Posts about: 1950s

The History of the 2 Minute Pop Song

Understanding How Vinyl Works

To understand the genius behind vinyl you first need to remember the basic of physics' classes we took in High School about how sound waves work.

Sounds are produced by vibrations and travel through the air as waves, which are vibrating particles. The waves transfer energy from the source of the sound out to its surroundings. Your ear detects sound waves when vibrating air particles cause your eardrum to vibrate. A really key concept here is that the bigger the vibrations the louder the sound. The concept of loudness and waves are essential to understanding why the groves you can see on a vinyl record are actually sound waves or more like a type of fingerprint of the sound waves captured in a lacquer disc that we call a vinyl record. These three-dimensional grooves cut in the vinyl record are a recording of how the sound waves behave as they move through the air.

The 78 RPM Record

A flat record made between 1858 and the late 1950s is called a "78" by vinyl enthusiasts and collectors. It's called that because the record spins at 78 revolutions per minute. The 78 disc severely limits the length that a song can be, because only so much music can fit onto the disc. The 78 comes in two sizes: the most popular and recognizable is a 10-inch that holds three minutes of music and a 12-inch that holds four.

The reason pop songs were so short, early on at least, stems from the fact that when 78 rpm were the standard records for pop music, there was a limit to what could physically be put onto a shellac record. Initially, these brittle discs were limited to about two minutes of playing time. By the 1920s, 10” records were virtually all three minutes or under.

The Birth of the Short Song

They’re remakes—“cover songs” in the parlance of the music business—except they’re not interpretations or creative variations of the original, but carbon copies - "Soundalikes".

These remakes aren’t motivated by artistry, but by money. Soundalikes are a completely mercenary venture. The whole goal is to duplicate the original song in every respect, using studio musicians and vocalists, in an effort to lure consumers into listening and buying these recordings. Sharp listeners may notice a difference within a few seconds, but many consumers won’t. And that’s the whole point.

This practice doesn’t exist solely for the benefit of shady record producers or production companies working in the margins of the music eco system looking to make a easy money from a pre-existing hit. Keep in mind that this is a very old game.

Jump to Playlists ⬇

Well into the 1940s and 50s, it was not uncommon to have up to half-a-dozen versions of a song by a slew of artists on the Billboard chart at the same time.

As the soundalikes industry grew, more knockoffs began to appear. The practice began back when 78 RPM records were still the primary format. Carl Doshay founded Tops Records in 1947. Then in 1950, he had an idea. He was well-acquainted with consumer demand for hit songs, so he decided to make some of his own by simply copying them. Using L.A.-based session players, he recorded almost-identical sounding versions of tunes by the likes of Hank Williams, Frankie Laine, and Pat Boone. But while normal hits would go for 79 or 99 cents, he undercut the market by charging only 39 cents per record. Almost immediately, his idea took off.

Tops took their commitment to saving a buck seriously, even figuring out how to squeeze an extra song on each side of a 78. “4 Hits On Each Record,” the label screamed.



The TOPS records engineering team literally invented the process of squeezing more music onto a record way before K-Tel did in the late 1960's and early 1970s. They played with the physics of an analog sound wave and figured out how to squeeze twice as much music on each side of a 78rpm record. Here's how they did it.

Length

Quite simply, it would be beneficial to them to be able to shorten each track/song as much as possible. Miss out a verse here and there, shorten the number of choruses at the end, avoid a bridge altogether and then make the fade-out very rapid. Instead of fadingouzt a song over 20 seconds, TOPS might siply do it over 5 seconds since every second really actually mattered.

Volume

Because a shellac/vinyl record is a purely analog device, whereby each groove moves left/right for mono or left/right & up/down for stereo in relation to a pure circle [or spiral] when read at the stylus, the actual loudness at which the record is cut will affect how wide each groove will be & how close together they could set the grooves.

They could also apply a simple equalization/EQ curve - thus turning down the bass, as bass requires larger movement within the groove than treble does, thus further reducing the width of track and its total footprint on the disc.

For a good introduction to the "Vinyl" process, check out this article on preparing to cut a record for some really good insights on how the process of making vinyl works.

The 45 rpm Record

With the coming of the vinyl age in the late 1940s, the trend continued. RCA Victor had nearly gone bust in the 1930s trying to develop a long-playing record, but RCA eventually came up with the 45 rpm, 7” single to rival the 78rpm.

In 1949, RCA introduced a 45 rpm disk that quickly overtook the 78 and which made it obsolete. These 45s were better than 78s in numerous ways. They were made of vinyl instead of shellac, which made them more durable and more portable. They were also cheap to make and to purchase, which made them easy to market to teenagers in the mid-1950s. Like the 78, the 45 also holds about three minutes of music (depending on the range of sound a song required and the depth of the groove in the disc).
Many 45 rpm singles in the 1950s and early 1960s were around three minutes in length. This was a historical hangover, but it was also down to two quirks:

      1. AM radio liked their records to be short. In case someone didn’t like the song that was playing, they didn’t have to wait long before the next one started.
      2. Shorter songs meant less grooves on the record, which meant that the record was louder when it played. And, oftentimes, louder means better in the mind of a listener.

For a band to get its songs played on the radio, it needed to have a 45. So Artists complied. This turn of events inspired what was commonly known as the "single," for a record containing a single song. The 45 record was cheaper for Americans to buy than a full album and easier for radios to share, making the single in many ways the bedrock of American music.

The songs that came out immediately after the creation of the 45 defined American popular music for decades. All of Elvis's singles were sold on 45, for instance, as did the singles of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Pink Floyd. The seven-inch 45 single carried rock and roll, Motown, R&B, psychedelia, and the British Invasion into American households.

For a very good and in depth discussion on the why's and wherefores of vinyl. This article Why 45s Sound Better Than LPs explains it all in detail. 

Bob Dylan

While many will not immediately "get" the lyrical content of "Odds and Ends", a quick read of the Lyrics for the song Odds and Ends will hopefully change your mind. Remember its Dylan, but in a hyper short form we're not used to seeing very often.

For a real treat, check out this alternate, and much rougher version of "Odds and Ends" that has only recently seen the light of day.


Nirvana

While Tourette's is not the most popular Nirvana song, it does have its fans. Check out this cover version by the band '68. I think it does Nirvana's version justice and reinforces the rage Tourettes suffers feel everyday.

For those looking  for more information about Tourettes syndrome and its relationship to musicians take the time to read this really well written paper, Tourette’s syndrome in famous musicians or if so inclined, head on over to https://tourette.org for more in-depth information and learn about how you can help.

Ramones

While the Ramones are the paragons of the 2 minute song, "I Want To Sniff Some Glue" written by Dee Dee Ramone, consists of four lines of minimalist lyrics, about the quest for personal meaning expressed lyrically with a Chorus - Bridge - Chorus structure. Take a look at the song lyrics and the song structure to see how a great 2 minute song is written.

The Ramones - It's Alive (1977) - Now I wanna sniff some glue

Beach Boys

The Beach Boys may have been little optimistic in their telling of the race as many racing/ car experts have explained since the songs release. Many car enthusiasts and experienced muscle car drag racers have suggested over the years, that in actuality, all things being equal (ie. drivers of equal skill), an early 1960s SS Dodge Dart (most likely the 1962 Max Wedge variant) with its 413 cu. in. engine with twin 4-barrel carburetors ("dual quads") and ram-air induction, producing 410–420 horsepower, 460–470 torque, would have most likely easily beat a 1963 Chevy Corvette Sting Ray with its fuel injected 327 cu. in. engine producing roughly 350–360 horsepower, 352 torque. 


Also, the fact that the narrator even says that his "slicks" (tires) are starting to spin (lose traction) near the start of the race, and that the Dodge is "really digging in" with good traction, further suggests that it is highly unlikely that the singer's Sting Ray would have been able to catch up and overtake the superior powered and tractional Dodge Dart 413 in a ¼ mile drag race, even if he did power shift and ride the clutch enough to burn the pressure plates.

