Final Exam

Emile Berliner invents gramophone disc (flat, more durable, easier to store)

Columbia Records is formed

Introduction of double-sided 78rpm disc -- the standard recorded configuration until early 1950s

1 out of every 22 U.S. households had a phonograph

Bessie Smith sings into a Western electric microphone – new era of recording begins

Chester W. Rice and Dr. Edward Kellog design moving coil transducer – leads to the invention of a new loudspeaker

The Orthophonic – trademarked by Victor and acoustic machine that could handle the new fidelity of “electric recordings”

First electric phonograph, the Brunswick Panatrope, is introduced

1877-1925

1. You sing (or speak, or play your instrument) into a giant horn which vibrates a membrane
2. A needle attached to the membrane cut a groove into a soft surface that revolves beneath it

1. A microphone picks up sound waves and converts them into electrical signals
2. Electrical signals (usually recorded on a master tape) power electromagnets which turn the drive the cutting head of a disk cutter to cut the track on a record
3. A needle vibrates the groove.  The vibration moves a magnet between 2 wire coils generating a current.
4. This vibration is amplified and sent to speakers, where two currents power electromagnets that moves the speakers’ diaphragm

Term is short for RADIO TELEPHONY

Derives from the fact that transmitter signals “radiate” in all directions

– Reginald Fessenden broadcasts music using a wireless transmitter

– Lee De Forest invents the AUDION, making home radio receivers and higher-power transmitters possible. These inventions pave the way for commercial broadcasting

Crystal sets – DIY radios become a fad.  Hobbyists became first audience for broadcast sound

564 licensed commercial radio stations, 15,000 transmitting stations in U.S.

Radio’s first visionary

1915 – envisioned radio as a “household utility” in the same sense as a piano or phonograph

Feared government control of radio after World War I – argued for a free economic model.

1888-1989

American composer and lyricist

"Alexander's Ragtime Band" became world famous

1890-1967

American bandleader and orchestral director.

"King of Jazz"

"Rhapsody in Blue"

1898-1937

American composer and pianist

Jazz standards

1874-1922

Most significant African American entertainer of the first quater of the 20th century

First black performer featured in Ziegfeld's Follies

1882-1960

Inventor of moving coil loudspeaker in 1925 with Chester Rice at General Electric.

The singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession

1800-1879

Shape note "singing master"

Compiled The Sacred Harp

Made the first jazz recordings early in 1917

"Creators of Jazz"

1919

Composed by George Studdard and preformed by Joesph C. Smith's Orchestra becomes the first song popularized on record.

300,000 copies

1886-1950

"World's Greatest Entertainer"

Famous Vaudeville Performer

Blackface performer as a child

Stars in first "talking" film The Jazz Singer (1927)

First mass media star

Argentina

Contribution to the latin american stream

1901-1971

American Jazz trumpeter from New Orleans, LA

Influencial jazz

distinctive gravelly voice

Composed by Louis Armstrong in 1927

"One of the most astonishing accomplishments in all of twentieth century music"

American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers

Founded in 1914

Performing rights organization

forced business' to pay royalties for the live performances of copyrighted music

did not protect the work of most African American artists

Theatre Owner's Booking Assosiation

"Tough on black asses"

segregated

1868-1917

Ragtime composer

"Maple Leaf Rag" and "The Entertainer"

never recorded

1735 Trial of John Peter Zenger

first case in which song lyrics are considered protected speech

published lyrics in songs in his magazines about the governer,

not libale speech if it is true or opinion, it is protected.

1847-1931

Invents phonograph in 1877

didnt see potential for recorded music

played cylinders coated in tinfoil.

