Download MUS 110CL Module 8 AVP Transcript Hip Hop, Reality TV, and the

MUS 110CL Module 8 AVP Transcript
Hip Hop, Reality TV, and the Movies
Title Slide
Narrator: Our study of American popular music will conclude with a look at two of our most successful
and popular musical exports: hip hop and movie music.
Slide 2
Title: The Phenomenon of Hip Hop
Slide Content:
• Began in the late 70s in New York City
• Initially considered a regional fad
• Barely qualified to be called music
• Now the most popular genre world-wide
Image of a boom box.
Narrator: Hip hop began in the late 1970s in New York as an inner city musical expression that many
considered to be a regional fad that barely qualified to be called music. Three decades later, hip hop is
the most successful and popular musical genre worldwide. It is worth taking a serious look at just why this
genre has taken both our nation and the world by storm.
Slide 3
Title: How does Hip Hop Work?
Slide Content:
• Radically different from other popular music
• Often includes no live instrumental playing
• Musical training is not required
• Rhythmic preaching and public speaking styles
• Express inner-city life for underprivileged black youth
Narrator: Hip hop is a radical departure from earlier popular music. Since it does not rely on the ability to
sing on pitch or play a musical instrument, it became the perfect musical expression for inner city youth
who did not have access to music lessons. Like reggae street music, that took existing recordings as a
point of departure for adding and/or altering rhythms and lyrics, the genius of hip hop is in selecting and
electronically manipulating pre-recorded music samples and adding rhythmic poetry. Speaking or
preaching in rhythm with a sung response has been part of African American culture for centuries. Black
preachers used this rhythmic way of public speaking to inspire an entire generation in the Civil Rights
movement in the 1960s. Hip hop capitalized on this shared African American culture to express the reality
of life in the inner city for black youth, particularly black young men.
Slide 4
Title: Characteristics of Hip Hop
Slide Content:
• Symbolized lifestyle of overcoming poverty and crime
Photo of graffiti.
Narrator: Hip hop symbolized more than just a musical genre for the African American community; it
represented an entire lifestyle of overcoming poverty and crime, and sharing in the prosperity of the
capitalist United States. Wearing expensive athletic shoes and outfits that most inner city youth could not
afford, was a way of mocking the more affluent suburban kids. Hip hop is unapologetically and
aggressively commercial, marketing clothing, objects, and lifestyles - as well as records.
Slide 5
Title: Characteristics of Hip Hop
Slide Content:
• Produced and marketed through independent recording labels developed by hip hop artists
Photo of two hip hop artists performing.
Narrator: Hip hop was produced and marketed through independent labels (like Sugarhill Records and
Def Jam) that were created by hip hop artists. The genre was never homogenized to appeal to a broader
audience like earlier genres of R&B and rock and roll were. As hip hop’s popularity grew, it became a
more extreme version of itself – the misogyny, violence, and blatant sexuality became more explicit
instead of watered down. Like it or not, explicit sex and violence sells records in America.
Slide 6
Title: Characteristics of Hip Hop
Slide Content:
• Worldwide vehicle for expression
Graphic of the Earth with headphones on it.
Narrator: Hip hop caught on as a vehicle for all kinds of musical expression around the world. It was
used as protest music in Middle Eastern countries during the Arab Spring uprisings; and at the same
time, was used to express traditional Islamic virtues in Saudi Arabia. The genius of hip hop is that it does
not rely on an independent musical language or training to produce very sophisticated songs that have
almost unlimited expressive capability. Hip hop is so pervasive that it infiltrates much of the pop music
industry as well. It is common for today’s pop songs to include verses or segments of rap in the midst of
an otherwise tuneful song.
Slide 7
Title: The Dave Matthews Band
Slide Content:
• Developed musical skill and live concert experience
• Popular with college-aged fans
• Live concerts are most favored by critics and fans
• Rock and roll has matured
Image of a silhouette of a band.
Narrator: In contrast to hip hop, some musically accomplished rock bands that displayed a high level of
virtuosity in both their live playing and their recordings gained popularity among the college aged crowd in
the late 1990s and 2000s. One of the best examples is the Dave Matthews Band. Dave Matthews was
born in Johannesburg, South Africa, but recruited his other band members in the United States. Like
Duke Ellington and other jazz greats, Dave Matthews combined unusual timbres like the saxophone and
violin with a rock rhythm section, and employed highly sophisticated improvisation with complicated
meters and complex harmonies. Their concerts are legendary events for their fans due to the virtuoso
improvisational sections lasting up to thirty minutes in a single song, and are never played exactly the
same way twice. Recordings of their music drew criticism only because the recorded studio version of the
songs could never match the live versions that were performed in concert. Bands with the caliber of
musicians that are in the Dave Matthews Band prove that rock and roll has matured into a highly trained
and capable musicians’ music, as well as popular music for the masses.
Slide 8
Title: Reality TV and Popular Music
Slide Content:
• American Idol – increased the listening public’s influence on popular music
• Modern crooners into national popularity
• American Sing-Off and Glee – a cappella singing ensembles popular again with high school and
college-age fans
Image of American Idol logo.
