1
Q
Music and Visuality
A
- Songs summon visuality
- Many songs evoke images, colours, sensations
- Visuality is tied to music (Live performances, DJs in a club, Music Videos, Digital interfaces)
- The link between sound and vision was not invented by MTV (though music videos are the most obvious place where sound and image collide)
- When visuality was tethered to popular music through the twentieth century, the ‘threat’ to youth via music increased
2
Q
Visuality before MTV:
A
- Magazines
- Album covers
“The era of the LP was a critical moment in the visual history of popular music”
3
Q
Visuality after MTV:
A
- Digitized and sonic visual files
- Not permanent
- Convenient and mobile
- Music in video games
4
Q
Music Videos
A
- Activating visual and sonic literacies, music videos are texts of excess, incorporating thousands of editing cuts within a three-minute period
- Advertisements, promotional materials that accompany a song
5
Q
Bad times for Rock ‘n’ Roll…
A
At the end of the 1950s:
- Chuck Berry: conviction for transporting a minor
- Elvis: in the army
- Little Richard: in the ministry
- Jerry Lee Lewis: married his 13 yr old cousin
- Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper die (The Day the Music Died)
6
Q
Payola
A
- “Pay” and “Victrola”
- Producing singles was cheap. A lot of pressure on record labels for songs to become hits - Records get a test run in “break out” cities, promoters paid DJ’s to feature certain songs
- FTC estimated that 250 Djs took payment (bribes)
- Many politicians believed that popularity of rock’n’roll was a conspiracy’
7
Q
First court case of Payola:
A
- May 9, 1960: first court case: Alan Freed was indicted for accepting $2500 (died due to alcohol in 1965)
8
Q
Alan Freed
A
- playing black popular music to white kids & promoting concerts at which both performers and audiences were integrated
- Career ended by Payola scandal
9
Q
Dick Clark
A
- featured virtually all-white audiences and was cautious of integration on the air
- Hosted until 1989
10
Q
New Form of Rock ‘n’ Roll: Teen Pop
A
- Designed to please both teens and politicians
- Incorporated aspects of rock’n’roll while reinstating the separate roles of songwriter, instrumentalist, and singer (which were collapsed by folks like Chuck Berry and Little Richard)
11
Q
American Bandstand (1952-1989)
A
- Featured the music of “teen idols”:
> “good-looking young people from the Philadelphia area, singing music with a vague resemblance to rock ‘ n ‘ roll” - Teens would often be interviewed about opinions on music
12
Q
3 Teen Pop Songs
A
- ) Big Bopper “Chantilly Lace” (1958) – all about visual performance, he lip synced into a phone
- ) The Everly Brothers “Cathy’s Clown” (1960), they started standing in the audience
- ) Chubby Checker “The Twist”, dance craze
13
Q
Popularity of Clark
A
- Gave people a pre-sold market
- Did not rely on cash payola, had a more complicated system: Corporate holdings including: interest in 3 record companies, 6 music publishing houses, a record pressing plant, a distributing firm and a management company
- The records and singers involved with his companies were featured on his program,
Hardly played Elvis, Bing Crosby, Sinatra (no stake)
14
Q
The Brill Building
A
- Broadway and 49th Street, Manhattan
- Home to music industry offices and studios (labels, publishing companies, studios etc…)
- The building’s name refers to a style and sound of American song writing
- Had a certain sound (Brill Building Sound):
- Influenced by rhythm and blues, latin music
- Commercial success in late 50s, early 60s
15
Q
Brill Building Approach
A
- Many songrwriters working to create hits
- Reflects the control of the music industry after the first wave of rock ‘n’ roll
- Singers were many, replaceable
16
Q
Vocal arrangements of the Brill Building
A
- Call-and-response approach
- Lyrics often arranged to simulate a dialogue between lead and backing vocals
17
Q
Song writers of the Brill Building
A
- Sonny Bono
- Neil Diamond
- Carole King*
- Ellie Greenwich*
- Paul Simon
- Phil Spector*
18
Q
Singers and Musicians of the Brill Building
A
- Darlene Love
- Liza Minnelli
- The Ronettes
- The Shangri-Las
- The Shirelles
- Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
19
Q
Girl Groups of Motown
A
- Marvelettes, Martha and the Vandellaas, The Supremes
- 1961-1963
- The emergence and success of numerous “girl groups” marking the first time that female subjectivity had been so widely represented
20
Q
First Big Girl Group Song
A
The Shirelles “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”
- Written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin
- First No.1 hit by all-girl groups in U.S.
