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The History

and Progression of

Rock Music

Norman E. Regus

The History

and Progression of

Rock Music 1st Edition

Norman E. Regus

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except where permitted by law. Copyright © 2021 by Norman E. Regus Published by Four Notes Publishing, Inc. New York, NY 10004 Printed in the United States of America

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Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1: Seeds of Rock and Roll 3

Chapter 2: Rock and Roll Explosion / Rock Pioneers 20

Chapter 3: The British Invasion 35

Chapter 4: American Counterculture and Avant-Garde 78

Chapter 5: From Psychedelia to Hard Rock 88

Chapter 6: Progressive Rock 101

Chapter 7: Punk Rock 117

Chapter 8: 1980s: Lennon, New Wave, Live Aid, 128

and Heavy Metal

Chapter 9: 1990s part 1: Grunge/Rap Metal/mp3 152

Chapter 10: 1990s Part 2: Globalization and the Internet 166

Naptser / Singer Songwriters

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Introduction

Before Rock Music there was Rock and Roll Music: Bill Haley and The Comets “rocking around the clock,” Elvis shaking his pelvis to “nothing but a hound dog,” Chuck Berry’s guitar riffing “go Johnny go go go,” and Little Richard waling and banging the keys, while assuring everyone that, with this music, we’re certainly “gonna have some fun tonight.” But why was the roll dropped from rock and roll? Did Elvis leave the building for good? Did it stop rolling? Well, it depends on how you define rolling, but the music certainly evolved. In fact, facilitated by the growth of technology and telecommunication, the music spread worldwide and sprouted a myriad of styles so diversified that a single stylistic term, such as rock and roll, was no longer suitable. As such, the name rock and roll was kept to describe the music made during the first fifteen or so years of the rock era (roughly the 1950s to the early 1960s), and the entire genre simply became rock music; an umbrella term covering rock and roll and the multiple rock sub-genres that have emerged since the mid-1960s, many of which often include an adjective, such as Hard Rock, Country Rock, Pop Rock, Progressive Rock, Punk Rock, etc. Rock and roll was born in the United States, as were all its musical ancestors, which includes the parents - the blues and country music, and many uncles and aunts - gospel, boogie-woogie, jazz, bluegrass, and folk music, essentially an integration of European and African musical traditions. In the beginning, rock 'n' roll represented a type of dance music derived from African American rhythm and blues (R&B). However, the main innovation of the music, of which the singer Elvis Presley (1935–1977) and songwriter-guitarist Chuck Berry (1926-2017) were consummate examples in the early years, was in recombining certain features of African American blues and jazz sounds with other sounds taken from the white tradition of country and folk songs. While compiling and researching material for this book, decisions of which musicians would be included and excluded became a challenging task. Instead of incorporating as many rock bands as possible within the confines of a book, which would have made it a dictionary, I decided to focus on selected musical groups that have made outstanding and innovative contributors in their rock sub-genre. For reasons of scope and purpose, I regrettably could not include every group that would qualify, and perhaps some readers will be displeased to find that one of their favorite bands has not been featured. Then came an even more arduous undertaking: what bands or artists qualify as rock music. In some cases, this was a gratuitous decision, with groups such as The Who, and Led Zeppelin for example, but with some eclectic bands, where there was an equal amount or rock with pop, or rhythm and blues, or classical music, or rap, etc., the categorization ultimately became subjective. Dictionary definitions of rock music tend to be general, if not vague. Several suggest that “rock is a kind of music with simple tunes and a very strong beat that is played and sung, usually loudly, by a small group of people with electric guitars and drums,” but there are so many exceptions to this description that it is basically useless. The issue of what is or isn’t rock music is still a topic of contention in some circles but building a dividing line between rock and other popular “rock” music types would be akin to putting the theory before the practice. Instead, we can accept rock

The History and Progression of Rock Music

as a musical genre with common roots in the Blues and Country music with a continually progressing list of conditions, or criteria, of musical, cultural, and commercial/business practices. And to better define these criteria (to explain, what is rock?), one must not only understand the music, but its origins, and the cultural and socio-economic conditions that made it possible. In summary, Rock and Roll was the first type of rock music, and is specifically defined:

A type of popular dance music originating in the 1950s, characterized by a heavy

beat and simple melodies. Rock and roll is an amalgam of black rhythm and blues and white country music, usually based around a twelve-bar blues structure

combined with blues song-forms. The instrumentation consisted of upright bass or electric bass, drum kit, rhythm guitar, and solo electric guitar; sometimes the

saxophones and/or the piano were included. The style spread all over the world. -Oxford Dictionary of Music

Popular music usually played on electronically amplified instruments and

characterized by a persistent heavily accented beat, repetition of simple phrases, and often country, folk, and blues elements. -Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Rock music is an umbrella term and is generally defined:

A form of popular music that evolved from rock and roll and pop music during the mid and late 1960s. The typical instrumental line-up consists of Guitar, Bass, Drums, and sometimes Keyboards. Harsher and often self-consciously more

serious than its predecessors, it was initially characterized by musical

experimentation or socially conscious lyrics. -Oxford Dictionary of Music.

A specific definition of a particular style (or sub-genre) of rock music will thus require its own description, for example: hard rock will mention high volume, aggressiveness, distorted electric guitar, heavy drums, and vocals that are often forcefully hoarse, or screaming, and commonly in the high register, progressive rock will include musical virtuosity, classical music, conceptual lyrics, avant-garde, structurally complex, etc.

The History and Progression of Rock Music may be used as an introductory text for college-level courses on the history rock music, designed for non-music majors who do not necessarily have a background or training in music. However, this book can also be of value to musicians as well as general readers interested in a wide-scale introduction on the topic. The objective is to present the reader with a detailed study of popular music with enough rock DNA to be considered rock music, and the musicians that bring it to life. It is my hope that the students will not only attain a deeper appreciation of the rich creativity of this music, its cultural foundation, and business models, but that they will also draw parallels with their field of study, inspiring and increasing their own

original perspectives and contributions.

Norman E. Regus Brooklyn, New York

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Chapter 1

Seeds of Rock and Roll

The Blues

The blues is an American music originating in the Southern middle states between the years 1865 and 1900. In origin, the expression “the blues” refers to a state of melancholy or hopelessness and may have originated from the saying “having a fit of the blue devils,” meaning sadness and depression. Blues music evolved from the work songs, shouts, and field hollers sung by slaves in plantation fields and prison camps. Work songs to accompany daily jobs and tasks were a functional part of African daily life, serving to make the work experience flow better as well a positive one. In the United States however, the very nature of the work song changed, as the singer was no longer doing work for himself but for someone else; the work no longer improved his quality of life. Ultimately, the songs became personal expressions of pain and oppression,

becoming a catharsis for feelings of struggle, lost love, poverty, jealousy, and hard times.

After the Civil War, freed slaves began traveling through the South, looking for employment but lacking any specific job skills other than those of a common worker. As the newly enacted Jim

Crow laws and racial oppression became commonplace, life became increasingly bleak for many of them. The Jim Crow laws were a collection of state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation. Named after a Black minstrel show character, the laws—which existed for about 100 years, from the post-Civil War era until 1968—were meant to marginalize African Americans by denying them the right to vote, hold jobs, get an education or other opportunities. Those who attempted to defy Jim Crow laws often faced arrest, fines, jail sentences, violence, and death. Singing in work camps, street corners, juke joints, and preaching for food and tips was one of the

The History and Progression of Rock Music

few work options available to a black man in which he wasn’t directly working for the white man; many of the first blues singers were former preachers, such as Son House (1902-88), Big Bill

Broonzy (1893-1958), and Blind Wille Johnson (1897-1945).

