Lecture 10 - Alternative Music and more (1990s)

Question 1

What did record labels do in this decade as they were searching for the next Micheal Jackson?

Answer 1

they invested in many artists and debut albums

Question 2

What was there an explosion of in this decade?

Answer 2

Explosion of of genres as labels realize that they can’t just rely on a small handful of stars which makes the industry so precarious and instead, they’re investing in lots of different artists and there’s lots of debut artists coming out in this particular decade

Question 3

What was there a less of a divide of?

There is a crossover happening between what?

Answer 3

Less of a divide between the center and periphery (aka the musical margins). There is this interest in trying out some new artists and styles and there seems to be a kind of democratic relationship or assembly of these different styles (not so much a center and periphery (musical margins))

There is so much more crossover happening between races and types of music

Question 4

What piece of technology took over cassette tapes as the most common format for storing, distributing, and playing music?

Answer 4

CD’s

Question 5

What are 2 characteristics of CD’s?

Answer 5

better sound quality and cost slightly more than cassettes

Question 6

What happened as a result of more purchases of CD’s?

Answer 6

Because of this development of CD technology and digital technology, there was a sales boom (lots of sales happening)

Question 7

What can Celine Dion, Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey be categorized as?

Answer 7

Adult contemporary divas

Question 8

Who was the biggest selling female artist of the decade for R&B and pop?

Answer 8

Mariah Carey

Question 9

What can Reba McEntire, Shania Twain, and Garth Brooks be categorized as?

Answer 9

Country

Question 10

Who was the biggest selling male artist of the decade?

Answer 10

Garth Brooks

Question 11

What else did this decade include?

Answer 11

R&B vocal quartets: Boyz II Men
All-female groups (aka “girl groups”): Spice Girls
Rappers: Snoop Doggy Dogg, Tupac Shakur, and Notorious B.I.G.
Alternative singer-songwriters: Alanis Morissette
Hard rock and heavy metal: Aerosmith, Metallica
Punk-influenced alternative bands: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers
Film soundtracks: The Bodyguard (Whitney Houston) and Titanic (Celine Dion)

Question 12

What was the biggest selling album in this decade?

Answer 12

Jagged little pill by the Canadian, Ottawa-born Alanis Moirsette

Question 13

What demonstrated that a crossover from film into pop music can happen?

Answer 13

The movies/shows: The Bodyguard (Whitney Houston) and Titanic (Celine Dion)

Question 14

Who was still producing music in this decade?

Answer 14

Pop stars of the 1980s continued their reigns: Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Prince
Some older artists maintained their popularity: Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Paul Simon. Country star Johnny Cash experienced a resurgence with his “American Recordings”

Question 15

What were the 2 bestselling singles?

Answer 15

“Candle in the Wind” by Elton John which became an anthem and expression of grief when Princess Diana passed away

“The Macarena” by Los del Rio (still performed today at large gatherings like weddings and sporting events)

Question 16

What genre of music started to rise in the 1980s in opposition to mainstream rock?

Answer 16

Types of alternative music (alternative rock, grunge, etc.)

Question 17

What is alternative?

Answer 17

Alternative is one of these big umbrella terms that relates to different sub genres like alternative folk, rock, grunge, etc.

Question 18

What did alternative musicians usually emphasize?

Answer 18

Alternative musicians usually emphasized local, anticommercial, guitar-based music blending the abrasive, do-it-yourself sensibility of punk with the thick, heavy sonic textures of heavy metal. Similar to punk.

Question 19

What is the anticommercial element to alternative musicians?

Answer 19

They don’t want to be with major labels and they don’t want Ticketmaster to charge too high ticket prices for their music. They’re trying to be more local.

Question 20

Are a lot of musicians anitcommercial?

Answer 20

Although they often called themselves anticommercial, few actually were. The same musicians played corporate-sponsored events and released multiplatinum albums for major record labels

Question 21

Why was Seattle a good place for alternative musicians?