- Latin influence of rhythm & backbeat (double snare on the two)
- Girl Group sound:
Dense harmonies, expansive orchestra, pensive and evocative lead vocal
21
Q
Girl Groups and Feminism
A
- Women are generally not as visible in history of popular music (backup dancers/singers)
- Particularly in regards to certain instruments
- Girl groups as performers versus songwriters and producers
- “Girl Group” refers to singer, not instrumentalists, often dancers as well
- Tend to have finite careers
- Part of success is fashion
22
Q
Brill Building as a “Production Line”
A
- Singers at bottom of hierarchy
- Producers could pick from the talent pool of singers hoping to succeed, find a way out of poverty (often recorded for very little compensation)
- The Raindrops: faces just to put on an album and lip-sync for performances they weren’t the actual recording artists
23
Q
Phil Spector
A
- One of the most “widely celebrated” figures connected to this genre and era (highlighting imbalance of power)
- Assumed complete power and economic control over the female artists who were featured on his productions
- Long history of violence, treating performers unfairly, releasing songs without the recording artists knowledge -now in jail for murder
24
Q
“Wall of Sound”
A
- A dense, reverberant texture filled with instruments that were often difficult to separate from one another
- A number of instruments performing the same parts at the same time
- Fit for AM radio, jukeboxes
25
The Crystals "He's a Rebel"
- Credited to Crystals
- Actually sung by Darlene Love, recorded by the Blossoms (Crystals were on Tour)
- Produced by Phil Spector
- The Wrecking Crew (session musicians)
26
1960's: Surf and Urban Folk
Surf: Brian Wilson and Production
| Urban Folk: Bob Dylan and the Electric Guitar
27
Surf Music and Southern California
- California becomes the most populous and economically important state
- Rapidly growing suburbs
- Surf emerges from this context, beaches
- Initially instrumental
- The Ventures "Walk, Don't Run" (1960/1964)
- Guitarist Dick Dale "Misirlou" (1962)
28
The Beach Boys
- The band most strongly associated with surf
- A distinct, contrapuntal, falsetto-led vocal style
- Multipart harmonies, Chuck Berry riffs, trebly guitar timbres, lyrics about the beach and middle-class white teenagers
- Wilson brothers (Brian, Carl, Dennis), Mike Love (cousin), Al Jardine (friend)
29
Surfin' USA
1963 -
- You can hear Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen" (Berry eventually awarded songwriting credit)
- Produced by Brian Wilson
- The "California Sound"
- Lyrics make reference to many surfing spots
30
Pet Sounds (album)
1966
- One of the first "concept" albums (theme connecting all the songs together)
- Features a lot of studio experimentation (overdubbing, mixing, *looping, unusual instruments including dog whistles, Theremin)
- Brian influenced by the Spector sound, adding harmonies and vocal techniques
- Not as financially successful as earlier albums, though received critical praise (psychedelic rock, art rock)
- Concept in mixing instruments together to combine as one sound (continuity of the production)
31
Folk
- Long history before its resurgence in late 1950s/early 1960s
- A lot of debate about its politics and use (left vs. right, authenticity vs. change, preservation vs. transformation)
32
5 Characteristics of Folk (Ronald Cohen)
1. ) Origins in particular culture/region
2. ) Authorship has historically been unknown
3. ) Traditionally performed by non-professionals
4. ) Simple composition, communal
5. ) Songs historically passed down through oral transmission
33
Woody Guthrie
- Added social commentaries and protest to popular music
| - "This Land is Your Land" (1944/45)
34
Pete Seeger