The music

The archetypal blues song is an improvised solo song, with the (male) singer accompanying himself on the steel-string acoustic guitar, or banjo, occasionally using a burnished bottleneck (or slide) to mimic the emotive wail of the vocal style. The solo singer was sometimes joined by one or more companions on harmonica (commonly referred to as a "harp"), a second guitar, or percussion sticks called "bones." A melodic characteristic of the blues is the blue note: a note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch that the actual scale note (usually the 3rd or 5th note of the scale) for expressive purposes. Blue notes are frequently sung or played by sliding a pitch up and down a microtone or a half step, a technique musicians call “bending” the notes.

The form of the lyric is traditionally a three-line stanza forming an A-A-B pattern: The first line, “A,” is repeated by the second line, and the third line, “B,” is a new lyric, and provides closure or a response to the “A” lines. The A-A-B stanza is musically accompanied by a harmonic (or chord) progression known as the 12-bar blues (or blues changes). The term "12-bar" refers to the number of measures, or musical bars, used for each A-A-B stanza of a standard blues song. Blues music is most commonly played to a 4/4 time signature, meaning that there are four beats in every measure. The 12-bar blues pattern is divided into three four-bar segments, each segment corresponding to a line of the lyric. The I chord covers the first four bars, followed by two bars of the IV chord and two bars of the I chord. The final four bars start with the V chord and then can proceed to the IV and/or the I chord. The complete 12-bar blues pattern is then repeated for

the next stanza.

The example below, “Don’t Throw Your Love on Me so Strong,” by T-Bone Walker, demonstrates the juxtaposition of the lyric’s A-A-B format with the 12-Bar Blues chord progression:

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Prominent Blues musicians

Considered by many as the originator of the blues, William Christopher Handy (1873-1958) called himself the “father of the blues.” Prohibited by his father, a conservative pastor, from playing the guitar (an instrument often associated with the devil, as well as the poor), Handy chose the cornet. In 1908 he cofounded the first African American-owned publishing house with Harry Pace. Handy’s blues were largely shaped by African American folk practice. His greatest hit was the song “St. Louis Blues” (1912), which has been recorded by numerous artists and became the first blues song to attain success as a pop

song.

Huddie William Ledbetter (1888-1949), commonly known as Leadbelly, was a singer of blues and American folk music distinguished for his brilliance on the twelve-string guitar and his powerful vocals. He developed the practice of presenting his songs with spoken introductions to

The History and Progression of Rock Music

offer his listeners some background information of the song’s subject matter, a tradition that later became a standard feature of the urban folk revival of the 1940s-60s.

Aaron Thibeaux “T-Bone” Walker (1910-1975) was a blues pioneer and innovator of the jump blues (an up-tempo style of blues that also featured horn instruments). He defined the genre with his groundbreaking use of early electric guitars, the first to make a guitar wail, cry out and buckle under the weight of his emotion. He has influenced the likes of B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix, who imitated Walker's trick of playing the guitar with his teeth.

Robert Leroy Johnson (1911-1938)

was a blues guitarist and songwriter that became a master of the Delta blues style (an early style of blues that originated in the Mississippi Delta and considered a variant of country blues). Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards said, "You want to know how good the blues can get? Well, this is it." An important feature of Johnson's singing was his use of microtonality (musical intervals smaller than a semitone, or half-step). These subtle inflections of pitch help enriched his singing in conveying great emotion. Eric Clapton described Johnson's delivery as "the most

powerful cry that I think you can find in the human voice".

“Big” Joe Turner (1911-1985) was a singer of the blues, jazz, swing, boogie-woogie, and rock and roll. According to American blues singer and songwriter Doc Pomus, “Rock and roll would have never happened without him.” His greatest fame was due to his rock-and-roll recordings in the 1950s, particularly “Shake, Rattle and Roll," but he maintained and active career from the 1920s into the 1980s

The History and Progression of Rock Music

McKinley Morganfield (1913-1983), famously known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who is frequently acknowledged as the "father of modern Chicago blues". One of the distinguishing features of the Chicago Blues is the prominent use of electrified instruments, especially the electric guitar and the use of electronic effects such as distortion and overdrive.

Chicago blues was one of the most important influences on early rock music in America and later in England, shaping both the British blues and the some of the first hard rock bands

such as the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and Led Zeppelin.

Boogie-Woogie

Boogie Woogie legend Albert Ammons

Boogie-woogie is a type of high-spirited piano-based blues as well as a dance (typically an improvised couple dance). The music is characterized by an arpeggiated bass figuration, almost always using the 12-bar format of the blues, with independent right-hand improvisation. It originated in the Southern black communities during the 1920s, becoming quite popular from the late 1930s through the 1950s. Its moods range from the soft blues of Jimmy Yancey to the stomping duets of Albert Ammons. ‘Pine Top’ Smith is generally credited as the first to use the title in Pine Top's Boogie Woogie (1928). Composers have taken advantage of Boogie-woogie’s adaptability for arrangements of popular songs, such as “Swanee River,” cleverly done by Albert Ammons as “Swanee River Boogie.”

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Gospel Music

A focus on emotionality and a harmonically complex and dominant vocal style characterized the second vital Black root of rock and roll, the religious music called gospel. Gospel music developed in the depression of the 1930s from the fusion of Protestant hymn harmony with African rhythms and melody from the traditional spirituals that had been a part of black religious culture since slavery. The music is powerfully expressive, often using a call-and-response technique, with a choir answering a soloist/preacher, as well as handclapping, melodic improvisation, a persistent beat, and percussive instruments. Sub-genres include contemporary gospel, Southern gospel and modern gospel (commonly known as contemporary Christian music). Gospel expresses faith in Christian life though praise and/or worship and emphasizes the ‘good news’ aspect of revivalist Christianity. In the Southern states, slaves began to worship in secret places, in defiance of the laws that prohibited them from assembly without white supervision. The clandestine gatherings, known as Invisible Churches, made it possible for slaves to freely worship and express their faith through music and dancing, while reexamining Christianity to fit their own truth without punishment from their slave owners. The transformations that began to take place, feeling free and human, was a great source of strength and peace, and it was from this environment that black Gospel evolved.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Selected Gospel artists from the first half of the 20th Century

A self-taught street entertainer, Reverend Gary Davis (a.k.a. as Blind Gary Davis) (1896-1972) sang songs that accented his powerful and spiritual voice. Blind since infancy, Davis is also known as “Blind Gary Davis,” which did not hamper his career but perhaps made it even more rousing. He was proficient playing the banjo and guitar with a fingerpicking style that caught the attention of members of The Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan, who recorded several of his songs.

Known as the “Father of Gospel Music,” Thomas Dorsey (1899-1993) was an influential evangelist who was also the co-founder of the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses. Dorsey, whose background was in jazz, was prominent in developing the original gospel chorus, highly influenced by tabernacle songs and the blues. Dorsey’s blues influence on gospel

music led to the birth of modern gospel music that is associated with “black churches.”

