Download Unit 16 - HCC Learning Web

POPULAR MUSIC IN
AMERICA
Dr. Love, professor
SEPTEMBER 11, 2015:
UNIT 16 — COUNTRY MUSIC IN THE ROCK ERA
CHAPTER 67- COUNTRIFYING ROCK
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Chapter 67: Countrifying Rock
Best-selling solo act of all time is Elvis: 130 million units (as of December, 2010)
2nd best-selling solo act: a country star, Garth Brooks: 128 million units since his career began in
1989
Of the 100 best-selling acts of all time, 24 began their careers in the 1990s or later
Of these 24, 8 are country acts:
• Brooks and Dunn
• Kenny Chesney
• Dixie Chicks
• Faith Hill
• Alan Jackson
• Toby Keith
• Tim McGraw (Faith’s husband)
• Shania Twain
Five of these Top 100 were 5 country acts that began in the 1980s:
• Garth Brooks
• Alabama
• Vince Gill
• Reba McIntire
• George Strait
For country, only two other singers appear on the list:
• Willie Nelson
• Kenny Rogers
CHAPTER 67- COUNTRIFYING ROCK
• One reason for country’s surge in popularity is the use of more accurate
method of calculating sales
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Billboard magazine started using SoundScan, an information system
that tracks sale through the use of barcodes scanned at registers
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Also, the music industry started using computers to track radio
airplay
• The market share of country almost doubled between 1990 and 1993
(from 9.6% to 18.7%)
• It was obvious now that country music was much more popular than the
music industry thought
• Country was a major player in the popular music industry:
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• Country music television networks
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• Country stars in advertisements
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• Emergence of Nashville as an important music center
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• Crossover chart success
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• The central tension in country music is between:
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Identity and commercial success
CHAPTER 67- COUNTRIFYING ROCK
• During the 1950s, the connection between country and rock went one
direction: toward rock
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• Chuck Berry’s “Maybellene” is a remake of a country tune, “Ida
Red”
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• Bill Haley, Elvis, Carl Perkins, and others were early stars of
Rockabilly
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• The Everly Brothers grew up singing country music
• But mainstream rock remained largely unaffected by rock and roll
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• In the early 1960s, rock came to country:
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•Ray Charles’s two best-selling country and western recordings
were both released in 1962
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Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and other folkies revived the music of the
Carter Family which led to the folk-rock fusion of the Byrds
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• Bob Dylan began to combine rock, folk, and country elements in
his Nashville sessions
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• Roy Orbison was the most influential one to synthesize rock and
country during this time
CHAPTER 67- COUNTRIFYING ROCK
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Roy Orbison
Orbison (1936-1988), known for his huge No. 1 hit, “Pretty Woman,” 1964
Was from West Texas (Wink, Texas was where he went to high school)
Orbison formed his first band, The Wink Westerners, at age 13
They played around the area and the Southwest, performing country and pop songs
When offered $400 to play at a dance, he realized that he could make a living in music
He went to North Texas State College (Denton, Texas) in Fall of 1954, as a geology major
He saw fellow classmate Pat Boone get a record deal (and the next summer reach #1
with “Ain’t That a Shame”)
There he also met up with Dick Penner and Wade Moore, who wrote a rockabilly style song
“Ooby Dooby”
Roy recorded it in Dallas in 1955
The new band, The Teen Kings, toured across Central and West Texas
In March of 1956 he and his band went to nearby Clovis, New Mexico to record in Norman
Petty’s studio (same studio as Buddy Holly recorded)
They re-cut “Ooby Dooby” and it became a popular hit in Texas
Started his career as a rockabilly artist, recording for Sun Records in Memphis, and Sam Phillips
Orbison soon re-recorded “Ooby Dooby” in the Sun Studios
Also recorded “Trying to Get to You” and another song by Orbison, “Go! Go! Go!” which
later was a hit for Jerry Lee Lewis
“Ooby Dooby” broke into the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #59 and sold 200,000 copies
CHAPTER 67- COUNTRIFYING ROCK
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Roy was the youngest recording star at Sun and was busy touring nonstop with Carl Perkins, Jerry
Lee Lewis, Johnny Horton, Sonny James, and Johnny Cash