Dead Milkmen

While the band was divisive in its attack on nearly every 1980s stereotype, it did leave a record of the disdain for the laziness and acceptance of the status quo. Their humour wasn't for everyone and the boys were definitively not stellar musicians but who cares . . . They didn't.

Their music and career evolved alongside their ability to play their instruments and write songs. Initially their songs from 1985 were odes to the short minute and a half song structure. By 1986 and the release of "Eat Your Paisely" the songs got longer, the humour more obtuse and their reputation on College radio rose to the level of gods.

Beach Party Vietnam, by the Dead Milkmen, 
live from the Chameleon Club, in Lancaster, PA; 
October 26th, 2014; Pretty Music for Pretty People Tour.

Blur

Written as parody of the popular Grunge genre of the early 1990's, Song 2 is a really decent amalgamation of everything Grunge. All the hallmarks are there, the soft and loud portions of the song, pulsating and pounding guitars and a driven rhythm section. Notice how the video even pays homage in many respects to the Nirvana Smells Like Teen Spirit video production and direction cues.


For the really adventurous, have a hand at this all Ukulele version done by the The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.

Not to be outdone, Song 2 has been utilized in countless adverts, promotions, TV shows and Movies. So often has it been used that a page exists just to track it all. Vickies Blur page.

The Replacements

Without getting into too much detail, the Replacements far exceeded their expected lifespan, only surviving by evolving. Whether it be the musicality of the band members or the incredible song writing by Paul Westerberg, they somehow avoided destruction for years.

Unlike many of their underground contemporaries, the Replacements played "heart-on-the-sleeve" rock songs that combined Westerberg's "raw-throated adolescent howl" with self-deprecating lyrics. The Replacements were a notoriously wayward live act, often performing under the influence of alcohol and playing fragments of cover songs instead of their own material.

"Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out" is a bit of an anomaly within the Replacements catalogue. Typically the "Mats" songs clock in around 3 minutes on average once the band left their true punk phase. 

The Clash

Of course, it certainly didn't hurt that the song is propelled by one of the greatest punk riffs of all time. A classic early Mick Jones snapper, the guitar lines, much like those famous Ramones tunes (which the Clash loved) was genius in simplicity.

As a sub 2 minute work of art, White Riot provided a shot in the arm to your radio show if you were lucky enough to work at a radio station whose format allowed such a song to be played.

If you're looking to dig deeper into the history leading up to the Clash's song "White Riot", the BBC put together a British centric article that deserves your time. White Riot: The music activists who took on racism drives to the heart of the anti racism movement in Britain that evolved during the formative punk years. It’s a read well worth your time.

Tom Waits

The original video came at a time when music TV stations had emerged around the world as a powerful source for the dissemination of music and culture. Tom, who had always been able to conjure up images through his music, took his turn with the video for "Frank's Wild Years". Its really a literal translation of the song, but works, giving even the non Waits fan a good chuckle.

If you were lucky enough to be addicted to the original "Late Night with David Letterman" show, you might have been treated to a fascinating interview for the release of his album Swordfish Trombones with Tom himself. Its both at once a showcase for Tom and a perfectly matched guest for Dave's wit and intellect.

Priceless piece of television history!

The Boxtops

He was only 16 years old and what a voice! When this song first came out, I was convinced it was an older guy singing, so I was quite surprised when I learned years later he was only 16!!


For a really well researched account of the songs history, check out Jerry Reuss' article The Box Tops The Letter. It reveals the ups and downs of the Boxtops, Alex Chilton and the song "The Letter"

For those wanting to understand the legacy of the Letter, check out this cover of “The Letter” that the Box Tops’ fellow Memphis musician Al Green released in 1969, on his Green Is Blues album:

And the final jump is the Notorious B.I.G.’s 1997 track “The Long Kiss Goodnight,” which producer RZA built around a sample of Green’s cover of “The Letter”

That's all the proof you need that "The Letter" by the Boxtops is perhaps the most important sub 2 minute pop song ever recorded.

Rolling Stones

In typical British Invasion fashion, the Rolling Stones kicked the American Rock & Roll songbook right in the balls with their version of "Not Fade Away". Buddy Holly co-wrote and recorded “Not Fade Away” with his band the Crickets in 1957, and seven years later, The Rolling Stones released their own cover version.

This footage is from the American Daytime talk show "The Mike Douglas Show" which ran national in America and in Canada, from 1965 through to the end of 1981. The New York Times obituary for Mike Douglas delivers a perfect snapshot of his life and impact on the entertainment world.

The Rolling Stones' version of "Not Fade Away" was one of their first hits. Recorded in January 1964 with visiting, uncredited Americans Phil Spector and Gene Pitney, and released by Decca Records on February 21, 1964, with "Little by Little" as the B-side, it was their first Top 10 hit in the United Kingdom, reaching number three.

Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet

In 1987 I had the great opportunity to spend an evening with the band in Halifax, NS. Our interview together was as much a conversation between fast friends as it was an interview with a fantastic band. The conversation came fast and easy. Throughout the evening it became clear that the music they were writing was a true reflection of their own sense of humour.

Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet are a Juno Award-winning Canadian instrumental rock band, formed in 1984. They remain best known for the track "Having an Average Weekend", which was used as the theme to the Canadian sketch comedy TV show The Kids in the Hall. 

Although commonly classified as a surf rock band they rejected the label, going so far as to release a track called "We're Not a Fucking Surf Band", although they also later released a compilation box set titled Oh, I Guess We Were a Fucking Surf Band After All.

Produced by School Services of Canada for distribution to high schools, 
to present different "career options" to students. 1992.

Live at the Rivoli Club in Toronto in 1990

The song is a tribute to the man and his sense of humour and his life lived. If you have 20 minutes, listen to this great Bennett Cerf audio package from WYNC in New York City.

Bennett Alfred Cerf who passed away in 1971, was an American publisher and co-founder of the American publishing firm Random House. Cerf was also known for his own compilations of jokes and puns, for regular personal appearances lecturing across the United States, and for his weekly television appearances for over 17 years on the panel game show What's My Line?

Zodiacs

Running just 1:38, this is an incredibly compact song, and the shortest ever US #1 hit on the Hot 100. Despite it's brevity, it still tells a story and unusual still contains a bridge. Williams said that inspiration for the song came from a situation where he tried to convince his date to stay past her curfew, but she didn’t. And so he wrote the song.

This song lends itself well to falsetto singers: The Four Seasons hit #16 in the US with their version featuring the high vocal range of Frankie Valli. In 1978, Jackson Browne hit #20 with this song as a single released with "The Load-Out," which was a tribute to his roadies. Browne often ends his concerts with the "Stay" following "The Load-Out," and that's how his Running On Empty album ends. On Browne's version, the falsetto vocals are David Lindley and the female vocals are Rosemary Butler.
The Four Seasons kept the song short, at 1:53, but Browne stretched it to 3:15.

Elvis Presley

"Teddy Bear" was written by Kal Mann and Bernie Lowe for Elvis Presley's second feature film, Loving You. The song, backed with the film's title track, topped the pop charts on July 8, 1957 where it stayed for seven weeks. The songwriters took advantage of Elvis's accidental reputation as a teddy-bear lover after a false rumor of his penchant for the stuffed animals spread to his fans, who promptly flooded him with hordes of cuddly pals. The day after Christmas, he donated the collection of thousands to the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.


To see how the song writers were able to fit all the lyrics into 1:47 and create a song that feels complete , read the Teddy Bear lyrics and the Verse/Chorus structure.

Jerry Lee Lewis

Like Lewis' previous hit, "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," this song is filled with sexual innuendo (" let me love you like a lover should..."), which was shocking for a southern musician in 1957. Lewis grew up in a religious household and was conflicted over whether or not he should record this. He and Sun Records owner Sam Phillips argued as Phillips tried to convince him to sing it. Tape was rolling during the spat and the exchange can be heard on some of the tracks included on various Sun Records collections. 

