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Define the decades of popular music... in SOME SHORT sentences
I'll start with the '50s (not really an expert about the '40s) '50s: the business industry truly taking over and permeating the post-War middle class, blues, Elvis, rock'n'roll, doo-woop, crooners '60s: balladry, wall of sound, folk, surf, british invasion, Beatles-Stones, motown, country-rock, hard-rock, drugs and music, music and politics '70s: best decade overall, 70-75 a completely different animal than 76-79 '80s: an extension-mutation of the late '70s, but more synth-oriented, same genres taken to the xtreme (hard-rock-> metal; disco-> synth-urban, etc), Michael Jackson, MTV, decline of music starting around 1988... '90s: the era of one hit wonders, pretentious (but lame overall) music videos and a bunch of postmodernist new acts, nothing truly groundbreaking '00s: an extension of the '90s, mainstream music worse than ever (some of the worst acts of all time), Internet, decline of sales, crossroads era for the industry, some promising new careers that never truly took off...
[Edited 10/31/14 10:22am]  | |
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Before James Brown After James Brown PFunk Prince Mint Condition [Edited 10/31/14 10:51am] FOOLS multiply when WISE Men & Women are silent. | |
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Prett much agree on all that, some argue the 80's were the One Hit wonder decade but true it was the 90's. 80's one hit wonders, many, were still big in other countries and existed, the 90's saw an onslaught of people jumping in the business for a song a hit and retirement. I would also say that the 90's were the bloated ALBUM decade, fill a cd with filler decade, focus on WEEK ONE sales decade etc..
I think the thing with the 70's and 80's if you strip away alot of the synth on 80's groups they were all solid musicians too, the 80's everything was BIG, big concerts big hair, big charity etc....
the 70's i would say had the greatest SOLO artists, Elton stevie bowie joel etc,, the singer songwriters like Croce and JOni and Harry Chapin and John Denver, to bands like Sly and Earth Wind, to Queen to the Eagles to Chicago etc....
the 80's to me was some of the best bands too, Rem, depeche, u2 though many formed in the punk ages of the later 70's "We went where our music was appreciated, and that was everywhere but the USA, we knew we had fans, but there is only so much of the world you can play at once" Magne F | |
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I like this, and agree with your split on the 70's! | |
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50s: The invention of rock & roll and youth culture (who gave a damn what young people thought before this decade?)
60s: protest, peace, love, flying hiiiiigh.... 70s: When Black Power turned into disco 80s: When it all turned commercial. The decade of the Superstar 90s: Back to the streets with gangstarap and grunge 2000s: When it all turned even more commercial. [Edited 11/1/14 4:46am] | |
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For me, the 2000s were all about (for better or worse): . -The continued success and subsequent decline of the boy bands, girl groups, and solo teenie pop singers (the 'TRL' era): Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, etc. . -The reaction to the aforementioned teenie pop acts in the form of Eminem, Blink 182, and Limp Bizkit. . -Nu Metal, including Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Korn, Slipknot, and (arguably) System of a Down. The genre is derided in retrospect, somewhat justifiably so, for not producing all that many quality acts, and a couple of poor releases from both Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park, but is notable for combining metal tropes with electronic and hip hop influences in a way that was unprecedented. . -The reign of big hip hop labels centered around big name producers (Dre's Aftermath, Diddy's Bad Boy, Gotti's Murder Inc, Dupree's SoSo Def). East coast and West coast were both standing strong and had good representation in the mainstream charts. Hip hop was becoming ever more marketable. The Dirty South was becoming a force to be reckoned with in the wake of Outkast's Stankonia album. Acts like T.I., Nelly, and Ludacris stepping to the fore. . -The merger of R&B and hip hop continued. Nearly every big R&B hit had a guest rap verse, many rap hits had a guest R&B singer provide the hook. . -The Latino craze in the first half of the decade, spearheaded by J Lo, Marc Anthony, Ricky Martin, and (Spanish-born) Enrique Iglesias. . -Reggaeton