Coleman Julie
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199567256
- eISBN:
- 9780191595073
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199567256.003.0008
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics, Lexicography
Glossaries of African-American English began to appear between the wars. This period saw them take on a political function in the fight for civil rights and a practical role in attempts to improve ...
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Glossaries of African-American English began to appear between the wars. This period saw them take on a political function in the fight for civil rights and a practical role in attempts to improve educational levels in inner-city schools. Musicians' slang was heavily influenced by African-American slang, and musicians carried this slang into more general usage.Less
Glossaries of African-American English began to appear between the wars. This period saw them take on a political function in the fight for civil rights and a practical role in attempts to improve educational levels in inner-city schools. Musicians' slang was heavily influenced by African-American slang, and musicians carried this slang into more general usage.
Coleman Julie
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199567256
- eISBN:
- 9780191595073
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199567256.003.0009
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics, Lexicography
Slang only becomes associated with young people in general during the period covered by this volume. The production of dictionaries of youth slang was fuelled by fears of juvenile delinquency and by ...
More
Slang only becomes associated with young people in general during the period covered by this volume. The production of dictionaries of youth slang was fuelled by fears of juvenile delinquency and by the influence of ‘black’ music on white teenagers. However, many glossaries of youth slang from this period were produced as tools in marketing and advertising campaigns.Less
Slang only becomes associated with young people in general during the period covered by this volume. The production of dictionaries of youth slang was fuelled by fears of juvenile delinquency and by the influence of ‘black’ music on white teenagers. However, many glossaries of youth slang from this period were produced as tools in marketing and advertising campaigns.
Matthew F. Delmont
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520272071
- eISBN:
- 9780520951600
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520272071.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
American Bandstand, one of the most popular television shows ever, broadcast from Philadelphia in the late 1950s, a time when that city had become a battleground for civil rights. Counter to host ...
More
American Bandstand, one of the most popular television shows ever, broadcast from Philadelphia in the late 1950s, a time when that city had become a battleground for civil rights. Counter to host Dick Clark's claims that he integrated American Bandstand, this book reveals how the first national television program directed at teens discriminated against black youth during its early years and how black teenagers and civil rights advocates protested this discrimination. This book brings together major themes in American history—civil rights, rock and roll, television, and the emergence of a youth culture—as it tells how white families around American Bandstand's studio mobilized to maintain all-white neighborhoods and how local school officials reinforced segregation long after Brown vs. Board of Education. The book illustrates how national issues and history have their roots in local situations, and how nostalgic representations of the past, like the musical film Hairspray, based on the American Bandstand era, can work as impediments to progress in the present.Less
American Bandstand, one of the most popular television shows ever, broadcast from Philadelphia in the late 1950s, a time when that city had become a battleground for civil rights. Counter to host Dick Clark's claims that he integrated American Bandstand, this book reveals how the first national television program directed at teens discriminated against black youth during its early years and how black teenagers and civil rights advocates protested this discrimination. This book brings together major themes in American history—civil rights, rock and roll, television, and the emergence of a youth culture—as it tells how white families around American Bandstand's studio mobilized to maintain all-white neighborhoods and how local school officials reinforced segregation long after Brown vs. Board of Education. The book illustrates how national issues and history have their roots in local situations, and how nostalgic representations of the past, like the musical film Hairspray, based on the American Bandstand era, can work as impediments to progress in the present.
Ellen Willis
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816680788
- eISBN:
- 9781452948997
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816680788.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
Written by New Yorker’s inimitable first pop music critic, this book presents the perspective of a radical and rational political realm, to look at rock-and-roll, sexuality, and above all, freedom. ...
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Written by New Yorker’s inimitable first pop music critic, this book presents the perspective of a radical and rational political realm, to look at rock-and-roll, sexuality, and above all, freedom. Here the text captures the thrill of music, the disdain of authoritarian culture, and the rebellious spirit of the 1960s and 1970s.Less
Written by New Yorker’s inimitable first pop music critic, this book presents the perspective of a radical and rational political realm, to look at rock-and-roll, sexuality, and above all, freedom. Here the text captures the thrill of music, the disdain of authoritarian culture, and the rebellious spirit of the 1960s and 1970s.