1878 The Edison Speaking Phonograph Company

Lost intrest instead worked on electric light

Black Minstrel common

"thug"

violent

smarter

magles language

always threating

early image of a pimp

Black Minstrel common character

Country black

unintelligent

faithful server

no threat

Legally codifies concept of "mechanical" royalties

Composers recieve 2 cents on the sale of each cylinder, piano roll, any "mechanical copy"

1845-1924

General Manager for Pacific Phonograph

Partnership with Felix Gottschalk in 1890 to form Automatic Phonograph Exhibition Company

Firts coin operated phonograph in 1889 in San Fransisco

1728

A ballad opera

precursor to the musical comedy

songs featured strong melodies that were simple and easy to remember

Lyrics focused on romantic themes

Daniel Decatur Emmett (and the Virginia Minstrels)

debut in 1834

first black minstrel supergroup

established the "classic" minstrel show format

wrote "Dixie"

Attempt by working class whites to use african American cultural form to comment on their own marginalization

Emerges during the "Jacksonian Period"

first indigigenous pop. music and exported abroad

America's first family singing sensation!

one of the most popular pre-civil war era

13 of 16 children of Jessie and Mary Hutchinson of Milford, New Hampshire

19th century social progressivism

abolitionist movement, women's rights, temperance, and prision reform

Roots of american social protest music

1842-1915

Singer. comedian, best known for holding 3 billard balls in his mouth

1851-1929

1887-Gramophone

invented by Alexander Graham Bell

Improved on Edison's design

Replaced tinfoil with wax

floating stylus, moved across cylinder easier

no volume control, big horn, hand cranked (slower at the eand of song)

1867-1945

An engineer working with Berliner in 1896

helped improve sound quality by using electoplated gold on metal master

developed a spring driven motor so the disk played at a consistent speed

saftey recordings

formed Victor Talking Machine in 1901, now RCA

A cuban-originated rhythm combining african polyrhythms and 19th century european country dance

Latin american stream

Fa Sol La singing

for the musically illiterate

Fa-triangle, sol- circle, la-square, mi-diamond

Originated in the New England singing schools

Sacred Harp singing book (1844) compiled by Benjamin Franklin White

Still practiced today

early Lyric sheets with advertising space

costs 25 cents

intended for the masses who lacked money and formal musical training

source of social and political satire

1891-1964

American composer and songwriter

sophisticated, bawdy lyrics, clever rhymes and complex forms

Tin Pan Alley composer

1887 Emile Berliner

Flat discs, easier to copy

Used needle to trace pattern on wax on metal or glass disk

dipped in acid bath

copy to master stamper

1896 disc player $25, louder family listening

DIY radios become a fad

Hobbyists became first audience for broadcast sound

Thomas Dartmouth "Big daddy" Rice

1808-1860

1832 introduced "Jim Crow"

Dance step- 'the Cakewalk" becomes synonmous with Black Minstrels

1854-1911

First successful African American songwriter, over 700 songs

middle class family, educated (Howard)

Banjo player

Colonel Jack Harvey's Minstrel Troupe

"Carry Me Back to Ole Virginny"

1880-1919

arranger, songwriter, musician, and musical director for the Castles

1920, founded the Clef Club, asocial club, booking agency, and trade unions for black musicians in New York

Formed the "Hell Fighters" a military band

added syncopation to marching bands

The ragtime craze 1896-1918

"To rag" african american expression meaning to create rhythmic momentum using syncopation

emerges from kansas city, chicago, and louisville

1873-1951

Worked for Berliner

Opened first recording studio in Philly in 1897

First A&R guy (talent scout)

convinces italian tenor Enrico Caruso to make records

1826-1864

First significant American singwriter

Popularized by minstrel shows, sheet music, music education, piano sales

songs popularized by the Christy Minstrels

No copyright protection at that time

Most significant dancer of the Black Minstrel period

One of the first African American Performers

Orginated in England in 17th century

Early form of theme park

iddillic outdoor seeting for musical performance

1808-1861

1828 First performer to establish a reputation for performing in black minstrels

later created the character "zip coon"

formed in 1871

introduced the world to "slve songs"

first African American vocal ensamble to tour the world.

Raised money for Fisk University

28th Street in NYC, between 6th Ave and Broadway

heart of music publishing

Golden age: 1920s and 1930s

"Song factory" tradition

Demands from Broadway

French Phrase "voix de ville" or Voice of the city"

descended from black menstels and music halls

origin of "variety shows"

Racially segregated

25,000 jukeboxes in the U.S. – 266 were Wurlitzers

Prohibition repealed, jukebox becomes an entertainment mainstay in bars across U.S.

