History of Rock Music (Exam 1) – Flashcards
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July 5, 1954
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Elvis dropped "That's All Right" at Sun Studio.
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September 9, 1956
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Elvis debuted on the Ed Sullivan Show. Sullivan paid him $50,000 to do three shows.
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February 3, 1959
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"The Day the Music Died" - Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson died in a plane crash.
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Hook
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A catchy musical phrase or riff designed to stick in the listener's ear.
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Riff
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Repeated pattern designed to generate rhythmic momentum.
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Groove
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Channeled flow of "swinging" or "funky" or "phat" rhythms.
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Beat
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Musical pulse.
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Tempo (Time)
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The rate at which a musical composer proceeds regulated by the speed of the beat or pulse to which it is preferred.
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Timbre
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Tone color or characteristic sound of an instrument or voice.
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Meter
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A repeating "pulse group."
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A&R
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Artists and Repertoire
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Melisma
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One syllable of text that spread out over many musical tones.
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Blue Notes
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Expressive notes or scalar inflections found primarily in blues and jazz music.
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Verse
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A group of lines of poetic text, often rhyming, that usually exhibit regularly recurring metrical patterns.
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Chorus (Refrain)
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A repeated melody with fixed text inserted between verses.
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Tin Pan Alley
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It was located in New York City. Songs used a 16 or 32-bar AABA structure consisting of the verse and refrain (or chorus).
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Bridge (Release)
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The B section in an AABA form.
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12-Bar Blues
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It follows an AAB pattern: A. Write. A. Repeat. B. Rhyme.
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32-Bar Song Form
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It's in AABA format.
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R&B
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Rhythm and Blues
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TOBA (Theater Owned Booking Association)
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The vaudeville circuit for black performers in the 1920s and '30s.
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Race Records
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It was a classification of recordings done by black artists from the first half of the 20th century.
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Payola
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The illegal practice of paying deejays or radio stations to put records into "heavy rotation."
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Major Record Record Labels of Post-WWII
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- RCA Victor - Capitol - Columbia - Decca Records
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Sun Records
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Founded by Sam Phillips. Sold Elvis' contract to RCA in late 1955 for $35,000.
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Million Dollar Quartet
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Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley in Sun Studio.
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Stephen Foster (1826-64)
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He was the first successful composer in the U.S. He originated the hook.
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Robert Johnson (1911-38)
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He recorded only 29 songs including "Cross Road Blues" (1936), and he is a founding member of the 27 Club. He was known as the "Grandfather of Rock 'n' Roll" and influenced a myriad of blues and rock musicians.
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Charles K. Harris (1867-1930)
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He is one of the early pioneers of Tin Pan Alley. He wrote "After the Ball" in 1892, which was America's first "mega-hit" pop song with over five million copies sold.
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Alan Freed
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He coined the phrase "rock 'n' roll." He was also a deejay persecuted for accepting payola.
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Todd Storz
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He was a deejay in Omaha who developed the concept of Top 40 radio programming.
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Paula Watson/Evelyn Knight (1948 Lawsuit)
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Supreme sued Decca for copyright infringement and lost over a 1947 recording of "A Little Bird Told Me" by Paula Watson of Supreme that was covered by Evelyn Knight of Decca. The judge ruled that musical arrangements are not copyrightable property.
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Ed Sullivan
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He was the founder of his own variety show.
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Sam Phillips
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He was the founder of Sun Records in Memphis who sold Elvis' contract to RCA for $35,000 in late 1955.
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Jerry Lee Lewis
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Nicknamed "The Killer," he was an early rock 'n' roll star who was inestimably in Little Richard's debt.
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Elvis Presley (Elvis Aaron Presley 1935-77)
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His Sun Records moniker was the "Hillbilly Cat," and he is known as the "King of Rock 'n' Roll." His contract was bought out by RCA from Sun for $35,000.
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Buddy Holly (Charles Hardin Holley 1936-59)
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He broke away from blues and bridged the musical gap from the '50s to the '60s. He died in a plane crash on February 3, 1959.
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Chuck Berry (Charles Edward Anderson Berry b. 1926)
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He addressed his songs to teenage America (white and black) in the 1950s and absorbed blues and R&B styles. He was one of the first and most successful black musicians to consciously forge his own version of blues and R&B styles for apparel to the mass market. He did an "Ira Red" cover called "Maybellene" in May 1955, which was his first record of Chess Records.
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Little Richard (Richard Wayne Penniman b. 1932)
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His outrageous performance style attracted attention through strangeness, novelty, and sexual ambiguity. He was an R&B performer in his early career. He released "Tutti Frutti" (1955) and "Long Tall Sally" (1956). He delivered in an uninhibited shooting style complete with falsetto whips.
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Fats Domino
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He most directly embodied the continuity of R&B with rock 'n' roll.
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"Charlie Brown"
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It utilizes both the 12-bar blues and AABA song form structure.
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Country Blues
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It typically featured a male singer accompanied by an acoustic guitar.
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Louis Jordan
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The "King of the Jukebox," with hits such as "Caldonia" and "Choo Choo Ch' Boogie," pioneered R&B music.
