Transcript Chap 4 -- Larry Ford on Origins of Rock and Roll

Landscape of Music
http://yifanhu.net/MusicMap/index.html
Origins of Rock and Roll
Spatial Tradition and Area Studies Approach
Appalachian Suite
prelude
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Ford, Larry. 1971. Origin, evolution, and
diffusion of rock and roll music.
FOLK AND POPULAR CULTURE
A.Main conclusions
1. Basically Rock emerged as a combination of:
-Black: Rhythms & Blues and Gospels
-White: Country and Western
a. Ethinic groups included:
- African Americans spread throughout the South
- Scots-Irish in Appalachia
- Note “cowboy” music although related to yodeling was not
limited by ethnicity but Germanic groups first brought it
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FOLK AND POPULAR CULTURE
A.Main conclusions (cont.)
2. Rock music represented “a revolt by the provinces
against the old cultural capital, NYC,” because NYC
wasn't filling local needs
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B. Concepts
1. Ford deals with a series of concepts or tools
very similar in definition to ones we have
talked about and will see in exploring
language, religion, agriculture, industry…
-Cultural hearth area
-Process of diffusion (spread)
-Patterns of:
-acceptance
-rejection
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B. Concepts
2. Hearth area (review Rubenstien chapter 1),
the question that Ford wishes pursue here is:
Why did a particular trait start at a given point
and not some other -- what was present there
that enabled a critical mass
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B. Concepts
3. Spread & Diffusion (again review Rubenstien chap 1),
realize that Ford's use of these concepts varies slightly
from Rubenstien's but that they are basically the same
a. Personal Contact (contagious)
b. Relocation of individuals (relocation)
c. Objectification for easy transmittal (move
from folk to popular – “industrial” input)
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4. Acceptance & Rejection
a. Satisfaction -- if an origin area is already
satisfied then it may not desire to change the
status quo:
a. for example, the Buddha was an Indian Hindu but
Buddhism no longer exists in large numbers in India.
What about Jesus??? Did all Jews become Christian?
b. Barriers -- local conditions can prevent
acceptance or don't provide necessary
conditions to cause components to come
together
-South, racial segregation prevented groups from
interacting
-South, also had lower urbanization rates, leads to more
conservative outlook and greater social control
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5. Final note -- study concentrates on verbal
(vocal) aspect of Rock's evolution
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C. White Country & Western
Music -- History & Development
Isolation of Appalachia
1. What is the major ethnic group of the
Appalachian region?
-- Where did they come from?
– What is their musical heritage?
– Historically, what instrument did they use? How
did this change over time?
– Does Isolation play a role in this musical type?
Explain.
Song Sweet William and Lady Margaret
Morris Family Old Time Music Festival
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2. Exposure to change -- early 20th century
What caused this exposure?
Why/how is it continued?
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Center/Hearth
3. Need for a center as demand increases
(Nashville, TN)
How does the hearth area develop?
What created the critical mass?
What kinds of diffusion were important and how did
they interact?
Be sure to locate the primary hearth area on a map.
Did this folk custom evolve into a pop custom at this
time? Explain.
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Folk to Pop
4. Market area -- How extensive is the market
area in the 1920s and 30s? Functional Region?
• Grand ole Oprey on TV for the hicks
• Grand ol oprey
• Move to mainstream popular Culture
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5. Western music
What can be concluded about the ethnic
background of this group? Think about
yodeling.
• Yodeling
• Explanation of Yodeling
• Jamie Foxx Yodeling
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6. North – Rejection of Country &
Western
• What did the North think? Why?
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D. Black Music -- Gospel & Blues
Blues
Gospel
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D. Black Music -- Gospel & Blues
• 1. Gospel -- mainly from southern Baptist and
Methodist churches
a. Why were African-Americans Christianized during
the slave period? What kind of religions were they
permitted to join? If this is stated as the interaction
of a dominate culture with a non-dominate one
which one dominated and what is the process being
identified here?
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1. Gospel
b. Gospel music arises, and due to the Civil War
split of the Baptist and also Methodist
churches, plus the establishment of all black
congregations in the South, this evolves under
social isolation.
America’s First Gospel
Mahalia Jackson--How I got over LIVE
Circa 1870s
Group: The Fisk Jubilee
Singers
A group of former slaves
started a singing group to
keep their school from
shutting down - and more
than a century later,
America's first all-black “hit”
singing group is still going
strong. http://gimundo.com/news/article/americasfirst-gospel-group-the-fisk-jubilee-singers/
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2. Blues -- mainly from "field
holler" and chant work songs
a. What is the historical origin of this music?
What was its original purpose? Musical
techniques maintained until the present include:
statement by individual followed by response
from chorus or call and response; falsetto breaks
and vocal twists and snaps; and the inclusion of
the blue note (flatted third and seventh note to
mimic African scale more closely)
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•
•
•
•
Work Song – sanitized
Prison Work Song the real thing
Field & Work Song
Song from a Cotton Field - Bessie Brown
Mississippi Delta
Mississippi Delta another version
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Blues
b. What is the "blue note"? Flatted third and
seventh notes. What was its purpose?
c. Why is the Mississippi delta so important in
the development of Blues? Where is the
Mississippi delta (locate it on a map)?
d. Who was W.C. Handy and why was he
important? First African-American to create
sheet music using blue note style.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgogFa_46D8&feature=related
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Blues
e. How does Memphis fit into this entire
development? Beale Street becomes Blue's
hearth area for first the sheet music, then
later record industry. These records by blacks
were referred to as "Race" records and by
other terms…
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Blues
f. Why was the spread of blues so slow in the
south? Is there a term that Rubenstien might
have used to describe this situation?
g. What was White reaction to blues?
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Mixing the two – Gospel + Blues
• Ray Charles – Georgia On My Mind
• Ray Charles – I Can’t Stop Loving You
• Ray Charles – I’m Busted
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E. New York City
1. Rubenstein details musical development in
NYC, where and what occurs here?
2. What is the nation's general reaction to pre1950 NYC tin pan alley music? Indifferent
acceptance.
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F. The Midwest Industrial
Heartland
1. What brings Country & Western and Blues
into the Midwest?
2. What differences occur in the Midwest that
hadn't occurred in the South?
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G. Birth of Rock and Roll
1. Who was Alan Freed and why
is he important? Why was the
term "Rock and Roll" coined?
2. How does race and mass
communication fit into the
development of Rock?
3. Finally, early on why didn't
Rock take hold in the South?
Why didn't it originally
develop in the South?
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Rock
4. What was the reaction
of the older generation
of the middle class to
Rock? Does this sound
familiar? What will
happen when you turn
middle aged?
Alan Freed’s Rock’n Roll Party
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Covers
Detroit
Hounddog
Comeback
2008 take
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Additional Notes
Where do Folk and Popular Cultures Originate
and Diffuse from
Be sure you have looked over the examples on
Tin Pan Alley, The Amish, and Sports (including
piece on Lacrosse)
Why is Folk Culture Clustered
Be sure to read the section on US folk house
forms
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Additional Notes
Why is popular culture widely distributed
Why does globalization of popular culture cause
problems?
Read this chapter very carefully. Popular culture
is many times synonymous with American
culture (but less so in East Asia today). Are we
doing a good thing or not in spreading our
popular culture?
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American Roots
• Interested in this area – listen to American
Roots a program on NPR
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