Andy Bennett
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- April 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195342956
- eISBN:
- 9780199894284
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195342956.003.0003
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology
Rock and Roll became an important form of popular music, entering mainstream youth culture by white translators of black music such as Elvis Presley. Youth readily identified with the themes of Rock ...
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Rock and Roll became an important form of popular music, entering mainstream youth culture by white translators of black music such as Elvis Presley. Youth readily identified with the themes of Rock and Roll, such as rebelling against parents, having fun, and earlier themes of love and romance. Succeeding generations expressed the concerns of youth at the moment. Disenchantment with the war in Vietnam produced the Hippy movement. The economic downturn of the 1970s led to Punk as a voice for the disempowered that later emerged in the form of Grunge. Gender bending and challenges to conventional interpretations of sexuality were expressed in Glam. Soul and Reggae music represented the voices of non-white youth, with Rap emerging in the 1980s and becoming a global influence. Each of these expressions of youth concerns has had a lasting effect on each generation as well as on culture at large.Less
Rock and Roll became an important form of popular music, entering mainstream youth culture by white translators of black music such as Elvis Presley. Youth readily identified with the themes of Rock and Roll, such as rebelling against parents, having fun, and earlier themes of love and romance. Succeeding generations expressed the concerns of youth at the moment. Disenchantment with the war in Vietnam produced the Hippy movement. The economic downturn of the 1970s led to Punk as a voice for the disempowered that later emerged in the form of Grunge. Gender bending and challenges to conventional interpretations of sexuality were expressed in Glam. Soul and Reggae music represented the voices of non-white youth, with Rap emerging in the 1980s and becoming a global influence. Each of these expressions of youth concerns has had a lasting effect on each generation as well as on culture at large.
Tracey E. W. Laird
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195167511
- eISBN:
- 9780199850099
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195167511.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
The Louisiana Hayride was broadcast from Shreveport, Louisiana, and reached listeners in over twenty-eight states, luring them to packed performances of the Hayride's road show. By tracing the ...
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The Louisiana Hayride was broadcast from Shreveport, Louisiana, and reached listeners in over twenty-eight states, luring them to packed performances of the Hayride's road show. By tracing the dynamic history of the Hayride and its sponsoring station, the book reveals the critical role that this part of northwestern Louisiana played in the development of both country music and rock and roll. Sitting between the Old South and the West, this one-time frontier town provided an ideal setting for the cross-fertilization of musical styles. The scene was shaped by the region's easy mobility, the presence of a legal “red-light” district from 1903–17, and musical interchanges between blacks and whites who lived in close proximity and in nearly equal numbers. The region nurtured such varied talents as Huddie Ledbetter, the “king of the twelve-string guitar,” and Jimmie Davis, the two term “singing governor” of Louisiana who penned “You Are My Sunshine.” Against the backdrop of the colorful history of Shreveport, the unique contribution of this radio barn dance is revealed. Radio shaped musical tastes, and the Hayride' frontier-spirit producers took risks with artists whose reputations may have been shaky or whose styles did not neatly fit musical categories.Less
The Louisiana Hayride was broadcast from Shreveport, Louisiana, and reached listeners in over twenty-eight states, luring them to packed performances of the Hayride's road show. By tracing the dynamic history of the Hayride and its sponsoring station, the book reveals the critical role that this part of northwestern Louisiana played in the development of both country music and rock and roll. Sitting between the Old South and the West, this one-time frontier town provided an ideal setting for the cross-fertilization of musical styles. The scene was shaped by the region's easy mobility, the presence of a legal “red-light” district from 1903–17, and musical interchanges between blacks and whites who lived in close proximity and in nearly equal numbers. The region nurtured such varied talents as Huddie Ledbetter, the “king of the twelve-string guitar,” and Jimmie Davis, the two term “singing governor” of Louisiana who penned “You Are My Sunshine.” Against the backdrop of the colorful history of Shreveport, the unique contribution of this radio barn dance is revealed. Radio shaped musical tastes, and the Hayride' frontier-spirit producers took risks with artists whose reputations may have been shaky or whose styles did not neatly fit musical categories.