- Support for union organizations in the 1930s and 1940s
- Member of the Communist Party
- Father of 1960's progressive and civil rights movement
- Influential both politically and musically
- Infused folk music with the imperative for social justice
35
Bob Dylan
- Arrives in Greenwich Village (NYC) in 1961
- Songs fell into the protest genre, though they were more abstract, use of allusions rather than straight forward description, moreso focused on cultural assumptions of Western society rather than specific political causes
36
Bob Dylan (album) 1962
- Robert Shelton review (NYT)
- Contract from Colombia Records
- Folk Revival, relied on pre-existing material
- Influence by Woody Guthrie
37
Bob Dylan and the Newport Folk Festival (1965)
- Takes place during "folk-rock" craze
- Use of a rock' n' roll band seemed to embody the very commercial forces to which the folk revival had seen itself in revolt
- Dylan's first live, plugged in performance
- Dylan plays with Butterfield Blues Band
- Controversy following Dylan's "defection"
- Folk purists against use of electric guitar, the use of a rock 'n' roll band, and the
- performance of a single --> "Maggie's Farm"
38
Electric Folk
- Dylan's move to the electric guitar reinforced the value and meaning of the guitar for the rock decade
- Agitated the easy authenticity and politics that had been tethered to folk music
- Shifted the relationship between sound and noise, lyric and rhythm, and what was acceptable to a listening audience
- Easier transition between acoustic and electric instruments
39
Folk impact on Rock
- Folk had a profound impact on rock's interpretation of itself, it allowed rock to gain some semblance of authenticity and separation from pop music
- Also granted rock a political integrity and edge
- When there is a moment of pop protest, folk history returns to us
40
Soul Music
"Southern music"
- Much more than geography
- Ideology of disconnection, history of displacement and oppression
- More community oriented and organized
- Close ties with gospel and blues, database of samples for rap
- Creating, singing, dancing to narratives of black America
- Yearning for change
- Impossible to understand without grasping the impact of civil rights movement (political)
- "Soul Music" -- a term that enters mainstream usage
- Ties cut with 1950s rhythm and blues, a distinct sixties "soul" genre emerges
- Added hope, texture and density to music
41
Stax Records was referred to as...
Soulsville USA
42
Stax Records
- Memphis
- Synonymous with soul
- More specific focus than hits (motown was focused on hits)
- "down-home", "southern" soul style
- Otis Redding, Booker T. & the MG's, Sam and Dave
43
Motown records was referred to as...
Hitsville USA
44
Motown Records
- Detroit
- Northern, "smooth" or "uptown" soul style, "Motown Sound"
- Supremes, Four Tops, Temptations, Stevie Wonder
- Started by Berry Gordy, Detroit 1959
- Inspired by assembly line
- Relocation to L.A. in 1972
- Most successful U.S. business owned by an African American by mid-1960s
- Stereotypically "sweet" and "pop" though there was a range between the pop of the Supremes and funkiness of Junior Walker
- Often tambourines to accent back beat
- Orchestral string sections, horns, background vocals
- KISS: Keep it Simple, Stupid
45
Holland-Dozier-Holland (HDH)
- Songwriting trio that helped define Motown sound
- 1962 -1967: Motown prime
- 25 No.1 hit singles
- 1967: dispute over royalties with Gordy
46
The Supremes - "You Keep Me Hangin' On" (1966)
- Motown: H-D-H and Funk Brothers
- Distinct guitar part (Morse code, radio broadcast)
- Multitrack production (in line with Wall of Sound influence)
- Widely covered (Vanilla Fudge with a notable version - more psychedelic?)