Narrator: Popular music has always reflected the power of its audience in shaping its development. That
power has become even more pronounced through the phenomenal success of reality TV shows like
American Idol. These shows showcase new and undiscovered talent, allowing the television audience to
eventually choose their favorite performers over an entire season of episodes. As a result, crooners have
come back into style. Singers like Josh Groban, Michael Buble, and Carrie Underwood are once again
bringing the art of singing well into popular acclaim. Other shows like American Sing-Off and Glee have
brought a cappella ensemble singing into popularity again as well, giving high school and college choral
programs a boost and broadening the choral ensemble repertoire to include clever arrangements of just
about every popular genre.
Slide 9
Title: iPods, iTunes, and Music Marketing
Slide Content:
Top ten selling CD’s on Amazon.com, April 28, 2013:
1. Michael Bublé, To Be Loved
2. Steve Martin, Love Has Come for You
3. George Jones, 50 Years of Hits
4. Justin Timberlake, The 20/20 Experience
5. Kenny Chesney, Life on a Rock
6. Lady Antebellum, Golden
7. Daft Punk, Random Access Memories
8. Phoenix, Bankrupt
9. Pink, The Truth About Love
10. The Piano Guys, The Piano Guys 2, Deluxe Edition
Americans have developed more eclectic listening preferences as a greater variety of music became
readily and inexpensively available to them
Narrator: A great variety of music is readily available to more people than ever before. The general public
has access to dozens of musical genres, that can instantly download individual songs on a variety of
listening devices relatively inexpensively. As a result, recording labels and DJ’s no longer have as much
influence on what people listen to as they did throughout the twentieth century. This eclectic list includes
2 modern crooners, a vintage country and western singer, a progressive country/bluegrass group, a
comedian turned banjo player, electronica, a couple of pop singers, and a piano/cello instrumental duo.
We have few songs that everyone in the U.S. instantly recognizes anymore because the variety of music
that people seek on their own is much broader than what was previously delivered through radio and
major recording labels.
Slide 10
Title: Movie Music
Slide Content:
• Only broad genre of music that is still universally recognized by vast majority of American
listening public
• Original movie themes often symbolize broad emotions or metaphors long after the movie has left
the theatres (e.g., Star Wars, Jaws, Psycho themes)
• Re-popularize forgotten music (e.g., “The Entertainer” ragtime piano piece from The Sting)
Graphic of a film reel.
Narrator: The only broad genre of music that is enjoyed by nearly all of the American public is the music
that accompanies the movies that we watch. Most everyone in the United States still recognizes the
theme music to Star Wars or Harry Potter. Movie music creates a lasting impression, and sometimes has
a life of its own outside of the movie for which it was composed. Think of the menacing repeated half
notes that presaged another shark attack on Jaws, or the shrieking violins during the famous murder
scene in Psycho. The movies often breathed new life into existing music that became part of a movie
soundtrack, as in Scott Joplin’s ragtime piano piece The Entertainer, that was used as the theme music
for the 1973 movie The Sting with Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Ragtime music had been all but
forgotten until that movie brought it back into national popularity. An entire generation of aspiring piano
students learned to play ragtime as a result. Movie soundtracks are often in the top 100 CD sales
nationwide and continue to be one of the United States’ biggest exports.
Slide 11
Title: Generalizations
Slide Content:
• Popular music usually originates among the common people (recently referred to as the 99%)
Narrator: As we conclude our study of American popular music, we can observe some generalizations
about America’s music culture. First, our popular music almost always evolved among the common
people, not in the ranks of the highly educated upper class. Americans prize authenticity more than they
prize superior training.
Slide 12
Title: Generalizations
Slide Content:
• Popular music usually originates among the common people (recently referred to as the 99%)
• Americans prefer small ensembles of equal players
Narrator: Next, Americans also generally prefer their music to be performed by small groups in which all
the players carry equal importance. Jazz ensembles and rock groups are classic examples, with no
directors and no hierarchical structures as in a symphony orchestra or traditional chorus. The popular
music of the United States is democracy in action!
Slide 13
Title: Generalizations
Slide Content:
• Popular music usually originates among the common people (recently referred to as the 99%)
• Americans prefer small ensembles of equal players
• Popular music is largely shaped by commercialism, even if a protest against commercialism
Narrator: Third, popular music in America has been shaped by commercialism, even though new genres
are continually invented as a protest against commercialism.
Slide 14
Title: Generalizations
Slide Content:
• Popular music usually originates among the common people (recently referred to as the 99%)
• Americans prefer small ensembles of equal players
• Popular music is largely shaped by commercialism, even if a protest against commercialism
• Listening public plays a vital role in the development of America’s musical culture
Narrator: In our capitalist society, the listening public plays a large role in influencing the development of
our musical culture through the choice of music that they purchase and the concerts they attend. Our
music culture is shaped through the creative genius of the musicians among us in partnership with the
public’s listening preferences.
Slide 15
Title: Generalizations
Slide Content:
• Popular music usually originates among the common people (recently referred to as the 99%)
• Americans prefer small ensembles of equal players
• Popular music is largely shaped by commercialism, even if a protest against commercialism
• Listening public plays a vital role in the development of America’s musical culture
• Reflects what a society values and how people spend time
Narrator: America’s music is a reflection of American society; and like all culture, it reflects back to us
what we value and how we spend our time. Thank you for joining me in this study of America’s popular
music.
Slide 16
End of presentation.