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972) was called the “Queen of Gospel.” Her career peaked during a difficult time in history when racial segregation was widespread throughout the United States. Jackson’s gifted and expressive voice enthralled audiences both in the US and throughout the world. When she released the song “Move On Up A Little Higher,” she became the first gospel singer to sell a million copies, opening the doorway for gospel music and the artists. She sold 22

million records over an astonishing career that spanned over 40 years.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

The Dude Ranchers (left to right: Jackie Herbert, Eddie Zack, Harold Arlen, & Wimpy Matteson)

Country Music Many of the European Immigrants that arrived in America settled in the Appalachian region of Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia, an area that was inadvertently ideal for the preservation of this music tradition, as the rural and isolated mountainous surrounding obstructed contact with the outside world. Traditional rural music in America evolved largely from the folk music brought by these immigrants, who were primarily British. Their traditional folk music included songs that usually tell a story (ballads), songs of love (Lyric songs), and railroad songs, lumber songs, and sea shanties (work songs). By the early 1900s, city residents began to contemptuously call the poor inhabitants of this region hillbillies, and the simple folk music they played hillbilly music. Slowly but surely, the songs’ original meanings were forgotten, and singers adapted them to their new environment. The European settlers also brought their instruments to the New World, and unlike blues musicians who ultimately accepted the use of electric instruments, rural and folk musicians continued to use the traditional acoustic instruments from the Old World, such as the fiddle, acoustic guitar, and banjo. During the early years of the 20th century, other acoustic instruments such as the mandolin, string bass, autoharp, and steel guitar were also used.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Hank Williams (with hat), and his band “The Drifting Cowboys”

Honky-Tonk has two different definitions: a cheap bar where country music is played (often in a slightly out-of-tune piano known as a honky-tonk piano), and the type of music played at these establishments. The songs are typically tawdry in character, dealing largely with drinking, cheating and love battles. These crowded saloons tend to get louder as the drinking increases and the night grows long, and to be heard above the noise, the musicians resorted to a louder sound by including drums, electric guitar, and electric pedal steel guitar, and as a result, modernizing country music and foreshadowing the sound of the first rock-and-roll style, rockabilly. One of the leading figures of the honky-tonk style was Hiram “Hank” Williams (1923-1953), who would become known as the “Father of Modern Country Music.” He grew up poor in Alabama, listened to and played with blues artists, learned guitar from a Black street musician, and finally left home to perform as a country singer. Williams' songs cataloged the spectrum of experiences and emotions in the everyday lives of ordinary people. His straightforward accounts of lost love, sexual infidelity, and hard drinking were atypical of the song subjects then available to white audiences, typically positive love-struck fantasy tales. Although Williams' audience was generally perceived to be southern and white, he also had a substantial Black audience. Williams had a poetic flair for catchy melodies and wrote some of the most famous tunes in country music history, including “Hey Good Lookin?,” “Cold, Cold Heart,” and “Your Cheatin’ Heart.” His country string band included the fiddle, acoustic and electric guitars, steel guitar, and bass. Although his recording career was brief, lasting only six years (1946-1952), the proliferation of the radio and increased record sales catapulted Williams and country music in general to great commercial success, with 11 of his records selling a million copies or more. Unfortunately, his growing alcoholism mirrored that of his growing fame, and his life began to rapidly decline. He died of alcohol intoxication in the back seat of a car on the way to a gig on January 1, 1953, he was 29.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

The United States after World War II

A 1950s American family watching TV in their home.

During the years after World War II, roughly from 1945-1973, America experienced an extraordinary period of economic growth, which was later called the Golden Age of Capitalism. As a result, there was a dramatic expansion of the middle class, the quality of life was the best in the world, and household items and consumer goods such as refrigerators and televisions went from being extravagances to necessities. Many teenagers did not need to work to support their families and consequently had more free time. American consumers were ready to spend their money on everything from high-priced items like homes, cars and furniture to appliances, clothing, and everything else in between. - Electricity was generated for the first time by a nuclear reactor on December 20, 1951 - The Gross Domestic Product increased from $228 billion in 1945 to $1.7 trillion in 1975. - The number of TV sets in the United States grew from less than 10,000 to 60 million. - Computers, still a novelty at the time, were becoming faster and more compact. - The polio vaccine was developed by Dr. Jonas Salk (large-scale use starting in 1954) - The introduction of the transistor radio (1954) - The Microwave was invented by Percy Spencer (1945)

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Perhaps the most impactful lifestyle changes after 1945 was the nation’s dependence on the automobile. New car sales quadrupled between 1945 and 1955, and by the end of the 1950s over 70% of households owned at least one car, drastically changing the model of the American lifestyle. In 1965, the nation’s automobile industry reached its peak, producing 11.1 million new cars, trucks and buses and accounting for one out of every six U.S. jobs. With more leisure time, new Interstate highways and cars, American families took more road trips and vacations than ever before. The 1950s also witnessed the expansion of the lodging industry, led by the Holiday Inn in 1952, the opening of Disneyland and the “fast-food-boom” with Burger King, McDonald’s, Denny’s, Wendy’s, and many others making their debut, all of which accommodated our new and fast-paced existence which was, for better or worse, about to become the new American way life.

Teenagers of Post-War America

Never in the history of the United States had there been such a great Generation Gap between the parents and children of the post-war years, starting around the mid-1950’s and peaking during the late 1960s. Naturally, distinctions between parents and their kids have always existed, but from their clothes, hairstyles, lingo, political orientation, the music they liked, and more, these two generations were, as the expression goes, from “different planets.” Unlike their parents, who had lived through the severe economic collapse known as the Great Depression (1929-39), and the ravages of World War II, the teenagers of this time grew up during a relatively peaceful and affluent period. They were the first in U.S. history that didn’t have to work to help support their family, and many of them took after-school jobs to earn and spend their own money. The prosperity of the time afforded teenagers a unique and collective buying power, transforming them as a major consumer group. Aware of this growing disconnect of values and lifestyle between them and their kids, many parents began having serious concerns and suspicions. While these times were relatively peaceful, it had its dose of anxiety.

In 1954, The U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision held unconstitutional separate-but-equal school segregation, adding fuel to the civil rights movement. The next year, citizens in Montgomery, Alabama, led by Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., executed a successful boycott to desegregate the municipal bus system. The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, with atomic bombs and nuclear annihilation as a real possibility, created a passionate anticommunism sentiment and a pervasive paranoia in America, leading the US House of Representatives to create a committee, known as the House Un-American Committee (HUAC), to investigate subversive actions and disloyalty in private citizens, businesses, and organizations, suspected of having either communist or fascist connections. There was the fear that Soviet spies were attempting to undermine the United States politically by infiltrating and brainwashing the culture. Most adults were so acutely affected by World War II and the Cold War that they failed to realize how much they had neglected their kids. Many Parents seemed only aware of the consequences and were critically dismissive of a generation that had too much free time, too much money and lacked responsibility. And believed that perhaps, even this crude and primitive music that the kids were turning on to, this rock and roll with its undercurrent of rebellion, was a morally

The History and Progression of Rock Music

disruptive influence. The teens in turn felt misunderstood, and in many cases, not taken serious by most adults, and the gap between them widened.

For adults who felt teens had too much free time, the biblical expression “Idle hands are the devil’s playground” (when one has nothing to do, one is more likely to get in trouble) was being proven. Many teens were if fact feeling alienated and purposeless, not only due to the superfluous free time but also from living in the isolated suburbs, watching hours of television, and parents who didn’t really listen. As a natural consequence, teens were soon identifying with role models they could relate to, that shared their feelings of isolation, of being misunderstood, and that represented an alternative to the rigid and restrictive environment of the 1950s. They embraced the Beat Generation poets, which included Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsburg, and William S. Burroughs; Holden Caulfield from J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye; and movie stars such as Marlon Brando and James Dean, whose movie characters were often troubled and rebellious young men in popular films such as in the 1955 movie Rebel Without a Cause starring James Dean and Natalie Wood. In the movie, Jim Stark (played by Dean) is an emotionally tangled middle-class teenager who feels betrayed by his relentlessly arguing parents, but more so by his father’s failure to stand up for him when he needed him to. This movie was one of the first to present matters of alienation and hopelessness from the vantagepoint of the teen instead of the adult. Many teens on the 1950s-60s identified with Jim Stark, and many idolized James Dean, with his raw, carefree, and charismatic coolness, as a symbol of the new generation. Even though Dean lived a short life (he tragically died in a car crash at the age of 24), and only starred in 3 films with a credited part, his influence impacted other young movie stars, as well as a young singer by the name of Elvis Presley. And Elvis Presly meant Rock and Roll.