47
Aretha Franklin
- Memphis Gospel Roots
- "Queen of Soul"
- Commercial successes with Atlantic Records
- Helped move Soul music into political engagement
- Appeal to growing African American middle class
48
Respect (1967, Atlantic Records)
- Produced by Jerry Wexler Originally released by Otis Redding (1965)
- Meaning changes significantly
- Franklin: A woman's confidence, demanding a mans respect
- Symbol of the feminist movement
- Connection to Soul and changing black racial self-consciousness
49
City Music and Urban Spaces
- Cities are distinct
- Shaped by different histories, industries, economic choices, immigration policies
- At times, these factors align to create a branded music industry
50
Music Cities
- Connected via transportation networks (infrastructure)
- Compact, walkable (ways to get to shows)
- Large numbers of university students
- Connections between music and local businesses
- Sonic spaces
- Creative class stimulates economies
51
Ex. of Music Cities
- Seattle connected to Grunge
- San Fran - Haight Ashbury
- Chicago and Blues
- New York and Hip hop/Rap
- Nashville and Country
- Vancouver and alternative
- Liverpool --> Beatles (Cavern Club)
- Manchester acid house, recovery after shutting down of steel production
52
Characteristics of a New Economy where Popular Music Industry is integral...
- Globalization
- Digitization
- Recognition of the economic value of education
- Increasing awareness of copyright and intellectual property rights
- Increased diversity of working practices and models
- Convergence of work and leisure practices
- Increased role of consumption rather than production in the formulation of identity
53
The Beatles (1960-1970)
John Lennon: rhythm guitar and vocals (1940-1980)
Paul McCartney: bass guitar and vocals (1942)
George Harrison: lead guitar (1943-2001)
Ringo Starr: drums (1940)
54
Beginning of the Beatles
- Combined functions of songwriting, singing and playing (like rock 'n' roll pioneers)
- Producer: George Martin (crafted their sound over the years)
- Began as a "skiffle" band (rhythmic, folk music with heavy percussive and traditional jazz), performing in Liverpool clubs (Lennon's the Quarrymen)
- Performing many covers (R&B, rock 'n' roll, Brill Building, pop music, soul hits)
55
Beatles Popularity/Being taken seriously
- Their music emerged with distinctiveness from popular music of the time
- The band's popularity became a media sensation, first in the UK (1963) and then the U.S. (1964)
- In the U.S, the novelty of a British pop group set them apart
- Along with Bob Dylan, the Beatles were one of the first popular music groups that were taken seriously by critics
- William Mann in the Brackett reader: compares the Beatles to Austrian composer Gustav Mahler
56
Please Please Me Album (1963, U.K)
- 8 songs written by Lennon and McCartney
| - 6 cover songs (Shirelles, Goffin and King)
57
I Saw Her Standing There
- Opening track, bass riff from Chuck Berry song, made to sound live ("One, two, three, four)
- Twist and Shout (Cover, Phil Medley and Bert Berns)
- Originally recorded by Top Notes (61), then the Isely Brothers (62)
58
The Beatles and the British Invasion
- The rise of popularity of British music and culture in the U.S. during the mid-1960s
- Dec. 1963 - Jan. 1964: Marketing of the Beatles in the U.S --> Release of "I want to Hold your Hand" as a single
- Introducing… The Beatles (1964, U.S)
- An effect of overwhelming charisma that resonated especially well with white, middle class teenagers
- Energy of performance and recordings (as heard on songs like "I Saw her Standing There" and "Twist and Shout")
- Variety of repertoire
- Musical skill
59
Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show
- First appearance: February 9, 1964
- Considered the beginning of the British Invasion
Performed "All My Loving", "Till There Was You", "She Loves You" and then later "I Saw her Standing There" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand"
60
The Beatles Evolve
- -> A Hard Day's Night (1964), Beatles for Sale (1964), Help! (1965)
- A steady expansion of musical and technological resources
- Four-track
- Overdubbing (layering vocal and instrumental parts in succession)
61
Rubber Soul (1965)
- These changes became much more pronounced with Rubber Soul (1965)
- Subtle instrumentation --> come and go, songs with just strings or just guitar, drugs
- Eastern influence (sitar, "Norwegian Wood")
- Reflexive lyrics ("In My Life")
"Artsy" cover photo
62
Revolver (1966)
- Revolver (1966) and albums of Bob Dylan, Rubber Soul convinced listeners that rock could be for adults
- Intellectual inclinations
63
Richard Goldstein reviews Revolver
- Among first of a new breed of critic
- Working to create an alternative aesthetic that corresponds with the music
- 'Revolver' is a revolutionary record, as important to the expansion of pop territory as was 'Rubber Soul'"
64
"Tomorrow Never Knows"
"…It's place in the pantheon of psychedelic music is assured"
- The lyrics resemble a mantra in form and message
- Combination of "acid-Buddhist imagery" and "rock beat" (Goldstein)
- Vocals through speaker cabinet, studio as instrument
- Tape loops (guitar phrases, "laughing sound")
65
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
- Extensive use of recording studio (studio as instrument again)
- Concept album
- Sound effects, tape collages, orchestral instrumentation, sound processing
- Withdrawal from live performance
- Goldstein: too much excess in recording?