Answer 21

Seattle made for a terrific place for this new form of music to be nurtured and to cultivate itself and get a style and get multiple bands and experiment with these new ideas. Part of this has to do with an indie that was also located in Seattle

Because of very supportive local radio stations networks

Magazines like Backlash and The Rocket that did big features and stories on them

social spaces like bars, pubs, and coffee houses where these musicians are getting heard and have a supportive audience

Question 22

What was the name of the indie in Seattle that allowed for alternative musicians to get their start?

Answer 22

Sub Pop Records

Question 23

Who was with Sub Pop Records?

Answer 23

Soundgarden, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and Smashing Pumpkins

Question 24

What did Sub Pop Records manage to do?

Answer 24

managed to push out a number of great singles and in some cases, albums as well

Question 25

Who were the 3 members in Nirvana and what were their roles?

Answer 25

Kurt Cobain (lead singer, songwriter, guitarist), Krist Novoselic (bassist), and Dave Grohl (drummer)

Question 26

Where were the members in Nirvana originally from?

Answer 26

Aberdeen, Washington

Question 27

Why was Aberdeen, Washington a bad place?

Answer 27

Aberdeen is a place that had a really high employment, bad domestic situations, drug abuse, etc. It was not the normal place to launch a huge successful career and yet Nirvana found themselves with the help of Sub Pop and a host of other elements as well and did really well for a time

Question 28

What was Sub Pop’s approach with Nirvana?

Answer 28

Sub Pop’s approach was to start with a ‘test’ single because it’s not too expensive and this single consisted of “love buzz” and “big cheese”. Sub pop also released a sampler of what now looks like grunge, an anthology of alternative music, and they included a Nirvana track on that too called “spank thru”

Question 29

What was Nirvana’s first full length album with Sub Pop?

Why did Sub Pop choose to release this?

Answer 29

Bleach

because the test singles did really well

Question 30

What did Nirvana (and other grunge and alternative rockers) do different?

Answer 30

DIY (return to simplicity)
Moving away from how people were trying to look on MTV and music videos with the flash outfits, choreography, and looking perfect
They didn’t want to look perfect and they wore the clothes that they’ve been wearing all week, didn’t worry about their hair, and it was just a different look that became associated with this type of music and the musicians that made it.

Question 31

Grunge and Alternative Rockers were also called?

Answer 31

They were the hippies of the 90s.

Question 32

Who did Nirvana then sign with?

What did Kurt Cobain want to do with the album cover?

What was the albums single called?

Who played the music video for this song until it achieved anthem-of-a-generation status?

Answer 32

DGC (major)

Kurt Cobain wanted to shock people and one of the ways he did this was through the album cover. Initially, he wanted to have a picture of a baby being born underwater but he realized that that might be too much and instead opted for a naked baby underwater going after a dollar bill

“Smells like Teen Spirit”

MTV

Question 33

What 2 other albums by Nirvana rose to the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic (US and UK)?

Answer 33

In Utero

Unplugged in New York

Question 34

“Smells like Teen Spirit” - by Nirvana

Who were the words and music by?

What was the musical style?

What form?

What is unique about the form?

What instruments are being used?

What is the instrumental verse in the song?

Answer 34

Words and music by Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, and Dave Grohl

Musical style: alternative rock, Seattle-style grunge rock

verse-chorus

Verse and chorus in this particular song are really contrasting

Instrumentation: guitar, bass, drums, vocal

The instrumental verse is simply the guitar solo playing the melody (not a musician showcasing their talent)

Question 35

How are the verses and choruses really contrasting in Nirvana’s “Smells like Teen Spirit”?

Answer 35

The verses are mellow: the guitar sounds clean in the verses; Cobain delivers lyrics with calculated carelessness, creating a sense of tortured spontaneity

The choruses are intense and frenetic: the guitar sounds heavily distorted; the vocals and lyrics become intense and aggressive

Question 36

How did Kurt Cobain die?

Answer 36

he shot a gun through his head because his marriage life was a shithole with drug overdoses, police interventions, etc.

Question 37

What other band is also from Seattle?

