60's - British Invasion

The term "British Invasion" was coined by the American media and was applied to Bands mainly in either the Beat, Pop or Rock and Roll genre. New British bands started combining British and American styles into their music. Rebellious Rock and Roll and Blues musicians became popular in the late 1950s with the youth of Britain. A DIY attitude and hard working ethic was adopted by many young British bands which was all part of the appeal.

The Sound and Lyrics:

The British Invasion sound revolves mainly around typical rock and roll instruments such as guitar, bass, drums and vocals. Most bands have one lead singer with other members doing harmonies. The Beatles however had two main vocalists, Paul McCartney and John Lennon. The only common lyrical theme in the lyrics of most of these bands is love and woman.

The Look:

Bands mainly wore would be now considered "smart casual" clothes. The Beatles, The Kinks and some of the other 'invasion' bands often wore suits.

The Media:

In December of 1963, a story about The Beatles and "beatlemania" was ran on the CBS Evening News. The Americans were interested in the band and wanted to hear them to see what all the hype was about. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was the first Beatles song to be played on the Radio. On February 9th 1964, they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. Seventy five percent of Americans watching TV that night watched the show.
Over the period of the next two years, The Kinks, The Animals, Manfred Mann, The Rolling Stones, Freddie and the Dreamers, and The Troggs and would have one or more number one singles. British Invasion acts also topped the music charts in their home country.

Influence:

The British Invasion played a very big part in the formation of popular music. It opened the door for subsequent British performers to claim international success. It took attention away from the careers of well known R&B acts like Chubby Checker and Fats Domino and temporarily squashed the chart success of 50s rock and roll acts, including Elvis Presley.

Important Bands:

The Animals

The Beatles

Rolling Stones

The Troggs

The Kinks

Freddie and the Dreamers

1950's ~ Handout ~

Essential Listening

Jerry Lee Lewis - Great Balls of Fire ------(Single 1957)
Bill Haley and The Comets - Rock Around the Clock ------(Single 1954)
Little Richard - Tutti-Frutti ------(Single 1955)
Elvis Presley - Hard Headed Woman ------(Single 1958)
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 - That'll Be The Day ------(Single 1957)

Useful Websites


http://www.chuckberry.com/about/bio

http://www.history-of-rock.com/indx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_and_roll

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Presley

http://www.thecrickets.com/bios.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Richard

http://www.billhaley.co.uk/comets2.

70s ~ Prog Rock

Progressive Rock (widely referred to as Prog Rock) reached its peak of success and popularity in the 1970's. It is sub-genre of rock and many of the artists were highly recognized for their musicianship and technical prowess. It started with the Psychedelic Rock and Blues Rock bands of the 60's. Bands gradually started moving away from conventional song structures and song lenghts aswell as other things. The beatnik and hippie culture also played a big part in this as did the drug LSD. The popular 60's drug also known as Acid caused psychedelic trips which many bands used and it influenced their music. Prog groups started to make albums packed with long and complex songs.


The Prog Sound:


Prog rock music normally avoids verse-chorus-verse-chorus structures found in popular music. Contrasts between sections are normally sharpened with changing dynamics. The large number of ideas within the music results in a lot of songs being very long, some even over 20 minutes in length. Lyrical topics about fantasy, surrealism and social commentary can be found in the genre. Expanding on the instruments commonly found in Rock music, Prog sometimes features violins, flutes, saxophones and also relatively new instruments at that period such as synthesizers and electronic effects units. Unusual time signatures and time signature changes are heard in Prog Rock aswell as Tempo changes, this adds to the experimental feel of the music. Instrumental songs were common place on many Prog Rock albums; Rush's "YYZ" is perhaps one of the most well known and popular Prog Rock instrumentals of all time.


(http://www.youtube.com/)


Concept albums and Artwork:


Many bands from a variety of genres have put out concept albums, however it is a rare thing to do in other genres but farely common in Prog Rock. A concept album is an album where all the songs are joined by a theme. The theme can be lyrical, narrative or instrumental. Album art and packaging within the Prog Rock genre is as important as the music. Lots of Prog Rock concept albums have cover art that relates to the story or theme of the music. One of the most prominent artists is Roger Dean who designed 22 album covers for Yes aswell as other bands like Uriah Heep, Asia and Budgie.

