1
Q
Music in Clubs and Pubs
A
- Nightclubs and pubs: The “incubators, nurseries and archives of popular music” (Brabazon)
- Buildings are a structure for the creation and consumption of popular music
- Enable the connection between music and audience
- Paradox: on one hand there is ability for economic development, on the other hand it often results in Government, Police etc.. Trying to regulate the noise produced, drugs & alcohol consumption
- Economic development through music and entertainment
- Need to regulate/control music and noise
2
Q
5 Significant Clubs/Pubs
A
- ) Cavern Club (Liverpool - Beatles)
- ) CBGB: Country, Bluegrass and Blues (NYC - Punk)
- ) Studio 54 (NYC - Disco)
- ) The Warehouse (Chicago - House music gets its name & start from here)
- ) The Hacienda (Manchester - New Wave & House)
3
Q
Punk & Indie
A
- Both guitar-fuelled sounds: bar chords, power chords, speed
- Ideologies of authenticity (anyone can play this music, divorcing from corporate culture)
- Close relationship between fans and performers
- Do it Yourself Attitude (DIY)
- Responses to rock, to dance music
- Complicated relationship to the “mainstream”
- Disenfranchised youth class
4
Q
Punk
A
- In most obvious form: lasted about 18 months (1976-1977) predominantly in New York and London
- Simple instrumentation and arrangement
- Anti-mainstream and anti-establishment values
- Reaction to class-based issues and problems (more so in UK)
- Influence on new wave, hardcore, indie
5
Q
Proto-Punk in the U.S
A
- U.S - based garage scene
- The Kingsmen: “Louie, Louie” (1963)
- The Standells
- -> The Stooges, The Stooges (1969)
- “I Wanna Be Your Dog”
- Highly Distorted, power chords
- Charged garage rock
- Influential “proto-punk” record
6
Q
Punk in the US
A
Geneaology of amateur aesthetic
- Ca. 1966: Velvet Underground (60’s garage bands + “rave ups” of Yardbirds, Kinks)
- Ca. 1969: Stooges/MC5
- Ca. 1973: Modern Lovers/New York Dolls
- Ca. 1975: Ramones/Patti Smith/ Talking Heads
- Ca. 1976: Sex Pistols/Clash
7
Q
CBGB
A
- By 1974 this club was a hub for the NY scene
- Bands such as Television, Blondie, and the Ramones
- Influenced by artists/bands such as The Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, and Talking Heads
- Patti Smith & Television both regulars
8
Q
The Ramones
A
- Original lineup: Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, Tommy (all took on last name Ramone)
- Helped define the “punk sound”
- “Wall of noise” - Legs McNeil described their sound this way as opposed to wall of sound: a rock version
- Regulars at CBGB
9
Q
Punk in the UK
A
- Felt to have more social and political relevance than U.S. punk
- Class – subculture and British working-class youth who share same economic problems as their parents but are distinct in how they want to deal with it
- Shocking iconography that critiqued “The Sixties” as an ideology and era
- Much more press coverage of punk in the UK
- -> Subculture and style
- -> Symbolization (jacket, hairstyle becomes a theme for a problem)- Moral Panics
- -> Moral panic as marketing strategy – trying to arouse shock (Nazi symbols)
10
Q
The Sex Pistols (1975-1978)
A
- Johnny Rotten (vocals), Steve Jones (guitar), Paul Cook (drums), Glen Matlock (bass, replaced by Sid Vicious in 1977), managed by Malcolm McLaren
- A reaction to the complexities of rock music at the time and barriers between fans and stars (mosh pits, spitting)
11
Q
Caroline Coon on Johnny Rotten
A
“His clothes, held together by safety pins, fall around his slack body in calculated disarray” (Garbage strike at the time)
“ Millionaire rock stars are no longer part of the brotherly rock fraternity which helped create them in the first place”
- Went on TV and swore on air, got in a fight got a lot of media attention
12
Q
“Sex” by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood
A
–> “Sex” by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood: clothing store that influenced what punks wore
13
Q
Punk and Women
A