Answer 37

Pearl Jam

Question 38

Why did Pearl Jam battle with Ticketmaster?

Answer 38

Pearl Jam battled with Ticketmaster over ticket prices because they wanted everyone to be able to afford their tickets; although the band eventually lost, their willingness to fight corporate interests made them heroes

Question 39

Pearl Jam’s first albums established them as what?

Answer 39

established them as alternative rock stars by the mid-1990s

Question 40

Who is the lead singer in Pearl Jam?

Answer 40

Eddie Vedder

Question 41

What made it easy for mainstream rock radio stations to program Pearl Jam?

What happened as a result of this?

Answer 41

Because their music is close enough to heavy metal

they found a big public audience

Question 42

What song cover became Pearl Jam’s highest-charting single?

What is this song an example of?

Answer 42

“Last Kiss”

a splatter platter

Question 43

What is a splatter platter?

What is “Last Kiss” about?

Answer 43

a song type that focuses on teenage tragedy such as suicide, or a song sung from the perspective of someone who’s lost a loved one, eternal devotion or the despair over a lost love

In this song, a young man borrows his father’s car to take his girlfriend on a date; the car crashes, and she dies

Question 44

What other song is an example of a splatter platter?

Why did this song become popular?

Answer 44

Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots” by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller

a splatter platter that came out incidentally, just a week after James Dean (pop idol and actor) died. He died because he was in a crash and this terrible coincidence helped buoy the promotion of sales because of the fact that this song brought to mind this horrible tragedy that just unfolded

Question 45

“Present Tense” by Nirvana

Why did it come back into popularity recently?

What does a lot of Pearl Jam’s success come from?

What texture does this song have?

How can Eddie Vedder’s voice be described as?

How is our attention drawn to the voice and lyrics?

What happens later in the song?

Answer 45

it came back into popularity recently because it was featured so prominently in a documentary series about Micheal Jordan, a series called ‘The Last Dance’ (it came out in 2020)

A lot of Pearl Jam’s success has to do with Eddie Vedder’s capabilities as a singer (timbre of his voice)

The song has a very thin texture

the voice is brooding and unsettling

because a long part of the song has just the voice and bass together

Later in the song, the texture thickens and the voice has soared and there’s that much wider range, exploring that higher register of our lead singer’s voice and it seems that much more dramatic

Question 46

Where were the Red Hot Chili Peppers from?

What was their original name?

Answer 46

Hollywood

Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem

Question 47

The Red Hot Chili Peppers went on to be one of the most commercially successful groups to emerge from what movement?

What genres did they blend?

They took a while to hit their stride. What album finally got them to break through?

Why is this group hard to categorize in terms of genre?

Answer 47

the alternative movement

blend of alternative rock, funk, and punk

their 5th album (Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik) finally got them to break through

This group is hard to categorize in terms of genre because there’s some tracks that tap into some of these subgenres (alternative rock, punk, funk) more than others

Question 48

“Give it Away” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers

What is this song more of a direction in? Why?

Words and music by who?

What is the musical style?

What instruments?

Answer 48

This song is more in the direction of rap because we’re trying to bridge the gap between alternative rock and rap and we’re using words in a very rhythmic percussive way. The lead singer here is spitting out as many words as possible often to get all that text out quickly

Words and music by Flea, John Frusciante, Anthony Kiedis, and Chad Smith

Musical style: alternative rock, funk, punk

Instrumentation: electric guitars, bass, drums, lead vocal, jaw harp

Question 49

What form is “Give it Away”?

Answer 49

Compound AABA with A sections consisting of a series of 4 short sections: three 4-bar verses and one 4-bar chorus and B sections for instruments offering contrast

The end of the song is extended by extra repetitions of B and A (which has its own added chorus), plus a coda, making the overall song form:

AA’BA B’ A’ Coda

Question 50

‘Give it Away’ by Red Hot Chili Peppers:

What happens in the first A section?

What happens in the second A section?

What happens in the B section?

Because we hear the verse so many times here (very repetitive), what did they do to change it up?