was brought to the public attention, similarly dancehall saw new major successes (Sean Paul, Wayne Wonder, Kevin Lyttle). . -The 'post-prog' movement in rock, including Muse, Placebo, HIM. Older bands remained credible on the charts (U2, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith). Other bands (Foo Fighters, QotSA) experimented with more traditional hardrock sounds. . -The mid-2000s decline in album sales, many downloads were illegal and it was hurting the industry. As a consequence, touring and a live stage presence was suddenly an important tool in showcasing one's music. Many teenie pop manufactured acts were struggling. The temporary death of the boy band/girl group. . -New Wave-inspired groups like Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs, and Maximo Park. A dark horse was Arctic Monkeys, who based themselves on punk, but with a more polished sound. . -The retro-soul movement, not necessarily 'neo soul' per se. Kelly Clarkson, Amy Winehouse, Joss Stone. Later Adele and Duffy. Vocal abilities are more important than looks for these artists. . -R&B itself was heavily crunk-influenced and continued to incorporate more electronic sounds into its beats. . -Dubstep emerging from UK garage and drum-n-bass. . -Younger artists are using online channels such as social media to reach their audiences. . [Edited 11/1/14 6:47am] I don't want your rhythm without your rhyme | |
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It's not that bad, from mid-90's to mid 00's we had great bands who, throughout their music, have broke many grounds musically, like Radiohead, and managed to treat many themes lyrically. If you look at it, the music in the 80's was nothing but an extention of the 70's music that was itself 60's but with more guitar-driven sound, funky at times. It's not like the music totally sucked. Popular music, was indeed, very bad from mid 90's untill now, but music overall had many acts that are seriously better and more creative than any other legendary band, radio just don't play 'em. | |
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1890-1910: vaudville, "coon" songs, castrato singers, Ada Jones, George W. Johnson . 1910s: ragtime, spirituals (ig. Fisk Jubilee Singers), Dixieland . 1920s: live radio plays/serials, female blues singers, big band swing jazz, classical/opera, "hillbilly" & "race" records, Broadway style tunes . 1930s: singing cowboys, crooners, boogie woogie, Mills Brothers, jazz country (Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys) . 1940s: jukeboxes, patriotic music, Alan Lomax field recordings, jump blues, jazz vocalists, showtunes, crooners, vocal groups (Andrews Sisters, Ink Spots), mariachi, bop, beginnings of bluegrass by Bill Monroe . 1950s: soundtracks to musicals, calypso (Harry Belefonte), gospel, mambo, rhythm & blues, cool jazz, rockabilly, folk, teen idol singers, Rosemary Clooney/Doris Day style pop, rock 'n roll, country & western . 1960's: girl groups, dance craze songs, bossa nova, surf rock, soul, easy listening/beautiful music (Herb Alpert & Tijuana Brass, Jackie Gleason), free jazz, British Invasion, blues rock, psychedelic, party records (Redd Foxx, Moms Mabley) Elvis Presley soundtracks, Rat Pack, sunshine pop, garage rock, bubblegum, American Bandstand/Shindig/Ed Sullivan Show, Motown . 1970s: Columbia Club/RCA (12 albums for a penny!), K-Tel, soul jazz (Donald Byrd, CTI Records, Grover Washington Jr.), R&B, Soul Train/Midnight Special/Pop! Goes The Country/Don Kirshner's Rock Show, disco, Tom Moulton remixes, birth of 12" maxi singles, 8-tracks, salsa, Fania Records, Johnny Ventura, country rock, country pop (Crystal Gayle, Barbara Mandrell, Eddie Rabbitt, Kenny Rogers), outlaw country (Waylon Jennings), light rock/Westcoast, progressive rock, R&B/funk gospel (Andrae Crouch, Jessy Dixon, Rance Allen Group, Mighty Clouds Of Joy), gospel choirs, hard rock, southern rock, funk, singer-songwriter (James Taylor, Carole King), arena rock (Styx, Supertramp), variety shows (Captain & Tennille, The Jacksons, Sonny & Cher, Donny & Marie, Hee Haw, This Is Tom Jones), afrocentric (Black Jazz Records, Strata East Records, Last Poets, Elaine Brown), party records (Rudy Ray Moore, Richard Pryor, Blowfly), punk, Gamble & Huff, Wolfman Jack . 