The Road to Rock n Roll

(Video Notes) 1 USA 1925-1955 Southern states still a huge Race Segregation Hillbilly Music (Refer to later notes) Folk Music British & Irish influence Kentucky & Virginia Strongest in the 1920s up until the 1950s Work Songs European Hymn Spiritual Georgia & Mississippi Strongest in the late 19th and early 20th Century When Sacred music & secular music combined THE BLUES was formed.

The Blues William Christopher Handy (1873 1958) was a blues composer and musician, often known as the "Father of the Blues." Most famous Memphis Blues & Saint Louis Blues These songs in particular became popular amongst mainstream America Straight Blues 12 bar blues chord sequence 3 line stanza first 2 lines identical, rhyming 3rd line
Vaudeville was a genre of variety entertainment prevalent in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Developing from many sources, including concert saloons, minstrelsy, freak shows, dime museums, and literary burlesque, vaudeville became one of the most popular types of entertainment in North America.

1920s The Blues crossed over to the Mainstream Vaudeville performers such as Bessie Smith (1894 1937) one of the most famous blues singers. The advent of the Phonograph and the pursuit of the growing record companies turned Bessie Smith and her contemporaries into Recording Artists Example Downhearted Blues (1923) became a big hit Artists such as Lonnie Johnson & Blind Lemon Jefferson mixed the blues with hillbilly music and called it Country Blues

A phonograph

The Road to Rock n Roll

(Video Notes) 2 Hillbilly Music (Country) Hillbilly music was often referred to as Country Music. Also referred to as White Southerners Music Jimmie Rodgers mixed country & blues referred to as White Blues Country Music Grand Ole Opry performances Radio programme again reaches the mainstream This Country Blues music can now be heard all across USA. Honky-Tonk Music Electric Guitars used Drums have back beat. Singing about real life problems 40s/50s Most famous star Hank Williams (1923 1953) a real performer (Love Sick Blues)
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly Saturday night country music radio program broadcast live on WSM radio in Nashville, Tennessee, and now televised on Great American Country network. It is the oldest continuous radio program in the United States, having been broadcast on WSM since October 18, 1925.

Post World War II The Southern blacks, having fought for their country & seen the wider world, would not accept the discrimination treatment from before & wanted more than the cotton fields. Many moved to the cities such as Chicago. Rhythm n Blues (RnB). a more aggressive forward form of blues. Amplified guitars. Lyrics, still about hard life issues, but more forward thinking. Muddy Waters (1913 1983) Swing Blues Louis Jordan (1908 1975) Fun goodtime lyrics. Shuffle / backbeat Cross Over success White & Black audiences 1950s Boom Explosion of Independent Record Companies & Radio stations Recording these artists & a style of music opposite to the easy listening songs recorded by people like Perry Como & Patti Page. Lyrics often ambiguous & suggestive lyrics planting the idea Perfect for the new American Teenagers. The record companies renamed the old quick blues called Race Music with the title Rhythm n Blues E.g. Big Joe Turner (1911 1985) an RnB singer Big hit with Shake, Rattle n Roll (1954) Still [as a black man] not regarded as the right artist for mainstream America. Common practice of hit records being re-recorded as a White Pop version for a mainstream audience. Bill Haley & The Comets - Shake, Rattle n Roll (1954) (still not really the right artist to connect with teenagers though)

The Road to Rock n Roll

(Video Notes) 3 Sam Phillips & the Sun Studios Memphis Recording engineer Sam Phillips (1923 2003) was recording the music of black rhythm & blues artists and similar types of music. Examples such as BB King and Howlin Wolf made their first recordings here. He thought it would become popular with all races if presented in the right way.
Sam Phillips 1956 Whilst recording a young Elvis Presley (1935 - 1977) and his group he discovered they could sing & perform this black music very well.

(Quote get a white man to sing the black mans music and make a million dollars!) He recorded some of the first rock n roll artists & songs e.g. Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Influences into Rock n Roll 12 Bar Blues Blues Scale & blues notes Improvised Solo sections Back Beat drums Walking bass or similar often used Suggestive lyrics, but good fun lyrics Call and response style vocals Performances on stage Aimed at a teenage audience (some vocals inspired by gospel sounds) Recording Companies ($$$) 7 single - Jukebox / teenage spending power Typical Combo Guitar (Amplified) Electric Guitar ? Piano ? Small Horn section (derived from the big band sound) String Bass Drum Kit