50's Rock 'n' Roll list

Below is a list of significant artists, releases and when they were released.

Elvis Presley - Heartbreak Hotel - 1956

Elvis Presley - Don't Be Cruel (single) - 1956

Elvis Presley - Hound Dog (single) - 1956

Elvis Presley - (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear (single) - 1956

Elvis Presley - Peace in the Valley - 1957

Little Richard - Tutti Fruiti - 1955

Little Richard - Here's Little Richard - 1957

Bill Haley and the Comets - Rock Around The Clock - 1955

Jerry Lee Lewis - Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On (single) - 1957

Jerry Lee Lewis - Great Balls Of Fire (single) - 1957

Jerry Lee Lewis - High School Confidential - 1958

Chuck Berry - Johnny B Goode (single) - 1958

Chuck Berry - Roll Over Beethoven (single) - 1956

Various Artists - Rock, Rock, Rock (soundtrack) - 1956 (widely considered to be Chuck Berry's first album)

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

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Haley_%26_His_Comets#Discography

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock,_Rock,_Rock_(soundtrack)

http://www.Elvis.com/

http://www.jerryleelewis.com/

http://www.chuckberry.com/

http://theoriginalcomets.com/

60's Blog - British Invasion

For my blog concerning the 60's, we were given the choice to write about:

• British Invasion
• Motown

I have decided to write about the British invasion.

I shall start off by setting the scene.

In England in the 1950's, people were still recovering from the aftermath of the 2nd World War. Britain was a very conservative country at the time, and the youth of the era were expected to grow up and get the same jobs as their parents.

At this time, American "Rock 'n' Roll" artists such as "Bill Haley and the Comets" and "Buddy Holly and the Crickets" were traveling to Britain to perform.

Their fresh and rebellious music captivated Britain's youth, Rock 'n' Roll was seen along the lines of a dance craze.

The Rock 'n' Roll fad soon died down considerably, though there was one area where it remained popular.

In Liverpool, many bands sprang up, playing music influenced by the America Rock n Roll artist, playing in pubs and clubs wherever they could.

Few dreamt of any real fame outside of Liverpool, and fewer still managed to make any real living out of the music. However, the music developed into a thriving club scene.

Although the music scene was blossoming, there was no real sign of any artist making it out of the scene.

This all changed with the Beatles, when they caught the eye of record shop owner Brian Epstein, who offered to manage the band as part of a new business venture. The Beatles accepted, and Brian Epstein set about creating an image for the band.

The image that the Beatles had at the time was an image shared by many of the bands associated with the British Invasion.

This shared style included:

• Matching clothing; primarily suits and ties
• Matching hairstyles; primarily a bobbed haircut

(an example of the matching fashion style, as demonstrated by the Beatles in 1963.

Image provided by "Azzurri_rhcp_amore" through Photobucket)

Brian Epstein had a hard time convincing the music establishment in London that anything new

and exciting could come out of Liverpool. However, the Beatles continued touring around England,

continually growing in popularity. The combination of the look and sound was something that had never

been born out of England before. This led to other bands forming up and down the country, emulating

the Rock 'n' Roll influenced sound.

Come 1962, Britain's youth had a music culture all to themselves, with the birth of other bands like;

• Gerry and the Pacemakers (another liverpudlian band managed by Brian Epstein)
• The Hollies (formed in Manchester)
• Brian Poole and the Tremeloes (formed in Essex)
• The Animals (formed in Newcastle Upon Tyne)

The Rolling Stones, forming in London, were also making a name for themselves.

They provided an alternative to the clean cut images of other British Invasion bands.

Sporting longer hair, wearing clothes that didn't match each others, and were generally perceived

to be quite rude... the original of how rock bands these days are perceived as.

They were different, in that instead of being directly influenced by the American Rock 'n' Roll bands,

they were instead influenced by Blues artists like "Howlin' Wolf", "Willie Dixon" or "Muddy Waters".

The Ravens were a band who weren't getting anywhere as far as popularity went,

until they started writing their own songs and changed their name to "The Kinks".

Over in America, the Rock 'n' Roll music that had given birth to the British bands had really tamed

down. The charts were dominated by saturated, safe pop music. The time was right for something new

to come along and shake things up again. That change happened when The Beatles travelled over to

New York on February 7th 1964, they performed on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time 2 days later.

The show was watched by over 73 million people around America, and the Beatles were literally an

overnight success.