- Though there are many ways in which punk can be tied to an aggressive masculinity, it also presented an attack on the hyper-masculinity of rock
- Groups like The Slits taking on a confrontational femininity, reconfiguring the stage performance
14
Q
The Slits (London, 1976)
A
- Cut (1979) - Debut album
- Produced by Dennis Bovell (experience with reggae)
- Example of a “post-punk” album
- Blend of punk, reggae, rock (beginning of the mix)
- “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” (1979)
Bonus track on Cut
15
Q
Ska
A
Sound includes a walking bassline, a piano (keyboard) or guitar-accented rhythm on the offbeat (prominent chords falling on the & instead of 1), upstroke on guitar (light to heavier strings upwards)
- Influenced by ‘mento’, a Jamaican acoustic folk music, as well as ‘Calypso’ and R&B
- Caribbean influence as well
16
Q
Ska and Reggae in a Global Context
A
- The influence of Jamaica on global popular music (Bob Marley)
- Colonialism + political, economic, and cultural connections between Africa, the Carribbean, the Americas and Europe
- Jamaica - English colony from 1655 - 1962 – roots by which Jamaican sounds can travel to the UK
- Early ska records were relased in Jamaica in the early 1960’s
- “Sound systems” and Djs - communal participation
- Influence on the mod subculture in the United Kingdom (both sound and style, escaping reality of working class existence)
- Sharp dress (suits etc… that Mods pick up)
17
Q
Desmond Dekker
A
“Israelites” (1968)
- Desmond Dekker & The Aces
- First wave of Ska
- Communicates “rude boy” experience: living in the streets, searching for what you need to survive due to economy in Jamaica (“Wake up in the morning, slavin’ for bread, sir”)
- First Ska song to reach No.1 in UK, Top 10 in US (Height of popularity in 1969)
- Brings Jamaican sound to UK and US (communicates experience of minorities)
- Guitar on offbeat ** (1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &)
18
Q
Rocksteady
A
Ska slowed in tempo, increase in bass and emphasis on offbeat
19
Q
Reggae
A
- The arrangement slowed even further
- Double-time organ/guitar and half-time bass and drum, snare turned to sound as timbale
- Lyrics focused on Africa as homeland (attention to colonization, identity, race, class)
- Jamaican music emphasizes the importance of the bass guitar
- “Protest Music”, captures a history of diaspora –> Influence of Rastafari movement, “Zion”
50s-60s: Many Jamaicans migrate to UK + US
20
Q
Chris Blackwell of Island Records
A
- Formed in Jamaica in 1959, relocates to London in 1962
- Moves reggae into diverse markets
21
Q
Bob Marley and the Wailers - Catch a Fire
A
- Island Records, 1973
- Translates reggae into popular music
- Special Album opened like a Zippo lighter (Music catching fire)
- Subsequent covers had Marley smoking a large joint
- Symbolic of standing up against Institutions/ opression
22
Q
Return to Ska
A
- 2nd wave
- 1979 onwards, “Two Tone” (also name of record label in UK) craze in UK
- Symbolizes hope of a multicultural future for Britain, racial equality, social justice
- An alternative for Britain during the Margaret Thatcher era (Lots of peoples without jobs)
- Strong emphasis on style – suits, black and white checkered patterns, dance
23
Q
The Specials “A Message to You, Rudy”
A
- Multicultural group
- The Specials (1979), 2 Tone Records
- Originally a single by Danny Livingstone (67)
- Second wave of Ska
- Both “black” and “white” musical influences
- Energy of first wave ska, but punk influences, more percussion and horns
- Frustration and anger of youth in UK, violence and desolation in the city
24
Q
Disco
A
- Developed on and for a dance floor
- Origins in African American, Latino and gay dance cultures (underground phenomenon)
- Carries sound of 60s soul into sexually experimental and permissive dance cultures of the 70s – “disco is a forum for liberated bodies”
- Heavily sampled in contemporary popular music
- 1977 – Saturday Night Fever and Studio 54
- Disco and gay culture moving to mainstream
25
The Disco Sound