The video clip illustrates a fairly restrained Jerry Lee during this performance. For a real treat check out the clip from the "Steve Allen Show" where Jerry Lee performs Whole Lot of Shakin Going On.

"Great Balls of Fire"

"Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On,"

While the American public were worrying about what Elvis was shaking and thrusting, they overlooked the real threat, Jerry Lee. The Faraday Fireball could have ruled the charts with his heathen themed music had it not been for his marriage to his 13 year old cousin. 

To get a real picture of his life's up and downs, pick up his biography, by the fantastic writer Nick Tosches, Hellfire: The Jerry Lee Lewis Story or Rick Bragg's book Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story.

They don't call him "The Killer" for nothin' . . . 

Queen

In 1977 there was no song bigger or heavier on the charts. To put the success of "We Will Rock You" into perspective, Queen was, depending on your age, well known to not only your parents but even your grandparents. Radio in 1977 was, for the majority of listeners AM while FM was still a burgeoning option. Everyone had an AM radio at home or in their car, and since your parents were in charge of the car they were by default in-charge of the radio. In 1977 though, radio wasn't as fragmented as it is today, there were really only  3types of AM stations, religious, popular music stations and country music stations. So your chances of hearing "We Will Rock You" while in the car was high.

"We Will Rock You" is a concert film by English band Queen. It was filmed in Montreal, Quebec, Canada at the Montreal Forum on 24 and 25 November 1981.

A new official release of the concert (retitled Queen Rock Montreal) digitally restored and remastered by Queen was released on 29 October 2007 on DVD double CD. The quality of the footage is incredible, as is the performance.


Notable movie uses of this song include the 2001 film A Knight's Tale, where the song is used to open the film. In the Mighty Ducks movies, this song is used to fire up the crowds just like in real-life hockey. But this time, it's sung as "we will quack you." Other movie uses include:

      • Heaven Is for Real (2014) 
      • Sucker Punch (2011) 
      • The Pacifier (2005) 
      • Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004)
      • The Recruit (2003) 
      • The Replacements (2000) 
      • Any Given Sunday (1999) 
      • FM (1978)

There is a fast version of this song recorded by Queen with John Peel in 1977. Its hard to find but well worth the search for fans looking to get alternate look at this classic song.

The Byrds

This is the first hit song to use a variation of the term "rock star" in the title. Rock had been around since about 1955, but the term "rock star" didn't get bandied about much until the '70s, when it became a way to describe the most glamorous and intriguing men and women in the genre.

Even after the term became ubiquitous, it was rarely used in song titles; the Dutch pop group Champagne hit #83 with "Rock And Roll Star" in 1977, but it wasn't until 2007, when the rock era had long since ended, that songs with that title in the term began to proliferate. That year brought us:

      • "Party Like A Rock Star" - Shop Boyz (#2) 
      • "Rockstar" - Nickelback (#6) 
      • "Do It Just Like A Rockstar" - Freak Nasty (#45) 
      • "Rock Star" - Hannah Montana (#81) 

It was mostly hip-hop acts that used the term from then on, notably Rihanna with "Rockstar 101" and Post Malone with "Rockstar."

Jimmy Glimer and the Fireballs

I have to admit that I've always loved this song. "Sugar Shack" contains all the hooks to make it a perfect pop song; great bass line, and the secret sauce, a virtually un reproducible organ sound. The distinctive whistling riff was made with a 1940s Hammond Solovox organ, which producer Norman Petty played on the record. The instrument was not practical to take on the road due ti its size and delicate construction, so when the band played it live, they simulated it on guitar

No other version of the song ever charted, possibly because that vintage organ riff was too difficult to emulate. In 1963, the Surfaris recorded the song, as did Lawrence Welk, with an instrumental version. Marcia Griffiths of "Electric Boogie" fame recorded it in 1990, altering the lyrics so she's scoping out a cute dreadlocked guy at the Sugar Shack.

This is a rare 1963 television appearance Jimmy Glimer and the Fireballs. I have not been able to locate any other footage of the band playing/lip syncing, even though they had the number 1 hit for that year.


Cub

Like the Jonathan Richman post-Modern Lovers, Cub prove that childlike whimsy can be, in the words of Joe Harvard, "a purer form of rebellion."

During the 1990's the CBC had a great late night lineup for modern music fans. The long running Brave New Waves was complimented on the weekends by Night Lines, giving Canadians a uniquely Canadian insight into alternative music. Because of Canada's vast geography and the CBC's mandate to be accessible to the entire nation, a unique opportunity arrived for Canadian musicians. The host David Wisdom took a really unique approach with his shows and introduced me to a lot of Canadian music I might not otherwise have been exposed to. One of my greatest discoveries from Night Lines was Cub.

As with most proudly amateurish bands, Cub actually improved given practice, so jangly mid-album tracks like lonesome "Pretty Pictures" and popsicle-packing "A Picnic" are among the best here, charming and melodic.

Featuring cover art by Archie Comics artist and Josie & the Pussycats creator Dan DeCarlo, Cub albums and Eps all had Saturday Morning cartoon kinda fun vibe visually. For those smart enough to catch on in the late 1990s, you were rewarded with albums full of fun and musically cute.



A typically Canadian music video for the mid to late 1990s, Cub's My Chinchilla is short sweet and enfatically fun. At only 1:33, it provides the buildup and release that was the foundation to Cub's success.

For good measure, have a look at the video for Cub's "New York City", it really embraces the feeling of starting your life out in a new world with a new love. Although its about NYC, it could easily be the story of first year university student experiencing life at a new level.

The style of Cubs music, while not to everyones taste, has been foundational for many artists, most notably Frankie Cosmos who opened this episode "The Joy of the 2 Minute Song".

Max Frost And The Troopers

This is Max Frost and The Troopers video of their hit song "The Shape Of Things To Come". Max Frost and The Troopers were a purely fictional rock group invented for the 60's movie Wild In The Streets. This was their big hit taken from the movie. The movie was about a young man named Max Frost who supports a senator played by Hal Holbrook. Max wants to lower the voting age to 14. He gets elected as president of the USA and ends up banishing all old people to camps where they are fed LSD. A campy type movie from the 60's.

The White Stripes

"Fell in Love with a Girl" is a song by the American garage rock band the White Stripes, written and produced by Jack White for the band's third studio album, White Blood Cells (2001) Written by White, the song is simply 3 verses without a chorus or a bridge, helping it stay under two minute mark. His breathless performance exudes visceral intensity and quirky, exaggerated inflections. White's lyricism contains a dense slew of words laced with anxious banter and snappy humour.

Tom Maginnis from AllMusic called the single, "an attention-grabbing chunk of primal punk rock confection that flames out in a breathless one minute and 50 seconds.... Surrendering is the only option; to fight against the infectious brutal and relentless energy of "Fell in Love With a Girl" is an exercise in futility."

The video for this is considered one of the most innovative of all time as it was made entirely out of Legos. Directed by Michel Gondry using no digital effects, it won three MTV video music awards.

Perhaps the greatest live awards show performance of all time was from the MTV Movie Awards, in 2002. The White Stripes, played a medley of "Fell in Love With a Girl" / "I Think I Smell a Rat" / "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" in just over 3minutes. I was an instant convert.


So what happened? 

In 2015, streaming overtook digital downloads as the music industry’s biggest source of revenue in the US, outstripping CD and digital download sales, and streaming has dominated ever since. In 2015, streaming accounted for just over one third of the revenue model, while in 2018 that number skyrocketed to 75%. In the process, many artists have adapted to the way their music is consumed. More streams make more money, but even then it’s not a lot, which is why volume is so crucial.