Introduction of magnetic tape – technology first developed by the Germans and Japanese in the 1930s.

With magnetic tape comes overdubbing and editing.

Radio shows (Bing Crosby’s is the first) can now be taped in advance and edited.

Les Paul designs an 8-track recorder in 1948.  Becomes a pioneer in studio overdubbing.

Ampex introduces its first tape recorder

Columbia Records introduces the 12-inch 33.3 rpm Long Player (LP).  The LP could accommodate more music per side with better fidelity than a 78.

Introduction of 2-track recorder – now possible to record to simultaneous inputs from 2 microphones producing “stereo”

Development of FM (frequency modulation) broadcasting.  FM used higher frequencies than AM, had better sound quality, and broadcast in stereo much earlier than AM

FM rock radio is a phenomenon of the late 1960s

1935 – Vivi-Tone 1^st solid body electric guitar

1939 – Charlie Christian (1916-1942) joins Benny Goodman’s band – First swing band with electric guitarist.

1948 – Fender Broadcaster (sister model called the Esquire), 1^st solid body electric guitars designed with mass production in mind.

1950 – Broadcaster renamed Telecaster

1951 – Fender Precision Bass breakthrough design that popularized the concept of the electric bass

1954 – Fender Stratocaster – new body design, pickup configuration, tailpiece vibrato arm

1952 – Introduces its 1^st solid body electric guitar – named after Les Paul

1938

at Carnegie Hall in NYC celebrating the contributions of African Americans to American Popular Music.(backed by John Hammond)

1905-1975

-king of western swing

1923-1953

1873-1958

-William Christopher Handy: self-proclaimed "Father of the Blues"

1890-1941

creole, Ferdinand Joseph Lamothe in New Orleans

1922-1965

first DJ to use the term "Rock&Roll" for commercial purposes

1915-2009

1933-2006

b.1928

(a combination of the words Melody and Electronics with and extra “L”) – prototype constructed in 1946, but instrument emerges in early 1960s (not many were produced). Mellotrons were early samplers.  A keyboard instrument that played pre-recorded tapes. Each one of the 35 keys played a recording of real instruments (violins, cellos, flutes, horns) on a piece of magnetic tape.

Mellotrons become a standard instrument on progressive rock recordings.  They required frequent maintenance and were temperamental

1964 – Dr. Robert Moog debuts the Moog Synthesizer at the national AES (Audio Engineering Society) convention.

The prototype of the synthesizer was the Theremin, Moog wanted to create an advanced electronic instruments by building new circuits capable of producing sound. (The Beatles and Stones purchased models almost immediately)

Dolby becomes a household name for its application to consumer formats and motion picture sound

(He also developed the Lear Jet)

4 Stereo programs running in parallel on 8 tracks on a single continuous tape loop.

Thinner tape and more compact heads meant this process could be repeated indefinitely.

1967 – All new Ford, GM, and Chrysler cars offer factory installed 8-track tape players.

1974 – 6.7 million 8-track tapes are shipped

Popular format into the 80s – Madonna and Michael Jackson releases are available on 8-track.

1. 1963 – Phillips introduces the cassette
2. 1967 – Cassette sound is improved by introduction of noise reduction technology by Ray Dolby
3. 1968 – Cassettes outsell 8-tracks and reel-to-reel tapes

By the mid-1970s pre-recorded tape sales account for one-third of all U.S. music sales.

1971 – Quadrophonic (four channel) sound is introduced, never becomes a consumer item, gone by 1980.

Music business is a $2 billion/year industry

$4 billion/year

The start of corporate consolidation – by 1973 six huge corporations control the sale and distribution of 80% of the world’s music.

Music becomes more “categorized” – soft rock, hard rock, folk rock, glam rock, southern rock, jazz rock, art rock, etc., etc., – creating the impression of greater choice

Dr. Albert Hoffman invents LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) more commonly referred to as “acid” in a Swiss lab.

Novelist Ken Kesey (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) takes LSD as an experiment volunteer at the Menlo Park Veterans Hospital in California.

Federal and state criminal penalties established for the possession, sale, and manufacture of LSD.

