Music in the 50s

       Today we are going to describe such an important decade as the 50's which were a time of changes and the music of this decade reflected the cultural changes that were happening while still were remaining the social norms of the past. After the harmful effects of World War II, and another conflict,The Korean War,against North Korea in Southeast Asia which would last until the middle of 1953, the United States was about to embark on a musical journey that would change the face of music for decades. Racial tensions, due to the murder of a young in Mississippi that supposedly had whistled a white woman and Rosa Parks's arrest that refused to yield her seat to a white in a public bus, were being arrived with the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement and music reflected many of those tensions.

World War II

The Korean War

Civil Rights Movement

       Rock 'N' Roll is defined by Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley. Carl Perkins was one of the pioneers and his style is often referred to as "Rockabilly" because it combined country and R&B music with rock influences, the same as Buddy Holly or Gene Vincent. Elvis Presley is considered to be the "King of Rock 'n' Roll" by many and rose to fame after a professional relationship with Sam Phillips who wanted to market "black music" to white audiences. Elvis was the mainly responsible for the popularization of rock music and he symbolized the Rock 'n' Roll style and teenage rebellion of the 1950's. Also, he covered the song "Blue Suede Shoes" written by Perkins and it was very famous. Even so, it is important to remember the original African-American artists who created the genre and were pushed out of the rock scene like Chuck Berry. Whereas, Rhythm And Blues appeared from the jazz music of the 1940's and it combined jazz, doo-wop, blues, and gospel to create a unique sound during the decade. It also encouraged the creation of such genres as Rock 'n' Roll, soul, Motown, and funk music. Many R&B artists of the decade were originators of rock music and a lot of the songs of rock music enjoyed time on the R&B hit parade during the decade. This genre is mainly composed by African-American musicians like Lloyd Price with many white artists and musical groups like Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, the Chordettes and the Crew-Cuts becoming R&B songs into traditional pop songs with a more mainstream sound.

Carl Perkins

Elvis Presley

Lloyd Price- Personality

The Chordettes- Lollipop

Both Rhythm & Blues (R&B) and Rock 'n' Roll popularized "black" music and many African-American musicians had the prominence and enjoyed success, but as I said before, many others were forgotten or denied access to audiences through segregation. It has to be said that a lot of people believe that during the fifties many of the white artists stole music from African-Americans and used it for their own benefit in a way that the original artists could not. Others believe that the popularization of R&B and Rock 'n' Roll only helped to finish with the trouble between blacks and whites and further the Civil Rights Movement.

         In the other hand, Traditional Pop And Standards is refers to the music that was popular before rock music came into the mainstream and also to music that was popular at the same time during the rest of the decade but stayed mainly free of rock influences. Some traditional pop artists were Perry Como, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole and Patti Page. Many of the artists were interpreters of pop standards like Ella Fitzgerald or Frank Sinatra (as my partner mentioned in the 30's post), who would take the old famous songs and put their own individual style into it. This genre was greatly influenced by jazz, swing and big band. Whereas, Country is defined by Johnny Cash and Hank Williams. Cash’s music had a rockabilly influence and his songs often focused around a certain theme, including life, sorrow, humour and relationships. Hank Williams was and continues to be a country music icon of the decade. He helped to popularize the "Honky Tonk style"- characterized by the piano and ragtime sound combined with country and rockabilly harmonies; and to create the "Outlaw Country genre" – a style which included songs about spirituality and rowdy times. Country music also served in order that artists as Connie Francisca, Frankie Laine, and Pat Boone, could record one or two singles with a country influence.

Patti Page- Young at heart

Perry Como- Hot Diggity

Johnny Cash- I walk the line

Hank Williams- Howlin' at the moon

Pat Boone- Tutti Frutti

       Either way, this decade was a time of innovation that helped to influence everything that we listen to on the radio today.

      Before finishing this pot, a example of a film is "Grease" which reproduce the 50's music. Also, a month ago there was a rock festival called the 21st Rockin' Race jamboree in Torremolinos, Malaga, Spain which reproduce the 50's and 60's music.

Grease- You're the one that I want

        Moreover, there is a commercial of Ford Ecosport which use the Chordettes' song "Lollipop."

      To sum up, we would say that the 50's were very important for the history of American music because they showed us how cultural changes had influence in 50's music which continue nowadays and how music can survive even if there are difficulties as the II World War was.

      We hope you have enjoyed this post and that you very much for your visit.

Best regard!