Nina Goss and Eric Hoffman (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496813329
- eISBN:
- 9781496813367
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496813329.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
This introductory chapter provides an overview of Bob Dylan's output in the new millennium. It traces how Dylan's embrace of capitalist culture is perhaps not so much a resignation as it is a final ...
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This introductory chapter provides an overview of Bob Dylan's output in the new millennium. It traces how Dylan's embrace of capitalist culture is perhaps not so much a resignation as it is a final rejection of a generation whose voice he did not want to represent. For Bob Dylan's voice is not the voice of a single postwar American generation, but rather a voice that is in many ways outside time, an American voice that derives from a rich musical tradition, from folk music to rock and roll, from Tin Pan Alley to bluegrass, from jazz to Western swing, from blues to ballads. It is, moreover, a uniquely poetic voice, and one that brings with it a lyrical tradition that stretches back to the French trouvères, forward to the Beats and beyond.Less
This introductory chapter provides an overview of Bob Dylan's output in the new millennium. It traces how Dylan's embrace of capitalist culture is perhaps not so much a resignation as it is a final rejection of a generation whose voice he did not want to represent. For Bob Dylan's voice is not the voice of a single postwar American generation, but rather a voice that is in many ways outside time, an American voice that derives from a rich musical tradition, from folk music to rock and roll, from Tin Pan Alley to bluegrass, from jazz to Western swing, from blues to ballads. It is, moreover, a uniquely poetic voice, and one that brings with it a lyrical tradition that stretches back to the French trouvères, forward to the Beats and beyond.
Christopher Gair
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748619887
- eISBN:
- 9780748671137
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748619887.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter examines the factors leading to the emergence of the counterculture. It focuses on dempgraphic, economic and technological change and offers an overview of the material to follow.
This chapter examines the factors leading to the emergence of the counterculture. It focuses on dempgraphic, economic and technological change and offers an overview of the material to follow.
Christopher Gair
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748619887
- eISBN:
- 9780748671137
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748619887.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter commences with a reading of the Beat Generation interest in bop jazz. It then looks at the importance of Blues and rock and roll as musical forms that would be at the heart of later ...
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This chapter commences with a reading of the Beat Generation interest in bop jazz. It then looks at the importance of Blues and rock and roll as musical forms that would be at the heart of later countercultural practice.Less
This chapter commences with a reading of the Beat Generation interest in bop jazz. It then looks at the importance of Blues and rock and roll as musical forms that would be at the heart of later countercultural practice.
Keila Diehl
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520230439
- eISBN:
- 9780520936003
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520230439.003.0005
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
This chapter analyzes the Tibetan refugee dreams of political independence or autonomy for the homeland. It discusses the idealized romance with the West engaged in by young Tibetan refugees facing ...
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This chapter analyzes the Tibetan refugee dreams of political independence or autonomy for the homeland. It discusses the idealized romance with the West engaged in by young Tibetan refugees facing limited opportunities in their South Asian settlements and suggests that Western rock-and-roll music was a powerful resource for young Tibetan refugees trying to imagine and pursue personal and political rangzen. It argues that participation in an international pop culture was a way for Tibetan refugees to express solidarity with a wider human struggle through sounds that have a historical relationship with social change.Less
This chapter analyzes the Tibetan refugee dreams of political independence or autonomy for the homeland. It discusses the idealized romance with the West engaged in by young Tibetan refugees facing limited opportunities in their South Asian settlements and suggests that Western rock-and-roll music was a powerful resource for young Tibetan refugees trying to imagine and pursue personal and political rangzen. It argues that participation in an international pop culture was a way for Tibetan refugees to express solidarity with a wider human struggle through sounds that have a historical relationship with social change.
Gene Logsdon
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813124438
- eISBN:
- 9780813134734
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813124438.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter discusses singing farmers and looks at the role of music in farm and rural life. Part of the discussion looks at the rise and career of a country singer, Chris Logsdon, who said that ...