Orbison moved to the Monument label
Worked out to be a better fit for Orbison’s musical view and career
Many call Orbison the last rockabilly —or the first country rocker
He showed country musicians how to blend rock and R & B with country
• “Mean Woman Blues” (1963) was a cover of Elvis’s 1957 version
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• 12-bar form, lyric begins with a rhymed couplet
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• Backup singers and sax solo derive from R & B
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• Drummer lays down a rock beat
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• Bass plays a two-beat and the backbeat is strong
This is now an example of layering the rock rhythms onto a honky-tonk beat rhythm
This clean, uncluttered rock beat would become the default approach to rock rhythm not only in
the country rock of the 1970s and beyond but also in rock-country music
Eagles kept on producing hit songs
Their direction shifted in 1975 when Joe Walsh replaced Bernie Leadon
“Hotel California” (1977), was a big hit from this later period
Even has a bit of reggae in the feel
Their legacy was the “countrification” of rock rhythm
The clean fusion of rock and honky tonk beats has become the most common form of rock
rhythm in both country rock and rock-influenced country
CHAPTER 68 – THE OUTSIDERS
• Chapter 68: The Outsiders
• Inside and Outside in Country Music
• As pop artists recorded/covered country songs, Nashville
tastemakers noted how the pop versions sold much better
than the country originals
• Their response was to make country more like pop
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Result: the Nashville sound—the dominant sound in
country music during the late 1950s and early 1960s
• Some felt that country music was losing its identity in its quest
for crossover success—and rightly so
• Most notable among those detractors were the “outlaws”:
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• Johnny Cash
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• Waylon Jennings
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• Willie Nelson
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• Merle Haggard
CHAPTER 68 – THE OUTSIDERS
• Merle Haggard
• Haggard (b. 1937) was from an Oklahoma family who moved to
Bakersfield, California during the 1930s
• Was a wild youth, in trouble often, even in prison (where he heard
Johnny Cash at San Quentin)
• He was an advocate of the working class and Middle-America
values, he wanted to speak for America’s “silent majority”
• The gritty, country edge to his singing is unmistakable
• • “Okie from Muskogee” (1969) was a statement of the excesses
of San Francisco hippies
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It has an understated rock rhythm replacing the hard twobeat of honky-tonk
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It also featured a plainspoken lyric set to a simple melody
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The verse and chorus also share the same melody, an
unusual feature
• This is hard country—a more contemporary version of honky-tonk
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An understated rock rhythm and brushes on the drums add
up to a different beat and sound from honky-tonk
CHAPTER 68 – THE OUTSIDERS
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The Outlaws: Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson
A 1970s Texas connection: Austin to be exact
Willie Nelson moved to Austin from Nashville where he grew tired of the scene
He and Waylon wanted to play a style of music different from the pop/crossover
style so prevalent in Nashville
They started the “outlaw” movement in defiance of Nashville’s calculated
commercialism (not because of any criminal wrongdoing)
Their 1976 album: Wanted: The Outlaws was the first million-selling country album
Pure country can be successful outside its traditional audience
• “Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” (1978) was a hit for
them in 1978
Won a Grammy
The “cowboys” that they sing about are “free-living, good-timing good boys” full of
contradictions and not to be trusted
Musically, it is a modern version of the traditional cowboy song of the 1930s and
1940s
But updated with a honky-tonk band:
• Full mostly electric rhythm section
• Steel guitar
• Background vocals to Waylon and Willie’s narrative
In this song, they are debunking the mythical cowboy of films and TV
CHAPTER 68 – THE OUTSIDERS
• Willie Nelson has a wide range of recording and musical interests
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He recorded in:
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• Traditional country
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• Standards (1978 Stardust album)
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• Blues-flavored rock with Leon Russell
• Nelson’s eclectic approach helped broaden his, and country’s audience
considerably
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It made him the most successful country crossover artist of the 1970s!
