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MUS 505: Popular Music and CultureLecture 3 - The Jazz Age and Tin Pan Alley
Peter Johnston, [email protected]
Themes and Connections• Contemporary
representations of the themes, histories, and sounds in today’s lecture
Learning OutcomesHistorical Context• 1920s: The jazz age, American prosperity post-WWI,
Tin Pan Alley song factory, Broadway, race-based music marketing, rural and urban divide in America, sacred gospel music informs popular music
Genres• Jazz, Tin Pan Alley songs for Broadway musicals,
standards, urban/classic blues, country blues, hillbilly music, gospel and southern gospel, folk music
Key Terms• The Jazz Age, Tin Pan Alley, American Dream, standard
songs, Race Records, Hillbilly Records, Blues form, the great depression
Course Themes• Music genres reflect social divisions, racial integration
through music, professional pop music songwriters and the “music factory”
The Jazz Age: 1920-29• The Jazz Age was a feature of the 1920s
(ending with The Great Depression 1929-1940) when jazz music and dance became popular
• This occurred particularly in the northern cities of the United States, which enjoyed unprecedented prosperity after WWI
• Jazz played a significant part in wider cultural changes during the period, and its influence on pop culture continued long afterwards.
• The Jazz Age is often referred to in conjunction with the phenomenon referred to as the “Roaring Twenties”.
The Jazz Age: 1920-29
The Roaring Twenties
Paul Whiteman (1890-1967)• Popularized jazz for a white audience, incredibly
successful, sold millions of records from 1920-1934
• Called himself the “King of Jazz”, and claimed that he “made an honest woman out of jazz”.
• Was an ambassador for jazz, grew the audience for it significantly
• Created “symphonic jazz”, by adding orchestral instruments to the brass and woodwinds of typical jazz
• Important early hit: “Whispering” (1920)
• Franchised his band
• Premiered George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” in 1930
Paul Whiteman (1890-1967)
“At Sundown”
Duke Ellington (1899-1974)• The most influential jazz composer • Ran an orchestra for over 50 years • Wrote hundreds of compositions• Created “jungle music” for floor shows
featuring black performers playing for a white audience at The Cotton Club.
• Featured unusual harmonies, dense textures, and growling sounds in the brass
• Took jazz from commercial, pop music to the realm of “art” music
• Example: “East St. Louis Toodle-oo”, 1927
The Jazz Age - 1920s• Racism still a big problem, but in the 1920s
African-American jazz music was synonymous with “popular music”, the only time this has been so
• Black bands could make a living performing at dances and on radio broadcasts across the country
• Recordings released as “race records” by record labels, marketed exclusively to black audiences
• White bands still made much more money than black bands, often playing the same or similar music (Guy Lombardo, Casa Loma Orchestra)
• Black bands often played for white audiences in venues that did not allow black patrons
Tin Pan Alley• Tin Pan Alley - a kind of song factory, in which
standard song forms were developed to maximize productivity and recognizability to the audience.
• Complete industry, with distribution through "song-pluggers", and connections to Vaudeville and Broadway
• Famous composers:
• Irving Berlin (1888-1989) - “Blue Skies”
• Richard Rogers (1902-1979) - “My Favourite Things”
• Cole Porter (1891-1964) - “Under My Skin”
• George Gershwin (1898-1937)
Tin Pan Alley• Employed many jewish immigrants who fled anti-
semitism in Europe in the late 1800s• Many worked in the entertainment business, as it
provided opportunities for upward mobility
• Songs became “standards”, remain in the repertoire of jazz musicians and pop singers
• Set the template for popular music forms, conditioned listeners to hear music in a certain way
• Songs appeared on radio, in films, in broadway musicals, and on records, influencing a wide range of music-makers in other styles
The Jewish Sound of Broadway
Tin Pan Alley Lyrics• Lyrical content primarily about privacy,
romance, and upward social mobility as cultural ideals
• Composers played with middle class aspirations and the American Dream in their lyrics, letting their listeners know that working class people could fall in love and buy a house
• Songs often about getting away from the challenges of working life
• Crooning singing style - microphones allowed for singers to sing more quietly, resulting in more emotive, intimate performances.
