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MUS 505: Popular Music and Culture Lecture 3 - The Jazz Age and Tin Pan Alley Peter Johnston, PhD [email protected]

MUS 505: Popular Music and Culture - Scholary Essay

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Page 1: MUS 505: Popular Music and Culture - Scholary Essay

MUS 505: Popular Music and CultureLecture 3 - The Jazz Age and Tin Pan Alley

Peter Johnston, [email protected]

Page 2: MUS 505: Popular Music and Culture - Scholary Essay

Themes and Connections• Contemporary

representations of the themes, histories, and sounds in today’s lecture

Page 3: MUS 505: Popular Music and Culture - Scholary Essay

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”

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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”.

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The Jazz Age: 1920-29

The Roaring Twenties

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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

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Paul Whiteman (1890-1967)

“At Sundown”

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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

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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

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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)

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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

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The Jewish Sound of Broadway

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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)

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Broadway - New York

Judy Garland - “Get Happy”

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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

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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

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George Gershwin

Rhapsody in Blue (1924): mixes “concert” music and jazz

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George Gershwin

Porgy and Bess (1934): “Summer Time”Mixes musicals and opera

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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

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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

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Race Records

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Hillbilly Music

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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”.

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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

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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

Page 32: MUS 505: Popular Music and Culture - Scholary Essay

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

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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)

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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

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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

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Early Country Music: Hillbilly Records

The Barn Dance in the TV era

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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

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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

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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

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Homework

Reading:Chapters Six and Seven