Beatles final American concert held August 29 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco

John Lennon meets future wife Yoko Ono in London

In April the Byrds release “Eight Miles High,” the first psychedelic rock hit; during the same month the Beatles record their first overtly psychedelic track “Tomorrow Never Knows”

Beach Boys release the “acid-drenched” LP Pet Sounds

Dylan releases Blonde on Blonde featuring “Rainy Day Women #12 and #35”(with the immortal refrain “Everybody must get stoned’) and the 18-minute “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands”

Beatles release their masterpiece (in my humble opinion) Revolver

“Underground radio” begins in San Francisco at radio station KMPX

After a delay of one year by nervous record executives, The Velvet Underground and Nico, the band’s first LP is released

The Doors release their debut LP, their first single “Light My Fire” is a huge hit.

The Gathering of the Tribes, or Human Be-In is held January 14 at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.  20,000 people attend the event and inaugurate a ‘60s era tradition, free music in public parks.

In June, the Beatles release their most influential record, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band to universal acclaim.  (Revolver’s still better.)

An estimated 100,000 people emigrate to San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district in the first half of the year marking the beginning of the “Summer of Love.”

1967

in Monterey, California the first big rock festival presents Janis Joplin, the Who, Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, and Indian sitar master Ravi Shankar (aka Norah Jones’s dad).

The Byrds (with Gram Parsons as a member) release Sweetheart of the Rodeo and Bob Dylan releases John Wesley Harding recording more influenced by country music than by psychedelic music.  Dylan’s former backing musicians, now called the Band, release Music From Big Pink a country-oriented roots-rock masterpiece.

The Beatles found Apple Records.

August 15-17 1969

draws nearly 500,000 to a 600-acre farm in upstate New York

Financial disaster when concert goers tear down the fences

The Rolling Stones’ free concert at the Altamont Speedway near San Francisco (held only three months after the peace and love of Woodstock) ends tragically as members of the Hells’ Angels (who’d been hired for security purposes) beat up audience members with pool cues, threaten and beat up musicians (Jefferson Airplane singer Marty Balin is beaten up) and finally, stab concertgoer Meredith Hunter to death in front of the stage as the Stones played “Under My Thumb”   

Founded by Berry Gordy in 1959

Gordy had complete control over everything

1970: Gordy moves Motown’s corporate headquarters from Detroit to Los Angeles creating much bitterness in Detroit’s black community.

1988: Gordy sells Motown to Boston Ventures for $61 million.

1993: Motown sold again to Polygram for $301 million

1. Gordy (complete and total control over everything)
2. Songwriters and producers (e.g., Smokey Robinson, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Norman Whitfield, Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson)

1. House musicians (the “Funk Brothers,” featuring Earl Van Dyke, drummer Benny Benjamin and, arguably, the 20^th century’s greatest bassist James Jamerson)

1. Always use the present tense
2. Never overdo the hook
3. Make sure the song has a hummable melody (something the public might have heard before)
4. Find originality in the song’s concept (e.g., in the rhythm; or in how the lyrics are phrased)
5. Another unwritten rule was never be overtly political

Gordy worked for a while at the Ford auto plant and made him aware of the fact that production can be organized and automated for the highest quality.

Motown’s “charm school” run by Maxine Powell; performance and dance coach Cholly Atkins – the artists themselves wanted to be polished performers, to be the best representative of black America.

Founded by white semi-professional country fiddler Jim Stewart and his sister Estelle Axton in 1958.

Stax saw itself as a grittier, funkier, more authentically Southern “soul” alternative to the pop of Motown. 

Stax saw itself as a grittier, funkier, more authentically Southern “soul” alternative to the pop of Motown. 

Stax was less overtly hierarchical than Motown; more thoroughly integrated; songwriting and arranging was looser than Motown (i.e., more in-studio improvisation, less reliance on written arrangements), records were made faster and focused on rawness and energy than perfection. 

The sound of Stax was also rooted in the black church, something Motown downplayed or polished to the point of being unrecognizable.

