One in a Million

2021 ◽  
pp. 154-176
Author(s):  
George Case
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Technology And Culture ◽  
Rock N Roll

Since the 1990s, various forms of popular music have become associated with values few could have foreseen decades earlier: militarism, misogyny, nativism, and outright racism. Historic changes in geopolitics, economics, technology, and culture have redefined rock’s assumed role as the soundtrack of rebellion and dissent. As acts both progressive (Rage Against the Machine, Pearl Jam, Green Day) and regressive (Guns n’ Roses, a revived Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the indestructible Ted Nugent) win fans, and as white rappers like Eminem and Kid Rock have upset old stereotypes, it is clear that rock ‘n’ roll has changed as much as its consumers have.

‘Funky Drummer’: New Orleans, James Brown and the rhythmic transformation of American popular music

Popular Music ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Stewart
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
New Orleans ◽  
World War ◽  
Related Development ◽  
American Popular Music ◽  
Rock N Roll ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Reverse Development

The singular style of rhythm & blues (R&B) that emerged from New Orleans in the years after World War II played an important role in the development of funk. In a related development, the underlying rhythms of American popular music underwent a basic, yet generally unacknowledged transition from triplet or shuffle feel (12/8) to even or straight eighth notes (8/8). Many jazz historians have shown interest in the process whereby jazz musicians learned to swing (for example, the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra through Louis Armstrong's 1924 arrival in New York), but there has been little analysis of the reverse development – the change back to ‘straighter’ rhythms. The earliest forms of rock 'n' roll, such as the R&B songs that first acquired this label and styles like rockabilly that soon followed, continued to be predominantly in shuffle rhythms. By the 1960s, division of the beat into equal halves had become common practice in the new driving style of rock, and the occurrence of 12/8 metre relatively scarce. Although the move from triplets to even eighths might be seen as a simplification of metre, this shift supported further subdivision to sixteenth-note rhythms that were exploited in New Orleans R&B and funk.

Notation and identity in contemporary popular music

Popular Music ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 215-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Stith Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The World ◽  
Long Term Changes ◽  
Western European ◽  
Rock N Roll

Popular music, like all manifestations of popular culture, lives on in spite of recurring criticisms that cast it as somehow inauthentic. In fact, defences against this discounting are built into popular music (for example, the Rolling Stones' classic: ‘It's only rock 'n' roll but I like it’) and built in, as well, to the identities of those who make the music a part of their lives, be they players, producers, consumers or critics. On the other hand, so-called classical music, not unlike other manifestations of Western European art culture, lives on in spite of popular music and provides the touchstone of authenticity that creates the defensive popular response. The ideas I am advancing here are intended to allow the players in this authenticity contest to be recognised as evidence of unique historical circumstances: recognised, that is, not only as stock dramatists of ethnocentrism, but as indicators of long-term changes in music cultures in all parts of the world.

The Pop Music Mainstream

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Wierzbicki
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Pop Music ◽  
World War ◽  
Rock N Roll ◽  
Main Thing

This chapter examines the two most successful commodities in the field of popular music in 1950: “The Tennessee Waltz” and “Goodnight, Irene”—both of which are composed in 3/4 time. In terms of meter alone, these two extraordinarily successful songs stand as much in contrast to the rock 'n' roll music that captured the attention of American teenagers later in the decade as to the swing music that appealed to Americans of diverse age groups in the years leading up to and including World War II. But meter is not the main thing that distinguishes “The Tennessee Waltz,” and “Goodnight, Irene.” Rather than meter, or tempo, or even rhythm, what most distinguishes these songs from earlier and later efforts is their treatment of rhythm.

Fragments of a Queer Feminist Rock and Pop History in Vienna

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Fürnkranz
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Electronic Music ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Rock Music ◽  
Pop Music ◽  
Rock Band ◽  
Music Scenes ◽  
Music Scene ◽  
Rock N Roll

The historical development of Viennese rock and pop music started with rock ’n’ roll in the 1950s, continued with beat music and the “dialect wave” in the late 1960s, punk in the 1980s, the popular Viennese electronic music scene in the 1990s, and is currently enjoying a renaissance of the “dialect wave.” Artists like the Rosée Sisters, Austria’s first all-female rock band founded in 1962, Topsy Girl, A-Gen 53, or SV Damenkraft were active in local music scenes. In retrospect, they are considered as exceptions in the historiography of Austrian popular music. This chapter discusses several feminist and queer artists and collectives in Austria, their position in popular culture, and in historical and geographical contexts. The author concentrates primarily on all-female bands, LGBTIQ+ artists, and queerpop projects to illustrate diverse approaches to music, feminism, and their position within the pop and rock music scenes in Vienna.

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