66
"A Day in the Life"
- 41 piece orchestra
- Middle section, atonal crescendo
"…a suburb achievement of their brilliant and startlingly effective popular art" (Kroll)
- Distinct sections written by Lennon and McCartney
- "I'd Love you turn you on" - BBC banned the song
- Final chord: simultaneous E-major (3 pianos, harmonium)
67
The Rolling Stones Members
```
Original members:
Mick Jagger (vocals), Keith Richards (guitar), Charlie Watts (drums), Brian Jones (original songwriter, guitar until '69), Ian Stewart (piano), Bill Wyman (bass)
```
68
The Rolling Stones
- Projected an ironic detachment, arrogance, and aggressive sexuality to seem the opposite of the Beatles
- Raw, blues-based sound versus pop and soul elements of the Beatles
- Yet both influence by 50's rock 'n' roll and soul music
69
Ellen Willis reviews in Brackett (1969)
- Connects Stones to politics and counterculture ("Street Fighting Man")
- One of the first female rock critics
70
"Street Fighting Man"
- Beggars Banquet (1968)
- The Stones begin to find their own blues-based, hard rock sound, a "return to form"
- Politics: Tariq Ali and anti war rally
- Ambiguous relation of rock and rebellion
- Willis compares to Beatles' "Revolution"
71
American Counterculture
- The search for alternatives to middle-class life
- Eastern influence, birth control, anti-war, drugs
San Francisco:
- Spiritual mecca for counterculture
- Growing psychedelic rock scene, use of drugs (LSD) - "acid rock"
- Community values (hippie lifestyle - other options not just domestic life)
72
Janis Joplin
- Originally singing with Big Brother and the Holding Company -- band (San Francisco, 66-68)
- Described as "best white blues singer of all time"
- Blues and R&B -- distinguished her from other folk-based female performers at the time
- Uninhibited performance style and public persona
73
Janis Joplin 1967-1968
- - 1968:
- Departs band
- Increased popularity after Monterey Pop Festival
- Columbia Records
- -> "Ball and Chain" (Monterey Pop Festival, 1967)
- Original by Big Mama Thornton
- Festival increased the recognition for Joplin as a singer (performed twice)
- A live version is included on Cheap Thrills (68)
74
Jimi Hendrix
- Launched solo career in London
- Highly amplified blues merged with psychedelic rock
- Electric guitar as an electronic instrument (Sustain, feedback, wah-wah pedal)
- Theatrical stage performance (playing guitar in extreme ways, smashing it, playing with teeth, lighting it on fire, behind head)
- Popularity evoked uncomfortable contradictions in counterculture (despite ethos of inclusion)
- Influenced by Dylan ("Like a Rolling Stone, All Along the Watchtower")
- Showmanship a gimmick? (Dawbarn in Brackett)
- Left handed guitar (didn't exist so he had to string it)
75
Jimi Hendrix Music
- -> "Hey Joe" (Live at Monterey Pop, 1967)
- Performance style, use of guitar
- As with Joplin, festival performance helped launch career
- -> "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)"
- Electric Ladyland (1968), single (UK, '70)
- Final "Experience" album
- Improvised guitar, wah pedal intro, effects
- Psychedelic blues
- Studio jam, final take included on album
- Live performances varied in length
76
Monterey Pop Festival
1967:
- "Summer of Love"
- A rock festival spanning a number of days
- 30,000 fans in attendance (though estimates have been given that far exceed this number)
- Anti-materialism versus commercialism
77
Woodstock (1969, Bethel New York)
- Images of hippies, peace, love
- "Woodstock Nation"
- Dearth of women and African Americans
78
Altamont
1969
- Free concert planned by the Stones
- Hell's Angels, violence, paranoia
- 4 deaths (3 accidental)
- Meredith Hunter killed by Hell's Angels
