Introduction
American popular music has had a profound effect on music across the world. The country has seen the rise of popular styles that have had a significant influence on global culture, including ragtime, blues, jazz, swing, rock, bluegrass, country, R&B, doo wop, gospel, soul, funk, heavy metal, punk, disco, house, techno, salsa, grunge and hip hop. In addition, the American music industry is quite diverse, supporting a number of regional styles such as zydeco, klezmer and slack-key. The 1960s and 1970s saw a number of important changes in American popular music, including the development of a number of above mentioned styles, such as heavy metal, punk, soul, and hip hop.
Early American Music
The purpose of this topic is to introduce early American popular music. There is much influence of early American music which included the black culture and the inclusion of slavery. References to this are not meant to offend but to inform of the life and attitudes of the times.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_popular_music
The Minstrel show: The minstrel show marked the beginning of a long tradition of African American music being appropriated for popular audiences, and was the first distinctly American form of music to find international acclaim, in the mid-19th century. Minstrel shows contained “essentially black music, while the most successful acts were white. So songs and dances of black origin were imitated by white performers and then taken up by black performers, who thus to some extent ended up imitating themselves“. The use of blackface is attributed to a desire for white Americans to glorify the brutal existence of both free and slave blacks by depicting them as happy and carefree individuals, best suited to plantation life and the performance of simple, joyous songs that easily appealed to white audiences. Minstrel shows lampooned black people as dimwitted, lazy, buffoonish, superstitious and happy-go-lucky The minstrel show consisted of comic skits, dancing, and music performances which mocked people of African descent. These shows emerged from brief acts in the early 1830s. By 1848, blackface minstrel shows were the national art form, translating formal art such as opera into popular terms for a general audience. In medieval times, nobles would often employ a minstrel to recite poems and sing songs accompanied by music. The the minstrel was both entertainer and servant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minstrel_show
Sheet music cover (image) for “Dandy Jim from Caroline” by Dan Emmett, London, c. 1844 is below. .Black people had taken part in American popular culture prior to the Civil War era, at least dating back to New York in the 1820s and the publication of the first music by a black composer, European music influenced this tradition. Minstrel songs originated in Europe. The first extremely popular minstrel song was “Jump Jim Crow” by Thomas “Daddy” Rice, first performed in 1832 and was a sensation in London where Rice performed it in 1836.
Thomas Dartmouth Rice as “Jim Crow” 1832
Rice used a dance that he copied from a stable boy with a tune adopted from an Irish jig. The African elements included the use of the banjo, believed to derive from West African string instruments, and accented and additive rhythms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Foster
Stephen Collins Foster (1826 –1864) was the first major American popular songwriter, primarily known for his parlor and minstrel music These earliest songs could be considered American popular music, as opposed to the popular music of a particular region or ethnicity. The sentimental parlor songs by Foster and his peers were meant for use in minstrel shows, theatrical productions that featured singing, dancing and comic performances. By the middle of the 19th century, touring companies had taken this music to every part of the United States, the UK, Western Europe, and even to Africa and Asia. Minstrel shows were generally advertised as though the music of the shows was in an African American style, though this was often not true.
Foster wrote over 200 songs; among his best-known are “Oh! Susanna”, “Hard Times Come Again No More”, “Camptown Races”, “Old Folks at Home” , (click to listen to a part of this song)”Swanee River” – Popular minstrel songs, such as Swanee River formed part of the repertoire of camp bands during the Civil War. This performance is by Civil War re-enactors, the 2nd South Carolina String Band.
“My Old Kentucky Home”, “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair”, “Old Black Joe”, and “Beautiful Dreamer”. His compositions are thought to be autobiographical and also referred to as “childhood songs” as they have been included in the music curriculum of early education.Foster did more than most to humanize the blacks he composed about, such as in “Nelly Was a Lady”, a plaintive, melancholy song about a black man mourning the loss of his wife. Such a song (below) might be called a ballad.
Listen to Nehly was a lady”
Listen to Oh Susana:
Extravangazas (Lavish and elaborate theater) – Burlesque – Vaudville: Blackface minstrel shows remained popular throughout the last part of the 19th century, only gradually dying out near the beginning of the 20th century. During that time, a form of called the extravaganza arose, beginning with Charles M. Barras’ The Black Crook. Extravaganzas were criticized by the newspapers and churches of the day because the shows were considered sexually titillating, with women singing bawdy songs dressed in nearly transparent clothing. The Variety show was a comic and ribald production – popular from the middle to the end of the 19th century. It evolved into vaudeville in contrast to the extravaganza and the burlesque which had long been the domain of a rough and disorderly crowd. Vaudville represented an effort to encourage attendance by women and children. By the early 20th century, vaudeville was a respected entertainment for women and children. The most popular vaudeville shows were, like the Ziegfeld Follies, a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They had a
Promotional artwork for 1912 Ziegfeld Follies
Below is an example of the music of the Follies the following songs are a part of this video: “Ladies of the Dance” sung by Howard Conrad, “The Flippity Flop” sung by Marjorie ‘Babe’ Kane and danced by Hal Skelly. Music by Richard Whiting. Selection is 9 minutes listen to parts of this video.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziegfeld_Follies
a profound effect on the subsequent development of Broadway musical theater and the songs of Tin Pan Alley.