• Pre-microphone style heard in Al Jolson's “April Showers” (1932)
• Post-microphone style with Gene Austin, “My Blue Heaven” (1927)
My Blue Heaven (1927)Day is ending, birds are wending Back to the shelter of each little nest they love Night shades falling, love birds callingWhat makes the world go round? Nothing but love
A. When whippoorwill callsAnd evening is nighI hurry to my blue heaven
A. I turn to the rightA little white lightWill lead you to my blue heaven
B. A smiling face, a fireplace, a cozy roomA little nest that's nestled where the roses bloom
A. Just Molly and me And baby makes threeWe're happy in my blue heaven
Gene Austin
A Sailboat in the Moonlight (1927)A. A sailboat in the moonlight and youWouldn't that be heaven, a heaven just for two
A. A soft breeze on a June night and youWhat a perfect setting for letting dreams come true
B. A chance to sail away to Sweetheart BayBeneath the stars that shineA chance to drift, for you to liftYour tender lips to mine
A. The things, dear, that I long for are fewJust give me a sailboat in the moonlight and you
Billie Holiday
Tin Pan Alley and Song Form• 19th century song forms: AABA and
verse-chorus• Verse - a free-rhythm introduction that
sets the dramatic context or emotional tone of the rest of the piece (often left out in modern renditions)
• A sections repeated but with different lyrics
• The B section, or bridge, presents new material (melody, chord changes, lyrics)
• Challenge to work in this form while introducing just enough variety and novelty to keep the listener interested - the best songs balance predictability with novelty
Cole Porter: “My Heart Belongs To Daddy”
Verse and refrain
Tin Pan Alley Song FormAABA: Anything Goes (Cole Porter)Intro
A1 (8 bars) - In olden days…
A2 (8 bars) - Good authors who once…
B (8 bars) - The world has gone mad…
A3 (8 bars) - Though I’m not a great romancer…
A1 - Horn shots/saxophone solo
A2 - Horn shots/saxophone solo
B - The world has gone made
A3 - And though we’re not such…
Outro
Contemporary AABA FormA - verse/prechorus/chorus (AABA)A - verse/prechorus/chorus (AABA)B - BridgeA - chorus (AABA)
Chorus:
A - I really6 like you
A - I really6 like youB - Oh did I say too much…
A - I really6 like you
Broadway - New York• 1920s and 30s Broadway musicals gradually
replace Vaudeville, used songs from Tin Pan Alley.• Songs were the main musical object, not the
singers who sang them• Thin plot lines were knit between songs and
dance routines • Tin Pan Alley songwriters more famous than
singers• Broadway shows focused on songs and dancing
more than on plot development• Many songs from shows are remembered while
the musicals they were in are not
Broadway - New York
Judy Garland - “Get Happy”
Broadway - Showboat (1927)• “Showboat” (1927)
became the first successful musical to feature a complex plot, contemporary political themes, and a close connection between the music and the story.
• Started a trend where plot, songs, and characters became an integrated whole
• Jerome Kern: “Old Man River” - verse into AABA
George Gershwin (1898-1937)• Gershwin remains one of the most influential and
successful American composer for his melding of European classical music with African-American popular music
• First hit: “Swanee”, sung by Al Jolson
• “I Got Rhythm” - combines Tin Pan Alley song form with the rhythmic vitality of African American jazz.
• Ethel Merman - “I Got Rhythm” (pre-microphone singing)
• Wrote “concert” music as well as pop tunes, such as Rhapsody in Blue (1924), premiered by Paul Whiteman
• Most ambitious achievement was Porgy and Bess, which he called an American Folk Opera; mixed opera conventions with African-American musical techniques
George Gershwin
Rhapsody in Blue (1924): mixes “concert” music and jazz
George Gershwin
Porgy and Bess (1934): “Summer Time”Mixes musicals and opera
Tin Pan Alley Songs• Broadway songs rarely make the music charts;
replaced by movie soundtrack songs
• Tin Pan Alley songs remain the core repertoire in jazz, with musicians expected to know many tunes that first appeared in Broadway musicals
• Tin Pan Alley songs that are still performed are called “Standards” by jazz musicians
• Older rock musicians tend to return to these songs when they can't rock out like they used to; they have come to represent “maturity” in music
• Example:
• 1944: Frank Sinatra records Gershwin’s “Long Ago and Far Away” not long after it was written
• 1960s Scottish rocker Rod Stewart records Gershwin’s “Long Ago and Far Away” in 2005
Race Records and Hillbilly Music• Record companies discovered audiences for local,
regional musics, and marketed music to them that was distinctly different than the Tin Pan Alley songbook
• This new audience was immigrants from southern rural America to the Northern cities following World War 1
• Race records: recordings of African American musicians marketed to an African American audience
• Hillbilly records: performed by and intended for sale to southern rural whites
• Marketing “strategies” reflected large patterns of segregation, and a desire to develop alternative markets when phonograph sales declined
• Key point: the music can sound quite similar, but the racial identity of the artists and the intended audience marked the different labels
• “Improvements” in race relations often the result of economics-based decision making
Race Records
Hillbilly Music
Race Records and Hillbilly Music• Race and Hillbilly music provided the blueprint
for Rhythm and Blues, and by extension Rock'n'Roll
• Starting in 1920s, companies began to see the value in recording African American folk music for an African American audience
• Mamie Smith (1883-1946), first black recording star, trained in Vaudeville.
• “Crazy Blues” (1920) sold 75,000 copies to a mainly black audience
• Small, independent labels become the “research and development” wing of the large labels, for they are more tuned in to local musics and "person on the street" tastes in music
• Furniture companies got into the music business, selling “hardware” and “software”.