Answer 50

The first A section subdivides into 3 verses and a chorus

then we have 3 verses and 2 choruses

In the B section, there’s contrasting music and it’s not sung, it’s just instrumental. The backward guitar melody means that the guitarist recorded his solo/section and then with the flip of a switch and the benefit of technology in the recording studio, he turned it around and we hear it in reverse

so they can do this by changing the texture, and in this case they do it in the chorus where the bass and the guitar drop out so we have these instruments that stop playing, there’s a much thinner accompaniment for the singer who continues on with that infectious chorus

Question 51

Rage Against the Machine

Where was this band from?

What genre are they under?

What do the lyrics of their songs often express?

Why are they an important band?

Answer 51

Los Angeles

alternative metal (aka rap metal)

political views

Rage against the machine is really an important band in terms of expressing political views, shouting lyrics, shaking us awake so we can take in their song and lyrics. In recent years, their songs have gotten even more attention with covers

Question 52

This is still under alternative but what 2 main genres were Rage against the Machine bridging the gap between?

Answer 52

bridging the gap between metal and rap (those are the main 2 sources of influences here for rage)

Question 53

What melting pot of styles is alternative metal in?

Answer 53

hard-driving rock, metal, funk, blues, jazz, and rapped vocals

Question 54

“Bulls on Parade” by Rage Against the Machine

What form?

Answer 54

verse-chorus

Question 55

Why is the music important for rap?

Answer 55

Main takeaway from rap is that the words are so important and the way in which they’re delivered and there’s all of these textural repetitive devices and ways in which to draw our attention to those words and they’re there to shock, educate and inform and protest. They’re so expressive and often, they’re very angry and delivered in a passionate way, but on their own, they wouldn’t reach nearly as many people because there’s not many people out there that just listen to spoken word. So it’s important for us to also think about what else is going on in the music, that vehicle, that allows those words to get out there and be more accessible so for example, thick textures, distortion with guitars and bass, echoing and mirroring the way in which the voices singing and the sentiment of the lyrics like all the instrumental forces, all of the power behind the song is after the same purpose (that education, protest, expression of anger and passion)

Question 56

What genre is Nine Inch Nails?

Who was in the band and where are they from?

Is there anyone else in this band?

Answer 56

industrial rock

Trent Reznor (San-Francisco) and Atticus Ross

In the recording studio, Reznor and Ross write the music and perform virtually all of the parts themselves, while a rotating cast of backing musicians perform with them in a live setting

Question 57

What do Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross also write?

Answer 57

Reznor and Ross also write film scores

Question 58

What is industrial rock similar to and how can it be distinguished?

Answer 58

Industrial rock is similar to heavy metal but more of an electronic vibe in terms of the various electronic sources that Reznor’s often tapping into

Question 59

“Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails

Words and music by who?

What musical style?

What form?

What instruments?

Who made a cover of this?

Answer 59

Words and music by Trent Reznor

Musical style: industrial rock

verse-chorus

Instrumentation: acoustic guitar, synthesizers, piano, drums, ambient noise (soft and loud), bass, electric guitar, lead vocals

Johnny Cash

Question 60

How is “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails carefully crafted?

What lyric device is there?

What word comes up more than the word ‘Hurt’?

What happens in the final minute of the song?

What did Nine Inch Nails explore a lot?

What is this song about?

How is Johnny Cash’s cover different?

Answer 60

clear and concise set of lines where we have 3 different lines and the last word of each of those lines doesn’t rhyme but the fourth line consistently rhymes with the second

starting successive lines with the same words. That can be very persuasive because it draws emphasis to those specific words

‘Away’. The word ‘hurt’ falls on an important, unexpected harmony so there’s attention paid to that word but he repeatedly sings about ‘everyone I know goes away’ - it comes up in the chorus and he returns to that word at the very end so it serves as a lyric motive. But at the end, it’s used slightly differently because he’s using the word in a different way because its parsed out into 2 words and it sounds the same when you’re listening and it leaves us ambiguous in terms of what is he going to do and what way is he going to find, is it indeed a way to get away

The final minute of the song deconstructs itself, there’s lots of distortion and reverb and electronically generated sounds to magnify this unsettling feeling that lurks beneath the surface, as if something’s gonna happen at some point in the song. The whole time, you feel on edge.

nine inch nails explored the concerns of the psyche a lot

This song is about drug abuse, self harm, and there’s this ambiguity that we feel too in terms of where exactly the singer is at. Are they regretful, is it a reflection of what’s going on in the present, is there going to be some change about where that character is going, what’s next for them etc?