(The Beatles first performance on The Ed Sullivan Show, playing "All My Loving", "Till There Was You", "She Loves You" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand".

This led to many other British bands crossing the Atlantic, and also playing successful performances on The Ed Sullivan Show.

The Rolling Stones, Gerry and the Pacemakers and The Animals all played on the show at various points between 1964 and 1966.

By the end of 1964, the British Invasion of America was in full swing, and British bands were playing all across the USA.

The Beatles were at the front, but were steadily gaining rivals as far as popularity went. "Herman and the Hermits", a British band from

Manchester were gaining a fan base in America to rival that of The Beatles. The Hermits also enjoyed a popular appearance on

The Ed Sullivan Show.

Back in Britain, the explosion had created a brand new youth culture in Britain which centered around capital.

London was seen as one of the most swinging cities of the time. Out of this new culture, another "soon to be famous"

band appeared.

"The Who", led by Roger Daltrey, were a band who were influenced by the enormous success of what fellow British bands

achieved in America. Their debut album "My Generation", gained immediate success in England and in the States.

Come 1966, The Beatles had started their fourth American tour with controversy. John Lennon of the band had made a statement

suggesting that their popularity had made them bigger than Jesus, which upset a lot of fans and non-fans alike.

However, they soon reaffirmed their popularity and the tour was once again a success. However, the pressures of constant touring

had come to effect the creative ability of the band, and after finishing the tour, the band announced that they were to quit touring

and focus solely on recording. The news shocked and upset millions of fans.

This led to a change in creative direction for the band, who had started experimenting with instruments that were unorthodox in pop

music, and experimenting in different styles, producing albums like "Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" and their

self-titled album commonly referred to as "The White Album".

This change in creative production would lead on to influence the Progressive Rock scene of the 70's, as well as influence early

metal bands like Black Sabbath.

Later in 1966, Robert Rafelson and Bert Schneider, two American film makers collaborated on a new TV series based

on a band with a British Invasion style.

This TV series would be called "The Monkees", and featured the band of the same name. The TV show, and the band it created,

had absolutely nothing British made, it was merely influenced by the British bands. As such, The Monkees ended up being symbolic

as the beginning of the end of the true British Invasion.

By the end of 1967, Britains domination of both British and American music scene had come to an end, but the events that had gone by would continue to influence new British and American bands alike.

The British Invasion revolutionized pop music, and had a prominent influence on a variety of succeeding genres, from

Heavy Metal, Progressive Rock, Punk, Alternative Rock... etc.

The British Invasion was also integral in cementing the general pop band line up (lead guitar and/or rhythm guitar, bass, vocals and drums).

I shall finish this blog with a few videos featuring some of the artists I have mentioned.

("House Of The Rising Sun" as performed by The Animals,

this song was the first British Invasion number one

unconnected to The Beatles. The end of the video

shows a common occurrence with performances by these

British bands, who would take a bow once the performance is over.

Video provided by "Hamish5000000")

("Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones, video provided by

"imaStonesgirl1")

("Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by The Beatles,

released on "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".

Note the change in style compared with that of their earlier material,

featured in the video earlier in the blog. Video provided by "josueharrison")

("My Generation" by The Who. The band were known for

destroying their instruments on stage,

which they do here after the performance. This is a rather

infamous performance,

as it is the performance where Pete Townsend claims to

have lost part of his hearing,

due to an exploding drum kit. Video provided by

"Mogurich")

70's Blog - Punk

This is my 70’s blog for Pop In Practice. For this presentation, I had the choice of either writing about;

• Two Tone
• Prog Rock
• Punk
• Funk
• Disco

I have decided to write mine on Punk. As with previously, I shall be giving an overview of the genre.

Origins

The exact location of where Punk came from is a question for debate. Some say that it started in America (there is evidence that suggests this), and others claim that it started in Britain (it is undeniable that there was a strong Punk scene in Britain).

The reason behind the strong debate is because of the music which directly influenced the Punk scene. This music would go on to be post humorously refered to as ‘Protopunk’.

Some artists associated with the terminology include:

• Iggy and the Stooges - (Iggy Pop is known as the “Godfather of Punk”, which shows how influencial he was on the Punk scene)
• MC5
• New York Dolls
• Patti Smith
• Neon Boys
• Velvet Underground (their debut album “The Velvet Underground & Nico” didn’t sell well, but has been stated that nearly everyone who bought the album went on to form a band. This makes the band and the artist highly influencial)

Protopunk shares many similarities in terms of sound and look to punk (such as short, raw songs with shouty vocals, and the DIY ethic associated with the clothing), this has caused the confusion that I refered to about what the difference between the two is.

