Hard Rock, Glam Rock, and Progressive Rock in the 1970s

2021 ◽  
pp. 139-173
Author(s):  
Nick Braae
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Hard Rock ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Progressive Rock ◽  
Musical Patterns ◽  
Genre Conventions

This chapter places Queen within the network of the principal rock labels of the 1970s. Extending the work of classical and popular music analysts, a distinction is drawn between style and genre, as pertaining to replicated musical patterns and the cultural meanings afforded by such patterns, respectively. With this distinction in place, Queen’s 1970s outputs are analysed in relation to the style and genre conventions of hard rock, glam rock, and progressive rock. It is demonstrated that the band engaged the style conventions of the former and latter labels, but were positioned closer to glam rock in genre terms. This is evident through their subversive exaggerated articulation of hard and progressive rock style traits, with ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ encapsulating this relationship.

Mainstreaming Dance Music and Articulating Femininity

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hee-sun Kim
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Music Performance ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Entertainment Industry ◽  
Pop Music ◽  
Dance Music ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
And Performance

Korean pop music, or K-pop, has emerged and taken its dominant place since the turn of this century, but its girl groups can trace their lineage back to the 1990s, while the dance music so characteristic of K-pop began in the dance music boom of the 1980s. This chapter examines the music, image, and performance styles of female dance divas from the 1980s into the 2000s. Its purpose is threefold: first, to properly historicize the female dance singers of Korean pop music within their socio-cultural contexts and trace how the image of sexuality has evolved from those early dance divas to the K-pop girl groups of today; second, to examine the ways in which multi-dimensional cultural meanings and voices are constructed through the music, performance styles, and images, atop discourses of body, gender, and sexuality; and third, to dispute earlier assumptions about Korean female dance singers as being merely innocent victims of the globalized commercial entertainment industry and patriarchal systems. This study seeks to reveal the female dance singers as major subjectivities in shaping modern Korean popular music, a role inevitably overshadowed by the strong critical discourse on K-pop girls that emphasizes their sexuality.

Partimenti and the Power of Improvisation

2020 ◽  
pp. 113-128
Author(s):  
Robert O. Gjerdingen
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Intermediate Level ◽  
Single Line ◽  
Good Knowledge ◽  
Advanced Students ◽  
Bass Numbers ◽  
Musical Patterns ◽  
Figured Bass ◽  
Lead Sheet

Like a lead sheet in popular music, a partimento gives a performer a single line of music to aid in the performance of a multivoice composition. Lead sheets provide a simplified melody and symbols for chords. Partimenti provide a bass and sometimes figured-bass numbers to indicate specific intervals. In both cases the reconstruction works well if the performer has a good knowledge of the style of music involved and a memory for the kinds of musical patterns needed. In Naples, children played the written partimento with their left hands at a small harpsichord. With their right hands they improvised the types of melodies, chords, and counterpoints implied by the bass. Beginners may have improvised mostly simple chords. Intermediate-level students improvised melodies and counterpoints. And advanced students developed highly contrapuntal realizations that included partimento fugues.

‘Sing as you talk’: Politics, popular music and rock criticism in Spain (1975–1986)

Journalism ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 1203-1222
Author(s):  
Fernán del Val
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Art Criticism ◽  
Hard Rock ◽  
Political Transition ◽  
Music Scenes ◽  
Popular Music Studies ◽  
Sociology Of Art ◽  
Theoretical Standpoint

The field of popular music in Spain underwent an important transformation in the years of the country’s political transition from 1975 to 1986, producing a great confluence of two music scenes: the so-called ‘Movida’ scene and the hard-rock scene. This article analyses a variety of music magazines and personal interviews with rock critics to trace how the process of legitimation in rock criticism deepened during those years. From a theoretical standpoint, this article applies ideas from the sociology of art criticism to popular music studies, Motti Regev’s work on the non-Anglophone music press and Shyon Baumann’s work on the legitimation process.

scholarly journals In Search of ‘Authentic’ Yugoslav Rock: The Life and Afterlife of Bijelo Dugme

2017 ◽  
pp. 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Petrov
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Hard Rock ◽  
Music Industry ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
The West ◽  
The Public ◽  
Rock Band ◽  
Music Scene ◽  
Popular Music Industry