1980s: workout albums & videos (Jane Fonda, Arnold Swarzenegger, Cher, Jody Watley, Jazzercise), Solid Gold/Dance Fever/America's Top 10, MTV/Friday Night Videos/Video Jukebox/VH-1/Video Soul/Video Vibrations, new wave, adult contemporary, electrofunk, rap, country, video albums (Duran Duran, Elephant Parts, Making Of Thriller), jazzy pop (Basia, Everything But The Girl, Swing Out Sister, Sade, Michael Franks, Al Jarreau), smooth jazz (Kenny G, David Sanborn, Jeff Lorber), crossover, hair metal, Julio Iglesias, Lil Joe Y La Familia, zydeco, house music, dance music, heavy metal, freestyle (Shannon, Cover Girls), Arthur Baker/Shep Pettibone, new jack swing, tejano, Diane Warren, Bob Rock, David Foster, Robert "Mutt" Lange, Jam & Lewis, Quincy Jones, Ted Templeman, contemporary gospel (The Winans, Amy Grant, Clark Sisters, Sandi Patty, BeBe & CeCe Winans), country (Alabama, The Judds, Oak Ridge Boys, George Strait), power ballads, remix albums, Beatles on CD, supergroups (Texas Tornados, Power Station, Traveling Wilburys, Highwaymen, Damn Yankees), Live Aid/Farm Aid/Hands Across America, charity songs . 1990s: Christian pop/rock (Michael W. Smith, DC Talk), dance rap (Technotronic, C+C Music Factory, 2 Unlimited, Snap, Gerardo), Gregorian Chants, new age, jazz rap, acid jazz, gangsta rap, southern hip hop, Ace Of Base, grunge, country (Garth Brooks, Brooks & Dunn, Alan Jackson, Shania Twain), dancehall/reggae (Shaggy, Shabba Ranks, Maxi Priest, Apache Indian), tropical, Spanish pop (Jon Secada, Chayanne, Ricky Martin, Luis Miguel), MTV Party To Go, techno/rave remixes, Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, Lillith Fair/Monsters Of Rock/Lollapalooza/Ozzfest/Rock In Rio, southern soul/soul blues (Mel Waiters, Marvin Sease, Malaco Records) You can take a black guy to Nashville from right out of the cotton fields with bib overalls, and they will call him R&B. You can take a white guy in a pin-stripe suit who’s never seen a cotton field, and they will call him country. ~ O. B. McClinton | |
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50s: Infancy stages of putting rhythm into the mainstream and getting away from the days of slow and dull ruling the airwaves. A very innocent era but definitely a step in the right direction. . 60s: Progessing from the 50s by losing some of the innocence, growing, and heading further in the right direction. Music became more rebellious which made it better. . 70s: Perfection has arrived. The innocence is gone. Music is at it's most rhythmic ever but in a more adult kind of way without the feel of a high school sock hop. Instruments have progressed and less like a high school band and more like a full fledged adult rock or funk band. . 80s: The early part of the decade progressed even further than the 70s and was great. However, the second part of the decade started slipping and going backwards instead of forwards. It's like the early 80s had reached it's peak as far as it could go and once you reach your peak, the only direction to go afterwards is down. Desires to crossover for pop success had a lot to do with it. Some of it was OK with folks like Michael Jackson and Prince combining rock with funk because those are the two hardest genres on both the pop and R&B side of the fence so some of it made the songs even better like combining peanut butter and chocolate together in a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. But others wanted to seek out sales even further and go for the adult contemporary crowd whose music was dull and was the type of stuff that artists had been trying to get away from. Adult contemporary had been considered "uncool" and nobody wanted to be listening to the same type of music that their grandmother might like but the late 80s started a backwards trend with tons of family friendly artists. . 90s: The end of good mainstream music. With the flooding of the adult contemporary family friendly artists of the late 80s, there was no rebellion in music any more, at least on the R&B side. This left the door wide open for shit hop to come in and fill that void. It was more rebellious than ever in attitude but rhythmwise, it was as slow and dull as a Lawrence Welk show. But then again, the tempo of everything back then was the dull tempo of the adult contemporary acts so the shit hop acts just took that tempo that had become popular and stripped it all the way down to just a beat and "talked" over it. They were simply going with the tempo that was popular at the time because the previous rap acts had either a disco or funk tempo which had previously dominated the scene. Not being musicians though, the shit hop acts couldn't come up with anything of their own musically so all they could do was sample a record and put a Fisher Price sounding beat under it. But they had gotten used to the slow beat of the adult contemporary so they would even take records that had previously been slow jams such as "Between The Sheets" and slow them down even more so they could talk over them. Hell, I guess it's easier to talk over something slow than something fast without getting tongue twisted. They didn't even have talent in rapping like the previous rappers of the early 1980s. All that most of the 90s rappers could do was just talk over a slow beat. Hell, anybody can do that. That takes no talent whatsoever. . 