So, with that, we’ve identified that it’s hard to distinguish between the two. Because of this, I would say that the Protopunk artists are the musicians that influenced the artists of the primary Punk scene.

When I refer to the artists of the primary Punk scene, I refer to bands such as:

· The Sex Pistols (British)

· The Ramones (American)

· The Clash (British)

· The Buzzcocks (British)

· Siouxsie and The Banshees (British)

· The Jam (British)

One other major influence on the development of Punk would be 1950’s Rock ‘n’ Roll. The music of Punk is basically a faster, more aggressive version of Rock ‘n’ Roll, both made high use of a 1 4 5 chord pattern.

Fashion

The style associated with the Punk sub-culture as well as the bands who developed the music, can be traced back to two people, Malcolm McLaren (who became the manager for the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls) and Vivienne Westwood (a fashion designer).

Malcolm McLaren owned a shop called “Let It Rock” in London which sold Teddy Boy memorabilia. However, he grew tired of the shop due to the bad press associated with the Teddy Boy culture, so he travelled around America. He came across bands who would later be known as Protopunk, specificly the Neon Boys, fronted by Richard Hell (who is reportedly the first person to wear paperclips).

When Malcom came back to Britain, he renamed his shop “Sex” and sold clothing designed by his partner, Vivienne Westwood, based on the clothing he had seen (members of the Sex Pistols claimed to be regular customers of the shop).

The look of Punk generally includes torn clothing, black leather, tartan trousers, hair dyed bright vibrant colours and then spiked with gel or hairspray.

(Malcolm Mclaren out side Sex - image provided by "Lemonbarley7" via Photobucket)

(A group of punks, demonstrating the fashion of the subculture - image provided by "findstuff22" via Photobucket)

Sound

The instruments used in Punk music was mostly:

• Guitar (raw and distorted)
• Vocals (shouty)
• Bass
• Drum Kit

The music of Punk had emphasis on fast and thrashy elements, and less emphasis on artful crafting or technical accuracy.

Punk was the total opposite with what was also going through the 70's with Prog Rock, which featured

a lot of musicianship from its members, and required much technical skill. Punk was abrasive, fast, easy and passionate.

The sound very much shared the DIY ethic of the look, which encouraged people to just stand out and make a noise.

Many of the bands spoke that their songs were about the social state of affairs at the time, a social commentary if you

will.

Some songs also seemed to have a political edge, like the song "White Riot" by The Clash, which was trying to encourage

white youths to find a worthy reason to rebel and riot, like the black people had.

Cultural Influence

The cultural influence behind the punk scene is immense, and has had a big impact on modern music of today.

By the time Punk hit the 80's in America, it had evolved into a new sub-genre known as Hardcore Punk, which shared

a lot of the same ideals and sounds of earlier Punk. However, Hardcore Punk was generally even faster and more aggressive.

It was this sub-genre that heavily influenced other genres such as:

• Thrash Metal - (which took elements of the aggression and speed of Hardcore Punk and mixing it with the more complex musicianship of Metal)
• Grunge - (slowed down Hardcore Punk and made it even heavier, but keeping the anti-establishment ethics)

I shall finish this blog now with showing a couple of videos to demonstrate some of the point I have made.

("Anarchy In The UK" by The Sex Pistols, video provided by "Willamato")

("White Riot" by The Clash, video provided by "Tomorrettisgay")

(an example of Hardcore Punk, "Rise Above" by Black Flag. Video provided by "BlackFlagMusic")

(an example of Thrash Metal, "Panic" by Anthrax. Video provided by "SlaytanicMetalforce")

(An example of Grunge, "Flower" by Soundgarden. Video provided by "grungeisdead371")

80's Blog - Rap

Rap Blog

This is my 80’s blog. I had a choice of five genres to write about, which were:

• Rap
• Glam Metal
• 80’s Pop (an over view of pop music from the 80’s)
• New Romantics
• Two Tone

I have chosen to write about Rap. I will give an overview of Rap, from the origins, significant artists, musical and lyrical style, and where it went onto.

Origins

Rap originated in the east side of America in the state Pennsylvania, the roots go back specificly to the city of Philadelphia.

The scene would become a reaction against popular music at the time. The music industry was dominated by what could be described as ‘white peoples music’, specificly Rock music.