One million streams on Spotify generates about $7,000, CNBC reports. That’s not a lot of money considering that most artists will find that achievement daunting. To put that not perspective, 99% of all streaming is dominated by just a core group of just 10% of all artists.

Since one stream typically earns the same no matter the track length, there’s an incentive to create shorter songs to garner as many streams as possible. “This is a total strategy to game the system,”

Besides the impact of streaming, short songs might just be part of the instant gratification culture of the digital age. According to Time magazine, the average attention span for the notoriously ill-focused goldfish is nine seconds, but according to a new study from Microsoft Corp., people now generally lose concentration after eight seconds, highlighting the affects of an increasingly digitalized lifestyle on the brain.

Variation of audio inputs is one solution: Listeners will more likely listen through an entire album of short songs which means the next new track is never too far away, which works regardless if the album as a whole is long in overall length. For artists looking to be paid by the number of streams they receive, the tactic can end up paying off handsomely.

When it comes to track lengths, the streaming model has disrupted artists’ processes in many ways: making them reconsider their song lengths, or feel frustrated that song lengths can be so influential, or make art that revolves around song lengths entirely. In the short term, the charts look like they will continue to exhibit this influence. But will this last if different music distribution models start to take off?

Has song length evolved with technology?

It’s a pain in the ass to do, but based on data retrieved from musicbrainz.org, we can determine the average length of a song based on the year of its release. It would be easy to say that as new technologies have been developed that allow for longer music, the length of songs has increased. But the length of songs had its biggest jump, according to this data, between the '60s and '80s, and very little has changed from the'90s to 2008, a time period when the technology of music changed drastically.

Conclusion

In short, (no pun intended) the beauty of the short song is without a doubt the result of crafting not only a good beat or a really good riff, but also the ability to mate those musical features with lyrics that lead the listener to expect what comes next before ending and leaving you wanting more.

With careful, and informed listening, the average music consumer could learn to really appreciate the architecture of pop music. However, the well crafted, sub 2 minute pop song is designed to have an impact right from the get go so that you don't even get a chance to think about song form, style or structure.

Playlists

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Do Musical Genres Exists?

Introduction

These days music fans don’t necessarily care about what genre the music they enjoy falls into, but this wasn’t always the case. There was a time where much of your identity was tied to the music you listened to. 
 
Case in point: the rock vs. disco debate that dominated the late 1970s. Today however, it's not a “live by the genre, die by the genre” situation there might have been in the past. Perhaps the last dyeing breath of the us versus them musical debate came in 1979 and was fired by a radio DJ by the name of Steve Dahl.

 
Artist: Steve Dahl 
Song Name: Do You Think I’m Disco 
Year: 1979 
Note: Humorist. Steve Dahl was a radio personality down in the United States and his, uh, parody or take on the division between genres of disco and rock and roll still. "Do You Think I’m Disco" is not available on any streaming service or for sale on any of the regular download sites. But if you were like me, you had the 45rpm single. Take a listen.
 

Explanation 

Genres are based on the principle of repetition. They codify, organize, classify, group, past repetitions, and they invite future repetitions. These are two very different functions, highlighting respectively the qualities of artworks and qualities of experience, and they have promoted two complementary approaches to the study of genre. Therefor a recognizable genre name is powerful shorthand. 
 
Music comes from everywhere, and so do the names we call it by. There's a longstanding cliche that only the music business needs genre names – everyone else either likes it or they don't. That is, of course, bunk, as anyone who's heard enough people trot out lines such as "I like all music except for rap and country" is aware. Not least because quite a lot of those genre names come from the artists themselves. Music genre classification is an ambiguous and subjective task at best, and at its worst divisive. 

Why 

Categorization using the concept of Genre is one of the most valuable tools we have for understanding and communicating with one another about music. The responsible use of music classification helps us understand creations in greater context, making it easier to identify patterns, recommend new artists to one another, and find creations that are the most satisfying to our individual tastes. 
 
This may seem surprising for some, as it's not unusual for music fans, artists, and even some journalists to claim that the use of genres is unnecessary, elitist, or in some cases, ignorant. These detractors also frequently claim that genre classifications place restrictions on artists” creativity and diminish personal enjoyment of the music. It’s true that when done improperly, applying labels to music has the potential to be some of these things, and instances of misuse are easy to find. It's also true that genre terms, like all aspects of language, do not convey the subtlety of the listening experience. 
 
However, none of these factors are reasonable arguments against the process of music classification, as the potential benefits far outweigh the troubles caused by their wrongful application. When used properly, music taxonomy or classification, substantially increases the clarity, recognition, and appreciation of artists’ creations. 

More often, a genre name will come from a musician's works. Free jazz comes from Ornette Coleman's 1960 album of the same name; 
 
Artist: Ornette Coleman 
Song Name: Free jazz 
Year: 1960 
Note: Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation is the sixth album by jazz saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman, released on Atlantic Records in 1961, his fourth for the label. Its title established the name of the then-nascent free jazz movement. The recording session took place on December 21, 1960, at A&R Studios in New York City.


Ditto for blue-eyed soul, which came from the Righteous Brothers' 1963 LP. Not to mention acid house, which originally from Phuture's 1987 single Acid Tracks, has come to mean anything with a yammering, squealing TB-303 on it. 
 
Artist: Phuture's 
Song Name: Acid Tracks 
Year: 1987 
Note: Roland, the manufacturer of the TB-303, have a great article Sound Behind the Song: “Acid Tracks” by Phuture
 
Sometimes record labels become genre names, as with"Industrial", named after Throbbing Gristle's imprint, established in 1976. Sometimes record labels just mandate new terms. "Outlaw Country", "no wave" and"Techno" all came into use via compilation albums. 
 
The 90s were rife with musician-coined genres. "Riot grrrl" was the name of a 1991 fanzine put together by four of that music's key players: Allison Wolfe and Molly Neuman of Bratmobile; Kathleen Hanna and Tobi Vail of Bikini Kill. 
 
Artist: Bratmobile 
Song Name: Bitch theme 
Year: 1991 
Note: Bratmobile was a three-piece feminist punk band that, alongside Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney, led the riot grrrl movement of the 1990s. Known for the brash lyricism of singer Allison Wolfe, the steady beats and sneer of drummer Molly Neuman and the ferocious yet catchy guitar riffs of Erin Smith, Bratmobile combined the power of rock music and the political-literary influence of zines to spread its message of female empowerment from 1991 to 2003.
 

Definitions 

Music is grouped into genres to describe the music’s form, style, and cultural influence. Crucially, genre names are, on their fundamental level, a reflexive means of description and recognition, not a rigid system of boundaries. 
 
Understanding the categorization of music depends as much upon the music itself as it does the language we use to describe it, the context in which we listen to it, and the social and economic factors affecting the psychology of its choice. Let’s attempt to put a stake in the ground regarding some terms. 

Genre 

Genre has a slightly more taxonomical meaning, in that it usually relates to an attempt to group music into somewhat arbitrary structurally related genres and sub genres. The genre classification tends to be made on the basis of the audience it's aimed at and can be classified based on the music's instrumentation, its particular use, or ethnicity etc. - e.g. Pop, rock, punk rock; Latin-American music, samba, tango; jazz, trad jazz, bee-bop. The online culture of today is inherently global, so genres that were distinct and contained to geographical locations are now cross-pollinated throughout the world. 
 
If genre classification tends to be made on the basis of the audience it's aimed at let’s examine some of the first attempts made at applying genre to the music field. In doing so we need to take care of some housekeeping. 
 
During the history of modern American recorded music, record companies struggled with the question of how to keep music segregated. I choose the term “segregated"carefully because it reflects the America of the 1920’s through the 1950’s while a case can be made that it still exists to this day. The terms originally chosen by record companies for marketing purposes were at best euphemisms.

Euphemisms: where an unpleasant or offensive thing is described or referred to by a milder term. At there worst the terms were racist and driven by division. 
 