00s: No change from the 90s. Just a continuation of more bullshit. When the 2000s arrived and I saw no complete change in sound like previous decades, I knew that music was over and would never get back on track again and move forward because an entire new generation had now grown up on nothing but slow dull shit hop with no style change in their lifetime like we had grown up with several style changes so that's all the new generation knows so they have no desire for a change. Andy is a four letter word. | |
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This Toyota Corolla commercial sums it up nicely. Notice how they had to make up a trend and style for the current decade because there was nothing particular that stands out.
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One thing i always think that gets missed with the 80's is that people tend to call it the "Synth" era, and think it was all new wave and things like that. I also say it is important to look at the early part of that decade which was owned by Air Supply and Hall and Oates and still had quite a bit of a mixed bag that i feel is often swept under the rug in that decade, i mean lets not forget as big as duran duran and u2 were, so were Air Supply Rick Springfield and Pat Benatar, in fact at one point Rick was charting B sides, shit only person i can think of that did was Lionel Elvis and the beatles. So there is a big scope in the 80's of creation to me, bands like Inxs were a mixed bag of funk and dance and rock, things were being born in that decade. The 70's which i feel were a stronger "artist" period because the focuse was on the writer even more than the "voice" and performance, I mean Harry Chapin and Jim Croce to me were amazing writers and I loved their songs but they would never get a shot now because they didnt have these great voices or glitzy performances, it was them, ragged jeans and a shirt and a guitar. Today if they tried that their would be tweets that said "damn Jim looks like a homeless man".
I think now there is that search for something, artists are few and far between because they dont record much, they dabble in music. But there is still alot of hard work going on out there, Ryan Adams, Norah Jones, Foo Fighters etc.. "We went where our music was appreciated, and that was everywhere but the USA, we knew we had fans, but there is only so much of the world you can play at once" Magne F | |
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LOL
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50s: The decade of simplicity and transition from slow, crooning songs to more upbeat, up tempo music.
60s: The decade of culture and rebellion. Culture shaped the music and it was treated as means of expression rather than just a sound. The template for what makes a good pop song was set here. This was the decade of Motown and The Beatles, two major forces that together set the standard for pop, rock, soul, R&B, and other genres to come. Also opened the doors for international acts to make it big.
70s: The last decade where music was made naturally and when songwriting probably mattered most. The decade was a lot of fun but while there was a good time to be had, a lot of the music was socially conscious (as was the decade itself) and told stories in unique and interesting ways, expanding upon the 60s culturally molded music in that regard. Many artists also began to come out of the woodwork here, honing their talents on their way up the stardom ladder and making classic music on the way.
80s: This is the decade where mainstream music all across the board peaked. The early portion of the decade was a continuation of the 70s but overall the 80s takes more from the 60s and expanded upon those things. This decade saw the rise of the "blockbuster artist", genre blending at its absolute best, records sales at their zenith as was the creativity and star power of the artists. Never again will there be artists of such credibility, auras, personas, unique styles, and talents again. Every artist/ group that was a top star in the 80s earned it. The industry began to function more corporately but it was the perfect storm of art and commerce. The music video was revolutionized as a musical art form the variety of genres and artists is unmatched.
