Immigrant SongsThe Origins of American Musical

Styles

Contents

• Immigration and musical styles• The Blues• Country Music, Western Music• Folk Music• Rock and Roll• Jazz and Gospel• Swing / Boogie-woogie / Jitterbug• Folk and Soul• Rap and Hip-Hop• Electronic Music• Music and Morality

West African Slaves brought their music to America

They converted to Christianity, but kept their musical traditions

This music became known as the

blues

The Blues

• African-Americans in the Deep South sang about the difficult experiences of everyday life

• Simple, rhyming, narrative ballads• “The Blues” comes from a 1798 play. Refers to

Blue Devils, which evoke feelings of melancholy, images of sadness

• Today, describes a depressed mood: unhappy, downhearted, heavy-hearted

• Grew in popularity during the 1920s and evolved into jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll

Irish, French and Scottish immigrants brought their traditional music, instruments and songs

This music became folk music, and also

country music

Country Music & Western Music

• Cowboy songs were known as Western Music– Western: a folk music composed by pioneers who settled the western United

States and Canada. – Came from older English, Irish and Scottish ballads and Mexican music from

the Southwest.– Celebrated the hard life of the working cowboy on the open ranges and

prairies of western North America.

• Country music: blended from traditional and popular musical forms in south-eastern areas of the US in the 1920s.– The term country music became popularin the 1940s when the earlier name

hillbilly music became politically incorrect.– Today the label "country music" is used to describe many styles.

• Both types are commonly grouped as Country & Western because Billboard magazine put them together in a chart.

• In reality, western music was from the western U.S. while country music originated in the southeast.

Folk Music

• A musical term that covers many different genres

• Some types are known as roots music because they were the basis for music later developed in the US, such as rock and roll, rhythm and blues, jazz

• The American Folk Music revival began in the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s

• Popularity ended by the invasion of British rock which had its roots in American Folk

Folk singers like Woody Guthrie inspired the Counterculture generation

Folk music is still popular today

Country singers like Johnny Cash were also inspired by Woody Guthrie

White singers like Elvis Presley were able to copy the style and achieve commercial success

Artists like Bo Diddley…..

…. And Chuck Berry, developed Blues music in to Rock’n’Roll in the 1950s

Rock and Roll

• A new style of music in the 1950s• Melded the blues, country music, jazz

and gospel music and sometimes folk and classical music

• The source of many types of rock music: soft rock, glam rock, heavy metal, punk rock, grunge, indie, Britpop…

• Rock and roll was criticized as immoral and a threat to decent society

Sound similar?

Original, African Music continued to evolve and split into new musical

forms

Jazz Gospel

Jazz and Gospel• The Jazz age began in 1916• A mix of West African and

European music• 1920s: American society

changed by industrialization, urbanization, modernization

• Phonograph records and radio: new ways to deliver jazz into homes

• Its popularity caused an anti-jazz movement.

• Conservatives blamed jazz for declining morals and changing social norms

• Gospel music grew out of Blues and the Great Depression

• The Great Depression: – Occurred worldwide from

1929 until the late 1930s– Longest, most widespread

and deepest economic depression

• Expresses communal spiritual beliefs about Christian life

• Common theme: praise, worship or thanks to God

Swing / Boogie-woogie / Jitterbug

• Swing and big bands replaced Jazz as America’s favourite in the 1930s– Criticized as immoral: the music’s tempo drove people to evil and sin!– Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, Harry James, Lionel Hampton "Sing,

Sing, Sing": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTzP7ecGQiw

• Boogie-Woogie: a piano-style of blues popular from the late 1930s – 1940s– Blues depicted emotions but boogie-woogie was about dancing– Also criticized as immoral and a threat to the standards of decency

• Jitterbug (the Lindy Hop): a popular form of dancing to big band music during World War II– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6s0AZRtQt0 /

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbaNYWkQYYA– As with earlier types of music/dancing…criticized as immoral

Jazz and Gospel developed into…

Funk and Soul

New, Electronic music from Europe…

Began to influence Disco music

Kraftwerk’s electronic music also helped invent…..

Hip Hop!

Hip Hop Culture was influenced by European electronic music, Funk and Soul music, and the Jamaican Dub Soundsystem culture

DJ’s noticed that people enjoyed the ‘breaks’ in records most….

So they invented ‘scratching’

Groups like the Sugarhill Gang ‘sampled’ old records…..

….. To create new ones

Some rappers, like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, were not happy to just make ‘party music’. They began making more socially

conscious Hip Hop

This gradually evolved into

what was called Gangsta Rap, in the 1990s

In Chicago, producers like Larry Levan and Frankie Knuckles made extended, looping versions of

Disco music, to dance to…..

Through the 1980’s this

evolved into House music

At the same time, in Detroit, producers like Juan Atkins used drum machines and samplers to

make electro music….

…..which developed into

techno music

EDM (Electronic Dance Music)

• Electronic Dance Music: A US term for dance music• American house music influenced rave culture in the

UK and Europe in the 1990s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQM3pa3L1Lg&list=PLBF1F6DE54BEDDE7E

• As with earlier types of music, rave was criticized as a danger to society because of its association with drugs

• Not popular in the US until the 2000s – influenced by different British and European dance acts and genres

• Now hugely popular in the US: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUgK_RYjj2o

Music and Morality

• New types of music/dance are often seen as immoral and a threat to society– ________ is ruining the youth of America! What will

become of the country?

• Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC)• A committee formed in 1985 to increase parental

control over access of children to music• List of “Filthy Fifteen” songs• Uncertain whether the sticker was effective• Some people suggest it actually increased sales