The black people at the time felt alienated, there was no music to call their own. By that time Soul music and the general Motown scene was dying out.

The Rap Scene Develops

The beginnings of the Rap scene started with parties that were generally known as ‘block parties’. These parties were held on public concrete slabs. A group would gather, bringing a generator and a P.A. system, seeing as these parties were not authorized, they were often shut down by police.

(an example of a modern block party, uploaded by ‘openbarmusic’)

Bands would play at these parties, but that quickly evolved into DJ’s bringing a set of decks, playing songs for people to dance along to. DJ’s would have a mic with them to introduce the songs, and to get the crowd going. However, with the evolution of decks, and the ability to switch almost instantly to another song, the role of getting the crowd going was passed over to a second person, known as an MC.

DJ’s started mixing parts of songs together, giving the MC a backing to rap over, this was how the art of rapping first started.

Commonly mistaken is that block parties only happened in Philadelphia, they in fact happened at various locations in America. It is also mistakenly believed that the only people who were rapping came from Philadelphia. In fact, a small number of groups were doing it in Britain as well. However, at the time, it was very underated.

Lyrical Style

The Lyrics in Rap can be defined as being confrontational, as is the vocal style. A trait that may have been inspired by the Punk scene of Britain in the 70’s.

Lyrics would commonly be of a social or political commentary nature.

An example of the confrontational aspects of Rap is the artist ‘N.W.A’, (it is known that the enitials stand for ‘Niggers With Attitude’). Their debut album ‘Straight Outta Compton’ caused a lot of controversy, due to the violent lyrical content of the album.

(‘Straight Outta Compton’, the lead single from the album of the same name by ‘N.W.A’. Uploaded by ‘Sohail7654321’.)

Some of the contempories of the scene include:

· Public Enemy

· Grandmaster Flash (know for their very political lyrics)

· Run DMC

MTV Controversy

When MTV started in 1981, it started off by only playing music by white people, which upset many black artists.

It was a couple of years before music by a black artist would feature on the channel.

The first black artist to feature on MTV was Michael Jackson with ‘Billie Jean’. This opened the door for many other black artists to appear on the channel.

('Billie Jean' by Michael Jackson, uploaded by 'HDOwnage')

Popularity Rise

As Rap started to hit the mainstream, white artists started to jump on the bandwagon. One of the most famous early all white Rap groups is the ‘Beastie Boys’.

The fact that the Beastie Boys were white didn’t change the lyrical content. The lyrics of the Beastie Boys were equally a social commentary as their black contempories.

Music videos would equally be a social commentary, an example would be the music video of ‘No Sleep Till Brooklyn’ by the Beastie Boys, which was a sly dig at the music industries tendancy of only playing Glam Metal, particularly MTV with music videos.

(‘No Sleep Till Brooklyn’ by the Beastie Boys, uploaded by ‘TheBeastieBoysVEVO’)

Despite videos being quite often a commentary of some kind, some artists had a tendancy to make videos humerous as well.

Rap Of Today

Although starting in the 80’s, Rap still has a big part in society today, with more and more artists appearing as the years go by (of both black and white ethnicity).

Some of the artists of today include:

· Eminem

· 50 Cent

· Timbaland

· Jay-Z

90’s Blog

This is my blog for the 90’s genre, the genre that I have chosen to write about is Grunge.

The Grunge scene originated in the northwest of America, in the state of Washington (Seattle to be specific).

Seattle was a rather wet place to live, with the weather being mostly rainy and cold. As a result of that, the fashions associated with Grunge weren't born out of being fashion conscious, but actually had the humble origins of just keeping the wearer warm, a lot of the businesses in Seattle were based around logging, as such, warm clothing was needed for the cold and rainy climate of Seattle.

Common clothing included things like:

• Plaid flannel shirts
• Jeans (commonly worn out)
• Old boots

Seattle is a rather small place in comparison of the rest of America, so it was rather cut off from outside influence culturally.

A lot of the music that inspired the genre were inspired by the ethos of local Hardcore Punk bands, the economy was poor, and people had just seen the back end of Ronald Reagan’s run as President. As a result, a lot of the topics that inspired the Grunge scene communicated the youths disdain of the political state of the country.

