3 - Rhythm and Blues, and Country Flashcards
What are some early forms of country music?
“western swing” = big band swing and golden age jazz but led with fiddles, strings, amplified guitars!
“honky-tonk” = named after venues in which it played: rough barrooms of rural south, also amplified guitars
What is country? Why success?
crossover of western swing and honkytonk
success:
- heard on national radio broadcasts
— cut across demographic spectrum by appealing to wide group
- pop artists like Bing Crosby recorded cover versions
How did folk tie into country?
folk artists came from country fairs and were put in night clubs! (bring the top music into night clubs)
radio increased folk shows and the music was used in movies outside of westerns
How did country become popular?
2nd world war, hillbilly music came into training camps located in the south (so people from across the conutry who hadnt heard this music finaly did)
–> brought the musc back home and it spreaad like that
What is the Grand Ole Opry?
institution that developed with the country miusic indsitry and offerred a place for country music performances!
Supported by WSM radio station which brought the country music out of rural and into urban, national audiences
still exists today, same traditions design sponsor music style
Who was Ray Charles? Main success/mark on industry?
**THE BIGGEST INFLUENCE ON POPULAR MUSIC, DEFINED ROCK AND ROLL
- pianist, singer, songwriter, arranger, sax, bandleader
— jazz, gospel, blues, country, pop, classical!
success: brought gospel music to popular! style of it but secular lyrics and R&B instrumentation
Why gospel coming into popular music? What does it bring?
- brings people together
- gospel singers move lots, bodily spntaneity, expressive
- collective experience
SPIRIT! = what drives the music and what Ray Charles brings out of south churches to rock
Who was Clyde McPhatter?
Rhythm and blues singer who started the innovation of bringing new spice to gospel music!
- used dynamic solo style of female singers
- changed words to gospel songs to make them popular ones (Have mercy Lord > Have mercy Baby)
What was the difficulty with Ray Charles’ style and new songs? What did he add to these songs?
Was getting charges of blasphemy from the african american community = his creativity made him get shunned
added: raspy, exuberant tone with whoops, cries, bent notes, and call and response with other instruments or with the Raelettes!
BROUGHT THE SPIRIT TO BLUES!
What are some of Clyde McPhatter’s songs? Ray Charles’?
CMP:
- Youll be there mr rock and roll
- A Lovers Question
Ray Charles
- Hit The Road Jack
- What Id Say
- Mess around
Did Ray Charles get involved with country and western music?
Yes! caught his fans off gaurd but he just wanted to try new things and combine things from his childhood
– had been hearing country expanding as kid, broaden it with swing and anything else he liked!
What made Ray Charles so innovative?
he was not one to sit bac and stay in one area of music
“I let myself do things I hadnt done before” “If i was inventing something new I wasnt aware of it. In my mind I was just bringing out more of me.”
“been singing spirituals since I was three, hearing blues for just as long [..] what could be more natural than to combine them?”
How does Ray Charles tie into rock and roll?
he never feltthat he did (humility, open to other people in the field)
thought his stuff was too adult for rock (compared to Chuck Berry and Little Richard who aimed at teens)
BUT RC gave those artists basis and idea for the whoops and interesting creativity to bring into music, and the ability to take gospel inspriation