Tin Pan Alley was an area called Union Square in New York City which became the major center for music publishing by the mid 1890s. During this era a sense of national consciousness was developing as the United states became a formidable world power. especially after the Spanish American war. The increased availability and efficiency of railroads and the postal service helped disseminate ideas including popular songs.
Broadway: The early 20th century also saw the growth of Broadway, a group of theatres specializing in musicals. Broadway became one of the preeminent locations for musical theater in the world, and produced a body of songs leading some to call the era the golden age of songwriting. The need to adapt enjoyable songs to the constraints of a theater and a plot enabled and encouraged a growth in songwriting and the rise of composers like George Gershwin, Vincent Youmans, Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern. These songwriters wrote songs that have remained popular and are today known as the Great American Songbook.
Foreign operas were popular among the upper-class Americans throughout the 19th century. Other styles of musical theater included operettas, ballad operas and the opera bouffe. The English operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan were particularly popular. This operetta is the entire production so quite long. Listen to the first few minutes.
Imported operettas and domestic productions had a formative influence on Broadway. Composers like Gershwin, Porter and Kern gave these European models a feel that was distinctly American. They made comedic musical theater into a national pastime. Many of these individuals were descendants of 19th century immigrants fleeing persecution in the Russian Empire who settled most influentially in New York City. Jewish composers of these works may have seen connections between the traditional African American blue notes and their own folk Jewish music.
Broadway songs lead to Broadway shows: Broadway songs were recorded around the turn of the century, but did not become widely popular outside their theatrical context until much later. Jerome Kern’s “They Didn’t Believe Me” was an early song that became popular nationwide. Kern’s later innovations included a more believable plot than the rather shapeless stories built around songs of earlier works, beginning with Show Boat in 1927. George Gershwin was perhaps the most influential composer on Broadway, beginning with “Swanee” in 1919 and later works for jazz and orchestras. His most enduring composition may be the opera Porgy and Bess, a story about two blacks, which Gershwin intended as a sort of “folk opera”, a creation of a new style of American musical theater based on American idioms.
Swanee” is an American popular song written in 1919 by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Irving Caesar. It is most often associated with singer Al Jolson. Caesar and Gershwin, who was then aged 20, claimed to have written the song in about ten minutes riding on a bus in Manhattan, and then at Gershwin’s apartment. It was written partly as a parody of Stephen Foster’s “Old Folks at Home”. It was originally used as a big production number, with 60 chorus girls dancing with electric lights in their slippers on an otherwise darkened stage.
Al Jolson (1886 – 1950), born in Lithuania, Russian Empire, was a highly acclaimed American singer, comedian, and actor, and the first openly Jewish man to become an entertainment star in America. His career lasted from 1911 until his death in 1950, during which time he was commonly dubbed “the world’s greatest entertainer. Numerous well-known singers were influenced by his music, including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Judy Garland. By 1920, he was Americas most famous and highest paid entertainer.
The song had little impact in its first show, but not long afterwards Gershwin played it at a party where Al Jolson heard it. Jolson then put it into his show Sinbad and recorded it for Columbia Records in January 1920.
Listen to these selections sung by Al Jolson
You will need to paste this link to “Swanee” in your browser to hear this selection:https://youtu.be/bPmBPvHzF2c
Listen also to Mammy
Thomas Edison’s invention of the phonograph cylinder kicked off the birth of recorded music. The first cylinder to be released was “Semper Fidelis” by the U.S. Marine Band. At first, cylinders were released sparingly, but as their sales grew more profitable, distribution increased. These early recorded songs were a mix of vaudeville, barbershop quartets, marches, opera, novelty songs, and other popular tunes.
Ragtime: Ragtime was a style of dance music based around the piano, using syncopated rhythms and chromaticism. The genre’s most well-known performer and composer was undoubtedly Scott Joplin. Ragtime is considered the culmination of coon songs, used first in minstrel shows and then vaudeville, and the result of the rhythms of minstrelsy percolating into the mainstream. Amateur performers, especially, played a more free-flowing form of ragtime that eventually became a major formative influence on jazz.
Blues: Blues had been around a long time before it became a part of the first explosion of recorded popular music in American history. This came in the 1920s, when classic female blues singers like Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Mamie Smith grew very popular; the first hit of this field was Mamie Smith’s “Crazy Blues”. These urban blues singers changed the idea of popular music from being simple songs that could be easily performed by anyone to works primarily associated with an individual singer.
Bessie smith:Lost Your Head Blues:
This famous blues number from the early 20th century sung by one of the most famous singers of that time – Bessie Smith. The song is in a well established 12 bar “blues pattern” frequently used for many songs. One can follow this pattern. Simply count the beats. Each of the five verses has 12 bars (or measures) – each line of the verse is four bars and each bar has four beats (4/4 meter). Start by counting when the singing begins. When you count a total of 16 beats you will have counted four bars or the first line of the verse 1 The next group of 16 counts accounts for line two, and the next 16 counts accounts for line three. You will notice a cadence at the end of each of these lines. So, the 12 bars are organized in a group of 3 phrases which comprise each verse. This 12 bar blues pattern through the song for each the 5 verses.
Lyrics are below:
http://lyrics.wikia.com/wiki/LyricWiki:Copyrights
Verse1: I was with you, baby, when you didn’t have a dime
I was with you, baby, when you didn’t have a dime
Now since you got a lot of money, you have thrown a good gal down
Verse 2: Once ain’t for always and two ain’t for twice
Once ain’t for always and two ain’t for twice
When you get a good gal, you’d better treat her nice
Verse 3: When you were lonesome, I treated you kind
When you were lonesome, I treated you kind
But since you’ve got money, it has changed your mind
Verse 4: I’m goin’ to leave you, baby, and I ain’t goin’ to say goodbye
I’m goin’ to leave you, baby, and I ain’t goin’ to say goodbye
But I’ll write you a letter and tell you the reason why
Versi 5: Days are lonesome, nights are so long
Days are lonesome, nights are so long
I’m a good gal, but I just been treated wrong
Popular jazz (Dixieland)
Dixieland, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixieland sometimes referred to as hot jazz or traditional jazz, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. The first use of the term “Dixieland” with reference to music was in the name of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, whose 1917 recordings fostered popular awareness of the new style of music.
This style is characterized by blue notes, syncopation, swing, call and response, polyrhythms, and improvisation. Though originally a kind of dance music, jazz has now been “long considered a kind of popular or vernacular music (and has also) become a sophisticated art form that has interacted in significant ways with the music of the concert hall”. Jazz’s development occurred at around the same time as modern ragtime, blues, gospel and country music, all of which can be seen as part of a continuum with no clear demarcation between them; jazz specifically was most closely related to ragtime, with which it could be distinguished by the use of more intricate rhythmic improvisation, often placing notes far from the implied beat. The earliest jazz bands adopted much of the vocabulary of the blues, including bent and blue notes and instrumental “growls” and smears.
Paul Whiteman was the most popular bandleader of the 1920s, and claimed for himself the title “The King of Jazz.” Despite his hiring many of the other best white jazz musicians of the era, later generations of jazz lovers have often judged Whiteman’s music to have little to do with real jazz. Nonetheless, his notion of combining jazz with elaborate orchestrations has been returned to repeatedly by composers and arrangers of later decades.
Whiteman commissioned Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”, which was debuted by Whiteman’s Orchestra.
This recording of Gershwin performing the Rhapsody in Blue suggests an older recording with an orchestra similar to Paul Whitman at the time. This is what the people would have hear then. Note Gershwin’s very refined ad artistic performance.
In the 1920s, the music performed by these artists was extremely popular with the public and was typically labeled as jazz. Today, however, this music is labeled as “sweet music” by jazz purists. The music that people consider today as “jazz” tended to be played by minorities. In the 1920s and early 1930s, however, the majority of people listened to what we would call today “sweet music” and hardcore jazz was categorized as “hot music” or “race music.”
Famed trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke.
The Frankie “Tram” Trumbauer Orchestra feat. Bix Beiderbecke – Singin’ the Blues. The first minute of the song is a sax solo by Trumbauer. The second minute is Bix’s cornet solo. The third minute features a short clarinet solo by Jimmy Dorsey, who was the clarinetist in Trumbauer’s Orchestra at that time. The guitarist on this track is Eddie Lang. This song is considered a jazz classic because Bix and, to a lesser degree, Tram were able to make a slow-tempo jazz ballad swing. This ability to make slow-tempo swinging jazz would later be emulated by jazz musicians ranging from Lester Young to John Coltrane to Miles Davis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_popular_music