Race Records and Hillbilly Music• Black population bought more records per capita than
the white population, and shared this music between country and city
• Flow of recorded music created a national African American musical culture
• W.C. Handy - the “Father of the Blues”, a Vaudeville performer
• Bessie Smith records Handy’s “St. Louis Blues” in 1924, becomes first blues hit and a blues standard
• Example of “classic blues”: blues-informed music with pianos, organs, horns, drums, strings, and other instruments
• Connected with white audience because they recognized the instruments and the forms
Bessie Smith - “St. Louis Blues”• Blues lyrical form: AAB - a line sung twice, then
an “answering” line ending in a rhyming couplet • Each verse shares the same melody and form with
different lyrics, so the blues is a strophic song form
• Bessie Smith: “St. Louis Blues”
Verse 1
A: I hate to see that evening sun go down
A: I hate to see that evening sun go down
B: It makes me think I’m on my last go round
Verse 2
A: Feeling tomorrow like I feel today
A: Feeling tomorrow like I feel today
B: I’ll pack my trunk, and make my getaway
More Blues FormBillie Holiday: Stormy Blues
Verse 1A: I’ve been down so long, that down don’t worry me
A: I’ve been down so long, that down don’t worry me
B: I just sit and wonder, where can my good man be
Verse 2A: When it rains in here, it’s storming on the sea
A: When it rains in here, it’s storming on the sea
B: Every time I come here, everything happens to me
Instrumental solos follow same form
Country/Folk/Down-Home Blues• Originated in the Mississippi Delta in the early 1900s,
home to the largest slave population in the US
• Music of the impoverished black workforce, played in clubs, on street corners, and in homes
• Primarily solo performers, singing and playing guitar, telling stories of local events, places, and characters
• “Double-coded” lyrics - multiple possible meanings
• Robert Johnson - most famous Delta blues musician, sold his soul to the devil to play guitar, died mysteriously
• Revered by 1960s British rock bands like Led Zeppelin, Cream, and the Rolling Stones
• “Travelling Riverside Blues” (1937) by Robert Johnson
• “Travelling Riverside Blues” by English band Led Zeppelin (1973)
Country/Folk/Down-Home Blues• Blind Lemon Jefferson - street preacher, country
blues player
• “Black Snake Moan” (1926)
Verse 1
A: Oh, I ain't got no mama now
A: Oh, I ain't got no mama now
B: She told me late last night, “You don't need no mama no how”
Verse 2
A: Mmm, mmm, black snake crawlin’ in my room
A: Mmm, mmm, black snake crawlin’ in my room
B: Some pretty mama better come and get this black snake soon
Early Country Music: Hillbilly Records• Hillbilly Music becomes “Country and Western”
music
• Influenced by minstrel shows
• Northern record industry surprised to find a market for local music in the south
• First “hillbilly” record: Fiddlin’ John Carson,”The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane” (1923)
• Growth of the music contingent on the growth of radio broadcasting
• Popularized through “barn dances”, music and variety shows
• Musicians were amateurs
• First hillbilly hit: Vernon Dalhart - “Wreck of the Old 97” (1924), an urbanized folk song
Early Country Music: Hillbilly Records
The Barn Dance in the TV era
The Carter Family and Jimmy Rodgers
• Main themes in country music: relationship between country (home) and the city (away)
• Music reflects shift in patterns of work
• Carter Family: adapted songs from Anglo folk tradition, hymns, early Tin Pan Alley, African-American songs
• “Can the Circle Be Unbroken” (1927) - group harmonies, guitar melody, Christian theme, verse/chorus structure
• Jimmie Rodgers: rambler, railway worker, loved the night life
• “Blue Yodel No. 2” (1929) - blues influence, “high, lonesome” yodelling
Gospel Music• Christianity a powerful force in American south
• Two traditions of sacred music in America: Gospel Music (black), and Southern Gospel (white)
• Carter Family: “Gospel Ship”, 1935
• Guitar accompaniment, regular rhythm, loose harmony, casual
• Golden Gate Quartet: “The Sun Didn’t Shine” (1941)
• Syncopated rhythm, a cappella, alternating solo and group vocal, tight harmonies and performance, “professional”
• Gospel music a distinct stream in African American culture, mixed in with secular music in rural White culture
Popular Music and the Great Depression• 1929-1939, millions of Americans out of work
• Record sales decreased dramatically
• Entertainment industry relied on established stars
• Bing Crosby: big radio, TV, and film star, recorded “Brother Can You Spare a Dime”, 1932
• Hillbilly and folk music singers addressed the social problems of the Depression
• Woody Guthrie - most well-known Depression-era protest singer, documented the plight of the working class
• “Talking Dust Bowl Blues”
• Depression ends when World War II begins, kick-starting manufacturing in the US
Homework
Reading:Chapters Six and Seven