Unlike all prior generations, rock and roll was the music of the youth, particularly teenagers. For the first time in American popular music, the dominant genre was the one the kids were listening to, dancing to, and buying the records of. It was their rebel yell against the restrictive American culture of the 1950s (represented by their parents and the social norms of the time), and like the musicians behind the music, it was their voice of freedom, self-determination, and identity. Rock and roll music was also a rebellion against the centralized popular music industry which, until the mid- 20th century, was largely controlled by a business based in New York City and designed to appeal to the largest demographic (white, middle-class adults). Coming from the Southern and middle states, Rock and roll was distinctly more rural and lower class, more African American, largely concerned with the issues and attractions of the youth and projected a spirit of rebellion and independence which is still present today.

Record Labels Soon after the end of World War II to the mid-1950s, the pop music business was in a state of evolution. It was the beginning of the shift in popular music from the crooners (the singers of the parents, such as like Fran Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Nat King Cole) to the rockers (those of the kids, such as Bill Haley, Little Richard and Elvis Presley). The major record labels (the largest corporate record labels) continued to successfully promote mainstream artists such as Frank Sinatra, however, race music (a term that describes any records or songs by black artists, including the blues and what would later be known as Rhythm and Blues) and hillbilly music (the traditional music of the rural southern United States, with origins in English folk music, and the foundation of modern country music ) were becoming pretty popular.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

During the early 1950s the major record labels did not have any Rhythm and Blues artists on their labels. Around this same time, several small, independent record labels (small startup labels, also called Indies) emerged that specialized in making race and hillbilly records. Whenever an R&B or country record did become a hit, the major labels often quickly recorded a cover version by a pop singer who had a broad commercial appeal. These major label Covers (a new recording of a charting song that seeks to ‘cover’ up the original song) tended to be cleaned-up sterile versions of the originals, as anything that might offend the record buyers, such as any traces of ethnic vocal delivery or risqué lyrics, was not included. As a result, most covers ended up sounding sanitized and tacky. Initially, covers impeded commercial success for many R&B and country artists and their independent labels, but white teenagers soon started demanding the originals, and covers were no longer viable.

The Major Labels Columbia: 1885/New York RCA Victor: 1901/New York Decca: 1934/New York Capitol: 1942/Los Angeles Mercury: 1946/Chicago MGM: 1946/Hollywood

Independent Labels from

1945-1953 King: 1945/Cincinnati Modern: 1945/Los Angeles Imperial: 1945/Los Angeles Chess: 1947/Chicago Atlantic: 1948/New York Sun: 1953/Memphis

Alan Freed and the term “Rock and Roll”

Disc Jockey Alan Freed in Cleveland.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Born in Pennsylvania to a Russian Jewish father, and a Welsh American mother, Albert James

“Alan” Freed (1921-1965), became the most influential Disc Jockey (DJ) of the mid-1940s through the early 1960, and is credited with coining the term “Rock and Roll” as referring to a style of music. The actual term was a black euphemism for sex that had been around since at least 1922, when it appeared in the song “My Man Rocks Me with One Steady Roll” by Trixie Smith, but Freed popularized it as meaning a type of music, introducing the phrase on mainstream radio in the early 1950s. A recording that would have been known to Freed was the 1951 hit “Sixty Minute Man” by the Dominoes, which featured the lyric “ If your man ain’t treating you right, come up and see ol’ Dan, I rock ‘em, roll ‘em all night long, Im the sixty-minute man.” However, for Freed it was all about the music, as he rejected that meaning of expression in interviews, clarifying his use of the term as follows: "Rock 'n roll is really swing music with a modern name. It began on the levees and plantations, took in folk songs, and features blues and rhythm."

“Alan Freed had come out of Middle America in the mid-1950s, rising from $43-a-week obscurity in New Castle, Pa., to regional prominence in Akron, Ohio,

and later Cleveland. He took music that had been played only on black radio stations and sold in black neighborhoods - race music (or race records) it was

called – and played this black music for white kids. Freed played this music with an infectious on-the-air spirit, emphasizing the heavy backbeat by slamming a

telephone book with the palm of his hand, shouting encouragement to the frenzy of a tenor saxophone, clanging a cowbell. And somewhere between Akron and

Cleveland, he chose to label the sound with a term herd again and again in the bluntly sexual lyrics of rhythm and blues, in titles like “My Baby Rocks Me with a

Steady Roll,” or “All She Wants to Do Is Rock.” He called it Rock and Roll. It had a good beat. You could dance to it. The country was finding out in 1954 that Alan

Freed knew what the kids wanted to hear. Rock and roll conquered young white America that year.”

- Political commentator Jeff Greenfield. Reminiscences of his experiences as an adolescent in NYC during the 1050s. “’But Papa, It’s My Music, I Like It’” New York Times, 1971

Originally a classical and light pop disc jockey at a series of stations in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, in 1951 he took over the late-night Record Rendezvous show on Cleveland station WJW and turned it into a Rhythm and Blues (R&B) program after seeing first-hand how white teenagers enthusiastically bought these records at a local store during the early 1950s. Around 1950, Rhythm and Blues became the new term for Race Records. Freed soon noticed that increasing numbers of young white kids were requesting the rhythm and blues records he played on his Moondog Show nighttime program, records he began calling “rock and roll” records. The show was an enormous success. Through the blind medium of radio, Freed mixed records by black and white performers, and many listeners thought that Freed himself was African American. On the air he created an outlandish and wild character, often howling like a dog during his Moondog show.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Alan Freed with poster for the Moondog Coronation Ball. Courtesy of AP.

Encouraged by the program’s popularity, Freed’s next move was to promote the dance The Moondog Coronation Ball, that featured the same artists whose records he played. The event was set for the 10,000-seat Cleveland Arena in March 1952, but a near riot ensued as an overflow crowd of over 21,000 tried to get in, forcing the cancellation of the show. Subsequent concert attempts proved successful however, and Freed’s growing popularity led to his being hired by WINS in New York in September 1954. Freed named his new program The Rock and Roll Show and began calling himself “Mr. Rock and Roll”. Ratings for WINS soared, and Freed became immensely popular, briefly hosting The Big Beat, a television show on ABC, as well. However, on the fourth episode, the black singer, Frankie Lymon of Frankie and the Teenagers—who Freed was promoting as a solo act—was seen dancing with a white girl. Southern sponsors caused an uproar. When Freed refused a segregated booking policy, ABC immediately cancelled the show. But the worst was yet to come, as he soon became an easy target for a growing backlash against rock and roll by conservative and religious groups, as well as becoming the focus of a 1960 congressional investigation into the music business that ultimately ended his career.

Payola Like numerous DJs during the 1950s-60s, Freed supplemented his income behind the scenes, sometimes receiving songwriting credits for songs he had no part in writing, such as Chuck Berry's “Maybellene,” in exchange for airplay. Many labels also paid DJs in cash. Jerry Wexler, the president of Atlantic Records, said it “was what you called a normal business expense.” A widespread practice in the music industry, payola is the illegal practice of paying a commercial radio station to play a song without the station disclosing the payment. Under US law, a radio station must disclose songs they were paid to play on the air as sponsored airtime. Payola became the subject of a US Senate subcommittee investigation in April 1960, who called upon Freed to testify. Though others, including American Bandstand host Dick Clark, were guilty of the same

The History and Progression of Rock Music

practices, Freed became a scapegoat, with many sources believing that the ruling white establishment, threatened by the growing recognition of rock and roll, played a role in his blacklisting. The punishment was only a small fine, but Freed could not find work afterwards. He succumbed to alcoholism five years later at the young age of 43. In 1986 Freed was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

A plaque in Ohio memorializing Alan Freed and the birth of Rock and Roll.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Chapter 2

The Rock and Roll Explosion

Rockabilly was an early 1950s music style that combined rhythm and blues, hillbilly boogie, bluegrass music and country music, essentially a combination of Rock and Hillbilly music (Rock -a-billy). Originating in the Southern United States, rockabilly is considered the first type of rock and roll; the songs are up-tempo, often with a steady beat country-style guitar strumming, an upright bass slapping the strings against the fingerboard, creating a percussive sound, and

incorporating the 12-bar blues harmonic pattern.

