MUS106 midterm review

Musical Artists and Bands

• Sister Rosetta Tharpe: early cross-over from gospel to secular; Cotton Club
• Sam Cooke: singer; cross-over from secular to pop
• Muddy Waters: recording in the Library of Congress; amplified guitar playing
  • ”Rollin Stone”
• Robert Johnson: most important early bluesman for rock
  • heavily influenced Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page
  • Delta blues
  • master of all musical styles; itinerary musician
  • was invited to play at Carnegie Hall (but already passed away at the time)
  • “Come On In My Kitchen” (1936)
• W.C. Handy
  • father of the blues
  • integrates folk music elements into blues
  • codified the blue form (e.g. 12-bar blues) and vocabulary (e.g. blues scale)
• Jerry Lee Lewis (1935-) is a gospel & boogie woogie musician
  • Jerry is a prodigal pianist, as heard in “The Killer”
  • Other hits include “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On"
  • "Great Balls of Fire”
• Elvis Presley: early pop star
  • underdog → pop star → tragic end
  • moved to Memphis
  • main focus on live performances
  • Sun Records couldn’t afford the live performancess, so his contract was sold to RCA (big 6).
  • song stylist: cover existing songs and turn them popular
  • pop, sometimes gospel
  • later enters army, signaling the hiatus of rock
• Carl Perkins is the first white country artist to cross-over to R&B
  • ”Blue Suede Shoes” (1956)
• Johnny Cash is a gospel & country musician who acted as an musical activist for disenfranchised African Americans etc in the country, especially during Vietnam War, e.g. “What Is Truth”, “Man in Black”
• Little Richard quitted rock to enter the ministry, signaling the hiatus of rock
• Pat Boone covered songs by African Americans like Fats Domino, but ended up much more popular than the original (whitewashing). Self-proclaimed “civil rights activist” (he claimed to have helped African Americans by whitewashing their music and making his recordings of their songs popular).
• Chuck Berry is the “father of rock n’ roll” who crossed-over blues to pop audience & country to R&B audience; riff-driven music
  • legacy
    • solos & riffs
    • showmanship
    • covered by more than a thousand of other artists
  • charged for immorally transporting minor under Mann Act; part of hiatus of rock
• Buddy Holly & The Crickets
  • The Crickets was the first modern rock group.
  • signed by Decca Records
  • ”Peggy Sue”, seeming simple songs but extremely subtle (both in meaning and in chords, e.g. non-diatonic chords)
  • influence of Buddy Holly
    • complex songwriting
    • complex studio techniques
    • collaborative rock band format
    • ”self-contained” (McCartney), can do it all
• Soul Stirrers: Sam Cooke was the lead singer
• The Crystals: girl group (illustrated the idea that girl group members are replaceable as long as the name remains the same; the audience doesn’t really care who the members are)
  • Sam Cooke attributed a recording by The Blossoms to The Crystals
• The Ronettes
  • ”Be My Baby” was recorded by Ronettes and produced by Phil Spector
• The Beach Boys: surf rock group
  • ”category-2” surf rock (surfing narrative, but not real surfers)
  • originally the The Pendletones, signed by Candix
  • was renamed to “The Beach Boys” without notifying the band
  • first song “Surfin”
  • In 1962, signed by Capitol Records
    • Big 6 called the band “teenage gold”
  • 2nd album Surfin’ USA (1963) got Billboard #2
    • Title track stole from Chuck Berry, got sued by Chuck Berry after he got out from prison, then Beach Boys added him as a co-writer
• The Beatles
• The Rolling Stones
• The Yardbirds
• The Who
• The Kingsmen: anti-professional “garage band” that covered Little Richard’s “Louie Louie” and caused parents to ask for an FBI investigation regarding the salacious lyrics
• The Kinks:
• The Wrecking Crew: Phil Spector’s studio band & orchestra
• The Funk Brothers: Motown Records’ studio band which appeared very often on top #1 tracks (though not in their name)

Influential People

• Andrew Loog Oldham: manager and producer of The Rolling Stones; noted for his flamboyant style
• George Martin was often called “The Fifth Beatles” due to his extensive involvement in the early Beatles albums.
• Phil Spector was a producer who came up with wall of sound.
• Alan Freed popularized the term “Rock and Roll” (didn’t coin it though) and was once charged for inciting a riot in Boston due to large rock concert with teenage.
• Colonel Tom Parker: manager/agent for Elvis Presley after his contract was bought from Sun Records by RCA
• Ed Sullivan: TV host; hosted the Ed Sullivan Show

Terms

• rockabilly was an early rock style (50s) popular in the South; a combination of rock and hillbilly/country
  • Carl Perkins
  • Elvis Presley
  • Jerry Lee Lewis
  • Johnny Cash
• TODO