- 4/4 time signature (4 on the floor)
- Syncopated bass line with open hi hat on offbeat
- Vocals and lyrics that often communicate "struggle but survival"
- Giorgio Moroder is often credited with first disco track "I feel Love" - Donna Summer)
- The "disco mix", long version - technology
- Artifice over authenticity (60s counterculture)
26
"R&B Disco"
- Influenced by soul and funk (Kool and the Gang)
| - Gospel oriented vocals
27
"Eurodisco"
- Simple, chanted vocals
| - Thicker arrangements (Orchestral instruments, synthesizers), role of producer (Summer/Moroder)
28
"Pop Disco"
Mainstream pop artists (Bee Gees)
29
Disco vs. Rock Culture
"The '60s were braless, lumpy, heavy, rough and romantic; disco is stylish, sleek, smooth, contrived, and controlled. Disco places surface over substance, mood over meaning, action over though"
Disco -- "There's gay disco and straight disco … Straight disco is heavy-duty funk, the driving sound… Gays like to hear black women singers; they identify with the pain, the irony, the self consciousness. We pick up on the emotional content, not just the physical power"
30
Disco's 3 Innovations for Pop Music
1. ) Lyrics: Overt sexuality instead of love/romance
2. ) Altered relationships between performers and producers (producers becoming stars)
- Central figure becomes the DJ
- Dance as social interaction
3. ) Birth of the remix (for dancing experience) making the radio songs longer for dancing
31
Donna Summer, Giorgio Morder and Pete Bellotte
Love to Love You Baby" (1975)
- Released as an extended version (16+ mins)
- Moroder turned a simple lyrics into a full disco hit
- Vocals communicate overt sexuality of the genre
> Also 'I Feel Love'
32
Disco Elsewhere
1. ) Rod Stewart -- "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" (1978)
2. ) Rolling Stones - "Miss You" (1978)
3. ) Kiss - "I Was Made For Loving You" (1979)
4. ) Sugarhill Gang - "Rappers Delight" (1979)
5. ) Blondie - "Rapture" (1980)
6. ) Madonna - "Hung Up" (2005, samples ABBA)
7. ) Glass Candy - "Warm in the Winter" (2011)
33
World Music
“World music is a marketing term with its origins in
the 1980s, intending to brand ‘foreign’ sounds for a
‘Western’ consumer.” (Brabazon, 185)
34
1980: Decade of the Music Video
- A new mode of marketing and presentation -- working between commerce and art
- The development of an artist's image
--> History that dates back to promotional short films:
- The Beatles in 1966
- A replacement for touring
Music Programs: Top of the Pops
35
MTV 1981
- A new visual language for music
- A way of connecting music to advertising
- Consumption as identity
- Why the 80s? --> Cheaper recording and editing technology and decline in live concerts
36
Recent Innovation in Music Videos
- Improvements in mobile screen media
- Music videos have moved beyond television
-- Arcade Fire - "The Wilderness Downtown" (We Used to Wait) incorporating your own childhood home overhead views on google maps to make the music interactive
-- Joanna Newsom - "Divers"
Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, The Master)
37
Music and Identity
- Popular music has featured a number of moments of sexual instability, challenging normative rules of love, sex, marriage, etc…
- How can voice and sound create spaces of social and sexual instability?
38
The Kinks - "Lola" (1970)
- Provides a context for a range of sexualities and identities
- Also represented through David Bowie -- Androgynous style
39
Madonna
"Queen of Pop"
- Born Madonna Louise Ciccone, major popular star in music and film
- Known for constantly changing her image and style
- Frequently a subject of controversy (cultural appropriation)
- Written and produced most of her songs
40
Madonna and Performing Identity
- One of the first pop stars to understand the potential of music video and MTV (along with Michael Jackson)
- Visual self-presentation, choreography, and dancing
- "Virtuoso of the superficial" - Jon Pareles
- Presentation of sexuality, but also control --> A new form of feminism or dismissal of it?