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This chapter discusses singing farmers and looks at the role of music in farm and rural life. Part of the discussion looks at the rise and career of a country singer, Chris Logsdon, who said that growing up on a farm influenced him toward a life of a singer-artist. The chapter also delves into the musical practices of farmers in America and reveals that when rock and roll came along, people from the cities surged out onto the farms to listen to it. No matter how the tradition of real farmers singing in professional country music has somewhat diminished, it still remains.Less
This chapter discusses singing farmers and looks at the role of music in farm and rural life. Part of the discussion looks at the rise and career of a country singer, Chris Logsdon, who said that growing up on a farm influenced him toward a life of a singer-artist. The chapter also delves into the musical practices of farmers in America and reveals that when rock and roll came along, people from the cities surged out onto the farms to listen to it. No matter how the tradition of real farmers singing in professional country music has somewhat diminished, it still remains.
J. Mark Percival
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748638772
- eISBN:
- 9780748653539
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748638772.003.0013
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Scottish Studies
This chapter focuses on issues of tartan and meaning in rock and pop in an international context, and on the contrasting meanings constructed around the use of tartan by artists perceived as either ...
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This chapter focuses on issues of tartan and meaning in rock and pop in an international context, and on the contrasting meanings constructed around the use of tartan by artists perceived as either Scottish or non-Scottish. It notes that tartan in post-1940s Anglo–US popular music culture is a site where notions of Scottishness and national identity meet discourses of commerce, creativity, and authenticity. It discusses tartan and popular music culture in two broad eras: 1. Rock and roll to glam: tradition and showing out, 1954–75; 2. Punk and its legacy: irony, subversion, and new authenticities, 1976–2010.Less
This chapter focuses on issues of tartan and meaning in rock and pop in an international context, and on the contrasting meanings constructed around the use of tartan by artists perceived as either Scottish or non-Scottish. It notes that tartan in post-1940s Anglo–US popular music culture is a site where notions of Scottishness and national identity meet discourses of commerce, creativity, and authenticity. It discusses tartan and popular music culture in two broad eras: 1. Rock and roll to glam: tradition and showing out, 1954–75; 2. Punk and its legacy: irony, subversion, and new authenticities, 1976–2010.
Todd Decker
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520268883
- eISBN:
- 9780520950061
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520268883.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
In 1952, Fred Astaire remarked that “jazz means the blues,” and this chapter examines this comment in practical terms by detailing Astaire's varied use of the twelve-bar blues progression as a ...
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In 1952, Fred Astaire remarked that “jazz means the blues,” and this chapter examines this comment in practical terms by detailing Astaire's varied use of the twelve-bar blues progression as a musical scaffold for dance making. All the important popular blues-based idioms turn up in his work, from boogie-woogie and swing blues (use of the blues progression by big bands) to 1950s rock and roll and 1960s soul jazz. Astaire danced to popular music, whose structural building blocks are straightforward: thirty-two-bar choruses built on eight-bar phrases in an AABA or ABAC arrangement, twelve-bar blues choruses, introductions, verses, vamps, and big finishes. There was nothing arcane or concealed about the musical forms he deployed: they can be heard easily if we attend just to the music—sometimes hard to do with all that dancing going on. Accompanied on-screen by a group of African American sideline musicians, Astaire created an extended solo dance to “Bugle Call Rag.” His final studio-era solo was a rock-and-roll blues number by Cole Porter.Less
In 1952, Fred Astaire remarked that “jazz means the blues,” and this chapter examines this comment in practical terms by detailing Astaire's varied use of the twelve-bar blues progression as a musical scaffold for dance making. All the important popular blues-based idioms turn up in his work, from boogie-woogie and swing blues (use of the blues progression by big bands) to 1950s rock and roll and 1960s soul jazz. Astaire danced to popular music, whose structural building blocks are straightforward: thirty-two-bar choruses built on eight-bar phrases in an AABA or ABAC arrangement, twelve-bar blues choruses, introductions, verses, vamps, and big finishes. There was nothing arcane or concealed about the musical forms he deployed: they can be heard easily if we attend just to the music—sometimes hard to do with all that dancing going on. Accompanied on-screen by a group of African American sideline musicians, Astaire created an extended solo dance to “Bugle Call Rag.” His final studio-era solo was a rock-and-roll blues number by Cole Porter.