Reflecting the socio economic situation of a racially divided America from the 1920’s through the 1950’s, the promotional catchphrase “race music” was first applied by Ralph Peer a Missouri-born talent scout for Okeh Records. Race records were the first examples of popular music recorded by and marketed to black Americans. 
 
While not considered racist, the term “Hillbilly”, coined in 1925 by country pianist Al Hopkins, does reflect the American class system of the 1920’s from which it emerged. Hillbilly" is a term (often derogatory) for people of various ethnicities who dwell in rural, mountainous areas in the United States, primarily in southern Appalachia and the Ozarks. 

 
The music business needs to know what it's selling and who it's selling to.The goal of creating genres was originally tied directly to marketing; 
  • Keep races and their music segregated 
  • Help drive sales by ensuring the customer was certain of the product they were buying 
 
The Allen Brothers, a white duo from Chattanooga, sued Columbia Records for reputational damage and $250,000 after their 1927 sophomore release was categorized as a race record instead of hillbilly music. "It would have hurt us in getting dates if people who didn't know us thought we were black," one of the brothers later explained.

Style

Musical Style refers to characteristic features of how music is played or expected to sound, i.e. its actual musical content - the set of expected musical patterns, mannerisms, expressive devices it conventionally makes use of. 

Jazz, while constituting a genre, also qualifies as a style (or group of more specific styles), since it makes use of particular performance idioms and techniques. 

Style are the detailed characteristics that are brought by the individuals creating the work. Therefor a dance song from the 1980s can be interpreted by applying a style to its playback, thus catapulting the same song in dozens of directions.

Illustrating this point is really easy by using a song such as "When Doves Cry" by the great Prince. Including the original, here are 5 versions of the same song interpreted 5 different ways by as many artists. The real take away here is that an artist is only limited by their imagination.
 
Artist: Rockabye Baby! 
Song Name: When Doves Cry 
Year: 2012 
Note: Lullaby Renditions of Prince. Listening to the lullaby version of "When Doves Cry" you would never, ever be able to discern the true meaning behind the writer's intent. Instead you enjoy the melody.
 

Artist: Pursuit of Happiness 
Song Name: When Doves Cry 
Year: October 2005 
Note: Canadian Power Pop band who imbued the Prince classic with a guitar based edge and catchy pop hooks. Although Prince is the song's writer and may never have envisioned a Power Pop version, he still wrote and structured as tune that could be interpreted in just about any style.

In 1988, they signed to Chrysalis Records. Their debut album, Love Junk, was produced by Todd Rundgren and released that year. "I'm an Adult Now" was re-recorded and re-released as a single, making it to the charts a second time. 

In January 1989 the song peaked at No. 6 on Billboard's alternative songs chart. It was followed by "She's So Young", which became their biggest hit single in Canada and also received radio play in the UK and became a minor hit there, and "Hard To Laugh". The album sold over 100,000 copies in Canada and was certified platinum.

The band's follow-up album with Rundgren, 1990's One Sided Story, featured the hit singles "New Language" and "Two Girls in One." Although the album did not sell as well as Love Junk it was still a significant hit for the band.
 

Artist: Shark Alley Hobos 
Song Name: When Doves Cry 
Year: 
Note: Musicians who shared a love of the sea, sharks, pirates, from New Orleans, and proudly self proclaimed hobos. The "Sea Shanty" has gained a lot of traction lately with everyone jumping on the bandwagon it seems.
 

Artist: The DejaBlue Grass Band 
Song Name: When Doves Cry 
Year: 
Note: They serve up a fresh version of a Prince classic by infusing selection of"Truegrass", piled high with pop and"Newgrass" sensibility, then lightly salted with some soul-shaking gospel. 
 
Artist: Prince 
Song Name: When Doves Cry 
Year: 1984 
Note:  Prince was asked by director Albert Magnoli to write a song for Purple Rain, to match the theme of a particular segment of the film that involved intermingled parental difficulties and a love affair. The next morning, Prince had composed two songs, one of which was "When Doves Cry". According to Prince's biographer Per Nilsen, the song was inspired by his relationship with Vanity 6 member Susan Moonsie.

Form

In music, form refers to the structure of a musical composition or performance. In his book "Worlds of Music", Jeff Todd Titon suggests that a number of organizational elements may determine the formal structure of a piece of music. 
 
Most notable are the arrangement of musical units of rhythm, melody, and or/ harmony that show repetition or variation, and the arrangement of the instruments. 
 
Simply... Song Form arranges the structure of songs into an easy to understand framework. Song structure is important because it organizes how songs are written while aiding in how they are recognized and appreciated. Without a song having shape, songs are can become chaotic and unlistenable. 
 
Why is this important? Simply, song form, allows the story to be told so that people listening can better understand and enjoy the experience of the song.
 
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel in order to be creative, however. That’s where song form comes into play. Think of the most common types of song structures as universally agreed upon roadmaps for songs. Song Form reveals to us where the song is going. 
 
Consider that song form helps song writers keep an overview of songs and how sections of music that make up the song will be organized. 
 
Imagine song form as a map made up of locations that we know of as verses, choruses and bridge. What are the parts we are generally concerned with then; 
  • Verses are similar but differ slightly from each other 
  • Chorus often differs from verse 
  • Bridges can be very different 
When discussing song forms, a system of letters are assigned to the different sections of a song. Repeated sections get assigned the same letter as was assigned on the first occurrence of that section. The letters then create a map of the overall song. 
 
The assignment of letters is not what you would think, however. We don’t use the first letters of “V” for Verse, “C" for Chorus or “B” for Bridge, but rather the first letters of the alphabet. 
 
For example ; 
  • A=Verse 
  • B=Chorus 
  • C=Bridge 

Strophic / AAA / One-Part Song Form Strophic... 

What was that? Strophic describes how each verse is sung to the same tune. Strophic Song Form is also called AAA Form or One-Part Song Form. AAA song form is one of the oldest sectional song forms. How far back does it go? Originally it was used in the adaption of poems, with composers setting the poems to music to perform them for the entertainment of the royal courts of Europe. The melody is repeated, in Strophic Song Form, and each time the melody repeats different words are sung to the melody. This makes it an ideal song form for story telling. 

The nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb" was first published by the Boston publishing firm Marsh, Capen & Lyon, as a poem by Sarah Josepha Hale on May 24, 1830, and was possibly inspired by an actual incident, however that can't be verified.
 
Artist: Stevie Ray Vaughn 
Song Name: Mary Had a Little Lamb 
Year: 1983 
Note: Traditional Arrangement. This clip is taken from an appearance in Toronto, Canada, Live at the legendary club the El Mocambo in 1991.
 

AAB Form - 12 Bar Blues 

The 12-bar form used in the AAB song form is strongly associated with the blues. Many Blues songs are in the AAB format. The fundamental structure of 12 Bar Blues is three four-bar lines or sub-sections. Often the first two and a half bars of each 4 bar section are vocal melody, while the last one and a half bars contains an instrumental melodic hook that gives a sense of completion for the line. 

Unlike AAA or AABA song forms, which describe the overall structure of the song, AAB describes the structure of an individual verse. AAB is always used as a compound form. The common variants for 12-Bar blues are 8-Bar form and 16-Bar form. 

Artist: Elmore James 
Song Name: Dust My Broom 
Year: 1959 
Note: Originally by Robert Johnston in 1936. James played a modified “Kay” hollow-body acoustic guitar, which sounded like an amped-up version of the more "modern" solid-body guitars of today.  Just raw....You can hear the guitar distort from being close to the speaker and mic in the room. One take, full of emotion. None of this Pro Tools shit.
 

AABA Song Form / American Popular Song Form 

This is one of the most commonly used forms in both jazz and early to mid-twentieth-century popular music. The AABA format was the song form of choice for Tin Pan Alley songwriters of American popular music, an East Coast USA songwriter scene based in New York City, in the first half of the 20th century. Tin Pan Alley songwriters included songwriting greats like Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, Sammy Cahn, Hoagy Carmichael, Dorothy Fields, Johnny Mercer, George and Ira Gershwin. 