Stax, as did Motown, had great songwriters and producers

Stax: Booker T. and the MGs

Motown: Funk brothers

b.1940

Creator of the “Wall of Sound.”  He elevates the level of the producer to equal that of the artist.  In fact, on Spector productions, he was frequently more important than his artists, the notable exception being Veronica Bennett, who he would marry.  As Ronnie Spector she would become the most recognizable voice of the “girl group” era of the 1960s.

His greatest moment as a producer, Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High” recorded in 1966.  A huge flop in the U.S. (but a big hit in the U.K.), Spector goes into seclusion. Emerges in the 1970s to work with the Beatles (Let it Be) and on numerous solo releases (George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, John Lennon’s Imagine)

Spector is currently on trial for murder.

Centered at NYC’s Brill Building (located in Tin Pan Alley).  A sleek orchestrated pop sound featuring young girls as lead vocalists.  Songwriting architects of this sound include: Ellie Greenwich, Jerry Goffin, Carole King, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weill, Neil Sedaka. 

Allowed girls to sing about “real-life” issues about love and sex.

Formed by Brian Wilson

The 1^st self-conscious second generation American rock and roll performer.  What does this mean?

1. He explicitly acknowledged, relied upon, and revered his rock and roll predecessors
2. He created a new (and distinctive sound) moving music and lyrics beyond the territory established by his predecessors

Revved up folk-based music that took cues from American folk, jazz, blues, and gospel

(1931-2002) has an international hit with “Rock Island Line” (1956)

“Trad” was a British interpretation of American Dixieland Jazz  -- major figures: Ken Colyer, Humphrey Lyttleton, and Chris Barber

Led early 60s British blues revival

Korner’s Blues and Barrelhouse club in London becomes the proving ground for a generation of blues-inspired British musicians who went on to play in Cream, Led Zeppelin, the Yardbirds, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, and the Rolling Stones.

3-note chord comprised of the root note, plus a fifth and an octave above the root.  Not conventional in common practice harmony because it lacks the third.

Career begins: June 6, 1962 (audition for producer George Martin)

Career ends (sort of): April 10, 1970 (McCartney announces the “official” breakup of the band)

Popularity ends: Most popular band in the history of rock and roll.  No end in sight.

February 9, 1964: An estimated 73 million Americans watch their U.S. television debut on the Ed Sullivan Show.  The entire U.S. population at the time was 192 million.

1965 – Beatles perform before a crowd of 65,000 at Shea Stadium

1966 – Beatles perform last show at Candlestick Park in San Francisco

Manager Brian Epstein helps craft their early image: matching suits, bowing at the end of a song

1. Beatlemania (1962-1964)
2. Dylan-inspired seriousness (1965-1966)
3. Psychedelia (late 1966-1967)
4. Return to roots (1968-1970)

Career begins: 1962

Career ends: Sadly, no end in sight

First manager Andrew Loog Oldham crafted their “bad boy” image

1. More overtly blues based – didn’t even call themselves a rock band in the early days
2. Didn’t wear matching suits
3. Mick Jagger, brought a menacing (if slightly campy) sexuality to rock
4. Punk-ass attitude
5. Arrested earlier and more often for drug possession
6. Considered more predatory when it came to women – songs were more overtly sexist

the man who, single-handedly, dragged urban folk music into the modern rock era.

Dylan emerged from the growing folk revival scene that begins in the late 50s/early 60s – centered around northeastern college campuses, it was a reaction to the commerciality of rock and roll by students seeking a less commercially compromised form of American “roots” music

1^st genre of music of the rock era to originate in the so-called “third world.”

Emerges from earlier styles of Jamaican music such as ska, bluebeat, and rock steady

1972 – The Harder They Come starring Jimmy Cliff exposes Americans to reggae music and  “rude boy” culture – the film’s soundtrack becomes a reggae classic.

Reggae influenced by 1940s & 50s American R&B: e.g., Louis Jordan, Fats Domino broadcast throughout the Caribbean from stations in New Orleans and Miami. 

1972 – Paul Simon has a hit with “Mother and Child Reunion”

1974 – Eric Clapton has a #1 hit with the single “I Shot the Sheriff” (a cover of a Bob Marley song), and a #1 LP with 461 Ocean Boulevard.

