American Vernacular Music: Music Listening Journal, Chapters 11 & 12

Chapters 11 & 12

This weeks reading come from chapters 11 and 12. The 1970’s saw a turning inward of American culture. Americans also became weary of the war in Vietnam. This would cause a more conservative turn from the hippie dress and slang that was a major part of American. Music has begun to enter the cultural mainstream with radio, television and movies. The national would also embrace the nostalgia of the 1950’s with Grease and American Graffiti in the movie theaters and Happy Days playing on television.

During the 1970’s the music industry changed into six corporations that made up for 80 percent of record sales. With this success there came a risk as few artist were selling millions of records the record companies depended on the success of theses artist. Many FM stations were also moving from the top 40 formats seen on the AM stations to an album-oriented rock program. In the 70’s radios would also gain the first oldies stations playing the hit of the 50’s and 60’s.

In 1974, the Grand Ole Opry would move into a state of the art facility. That would not be the only change in country music. Artist starred in their own shows The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, the Johnny Cash Show, and Hee-Haw entertained viewers around the country. The country also had crossover success into the pop charts with John Denver, Glen Campbell, and C.W. McCall. The country also introduced Dolly Parton and Olivia Newton-John both had major success on both country and pop charts.

Pop and soft rock were designed to appeal to widest possible demographic. This included musicians Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, Carole King, Pink Floyd, Paul Simon, Neil Diamond, Crosby, Still and Nash, the Rolling Stones, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, and Santana would all fall in the category of rock.

British rock bands break world records with live performances. This caused other bands to spring up in the early 1970’s. Styx, Journey, Kansas, REO Speedwagon, ZZ Top, and Rush tailored their performances to live stages. Tommy the rock opera by the Who became a success due to the work being unified and thematic. Some rock bands would take months to work on these albums. Good headphones and high-fidelity systems could also place the listener into the middle of theses new unified albums.

Some rock albums used fiction to get their message to the listener. This was the case with David Bowies, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. Bowie made said, “I packaged a totally credible plastic rock star”. This coincided with his tour, which was a theatrical tour de force. There were other stars that didn’t not have a common theme through their albums. Joni Mitchell wrote songs about the complexity of love. The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd brought time, work, money, war and a fear of death into their music. Pink Floyd is still a popular group with listeners today.

Marvin Gaye took the emotions of Vietnam War and put that powerful feeling in his album What’s Going On. Even though this album was political it was a commercial success even though Berry Gordy did not see this in the album. Art rock became Emerson, Lake and Palmers success with the live album Pictures at Exhibition. This piece contained structural elements from the composer Modest Musorgsky. The Rolling Stones recorded their best album Exile on Main Street in 1972. It would be recorded in Keith Richards home and the band member use of drugs and alcohol was so intense that they wondered how the album got made.

The Allman Brothers band would represent the southern rock sound. They would combine southern folk music, with African American traditions to make their sound. This paved the way for the Marshall Tucker Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the Charlie Daniels Band. In expressing pride, many southern rock bands, intentionally or unintentionally, presented a view of how the south was, this was insensitive to African-American history and at worst racist.

Jazz-rock was collaborations between rock and jazz. Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago were a combination of the harmony and complexity of improvisations. Miles David also released Bitches Brew in 1970 and served as inspiration for many Jazz –rock artist. Chicago would hone its music at the Whiskey A Go-Go in Los Angles. 25 or 6 to 4 was the highest chart topper for Chicago.

The disco era was from 1975 – 1980 and represented a popular alternative to rock. This era was also against the idea of album record or art records. The records that disco artist created were for the dance floor. This era also had a major effect on performing musicians, as more clubs would use DJ’s over live musicians. Disco can largely that its success to the film Saturday Night Fever. The films album had many popular songs from the soundtrack including Staying Alive and Night Fever. Rick Dees scored a major hit with the goofy song Disco Duck. Disco was unpopular with some people linking its unpopularity with a dislike of the gay culture. The initial rejection of disco by many rock fans many have had as much to do with racism as with homophobia.

Progressive country got it inspiration from honky-tonk and rockabilly amalgam of Bakersfield country music. Artist Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Tom T. Hall and Townes Van Zandt were not polished singers but would become popular musicians. Willie Nelson came to fame in the mid-1970’s with his group called the Outlaws. Willies album the Red-headed Stranger sold two million copies in 1975.

Reggae mixed Caribbean Folk Music with American rhythms and blues. Jimmy Cliff became popular in the United States in 1973 with the release of The Harder The Come. Dance bands would replace the roots of reggae music called mento in the 40’s and 50’s. The Rastafarian movement gave reggae more notice. The heart of reggae music consists of “riddims”, interlocking rhythmic patterns that are performed by guitar, bass, and Drums. Bob Marley is reggae most well-known musician with his song Stir it Up. He is also known for the cover I Shot the Sheriff by Eric Clapton.

The rise of salsa music also appeared during the 1970’s it was intense, passionate, and rhythmic flow made it popular dance music. In 1973, Tito Puente packed Yankee Stadium with fans that wanted to hear salsa music. Eddie Palmieri and Willie Colon brought a new style to salsa from Puerto Rico. Pedro Navaja became a popular with Palmieri and Colon’s audiences.

Punk Rock and new wave music would bring rebellion back to rock. Punk rock was a cultural style and was a rejection of middle-class values. This was seen in the Ramones 1978 recording “I’m Against it”. Punk music was stripped-down and often non-purposeful version of rock. One the predecessors or punk was the garage band. The New York Dolls formed in 1971 and wore glam clothing that was refined by gender-bending David Bowie. The Sex Pistols and the Clash became a blueprint for hardcore bands in Los Angles. The Talking heads formed in 1974 with David Byrne and broken into the top 100 on the billboard charts. Even though the talking heads were popular they never achieved a number one hit.

Funk music was based on the impulse to dance. Funk groups Kool and The Gang and the Ohio Players scored number one hits during the 1970’s. James Brown was the inspiration for many of the funk musicians. Sly and the Family Stone recorded a series of albums and singles that topped the pop and soul charts. Their biggest hit was in 1971 with Family Affair. George Clinton took on racial and musical stereotypes with his reconfiguration of black popular music as a positive moral force. Give Up the Funk was Parliament’s biggest crossover hit from the LP Mothership Connection.

Rap has been transformed from a local phenomenon based in a few neighborhoods in New York City to a multimillion-dollar industry. Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, and Afrika Bambaataa would begin their careers as DJ’s spinning for neighborhood block parties. The disco DJ’s technique of mixing with a smooth transition with two records would mastered by Kool Herc known as the back spin. Raps or toast would be verbal performance based on trickster talks of West Africa. In 1979, hip-hop no longer would be a local phenomenon. Rappers Delight recorded by the Sugar Hill Gang ushered the age of hip-hop into American homes.