Pop Music Week 1 - Lecture 1 PDF

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2021-01-17

1: Introduction to Popular Music in North America and the UK Dr. Housez School of the Arts [email protected] Music 2II3 Winter 2021

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Objectives • Weekly schedule • What is this course about? • Charts • Themes • Musical forms and progressions • Instrumentation • Recording techniques • Viewing Rock • Avenue, course outline, etext, quizzes, etc.

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Keywords and figures • Musical form, simple verse form, verse, instrumental verse, measures, beats, bar, Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats (“Rocket ‘88”), 12 bar blues, phrase, introduction, key, scale, doo-wop progression, bridge, The Chords (“Sh-Boom”), Elvis Presley (“Heartbreak Hotel”), AABA form, full reprise, partial reprise, chorus, simple verse-chorus form, Jerry Lee Lewis (“Great Balls of Fire”), The Carter Family (“Can the Circle Be Unbroken”), contrasting verse-chorus, The Crickets (“That’ll Be the Day”), instrumentation, rhythm section, electric bass, octave, rhythm guitar, keyboards, lead singers, backup vocals, instrumental solos, horns, strings, coda, Deep Purple (“Smoke on the Water”), riff, ambience, reverb, echo, equalizers, timbre, mono, stereo, mixing, tracks, digital audio workstations, mix down, Steely Dan (“Josie”), compound AABA form, rock on film and television, music videos

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Weekly schedule • Lectures posted on Tuesdays • Reading and listening assignments (see course outline) • Use the “thinking questions” posted on Avenue in Content

• Quizzes on Tuesdays • Office hours on Fridays, 1-2pm on Zoom or by appointment

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What is this course about? • Popular music from 1945-today • Topics include: • • • • • • •

Rock and other musical styles Artists and songwriters Social, political, cultural issues Issues of race, class, and gender Mainstream vs. underground music and culture The development of the music business The role of recordings and the development of recording technology

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What is popular music? • In contrast to art or “classical” music • Just as art or “classical” music may refer to Gregorian chant, opera, string quartets, and symphonies, “popular music” is an umbrella term that encompasses a wide set of variously distinct though often related genres • Definitions of popular music usually emphasize its broad appeal, means of dissemination (in particular, mass distribution), and social structure (music of the people; music for a non-elite audience; music for a mass audience)

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Billboard charts • American charts that rank hit songs and albums by popularity week by week • Charts help us draw general conclusions about the popularity of a song or album at the time it was released but they should be regarded with some suspicion • Which artist and song is leading the R&B charts this week? • What song was at the top of the charts during the week of your birth?

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Musical form • The structure of music • Form is based on 3 principles: 1. Repetition 2. Variation 3. Contrast

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Types of song sections • Introduction (“intro”): Precedes the start of the first verse or chorus. Introductions are frequently instrumental, but may also contain singing • Verse: Usually features new lyrics with each repetition within a song, unlike a chorus, which tends to repeat the same lyrics with each recurrence • Chorus: Usually the most important or easily remembered section of a song, containing the title and the catchiest material of the song. Not all songs have a chorus but, when they do, it is usually the focus of the song • Bridge: Provides contrast to the other sections, like the verse or chorus. While the bridge section can be interesting musically, it is almost never the focal section of a song

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• Interlude: A brief instrumental passage that separates the other sections (verse, chorus, bridge, etc.). It often reuses material from the introduction • Coda: Some songs have an ending section called a coda. The coda often uses material from earlier in a song to provide an ending. Some musicians refer to it as an “outro,” paralleling the beginning section in a song, the “intro” • Note that a single song doesn’t necessarily use all of these types of sections

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The first rock and roll record?

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Common musical structures in popular music 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Simple verse form 12-bar blues Doo-wop progression AABA form Simple verse-chorus Contrasting verse-chorus

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1. The simple verse form • The simple verse form: a song made up entirely of verses, and all the verses have the same music but different lyrics (“Rocket ‘88”)

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2. The 12-bar blues • The 12-bar blues: a structure with 12 groups of 4-beat measures. Measure length, phrasing, lyrics, and chord structure subdivide these measures into 3 groups of 4. The 12-bar pattern repeats as many times as necessary • “Rocket ‘88” is also an example of this structure mm.:

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beats:

1234

1234

1234

1234

1234

1234

1234

1234

1234

1234

1234

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phrases:

“question”

“question”

“answer”

• Are rhythm, meter, beats, and measures new terms for you? Then watch John Covach’s video explaining these concepts on the What’s That Sound website. Go to Playlists >> Rock Elements (scroll sideways to see all the tabs) >> Rhythm & Meter

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3. The Doo-Wop progression • The doo-wop progression is a structure that can form the basis for verse, chorus, and bridge sections. It is a repeating pattern of 4 chords. Using roman numerals, we can characterize the doo-wop progression as: I – vi – IV – V. In the key of C major, these chords would be C major – a minor – F major – G major

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4. AABA form • This form is closely associated with mainstream popular music before the birth of rock and roll • AABA form consists of 4 sections: • The A sections feature music that is identical or almost identical • The B section features music that is different from the rest

• All 4 sections are typically 8 bars, which makes the song 32 bars long • 8 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 32

• If the song includes extra repetitions of the music, then the form is a partial reprise • If the entire song repeats, then the form is a full reprise

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5. Simple verse-chorus • When a song consists of both verses and choruses and the same musical pattern provides the basis from all of the sections, it is called simple verse-chorus • Although the melody changes between sections, the underlying pattern of chords supporting the melodies remains the same

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6. Contrasting verse-chorus • When a song has different music in its verse and chorus sections, then the form is called contrasting verse-chorus form • This form can include bridge sections with additional contrasting material

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Instrumentation • Percussion • Electric bass • Rhythm guitar and keyboards • Vocals • Horns and strings • Listen to Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water”

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Recording techniques • Live or Memorex • Reverb or echo • Equalization • Stereo placement • Mixing • Listen to Steely Dan’s “Josie” • What musical form does this song follow?

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Viewing rock • Rock on television • Rock in film • Music videos

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Avenue to Learn • Announcements • Discussion • Content • Echo360 with recorded lectures • Modules with PPT slides and “thinking questions”

• Quizzes

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Course outline • Course objectives • Required materials • Learning outcomes • Evaluation • Topics, readings, and listening assignments • Policies

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Etext • What’s That Sound?: An Introduction to Rock and Its History, 5th ed. by John Covach and Andrew Flory • Playlists direct you to Spotify, iTunes, and Amazon • Includes optional quizzes and 45 author videos

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This week • Readings: Introduction, What’s That Sound?, pp. 3-32 • Listening: Refer to course outline • Prepare for our first 5-minute quiz taking place on Avenue next Tuesday, 9am-9pm. The quiz will consist of 5 true/false and/or multiple choice questions • We will not use online proctoring for quizzes but we will for the midterm and final exam • Note: During all testing, you will be able to go back and forth between questions before submitting your answers

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