September 26, 2013

Funk

James Brown - The One - counting the beat a particular way
black pride, black focus, black audience - it crossed over on its own
whites got into it for its own sake - there was no white translator

Other black performers get into it

Sly and the Family Stone - drug influenced - San Francisco
integrated - white and black

Stax Records - Aretha Franklin
integrated black and white band and black singers
reverse of Motown
try to sound blacker, whereas Motown tried to clean up that black sound

Soul

soul music was a religious based music
right out of the black church
intense and powerful and considered nasty -
the singers who sang about god switched over to singing about love or romance

There was a reaction to all the dark, nasty, drug-fueled weird music and it was a really strange thing.

Country - Rock - reaction to what’s going

Gram Parsons
The Flying Burrito Bros
Neil Young
The Band
CCR

THE 1970s!

this is one of the most disturbing decades of all time
why?

The music industry has become HUGE business.

Records are ENORMOUS business

How does a band compete in this growing, bursting crazy market?

Everything gets more extreme
Glam Rock - British
sexy
weird
trippy
all kinds of homoerotic stuff - gay culture bursting through
David Bowie
he announced that he was gay - PS he was married PPS he wasn’t gay

Another band went into the same area and took to the bank

Kiss cashed in on the glam scene
Alice Cooper - horror + glam
everybody got in on the act

Blame the 60s Alternative

Velvet Underground
The Doors
The Stooges

Acid Rock
- heavy rock with a glam touch and a druggy vibe

Do you think everybody like grim, dark, creepy, sexually ambiguous music?

Grandma says no. (in reality, grandma gave me Kiss Alive II)

Pop

NICE!

calculated to make money

AOR - (yacht rock)
The Eagles? Yeah
Steely Dan
The Doobie Brothers
Atlanta Rhythm Section
Air Supply

Funk - is Disco’s Dad - crazy truth - Disco is a white, black money making attempt to isolate ONE aspect of funk -
that dancing rhythm
funk had THE ONE
disco took that beat and ground it into a business model
Philly Sound - a black-owned company that figured out white people liked funk if it was reduced in complexity
disco was a weird hybrid of sounds and all boiled into one beat - became a HUGE money making success and was hated by many
Rock and Roll is Dead

Progressive Rock -
Yes, Genesis, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Rush, etc

Punk - perfect reaction - against all the ornate, soft, weak, big business crap that was being fed to everybody,
- British - Sex Pistols, The Viles, The Clash, The Slits, Bow Wow Wow, Siouxsie and the Banshees

At the end of the 70s and into 1981, it feels like ANYTHING can happen in music.

We want to focus on Pre-MTV music and bands

Choose a Genre.

Pick 2-3 artists from that genre.

Review a song by each.

Create a presentation on the genre - what is it, how do you know it, what are the elements of style, scene, place, etc.
Who is the target audience?
Find clips, pix, info to add to your presentation.
Do some thinking - what led to it?
What did it lead to?
Find the connections.
Why it worked or didn’t.
Why it lasted or not.
Your personal opinion.
Create a survey for people you know, and show them some clips, play some songs and get their reactions. (parents, brother, sister, etc)
What do we have today that compares? And how?
A profile on each performer and how he/she fits the genre would also be good.

If the artist changes over time, discuss that too.

How Do I Review Songs?

Listen to the instrumentation - what is playing? how does it work together?

riffs - guitar patterns that are repeated and the way they interact with each other and other instruments

groove - bass guitar - the bass has a pattern too - usually simple and locked into the drums

beat - how complex? how layered? catchy? intense?

vocals - this is all about the power and skill of the singer - holding notes, using vibrato, open air in the tune, staying strong, long holds, etc.