Johnny Cash’s cover is different because he makes it his own. This song lends itself to an intimate glimpse/snapshot of someone’s experience and the way Cash sings it makes it seem as though he’s reflecting on his own life. The music video really helps magnify that and make it seem like its his life story and his life is full of regret.

Question 61

Ani DiFranco is a Buffalo-born songwriter, performer, producer, and owner of her own indie label called _________?

Throughout her whole career, she was strongly _______?

How many albums did she make with her own indie?

By 19, how many original songs did she have?

How old was she when she first started performing?

What was she doing covers of at that age?

What genre is she?

Answer 61

Righteous Babe

anticommercial

20 albums

100 original songs

9 years old

she was already doing covers of Beatles songs at a local coffee house

Urban folk singer-songwriter in punk clothes

Question 62

“Not a Pretty Girl” by Ani DiFranco

What musical style?

What are the lyrics about?

How does the voice sound?

How was her instrument and voice used?

How does the timbre of her voice sound?

Answer 62

Musical style: alternative folk, urban folk

About a man who has wronged the singer; her experience of sexism has had profound emotional consequences. Also a more general indictment of society’s treatment of women; she insists on being treated as a person not a stereotype

Minimalist studio sound that allows the listener to focus on the voice (and lyrics) and percussive acoustic guitar (thin textures)

She can do things with her guitar that others couldn’t do. Uses her voice as an instrument on its own and also being able to do so many different things with her vocals (from a whisper to an aggressive growl and gentle wordless singing)

Rebellious energy and heartfelt determination

Question 63

What kind of vocal group were Boyz II Men?

Who were the 4 members?

Where did they meet?

What model did they follow?

What label did they sign with?

What was one of their crossover songs from their album?

What did this group specialize in?

Answer 63

R&B vocal group

Nathan Morris, Wanya Morris, Shawn Stockman, and Michael McCary

met at a Philadelphia high school

They followed the Brill Building model (top down approach) by depending on others for songwriting, accompaniment, and production

Signed with Motown, which reinvigorated the label

“End of the Road”

This is a group that really specialized in singing in close harmonies. Their voices could blend together with such precision. In order to create some variety, they have a beautiful blend and they showcase that in sections of their songs but then they also have sections in which members of the group can exhibit their talents

Question 64

“End of the Road” by Boyz II Men

Words and music by who?

What musical style?

What form?

What instruments?

What is heard multiple times in this song?

Because of this, what do they do to switch it up?

How are we eased into the song at the beginning?

What happens at the end of the song?

What characteristic is present from the African tradition that we had in the first class?

Answer 64

Words and music by L. A. Reid, Babyface, and Daryl Simmons

Musical style: R&B, soul

Form: verse-chorus with a pre-chorus that builds anticipation for the chorus

Instrumentation: electric guitar, electric piano, bass, drums, synthesizer strings, French horn, handclaps, solo and backup vocals

the melody is heard multiple times

so we then need that variety built in like solo vs group singing, syllabic vs melismatic text setting, etc.

At the beginning of the song, there’s a seamless way to ease us into the song with the instruments and then the entrance of the voices with gentle murmuring and speaking rather than singing

In the end, the instruments drop out and have the voices on their own. This is where the blend is really impeccable meaning that the voices just all seem to be of the same sonic color/oral space and they all sound like versions of the same person and no single singer stands out from the rest

call and response between leader and rest of group responding in agreement

Question 65

What is a syllabic text setting?

What is a melismatic text setting?

Who are melismatic text settings usually sung by?