Reggae strongly influences hip-hop: Jamaican “toasters” (like an MC) toast (early freestyle rapping) over backing tracks played by popular Jamaican DJs who ran sound systems.

As a genre funk was used as a label to identify all popular music that featured strong, dance-oriented rhythms, call-and-response exchanges between voices and instruments, and repeated rhythmically interlocking patters.

-1927 Ralph Peer recorded a lot of people in Bristol Tennessee, including the Carter Family

-Country Music’s Big Bang

Funk- (choppy, aggressively syncopated beats)

Philly Soul-(smooth, orchestrated, mellow, danceable)

repetitive, synthesizer-based, almost mechanical sounding, 4/4 beats became the signature style of producer Georgio Moroder.  His influence can be heard more recently in the work of the Pet Shop Boys, and on Cher’s single “Believe.”

(New York) – DJ Frankie Crocker “The Alan Freed of disco”

The success of disco brings gay culture into the mainstream (e.g., the Village People)

Disco culture is “heterosexualized” with John Travolta’s performance in the worldwide smash Saturday Night Fever (1977).  The film also clearly links disco culture with the white working class.

Influences: Countless ‘60s garage rock bands (e.g., The Kingsmen, The Wailers, The Standells, 13^th Floor Elevators, etc), as well as the Stooges, MC5, Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, and British Invasion rock (Stones, Who, Kinks, etc).

The failure of hippie culture

The corporatized sound of rock bands (and rock radio)

The notion that you need to be a skilled musician to play rock music

A hatred of rock bands as royalty

Anti-fashion, anti-style (which, ironically, becomes a style)

Includes nearly all of the above with these exceptions

Very style consciousness

Politically oriented (mostly)

Influenced by the British art-school tradition

Punk-as-social-theory rooted in French student movement of ‘60s (e.g., Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren’s fascination with the Situationists)

Influenced by glam rock (sexually ambiguous hard rock such as T-Rex, Slade, Sweet, Gary Glitter, Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie)

Explicitly working class

– Patti Smith releases Horses, the first LP to emerge from the CBGBs scene          – Talking Heads play first gig at CBGBs

– Sex Pistols release debut single “Anarchy in the U.K.”

– Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen” hits number 1 in the U.K.

Ed Sullivan Show (1948-1971)

Shindig (1964-66)

Hullabaloo (1965-66)

American Bandstand (1957-1989)

1981 – Debut of MTV.  First video aired “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles.  MTV as a televised version of AOR.  In its early days, MTV had a whites-only programming policy, one that assumed that African Americans played soul, R&B, and funk, which were, according to MTV, “non-rock” categories.

British band videos (e.g., Duran Duran, Culture Club) bring high production values to MTV.  MTV becomes a way of breaking acts (but still not as potent a force a radio).  Pop music now becomes an aural and visual medium.  Successful rock stars are now needed to be “videogenic.”  MTV willingly turns women into an exploitable commodity

Geographically located in the South Bronx

Rhythms of James Brown – playing “on the one”

African American rhyming games “the dozens”

Caribbean culture – Jamaican DJ “toasting” – one of the most influential of the early South Bronx DJs was the Jamaican-born Kool Herc

Graffiti artists

Break dancing, other forms of street dance (e.g., “poppin’ and lockin’)

Afrocentric spoken word performance (e.g., The Last Poets, Gil Scott Heron)

Focus on rhythm (as opposed to melody)

Percussive vocalizing (spoken rather than sung)

Use of sampling (still controversial, technically if done without permission an infringement of copyright on the recording and the song)

DJs scratching – similar to the sound system DJs in Jamaica

(1945-1981): Becomes, for better and for worse, reggae’s international ambassador and the genre’s most popular performer.

Devout Rasta

Intense, charismatic performer, brillian songwriter

After his death, reggae's popularity diminishes in the US, but remainsvery popular in the UK

A white Jamaican, a crucial figure in the Jamaican music industry and the person responsible for making Jimmy Cliff an international star, starts Island Records and signs Bob Marley.

