210 likes | 759 Views
American Popular Music Dr. Joseph Harchanko Week 2 - Monday Chapter 3 Elements of Music Modern Music Industry (1910) Pattern of fierce competition between companies (publishing) Mass promotion across media (newspaper, theaters, dep. stores, cat.) Highly asymmetrical ratio of hits and duds
E N D
American Popular Music Dr. Joseph Harchanko Week 2 - Monday Chapter 3
Elements of Music Modern Music Industry (1910) • Pattern of fierce competition between companies (publishing) • Mass promotion across media (newspaper, theaters, dep. stores, cat.) • Highly asymmetrical ratio of hits and duds • Dom. of limited forms and lyrics
Change in 1920s and 1930s • Supplanting of sheet music with phonographs • Rise of network radio and sound film • Increased influence of African American genres such as jazz and blues.
Innovations mid 1920s- phonograph disc sales surpassed sheet music 1925- Electric recording replaces acoustic recording, paving way for “crooners” 1906- First radio broadcast (Mass.)
Network Radio • 1896 - Marconi awarded patent for radio • 1922- 564 independent stations • 1922- Telephone lines used to transmit Chicago football game to NY • 1926- First radio network (NBC) • What is the effect of Networks?
Further happenings of the 1920s • Jazz Singer (1927) • The Broadway Melody (1929) • ASCAP • Big publishers and recordings companies controlled exposure: Tin Pan Alley songs, ball room dance bands • Smaller sales in classical, “race”, “hillbilly” records
Freak Dances http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzC1h2XnmwY
Freak Dances • Cakewalk • WW I era rise of dance hall and cabarets • Turkey trot, fox trot, grizzly bear • Tango- ball room, habanera, light opera, gaucho ballads (NY 1910)
Europe and Castles Vernon and Irene Castle James Reese Europe (1880-1919)
Castle House Rag • 1914 – James Reese Europe • A B A – rounded binary (also AABBA or AA BA BA A A B B A C C D D E E F What piece used a similar form?
The Jazz Age -Why it was dangerous • What is Jazz? Indigenous American Art from founded my African Americans, primarily in New Orleans Improvisatory music
Where did it come from? • New Orleans, around 1900 • Confluence of ragtime, marching bands, Mardi Gras and funeral processions, French and Italian opera, Caribbean and Mexican music, Tin Pan Alley songs, African American song tradition (gospel and blues)
Why was jazz dangerous? • Alcohol consumption • Indiscriminate sex • Effeminacy • Suicide • Bestiality • Insanity • Indigestion -N.Y. Times as sited in Starr and Waterman p.60
The Legacy of Jazz • Considered more art music today than popular music • Cultural Vernacular • Social factors