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/50smusic.html

http://rockinrace.com/

http://www.diariosur.es/planes/201501/30/rock-protagoniza-rockin-race-20150130131814.html#

http://www.musicopolis.es/anos-50-los-origenes-del-rock-roll/273012011/#

Music in the 40s

 

The 40s established a new era in which music started to be a way of ask for the human basic rights and fighting for the injustices. In the First World, pop music, Swing, Big band, Jazz, Latin and Country music dominated and defined the decade's music.

Pop

Bing Crosby was the leading figure of the crooner sound as well as its most iconic, defining artist. By the 1940s, he was an entertainment superstar who mastered all of the major media formats of the day, movies, radio, and recorded music.
Bandleaders such as the Dorsey Brothers often helped launch the careers of vocalists who went on to popularity as solo artists, such as Frank Sinatra, who rose to fame as a singer during this time. Sinatra's vast appeal to the "Bobby soxers" revealed a whole new audience for popular music, which had generally appealed mainly to adults up to that time, making Sinatra the first teen idol.
The entry of the US into World War II brought about a rapid end to big band swing as many musicians were conscripted into the armed forces and travel restrictions made it hard for bands to tour.
After the war, a combination of factors such as changing demographics and rapid inflation made large bands unprofitable so that popular music in the US came to be dominated instead by traditional pop and crooners, as well as bebop and jump blues.
Some of the most notable Swing artists of the 1940s include Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller. 

Swing and Jazz

Some of the most notable Jazz artists of the 1940s include Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole.

Jazz reached the height of its popularity with the American public during the Swing era, beginning in the dark days of the Depression and continuing through the victorious end of World War II. Also known as the Big Band sound, Swing jazz was characterised by its strong rhythmic drive and by an orchestral ‘call and response’ between different sections of the ensemble. The rhythm section – piano, bass, drums and guitar – maintained the swinging dance beat, while trumpets, trombones and woodwinds, and later, vocals, were often scored to play together and provide the emotional focus of the piece.
The first great artists of Swing were African American.
At its height in the years before World War II, Swing jazz was America’s most pervasive and popular musical genre. Then the history of Swing must also be seen as preparing the way for the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s. Knowing that a wider and increasingly diverse population of Americans was taking African American musicians seriously fuelled a growing conviction that equality was a real possibility.
Swing was also a good opportunity for American women. As Americans danced to Swing bands during the 1940s, a new space for female musicians also opened up. Some women like Sherrie Tucker, author of Swing Shift: “All-Girl” Bands of the 1940s, and Greta Schiller and Andrea Weiss, directors of The International Sweethearts of Rhythm, demonstrate how the outbreak of World War II gave women the unprecedented opportunity to perform music publicly for large audiences. The International Sweethearts of Rhythm was one of many “all-girl” bands that toured the country when most of their male peers were in the military. For the first time, female musicians in America consistently proved that they could play trumpets, saxophones, and drums with as much expertise as men.
                                          

Not all Americans were enchanted by the widespread success and influence of Swing jazz and the challenges to social norms it represented. For example, although the races were generally kept separate at Swing performances, there were consistent expressions of outrage at the energetic dancing that accompanied concerts and persistent criticism of the influence of Swing music on young people. Young white women were especially targeted by those who considered Swing a “mulatto” music and wanted to preserve a fantasy of white purity on the dance floor and the bandstand.

Jazz historians today consistently celebrate Ellington, Henderson, and other African American musicians as the most sophisticated and compelling musicians of the Swing Era. But white Swing musicians like Goodman also contributed to the evolution of the genre. While many jazz musicians broke away from Swing to develop Bebop jazz, the young white denizens of the Swing dance halls in the 1940s married, raised children, and moved to the suburbs. They would soon prefer a night in front of the black-and-white television set to a night dancing to black or white Swing bands. And just as Swing dancers had scandalised their parents with their commitment to ‘mulatto music’.
Furthermore of these aspects, Jazz established an important humanity conscience in the American society.
Jazz and Equality. Since its earliest days on the streets of New Orleans, jazz has bridged communities with diverse ethnic, cultural, and social backgrounds, speaking a common musical language that anyone can understand. Jazz has crossed national borders and challenged the status quo and it is an example of how an art form contributes to changing social, economic and class relationships.
The History of Women Musicians. Swing during the World War II era offered female jazz musicians (and vocalists) unprecedented opportunities as part of a time period when women also had unprecedented opportunities in other jobs and professions because of the shortage of labor on the home front from men serving in the war effort.
Jazz as an Art Form. Jazz has been considered as “art music” and as a part of popular music, especially in the era of Swing jazz. Can jazz be understood as an art as strong as European classical music? Can classical genres of music have an influence on popular music and vice-versa.
Jazz as it Intersects with Other Art Forms. The importance of Swing dancing to the World War II era generation – particularly dancing by women with a new sense of freedom– is a key element in the history of popular music in the 20th century. How did jazz music influence other forms of art in the 20th Century.