Despite the lack of much outside influence, another inspiration were British Metal and NWOBM, with bands like Black Sabbath and Motörhead been referred to as an influence in interviews. The instrumentation of Grunge followed that of its influences, such as:

• Guitar - (often downtuned and raw like Hardcore Punk. However, featuring the heaviness from the Metal influences)

• Vocals - (the vocal style depended on the singer generally, there were differences between them. For example, Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder shared similar vocal styles, a quite raspy voice that came from the throat. Another example would be Chris Cornell, who had a Classic Rock influenced voice which quite clear, with a wide vocal range. Generally the vocals were loud and passionate)

• Bass - (depending on the artist, the bass could be very punk influenced. However some bands, like Pearl Jam for example, had rhythm section which showed a slight Funk groove behind it)

• Drums - (like the bass, the drum style depended on the band. Nirvana's most well known drummer Dave Grohl had a hard hitting approach influenced by Hardcore Punk. On the other end of that was Matt Cameron from Soundgarden and later Pearl Jam, who payed more attention to technical ability, and showed influences from Jazz and Funk drumming)

By the mid 1980’s a lot of the early bands of the scene started forming and playing shows in small clubs and house parties. By the time August of 1985 came a long, some of the early pioneers of Grunge came together to record a compilation album named ‘Deep Six’, which was released March the following year. Some of the bands featured on this compilation included:

• The Melvins
• The U-Men
• Malfunkshun
• Green River
• Soundgarden

(Note: The album helped raise some awareness of the band Soundgarden, who would later end up as one of the more commercially successful of the Grunge bands).

Grunge bands were known to be anti-mainstream, the band Mother Love Bone were a major influence on the genre hitting the mainstream.

They were fronted by Andrew Wood, who was popular in the Seattle area.

They recorded the album ‘Apple’, which was thought to have been the first really big selling Grunge album. However, just a few days before the release of the album, Andrew Wood died of a heroin overdose.

His death caused huge shock, and suddenly the atmosphere behind the scene changed, people stopped thinking of themselves as invulnerable. Unfortunately, Andrew Wood’s was the first of many deaths involved in Grunge, others include Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, and Layne Staley of Alice in Chains.

Chris Cornell of Soundgarden contacted Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard of Mother Love Bone about an album in Andrew Wood’s honour. Chris Cornell had been his roommate, so he was deeply effected by his death.

Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard were wanting to start up a new band, which eventually became Pearl Jam, Eddie Vedder auditioned for the band, and while he was there, ended up doing backing vocals for some of the songs off of the ‘Temple of the Dog’ album, one song in particular that should be noted is ‘Hunger Strike’, which became a duet between Chris Cornell and EddieVedder, this secured Eddie Vedder’s role in Pearl Jam.

('Hunger Strike' by Temple of the Dog, from their self titled album, uploaded by 'uncnick157')

Afterwards, Pearl Jam started touring and writing material, and released their first album in 1991.

In the late 80’s, more bands became active. That band that would become Nirvana got together in 1987, and released ‘Bleach’, their first album. Like many Grunge bands, they were signed to the indie label ‘Sub Pop’, owned by Jonathan Poneman and Bruce Pavitt, up until 1991, when they were signed to ‘David Geffen Records’. Through them, they released their second album, which blasted the genre, and Nirvana, into the mainstream.

In 1991, Nirvana released ‘Nevermind’, which unexpectedly went mainstream very quickly, the title track ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ become known as the anthem for a generation, and Kurt Cobain, the singer and guitarist was reluctantly given the title ‘the Godfather of Grunge’, I would say a big part of the success of the album would be the very pop hooks in the songs, with songs like ‘In Bloom’ and ‘Lithium’ becoming fan favorites.

('In Bloom' by Nirvana, this is the version released on Sub Pop, before Nirvana signed to DGR, note Chad Channing on drums, uploaded by 'numbernintynine')

However, Kurt Cobain struggled with a heroin problem for the next few years, and after releasing another two albums (Incesticide and In Utero), he tragically killed himself in 1994 through a shotgun wound to the head, his death was a major contribution to the downfall of Grunge, and soon after, many of the mainstream bands either fell from the spotlight, or split up.

Bands like Soundgarden, Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam have gone on to inspire artists like Nickelback, Puddle of Mudd, 3 Doors Down and Kings of Leon, who play in the genre of "Post Grunge", which came after the Grunge explosion.

Most prominent influences would be in the vocals, which feature the raspy throaty passion of singers like Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder. And the guitar, which would feature a similar, but more commercial variation on the thrashy powerchord sequences, and heavy guitar riffs. What I mean by more commercial is that the recordings by these Post Grunge bands normally have a much cleaner production behind them.