These are among some of the best and well recognized album covers in the Prog Rock genre:



Decline & Bands Going Commercial:

In the second half of the 1970s Prog Rock began to fade out. Records sales for most groups were down and Disco and Punk were emerging which took the public eye off Prog music. Later on some Prog groups put out less Progressive records and took a more commercial approach to their music. Rush released "Closer to the Heart" in 1977 and Yes released "Owner of a Lonely Heart" in 1983. Both were successful in the charts.

(www.youtube.com)

(www.youtube.co.uk)

Influence:

The Prog Rock genre has went on to influence many bands. Progressive Metal groups like Queensryche and Dream Theatre combine Prog characteristics such as intricate structures, odd time signatures and long songs with the Heavy Metal genre. Thrash Metal bands Megadeth and Annihilator have some Progressive elements in their music such as dense and complex instrumental passages and long changing songs.

Important Albums:

King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)

King Crimson's epic debut album is one of the strongest and most influential Prog Rock albums and often seen as the first true Prog Rock release.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1970)

ELP's first album was the first release from the first Prog Rock 'supergroup'. Some of the songs on the album use note-for-note extracts from classical pieces by Bach and Bartok.

Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)

Pink Floyd's sixth studio album is arguably their finest work & probably the most successful Prog Rock record with an estimated 45 million copies sold. It stayed in the charts for an amazing 741 weeks, longer than any other album in history.

BLOG 2 - The 1980s (Hip-Hop)

Origins:

Hip-hop started in the late 70s. One of the most popular music genres of the 70s was Disco but it was mainly seen as music for white people. Black youths at that time never really had a music genre they could call their own. Events called ‘block parties’ rapidly became popular in New York, specifically in the Bronx. These parties originally began with just one DJ operating both a single turntable and one microphone. Their role was to play the records and talk in between tracks to keep the crowd hyped. This developed into the DJ having 2 turntables enabling him to mix the end of one track into the start of the next. DJs began to talk over the tracks, often featuring simple rhymes or call and response chants to interact with the crowd. After a while DJs began playing tracks with a "break". A break is a part of a song featuring just a drum beat. This beat was often looped to provide a steady backbone for the MC-ing. Now a seperate performer would MC over the top of the music while the DJ concentrated on mixing the music. As there was now a single MC, rhymes and mc-ing became more frequent and complex. Here are 2 songs that were often used for their percussive breaks:

Billy Squier - The Big Beat
(Taken from youtube)



The Honeydrippers - Impeach the President
(Taken from youtube)


Lyrical Content and Themes:

The lyrical content of early Hip-Hop music was mainly about Partying and having a good time. In 1982, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five released the track 'The Message'. The rapping in the song features social commentary about the ghetto and how it was hard for young people growing up there and older people living there. The line "Rats in the front room, rodents in the back. Junkies in the alley with the their baseball bats" from the first verse is just one example of the lyrics in the track painting a picture of the dirty and dangerous surroundings people in the ghetto faced. The song remains a classic to this day and is one of the most well known Hip Hop songs all over the world. Another theme in Hip Hop songs is "Diss Tracks". This means songs that diss other artists, most of the time this is other hip hop artists. The first case of this was in the second half of the 80's. This was "The Bridge Wars" between The South Bronx's Boogie Down Productions, (mainly KRS-One) and Marley Marl's Juice Crew (Mainly MC Shan) from Queensbridge.





Influences:

Hip Hop is very diverse taking influence from a wide selection of musical genres and culture. Specific genres of music were sampled more than others. These were Soul, Funk, early Electro and even Disco (the genre Hip Hop was a response to.) One of the most influential artists that Hip Hop was inspired by was James Brown. The way he interacted with the crowd made a big impact on the first wave of Hip Hop MCs and DJs. Many of his tracks have been sampled in hip hop records and still are to this day. His most sampled track is "Funky Drummer" More specifically, the drum break at five and half minutes into the song.

(Taken from youtube)

Important Records:

"Rappers Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang was released in 1979. It was the first song made by a Hip Hop group. It is a very important record as it is generally recognized as the first true Hip Hop release. It is one of the best known Hip Hop songs and helped Hip Hop as a genre to be brought to the masses.

Run DMC's cover of Aerosmiths "Walk This Way" (with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry guesting on vocals and guitars) was a massive hit when it came out in 1986. It was a revolutionary song in many ways. First of all it was extremely beneficial to both Run DMC's and Aerosmith's career. It was also the first Hip Hop song to make it into the Top 5. On top of this is was the first "crossover" within the Hip Hop genre as it mixed with Rock style of the Aerosmith original. This meant the song appealed to a wider range of people and also after this single was released more pop acts started to mix raps into their music.