In this article I address the ways in which rock band Bijelo Dugme (White Button) has become one of the symbols of the former Yugoslavia, by analyzing its activities and reception, both in the Yugoslav and the post-Yugoslav periods. Starting from 1974, when its first album was released, Bijelo Dugme gained high popularity and drew the attraction of the public due to its specific sound and image. Being between the East and the West, Yugoslavia’s popular music scene was constantly focused on searching for a kind of music that would epitomize the ‘authentic’ Yugoslav music. The folk-influenced hard rock sound (so-called shepherd rock) was recognized as such a feature and it soon became one of the symbols of Yugoslav culture itself, making Sarajevo one of its epicenters. I here argue that the band appears to be a Yugoslav symbol since (1) its active years coincide precisely with the period in Yugoslavia that was marked with relevant changes, beginning with its 1974 constitution and ending with its disintegration; (2) it is regarded as a feature representing one of the most important successes of the country’s popular music industry; and (3) it has had a specific ‘afterlife’ that sheds light on the ways culture in the Yugoslav era is perceived currently. Article received: May 1, 2017; Article accepted: May 8, 2017; Published online: September 15, 2017Original scholarly paperHow to cite this article: Petrov, Ana. "In Search of ‘Authentic’ Yugoslav Rock: The Life and Afterlife of Bijelo Dugme." AM Journal of Art and Media Studies 13 (2017): 43-59. doi: 10.25038/am.v0i13.182

From ‘Hard Rock Hallelujah’ to ‘Ukonhauta’ in Nokialand: a socionomic perspective on the mood shift in Finland's popular music from 2006 to 2009

Popular Music ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-252
Author(s):  
Mikko Ketovuori ◽  
Matt Lampert
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Random Sample ◽  
Hard Rock ◽  
Radical Politics ◽  
Business Unit ◽  
Social Expression ◽  
Comparable Sample

AbstractSocial mood in Finland shifted from generally positive in the spring of 2006 to generally negative by the spring of 2009. We identify this change in mood via eight indicators, including the onset of a financial and macroeconomic crisis, a decline in measures of sentiment, a rise in radical politics and the demise of an iconic business unit of one of the country's most successful firms. From the standpoint of Prechter's socionomic theory we hypothesise that this change in social mood is also evident in a greater level of pessimism in the songs on the country's pop chart in 2009 relative to 2006. To test this hypothesis, we introduce and validate a tool to measure optimism and pessimism in popular music. We apply this tool to a random sample of songs from the Finnish pop chart from 2006 and a comparable sample from 2009. Indeed, we find that the sample from 2009 in the aggregate is substantially and significantly more pessimistic than the sample from 2006. The study serves to enrich our understanding of what makes pop songs popular and how popular music is linked psychologically to broader popular culture and other domains of social expression through a shared social mood.

Yes, ‘Awaken’, and the progressive rock style

Popular Music ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN R. PALMER
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Rock Music ◽  
Musical Language ◽  
Rock Bands ◽  
Progressive Rock ◽  
The One ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Musical Styles

Going for the One was a good rebirth of Yes at that time, to find its feet and really know what it wanted to do. And we made ‘Awaken’ . . . (Morse 1996, p. 58).Since the release of their third recording, The Yes Album, in March 1971, the music of the English band Yes has been associated with the rock music substyle called ‘progressive rock’. The first two Yes albums showcase a very capable, inventive group of musicians who drew freely from the multitude of sounds around them, emulating aspects of the various musical styles they found engaging. However, it was not until they composed the works appearing on The Yes Album that the band coupled this eclecticism with a quest for originality to develop a voice highly idiosyncratic when judged against prevailing popular music styles. Subsequent albums reveal a predeliction for experimentation and expansion, and successful record sales in both the UK and US encouraged further development in the same direction. Although not members of the ‘first wave’ of progressive rock bands, Yes became ‘codifiers’ and for many, especially later detractors, the flagship of the ‘progressive' fleet. Before I go on to describe and illustrate, through the analysis of a particular song, aspects of Yes's musical language, I will briefly describe the environment in which it appeared and flourished.

scholarly journals The early development of the synthesizer and its impact on contemporary popular music: A research sketch

New Sound ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 11-27
Author(s):  
Žarko Cvejić
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Early Development ◽  
Historical Survey ◽  
Progressive Rock ◽  
The 1960S

The synthesizer played a central role in Western popular music of the 1960s, 1970s, and well into the 1980s, especially in so-called progressive rock and synth pop. And yet, there is still no book-length study of its impact on and meanings in this repertory. This text is a discussion of the main issues that such a study would have to address, along with a brief historical survey of the emergence and early development of the synthesizer.

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