90s: Mainstream music's last good decade. The quality of pop music took a nosedive circa the middle of the decade in contrast to the stratospheric level reached in the 70s and the even higher level reached in the 80s. Rap takes over and establishes itself as a serious genre with quality albums from people we consider legends and rock gets one last hurrah with grunge before (unintentionally) passing the torch to rap music. Globalization begins to become an integral part of the industry paving the way for the industry groomed darlings of the following decade to take over.
2000s: The stalest decade where pop music is almost completely manufactured and it feels like anybody can have a hit song. Industry darlings begin to take over the music scene, outnumbering those acts with a musical background Talent begins to take a backseat to image and the rules of being good either at singing, dancing, songwriting, producing, playing instruments, or any combination thereof fly out the window. Ageism begins to sink in so you can forget any chance of "this generation's Tina Turner" coming out of the woodwork. This is also the last decade where R&B is a prominent mainstream genre.
10s: A continuation of the previous decade with the entrance that was made for anybody being able to have a hit song being blown wide open and the doors off torn off their henges. The music itself is starting to take a backseat to the stupid, childish antics of those that make it and album sales are hitting an all time low. Various artists come and go and those that wouldn't even have had a career if this were the 90s on back are flourishing and being treated as though they are these groundbreaking artists while veteran acts still consume the top spots despite running on autopilot. Artists aren't given an opportunity to hone their talents like they were in decades past. You can't even trust reviews anymore because they judge the music based on the artist and not the music itself. Unlike the 60s where the culture influenced the music, the music influences the culture. | |
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JoeTyler, Graycap, & Vainandy had THE best answers to this topic thus far. I'm not sure if I or anyone else can top those answers. [Edited 11/3/14 12:58pm] | |
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^overall I'm very pleased with this thread | |
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great info!! | |
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Before 1950's -- The golden age of jazz. The golden age of blues. Electric guitar. Big Band. Robert Johnson. Louis Armstrong. Duke Ellington. [Edited 11/4/14 20:28pm] | |
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50s - roots 60s - garage, psych 70s - punk 80s - hardcore 90s - mall punk After - shit | |
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mid 60s-mid 70s is all that matters to me. | |
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In defense of the 90's, it was a great decade for women emerging more as a substantial presence in the music business. I mean, when you compare the pop charts of the 90's to those of previous eras you have to admit the number of women having hits did seem to increase (even if you find the quality subpar). If you will, so will I | |
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{2013} The chautauqua movement was a truly American phenomenon, providing education and entertainment for millions of people and employing thousands of musicians in the process. While scholars have previously explored various facets of the chautauqua movement, this is the first book to trace the place of music in the movement from its inception through its decline. You can take a black guy to Nashville from right out of the cotton fields with bib overalls, and they will call him R&B. You can take a white guy in a pin-stripe suit who’s never seen a cotton field, and they will call him country. ~ O. B. McClinton | |
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(2003) Have records, compact discs, and other sound reproduction equipment merely provided American listeners with pleasant diversions, or have more important historical and cultural influences flowed through them? Do recording machines simply capture what's already out there, or is the music somehow transformed in the process of documentation and dissemination? How would our lives be different without these machines? Such questions arise when we stop taking for granted both the phenomenon of recorded music and the phonograph itself.