41
Madonna and dance and style
- Dance: escape from conventions of religion and bourgeois society
- Madonna blends many pop music styles, but major influence during her early career was disco
42
"Lucky Star" Madonna (1983)
Through MTV, she transmits "an avant-garde downtown New York sensibility to the American masses"
43
Michael Jackson
"King of Pop"
- Career begins with Jackson Five and Motown
- 1971: Solo Career
- 1978: Meets producer Quincy Jones
- 1979: Off the Wall
- 1980's & 1990s: Major figure in pop music
44
Thriller
(1982)
- Becomes an international phenomenon
- Breaks all record sales
- Synthesized pre-existing musical styles
- -> The Albums music videos:
- More than "mere promotional vehicles"
- "Minifilms": Small narratives, large budgets
- Singing and dancing - showcasing Jackson as a performer
45
Beat it (1982)
- Produced by Jones and Jackson
- Guitar solo by Eddie Van Halen (for free)
- - Video: Short film with Jackson stopping a gang fight through dance
- Connection to cinema: narrative, use of actors
- Portrayal of black youth in the streets (gangs)
- Prominence of organized, choreographed dance
46
MJ - Stardom and Racial Identity
- Jacksons "fluctuating physical appearance"
Tate: "a fine line between a black entertainer who appeals to white people and one who sells out the race in pursuit of white appeal" (Brackett 365)
"The only thing Bad has going for it is that it was made by the same artist who made Thriller"
"After becoming an artificial white man, now he wants to trade on his ethnicity"
47
Bruce Springsteen "The Boss"
> Early Career
- Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (73)
- The Wild, The Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (73)
- Born to Run (1975)
48
Bruce Springsteen, early success
- Epic performances, rock 'n' roll influences (nostalgia), bleak acoustic ballads
"Subjects of many songs feature "sensitive portraits of working-class people stuck in dead-end lives" or "rousing, celebratory rockers"
- Career boom in the early 1980s (video era)
49
From Born to Run to Born in the USA
- Image of American flag - populist themes, political ambiguity, appropriation
- Reagan re-election campaign vs. the song's attacks on his policies
- The album's singles move Springsteen into the realm of music videos with "newly buffed-up bod" (Brackett)
- Videos brought in "new legions of fans," big success
50
Born in the USA
- Continues darker themes of Nebraska (1982) but with energy and a more mainstream pop sound
- Best selling album of 1984, 7/10 songs = singles "Glory Days" (1984)
- Music Video shot in New Jersey (hometown)
- Features E Street band in a Hoboken, NJ bar
- Springsteen performs/acts as the man from the song - connection to working-class culture, former baseball player - he's :( … everyday life
Contradictions of "mass-market populism" (Frith)
51
Springsteen's Image
- "Authenticity"
- Springs from image and storytelling technique
- Celebration of "the ordinary"
- "music can not be true or false, it can only refer to conventions of truth and falsity" (Frith 381)
- ($prinsteen)
- Authenticity defined against artifice
- A "millionaire who dresses as a worker"
- "Boss" - Springsteen employs his band
52
Hardcore and Aggression
Punk -> Popular appeal + Move to underground
- Influencing a number of sub-genres
- Often shirtless front man running in the audience
- U.S. Hardcore: California/Washington D.C.
- Songs with a focus on speed, anger, aggression
- New political realities, Reagan and 1980s (links to Conservative climate in UK at the time of punk)
53
Black Flag
"probably America's best and best known hardcore band" (Flipside)
- Hardcore stance in both music and lifestyle (dedication, work, emphasis on the physical)
- -> "Rise Above" (Damaged, 1981)
- SST Records - Independent label formed by guitarist and songwriter Greg Ginn
- Henry Rollins - Anger in both vocals and performance - group chanting
54
Commercialization of Hip Hop
- Hip Hop in the 1970s and 1980s
- Hip Hop on the Margins
- Technology: Turntable as an Instrument and Breaks and Samples
55
Hip Hop
- More than a musical genre
- Involves a range of behaviours, attitudes, and ideologies, including: Rapping, Djing, breakdancing, graffiti
- A "product of post-civil rights era America"
- Born in the 1970s - South Bronx
- Rhythmic vocals over music created by mixing records on turntables
56
Technology in Hip Hop