Mark Berresford
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781604730999
- eISBN:
- 9781604733716
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781604730999.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
Wilbur C. Sweatman (1882–1961) is one of the most important, yet unheralded, African American musicians involved in the transition of ragtime into jazz in the early twentieth century. This book ...
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Wilbur C. Sweatman (1882–1961) is one of the most important, yet unheralded, African American musicians involved in the transition of ragtime into jazz in the early twentieth century. This book tracks this energetic pioneer over a seven-decade career. Sweatman’s talent transformed every genre of black music before the advent of rock and roll: “pickaninny” bands, minstrelsy, circus sideshows, vaudeville (both black and white), night clubs, and cabarets. Sweatman was the first African American musician to be offered a long-term recording contract, and he dazzled listeners with jazz clarinet solos before the Original Dixieland Jazz Band’s so-called “first jazz records.” He toured the vaudeville circuit for over twenty years and presented African American music to white music lovers without resorting to the hitherto obligatory “plantation” costumes and blackface makeup. Sweatman’s bands were a fertile breeding ground of young jazz talent, featuring such future stars as Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins, and Jimmie Lunceford. Sweatman subsequently played pioneering roles in radio and recording production. His high profile and sterling reputation in both the black and white entertainment communities made him a natural choice for administering the estate of Scott Joplin and other notable black performers and composers. This book is a full-length biography of this pivotal figure in black popular culture, providing an account of his life and times.Less
Wilbur C. Sweatman (1882–1961) is one of the most important, yet unheralded, African American musicians involved in the transition of ragtime into jazz in the early twentieth century. This book tracks this energetic pioneer over a seven-decade career. Sweatman’s talent transformed every genre of black music before the advent of rock and roll: “pickaninny” bands, minstrelsy, circus sideshows, vaudeville (both black and white), night clubs, and cabarets. Sweatman was the first African American musician to be offered a long-term recording contract, and he dazzled listeners with jazz clarinet solos before the Original Dixieland Jazz Band’s so-called “first jazz records.” He toured the vaudeville circuit for over twenty years and presented African American music to white music lovers without resorting to the hitherto obligatory “plantation” costumes and blackface makeup. Sweatman’s bands were a fertile breeding ground of young jazz talent, featuring such future stars as Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins, and Jimmie Lunceford. Sweatman subsequently played pioneering roles in radio and recording production. His high profile and sterling reputation in both the black and white entertainment communities made him a natural choice for administering the estate of Scott Joplin and other notable black performers and composers. This book is a full-length biography of this pivotal figure in black popular culture, providing an account of his life and times.
Billy Siegenfeld
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813049298
- eISBN:
- 9780813050119
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813049298.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
In the current generation of jazz dance artists, swing does not appear to figure at all as a necessary ingredient of creative practice. Swing music embodies two different rhythms, “ground rhythm” and ...
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In the current generation of jazz dance artists, swing does not appear to figure at all as a necessary ingredient of creative practice. Swing music embodies two different rhythms, “ground rhythm” and “jump rhythm,” each with their own personality. Swing emerges from balancing expression in these contrasting states, allowing offbeat accentuations that are at the heart of the jazz experience to pop off the ground with stunning unpredictability. Rock and roll primarily communicates only a single rhythm to the ear. This rhythm tends to repeat without any variation through the duration of a given piece of music. This author feels that if the movements of a dance have been consciously shaped to express the single, two-beat-based rhythm of a piece of music, by definition that dance cannot be considered a “jazz” dance— even if every last movement in the piece replicates in shape a physical gesture borrowed from authentic swing choreography.Less
In the current generation of jazz dance artists, swing does not appear to figure at all as a necessary ingredient of creative practice. Swing music embodies two different rhythms, “ground rhythm” and “jump rhythm,” each with their own personality. Swing emerges from balancing expression in these contrasting states, allowing offbeat accentuations that are at the heart of the jazz experience to pop off the ground with stunning unpredictability. Rock and roll primarily communicates only a single rhythm to the ear. This rhythm tends to repeat without any variation through the duration of a given piece of music. This author feels that if the movements of a dance have been consciously shaped to express the single, two-beat-based rhythm of a piece of music, by definition that dance cannot be considered a “jazz” dance— even if every last movement in the piece replicates in shape a physical gesture borrowed from authentic swing choreography.