The dominance of the AABA song form faded during the 1960s. The rise in popularity of rock 'n' roll and the rise of groups like The Beatles changed the popular music landscape. Before The Beatles broke off into other song writing formats, they heavily used AABA song form in many songs. It uses this song form in several music genres including pop, jazz and gospel. 

Artist: Beatles 
Song Name: Eight Days A Week 
Year: 1964 
Note: While not a huge Beatles fan for many reasons, "Eight Days A Week " is good, solid representation of the AABA song form.
 

Variation on the basic structure Verse-chorus form or ABA form may be combined with AABA form, in compound AABA forms. 
  • AAA format may be found in Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a-Changin'", and songs like "The House of the Rising Sun" and Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". 
  • AABA may be found in Crystal Gayle's "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue", Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are", and The Beatles' "Yesterday". 
  • ABA format may be found in Pete Seeger's "Turn! Turn! Turn!" (chorus first) and The Rolling Stones's "Honky Tonk Woman" (verse first). 
  • ABAB may be found in AC/DC's "Back in Black", Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville", The Archies's "Sugar, Sugar", and The Eagles's "Hotel California". 
  • ABABCB format may be found in John Cougar Mellencamp's "Hurts So Good", Tina Turner's "What's Love Got to Do with It?", and ZZ Top's "Sharp Dressed Man". 
  • Variations include The Pretenders' "Back on the Chain Gang" (ABABCAB), Poison's "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" (ABABCBAB), and Billy Joel's "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" (ABABCABCAB) 

Conclusion 

Perhaps, in the age of endless ways to express yourself, it’s also less necessary to define your identity in your teenage years by clinging to musical genres. And notions of credibility are still important, so memes about the relative merits of Kanye and Queen will still flood the social media. But these memes somehow seem to come from an older generation and it’s astonishing, how outdated such musical conservatism seems now.
 
So, if genre boundaries are evaporating, and presuming post-genre music doesn’t become a genre and cancel itself out, will anything replace them? What we’ve seen in the past 20 years is that consumption methods have broadened attitudes, music has changed to reflect that, and attitudes have then changed even further.

Playlists

 
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The Myth of the first Rock & Roll song part 4 of 4

First, Rock & Roll was neither “new,” nor indeed even a single musical style; 

Second, the Rock & Roll era does not mark the first time that music was written specifically to appeal to young people; 

Third, Rock & Roll was certainly not the first American music to fuse black and white popular styles.

============================
The identity of the first rock and roll record is one of the most enduring subjects of debate among rock historians.
 
As seen so far various recordings dating back to the 1940s have been cited as the first rock and roll record. A number of sources have considered the first to be "Rocket 88", which was recorded in 1951 by Ike Turner and his band, but credited to his saxophonist and the song's vocalist Jackie Brenston.
 
Jackie Breston
Jackie Breston
While The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll and the website of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame said that it is "frequently cited" and "widely considered the first". By contrast, writer and musician Michael Campbell wrote that, "from our perspective," it was not the first rock and roll record because it had a shuffle beat rather than the rock rhythm originally characteristic in Chuck Berry's and Little Richard's songs.
 
"Rocket 88" had the basic characteristics of Rock & Roll music such as the emphasis on guitar and distortion.  Its characterization as a rock and roll or rhythm and blues song continues to be debated. Nigel Williamson questions whether it was really an R&B song "with an unusually fast, bottom-heavy eight-to-the bar boogie rhythm and a great lyric about cars, booze and women".

=================================

Rock & Roll Stylistic Finger Prints:

  • Instrumentation includes – male vocals, backing vocals, electric guitars, double bass, drums, piano, harmonica, saxophone and other brass 
  • Fast Tempo – 140bpm or faster Energetic delivery of vocals (screaming and shouting) 
  • Often based on 12-bar chord structure
  • Predominantly uses major keys but with blues scale for vocals, lead parts and solos 
  • Strong back beat on beats 2 and 4 
  • Often uses a shuffle rhythm – slightly swung quavers 
  • Walking bass line, four to a bar, often based on ascending and descending patterns of root-3rd-5th-6th-flat 7th-6th-5th-3rd
  • Quite often this line is doubled by electric guitar Second guitar plays rhythmic patterns of chords – use of 6th and 7th extensions of chords 
  • Use of “stop time” where instruments play only on beat 1 then leave space for vocals or instruments 
  • Use of flamboyant guitar solos
  • Call and response – often between vocal and guitar

Music

  • "Boogie in the Park" by Joe Hill Louis, recorded in July 1950 and released in August 1950, 
    • featured Louis as a one-man band performing "one of the loudest, most overdriven, and distorted guitar stomps ever recorded" while playing on a rudimentary drum kit at the same time. It was the only record released on Sam Phillips' early Phillips label before founding Sun Records.[82] Louis' electric guitar work is also considered a distant ancestor of heavy metal music.[83]
  • "Hot Rod Race" recorded by Arkie Shibley and His Mountain Dew Boys in late 1950, 
    • another early example of "rockabilly", highlighted the role of fast cars in teen culture.[51]
  • "Sixty Minute Man" by the Dominoes, recorded on December 30, 1950, 
    • was the first (and most sexually explicit) big R&B hit to cross over to the pop charts. The group featured the gospel-style lead vocals of Clyde McPhatter (though not on this song), and appeared at many of Alan Freed's early shows. McPhatter later became lead singer of the Drifters, and then a solo star.
  • "Rocket 88" by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats 
    • (actually Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm) (1951), and 
    • Bill Haley and the Saddlemen (1951) 
    • Played with too much restraint compared to Breston and Ike
  • "How Many More Years" recorded by Howlin' Wolf in May 1951. 
    • Robert Palmer has cited it as the first record to feature a distorted power chord, played by Willie Johnson on the electric guitar
  • "Rock and Roll Blues" by Anita O'Day recorded on January 22, 1952. 
    • One of Anita O'Day's few compositions, she was one of the best jazz singers ever, and recorded this blues single on Mercury Records with her own orchestra.
  • "Hound Dog" by Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton was recorded on August 13, 1952. 
    • A raucous R&B song recorded with Johnny Otis' band (uncredited for contractual reasons), it was written by white teenagers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, covered three years later by Freddie Bell and the Bellboys (Teen Records 101), and then more famously by Elvis Presley.
  • "Crazy Man, Crazy", (1953) Bill Haley and his Comets, 
    • first rock and roll record on Billboard magazine chart. 
    • Not a cover, but an original. 
    • Haley said he heard the phrase at high-school dances his band was playing.
  • "Love My Baby" and "Mystery Train" were recorded by Junior Parker with his electric blues band, the Blue Flames in 1953, 
    • "contributing a pair of future rockabilly standards" that later would be covered by Hayden Thompson and Elvis Presley, respectively
    • For Presley's version of "Mystery Train", Scotty Moore also borrowed the guitar riff from Parker's "Love My Baby",[87] played by Pat Hare

  • "Gee" by the Crows was recorded on February 10, 1953. 

    • This was a big hit in 1954, and is credited by rock n' roll authority, Jay Warner, as being "the first rock n' roll hit by a rock and roll group"
    • "Mess Around" by Ray Charles was recorded in May 1953,
      • one of his earliest hits. 
      • some lyrics riffing off of the 1929 classic "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie".
  • "Rock Around the Clock", (1954) by Bill Haley and his Comets, 
    • first number 1 rock and roll record It stayed in the Top 100 for a then-record 38 weeks.
    • The song itself had first been recorded in late 1953 by Sonny Dae & His Knights, a novelty group whose recording had become a modest local hit at the time Haley recorded his version.