- Mixer: music from one turntable to another
| - Disco influence (two turntables)
57
Views of Hip Hop
- At most trivial: "a way of dressing"
- At most serious: "a model of thinking about the past and present"
- "Gangsta rap" vs. "Conscious rap"
- Quotations, versions, samples, and remixes (legal & copyright issues)
- Circulates sounds of the past through recycling, repackaging and remixing
58
Rap/Rapping
- A key characteristic of hip hop
- A mode of expression that combines song, poetry and speech
- "Flow" - rhythmic and rhyming patterns
59
The Turntable
- Moves from being a domestic platform for playing music to an instrument for creating and performing music
"Turntabilism" (1995) vs. "DJ":
- Turntablist - turntable used as instrument
- DJ - playing of already existing records (1972-2010: The basis of DJ culture)
60
4 Major Techniques of Turntabilism
1. ) Beat Matching
2. ) Beat Mixing
3. ) Scratching (reversing spin of record)
4. ) Beat Juggling (ex: two records, breakbeat)
61
Kool Herc
- DJ name of Clive Campbell
- Jamaican-born DH (70s)
- Brought reggae and dancehall culture to NYC
- Isolated "breaks" - the rhythmic section
- "Merry-Go-Round" technique
62
Hip Hop Dj'ing
- Breakbeat DJ style
Break: A section of music in which the vocal drops out and percussion dominants
- Grandmaster Flash
- Afrika Bambaataa
- Creating rhythm by moving records on turntables
63
The "Break" - James Brown
James Brown - "Funky Drummer" (1970)
- Clyde Stubblefield
- One of the most sampled breaks in pop music
- Public Enemy "Fight the Power"
- 1989 - Do The Right Thing
- 1990 - Fear of a Black Planet
- Hank Shocklee (Bomb Squad)
64
The "Break" - Sugarhill Gang
Sugarhill Gang - "Rapper's Delight"
- 1979 (single) / 1980 (album)
- Popularized hip hop, one of first hit recordings to feature rapping
- Single (3:55), full length (14:35) - for dancing in the club
- Producer Sylvia Robinson assembled the group
- Many "legit" rappers were not interested in recording
- Performance on "Musikladen" (West Germany)
65
Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force
- South Bronx, NY
- Influence of electronic on hip hop
- Drum machine and synthesizer (Roland TR-808)
--> Planet Rock (1982)
Kraftwerk samples and influence
66
Rap in the 1980s
- Invention and commercial accessibility of digital sampler
- Manipulation and repetition of recorded sounds
- The looping of grooves (previously done by backspinning)
- Referencing, homage
67
Public Enemy - Bring the Noise (1988)
- From: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
- Production: The Bomb Squad
- Record scratching: DJ Terminator X
- Densely layered, noisy backtrack
- "Run- DMC first said a deejay could be a band"
- Continued use of James Brown Samples (including "Funky Drummer")
- Collaboration with metal band Anthrax (1991)
68
The Commercialization of Hip Hop
- Hip Hop in the 1980s and 1990s
- Hip Hop in the Mainstream
- Gangsta Rap and Commercial Success
- Sensationalism and the Media
- "Blockism" and East v.s West Rivalry
69
Rap and Hip Hop in Mainstream
- From the late 1980s and the 1990s
| - Commercial ascendance of Hip Hop
70
Gangsta Rap
Mass Media: focus on sensationalism
- Moral outrage and panic
- Glorification of violence and misogyny
- Rap as "not really music"
- Responses: melody in drums, record sales, live samples, rap and cadence
- Rap videos are "purposely glorifying armed violence and criminality" (Bob Greene, Chicago Tribune)
71
N.W.A (1986-1991)
- Lyrics featuring graphic violence, sex, anger
- Urban realism in popular music
-- "Rhyme that describe the violent challenges of urban living" (Brackett)
Media sensationalism:
"Sex-and-violence posturing" for "thrill-seeking Caucasians" (Brackett)
72
Beyond Sensationalism
- Dr. Dre's production
- "Rhythmic declarations" of Ice Cube and Easy-E
- Critiques of social institutions and systemic racism
73
Gangsta Rap Continuing Popularity
- New rappers emerge in New York City
- East Coast Revival/Renaissance
- Modifying elements of West Coast style:
- Partying and materialism (Biggie)
- Imaginative humour and music (Wu Tang)
- Urban Realism (Nas)
- Move to "blockism"
- Wu-Tang Clan
- Death Row Records (West Coast)
- Biggie Smalls clique, Bad Boy (East Coast)
74
Tupac Shakur - "Hit 'em Up" (1996)
- Deliberate "diss track" against East Coast rap scene, especially Biggie and Bad Boy
- Lyrics include claims to have had an affair with Faith Evans (Biggie's wife/ex-wife)