CHAPTER 69 – COUNTRY ROYALTY
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Chapter 69: Country Royalty
George Jones and Tammy Wynette
Jones (b. 1931) and Wynette (1942-1998) were a popular duet and married for a short while
Both also had successful careers as solo acts
• Jones’ career started in the late 1940s with hits coming in 1955
By the 1960s, he was charting regularly, in solo and duet recordings (duets mostly with
women)
Had a drinking problem, in fact was an alcoholic running into trouble for reliability
“No Show Jones” he was dubbed
“He Stopped Loving Her Today,” his hit song of 1980, was a comeback hit
It reached No. 1 on the country singles charts in 1980
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• • Wynette (born Virginia Wynette Pugh) went through tough times and marriages
• Finally was signed to Epic Records in 1966 and had 3 No. 1 hits in 1968, including “Stand By
Your Man”
• Married Jones in 1969, but it was a disaster—a situation alluded to in some of her songs
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Jones’ alcoholism was the problem and their marriage didn’t last long
• Both found personal stability in 1980
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They had solid marriages and career success
• Despite their personal life issues, they were a perfect musical match
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Both sang with feeling and empathy in their duets and also in their solo singing
CHAPTER 69 – COUNTRY ROYALTY
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Singing with Feeling
Of all the great singers with emotional power and conviction of their singing, you won’t find a
classically trained voice or the vocal agility of a jazz singer
You will find a personal, honest, straightforward, and intense emotional voice
Wynette and Jones have these same qualities
These two expressed the anguish of love gone wrong in their singing
They, after all, experienced it first-hand
Her hit: “D-I-V-O-R-C-E” (1968) and his hit: “He Stopped Loving Her Today” (1980) both deal with a
break up
• In “D-I-V-O-R-C-E,” Wynette is very convincing of her pain
She encountered plenty of it in her life, making it very believable when she expresses
herself in song
• “He Stopped Loving Her Today” was hit song that signalled a turnaround in Jones’ career; he
stopped drinking
In the song, he is also very believable from his life experiences and pain
His deep inflection says more than just the words could ever say
Perhaps he was alluding to the process of drying out and sobering up
Their songs are delivered from personal experience, subject matter and delivery from
expressive nuance and timing, not histrionics
Even though their relationship didn’t work on a personal level, it did in their professional recording
career
The emotional impact of these songs were straight from their hearts
Its focus is entirely on the singers—very country-like but it scores big with their
audience
CHAPTER 69 – COUNTRY ROYALTY
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The Nashville Sound
Both of these songs share three attributes:
• Same songwriters—Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman
• Same producer—Billy Sherrill
• Same label—Eric Records
They were the product of a well-oiled musical machine used to manufacturing hits
The music is more neutral than the subjects, however
Accompaniments are tasteful but very much in the background
Both have steel guitar and discreet rhythm section playing a subdued rock
rhythm at a slow tempo
Wynette has a choir in the background, Jones has a string section
Both songs show Nashville at its most efficient
They are simple songs that are good vehicles for good singers
The philosophy is to keep the accompaniment out of the way of the words
In spite of the many, many skilled songwriters, musicians, producers, etc. in
Nashville they wanted to ensure the singers get their words and
story out without anything getting in the way
CHAPTER 69 – COUNTRY ROYALTY
• The Growth of Country Music
• For the first time in history, country music attracted a large enough audience beyond its
traditional constituency to make substantial inroads into the pop charts
• Some of the more “country” aspects of the country sound were eliminated or changed
• Two reasons for country music’s increased popularity involved politics:
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• Conservative backlash from the 1960s
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• Election of Jimmy Carter
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His election stirred Southern pride
