rhythm guitar, but Scruggs used a banjo to get the sound he wanted. What is described as Traditional Country Music takes old mountain music, and then updates this in order to relate it for modern audiences. By the 1930s the Cowboy style came to the fore, with performers wearing, often elaborate, cowboy styles. Unlike simple melodic music, this style often includes rich harmonies, something absent in native American music. The songs often relate to the cowboy life styles as in ‘Take Me Back To My Boots and Saddle’ by the Riders in the Sky( About.com Country Music, 2015 ). Western Swing combines a number of different music genres from country style, big-band jazz, blues music and pop styles (About Entertainment, 2015). This sounds very modern, but actually began back in the 1920s.( last fm, 2015). Country music is often listened to on radio and through recordings, but western swing, which began with string groups from the south, is faster in tempo and is meant to be danced to. As well as strings it uses drums, saxophones, pianists and the very individual sounds of the steel guitar. Big Band Style According to Thomas (1994) the Big Band Style, the dance bands, were the result of long slow developments in American music. It developed out of Dixie land music, but used a wider range of instruments, including the saxophone, alto, tenor and baritone, trumpets, and lots of trombones, together with piano, a bass player, drums, and guitars. This is in contrast to Dixie land which used a trumpet or cornet, , a clarinet, trombone, piano, and either a string bass or a tuba, together with drums, and either a banjo or a guitar player. They combined influences from ragtime, the large military brass bands, blues jazz style, and gospel music. Thomas sees Big Band as a direct result of a number of African-Americans turning and being free to follow, careers in music and entertainment after the American Civil War was concluded. These African-Americans had a huge influence upon the development of music and dance, especially in America. History Detectives (2014) describe the influence of Afro American musicians as revolutionary. They were to a large extent cut off from white , European influenced Americans, and so weren’t bound by ideas transported from the history and musical styles of Europe. Instead they brought with them an organization from African music, which is based around rhythms and accents which shift in relation to each other as the piece continues. West African music had rhythms of different lengths, which were overlaid with each other, creating accents which shifted, and which were very different from those found in European music. In America this first became Ragtime, a synthesis of African and European styles, which began in the late 19th century. The rhythms , described as ‘ragged’ were syncopated in style, that is having stresses "off" the beat. Often the musicians used blues harmonies and notes, and this included having notes which are not included in European musical scales. These extra notes were described as fitting between the cracks. Although there were a number of other big bands around , not least those of Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey, it was Benny Goodman , a native of Chicago, who took the title The King of Swing ( Benny Goodman , undated). Goodman was playing the clarinet while still a child, and by 14 was playing professionally in a band. By 1934 he felt ready to start his own band, one which played in anew restaurant. He auditioned a number of jazz musicians and the band was formed. Soon he was performing on radio. On that first show there were to be three bands –‘one sweet, one Latin and one hot ‘ (Benny Goodman, undated).It was Goodman who supplied the hot, perhaps a little surprising from someone who learned his musicianship in a synagogue ( Bio, 2015). When he and his band played at the Carnegie Hall, in New York, in 1938, the first jazz band to do so, this was described by the music critic Bruce Eder as:- The single most important jazz or popular music concert in history: jazz's 'coming out' party to the world of 'respectable' music (New Releases, 2015). Up until that time the Carnegie hall was considered to be the home of ‘respectable music’ ( Eder, 2015), so this was bringing the big band style to a whole new audience. Glen Miller, an equally famous big band leader in the 1930s and 40s, and known for the distinctive style of his music, has been quoted as having said:- A band ought to have a sound all of its own. It ought to have a personality. (quoted by The Famous Glen Miller Orchestra, 2015). Glenn Miller made his first recording in 1935 (The World Famous Glenn Miller Orchestra, History, 2015) . He created a band in 1937, but this proved to be unsuccessful and was soon disbanded. By 1939 there was a new orchestra, and this played on radio. By 1942 the orchestra was America’s top recording artist and was completely dominant. At this point though Miller joined the armed services in World War Two. He soon founded a military band, which both played on military camps and broadcast on radio. In 1944 Miller and his band arrived in the United Kingdom, and it was from there that he took off in a plane which was never seen again. In the same era as Miller was the Tommy Dorsey band led by the trombone playing leader. His band backed now famous singers such as Frank Sinatra and Jo Stafford. Early radio exposure had brought Sinatra, then a club singer, to the attention of Harry James, a band leader with whom Sinatra would make his first recordings, before moving on With his older brother Jimmy, Tommy Dorsey had a regular television show, and was the leading and biggest selling artist with RCA records until overtaken by Elvis Presley and his rock and roll , sexier style. By the late 1940 the big band style was in decline, and the Tommy Dorsey band was disbanded in 1946, but later got together again. Since the high period of the Big Bands a number of other music genres have come and gone, but this was an important period for the history of American music, not least because it included new styles and musicians who were from minority groups , as well as furthering the careers of singers such as Frank Sinatra , as well as Bing Crosby who performed with Phil Whiteman and his jazz band. Blues Rock Blues rock is a subgenre of rock and roll which emerged in the late-1960s . It is a style which stresses the traditional, three-chord blues song and which often involves instrumental improvisation. According to Last fm (2015) :- Blues Rock is a hybrid musical genre combining bluesy improvisations over the 12-bar blues and extended boogie jams with Rock and roll styles. The core of the blues rock sound is created by the electric guitar, bass guitar and drum kit, with the electric guitar usually amplified through a tube guitar amplifier, giving it an overdriven character. Dahl has produced a biography of John Lee Hooker ( 2015). He described Hooker’s style as ‘droning, hypnotic one-chord grooves were at once both ultra-primitive and timeless.’ Dahl claims that the droning, mournful and even eerie guitar sounds were influenced by his stepfather, Will Moore, while Hooker was still a teenager. Before that Hooker had sung spirituals, but the blues sound took over. He travelled to Detroit in 1943, where he soon discovered clubs where he could play in his chosen style. By 1948 he was using a heavily amplified guitar and ruminative vocals, all the while pounding his foot. In 1951 he hit the top of the music charts with ‘I’m in the mood’ which unusually for the time had an attempt at multi tracking, as Hooker overlaid his music by dubbing his vocals three times. Hooker was a major influence on a number of other musicians. Dahl (2105) mentions British groups of the 1960s , such as the Yardbirds and the Animals. Hooker recorded on any number of labels, often small ones, but the major labels gradually began to take notice of the growing mainstream demand for blues records. They wanted part of the action. Hooker was the black son of share croppers . In a story famous in American musical history, Sam Phillips of Sun Records, is reported to have stated that :- He could make a fortune if he could find a white singer who could master the black vocal style ( Blues Music History, 2015). Elvis Presley, one of the most popular singers of the twentieth century, was the answer. Although white, in his singing style , he managed to bring together black and white, as well as, urban and country styles in one very saleable package. His debut song on record was a rockabilly style reworking of the blues song ‘That’s All Right’. Describing his unique style Presley said :- Some people tap their feet, some people snap their fingers, and some people sway back and forth. I just sorta do 'em all together, I guess (Presley, Good Reads, 2015). Elvis Presley caused a revolution in popular music by mixing the blues he first heard as a boy in Tupelo along with gospel country and pop. The Presley family lived in a number of different homes in Tupelo which were near to those of were adjacent to African Americans. As a teenager he would often have heard the sounds of both blues and gospel music coming from the local clubs and churches. He is said to have listened especially to local blues guitarist Lonnie William. Many of the first tracks he created and recorded for the Memphis Sun label in Memphis were covers of earlier recordings of blues songs originating from African American musicians. Arthur Gunter’s ‘Baby Let’s Play House,’; Roy Brown’s ‘Good Rockin’ Tonight,’; Little Junior Parker’s ‘Mystery Train,’ and Kokomo Arnold’s ‘Milk Cow Blues’. Throughout his career he would carry on incorporating blues sounds into his recordings and live performances ( Mississippi Blues Trail, undated). In his teens Elvis moved to Memphis, only a mile away from Beale Street, described on the Memphis web page as ‘the heart of Memphis music and entertainment’ ( 2015) . Also in Memphis was of course the Sun Records recording studio. In 1955 Elis moved on to the bigger company RCA Records, but continued to record covers of songs first produced by black artists, as when he recorded a cover of his fellow Alabaman Big Mama Thornton’s (Bio 2015) ‘Hound Dog’. By doing so he was moving the music on from purely blues genre into the more main stream and lucrative rock and roll enjoyed by a wide range of Americans and others. It was not one particular artist who influenced Elvis, but the whole blues genre, one which largely grew after the American Civil War. The Elvis Information Network ( 2015) defines blues as being a combination of the slave music and railroad songs together with gospel, and all backed by a beat which made it suitable for dancing. Often the songs had lyrics which dealt with the more negative aspects of life, its hardships, or broken hearts. With the coming of rhythm and blues the beat became even more important. Although the other artists mentioned above, did have sales outside the U.S.A. , often large sales, it was Elvis who was really one of the great internationally liked artists. Conclusion As can be seen each of these musical styles and artists had a number of influences, often from outside America, or from a distant past, and were often a combination or extension of what had gone before. The twentieth-century music scene saw a great coming and going of various styles and movements from j azz to rock, From America, often from its slums and backstreets, came some of the most influential musical artists and styles the world had yet seen. In the case of all the artists mentioned above their interest in music, in whatever genre, started at a very early age, often encouraged by parents or other family members, but who were also the products of their time and environment, as well as being innovators, creators, developing distinctive styles of their own . Often they came from poor families on the fringes of society, sometimes from ethnic minorities and migrants, but because of the musical skills they cultivated they were able to reach out to people from a wide variety of backgrounds, both in America and elsewhere. Thanks to modern technology their music, first played so long ago, can still be enjoyed to this day. The twentieth century is now over and in the twenty first century we can expect fresh developments. New musical styles will always come along, and in many cases will supersede earlier styles which influenced them, yet they would not have come into being without what had gone before, saw el as talented musicians and lots of hard work and the encouragement of others who can recognise and develop potential. 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