Download Popular music of the 20th and 21st centuries

Popular music of the
th
st
20 and 21 centuries
Rock music
What is meant by rock music
Rock music developed out of rock ‘n’ roll.
It is a genre of popular music which often has an
instrumental group of electric lead guitar, bass guitar,
drum kit and sometimes a keyboard, often an electronic
keyboard or synthesiser.
This is an emphasis on the lead guitar and a strong back
beat
What is meant by rock music
Rock music is often extremely loud and exciting, displaying virtuoso
performances (brilliant technique and showmanship).
Sometimes it expresses anger and frustration.
There are many different types of rock music, the main categories
being:
psychedelic rock
progressive rock
hard rock
punk rock.
Psychedelic rock
This style of rock music tries to recreate the mind-altering experience of
drugs.
It emerged during the 1960s when it was felt that the taking of certain
drugs, such as LSD, that caused hallucinations and distorted time and
sesnation could take the mind to a higher plane of experience and
understanding.
Of course, this was not a permanent state, and for many it was disaster,
resulting in addiction and depression, sometimes death.
Psychedelic rock is characterised by strange, weird lyrics, the use of
unusual and exotic instruments, such as the sitar and table, extended
instrumental solos and the use of technological effects such as panning
(moving sound between the two stereo speakers), reverb and reversing
sounds recorded on tape.
Progressive rock
Progressive rock emerged during the late 1960s.
It extended the normal 3-5 minutes of popular music forms into
pieces lasting up to 15 minutes or more.
In this sense it tried to copy classical music and jazz, where the
development of musical ideas takes much more time.
Progressive rock pieces often involve lengthy instrumental solos,
copying the improvised solos in jazz, and slow-moving chord
patterns.
Progressive rock groups often unified their ideas in concept
albums, which have an underlying theme, or tell an epic story.
Activity
Research and listen to some examples of psychedelic rock
and try to identify the different technological effects.
What effect do they have on the music?
Listening Activity
Listen to some examples of progressive rock, for example
albums by Pink Floyd, or concept albums such as Rick
Wakeman’s The Six Wives of Henry VIII, or Emerson, Lake
and Palmer’s pop version of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an
Exhibition.
What influences from classical music or jazz can you
identify in these pieces?
Hard rock
Hard rock, or heavy rock, has an emphasis on the solo
guitar.
It plays riffs, virtuoso solos using many different
techniques that help the speed of playing, and fills.
Typical instrumentation comprises solo guitar, bass guitar,
drum kit, keyboards (usually electronic organ or
synthesiser) and vocalist.
Hard rock often uses a range of tonalities, including modal
scales.
Punk rock
Punk rock developed during the mid-1970s, and was a reaction
against the commercial and intellectual developments of rock
music.
In the eyes of punk musicians, rock music had abandoned its
roots and become too complicated.
Rock music was the music of the ‘superstar’ performer –
comfortable and elite.
Punk rock demanded a return to the raw side of rock music – the
simple chords and structures of rock ‘n’ roll, and the rebellious
attitudes found in its singers and audiences.
Punk rock
Punk music often contains a limited number of chords,
played at a fast tempo, and distorted.
The melody is a mixture of shouted rants, and the structure
is often simple and repetitive, with an unvarying, powerful
rhythm.
The lyrics are provocative and anti-establishment, even
anarchic.
Listening activity
Listen to ‘Child in Time’ by Deep Purple.
The opening organ riff is modal, so listen for the
characteristic tone between the leading note and tonic – in
this case the first three notes, which are repeated to form
the riff.
Research study
Punk rock
Find out more about punk rock, its fashions, groups and
style.
In what ways did punk rock return to the original ideals of
rock music?
Listening Quiz
Listen to ‘On the run’ from Pink Floyd’s album Dark Side of
the Moon
a) What term best describes the rhythm and melody heard
in this excerpt?
broken chords
chromatic
sequence
ostinato
b) What electronic keyboard instrument can be heard in
this excerpt?
c) What effect do the electronic effects have on the music?