Bebop

In the 40s it created a new style of jazz named ‘bebop’ characterised by improvisation.
Bebop or bop is a style of jazz characterised by a fast tempo, instrumental virtuosity, and improvisation

based on the combination of harmonic structure and sometimes references to the melody. It was developed in the early and mid-1940s. This style of jazz ultimately became synonymous with modern jazz, as either category reached a certain final maturity in the 1960s.
It developed as the younger generation of jazz musicians aimed to counter the popular swing style with a new, non-danceable music that demanded listening. With bebop no longer being a dance music, it enabled the musicians to play at faster tempos. Bebop musicians explored advanced harmonies, complex syncopation, altered chords, chord substitutions, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and using rhythm sections in a way that expanded on their role. The classic bebop combo consisted of saxophone, trumpet, piano, double bass, and drums.

Country music

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, cowboy songs, or Western music, became widely popular through the romantization of the cowboy and idealised depictions of the west in Hollywood films. 
Singing cowboys, such as Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, sang cowboy songs in their films and became popular throughout the United States. Film producers began incorporating fully orchestrated four-part harmonies and sophisticated musical arrangements into their promotion pictures.
But while cowboy and Western music were the most popular styles, a new style -honky tonk- would take root and define the genre of country music for decades to come. The style meshed Western swing and blues music; featured rough, nasal vocals backed by instruments such as the guitar, fiddle, string bass and steel guitar; and had lyrics that focused on tragic themes of lost love, adultery, loneliness, alcoholism and self-pity.


         


Here I give you a top 10 song of the 1940s, I hope you have enjoy this post and these songs!

Top 10 song of the 1940s

10 Blue Moon of Kentucky'
Bill Monroe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeOXgh4lTjY

9 'Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)
Tex Williams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJcKxlKsAy4

8 Slippin’ Around'

Margaret Whiting and Jimmy Wakely
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyJGfwm9GIQ

7 'Pistol Packin’ Mama'
Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYUCFZ5NGsU

6 'New San Antonio Rose'
Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C08jmN1sM8

5 'Smoke on the Water'
Red Foley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqQ2NGWRbvU

6 'Candy Kisses'
George Morgan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpINxGE7A7Q

3 'Walking the Floor Over You'
Ernest Tubb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWmbFXJDHrM

2 'Lovesick Blues'
Hank Williams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMb_7HDWjZo

1 'Bouquet of Roses'
Eddy Arnold
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qECR90Qpa8

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.musicopolis.es/los-anos-40-y-50-la-revolucion-del-jazz-y-los-efectos-de-la-ii-guerra-mundial/258482011/

http://americasmusic.tribecafilminstitute.org/session/view/swing-jazz 

http://www.jazzstandards.com/history/history-4.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1940s_in_jazz

http://tasteofcountry.com/top-1940s-songs/

Music in the 30s

Today we are going to describe such an important decade as the 30s which was a reflection of the cultural and social conditions and a way to understand those years of the Great Depression. It is essentially to know that music changed dramatically from the sweet sound of Guy Lombardo and the Jazz Age to the new Swing Era during the first four years. However, the second set of years was marked by the emerging modern forms of popular music. Furthermore, we need to know the importance of the alliance between the Hollywood machinery, the record industry and the radio that grew as the same time as the 30s.

        

Before describing the music of this age, we should take into account that Americans were forced to relocate in search of employment and due to the collapse of national economy, they moved from rural areas to urban ones. And as the historian William Kenney said “whether consciously or not, almost all citizens found in recorded music a vehicle for carrying musical memories through time and into the present”.

Broadway music and the extravagant 20s fell to the wayside with the 1929 crash. However, the cinema industry took the opportunity and asked composers, singers and dancers who worked in Broadway such as Tin Pan Alley, Irving Berlin, Fred Astaire or Bing Crosby to do musical movies and they accepted. But it wasn’t until the MGM’s filmed The Broadway Melody in 1920 that other companies realized public liked those films and in 1933 Warner Brothers’ released 42^nd Street; public was again enchanted by the extravagance.