- Attendance of around 300,000
- Stones ending tour with free concert
- Last minute changes to venue, logistical issues (Angels hired as security)
- Symbolic and literal "end of the sixties"
79
"After all we not only make beautiful music, love, and beadwork; we pay our pigs to exterminate Black Panthers, we fry Vietnamese in their own homes and we elect Spiro Agnew to govern our lives"
Csicery in Brackett
80
Singer Songwriter songs were intensely ...
Personal.
- Intimate
- Introspective
- Confessional
- Represented an attempt to apply lyric poetry to semiautobiographical themes
81
Singer Songwriters in the 1970s
- Was turning inward a retreat from, or a re-evaluation of the politics of the 1960s?
- The feminist maxim: "the personal is political"
- High # of women involved in the genre
- Until the singer-songwriters, the words "soft" and "rock" would rarely appear in the same sentence
- At a time when rock was loud and aggressive, soft rock represented the other side of the equation
- Genre emerges from the end of the folk revival
- Songs not based on riffs, but rather accompaniment patterns
- Rhythmic arpeggio (notes in a chord played in sequence) known as "fingerpicking"
82
Carole King (1942, NYC)
- A seasoned Brill Building professional
- After her divorce with Gerry Goffin, she moved to the West Coast
- First album, Writer (1970) struggled, though Tapestry (1971), broke all existing record sales
- Neither consumed by politics nor driven to share intimate details of private life
- Projected contentment at a time when most listeners were suspicious of it in their own lives
- In 1971, outsold everyone in the music business
83
Tapestry (1971)
Keys to its success:
- King's songwriting expertise, autobiography
- Sensuality of R&B influence piano playing
- Warm, friendly vocals
- Lou Adler's uncluttered production, "soft" sound, "a very naked sounding album"
- Became best selling record of all time, won four Grammy awards
- Antidote to hard rock
- No interview policy after its success
84
George Clinton and the Rise of Funk
- Funkadelic (Warner Records) - Clinton's psychedelic funk
- Parliament (Casablanca) - shorter, simpler material
- "P-Funk" refers to music and artists associated with Clinton
85
Rise of Funk
- Funk as a genre comes into its own in the early 1970s
- Funk often based on a single chord, groove over melody
- Early 70s: Soul as a genre splinters
- Many bands performing their own blend of funk: War, Tower of Power, Ohio Players, Earth Wind and Fire, and Parliament/Funkadelic
- Funk ascends from the sounds of James Brown and incorporates the innovations of Jimi Hendrix
- Brown: emphasizes first beat over backbeat
86
Clinton's "striking form of funk"
- Emphasizing a clear backbeat (often with electronic handclaps), thick texture with overlapping parts, bass lines (Bootsy Collins), synthesizer bass, horn players, gospel-rooted group vocals
87
Parliament Stage Show
- A spectacle that set new standards for grandiosity in black popular music
Mothership Connection: the beginning of a "cosmological narrative of the redemptive power of funk"
88
"Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker"
- Group vocals, sing-along chorus
- Chorus: bass is a near-double of vocals
- Major influence on hip hop
89
Key Characteristics of Heavy Metal
- Extreme amplification of guitar
- Instruments are faster, louder, harder than most other forms of rock
- Power chord: Root and fifth of a chord magnified by distortion
90
Heavy Metal Audience
- Finds an audience in working-class and middle-class white youth (New class and age divisions in the audience)
- Marketed to young men
- Loudest, most heternormatively masculine, most performative - excessive