Elvis Presley’s early recordings at Sun Records are all examples of rockabilly songs, such as his cover of “That’s Alright Mama (1954),” with his rhythm and blues / note-bending singing style accompanied by a country western instrumental arrangement. Upon first hearing the song on the radio, many listeners not familiar with Elvis, assumed he was African American. Other outstanding rockabilly artists include Bill Haley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and Buddy Holly, all of which put their own stamp into their type of Rockabilly and some that later moved on to other styles.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Backbeats

One of the most distinguishing ingredients of rock music is the backbeat, the accented stroke that you hear on beats 2 and 4. You can hear examples of backbeats in early jazz, and bebop, but only near the end of a song, usually the climatic point. By the end of the 1940s, some early R&B recordings, most famously “Good Rockin’ Tonight” by Wynonie Harris, started incorporating backbeats from start to finish, and it worked, as kids preferred dancing to a heavier beat, and kept “Good Rockin’” at the top of the charts for six straight months. Ever since then, continuous backbeats became a defining element in rock and every other pop style to emerge thereafter, becoming the new normal. Hearing a pop or rock song today without a backbeat will sound very

odd to our ears.

The Rock Pioneers

Bill Haley (1921-1981)

Bill Halley & The Comets. The country origins of this Rock and Roll band are evident from their instrumentation, as

seen above, which included the accordion (far left), the upright bass 9on the floor), and the steel guitar (far right).

Bill Haley started his music career as a country artist, but along with his country band the Saddlemen, but responding to the increasing demand by white teenagers for more rhythm and blues music, they soon began covering R&B songs, including “Rocket 88”and “Rock the Joint,” the later which impressed Alan Freed who started promoting the song on his radio show. Soon after, Bill Haley and his band transformed their cowboy look to a more contemporary R&B image,

The History and Progression of Rock Music

with some of the band members often jumping and whirling during their performances. Hey also changed their name to Bill Haley and the Comets. Haley singed with Decca Records in 1954, and recorded a cover of Joe Turner’s “Shake, Rattle and Roll” (with sanitized lyrics). The song hit #7 on the charts and sold over a million copies. Haley’s biggest hit was yet to come. On the same year, the Comets recorded “Rock Around the Clock,” which became their biggest hit and the first rock and roll record to reach #1 on the US charts. The song was included in the opening credits of the 1955 film, “Blackboard Jungle,” starring Glen Ford and Sidney Poitier. For its in topical content of racial integration and teenage rebellion, and the inclusion of rock and roll, in 2016 (61 years after its premiere!) the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Rock Around the Clock” sold over 20 million records, becoming Haley’s most famous song. The song made a return to American living rooms as the opening theme for the television sitcom Happy Days, which was highly successful and ran for 11 seasons starting in 1974. The show was 1950s throwback that featured actors Ron Howard as Richie Cunningham and Henry Winkler as “The Fonz.” In 1968, Haley and the Comets recorded a cover version of the 1957 song “Jingle Bell Rock” by Bobby Helms. Haley’s recording was intended as a seasonal release, but it was shelved by the record company and finally issued in the mid-1990s and has since become a well-known Christmas song.

Carl Perkins (1932-1998)

Carl Perkins (front-center) and his band

Carl Perkins, known as the “King of Rockabilly,” was a key player in the creation of the stye. As a young man, he started a honky tonk band with his brothers Jay and Clayton, and developed his original rockabilly style as a composer, singer, and guitarist. The title and theme for Perkins’ biggest hit was suggested by his friend and fellow singer Johnny Cash, who suggested that Perkins write a song based on an expression he had frequently heard while serving in the United States Air Force, “Don’t step on my blue suede shoes.” Soon after, Perkins wrote the song, recorded, and released it in December 1955. “Blue Suede Shoes” became one of the all-time classic rockabilly

The History and Progression of Rock Music

records as well as the first million-selling triple-play crossover song, hitting the top of the Country, R&B, and Pop charts. In March of 1956, while Perkins and his band were on the way to make their network TV debut on The Perry Como Show in New York, they were involved in a horrific car crash that almost killed them. It was reported that their car struck the back of a pickup truck and crashed into a ditch with water. Perkins, who was almost 24 at the time, was pulled from the water unconscious. He sustained three fractured vertebrae in his neck, a severe concussion, a broken collar bone, and multiple bruises and gashes throughout his body, remaining unconscious for one full day. The driver of the pickup truck, Thomas Phillips, a 40-year-old farmer, died when his body was thrown against the steering wheel. Carl’s brother Jay had a fractured neck and severe internal injuries, and two years he developed a malignant brain tumor and died in 1958. Perkins career struggled for several years after the accident, until his tour of England in 1964, when he was received as a rock idol, and was able to meet four lads who were big fans of his. “I sat on the couch with the Beatles sitting around me on the floor,” he later remembered. “At their request, I sang every song I had ever recorded. They knew each one. I was deeply flattered.” The Beatles showed their admiration by covering the Perkins songs “Everybody’s Tryin’ to Be My Baby” and “Honey Don’t” on their fourth album Beatles for Sale. Beatles guitarist and singer George Harrison, who sang the lead vocal on “Everybody’s Tryin’ to Be My Baby,” acknowledged Perkins and his guitar style as one of his greatest influences.

Jerry Lee Lewis (b. 1935)

Jerry Lee Lewis, like Carl Perkins, was from a poor family from the South. Growing up in a religious family (his cousin is tele-evangelist Jimmy Swaggart), Lewis was thrown out of Bible College his first night after tearing into a boogie-woogie version of “My God Is Real.” By the time he was 21, he had been married twice, done time in jail, and rejected by every record label he had auditioned for in Nashville. However, fortunately for Lewis, Sam Phillips, head of

Sun records in Memphis, saw his potential and gave him a chance. At Sun records, Lewis recorded “Whole Lotta Shakin’Going On,” which quickly hit #3 on the charts, as did his follow-up song “Great Balls of Fire,” which went to #2. Lewis’ career took a serious tumble when it was discovered that his third wife, Myra Gale Brown, was 13years old (Lewis was 23) and his second cousin. And to top the gossip scandal up, Lewis

The History and Progression of Rock Music

was not officially divorced from his second wife at the time. Both Britain and America had to save face and reject any future dealings with Lewis; he was banned from the Top 40 and cancelled from appearing on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. Nonetheless, he is one of rock and roll’s originals, and with his rebellious spirit, outrageous personality, lawlessness, and an ego that would often get him in dire straits (He nicknamed himself “The Killer”), some say that he is “the very essence of rock and roll.

Roy Orbison (1936-1988)

An early photo of Roy Orbison without his iconic sunglasses.

Roy Kelton Orbison was born in Texas to a working-class family. He was born with poor eyesight and used thick corrective lenses from an early age. He was self-conscious about his appearance and began dyeing his nearly white hair black when he was still young. He was quiet, modest, and remarkably polite and agreeable. When his father noticed Roy’s love of music, he gave him a guitar for his sixth birthday, which soon became the focus life. His favorite music as a kid was country music, and he particularly enjoyed the music of country artists Hank Williams, Moon

Mullican, and Jimmie Rodgers.