Public Enemy's 2nd album "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back" was released in 1988. It is widely regarded as a classic and many fans of the group believe it is their best work. In its first month, It Takes a Nation... sold 500,000 copies without significant promotion by Columbia Records, its distributing label. Chuck D's intelligent lyrics, often about political and racial issues, caused some controversy when it was released. His rapping style was very gritty and delivered with an almost punk-like edge. The album features sample heavy production and sounds far more complex than most other 80s Hip Hop albums.

BLOG 1 - The 1990s (Grunge)

One of the most popular styles of rock music in the first half of the 90s was grunge. A sub-genre of alternative rock, grunge was born in the city Seattle and took inspiration from heavy metal, hardcore punk and 80's alternative/indie bands. Different groups normally incorporated one of these styles into their music more heavily than the other two. Common musical aspects of grunge music was electric guitars played with distortion and fuzz however most bands sound comparatively different with the grunge label being applied because they came from the same area, had the same lyrical content and a similar look. There isn't a common vocal style for the genre either as most grunge bands had very different vocalists. Chris Cornell from the band Soundgarden has a very powerful voice similar to Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin. Kurt Cobain from Nirvana however had a much more raw approach to singing, relating more to punk vocalists. Mark Arm, the frontman for Green River and Mudhoney is widely recognized as the first person to use the word grunge when talking about the music. Mark claims however that he was not naming the genre but using the word to describe the "dirty" sound of the overdriven guitars.

The lyrical content of grunge music is one thing that is the same with many of the bands. Many song lyrics are angst-driven, talking about depression, social alienation, apathy and even on occasion political agenda. Sometimes lyrics mentioned rebellion, often the topic Hardcore punk groups sang about. This isn't to say there was not exceptions as some songs from grunge bands featured humour. "Big Dumb Sex" by Soundgarden pokes fun at Glam Metal, a music genre that people normally think grunge caused to end.

Even though grunge faded out just after the first half of the decade it spawned alot of very successful bands that have sold millions of records. Nirvana are probably the best known band in the genre and are the group that brought mainstream attention to the grunge scene with their 1991 single "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Kurt Cobain, the iconic frontman of the band killed himself in 1994.

"Louge Act" from the album Nevermind. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPYcFQxsKlQ)

Alice in Chains second album "Dirt" went platinum four times. Their music has much more of a heavy metal vibe to it than other grunge bands. Sadly their lead singer Layne Staley also passed away in 2002, he died of a heroin overdose.

"Them Bones" from the album Dirt. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UhsvyFStkg&feature=related)

Soundgarden were the first band within the genre to sign to a major label. Their third studio album entitled "Badmotorfinger" was released in 1991 made people sit up and take notice and also get them airplay on MTV and alt rock radio.

"New Damage" from the album Badmotorfinger. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjALaiew_9g)

Pearl Jam, perhaps the group with the most classic rock influence, put out their debut album "Ten" in 1991 which went platinum thirteen times and remains one of the best selling albums of the genre.

"Why Go" from the album Ten. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfrJCbol7ZU)

Alternative rock bands like The Pixies, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr and Jane's Addiction helped shape certain aspects of the grunge sound and look. For example, these bands used to play shows in their normal clothes, they had a "everyday" image about them. The Pixies quiet verse then loud chorus structure that they used alot was taken by Kurt Cobain and used in the structure of many Nirvana songs. Another band that influenced many grunge bands is The Melvins. Their bizarre combination of Sludge, Punk and Noise Rock created a unique sound that inspired some new grunge bands to include things like sludgy sounding guitars and odd time signatures in their music. The band Green River are perhaps the first real Grunge band. They started in 1984 and by 1988 had released two e.ps and one album. Mark Arm, the lead singer of the band went on to form Mudhoney, another band who helped kickstart grunge and gained a large cult following. Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament went on to form the hugely successful and key group of the genre, Pearl Jam.

Although grunge came to a halt a long time ago, many post-grunge bands have popped up inspired by the original 90's bands. These bands however are alot more commercial and are disliked by some people who claim they rip-off the older bands. Silverchair, Bush, and Seether are just some examples of post-grunge bands. After Cobains suicide in 1994, Dave Grohl went on to front his new band, the Foo Fighters. Their first two albums have alot of grunge influenced songs on them.