America to perform. The songs were given the name ‘Blues’ because the lyrics were about feeling down due to living as slaves. Although it started as a vocal and improvisatory genre it later became a purely instrumental genre and developed its own localized style. The instrumentation of Blues mainly consists of a double bass or electric bass guitar, electric guitar, harmonica and most importantly the human voice. The most common blues structure is the 12 bar blues which can also be found in other genres of music such as Jazz, country, pop, rock, punk etc.
It is reflected by a tankard harmonic progression of 12 bars in a 4/4 time signature and is typically a set of three different chords played over a 12 bar scheme. For example in the key of C it would be improvised over a Blues scale of C Be F G B C. There are other less common structures such as 8 bar blues which has been used in songs such as ‘How Long Blues’ and ‘Trouble in Mind’. There are also 16 bar blues, as in Ray Charles ‘Sweet 16 bars’. Only after blues was well established did it broaden to include the white middle class and was used as a form of entertainment.
By the sass and ass eating performers came to popularize classic blues, such as; Muddy Waters, who was nick named the father of electric blues’ and did collaborations with Chuck Berry and Otis Span. He released 34 albums during his career and released his first single ‘Country Blues’ in 1941 but it did not reach the charts. ‘Im your Hooch Choice Man’ reached number 3 on the Billboard R;B chart in 1954 which was one of the most popular songs Waters released. Howling Wolf, real name Chester Arthur Burnett, was another influential blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player.
He wrote and popularized a number of songs such as ‘Smokestack Lightning’ and ‘Back Door Man’ and did collaborations with the Rolling Stones and Eric Clayton. B. B King also named ‘The King of the Blues’ is one of the most popular blues artists having released over fifty albums and being ranked number 3 on Rolling Stones magazine’s list of 100 greatest guitarists of all time. He has influenced countless other electric blues and blues rock artists such as Jim Hendrix, Eric Clayton, who he also collaborated with and Buddy Guy, amongst others. He has taught and gigged with various musicians room the sass all the way up to the 21st century.
Jazz music is said to have originated in the early 20th century in African American communities in New Orleans just after the slave trade, similarly to Blues music. It was born out of a culmination of African and European traditions due to the availability of European instruments and devices such as the diatonic scale, which was used to produce an African affect which led to slave musicians flatting the third note in the scale to produce the famous Development of Pop Music Since sass By annual came about in the sass and ass when prohibition in the United States banned the ale of alcoholic drinks.
During this time, Jazz started to get a reputation for being immoral as the popularity increased and it was blamed for several deaths. The first recordings of Jazz were made by ‘The Kid Ours Creole Jazz Band’ in 1922. That year also saw the first recordings made by Bessie Smith, the most famous of sass blues singers. The sass saw the first Jazz sub-genre, Swing. Typically in a big band the instrumentation would include a conductor, five saxophones (2 altos, 2 tenors, 1 baritone) 4 trumpets, drums, bass, guitar, 4 trombones and sometimes a vocalist.
Artists such as Louis Armstrong, who popularized scat singing, and Duke Elongating, influenced the development of big band style swing Jazz. It was a collective style and offered individual musicians the chance to solo and improvise on their chosen instrument. Other sub genres includes Bebop which formed in the early sass by performers who began to shift Jazz from danceable popular music to music which challenged the musicians and was meant for listening only. Beepers introduced new forms into Jazz such as the flatted fifth which became the most important interval used in this style.
Some of the most influential Bebop musicians included Charlie Parker, Bud Powell and Theologies Monk. In the late sass a new sub genre called Jazz fusion developed, which combined Jazz improvisation with rock rhythms and electric instruments. It often used mixed meters, odd time signatures, syncopation, complex chords and harmonies as well as using fuzz’ and Way way’ pedals for effects. Miles Davis, who made a breakthrough into fusion with his album ‘Pitches Brew in 1970 was among a list of influential musicians who performed this style such as Jim Hendrix and Frank Kappa.
Country music earned its name in the sass when it gained popularity, but began in the early sass in rural Southern United States and was called hillbilly’s music, taking its roots from Western cowboy and American folk music. It is thought that European Americans developed the style but African Americans also had a big influence on it due to the two ethnicities working and playing together in the rural communities. British and Irish immigrants also composed folk songs and ballads in the southern Appalachian mountains, from which country music is said to have descended.
String instruments such as banjos, diddles, violins, electric and acoustic guitars are most commonly used in this style of music along with harmonicas and accordions. The typical structure has a strong verse and chorus with solo improvisations which are also heavily used in the blues and minor pentatonic scale. It is also popular in the major pentatonic scale which would consist of C D F GA if played in the key of C. There are a few sub genres of country music including Bluegrass, Honk Tone, Boogie and by the sass Rockabilly, which combined rock and roll with hillbilly’s music.
One of the most notable artists of his time was Elvis Presley who had a chart hit with ‘Heartbreak hotel’ in 1956. Country music began making its way into mainstream pop in the sass. Dolly Barton was one of the main influential artists that popularized the style by releasing several hits such as ‘Here You Come Again’ which reached number 3 on the pop singles chart in 1977. Soul music originated in the United States in the sass and takes its roots from African American Gospel music and rhythm and blues.
Therefore the characteristics of Soul music are very similar to Blues, for example, the 12 bar blues similar to chart music today and rock n roll. Improvised solos tend to be shorter than what would be heard in Blues music but again, consists of the blues scale and the minor pentatonic scale. The main instruments include guitar, bass, piano/organ, drums and nearly always a horn section and backing vocals along with the main vocalist. There are many influential soul artists; Ray Charles has been cited as inventing the genre with hits including sass ‘l got a woman’.