Carlos Jones
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813049298
- eISBN:
- 9780813050119
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813049298.003.0028
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
This chapter examines the complications of race and class as a part of the jazz dance story. Acceptance as an art form has eluded jazz dance for decades. Much of this can be attributed to the ...
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This chapter examines the complications of race and class as a part of the jazz dance story. Acceptance as an art form has eluded jazz dance for decades. Much of this can be attributed to the separation between the artistic community and what is considered entertainment, and therefore less sophisticated. The development of jazz dance as a codified technique during the latter half of the twentieth century has blurred or erased movement that does not emanate from white ideas of artistic value. This chapter offers theories that encompass the discussion of race and class in America, highlighting the contradiction that allowed jazz dance to become a marginalized dance form while still having great commercial success. Discussion includes the influence of rock and roll music, Motown, and shows like American Bandstand and Ready Steady Go¡Less
This chapter examines the complications of race and class as a part of the jazz dance story. Acceptance as an art form has eluded jazz dance for decades. Much of this can be attributed to the separation between the artistic community and what is considered entertainment, and therefore less sophisticated. The development of jazz dance as a codified technique during the latter half of the twentieth century has blurred or erased movement that does not emanate from white ideas of artistic value. This chapter offers theories that encompass the discussion of race and class in America, highlighting the contradiction that allowed jazz dance to become a marginalized dance form while still having great commercial success. Discussion includes the influence of rock and roll music, Motown, and shows like American Bandstand and Ready Steady Go¡
Simone Cinotto
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780823256235
- eISBN:
- 9780823261741
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823256235.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, Economic History
Relations between Italian Americans and African Americans have been often tense, marked by racism, competition on the labor and housing market, and occasional violence. In the 1950s and 1960s Italian ...
More
Relations between Italian Americans and African Americans have been often tense, marked by racism, competition on the labor and housing market, and occasional violence. In the 1950s and 1960s Italian Americans in New York and other cities, along with other white ethnics, resisted urban change and supported residential segregation. However, in the field of popular music, the two groups have regularly exchanged mutual appreciation for the talent, style, and authenticity of the other. The chapter focus on Italian American artists’ hegemonic presence in a black musical genre (doo-wop) to show how popular and consumer culture provided the space for otherwise impossible cross-cultural exchanges at the dawn of the civil-rights era.Less
Relations between Italian Americans and African Americans have been often tense, marked by racism, competition on the labor and housing market, and occasional violence. In the 1950s and 1960s Italian Americans in New York and other cities, along with other white ethnics, resisted urban change and supported residential segregation. However, in the field of popular music, the two groups have regularly exchanged mutual appreciation for the talent, style, and authenticity of the other. The chapter focus on Italian American artists’ hegemonic presence in a black musical genre (doo-wop) to show how popular and consumer culture provided the space for otherwise impossible cross-cultural exchanges at the dawn of the civil-rights era.
Fabian Holt
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226350370
- eISBN:
- 9780226350400
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226350400.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
The popularity of the motion picture soundtrack O Brother, Where Art Thou? brought an extraordinary amount of attention to bluegrass, but it also drew its share of criticism from some aficionados who ...
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The popularity of the motion picture soundtrack O Brother, Where Art Thou? brought an extraordinary amount of attention to bluegrass, but it also drew its share of criticism from some aficionados who felt the album's inclusion of more modern tracks misrepresented the genre. This soundtrack, these purists argued, wasn't bluegrass, but “roots music,” a new and, indeed, more overarching category concocted by journalists and marketers. Why is it that popular music genres like these and others are so passionately contested? And how is it that these genres emerge, coalesce, change, and die out? This book provides new understanding as to why we debate music categories, and why those terms are unstable and always shifting. To tackle the full complexity of genres in popular music, the author embarks on a wide-ranging collection of case studies. Here he examines not only the different reactions to O Brother, but also the impact of rock and roll's explosion in the 1950s and 1960s on country music and jazz, and how the jazz and indie music scenes in Chicago have intermingled to expand the borders of their respective genres. Throughout, the author finds that genres are an integral part of musical culture—fundamental both to musical practice and experience, and to the social organization of musical life.Less
The popularity of the motion picture soundtrack O Brother, Where Art Thou? brought an extraordinary amount of attention to bluegrass, but it also drew its share of criticism from some aficionados who felt the album's inclusion of more modern tracks misrepresented the genre. This soundtrack, these purists argued, wasn't bluegrass, but “roots music,” a new and, indeed, more overarching category concocted by journalists and marketers. Why is it that popular music genres like these and others are so passionately contested? And how is it that these genres emerge, coalesce, change, and die out? This book provides new understanding as to why we debate music categories, and why those terms are unstable and always shifting. To tackle the full complexity of genres in popular music, the author embarks on a wide-ranging collection of case studies. Here he examines not only the different reactions to O Brother, but also the impact of rock and roll's explosion in the 1950s and 1960s on country music and jazz, and how the jazz and indie music scenes in Chicago have intermingled to expand the borders of their respective genres. Throughout, the author finds that genres are an integral part of musical culture—fundamental both to musical practice and experience, and to the social organization of musical life.