• Merle Haggard’s song seemed to stand hand in hand with conservative points of view
• But also a new, young, non-southern, post-hippie crowd was drawn to country
• Virtually the entire spectrum of country music had broad support:
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• Updated version of traditional styles (Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson)
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• Country-flavored pop (Glen Campbell, Kenny Rogers)
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• Commercially-oriented country coming from Nashville
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• Rock/country fusions (early Eagles, Kris Kristofferson, Linda Ronstadt)
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• Hard country acts like Merle Haggard
• Their broad appeal signalled country’s entry into the musical mainstream
CHAPTER 70 – THE EXPLOSION OF
COUNTRY MUSIC
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Chapter 70: The Explosion of Country Music
The New Traditionalists
Lonesome Standard Time, with Larry Cordle released an album, Murder on Music Row, 1999
The title track spelled out the divide between traditionalists and those in the country music
industry who would sell out in pursuit of fame and fortune
George Strait and Alan Jackson covered Cordle’s song
The track won the 2000 CMA Vocal Event of the Year award
In 1981, Ricky Skaggs covered Flatt and Scrugg’s “Don't Get Above Your Raisin’” (originally
recorded in the 1950s)
This song, which was originally about a social-climbing girl, became to many in
country music as an allegory for country’s loss of traditional values in its romance with pop
and rock and its need to reconnect with its roots
The “gal” in the song is country music
Country artists of the 1980s and 1990s sought to put country’s old wine into new bottles
CHAPTER 70 – THE EXPLOSION OF
COUNTRY MUSIC
• George Strait
• According to the RIAA, Strait has sold about 70 million units, second only to Garth Brooks
among country artists
• Along with his enormous success, Strait has enjoyed a life of mostly good news with no
interference of his personal and professional life
• Strait (b. 1952), grew up outside San Antonio, Texas, dropped out of college to elope with his
wife Norma, and then enlisted in the US Army
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After returning, he went back to college in 1975 and started performing locally
• First single, “Unwound” (1981) reached the country singes Top 10, shortly after signing with
MCA
• Since then, he has had an unbroken string of hit singles and albums, and received dozens of
awards
• • “Check Yes or No” (1995) won several awards as top country single of the year
• The song is almost autobiographical: a guy meets his sweetheart in third grade, married her,
and is still in love with her after 20 years (George and Norma Strait celebrated their 40th
anniversary in December, 2011)
• It’s a feel-good song that shows a different side of country music:
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• His singing is direct and unmannered
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• The song builds nicely to the chorus
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• Accompaniment, including steel guitar and fiddle, provide unobtrusive support
• Strait is rooted in the past—Alabama enhances traditional country themes and sounds with
a more contemporary setting
CHAPTER 70 – THE EXPLOSION OF
COUNTRY MUSIC
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Alabama
The sense of place (the South) and its culture is central to Alabama’s music
The group consists of:
• Teddy Gentry (b. 1952), bass
• Randy Owen (b. 1949), lead vocals/rhythm guitar (Gentry’s cousin)
• Jeff Cook (b. 1949), lead guitar, fiddle
They formed Alabama in 1969 and spent the 1970s playing as a bar band, mainly along the
South Carolina coast
They decided to limit partnership in the band to the three of them; other musicians, notably
drummer Mark Herndon (playing with them from 1979-2004), were salaried
• “Born Country,” 1992 hit song, features country themes and sounds
Traditional country elements dominate the music:
• Vocal style and close harmony of all three
• Honky tonk-based rhythm in the chorus
• Fiddle solo and guitar licks
However, more modern sounds are included:
• Array of synthesizer timbres underneath the vocals and interlude
They complement the country elements without obscuring them
The result is clearly country, but with a more up-to-date sound
Alabama chocked up extraordinary success—they are unquestionably the most popular
country group of all time!