What text setting is ‘Happy Birthday’?

Answer 65

one note per syllable of text

several notes per syllable of text (a group of notes sung to a single syllable is referred to as a melisma). Lots and lots of pitches for a single note.

Melismatic passages are usually sung by better singers. It’s a moment for a soloist, perhaps even in an improvisatory section to show the audience what they can do

Syllabic. There’s one note per syllable as we go. Songs that we sing together, stadium anthems, national anthems, children’s songs, they tend to be syllabic and its those solo sections where the voices have the capabilities where you get the melismatic.

Question 66

What did the late 1990s experience a resurgence of?

Answer 66

The late 1990s experienced a resurgence of acts designed specifically to appeal to teenage and pre-teen girls

Question 67

What boy bands were modelled after Boyz II Men?

What are the female equivalents of Boyz II Men?

What made them high profile celebrities?

Answer 67

Backstreet Boys and NSYNC and Justin Timberlake

The all-female quintet, Spice Girls

Their catchy music, owing much to R&B, fun-loving image, and distinctive looks

Question 68

What made the majors aware of the commercial potential of hip hop?

Who was the audience now?

Answer 68

The popularity of tracks like “Rapper’s Delight” and “The Message”

Expansion of audience, including millions of young, white fans who were attracted by the transgressive, rebellious sensibility

Question 69

Who were the members in Run-D.M.C.?

Where were they from?

They are the most influential group in ____ ________ history?

With this group, what kind of look was established for rappers?

Because of this, between who and who did we start seeing a connection with?

Who did Run-D.M.C sign a $1.5 million promotion deal with?

Answer 69

Joseph Simmons (Run), Darryl McDaniels (DMC), and Jason Mizell (Jam Master Jay)

Trio of college-educated men from Queens

in rap music history

Its with this group that we really established the look for rappers like the hats, the hoods, the thick gold chains, the untied sneakers with the fat laces

its with this group that we start to see the connection which is now so firmly established between a type of music like rap and athletic clothing manufacturers

Adidas

Question 70

“Walk This Way”

By Run D.M.C. and who?

What is the genre of this song?

How does the song start?

How does Run D.M.C. sound?

How does the song end?

What is the significance of the music video?

Answer 70

Collaboration between Run-D.M.C. and the hard rock group, Aerosmith, of a song originally released by Aerosmith

Musical genre: rap

Opening: a sample of rock drumming from the original recording, which is interrupted by the sound of a turntable scratching (0:37) and the main riff of the song

aggressive shouting style delivery of Run-D.M.C’s lines

Ends with a guitar solo by Aerosmith’s guitarist Joe Perry

You can see in this collaboration how we have these 2 bands from 2 seemingly different genres finding a way into the same song together and no doubt introducing one another’s audience to one another as a way to cross over into audiences and really enact the crossover that was happening as more and more listeners were listening to a whole host of diverse bands and tastes were becoming more diverse as so many more genres were out there to listen to

Question 71

Public Enemy

Who are the main 2 leaders/rappers?

How are their lyrics?

What do the lyrics address?

Where are they from?

Who was their audience?

Answer 71

Our 2 main singers here are Chuck D (who delivered in a deep, authoritative voice) and Flavour Flav (who offered streetwise interjections). These are the rappers (the leaders) of the group

This is a group with politically potent sophisticated lyrics

lyrics addressing the lives of African American youth and music featuring complex beats, samples, and scratching, terrible experiences of urban, black, poor youth and the reality of their day to day experience

Long Island

the group’s music has appealed to rebels of all backgrounds

Question 72

What did Public Enemy incorporate a lot in their songs?

Answer 72

sampling

Question 73

What is sampling?

Public Enemy wrote “Night of the Living Baseheads”. What kind of sample did it include in the opening?

Answer 73

where we take little samples of a pre existing song/any sound (doesn’t necessarily need to be musical) and splice it together and cut and paste it and put it on a loop so we hear it over and over again in a cycle

It opens with a spoken excerpt by black nationalist leader Khalid Abdul Muhammad: “Have you forgotten that once we were brought here, we were robbed of our names, robbed of our language, we lost our religion, our culture, our God? And many of us, by the way we act, we even lost our minds.”