In Recorded Music in American Life, historian and musician William Howland Kenney examines the interplay between recorded music and the key social, political, and economic forces in America during the phonograph's rise and fall as the dominant medium of popular recorded sound. He addresses such vital issues as the place of multiculturalism in the phonograph's history, the roles of women as record-player listeners and performers, the belated commercial legitimacy of rhythm-and-blues recordings, the "hit record" phenomenon in the wake of the Great Depression, the origins of the rock-and-roll revolution, and the shifting place of popular recorded music in America's personal and cultural memories. Kenney convincingly argues that the phonograph and the recording industry served neither to impose a preference for high culture nor a degraded popular taste, but rather expressed a diverse set of sensibilities whereby people from every social strata found a new kind of pleasure. Students and scholars of American music, culture, commerce, and history -- as well as fans and collectors interested in this phase of our nation's rich artistic past -- will find a great deal of thorough research and fresh scholarship to enjoy in these pages. You can take a black guy to Nashville from right out of the cotton fields with bib overalls, and they will call him R&B. You can take a white guy in a pin-stripe suit who’s never seen a cotton field, and they will call him country. ~ O. B. McClinton | |
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Out of Sight: The Rise of African American Popular Music, 1889-1895 by Lynn Abbott & Doug Seroff . (2003) American popular music style was sparking. These were some of the worst years in American race relations, yet they witnessed the emergence of ragtime and the birth of an African American popular entertainment industry. Out of Sight is the first book dedicated to this signal period of black musical development. . It is a landmark study, based on thousands of music-related references mined by the authors from a variety of contemporaneous sources, especially African American community newspapers. The citations are organized and explained in a way that clears a path through the dense landscape of this neglected period in black music history. Accompanying the text are 150 halftones, also excavated from period sources, offering a broad pictorial canvas of African American music during the years before ragtime's commercial ascendancy. . Out of Sight examines musical personalities, issues, and events in context. It confronts the inescapable marketplace concessions musicians made to the period's prevailing racist sentiment. With detail never available in a book before, it describes the worldwide travels of jubilee singing companies, the plight of the great black prima donnas, and the evolutions of "authentic" African American minstrels. With its access to newspapers and photos, Out of Sight puts a face on musical activity in the insular black communities of the day. . Drawing on hard-to-access archival sources and song collections, the book is of crucial importance for understanding the roots of jazz, blues, and gospel. It is essential for comprehending the evolution and dissemination of African American popular music from 1900 to the present. Out of Sight paints a rich picture of musical variety, personalities, issues, and changes during the period that shaped American popular music and culture for the next hundred years. . . Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, "Coon Songs," and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz by Lynn Abbott & Doug Seroff . (2007) The commercial explosion of ragtime in the early twentieth century created previously unimagined opportunities for black performers. However, every prospect was mitigated by systemic racism. The biggest hits of the ragtime era weren't Scott Joplin's stately piano rags. "Coon songs," with their ugly name, defined ragtime for the masses, and played a transitional role in the commercial ascendancy of blues and jazz. . In Ragged but Right, Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff investigate black musical comedy productions, sideshow bands, and itinerant tented minstrel shows. Ragtime history is crowned by the "big shows," the stunning musical comedy successes of Williams and Walker, Bob Cole, and Ernest Hogan. Under the big tent of Tolliver's Smart Set, Ma Rainey, Clara Smith, and others were converted from "coon shouters" to "blues singers."
. Throughout the ragtime era and into the era of blues and jazz, circuses and Wild West shows exploited the popular demand for black music and culture, yet segregated and subordinated black performers to the sideshow tent. Not to be confused with their nineteenth-century white predecessors, black, tented minstrel shows such as the Rabbit's Foot and Silas Green from New Orleans provided blues and jazz-heavy vernacular entertainment that black southern audiences identified with and took pride in.