Like most white rockers of the time, Orbison started as a country singer. Initially he was performing under the management of Norman Petty (later Buddy Holly's manager), his break however came when his friend and fellow singer/performer Johnny Cash, then signed to Sun Records, put him in touch with that label. Even at this early stage, Roy was looking beyond rockabilly and knew that his true calling was as a pop/ballad songwriter. Robinson had one of the most unique voices of the rock and roll pioneers, and adding his mellifluous falsetto, a three-octave

The History and Progression of Rock Music

range to boot. His song “Oh, Pretty Woman,” was released in 1964 and went rapidly to #1. According to Orbison, the title “Pretty Woman” was inspired by an incident involving his wife Claudette, who interrupted a conversation between Orbison and co-writer Bill Dees to announce she was going out. When Orbison asked if she had enough cash, Bill Des replied, “A pretty woman never needs any money." The song is an up-tempo rocker that has been covered by several artists (including the band Van Halen in 1982) and made a popular return when it appeared in the 1990 film Pretty Woman starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. However, Orbison’s voice, with its expressive and operatic-like tone, is undeniably at its peak when singing ballads of lost love and heartbreak. Many of these ballads, such as “In Dreams,” “Only the Lonely,” and “Crying,” became exceptionally popular and been covered by numerous artists, as well as appeared in films and

television programs.”

While he was the only American vocalist to ride out the British invasion, Orbison also toured Britain regularly, initially sharing a bill with The Beatles (who, at the time, were by and large unknowns in America). "I messed up the first day I got there. I walked out in this little theatre, and they had Beatle placards everywhere, life-size ones. And I said, 'what's all this? What is a

Beatle anyway?' John Lennon said, 'I'm one'. He was standing right behind me."

Chuck Berry (1926-2017)

Charles Berry was the father-poet of classic rock and roll. He chronicled the fifties teenage experience with a literacy and musical creativity unmatched by his contemporaries. He was the first great lyricist in rock and roll, with themes that often focused on subjects that interested most teens, such as love, cars, and school. His songs were often satirical and tongue-in-cheek tales that transcended the usual boy-meets-girl story line. For example, “Roll Over Beethoven” was a about how classical composers would roll over in their graves upon hearing that classical music had given way to rock and roll, containing the warning “tell Tchaikovsky the news” to “dig these rhythm and blues.” According to Berry’s biographer Bruce Pegg, "Roll Over Beethoven was inspired in part by the rivalry between his sister Lucy's classical music training and Berry's own self-taught, rough-and-ready music preference.”

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Berry successfully synthesized two genres: Blues and Country &Western. He added Blues Tones to fast country runs, all backed by a rhythm and blues beat, and sang in straight tones, almost nasal (he did not sing blue notes) in the Country & Western tradition. Chuck Berry was born in St. Louis and grew up listening to gospel, country, blues, R&B, and popular crooners such as Nat “King” Cole and Frank Sinatra. After attaining moderate success in the local club circuit, Berry went to Chicago in 1955 hoping to make a record. While in the Windy City he met Muddy Waters, who introduced him to Leonard Chess (of Chess Records) who in turn set up a session to record "Maybellene,” his first highly successful song, selling over a million copies. Over the next three years Berry had four more Top 10 hits: “School Day” “Rock and Roll Music” “Johnny B. Goode” and “Sweet Little Sixteen.” Berry was the prototypical rock guitarist, creating riffs and rhythms that are among the most copied in rock. It is fair to say that every rock guitar player since 1960 has learned to play the introductions to both “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Johnny B. Goode.” John Lennon once said, “If you tried give rock and roll another name, you might it call it Chuck Berry.”

Little Richard (1932-2020)

Little Richard (born Richard Wayne Pennimen) was a singer, pianist, and songwriter, considered one of the exceptional early rock piano pioneers. He was born in Macon, Georgia to a large family. As a kid, he was nicknamed "Lil' Richard" by his family because of his small and skinny frame. His family was highly religious (His father was a church deacon), and Richard began singing in church at a young age. Surrounded by Gospel music since birth, he once said that folks in his neighborhood sang gospel songs throughout the day during segregation to keep a positive outlook, because "there was so much poverty, so much prejudice in those days.”

Richard burst into the first era of rock and roll with a string of top-40 hits. His unique stage appearance and live performance style were imitated by many of his contemporaries. His personality and proclivity for a controversial lifestyle were unmatched. But Richard was simply too outrageous, too raw, and too Black to capture the crown he so desperately wanted, The King

The History and Progression of Rock Music

of Rock and Roll. The title was eventually appointed to Elvis Presley who surpassed Richard in top hits and popularity.

Richard’s music combines boogie-woogie piano with a heavy back beat and over the-top gospel-influenced singing that included screams and falsetto howls. His hit song “Tutti Frutti” (1955), crossed over to the pop charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom. His next hit single, “Long Tall Sally” (1956), hit No. 1 on the Billboard R&B charts, and was followed over fifteen more hits in less than three years.

Elvis Presley (1935-1977)

Elvis Aaron Presley is known as “The King of Rock and Roll.” Like other classic rockers, Elvis was on the creative forefront of the era. What made him stand out from the rest was that he was the first white rocker to successfully sing in an R&B style, with blue notes and phrasing that sounded natural and legitimate.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

The combination of a rockabilly band with R&B singing was the distinctive and successful blend that captured white listeners, making Elvis the vehicle for the mass popularization of rock and roll. Gifted with an expressive baritone voice, the ability to select the right songs, and an abundance of charisma, Presley climbed to, and for most Americans has since represented, the summit of classic rock and roll. According to Rolling Stone magazine, "it was Elvis who made rock and roll the international language of pop.” Elvis Aron Presley (1935-1977) was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, to his parents Vernon and Gladys. The Presleys were dirt poor, moving frequently to stay a step ahead of missed rent payments; Vernon was even jailed for a brief time in 1938 for forgery. In 1948, the family moved to Memphis, where they lived in various public housing tenements before finally renting a house of their own. Elvis’ musical gift was evident from an early age, winning a talent contest as a ten-year-old. For his eleventh birthday, his parents bought him his first guitar. All the while he was absorbing music from a variety of influences: country music from listening to the Grand Ole Opry, gospel music from singing at church, and R&B from Memphis’s black radio stations. Elvis’ career stared in 1954 after he was signed to Sun Records by owner Sam Phillips, who was genuine musical visionary and became fundamentally important to the birth of rock and roll. While owned by Phillips, Sun Records produced more rock-and-roll records than any other record label of its time. Phillips’s primary interest was in recording blues and R&B singers. One of his early recordings was 1951’s “Rocket 88” by Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats, which is regarded by many to be the first rock and roll record due to its lyrics (a hot Oldsmobile sports car with hints of sexual suggestions), its boogie woogie beat, raunchy saxophone solo and distorted guitar. Soon after starting Sun Records in 1952, (serving as engineer, producer, talent scout, and advance man) Phillips began sensing that if an artist could effectively combine R&B and country music, and had the distinctive vocal sound he was looking for, it would have a massive crossover appeal: “If I could find me a white man who sang with the Negro feel, I could make a million dollars.” As fate would have it, in August 1953, 18-year-old Elvis Presley walked into the Sun studios, not even imagining that him and Sam Phillips were about to make rock history. Almost a year after Elvis walked into Sun Studios, he recorded “That’s All Right,” an innovative style mixing country western and R&B. For the B-side, they recorded the Bill Monroe bluegrass tune, “Blue Moon of Kentucky” using the same formula. No one was quite sure how to categorize the sound, but there was magic in it, and the reaction was instantaneous: two nights later, when DJ Dewey Phillips played it on his radio show, the phone lines lit up. In Memphis, Elvis was literally an overnight sensation. Elvis’ 1954 Memphis sessions for Sam Phillips's Sun Records produced arguably the most influential rockabilly recordings. "That's All Right (Mama)" created a stir in Memphis, went to #1 on the local country charts, and the rest is history. While many other rockers had ample talent, and even more instrumental and songwriting ability, they were not “at the right place at the right time”: a brief period during which white teens were becoming increasingly exposed to rhythm and blues and the early classic rockers through the radio and were ready to embrace a rock god. And these other rockers most definitely did not have the brilliant promotion and management team led by Colonel Tom Parker and the big recording sound and clout of RCA Records, who perceived the moment, seized it, and sold it to America.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Buddy Holly (1936-1959)