Question 74

“Night of the Living Baseheads” by Public Enemy

What musical genre?

What is the song about?

What does the title draw parallels between?

What kind of texture is happening?

How do they use the word ‘base’ in the song?

What other samples have Public Enemy used in this song?

Answer 74

Musical genre: rap

This song is about the effect of the 1980s crack cocaine epidemic on African Americans

The title draws parallels between drug addicts and zombies. The title is a reference to the zombie movie, Night of the Living Dead. The word, “base,” is short form for freebase, a type of cocaine. These draw the parallel between the effects of drugs in people and drug addicts acting like and living like zombies.

There’s a thick texture going on in the song. Lots of layers of sound and sources of sound all peaced together. The busy texture and the face pace that we move from one sample to the next, there’s all these competing voices, it kind of reflects the way that society has become (the hamster wheel that so many of us feel that we’re on and can’t get off)

Sometimes, they use it in reference to freebase (the cocaine) but then there’s also this other spelling “bass” which refers to the element in music (this is a heterograph not a homophone)

“The Grunt” by The JBs (James Brown’s band)

Question 75

What is a homophone?

What is a heterograph?

Answer 75

homophones (dope/dope): same spelling and pronunciation, different meanings (recall please/please and love/love in “Please Please Me”)

heterograph ([free]base/bass): same pronunciation, different spellings

Question 76

What is Lauryn Hill regarded as?

What is Lauryn Hill widely credit for doing?

Who is she building on the experience and music of?

What genres does she blend?

What did her album ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ album do?

Where is she originally from?

She formed a group with 2 others. What did they name themselves?

Which song from this album ‘The Score’ scored a number one hit?

Answer 76

regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time

widely credited for breaking down barriers especially for female rappers

She’s very much building on the experience and music of Queen Latifah before her

R&B, rap and reggae

It did so much to push hip hop into the mainstream and tap into the female market but not only a female market but her work really provided an alternative to the violent and sexist lyrics that pervaded so many of the far more better known rappers out there at the time

Originally from South Orange, New Jersey

Fugees (short for refugees)

The Score

“Killing Me Softly”

Question 77

“Doo Wop (That Thing)” by Lauryn Hill

Words and music by who?

What musical style?

What are the lyrics about?

Why was the music video important?

How is this different from what MTV was showing about women?

Answer 77

Words and music by Lauryn Hill

Musical style: stretches from 1950s doo wop and R&B to modern-day hip hop and rap

Lyrics: a cautionary tale that made people sit up straight and listen; the lyrics defied expectations of what rap was and what female rappers rap about.

There’s 2 eras: 1967 and 1998. and we see her in these 2 eras delivering the lyrics and letting women and men know that they need to raise the bar in terms of the way in which they treat each other and act. Tells women to expect more and be more demanding and not to fall into sexual relations quickly and tells the men that they’re not really the so called gangsters that they think they are and they’re not those tough guys that they pretend to be and tries to expose them as mother dependent, sneaky, women beating, sexually immature hypocrites

The women are overly sexualized and objects of sexual desire in music videos and with MTV that becomes more and more the case and Hill attempts ot present another side to women, not entirely pushing out convention (working with it) but also showing that there’s just so many other ways to see women and listen to women and so forth

Question 78

Listen to:

Answer 78

“Love Buzz” by Nirvana
“Smells like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana
“Last Kiss” by Pearl Jam
“Present Tense” by Pearl Jam
“Give it Away” by Red Hot Chili Peppers
“Bulls on Parade” by Rage Against the Machine
“Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails
“Hurt” by Johnny Cash
Not a Pretty Girl” by Ani DiFranco
“End of the Road” by Boyz II Men
Walk This Way” by Run-D.M.C., Aerosmith
“Night of the Living Baseheads by Public Enemy
“Doo Wop (That Thing” by Lauryn Hill