1933-2006

Godfather of Soul

Inventor of Funk

Concept of "one the One"

George Clinton

1989 – Soundscan developed by Mike Shalett

Tracks sales of music and music video products in U.S. and Canada

Collects POINT OF SALE (POS) information from 14,000 retail and mass merchandise locations

1991

Mielsen Media Research

Billboard's new way of measuring record sales

When they scan the barcode the information is sent to them

Only big record store could afford this so indie records not properly reflected.

Geographically located in the South Bronx

Rhythms of James Brown – playing “on the one”

African American rhyming games “the dozens”

Caribbean culture – Jamaican DJ “toasting” – one of the most influential of the early South Bronx DJs was the Jamaican-born Kool Herc

Graffiti artists

Break dancing, other forms of street dance (e.g., “poppin’ and lockin’)

Afrocentric spoken word performance (e.g., The Last Poets, Gil Scott Heron)

Born after hippie era of "free love" a generation of horny teens facing the reality of AIDS

First Generation to not live better than their parents

Children of divorce and domestic conflict, reported cases of child abuse at an all time high

centered in Seattle.  Musically it’s a mix of punk and 70s heavy metal (especially the sludgy tempos of Black Sabbath). 

Grunge centers around disaffected members of “Generation X”

The punk that influenced grunge was partly the Ramones and punk that came in their wake: Black Flag, Husker Du, Minor Threat – these bands were more aggressive, faster, louder, and more confrontational.

Heroin makes a comeback -- Less expensive than coke and of much higher quality.  Also, heroin helps numb your depression.

the poster child of grunge

(died from self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1994)

Cobain’s band Nirvana broke big and suddenly “grunge” was commercially viable

Computer operated tracking systems monitoring 1,100 radio stations in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.

Computers “listens” to radio stations 24/7.

Each BDS monitor store thousands of unique electronic “fingerprints” created to identify the songs.

1983

sequencers record musical data rather than sound and create repeated sound sequences (loops)

Erlangen, Germany: Professor Dieter Seitzer creates a “CODEC” (compression/decompression algorithm) used to shrink video files to a manageable size for use with multimedia.

Santa Cruz, CA: UC Santa Cruz students Jeff Patterson and Rob Lord, while trolling the Net, discover the Xing Player, software that played compressed music files

Rob Glaser, former Microsoft VP, unveils RealAudio.  Streaming media becomes a reality for computer owners.

Michael Robertson launches MP3.com.  Site quickly becomes the gathering post for those interested in online music.

June 1999 – Shawn Fanning, wanting an easier way to find and trade music online, launches NAPSTER

February 12, 2001 – An appellate court upheld a lower court ruling that Napster should be held liable for copyright infringement.

The court held that using Napster to get something for free that people would ordinarily have to buy was a commercial use and therefore copyright infringement.

1980

Sugarhill Gang

inspires a copyright lawsuit from Chic’s Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards because the song sampled (without permission) Chic’s hit “Good Times.”

Grandmaster Flash and Grandmaster DXT – pioneers of the DJ style

a style of scratching and mixing currently done by DJ Qbert, DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, Mix Master Mike, etc

DJ style takes off with the success of Herbie Hancock's 1983 "Rockit" (feat. scratching by DXT)

"Rockit" 1983

Scratching from DXT

Blondie, "Rapture"

RUN-DMC and Areosmith, "Walk this Way"

Anthrax and Public Enemy, "Bring the Noise"

The beginning of the mainstreaming of rap/hip-hop

Please Hammer sells 10 million copies, #1 album in US for 21 weeks

The beginning of the mainstreaming of rap/hip-hop

early 1991 To The Extreme, #1 album for 16 weeks, sells 7 million copies

1992 The Chronic

Gangsta

1993 Doggy Style

Gangsta

1979

BAR CODE it contains information regarding:  label, specific selection, and configuration

Samples sound waves and breaks them down into a stream of numbers

Minimoog (could only play one pitch at a time)

Arp (could play simple chords)

Synclavier – Expensive digital synthesizer

Parents' Music Resource Center

Cause: MTV and more sexually explicit songs

Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff

architects of the '70s Philly soul sound owners of Philadelphia Internationa Records

b.1940

Carries on James Brown's funk tradition in a more outrageous (and Afrocentric) manner.

Millie Samll

First ska top 10 hit in the US in 1964