Buddy Holly was a nerdy kid from western Texas who, in the short space of two years, produced a catalog of songs that had a major impact on subsequent rock generations. Along with Chuck Berry, Holly was the other outstanding singer-guitarist-songwriter of the early rock and roll years. Like Roy Orbison, Holly’s first musical love was Country & Western. He began his professional career singing songs by country artists like Hank Williams and bluegrass greats Bill Monroe and Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. Holly eventually became a synthesist and an innovator, melding country and Black music roots with rockabilly and early classic rock. His vocal style was rooted in Country music but with a subtle mix of blue notes and stylized “hiccups.” He was an accomplished guitarist who played more aggressive than most rockabilly artist of the time. In 1957 he formed a new band called The Crickets (a.k.a. Buddy Holly and The Crickets). On the same year, they had their first #1 song with “That’ll Be the Day.” Holly’s lyrics created an image of a world populated by young lovers embroiled in various stages of clean teen romance. Although the influence of rockabilly never completely faded, Holly's death in a plane crash in 1959 symbolically marked the end of the classic rockabilly era. In 1971 singer-songwriter Don McLean composed and released the song “American Pie”, (about “The day the music died”) dedicated to Buddy

Holly.

Buddy Holly’s crashed plane-February 3, 1959.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Eddie Cochran (1938-1960)

Eddie Cochran died at the young age of twenty-one, but he left an enduring mark as a rock and roll pioneer. He targeted teenage anguish and craving with such classics as “C’mon Everybody,” “Twenty Flight Rock” and “Summertime Blues.” With his flashy clothes and tough-sounding voice, Cochran epitomized the sound and the stance of the Fifties rebel rocker. Cochran was also a prodigious guitarist who played with such aggressive command that many rock music journalists have pronounced him “rock’s first high-energy guitar hero, the forerunner to Pete Townshend, Jimmy Page, Duane Allman and Jimi Hendrix. He was born in Minnesota as Ray Edward Cochran. On April 16, 1960, while touring the United Kingdom, Cochran’s car crashed into a lamp post (no other car was involved) on Rowden Hill, where a plaque now commemorates the event. The other two passengers, songwriter Sharon Sheeley and singer Gene Vincent, survived the crash, Cochran

died the following day.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Transitional Years

Popular music went through another transformation during the final years of the 1950s through the early 1960s. The rise and artistic control that the classic rockers attained during the mid-50s seemed lost as classic rock and roll essentially retreated from the scene. Great pressure from religious leaders, governmental officials, and major label executives had merged to accomplish the demise of fifties rock and regain control of the music industry. And to no surprise, since they owned only a relatively small piece of that action. The music establishment had reasserted its control, and now the classic rockers, who had written and produced most of their hits, had to surrender their power and return to the early 1950s role of just song interpreters and accept the industry’s resurgence to the pre-rock, assembly-line model, in which songs were manufactured by office-based professionals, recorded by seasoned studio musicians, and produced by major-label or big independent producers. They were replaced by “safer and cleaner” pop styles ranging from the successful teen idols and girl groups to newer strains of an emergent folk music, California-

based surf sounds, and the early successes of soul and Motown artists.

The music of teen idols represented the greatest departure away from classic rock; The performers were clean-cut, mostly cute, and neatly dressed young men, and performed songs that contained little or no beat, sentimental string arrangements, and romantically safe lyrics. The center of this sound was Philadelphia, where the big-three independent labels, Cameo-Parkway, Chancellor, and

Swan, produced pop for new teen audiences.

Parkway's major act was dance king Chubby Checker (Ernest Evans), whose cover of Hank Ballard's "The Twist" created a national dance craze in the summer of 1960.

Chubby Checker dancing The Twist.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Girl Groups

The Crystals (left) and The Ronettes (right).

Female artists were not usually labeled as teen idols and became known as the girl groups. These female groups essentially followed the same pop formula as the teen idols, with no traces of classic rock. And like the teen idols, they were solely interpreters who required creative songwriters and producers to make records. However, many of the girl groups had more talent and personality than the teen idols and, combined with a group of prodigiously talented songwriters that combined the enthusiastic vitality of rock and roll with the classy and intricate compositional techniques and arrangements of earlier popular music, ultimately created some of the most unforgettable songs of the period. Most of these songwriters worked in teams of two or three, and many would become masters hit makers, such as Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector ("Da Doo Ron Ron" by the Crystals, and "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes), and Carole King and Gerry Goffin ("Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" by the Shirelles, and "One Fine Day" by the Chiffons).

The Brill Building and Phil Spector

Many of the production and recording forces for these groups were stationed in office buildings near the corner of 52nd Street and Broadway in New York City. The Brill Building at 1619 Broadway listed 165 music businesses in its lobby directory. Across the street, 1650 Broadway housed the headquarters of Aldon Music and Scepter Records. And a few blocks away on Seventh Avenue and 48th Street was Associated Studios, one of New York’s major independent recording

studios.

Probably the most famous figure from these groups of producer/songwriter who was essential to the success of the girl groups was Phil Spector.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Phil Spector (standing with sunglasses) during a “Wall-of-Sound” recording session.

Spector is also known for his "Wall of Sound" technique, a layered production style heard on many of the era’s recordings. Spector would have the performers record their part numerous times and layer each recording above the other on different tracks. And /or he would record three pianists or guitarists playing the same part at the same time. Instead of recording the instruments in the traditional manner (which would be as clearly as possible), Spector would exploit the acoustic characteristics of the studio itself, allowing sounds to bounce around the room and merge into a dense sound cloud. The result is a highly lush and oversaturated monolithic “wall” of sound, to the point where it can become difficult to discern the individual instruments. This "wall" of instrumentation was so drenched in reverberation that Spector once commented, "I want my records to sound like God hit the world and the world hit back." "Da Doo Ron Ron" by the Crystals,

and "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes are two classic examples that feature the wall of sound.

Looking Froward

Throughout the early 1960s, it seemed as if the classic rock style and influence were dead and buried. However, back in the land of Winston Churchill, Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, and William Shakespeare, the pot had been quietly brewing and would soon boil over and tsunami across the Atlantic sweeping America off her feet.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Discussion Assignments for Class Projects

The discussion topics below are designed for student assignments or projects in a class setting. This assignment offers the students a platform on which to contribute their own thoughts and reactions on the materials studied. There are a total five discussions, and each Discussion contains 3 topics.

Discussion Format and Topic Assignment

To enhance and diversify the discussions, each student will be assigned one of the three topics. The topic designation will be determined by the first letter the student’s last name.

For example, if your last name is Jones, your topic will be Topic 2, which covers all last names

that start with the letters I through P.

Last names starting with the letters A-H Topic 1

Last names starting with the letters I-P Topic 2

Last names starting with the letters Q-Z Topic 3

Topics for Discussion I

Now that you have read about and listened to musical examples from Chapters 1 and 2:

Topic 1:

From a sociological point, in what ways did the birth of rock and roll music influence race-

relations in the United States?

Topic 2:

Elvis Presley is often called “The King” of rock and roll. Even though there were many other rock and roll musicians with equal and greater talent than him, what combination of elements has awarded him such a distinction? In your opinion, what are the 3 primary reasons/contributions

for his stature and fame in the history of rock and roll?