- Video: Features a Biggie impersonator
75
The Notorious B.I.G - "Big Poppa"
- Ready to Die (Bad Boy, 1994)
- Certified double platinum
- Samples "Between the Sheets" by Isley Brothers
- Video: West Coast influence, members of Bad Boy and party lifestyle/materialism
- Success of song and album solidify the prominence of East Coast Hip Hop
76
Decline of Gangsta Rap
- Death of 2Pac and Biggie mark decline of subgenre's popularity
- Puff Daddy's No Way Out (1997) is "all materialism and style," weak in terms of rapping/MC skill
- "Hip-hop is perhaps the only art form that celebrates capitalism openly" (Farley in Brackett)
77
Puff Daddy - "No Way Out" (1997)
- Use of large sections of previous songs
- New era of sampling and quotation
- New era of pluralism in hip hop
- Expanded role of women
- Debut studio album
- Financially successful, many critiques of Puff Daddy's skills
- "I'll Be Missing You" - Puff Daddy and Faith Evans
- Tribute to Biggie
- Relies heavily on sample of The Police's "Every Breath You Take"
78
Women in Rap
- Aggressive Sexuality (L'il Kim, Foxy Brown)
- Use of men to satisfy needs
- Return to the classic blues singer's persona? "A strong woman who knows what she wants"
- Women and "Progressive Hip hop"
- Lauryn Hill, the Fugees
Verbal skills, rapping dexterity
79
Missy Elliot
"Wacky, surreal, and decidedly non-glamourous persona/image"
- 1997: Solo Career, Supa Dupa Fly
- Production: Timbaland
- "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" (dir. Hype Williams)
- Return to skillful production (less reliant on simple samples)
Cross genre boundaries (return of R&B)
80
Greg Tate on Hip Hop
"…hip hop praxis wherein lyric content and raising the art form to the next level outweighs the profit margin" (Greg Tate)
81
Chuck D. on Hip Hop
"Anything that comes from a black point of view that the establishment doesn't have full control over or understanding of, they view as being offensive" (Brackett 443)
82
RZA (Wu Tang) on Rap
"Will Smith is rap. That's not hip-hop. It's been a big year for rap. It's been a poor year for hip-hop…" (Brackett)
83
A Tribe Called Quest (1985)
- Native Tongues Posse (NYC): group of hip hop artists who used positivity in lyrics
- De La Soul
- Positive expression/lyrics,
- Afrocentrism
- "Award Tour" - Midnight Marauders (1993)
- "Jazz Rap"
- Connection to urban realism, without the sensationalized violence
84
Lauryn Hill
- First big crossover female superstar in hip hop
- Solo album: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
- Successful in terms of sales, but also in communicating a woman's perspective within the realm of hip hop (talks about her pregnancy and relationships)
- Five Grammy awards (1999)
- New level of acceptance of hip hop in mainstream (Hip hop had become the mainstream)
- Across racial boundaries and genres -- breakthrough in race relations, or "white voyeurism?"
- Number of different styles: reggae influence and soul
85
Indie and Alternative
Late 1980s
- "indie" genre label was very vague:
- Goth-pop (The Cure), dream pop (My Bloody Valentine), post-punk and new wave
- Also the beginning of an indie scene in Seattle surrounding the independent record label, Sub Pop
86
DiMartino on Indie
"…the weather isn’t always great, and they sit in their garages a lot" therefore they practice and hoan their skills (DiMartino 469)
"And the labels are coming because amidst the city's lush greenery, they smell money" (DiMartino 468)
87
Institutional Shift
- Bands affiliated with Sub Pop begin to sign with major record labels:
Soundgarden --> A&M
Screaming Trees --> Epic
Nirvana --> David Geffen's Label
88
Sub Pop
1986, Bruce Pavitt
- Helped define the Seattle grunge sound by signing influential bands like Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Nirvana
- Roots in Subterranean Pop fanzine
- Warner Music Group now owns a significant stake in the company
89
Grunge
Describing both "the overdriven guitar sound characteristic of Seattle postpunk bands and the dress and style of faded flannel and torn jeans" (Brackett 468)
--> Soundgarden (1984-1997, 2005-), Alice in Chains (1987-2002, 2005-), Mother Love Bone (1988-1990), Pearl Jam (1990-)
90
Grunge and the Mainstream
"This mainstreaming of bohemianism threatened the indie-punk notion that certain kinds of consumerism might somehow resist commodification" (Brackett)