In the sass singers such as James Brown and Earth Franklin were considered as the icons of the soul genre. Earth Franklins 1967 recordings of ‘l never loved a man’, ‘Respect’ and ‘Do eight woman, do right man’ were among the most commercially successful productions. In the sass soul music included recordings by AH Green and The Staple Singers. Mouton artists such as Marvin Gay, Michael Jackson, Steve Wonder and Smokey Robinson also contributed to the evolution of soul music, though stylistically their music was different to what was considered as ‘classic’ soul music and they were often put into the pop music genre.
Soul music has also been influenced by genres such as psychedelic rock and funk music which became intertwined with soul by artists like James Brown. Soul changed its direction to ‘quiet storm’ in the late sass to early sass when funk and disco were dominating the charts. It took influences from soft rock with its relaxed tempos and soft melodies. After the decline in funk and disco, soul music started to take its influences from electro music. It became more slickly produced and resulted in a style known as contemporary R;B.
Technology plays a big role in music today with the use of television, radio and internet making it more accessible for the listeners and making it easier to promote for the artists. It all started with the invention of the radio, owing its velveteen to the telegraph and telephone. Though the existence of radio waves was discovered in the sass, the BBC didn’t form until 1922 when local radio began. However, by the sass the airwaves became more crowded and interference increased, leading to the first national and regional services.
The use of radios to be used by the general public didn’t occur until the Second World War, when it provided a link to those that needed encouragement and information. After the war, radios weren’t much use to the public, therefore music started to get played and it turned into an entertainment device. For the first time it took music away from live performances and made it accessible to everyone. Around this time the BBC also started regular television broadcasts. This meant that the audience could now put a face to the music they listened to, making image important.
Top of the Pops was the first British music chart television show which launched in 1964 and from this many artists started to have their own shows including; Cliff Richard, Lulu, Doris Day, Alan Price and Tom Jones. Artists started to become more important due to their image rather than the music. In 1981 an American network launched called MET, this Handel had a profound effect on the music industry and popular culture, being the first to show a music video. (Video Killed the Radio Star-The Bugles) Buying music gave people the choice of what to listen to.
Woolworth was the first store that sold cheap vinyl’s in 1953, meaning that music was more accessible to UN-wealthy people. AM car radios were common in the sass and the advent of the portable transistor radio in the late ass created another way to listen to the radio whilst moving in a car. Being smaller and easier to store as well as having sound quality that rivaled all there audio formats. Also the surge in popularity of the FM radio in the late ass paralleled the development of car receivers that could pick up FM signals better while driving.
Citizens Band radio, used by truckers, was a brief fad in 1976. In 1982 Phillips and Sony introduced the compact disk and in 1984 the first CD players arrived in cars but didn’t become common until the late ass. By the sass CDC started to overshadow tape cassettes as people started to make their own compilation CDC which paralleled the rise in popularity of personal computers. People started to have more control over home recording as technology like multi tracks and recordable cassettes became common devices to use.
Around this time the internet revolution began, where suddenly people had a huge range of music to choose from at a low cost. The invention of Anapest in 1999 was originally founded as a peer to peer file sharing internet service which typically shared music, encoded in MPH format. However, because of copyright infringement which allowed people to have access to music for free, the company ran into legal difficulties and the website to shut down only two years later. The downfall of Anapest led to the uprising of websites like Spottily, which is popular amongst music fans today.
It gives people the option to pay for a subscription service; depending on the amount you pay you can get unlimited access to the music available. The creation of Youth in 2005 continues to give people even more choice, as the videos that are available to watch are uploaded by individuals as well as media corporations. Youth also acts as a promotional platform for unknown and famous artists, allowing them to upload an unlimited amount of videos and to promote to the suitable demographic due to key words put in to the search bar.
There are many other websites, such as Namespace and Concluded, which have helped towards making music more accessible to the public and making it easier for artists to promote their own music and connect with other musicians. Listening to music has changed immeasurably over the past 80 years. The development of many different audio devices has seen the growth in availability of music however this has shown a decrease in the amount of people who support vie music, instead they opt to stay in and watch music shows on their television screens or on the internet.
The reason for this is convenience and the low cost involved, unfortunately this means that artists are now less able to play gigs that are successful and are instead forced to go down the promotional route of networking online without having any practice of performing to a live audience. For some, creating a profile online can help build a fan base and gain interest from record labels and agencies who have now also turned to the internet as a way of scouting or unknown talent.
This method of networking further enforces what I have previously said about image being an important factor in the music industry, thus meaning that the audience will often see pictures or videos of the artists and make initial Judgments before they have even heard the music, this can be a big disadvantage for some musicians. The music that we listen to today has been influenced by the genres of music that I have previously discussed, some dating back to the early sass. However, there are a few styles that precede this such as folk and orchestral music. Eve performances) Vinyl’s (including cheap Woolworth’ singles 1953….. By 1954 beginning Rock ‘n’ Roll, also gave people a choice of what to listen to), sass’s Television (many artists had their own shows…. Cliff Richard, Lulu, Doris Day, Alan Price, Tom Jones)…….. Image began to become important. Sass’s…… Car radio, car cassette radio, portable radio and radio/cassette (music on the move for any class), sass’s Music Video (MET), Recordable Cassette, CD, VS.. Sass’s+: More control of home-recording (multi-tracks), beginning of the Internet (huge amounts of choice,
Anapest which led to Spottily, Youth, Namespace) Cheap/free music, huge promotional/marketing opportunities. Overall conclusion…… Most musical styles since Sass’s have come from the four styles that have written about and there are styles that preceded this (folk and orchestral). Reaction people have to live music, comparison to now to sass Listening to music has changed immeasurably over the last 90 years. It offers many advantages such as….. But a possible disadvantage is that live music isn’t as popular or supported as much due to the vast amount of other ways of listening to and enjoying music.