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226350370
- eISBN:
- 9780226350400
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226350400.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
This chapter argues that country music lost its market share and that the Nashville industry's efforts at moving country closer to mainstream pop led to the hegemony of the Nashville Sound. The ...
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This chapter argues that country music lost its market share and that the Nashville industry's efforts at moving country closer to mainstream pop led to the hegemony of the Nashville Sound. The historically tense relationship between country music and national mainstream popular culture constitutes a broader background for understanding how country reacted to rock and roll. The corporate music industry became more interested in country music during the 1940s. The resistance to rock and roll is reflected in the recorded output from Nashville. The Nashville Sound was a move toward (white) mainstream pop. So although the Nashville Sound has become accepted as part of the canon, the ongoing attempts to compete with rock and pop are still critiqued by hard-core fans, who have even less power over the production and representation of the genre than they had forty years ago.Less
This chapter argues that country music lost its market share and that the Nashville industry's efforts at moving country closer to mainstream pop led to the hegemony of the Nashville Sound. The historically tense relationship between country music and national mainstream popular culture constitutes a broader background for understanding how country reacted to rock and roll. The corporate music industry became more interested in country music during the 1940s. The resistance to rock and roll is reflected in the recorded output from Nashville. The Nashville Sound was a move toward (white) mainstream pop. So although the Nashville Sound has become accepted as part of the canon, the ongoing attempts to compete with rock and pop are still critiqued by hard-core fans, who have even less power over the production and representation of the genre than they had forty years ago.
Edward P. Comentale
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037399
- eISBN:
- 9780252094576
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037399.003.0005
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
This chapter shows how the very deadliness of the commodity form—its radical detachment from any traditional context—ultimately extends the affective range and reach of popular music. It argues that ...
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This chapter shows how the very deadliness of the commodity form—its radical detachment from any traditional context—ultimately extends the affective range and reach of popular music. It argues that the rock counterculture was founded not against, but through technological manipulation, commercial standardization, and consumer desire, and thus provided fans with new, more thrilling ways of inhabiting a national scene defined by market identities and taste cultures. Somewhere between Marcel Duchamp's arty toss-off and Elvis Presley's tossed-off art, a certain indifference comes to infect popular culture at large. In the end, this chapter focuses on the experiences and emergent sites of fandom, arguing that, with each cut, the King presented his body as an affectively charged and fully mediated public body and that, with records, radio, television, and film, his revolt extended—from one savvy fan to the next—across the body politic at large.Less
This chapter shows how the very deadliness of the commodity form—its radical detachment from any traditional context—ultimately extends the affective range and reach of popular music. It argues that the rock counterculture was founded not against, but through technological manipulation, commercial standardization, and consumer desire, and thus provided fans with new, more thrilling ways of inhabiting a national scene defined by market identities and taste cultures. Somewhere between Marcel Duchamp's arty toss-off and Elvis Presley's tossed-off art, a certain indifference comes to infect popular culture at large. In the end, this chapter focuses on the experiences and emergent sites of fandom, arguing that, with each cut, the King presented his body as an affectively charged and fully mediated public body and that, with records, radio, television, and film, his revolt extended—from one savvy fan to the next—across the body politic at large.