        

Hollywood sold self-conscious optimism during those hard years; they made simple, complicated and amusing films and also they profited the immense popularity of child stars like Shirley Temple or Judy Garland or couples as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers who filmed nine movies between 1933-39. Because what audience wanted was to escape the desolate reality and find a sense of identity.

Moreover,  during the thirties American music was changed due to the new technologies and the industrial development with some improves such as the electrical amplification which allowed singers like Bing Crosby to deliver incredible and catchy vocal performances or the jukebox. But music also started to be capitalized because of the increasing popularity and the cross marketing increased the wealth of the recording and film industry.

During the mid-thirties the recording industry started to metabolize its relationship with the radio and the doors were opened to traditional, vernacular and ethnic musical expressions. But only record companies’ executives choose who was appropriate and marketable to be a part of the history and country, blues and swing started to be integrated. Therefore, while Hollywood and mainstream popular music offered optimism and diversion, underground musicians, as the other were called, wanted to make meaning in American culture.

When swing dominated the mainstream in the mid thirties important developments were created and they were an important impact which would last until modern American music. For example, jazz in this era hinted towards new styles like bebop or cool jazz with artists as the great Louis Armstrong. In addition, African American musicians as Ella Fitzgerald and Cleo Patra Brown and their rhythm and blues increased in popularity. Also folk and twist music were developed by artist as Woodie Guthrie and country by Roy Acuff.

An important moment was the creation of the jukebox which would be responsible for saving the American music and for that American experienced music socially, because jukebox is the perfect model for the systematic commodization of music. The problem is that only the industry decided who would be in the machine due to marketing predictions, cultural trends and racial and social prejudices. In those selections appeared artists such as the incomparable bolero singer Antonio Machin, swing singers as Louis Armstrong and Fletcher Hendersen, Cab Calloway representing the blues, the mainstream staple Guy Lombardo...

To sum up, we would say that the 30s were very important for the history of American music because they showed us many changes which continue nowadays and how music can survive even if there are difficulties as the Great Depression was. Those years would be essential for the country identity.
We hope you have enjoyed this post and that you very much for your visit.

Best regard from the musical girls!

Bibliography

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug03/jukebox/front.html

Music in the 20's.

After the World War I, a new era was born, a new world that had nothing to do with the previous one. A new era of prosperity known as the ‘’Happy 20’s’’. The USA started to show its cultural supremacy. Jazz became a symbol of modernity and the Swing was on its highest moment or peak. The most popular dance at this moment was the ‘’Charleston’’. Extravagant as few, this variety of foxtrot showed the world how people felt during this decade. Charleston takes the name of a South Carolina’s city, which is obviously Charleston, and it was, on its origins, a dance for black people. It is said that Charleston was danced in the ‘’Black community’’ since the beginning of the XX century, but it wasn’t till the 20’s when it became popular in al communities, arriving fast to Europe, being officially introduced in Paris in 1925 in the Révue nègre of Joséphine Baker. Even in Spain, a country that was far of the new tendencies, Charleston had its place. The crazy dance was imposing itself. But when the 20’s were over, the ‘’Charleston’’ was almost over, and it kept being present in films and theatre. In America, some interesting Charleston films are Chicago, whose director is Maurice Dallas Watkins, Don’t Knock the Rock, whose director is Fred F. Sears, and, in Spain, we find amazing films such La Corista, produced by José María Elorrieta. Charleston was not only present in theatre and films, also in cabarets and shows at party houses. We have explain too much about this kind of dance but… What is it? Charleston is a four times compass dance, which alternates arms and legs movements mainly. It requires great mobility of feet. It can be danced by one person, or accompanied, but when it is danced by an only person, movements, are more free and spontaneous. One of its main characteristics is the improvisation and energy, because this kind of dance is a long and fast one. Sadly, in the last years of the 20’s the Charleston, this wild, crazy and awesome dance started to disappear, but, fortunetly, we can see beautiful pictures and videos of it, as the ones you have under the text!

                                                         

 Here you have some nice videos, would you be able to learn dancing it?  :) 

Josephine Baker (1925) dancing the original Charleston. 

The Charleston (1920). 

Carmen Sevilla, Madre cómprame un negro. 

Hope you have enjoyed reading us this week, have a nice end of the weekend!