- Commitment of body - head banging, hand gestures - development of alternative to conventional masculinity
91
Origins of Heavy Metal
- Origins in the late 1960s and early 1970s
- Emerging from the fragmentation of blues-infused rock music
- Relationship between blues-based rock and psychedelic rock created the foundation for heavy metal
92
Heavy Metal
- Increased amplification, distortion and length of guitar solos
- Overwhelming characteristic: extreme amplification of the electric guitar
- London blues-rock scene, the riff-oriented songs of bands like the Who and the Kinks, and the improvisation of psychedelic rock eventually came together to form a genre that would be the antithesis of singer-songwriter "soft rock"
- Bands such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple were distinct from other blues revival bands because of their less reverent attitude towards the blues
- Certain elements of blues (tonality, riffs, sexual imagery) were refashioned for a new audience more interested in visceral power
- Metal turns down the peace-loving idealism of folk and psychedelia and turns up darker themes, expressions of crude sexuality
93
Heavy Metal Ex.
- - Cream
- Guitar, bass, double bass drum
- - Jimi Hendrix
- Guitar and Virtuosity
- - The Kinks - "You Really Got Me" (1964)
94
Led Zeppelin
- Jimmy Page (Guitar), Robert Plant (vocals), John Paul Jones (bass), John Bonham (drums)
- Now considered one of most influential rock bands, initially not very well-received by critics
- Helped move heavy metal into the mainstream with Led Zeppelin II
- -> Rolling Stone Magazine: Critiques songwriting as weak and unimaginative
95
"Babe Im Gonna Leave You" - Led Zeppelin
- "very dull"
| "very redundant, and certainly not worth the six-and-a-half minutes the Zeppelin gives it"
96
Whole Lotta Love
- From Led Zeppelin II (1969)
- Example of band's "heavy" sound
- First hit single
- Heavy blues riff, sexuality through vocals
- Unstructured musical breaks with solos
- Similar sound to Muddy Waters "You Need Love" (Written by Willie Dixon)
- Moved heavy metal into popular culture
97
Response to Whole Lotta Love
"Mendelson's review of Led Zeppelin was a 100% lie. Pure bullshit. Never has there been such a great since Winwood's departure from Traffic"
98
Black Sabbath
- Working class area with declining auto industry
- Both, Black Sabbath (1970) and Paranoid (1970 UK, 1971 US) feature songs stripped down to their riff-infused bones
- Sabbath's darkness was "light years away" from the "flowery, hedonistic, and…romantic images of Led Zeppelin"
- Tempos and textures that "ooze primordial sludge"
99
Critiques of Black Sabbath
- Critic Griel Marcus claimed that this simplified sound was successful because of a younger audience who did not absorb the aesthetic premises of 1960s rock
- Lester Bangs: "since when is monotony so taboo in rock and roll, anyway?
100
Black Sabbath Members
- Includes a guitarist (Tony Iommi), bassist (Geezer Butler), drummer (Bill Ward) and a non-instrumentalist singer (Ozzy Osbourne)
- Images of Occult and Supernatural
101
"Black Sabbath" (album)
- From first album Black Sabbath (1970)
- Begins with rain, thunder, and church bells
- Riff with guitar and bass of pitches G, G an octave higher and C-sharp
- A tritone symbolizing "the devil in music" in the Middle Ages (diabolus in musica)
- Riff and tempo maintained for most of the song
102
"Paranoid" - Black Sabbath
- From second album Paranoid (1970 UK, 1971 US)
- First song released as a single
- Recorded very quickly (both song and album)
- Builty around Tony Iommi's guitar riff
- Influence on both metal and punk
Music 103
flashcards
Decks in class (5)
# Cards