  • "Shake, Rattle and Roll", (1954) by Big Joe Turner, Bill Haley and his Comets, and Elvis Presley.
    •  Haley's version was the first international hit rock and roll record, actually predating the success of "Rock Around the Clock" by several months, though it was recorded later.as sung by Big Joe Turner is ranked number 127 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
  • James Cotton's "Cotton Crop Blues" and Pat Hare's "I'm Gonna Murder My Baby" (both recorded in May 1954), 
    • were electric blues records which feature heavily distorted, power chord-driven electric guitar solos by Pat Hare 
    • Anticipate elements of heavy metal music.
    • heavily distorted guitar sound by Hare that resembles the "distorted tones favoured by modern rock players.
  • "That's All Right (Mama)", (1954) by Elvis Presley; 
    • this cover of Arthur Crudup's tune was Elvis' first single, 
    • is possibly the song most often cited (albeit inaccurately) as the first rock and roll record.
  • "Sh-boom" (1954) by the Chords and the Crewcuts, in this case, the latter was a pale imitation.
    • On most informed lists of rock & roll villains, the Crew Cuts would have to rank near the top. They weren't rock & rollers in the first place: their clean-cut white harmony glee club approach was really in the style of early and mid-'50s groups such as the Four Aces, the Four Lads, and the Four Freshmen. 
    • The Canadian quartet differed from those acts, however, in their concentration upon covers of songs originally recorded by R&B/doo wop vocal groups. 
    • considered a pioneer of the doo-wop variant.
  • "Maybellene", (1955) by Chuck Berry
    • adapted in part from the Western swing fiddle tune "Ida Red".
    • recorded by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys in 1938

  • The record was an early instance of the complete rock and roll package: 

    • youthful subject matter; 
    • a small, guitar-driven combo; 
    • clear diction; and 
    • an atmosphere of unrelenting excitement.

"Rocket 88" is cited for its forceful backbeat and unrefined, distorted electric guitar. By contrast, writer and musician Michael Campbell wrote that, "from our perspective," it was not the first rock and roll record because it had a shuffle beat rather than the rock rhythm originally characteristic in Chuck Berry's and Little Richard's songs, although he added that "Rocket 88" had basic characteristics of rock music such as the emphasis on guitar and distortion.

"Rock Awhile" to be a more appropriate candidate for the "first rock and roll record" title, because it was recorded two years earlier, and because of Carter's guitar work bearing a striking resemblance to Chuck Berry's later guitar work, while making use of an over-driven amplifier, along with the backing of boogie-based rhythms, and the appropriate title and lyrical subject matter
 
Let”s get this out of the way at the top: seeking to identify “the very first rock and roll record” is a fool”s errand!

The First Rock & Roll Song

In his 1995 book Rock and Roll: An Unruly History, Palmer made the case for another candidate for this pop-culture holy grail: “Rock Awhile,” a 1949 song recorded by an all-but-forgotten teenager from Houston named Goree Carter. Citing its unmistakable resemblance to Chuck Berry”s later work, its lyrical instruction to “rock awhile,” and the way the guitar crackled through an overdriven amp, Palmer argued that Carter”s song was a strong contender for the oldest known specimen of the music that soon after took over the world.
 Goree Carter
 
And yet even in Houston, few people remember Carter. There is no historical marker memorializing the house where he lived almost his entire life or the Montrose studio where the song was cut. There is no Goree Carter Day, nor any Goree Carter Avenue. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has not seen fit to honor the man. His name is absent from virtually all standard histories of modern popular music. It”s as if he never lived, never thrilled audiences with his behind-the-back guitar playing, never invented rock and roll.

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The Myth of the first Rock & Roll song part 3 of 4

The word “GENRE” is often used to describe particular “musics”. Although we throw the terms like blues, jazz, classical around freely, what do they actually mean?

      • Are they always accurate terms?
      • What about the form or style of a song?
      • Can they be defined purely within a musical context?
Goree Carter
Goree Carter

In S1E2 we looked at song form and its effects on modernization of popular music. More importantly, what we discovered is How does song form relate to the story of Rock & Roll?

Rock & Roll is, as we are finding, is a blend of North American musics which were already present within the structure of society, the economy and history of the people. When Jazz, Blues, and Hillbilly music collide with popular mainstream musics of Tin Pan Alley, we get Rock & Roll. But is Rock & Roll a genre all by itself?

Let’s take a look at "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" which today is now seen as epitomizing the style known as jump blues. Ironically, it was written by white songwriters whose background was steeped in country and western music. So was this a limitation to its ability to transcend musical genres or was it just not that “great” a piece of music?

“House of Blue lights" - Merril Moore
“House of Blue lights" - Ella Mae Morse
“House of Blue lights” - Chuck Berry
“House of Blue lights” - Crowbar
“House of Blue lights” - Asleep at the wheel

“House of Blue lights" The song recorded as a Big Band Swing number originally, yet it was later recorded by Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Canned Heat, Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen, The Flamin' Groovies, Meat Puppets(on a hard to locate compilation (“Fast Track to Nowhere: Songs from Rebel Highway”), George Thorogood.

This begs the question just what use is “Genre” as a classification if one song can successfully be recorded by such a wide range of musicians or written by songwriters who are unskilled in another type of music.

Classification of music is just as important as it is unimportant in the general scheme of consumption.

Classification of music by “genre” is a business invention, purely marketing, a sales pitch used to make the consumer feel comfortable making a purchase.

There in lies the problem with trying to pin a date, place and time to the creation of Rock & Roll, and more specifically, the first song.

Business soils the whole process by creating artificial categories and genres of music what might otherwise be similar if not identical. For example, some “Race Records” are indistinguishable from ”Hillbilly" music because they share much of the same history, social and cultural backgrounds in certain parts of North America.

The music industry took to the task of making music “genres” divisive believing it would help segment the market into chucks if you will, that could be marketed using minimal resources where they saw fit.

Unwittingly the music business were enforcing a top down approach to a bottom up problem. What does this mean exactly? Consider the following, how do you empower a sense of control of the product you are selling? Setting up artificial boundaries are equatable to genres and their affect on music distribution.

If you can create a set of artificial constraints around a particular product you can manipulate its consumption. Without knowing it, record companies stumbled upon a 3 part system ideally suited for the task.

Cultures, traditions, history, economics and musics begin to criss cross each other, hence three essential components wind up playing a role in music consumption:

      • An individual component: a belief
      • A social component: the belief is shared by other members of a social unit
      • A deontic: a conduct is obliged

Their job or result is an artificial society

In later episodes we’ll inspect “Genre” as a whole and the damage classification caused society.

Jump blues is a loud, rowdy simplified blues influenced form of jazz that became popular in the 40s after the hard times of the 30s drove many big bands out of business.

Patrons of noisy dance halls and clubs needed small groups that could match the volume of the departed big dance bands to fuel their entertainment. To keep the attention of their patrons in the crowded rooms, the singers would shout and the saxophonists would honk and growl giving the performers' names like 'shouters and honkers'. Jump Blues' hard rhythmic drive and snare beat emphasis on the 2 and 4 has given the genre credit for being the forebear of rock-n-roll and R&B.

The style of hard R&B that came to be known as "jump blues" had its origin in the economic belt-tightening that came during World War II. Swing bands, forced to downsize to a rhythm section and one or two soloists, began to compensate for their smaller scale by playing harder, faster, wilder versions of the swing jazz they'd become known for, and also incorporating the blues that was just starting to make inroads into urban areas (thanks to the migration of rural blacks from the South up into big cities like Chicago and Memphis). The result was the first example of "rhythm and blues," and also one of the main stylistic influences on what would later become known as "rock and roll."

The typical jump blues song had a simpler beat than most swing jazz, usually with guitar relegated to rhythm and solos provided by a saxophone.

