Popular Music

Music with a broad appeal

Music recorded for commercial consumption

Often oriented towards a youth market

Often intended to encourage dancing

Early Pop Music Mass distribution

needed to be considered pop music

1st way music distributed to a wide audience?

Sheet music- many Americans sang and played music in own homes

Most sheet music sold in 19th century- opera, classical music, marches, minstrel music

Now playing:

Esprit du CorpsJohn Phillip Sousa

Minstrel Music White singers in blackface

exaggerating the styles of African-American song and movement

Had existed in US almost since Europeans encountered Africans

Made most popular form of mass entertainment in 19th century by Thomas Rice, who saw a crippled black stable hand named Jim Crow doing a song and dance called Jumping Jim Crow.

Rice bought the man's clothes and learned the song and dance and made it a stage routine

Changing technology- The phonograph Thomas Edison the father

of recording industry Invented the phonograph

(musical cylinder) in 1877 Music recorded on wax

and later plastic cylinders Dominant form of mass

production from 1880s-1910

Brought professional musicians into homes for first time

Changing technology- The gramophone (record player) 1887- Emile Berliner

invents the gramophone

Played a flat record- cheaper to mass produce, easier to store

Gramophone was in millions of homes by the early 20th century

Now playing:

Red Red RobinAl Jolson

Pop Music in early 1900s tended to be: Mostly European in

style (USA still looked to Europe for approval)

Enjoyed by old and young alike (phonograph / gramophone sat in centre of home controlled by head of household)

Now playing:

California Here I ComeAl Jolson

The Lost Generation

Young men disillusioned by the horrors of WW1 began to reject the values of the elder generation

Young women fought stereotypical gender roles and adopted the “flapper” lifestyle

Known as the “Lost Generation”, youth in the 1920s began to rebel against the values of the Victorian era

The Generation Gap A disconnect between

members of one generation and members of the next based on the later generation developing habits, attitudes, and preferences inconsistent with the experience of the former

Before the 1920s, culturally there was not a significant generation gap

During the Roaring 1920s, the musical tastes of the young and old began to diverge- generation gap in music has been significant since then

The Jazz Age

Nickname for the 1920s Jazz music was

developed by African Americans in the Jim Crow south (New Orleans was the centre of the jazz music scene)

Came North as Black musicians tried to escape Southern oppression, particularly during the Great Migration- Chicago & New York became centres for Jazz music

Now playing:

St. Louis BluesLouis Armstrong

Jazz- Music of Rebellion

Young, white, Americans embraced jazz music as form of rebellion because:

Roots in Black culture Loud, fast, wild,

improvised sound much different than traditional pop music

Dance that accompanied it seen as too sexual

Played at illegal speakeasies during prohibition

Now playing:

Hotter than ‘EllFletcher Henderson

Slumming

Name given to the practice of affluent, whites going to black neighbourhoods, like Harlem, to go to jazz clubs

Went to find authentic “jungle music” and for the thrill of doing something disreputable

Now playing:

Jumpin’ JiveCab Calloway

Tin Pan Alley & the White Washing of Jazz Tin Pan Alley- the New

York City-centered music industry that dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century

Saw the popularity of jazz music and wanted to make it more acceptable to wider society to increase sales

Symphonic Jazz

Effort to get rid of elements of jazz that offended older generation

Music was more arranged & orderly, played in concert halls instead of speakeasies, played by classically trained white musicians.

Now playing:

ValenciaPaul Whiteman Orchestra

Stock Market Crash = Jazz Crash During the early 1930s,

popularity of jazz waned due to unpopularity of symphononic jazz; some blamed jazz age for Depression

“Crooners” singing sad songs most popular music in these years

Record sales, attendance at clubs falls dramatically during the early years of Depression

Now playing:

Pennies from HeavenMel Torme

Swing Music

During mid-1930s, new form of jazz, “Swing”, became popular.

Mixed improvisation, up-tempo beat, danceability of hot jazz; and big bands and organization (led by a band leader) of symphonic jazz

Swing became mainstream pop music- most popular genre of its time

Now playing:

Sing Sing Sing Benny Goodman

Black Musicians During Swing Era Many Black musicians

enjoyed considerable popularity during Swing Era ( e.g. Duke Ellington, Count Basie)

However, the white musicians were the most marketable and highest paid swing artists (Benny Goodman, Glen Miller, Artie Shaw)

Faced racism or were not allowed to perform at Southern venues

Now playing:

Jumpin at the WoodsideCount Basie

Bop or Bebop Jazz Genre created in 1940s Some believe it was

created for musical reasons- gave musicians more freedom to improvise, be creative than swing

Others believe black musicians created to protest that they were not being compensated as well as white swing artists

Now playing:

Groovin’ HighCharlie Parker & Dizzy

Gilespie

Avant-Garde Jazz

Eventually, jazz became even less of a dance or pop music, more of a musicians music

Avant-garde jazz did not fit style or structure of more popular forms of jazz

End of jazz as a popular form of music (1950s)- replaced by R&B and Rock

Now playing:

A Love SupremeJohn Coltrane

Overall Impact of Jazz Initiated the Generation

Gap in Pop Culture First music of American

origin to become popular world wide- US becomes leader in world pop culture

Cultural product with African-American origins and played widely by Black musicians became popular in white society- breaking down of racial barriers

Now playing:

Take the A TrainDuke Ellington