Download Modern Music 1844-2000

Modern Music
1844 - Today
The Beginnings of Today’s Music
and Other Stuff That Tries to be Music
1844
Stephen Foster
Born July 4, 1826
First popular song “Open They Lattice Love”
Music was sentimental, popular before Civil War.
Themes were mostly about lost love
Immigrants missing their home and loved ones
Lost love
Appealed to the large majority of Americans
My Old Kentucky Home, Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair, and
Beautiful Dreamer were most well known.
Died in 1864 at age of 38 and penniless
Because of Stephen Foster and others America started developing its
own style of music.
Minstrel Shows
1850-1900
White actors dressed up like black
people
Black face
Very popular with majority of
Americans
Songs like Oh, Susanna, Massa’s in
de Cold Ground, Swanee River.
Replaced by musical reviews,
vaudeville, and musical theater
Ragtime
Pre- and Post-Civil War
First known as the “Cakewalk”
Ragtime
Dance contests where prizes were cakes
Two sources of the word Ragtime
Shuffling clog dance by black men known as ragging
The paper it was written on was known as a “Rag”
Unique blend of African and European styles
Two main cities where it was made popular
New Orleans, LA and St. Louis, MO
Scott Joplin
Best known Ragtime composer
Born in Texas in 1868
Died in 1917
Son of a freed slave
Maple Leaf Rag
African-American Influence
Slaves shared their feelings through songs
Negro spirituals
Songs from Africa, Haiti, etc.
Hardships of being slaves
Origin of the “Blues” and “Rhythm and
Blues”
Two time periods for the Blues
Late 1800s to 1930
Country/rural blues (developed into Country)
City/urban blues (became Jazz)
1930 to present
Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles
(Instrumentalists)
Black Sheep
Deep River
Lead: Swing low, sweet chariot
Chorus: Coming for to carry me
home
Lead: Swing low, sweet chariot
Chorus: Coming for to carry me
home
Lead: If you get there before I do
Chorus: Coming for to carry me
home
Lead: Tell all my friends, I’m
coming too
Chorus: Coming for to carry me
home
Down by the Riverside
Dixieland Jazz
1900-1920
Started out as funeral procession music
Jazz
To the cemetery—slow and mournful
From the cemetery—Fast and lively
Started playing for dances
King Louis
Made up of several instruments
Scat Cat
Piano, double bass, drums, banjo—pulse or beat
Two trumpets, a clarinet, and trombone—frontline (played the
melody)
Trumpet was main player
Clarinet—obbligato or counter melody
Trombone-tailgating (another from of counter melody)
Improvisation—play what they want, never read from music
Jazz Moves to Chicago
1917 Storyville closed down (New Orleans)
On the Sunny Side
of the Street
Many musicians moved elsewhere including
Chicago
Emphasis on soloist improvisation
Most famous—Louis Armstrong
Take Five
Hot Five and Hot Seven
Paul Whiteman—first concert in 1924
Pink
Panther
George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue
Finally considered a true art form
007
George Gershwin
Born in Brooklyn, NY in 1898
Wrote a lot of stage musicals
Folk operas
Porgy and Bess (1935)
An American in Paris (1928)
Gene Kelly starred in the film
Brain tumor
Died at the age of 39
Click Picture for link
Cole Porter
Born in 1891
Lots of music for musical theater
Wake up and Dream
Anything Goes
Kiss Me Kate (1948)
Still very popular today
Soon set a trend throughout the world
Click Picture for link
Swing
1935-1950
In the Mood
First heard in New York—recording capital
Big Band era
Leaders were the soloist
Often had singers along with band
Black (emphasis on soloist)
Duke Ellington and Count Basie
It Don’t Mean a Thing
Andrews Sisters
White (emphasis on the band)
Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, and Tommy Dorsey
A String of Pearls
As Time Goes By
Somewhere Over
the Rainbow
American Musical Theater
Based on comic opera of France and Italy
Victor Herbert (earliest composer)
Toyland and Naughty Marietta
Jerome Kern
Anchors Aweigh
Showboat
Early musicals
Romantic plots with comedy and catchy tunes
First movie to have animation in it was Anchors Aweigh
A musical was successful if the audience left humming the tunes
Gene Kelly Dances with Jerry
Back
Musical Theater (cont.)
Early shows based on songs
Later shows based on story or plot
Many early works based on famous literary works.
Kiss Me Kate based on Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare
My Fair Lady is based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion
My Fair Lady
Richard Rogers
First partner Lorenz Hart
30 musicals
Hart dies
Teams with Oscar Hammerstein (1943-1960)
Sound of Music, The King and I, Oklahoma, Carousel, South
Pacific, State Fair, Flower Drum Song and Cinderella
Cinderella
Sound of Music
Musical Theater
1960-1980
Stephen Sondheim
A Little Night Music, Sweeny Todd, Into the Woods, West Side Story
Rock Musicals (late 60s to mid 70s)
Used rock and roll as basis
Tunes not too catchy, never was really popular
Jets Song
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Phantom of the Opera (Longest running on Broadway—9000+)
Cats (Second longest—8000+)
Resurgence of American composers
Beauty and the Beast (based on Disney version)
Folk Music
Most influential on today’s songs
Johnny B. Good
Tells about lifestyles and every day life
Derived from immigrants
Bluegrass or Hillbilly similar to British Isles
Music is anonymous—handed down
Street vendors, lumberjacks, sailors, pioneers, African
slaves, Latino immigrants, and Europeans
1950s
Devil or Angel
Do You Wanna Dance?
Country music becomes very popular
Gospel and Doo Wop
Elvis
Hound Dog
Frankie Valli
Girl groups
The Ink Spots and other male groups
Dream Lover
Duke of Earl
Latino music very popular for a short time
Goin to the Chapel
Boy from NY City
60s and 70s
Deuce Coupe
Very political and social
Funk, Hip Hop, and Salsa
I Get Around
Rock and Roll
The Beatles, Beach Boys, the Mamas and the Papas and others
Elvis still rocked
Early 60s had psychedelic rock
Be True to Your School
Associated with hippies
Splintered into Heavy Metal, Punk Rock, and others.
Vultures
Bye Bye Birdie
1970s
I’ll Never Fall in
Love Again
Rock/Pop
Styx, Chicago, Queen, Carpenters, Bread, Eagles
Heavy Metal
Led Zepplin, Black Sabbath, KISS, AC/DC
Eagles
Outlaw Country
Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson
Hip Hop
Help Me if You Can
Rapping
Salsa
Punk Rock
Intermission
Rainy Days and Mondays
Late 70s to 1990
Disco achieves world popularity in 1978
Rap music is developed
MTV emerges
Alternative music
Hip hop still popular
1990-Today
Alternative
Grunge, Techno, Screamo, Gangsta rap,
Bubblegum Pop
Brittney Spears, Backstreet Boys, New Kids on the Block
Latin
Shakira, Selena and Ricky Martin
Rap more popular
Eminen, Jay-Z
Selena
Modern Era
As we can see, our American music we listen to today was
shaped by many styles of music.
It spanned over 150 years.
It is still evolving.
Each generation has its style of music.
What will it be like in the future?