In deference to the wilder music, "jump blues" lyrics were often more salacious than their other "R&B" counterparts, often featuring outrageous and even campy vocals to match. Although it originally began as an offshoot of the "boogie-woogie" craze, jump blues was less concerned with swinging the beat than hitting it hard. As a result, country and "country boogie" musicians latched onto the style, eventually creating rockabilly, while black artists cleaned the words up somewhat and brought an even harder version into rock: both Chuck Berry's "Maybelline" and Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" are excellent examples of jump.

Several jump blues hits became Rock & Roll standards as well, including "The Train Kept A-Rollin'," "Shake, Rattle, And Roll," and "Good Rockin' Tonight." As R&B slowed down and got funkier in the early Sixties, jump blues faded from existence; however, many blues bands, especially those with horn sections, continue to record in the style.

Music 1940 -1950

·      Rock, Daniel – Lucky Millinder and his Orchestra with Rosetta Tharpe (June 1941)

·      Daniel Rock was an English Roman Catholic priest

·      Be-Babba Leba – Helen Humes (August 1945)

·      Basically the Bill Doggett Octet is her backing band

·      My Gals A Jockey – Big Joe Turner (January 1946)

·      Bill Moore's Lucky Seven Band*

·      Choo Choo Ch”Boogie – Louis Jordan (July 1946)

o   Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" is a popular song written by Vaughn Horton, Denver Darling, and Milt Gabler. The song was recorded in January 1946 and released by Decca Records.

o   It topped the R&B charts for 18 weeks from August 1946, a record only equalled by one other hit, "The Honeydripper."

o   The record was one of Jordan's biggest ever hits with both black and white audiences, peaking at number seven on the national chart and provided an important link between blues and country music, foreshadowing the development of "rock and roll" a few years later.

o   Alternating up and down strokes of the F and F6 chords on the guitar creates a relaxed shuffle beat feel. The song is essentially a three-chord, twelve bar blues.

o   Although "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" is now seen as epitomizing the style known as jump blues, it was written by white songwriters whose background was in country and western music.

·      The House of Blue lights – Ella Me Morse with Freddie Slack and his Orchestra (February 1946) 

o   popular song published in 1946, written by Don Raye and Freddie Slack. It was first recorded by Ella Mae Morse, and was covered the same year by The Andrews Sisters.

o   reached # 8 on the Billboard pop chart, and the version by The Andrews Sisters reached # 15

o   Little Richard made reference to the "house of blue lights" in his 1958 hit "Good Golly, Miss Molly". 

o   The song itself was later recorded by Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Canned Heat, Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen, The Flamin' Groovies, Meat Puppets, George Thorogood and others

·      Gotta Gimme Whatcha Got – Julia Lee and her Boyfriends (September 1946) 

o   dirty blues musician 

o   she became best known for her trademark double entendre songs,

·      "Freight Train Boogie" by the Delmore Brothers, 

o   very light on the rocking, 

o   but a popular hit with lyrics from African American folk tale, 

o   like Bo Diddley, but without the beat 

o   featuring harmonica player Wayne Raney, 

o   heavily influenced by the blues, 

o   first recorded in 1931.

·      "Straighten Up and Fly Right" by Nat King Cole (1946), 

·      "Let the Good Times Roll" by Louis Jordan (1946) 

o   twelve-bar blues, the song became a blues standard\

o   Done by Ray Charles

o   Jordan and the Tympany Five performed the song in the 1947 film Reet, Petite, and Gone, although the studio recording rather than a live performance is used in the soundtrack.

·      "Oakie Boogie"; by Jack Guthrie (1947) 

o   Woody’s cousin

o   Studio musicians

·      "Move It on Over" by Hank Williams was recorded on April 21, 1947. 

o   It was Williams' first hit on the country music charts, reaching no. 4. 

o   It used a similar melody to Jim Jackson's 1927 "Kansas City Blues" 

o   was adapted several years later for "Rock Around the Clock".

·      He”s A Real Gone guy – Nellie Lutcher (July 1947)

o   Sides A&B recorded in Los Angeles, CA April 30, 1947

o   Recorded in 1998 by Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones from 1962 until 1993.

·      "Good Rocking Tonight", in separate versions by Roy Brown (1947) and Wynonie Harris (1948),

o   Led to a craze for blues with "rocking" in the title.

o   Brown's original version is jump blues while Harris's version is definitely more modern rock and roll. 

o   Later heartily covered by Elvis Presley and less heartily by Pat Boone. 

·      "Rock and Roll" by Wild Bill Moore was recorded in 1948 and released in 1949.

o   This was a rocking boogie where Moore repeats throughout the song "We're going to rock and roll, we're going to roll and rock" and ends the song with the line "Look out mamma, going to do the rock and roll."

o   Related were "Rock and Roll Blues" by Erline 'Rock and Roll' Harris, a female singer, with the lyrics "I'll turn out the lights, we'll rock and roll all night" and "Hole in the Wall" by Albennie Jones, co-written and produced by Milt Gabler, with the lyrics "We're gonna rock and roll at the hole in the wall tonight". 

·      "It's Too Soon to Know", written by Deborah Chessler and performed by The Orioles, November 1948

o   is considered by some to be the first "rock and roll" song.

o   Pat Boone performed the same song for white audiences.

·      "Boogie Chillen'" (or "Boogie Chillun") is a blues song written by John Lee Hooker and recorded in 1948. 

o   It was Hooker's debut record release and became a No. 1 Billboard R&B chart hit in 1949.

o   The guitar figure from "Boogie Chillen'" has been called "the riff that launched a million songs"

o   It is considered one of the blues recordings most influential on the forthcoming rock 'n' roll. 

·      "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee"; by Stick McGhee and his Buddies (1949)

o   jump blues guitarist

o   cover by Wynonie Harris, followed by a hillbilly-bop version by Loy Gordon & His Pleasant Valley Boys. 

o   cover versions by various artists, Johnny Burnette in 1957, and Jerry Lee Lewis in 1959

·      "Ragg Mopp" by Johnny Lee Wills and Deacon Anderson (1949),

o   strange little novelty tune,

o   the lyrics are simply the title spelled out or yelled out, re-released in 1954 by the Ames Brothers.

o   The song, a 12-bar blues, was written by Tulsa Western Swing bandleader Johnnie Lee Wills 

·      "The Fat Man" by Fats Domino (recorded on December 10, 1949), 

o   featuring Fats on wah-wah mouth trumpet, 

o   the first of his 35 Top 40 hits. 

o   Sadly, the aluminum (or lacquer) master disc recording has been missing for over 50 years. 

o   The tune is a variation on the traditional New Orleans tune "Junker Blues", 

o   which also provided the melody for Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy," and Professor Longhair's "Tipitina".

·      Rock the Joint –Jimmy Preston & His Prestonians (May 1949)

o   cited as a contender for being "the first rock and roll record"

o   During the rise of Pshycobilly star the rev Horton Heat, it formed the centrepiece of “Its Martini Time”

·      "Rock Awhile" by Goree Carter was recorded in April 1949.

o   It has been cited as a contender for the "first rock and roll record" title and a "much more appropriate candidate" than the more frequently cited "Rocket 88" (1951).

o   Carter's over-driven electric guitar style was similar to that of Chuck Berry from 1955 onward.

Within the 1940s, the appearance of musical styles resembling Rock & Roll are becoming apparent. The bands are getting smaller as the big band era falls into decline sharply during the WWII era due economic constraints of touring with large bands, while the response came in the form of louder more ruckus entertainment powered by microphones and amplifiers.

Amplification brought with it the ability to replace large orchestras and bands with fewer instruments, which could fulfil the purpose of filling a space with sound.

The guitar in particular, turned out to be an earlier turning point in defining this new rocking music, as it could be as loud as a piano, and infinity more portable. The sheer fact that you were no longer at the mercy of an instrument provided to you helped make consistency a perfect factor for dissemination the new music.

In attempts to adopt the technology which made the guitar appealing, its volume capability, its technological limits were being discover, and subsequently became identifiable aspects of Rock & Roll.

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