- Once again, authenticity vs. commerce
- Weisbard: privileged place of "white guy angst"
91
Transformation of Indie
1. ) Signing to major record companies
2. ) Indie- alternative videos on MTV
3. ) "Scrunge" - elements of grunge sound with no indie values
92
Kim Deal on Indie
"Fucking turn up your vocals, please! I hate it when people make things so difficult that they actually don't work 'cause they're being so indie" - Kim Deal, The Breeders/Pixies (Brackett)
93
Weisbard on Indie
"Can the indie values of smallness, marginality, antipop as a basis for community formation and everything else, really serve as a blueprint for '90s mainstream rock? Isn't that a contradiction in terms, or something even worse - a betrayal of values" - Weisbard 474
94
Nirvana
Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, Chad Channing/Dave Grohl (1990)
95
Bleach (album) - Nirvana
(Sub Pop, 1989)
- "Love Buzz" - Debut single (Original by Shocking Blue in 1969)
- "Negative Creep" --> 'textbook example' of Seattle grunge
Distortion, screaming vocals, repetitive lyrics in chorus
96
Nevermind (album) - Nirvana
Nevermind (David Geffen's Company, DGC 1991)
- Produced by Butch Vig (Sound City Studios, LA/Smart Studios, Madison)
- Alternative solidified in mainstream
97
Lithium (album) - Nirvana
- Quiet verses --> loud choruses (extreme dynamics)
- The importance of music over lyrics (drums & guitar emphasized just as much if not more than vocals)
- Butch Vig: Use of click track to keep tempo
98
DIY, Third Wave Feminism, Riot Grrrl
- Early-mid 1990s, Washington D.C, Olympia WA
- Ex. Of independent "scene" infrastructure:
- Politics (third wave feminism), activism
- DIY: zines and art
- Music
- Self-representation
99
Riot Grrrl
Bikini Kill (Olympia, 1990-1997)
- Affiliation with riot grrrl movement (some might say too much so)
- Punk/hardcore influences, feminist lyrics
- Tense relationship with popular press
- - "Rebel Girl" (Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah, 1993)
- Label: Kill Rock Stars
- Commitment to underground music/culture
100
House and Post-House
- Different relationship to listening practices than other genres (namely rock and rock-related)
- Records designed for Performance by DJ and the dance floor (beats and bass in body)
- Dancing to recorded music, not live band
- Relationship to "excess, drugs, dancing"
- Often defined/described as "electronic dance music"
101
Irvine Welsh on House
"I think I'll stick to drugs to get me through the long, dark night of late capitalism" - Irvine Welsh, The Acid House
102
Location of House
- Origins in Chicago, 1985/86
- Disco down to 4/4 rhythm (simplified)
- Vocals are not central (Kraftwerk)
- Key foundation: repetitive and mechanical rhythm
- Chicago: Warehouse: "House"
- New York: Paradise Garage: "Garage"
- Connections between American clubs and European rhythms/sounds
103
Technology in House
- Global listenership
- Difficult to write about (hence so many descriptive terms - hardcore, trance, tribal, I(ntelligence)DM, etc…)
- Intense relationships with disempowered communities
104
Frankie Knuckles and Jamie Principle - "Your Love"
- (1987 - Knuckles version, put to vinyl)
- Early Chicago hosue scene
- Repetitive synthesizer, prominent bass
- Very influential in a number of genres and styles:
- Animal Collective - "My Girls" (2009)
105
Techno
- Detroit, European Aesthetic, colder and more futuristic, different from house in BPM and venues (open air locations)
- Roland TR-808, Roland TR-909, older Moog synths (re-inventing machines)
--> "String of Life" (1987)
- Rhythm is Rhythm/Derrick May
Futuristic "tether" to house
106
"Tethered to House"
Techno and Jungle
107
Jungle
- Stretched breakbeat, full rhythmic pattern, "accelerated reggae," hybrid of hip hop and house, louder, harsher, faster, connection to black Britich culture (*1995: "drum 'n' bass")
- Digitized data from older sounds through an Akai S950 sampler, linked to sequence packages like Cubase
- Amen break
- "Terminator" (1992)
- Metal heads
108
Electronica and Mainstream
1998: 61% of all single titles released in Britain belonged to the “dance” category
1996/97: “Electronica”:
• The “next big thing in American popular music”
• Drum ‘n’ bass, trip hop, big beat
• Some artists achieving mainstream success
(Chemical Brothers, Moby)
- Connection to “Indie”: Insider status required
Music 103
flashcards
Decks in class (5)
# Cards