CHAPTER 70 – THE EXPLOSION OF
COUNTRY MUSIC
• Putting the New in New Traditional Country
• The relationship between country traditionalists and the pop-oriented country acts is not
always black and white—“tradition” has always been relative
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Hank Williams and Merle Haggard would not have been allowed on the Grand Ole
Opry in the 1930s
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The steel guitar came from Hawaii
• Selling out, then, has more to do with the balance between country and outsider elements
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At one extreme is music that is indistinguishable from mid-1950s hard country
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At the other is music that is country in name only
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In between are groups like Alabama
CHAPTER 71 – COUNTRY, POP, AND
GLAMOUR
• Chapter 71: Country, Pop, and Glamour
• Dolly Parton and the Pursuit of Pop Success
• Parton (b. 1946) grew up in dire poverty in east Tennessee, but her talent and ambition more
than made up for her lack of material goods
• She first appeared on the Grand Ole Opry at age 13 and moved to Nashville to pursue a
music career after graduating from high school
• She joined Porter Wagoner (1927-2007) on his long-running television show in 1967, as well as
releasing her first album
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They were a well-known duet in the late 1960s and early 1970s
• Parton left Wagoner in 1974 and began covering pop and R & B songs
• Her breakthrough was with the album Here You Come Again (1977)
• She was also very successful in the 1980 film, 9 to 5
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Dolly Parton is one of the few celebrities to be identified by a single name
• • “9 to 5” is the title song from the movie
• It describes the grind and frustrations of city-style work in everyday language
• Musically, it is:
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• Urban—R & B-flavored pop
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• No obvious evidence of countrified rhythms, instrumentation, or melody
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• Her twang and pure country vocal timbre though does mirror her situation in the
film: a country girl in the city
• It was a certified pop/country hit
• Parton blazed a trail for other women in her success as a businesswoman
CHAPTER 71 – COUNTRY, POP, AND
GLAMOUR
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The Dixie Chicks and a Country Perspective on Rock
They started out as an all-girl bluegrass group busking on Dallas street corners
They are now:
• Natalie Maines (b. 1974), vocals and guitar
• Martie Maguire (b. Martha Erwin, 1969), violin and mandolin
• Emily Robinson (b. Emily Erwin, 1972), banjo and dobro
They have a more mainstream sound now and have become a top country act with
multiple multiplatinum albums
Home, their 3rd album, (2002), was an all-acoustic recording
In addition to traditional bluegrass instruments, they added steel guitar and Celtic
instruments
• “Landslide” was a big hit from this album
It was originally recorded by Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac, 1975
The Dixie Chicks just added their touch of banjo and mandolin, along with acoustic bass,
guitar, and dobro along with their trademark 3-part close harmony singing
It isn’t that far from the Fleetwood Mac version and would point them in a career direction
of more thorough embrace of rock
CHAPTER 71 – COUNTRY, POP, AND
GLAMOUR
• • Taking the Long Way from Country to Rock
• Taking controversial political stands against an American president and the war in the
Middle East, the Dixie Chicks alienated many fans
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(they later apologized for remarks against the president but upheld their
anti-war stance)
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Further swipes at a fellow country artist (Toby Keith) who supported the president and
the war effort, eroded their popularity even more
• The Dixie Chicks didn’t feel they were any longer a part of the country scene
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Their next album, Taking the Long Way, was popular and more rock influenced
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It was produced by super-producer Rick Rubin (who worked with RunD.M.C., Metallica, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Johnny Cash)
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It entered the Top 200 album charts at No. 1 and won several Grammys
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This album broadened their audience and redefined their career, but they did leave
some of their country core behind
• A single from Taking the Long Way, “Not Ready to Make Nice” speaks to their ordeal—the
death threats, a mother telling her child to hate a stranger—and made clear that
they would continue to stand by their principles
CHAPTER 71 – COUNTRY, POP, AND
GLAMOUR
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Taylor Swift and “Cosmetic” Country
Swift (b. 1989) grew up in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania but her family moved to Nashville when
she was 14 so she could be near the country music capital, hoping to find her big break
into the country scene
She has a deep love for country but a style similar to the singer/songwriter of the 1970s with the
tuneful rock and roll and R & B of the 1950s
Like the singer/songwriters, her music is drawn so directly form her own experience
that some of her fans have attempted to match the stories in her songs to real-life
incidents
Her songs evoke the 1950s teen-themed music
“Tim McGraw,” her first hit, describes the painful end to a summer relationship
• “You Belong With Me” (from the Fearless album, 2009) tells the story of teen angst
It is by a high school student about the kind of crisis that seems so much a part of high
school life
Musically, it is only cosmetically country:
• Banjo and steel guitar are in the verse but they disappear in the chorus
• Stylistically, it has more in common with the punk-tinged pop rock of the 1980s than it does
with any of the music in this unit
Other general comments of “cosmetic” country artists deal with:
• Songs that aren’t about common country themes
• Vocal style that does not have that immediately identifiable country sound
• Rhythms that are not countrified
• Instruments that are associated with country, but are only part of the mix, not in the
forefront
Swift’s popular album Fearless was the best-selling album of 2009