You can take a black guy to Nashville from right out of the cotton fields with bib overalls, and they will call him R&B. You can take a white guy in a pin-stripe suit who’s never seen a cotton field, and they will call him country. ~ O. B. McClinton | |
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(2005) The first in-depth history of the involvement of African Americans in the earliest years of recording, this book examines the first three decades of sound recording in the United States, charting the surprising role black artists played in the period leading up to the Jazz Age. Applying more than thirty years of scholarship, Tim Brooks identifies key black artists who recorded commercially in a wide range of genres and provides revealing biographies of some forty of these audio pioneers. Brooks assesses the careers and recordings of George W. Johnson, Bert Williams, George Walker, Noble Sissle, Eubie Blake, the Fisk Jubilee Singers, W. C. Handy, James Reese Europe, Wilbur Sweatman, Harry T. Burleigh, Roland Hayes, Booker T. Washington, and boxing champion Jack Johnson, as well as a host of lesser-known voices. . Many of these pioneers faced a difficult struggle to be heard in an era of rampant discrimination and "the color line," and their stories illuminate the forces -- both black and white -- that gradually allowed African Americans greater entree into the mainstream American entertainment industry. The role played by the new mass medium of sound recording in enabling change is also explored. Because they were viewed as "novelty" or "folk" artists, nearly all of these African Americans were allowed to record in their own distinctive styles, and in practically every genre: popular music, ragtime, jazz, cabaret, classical, spoken word, poetry, and more. The sounds they preserved reflect the evolving black culture of that tumultuous and creative period. The book also discusses how many of these historic recordings are withheld from students and scholars today because of stringent U.S. copyright laws. Lost Sounds includes Brooks's selected discography of CD reissues, and an appendix by Dick Spottswood describing early recordings by black artists in the Caribbean and South America. You can take a black guy to Nashville from right out of the cotton fields with bib overalls, and they will call him R&B. You can take a white guy in a pin-stripe suit who’s never seen a cotton field, and they will call him country. ~ O. B. McClinton | |
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(2001) This book covers artists who, from the 1890s to the mid-1920s, made records of music that was "popular" in nature, as opposed to records of operatic arias, symphonic works, or concert pieces. Today we call this period the industry's acoustic era. A pre-electric method for recording was used, with musicians performing into a horn, not a microphone. . The year 1895 in this book's title is a bit arbitrary but around this time the commercial recording industry began to look like a real industry. It actually began around 1889 but suffered years of financial uncertainty, with even the North American Phonograph Company thrown into bankruptcy after the Panic of 1893. Companies suffered setbacks in subsequent years, but after 1895 there was no question that a recording industry would exist. . The year 1925, which marks the beginning of the electric recording era, is a convenient cut-off point. The earlier process required musicians to perform into a large horn or what some would later recall as being a funnel or tube. It was essentially an inverted megaphone. Studios were equipped with horns of all sizes, shapes and lengths--some round, some square, some flared at the mouth. Horns were carefully selected to suit the orchestras or voices that would be recorded during a session. Sound was carried via the horn into a recording machine, which was usually in an adjacent room. The energy of sound waves activated a diaphragm attached to a stylus which transferred vibration patterns to the surface of a blank recording disc or cylinder. Today this is called an acoustic recording process. Not all records issued after 1925 were made with a microphone. Columbia for four years continued to use non-electric recording equipment for its budget-priced labels, including Harmony, Velvet Tone, and Diva. . Some of the 100 artists with separate entries in the book include the American Quartet, Billy Murray (new information!), Ada Jones, Steve Porter, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, Paul Whiteman, George J. Gaskin, Carl Fenton, Sam Ash, Frank C. Stanley, Aileen Stanley, Henry Burr, the Peerless Quartet, Arthur Collins, Byron G. Harlan, Sam Lanin, Bert Williams, Frisco Jazz Band, Olive Kline, J. W. Myers, Ben Selvin, the Green Brothers, Marion Harris, Haydn Quartet, Arthur Fields, Conway's Band, countertenor Richard Jose, Irving Kaufman, Will F. Denny...many, many more! You can take a black guy to Nashville from right out of the cotton fields with bib overalls, and they will call him R&B. You can take a white guy in a pin-stripe suit who’s never seen a cotton field, and they will call him country. ~ O. B. McClinton | |
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In the 1910s & 1920s, there was a big craze for Hawaiian music in the US, which helped popularize the ukelele. Hawaiian music was also an influence on country music, blues, and later rock 'n roll (ig. steel guitar playing). You can take a black guy to Nashville from right out of the cotton fields with bib overalls, and they will call him R&B. You can take a white guy in a pin-stripe suit who’s never seen a cotton field, and they will call him country. ~ O. B. McClinton | |
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You can take a black guy to Nashville from right out of the cotton fields with bib overalls, and they will call him R&B. You can take a white guy in a pin-stripe suit who’s never seen a cotton field, and they will call him country. ~ O. B. McClinton | |
| - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator |
