The 1960s - British Invasion
The term 'British Invasion' describes the group of British Bands that stormed he USA during the 1960s. The term was made popular via the Ed Sullivan Show. There were many important bands that were part of this movement, bands like The Beatles, The Who and The Rolling Stones to name a few.
The British Invasion was host to bands of a few different genres,Rock 'n' Roll, Beat and Pop. Pop bands like the Beatles usually consisted of two jingly jangly guitars a bass and a kit. The nice up beat melodies of the main vocals were usually backed up by lucsious harmony vocals. But there was also bands like the Rolling Stones and the Kinks who whilst they were still Pop, they were considerably more Rocky than that of the Beatles. Guitars usually had some distortion and guitar solos were much more common. Most of the songs from most of the bands used a common 4/4 beat with a typical ABAB form. The songs usually lasted around the 3 minute mark
Lyrically there wasn't really a constant theme between each band, but like many songs from before that decade and now, the lyrics were quite often about Love and Relationships e.g. 'Love me Do' by The Beatles or 'You've really got me' by The Kinks.
The Beatles are definately one of the more if not the most important and biggest band of this movement to hit the States. The Beatles were a band from Liverpool, UK that formed in 1960. They went from playing pubs and clubs in Liverpool to becoming one of the most commercially succesful bands ever. The Beatles quite literally ran the British Invasion movement. The Beatles played their single 'I want to hold your hand' live on radio and the rest was history, WWDC's phones were going off the hook with requests for the record. Soon after the CBS Evening News ran a story about The Beatles' United States arrival that afternoon in which the correspondent said "The British Invasion this time goes by the code name Beatlemania" This proves that The Beatles quite literally were the British Invasion. Two days after this the Brit Rockers appeared on The Ed Sullivan show where a massiv 75 percent of all Americans watching TV saw the show that night. The Beatles then went on to hold the top 5 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, the only time to date that any act has accomplished this. After this The Beatles would then go on to well and truly conquered Britain and America and the rest of the world.
The British Invasion took direct influence from the Surf Rock bands such as the Beach Boys, many people claim that the music of the British Invasion bands is not that much different. However, the British Invasion also had a massive influence on the future of music. It proved that the UK was a viable centre of musical creativity. It meant that vocal groups and teen idols were no longer able to dominate the charts like they previously had done. The British Invasion quite literally made the rock band, electric guitars and bass and drums where musicians would create and write their own music. I beleive if the British Invasion had not happened that music today could still be dominated by those girl bands and teen idols of the 50s.
Webography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_rock#The_Beatles_and_the_.22British_Invasion.22
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_invasion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_beatles
http://search.eb.com/britishinvasion/home.html
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
1950s - Handout
1950s Handout
Essential Listening
Bill Haley and The Comets - Rock Around the Clock (Single 1954)
Little Richard - Tutti-Frutti (Single 1955)
Elvis Presley – Blue Suede Shoes (Single 1956)
Jerry Lee Lewis – Lewis Boogie (Single 1956)
Chuck Berry - Johnny B Goode (Single 1958)
Elvis Presley - Jailhouse Rock (Single 1956)
Jerry Lee Lewis - Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On (Single 1957)
Buddy Holly and the Crickets – Peggy Sue (Single 1957)
Useful Websites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Richard
http://www.chuckberry.com/about/bio
http://www.history-of-rock.com/indx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_and_roll
http://www.thecrickets.com/bios.html
http://www.billhaley.co.uk/comets2.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Presley
Essential Listening
Bill Haley and The Comets - Rock Around the Clock (Single 1954)
Little Richard - Tutti-Frutti (Single 1955)
Elvis Presley – Blue Suede Shoes (Single 1956)
Jerry Lee Lewis – Lewis Boogie (Single 1956)
Chuck Berry - Johnny B Goode (Single 1958)
Elvis Presley - Jailhouse Rock (Single 1956)
Jerry Lee Lewis - Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On (Single 1957)
Buddy Holly and the Crickets – Peggy Sue (Single 1957)
Useful Websites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Richard
http://www.chuckberry.com/about/bio
http://www.history-of-rock.com/indx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_and_roll
http://www.thecrickets.com/bios.html
http://www.billhaley.co.uk/comets2.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Presley
Monday, 5 April 2010
The 1970s – Punk
Punk is a term given to a genre of music that developed in the 1970s. It began in the USA, UK and Australia. Some of the more popular bands included: The Sex Pistols, The Clash, and The Ramones.
Punk often tends to sound very bare. A typical Punk Rock band would consist of one or two electric guitars, an electric bass, a drum kit and vocals. The sound tends to be very raw and minimal. Barre chords or power chords were often used over a repetitive bass line. Most tracks tended to be a typical ABAB form; however the songs usually were shorter than most other songs in popular music, usually around the two minute mark. The songs were mostly in 4/4. I think the fact that the style of music was raw and straightforward helped to further convey their image as being a Punk. It also to a certain extent made room for the lyrics to be the main features of the song. Punk was often about getting a message out so this worked particularly well.
Lyrically, Punk was often about causing controversy and stirring a fuss. A good example of this is the song ‘Anarchy in the UK ‘by the Sex Pistols on which Lead vocalist Johnny Rotten slurs ‘I am an Anti-Christ’ on the first line. Many Punk songs were also often about current political and social issues. A great example this is the song ‘My Brain is hanging upside down’ by The Ramones. Apparently the song is about former US President Ronald Reagan’s trip to Germany where he attended a memorial at a cemetery which held quite a lot of Nazi’s. The song was first titled ‘Bonzo goes to Bitburg’; however it was soon changed by Johnny Ramone due to his Right Wing Pro Reagan’s beliefs.
The Sex Pistols are probably the most significant punk rock band. They formed in London in 1975. Although their actually career lasted only 2 and half years, they are still regarded as one of the most influential bands ever. The Sex Pistols consisted of Johnny Rotten AKA John Lydon, Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Glen Matlock. Matlock was later replaced by Sid Vicious in ’77.
Lydon describes how the band came together: ‘Early Seventies Britain was a very depressing place. It was completely run-down, there was trash on the streets, total unemployment—just about everybody was on strike. Everybody was brought up with an education system that told you point blank that if you came from the wrong side of the tracks...then you had no hope in hell and no career prospects at all. Out of that came pretentious moi and the Sex Pistols and then a whole bunch of copycat wankers after us’ this statement really defines typical Britain at the time.
Some of the most important albums include
• The Ramones – The Ramones 1976
• The Clash – The Clash 1977
• The Sex Pistols – Never Mind the Bollocks: Here’s the Sex Pistols 1977
• Crass – The feeding of 5000 1978
Punk was influenced by a number of previous genres glam rock, garage rock and surf rock to name a few. Bands like the New York Dolls, The Velvet Underground and Roxy music are examples of artist which influenced the genre as a whole.
Punk was not only about the music though. Fashion was a big part of the Punk Culture. Many punks use clothing and fashion as a way of making a statement. The typical punk look generally consisted of unkept, short hair styles, dirty simple clothes. Punk was all about relating to the working class Britain and the fact that bands were dressing like this helped fans relate to what they were bringing forward.
The list goes on and on as far as post influences from Punk are concerned. During 1976 and 1978 post punk bands like Joy Division, The Fall and Magazine started to come about. Then in the late 70s in the USA hardcore bands began to emerge, bands such as Black Flag, The Dead Kennedys and Bad Brains. More recently we have pop punk bands with the likes of the Offspring, Blink 182 and Greenday at the for front of the subgenre. There is now, Emo, Ska-Punk, queercore and all the above categories that have been directly influenced by Punk.
It seems like without punk, without bands like the Sex Pistols, The Ramones and The Clash, so, so many of today’s artists we know and love would simply not exist, or at least not in the way they do today.
Webography
http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/syltguides/fullview/XD45LVDUO79F
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punk_rock
www.songmeanings.net
Punk is a term given to a genre of music that developed in the 1970s. It began in the USA, UK and Australia. Some of the more popular bands included: The Sex Pistols, The Clash, and The Ramones.
Punk often tends to sound very bare. A typical Punk Rock band would consist of one or two electric guitars, an electric bass, a drum kit and vocals. The sound tends to be very raw and minimal. Barre chords or power chords were often used over a repetitive bass line. Most tracks tended to be a typical ABAB form; however the songs usually were shorter than most other songs in popular music, usually around the two minute mark. The songs were mostly in 4/4. I think the fact that the style of music was raw and straightforward helped to further convey their image as being a Punk. It also to a certain extent made room for the lyrics to be the main features of the song. Punk was often about getting a message out so this worked particularly well.
Lyrically, Punk was often about causing controversy and stirring a fuss. A good example of this is the song ‘Anarchy in the UK ‘by the Sex Pistols on which Lead vocalist Johnny Rotten slurs ‘I am an Anti-Christ’ on the first line. Many Punk songs were also often about current political and social issues. A great example this is the song ‘My Brain is hanging upside down’ by The Ramones. Apparently the song is about former US President Ronald Reagan’s trip to Germany where he attended a memorial at a cemetery which held quite a lot of Nazi’s. The song was first titled ‘Bonzo goes to Bitburg’; however it was soon changed by Johnny Ramone due to his Right Wing Pro Reagan’s beliefs.
The Sex Pistols are probably the most significant punk rock band. They formed in London in 1975. Although their actually career lasted only 2 and half years, they are still regarded as one of the most influential bands ever. The Sex Pistols consisted of Johnny Rotten AKA John Lydon, Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Glen Matlock. Matlock was later replaced by Sid Vicious in ’77.
Lydon describes how the band came together: ‘Early Seventies Britain was a very depressing place. It was completely run-down, there was trash on the streets, total unemployment—just about everybody was on strike. Everybody was brought up with an education system that told you point blank that if you came from the wrong side of the tracks...then you had no hope in hell and no career prospects at all. Out of that came pretentious moi and the Sex Pistols and then a whole bunch of copycat wankers after us’ this statement really defines typical Britain at the time.
Some of the most important albums include
• The Ramones – The Ramones 1976
• The Clash – The Clash 1977
• The Sex Pistols – Never Mind the Bollocks: Here’s the Sex Pistols 1977
• Crass – The feeding of 5000 1978
Punk was influenced by a number of previous genres glam rock, garage rock and surf rock to name a few. Bands like the New York Dolls, The Velvet Underground and Roxy music are examples of artist which influenced the genre as a whole.
Punk was not only about the music though. Fashion was a big part of the Punk Culture. Many punks use clothing and fashion as a way of making a statement. The typical punk look generally consisted of unkept, short hair styles, dirty simple clothes. Punk was all about relating to the working class Britain and the fact that bands were dressing like this helped fans relate to what they were bringing forward.
The list goes on and on as far as post influences from Punk are concerned. During 1976 and 1978 post punk bands like Joy Division, The Fall and Magazine started to come about. Then in the late 70s in the USA hardcore bands began to emerge, bands such as Black Flag, The Dead Kennedys and Bad Brains. More recently we have pop punk bands with the likes of the Offspring, Blink 182 and Greenday at the for front of the subgenre. There is now, Emo, Ska-Punk, queercore and all the above categories that have been directly influenced by Punk.
It seems like without punk, without bands like the Sex Pistols, The Ramones and The Clash, so, so many of today’s artists we know and love would simply not exist, or at least not in the way they do today.
Webography
http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/syltguides/fullview/XD45LVDUO79F
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punk_rock
www.songmeanings.net
Sunday, 7 February 2010
The 1980s - The New Romantics
The 1980s – New Romantics
The New Romantic movement was not only a term given to musical genre but also a fashion too. The New Romantic scene began in the early Eighties with some of the more popular bands including Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Adam & the Ants, Depeche Mode and the Human League.
The New Romantic scene had taken direct influence from punk and was happening parallel to the punk movement of the 80s. However, they differed greatly in fashion; the punks at the time would be dressed very working class and a lot less elegant than the New Romantics. The New Romantics were very glamorous and often wore make-up. This could be seen as a direct influence from the ‘Godfather of New Romanticism – David Bowie’ Bands often had fashion designers working for them. Adam & the Ants for example had Vivienne Westwood design for them. Westwood later designed the ‘pirate look’ for the group. For me, the scene and the fashion of this genre is one of the main reasons it appealed to so many. A good example of the typical New Romantic look is shown in this video for Duran Duran’s single – Planet Earth. The record reach number 12 in the UK Charts on the 21st Feb 1981.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-recskrzunI&feature=player_embedded
The New Romantic sound could be described as New wave, Synth, alternative Rock/Pop. The vocals were often dark and mysterious; you can really here the emotion in Duran Duran’s Simon Le bon’s voice. The guitarists often used effects and sometimes it is even hard to define the guitar from the keyboards. Although the vocals at times were dark the actual songs were usually quite upbeat and had a nice ‘danceable’ rhythm.
Lyrically the New Romantic bands could differ quite uniquely. ‘Vienna’ by Ultravox is a fantastically uplifting song, yet the lyrics are extremely eerie ‘A voice reaching out and a piercing cry, it stays with you until the feeling is gone’ and ‘Alone in the night as the daylight brings a cold empty silence, the warmth of your hand and a cold grey sky’ are great examples of this.
Duran Duran are probably the most significant band of the New Romantics. The band formed in Birmingham in 1978 and the original line-up consisted of Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, Andy Taylor, Stephen Duffy, and Roger Taylor. Duran Duran managed to place 14 singles in the top ten of the UK singles chart and 21 in the billboard hot 100. The band has now sold over a whopping 100 million records. Duran Duran began as an art rock/post punk alternative rock group but soon moved on. The bands influences could be traced back to the New York underground music scene of the 1970s with bands like The New York Dolls, The Velvet Underground and of course David Bowie.
The group have now reached the point where they have influenced a massive number of popular acts today. These names include Pink, Justin Timberlake, Beck and Gwen Stefani. Moby speaks about the band in high favour too, on his website diary he posted "... they were cursed by what we can call the 'Bee Gees' curse, which is: 'write amazing songs, sell tons of records, and consequently incur the wrath or disinterest of the rock obsessed critical establishment'."
Important albums of the genre included:
‘Rio’ by Duran Duran
‘Dancing with tears in my eyes’ - Ultravox
‘Japan’ – Japan
‘None stop ecstatic dancing ‘– Soft Cell
Important singles included:
‘Fade to grey’ – Visage
‘Girls on Film’ – Duran Duran
‘Cars’ – Gary Numan
‘Gold’ -Spandau Ballet
The main relationship between the music and society and culture of the time was fashion. As I said previously, The New Romantic movement was similar to that of the glam rock movement in the UK during the early 1970's. New Romantics often dressed up as 'Counter - Sexual' wearing eye liner and frilly tops. Boy George from New Romantic band Culture Club was massivley famous for dressing this way.
Without the New Romantic movement, I do believe that todays music would be vitaly different. Many of the modern British Indie Bands have quite clearly taken their sound direct from the sound of New Romanticism. Taje Franz Ferdinand for example, if you have a look at ' To Cut a long story short' music video by Spandau ballet, you can see that Franz Ferdinand have not only been inspired of the sound, but also of the bands stage movements and fashion and general demeener.
Webography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duran_Duran http://www.elyrics.net/read/u/ultravox-lyrics/vienna-lyrics.html
http://www.duranduran.com/wordpress/?page_id=13338
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=77:2684~T2
The New Romantic movement was not only a term given to musical genre but also a fashion too. The New Romantic scene began in the early Eighties with some of the more popular bands including Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Adam & the Ants, Depeche Mode and the Human League.
The New Romantic scene had taken direct influence from punk and was happening parallel to the punk movement of the 80s. However, they differed greatly in fashion; the punks at the time would be dressed very working class and a lot less elegant than the New Romantics. The New Romantics were very glamorous and often wore make-up. This could be seen as a direct influence from the ‘Godfather of New Romanticism – David Bowie’ Bands often had fashion designers working for them. Adam & the Ants for example had Vivienne Westwood design for them. Westwood later designed the ‘pirate look’ for the group. For me, the scene and the fashion of this genre is one of the main reasons it appealed to so many. A good example of the typical New Romantic look is shown in this video for Duran Duran’s single – Planet Earth. The record reach number 12 in the UK Charts on the 21st Feb 1981.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-recskrzunI&feature=player_embedded
The New Romantic sound could be described as New wave, Synth, alternative Rock/Pop. The vocals were often dark and mysterious; you can really here the emotion in Duran Duran’s Simon Le bon’s voice. The guitarists often used effects and sometimes it is even hard to define the guitar from the keyboards. Although the vocals at times were dark the actual songs were usually quite upbeat and had a nice ‘danceable’ rhythm.
Lyrically the New Romantic bands could differ quite uniquely. ‘Vienna’ by Ultravox is a fantastically uplifting song, yet the lyrics are extremely eerie ‘A voice reaching out and a piercing cry, it stays with you until the feeling is gone’ and ‘Alone in the night as the daylight brings a cold empty silence, the warmth of your hand and a cold grey sky’ are great examples of this.
Duran Duran are probably the most significant band of the New Romantics. The band formed in Birmingham in 1978 and the original line-up consisted of Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, Andy Taylor, Stephen Duffy, and Roger Taylor. Duran Duran managed to place 14 singles in the top ten of the UK singles chart and 21 in the billboard hot 100. The band has now sold over a whopping 100 million records. Duran Duran began as an art rock/post punk alternative rock group but soon moved on. The bands influences could be traced back to the New York underground music scene of the 1970s with bands like The New York Dolls, The Velvet Underground and of course David Bowie.
The group have now reached the point where they have influenced a massive number of popular acts today. These names include Pink, Justin Timberlake, Beck and Gwen Stefani. Moby speaks about the band in high favour too, on his website diary he posted "... they were cursed by what we can call the 'Bee Gees' curse, which is: 'write amazing songs, sell tons of records, and consequently incur the wrath or disinterest of the rock obsessed critical establishment'."
Important albums of the genre included:
‘Rio’ by Duran Duran
‘Dancing with tears in my eyes’ - Ultravox
‘Japan’ – Japan
‘None stop ecstatic dancing ‘– Soft Cell
Important singles included:
‘Fade to grey’ – Visage
‘Girls on Film’ – Duran Duran
‘Cars’ – Gary Numan
‘Gold’ -Spandau Ballet
The main relationship between the music and society and culture of the time was fashion. As I said previously, The New Romantic movement was similar to that of the glam rock movement in the UK during the early 1970's. New Romantics often dressed up as 'Counter - Sexual' wearing eye liner and frilly tops. Boy George from New Romantic band Culture Club was massivley famous for dressing this way.
Without the New Romantic movement, I do believe that todays music would be vitaly different. Many of the modern British Indie Bands have quite clearly taken their sound direct from the sound of New Romanticism. Taje Franz Ferdinand for example, if you have a look at ' To Cut a long story short' music video by Spandau ballet, you can see that Franz Ferdinand have not only been inspired of the sound, but also of the bands stage movements and fashion and general demeener.
Webography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duran_Duran http://www.elyrics.net/read/u/ultravox-lyrics/vienna-lyrics.html
http://www.duranduran.com/wordpress/?page_id=13338
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=77:2684~T2
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