Rock and R&B in the Early 1970s

1. Rock and R&B in the Early 1970s Chapter 12

2. The popular-music industry in the 1970s: Commerce and technology • From the beginning, rock had portrayed itself as a music of rebellion, taking over popular music with a revolution. • Throughout the 1970s rock and R&B had changed the mindset for many arts. - New music had become a big business - Important artists were determined to go their own way no matter where it took them -Technology would play an increasingly important role in shaping the sound of popular music.

3. The business of rock • Corporate mentality took over the business side of rock when they realized that commercial success was the highest priority for artists to shape their music. -Elton John, bestselling rock star of the 70s was the poster boy for this path. • The impact of profit-oriented thinking was evident in the media and in the use of new market strategies designed to maximize sales.

4. Media and money • No media showed the impact of the big-business mind-set more than radio. • Most significant new trend was the AOR: (album-oriented radio) • Disc jockeys could no longer choose the songs they played, instead the program directors selected limited number of songs designed to attract a broad audience. • Cross-marketing: a major business innovation of the 70s, • Record companies used tours to help promote record sales, in pursuit of greater financial record sales. • Concerts confirmed that the audience already knew about the music of a particular band. • Performances were more about show then sound.

5. Technology and music • German scientists had developed a magnetic tape recorder, which when brought to the United States after the war, served as the prototype for the reel-to-reel tape recorders developed by Ampex. • Tape players: In the 60s two important tape-based consumer formats emerged. • - Four or eight track tapes • -Audiocassette • Manufactures like Philips, Sony and Grundig worked to develop cassettes and cassette players . • By the 70s cassette sales grew much faster then LP, then exceeded them by 1982.

6. Technology and music cont. • Boom boxes were developed in the mid-seventies, offering a portable and low-priced alternative to the home stereo. • Walkmans were created from the Sony factory in 1979, which was a device that made it easier for listeners to listen to their music as accessible as the radio. • Synthesizer: a device that creates sounds electronically. - most of the new sounds of the 70s came from synthesizer electronically - Early synth. Used vacuum tubes but by the early 70s transistors were making them faster, smaller, and more flexible - A piano-like keyboard was the most popular way to input the information necessary to generate a particular sound - synthesizers opened up a new sound world to musicians • The Moog synthesizer, as used by Wendy Carlos in her landmark 1968 recording, Switched-On Bach.

7. The new mainstream • By the early 1970s, the rock revolution was over • If one had to reduce the relationship between the 60s and 70s with one word it would be, more -Whatever happened in the 60s happened more in the 70s • The sounds and the musicians became more powerful and bigger throughout the 70s.

8. The who • Came together as a group in 1964. • Vocalist Roger Daltrey, guitarist Pete Townshend, and bassist John Entwhistle were part of a group called the High Numbers before The Who drummer Keith Moon joined them. • Musically they were a powerhouse band with a heavy bass sound that displayed the strong influence of the 1960s rhythm and blues. • They used a lot of synthsizers throughout their music. • Some of their popular songs included; “My Generation” and “Substitute”, which were anthems for the “live hard, die young, and don’t trust anyone over the age of 30” crowd • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uswXI4fDYrM&ob=av2n • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eswQl-hcvU0&ob=av2eve • “Wont Get Fooled Again”, innovative technology enhances the basic sound and rhythm of a rock band. – can hear the synthesizers right away. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHhrZgojY1Q

9. “The Who never forgot how to rock and roll”

10. Led zeppelin • An artist that was capable of defining its core value by doing one thing supremely well, and whose curiosity compels them to explore wide range of influences and bring them into their music. • Consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, and vocalist Robert Plant, bassist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. • Often cited as a seminal heavy metal band, ultimately defies categorization • Their music has a way in which influences bleed into one another, and also the ability to establish, then reconcile, extremes. • Some of their most memorable music was “Dazed and Confused” and “Stairway to Heaven” -These songs cover an enormous emotional and musical range, they can be tender one moment and overpowering the next. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auDv6cf2PBM • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcL---4xQYA

11. Led zeppelin cont. • Their album that best captures the salient qualities of their music is the untitled fourth album, known variously as Led Zeppelin, IV, Zoso, and the Runes LP. - the music on the tracks ranges from the unbridled power of “Rock and Roll” to the delicacy of the acoustic “The Battle of Evermore” • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6pQrZPwoOU • Led Zeppelin gained a large, loyal audience. • They were also one of the first British bands to concentrate on the United States as a fan base because of its huge population compared to Britain’s. • Their tours sold out and broke attendance records, and all of their recordings went platinum.

13. Heavy metal and early 1970s rock • Heavy metal: was anything but a monolithic style. Two key things: power and craft • Part of the vocabulary of all hard rock music in the early 1970s were – distortion; massive amplification; use of modes, pentatonic scales, and power cords; basic rhythms; and power trio instrumental nucleus. -Metal bands took these features and streamline or amplify them to give them more impact. -They used more distortion and played more loudly • Metal’s riffs and rhythms were stronger and more pervasive • Heavy metal evoked supernatural, or at least paranormal power • Heavy metal represents a more extreme point along the continuum of hard rock styles • Around this time rock emerged as a fully developed style, and from this point on rock becomes a timeless music, and defines the core values of rock in a way that neither the rock that preceded it nor the rock that evolved beyond it does.

14. Elton John • Elton John, born Reginald Dwight in 1947. • He is a testimony to the power of personality • Off stage he is your typical short, chunky, balding man, but on stage his costumes and extroverted style made him larger than life. • He is one of the top live acts of the seventies and the best-selling recording artist of the decade. • Some of his popular songs were “Your Song”, “tiny Dancer” and “Rocket Man” • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTa8U0Wa0q8 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoskDZRLOCs • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LX7WrHCaUA • He won his first Grammy in ‘94 for one of the songs from the Disney animated film The Lion King. • He is still an active performer today

15. Elton john

16. The sound of Philadelphia • Motown had opened a brand office in Philadelphia and most Motown-like records of the period appeared on Gamble and Huff’s Philadelphia International label, not Gordy’s • Three men engineered the Philadelphia sound: Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff, and Thom Bell. All veterans of the Philadelphia music scene. • The artist roster at Philadelphia International included the O’jays, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, Teddy Pendergrass, Billy Paul, and MFSB. • The most successful of the Philadelphia groups were the O’Jays.

17. The O’Jays • The O’Jays consisted of members Eddie Levert, William Powell and Walter Williams. • Formed as a quintet in 1958, the group languished on the fringes of the R&B scene throughout the 1960s • Their turning point was in 1968 when they met Gamble and Huff. • They hit chart success in 1972, with their famous song “Backstabbers” • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzTeLePbB08

18. The O’Jays

19. Stevie Wonder • Born Steveland Morris in 1950, left blind by a hospital injury • By age 10 he was a professional performer, singing and playing the harmonica • Within two years he had signed a Motown record. • He was the most popular black artist of the seventies, and unlike other Motown acts he was solo compared to most group acts. • The widespread popularity of Wonder’s music grows out of a style that is broad in its range, highly personal in its sound, and universal in its appeal. • His songs are the tuneful melodies and rich harmonies of black romantic music, the dense textures and highly syncopated riffs of funk, the improvisatory flights of jazz and the subtle rhythms of reggae and Latin music. • One of his most popular songs was “Superstition” a No. 1 single from the 1972 album, Talking Books. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OJsYwLs7yE

20. Stevie wonder

21. Steely Dan • Began as a band, Steely Dan became a popular and critically acclaimed act only after its two creative minds, keyboardist Donald Fagen, and bassist Walter Becker dissolved from the group and retained the name. • The two of them met Gary Katz in New York who eventually invited them to LA to sign them with ABC Records, first as songwriters, then as a working band. • The three constants in their music seem to be impeccable production, stream-of-consciousness lyrics that offer slices of life in LA and sophisticated, distinctive musical settings. • One of their popular songs was their 1977 hit “Peg” • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz8AJh7_mKc • Many of their fans have spent hours trying to decode the lyrics to their songs but the songs are mainly about the music then the lyrics. • With their particular mix of rocklike accessibility, provocative lyrics, jazz influence, and perfectionist approach to recording Steely Dan was one of a kind, and no band has really followed in their lead.

22. Steely Dan

23. Gender, art and the boundaries of rock • Art: in its broadest meaning is the product of any human activity done skillfully and creatively. • Progressive rock: a rock style that sought to elevate the status of rock by embracing a classical music aesthetic and adapting it to rock -Progressive rock musicians applied concepts and features associated with classical music into their works. • Singer-songwriter: songwriters that performed their own music. The music was generally characterized by a emphasis on melody, a folk like accompaniment, and a relatively low dynamic level. - most are songs in restricted sense of the term, in that they have coherent melodies that help tell the story and make musical sense through an inner logic. • The music of the songwriters from late 60s early 70s represents the continuing evolution of the folk/country/pop fusions of the mid 60s. • The world portrayed rock as a man’s world but with folk revival, it provided women with the most accessible point of entry into rock.

24. Joni Mitchell • Born Roberta Anderson in Fort Macleod, Alberta, Canada. • As a young girl she had strong interests in art and music. • She started out just playing folk songs in local coffee shops then began recording under her own name in 1968. • She found her musical voice and her audience in a series of albums released in 1969 and 1974/ • One of her famous songs was “All I want”, which was a track off of her milestone 1971 album Blue. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBF3hXaS1OQ • After 1974 Mitchell turned in other directions. Through the rest of the seventies she connected with jazz and the avant-garde. • Then in the eighties she continued to explore what some called “jazz/folk” fusion, as well as to develop her career in the visual arts as a photographer and painter.

25. Joni Mitchell

26. Glam rock: as a spectacle • By the late sixties, the visual dimension of rock had become, in its most extreme manifestations, far more flamboyant and outrageous: flaming or smashed guitars, provocative gestures and body movements. • Glam (or glitter) rock: a rock style of the early 1970s in which theatrical elements – makeup, outlandish dress – were prominent. (most spectacular form of theatrical rock) • Rock prided itself on being real, and confronted difficult issues, dealt with feelings, and looked life squarely in the eyes • Rock behind the mask found its fullest expression in glam rock, most spectacularly in David Bowie’s first public persona as Ziggy Stardust.

27. David Bowie • Born David Jones in 1947, he began his career in the sixties as a British folksinger • He began to reinvent his public persona after being influence by Iggy Pop, Marc Bolan, and the Velvet Underground. • In 1972 he announced that he was gay. • Later that year he put together and album and a stage show, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. • Ziggy Stardust provided the musical dimension of Bowies role playing. • One of his popular songs was, “Hang On to Yourself” • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti29EFLkw7E • Ziggy was Bowies first and most outrageous persona, and he continually reinvented himself in a variety of guises. • Given Bowies constantly changing roles during the course of career it is said to be a small wonder that he has been the most successful film actor among post-Elvis rock stars.

28. David Bowie

29. Terms to know • Album-oriented radio • Cross-marketing • Synthesizer • Analog synthesizer • Heavy metal • Philadelphia sound • Art rock • Progressive rock • Singer-songwriter • Glam (glitter) rock