Topic 3:

Aside from Elvis Presley, in your opinion, which Rock and Roll pioneer or groups mentioned in Chapters 1-2 had the greatest influence on the Rock music of the 1960s through the present? In what way? (…) Be as specific as possible by including direct influences of musical, songwriting

and singing characteristics, as well as performance styles.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Chapter 3

The British Invasion

“They [the Beatles] were doing things nobody was doing”

-Bob Dylan, 1964

“Whatever wind was blowing at the time moved the Beatles too. Maybe the Beatles were in the

craw's nest shouting "land ho" or something like that, but we were all in the same boat.”

-John Lennon, 1980, Playboy Magazine

As classic rock faded from the American music scene during the early 1960s, and it seemed the teen idols and girl groups were here stay, British youth across the Atlantic, who had been listening and absorbing all along, were not discouraged. In record stores, homes and in dance halls, the music flourished. Eventually, a new music (a fusion of blues, rockabilly, pop, and classic rock) returned to the United States, becoming the most commercially and critically successful genre of music in popular music history. Both the music and its transatlantic crossing were called the British Invasion, and the band that led the charge were four English lads called the Beatles.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

35th President of the U.S.A - John F. Kennedy with his family

The presidential election of John F. Kennedy in 1960 inspired and rejuvenated the spirit of the nation. For many Americans, Kennedy, at 43 the youngest president ever elected, represented change and a departure from the conservative 1950s. His promise of a “New Frontier” ended abruptly with his assassination in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. This event was more than a murder, more even than an assassination; it was the devastation of a dream, the hope that a better world was just around the corner. Kennedy brought to our national consciousness the belief that we could appreciate the past without being trapped by it, that there was a promising future just ahead. All we needed to do was to work together and all our national and international problems would eventually be resolved.

One of his most memorable quotes, spoken at his inaugural address on January 20, 1961, asks Americans to become active citizens: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” For many months after his death the national mood was one of depression and hopelessness. The arrival of the Beatles and their upbeat and refreshing sound was the antidote the nation needed. “In retrospect it seems obvious that his elevation of our mood had to come from outside the parameters of America’s own musical culture, if only because the folk

music which then dominated American pop was so tied to the crushed dreams of the New Frontier” - critic Lester Bangs.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

The Beatles American arrival February 1964

As the American poet Robert Frost wrote in his poem, "The Road Not Taken," The Beatles

followed a road that was unlike any taken before. Their music and lyrics took off in uncharted directions and were closely followed by a procession of other musicians. Their impact on Western culture was enormous. Hair grew to the shoulder (and past) and a multitude of new cultural and political questions were asked and answered. The group's massive commercial success rewrote the artist's relationship with the record label and pointed the way to untold record industry profitability.

The massive commercial success of The Beatles, combined with the simultaneous technological advancements in communication and marketing, allowed them to transmit their musical, lyrical, and cultural messages to more people than anyone had done before. And, because of the Beatles' status as cultural gods, most young people listened, were inspired, and remodeled by them.

By the time The Beatles disbanded in 1970, it is safe to say that, in no small part because of them, the music industry and popular culture had been transformed. The younger generation were now living in a new world, radically different from the one their parents grew up in.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

John, Paul, George & Ringo

John, Paul, George, and Ringo where all born in Liverpool, England during World War II. Liverpool is a coastal city in western England, and like many other Liverpool families (except for Ringo), John, Paul, and George descended from Irish immigrants. The city is sometimes called the “real capitol of Ireland” with three-quarters of its residents claiming some Irish ancestry. As a major port city, Liverpool’s strategic importance was recognized by both by British Prime minister Winston Churchill, and Führer of Germany Adolf Hitler during the war. The city was heavily bombarded by the Nazis, suffering the second largest blitz after London. The Luftwaffe (the German Airforce) carried out 80 air raids on Merseyside (the county that includes Liverpool), killing 3,000 people and damaging half the homes in the city. Times during and after the war were tough, and the turmoil and angst of this ravaging conflict was inevitably reflected on the lives of

many, and particularly that of its children.

John Winston Lennon was born on October 9,1940, during a week that sustained heavy Nazi aerial bombing. As with any war, Nationalism surface top, as such, his middle name ‘Winston’ was given to him in honor of the current Prime Minister. His father, Fred Lennon, deserted the family, and his mother, Julia, gave up five-year-old John to her older sister, Mimi. Although raised in comfortable and loving surroundings, John carried scars from his abandonment, and his school years were characterized by an increasing propensity to find trouble.

As the charismatic leader of his young friends, he employed his caustic, inventive, and quick wit on friends, enemies, teachers, and administrators alike. Within a year of entering Quarry Bank High School in 1952, his beloved Uncle George died, and his mother, Julia, became a more important part of his life. She and John exchanged regular visits. She taught him a few banjo chords, which he transposed to the guitar, and Julia's house became a refuge from his periodic fights with Aunt Mimi. John adopted his mom's mercurial philosophy of "live for the moment and let the rest take care of itself. “As suddenly as their

friendship blossomed it ended. On July 15, 1958, Julia was run down and killed by a drunken off-duty policeman.

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James Paul McCartney was born on June 18, 1942, to James McCartney, a cotton salesman, and his wife, Mary, a nurse/midwife. His brother Michael was born two years later. Both brothers were christened and brought up Catholics. Money was tight in the McCartney household, but it was one of peace and happiness. Paul: “I had a very nice family who I could always talk to about problems.” In the late 1920s Paul’s father, an amateur pianist, had his own dancehall band called Jim Mac’s Jazz Band. One of Paul’s earliest childhood memories is of lying on the floor listening to his dad play the piano. Paul’s first instrument was a trumpet which his father had given him on his 14th birthday. Paul: “You couldn’t sing with a trumpet stuck to your mouth. If you had aspirations in the singing line it had to be something like a guitar, so I asked me dad if he would mind, and he said no. So, I went into town and swapped it for a guitar.” Paul, having easily passed through his early school years, finally enrolled in the prestigious Liverpool Institute.

On October 31, 1946, When Paul was fourteen, Mary McCartney died from an embolism shortly after an operation to stop the spread of cancer. Michael believes Paul turned to his guitar and music as a way to deal with his grief: "It became an obsession .... It took over his whole life.” Ten years after his mother’s death Paul had a dream about her which later be the basis for his 1969 heartfelt gospel ballad “Let it Be” (When I find myself in times of trouble mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, Let it Be). While preparing in school for a career as an English teacher, Paul started slicking his hair back and dressing like a rocker. In the summer of 1957, he auditioned for a skiffle group called the

Quarrymen, which was led by John Lennon.

George Harrison was born on February 25, 1943, making him the youngest of The Beatles. He was the only Beatle not robbed of one of his biological parents, and his childhood lacked the trauma of his Beatles compatriots. His father Harold supported a wife, Louise, and four children on the modest wage of a bus driver. George was also the youngest of the four children and grew up in a close-knit family environment. Whereas John's classroom rebellion took the form of sharp-tongued boisterousness, George wore his long hair slicked back and dressed outrageously. Rebellion didn't stop George from entering Liverpool Institute and he, too, pursued the guitar with a passion. With his mom’s help George purchased a new electric guitar, and he soon formed his own group, the Rebels. He also started jamming with Paul McCartney, who rode the same bus to the Institute.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Richard ("Ringo") Starkey Jr. was born on July 7, 1940, and began life under circumstances similar to John’s. Ringo's dad, Richard Sr., and his mom, Elsie, split up when Ringo was young. Where John's legacy was emotional turmoil, Ringo had to overcome poor health and impoverished surroundings and, out of the four Beatles, overall had the worst lot. A burst appendix and pleurisy kept him in the hospital for three of his first fifteen years. Describing his neighborhood near the docks, Ringo replied, "There's a lot of tenements in the Dingle. A lot of people in little boxes all trying to get out.” Ringo never finished school. At the age of eighteen, his stepfather bought him his first regular set of drums. They became his

ticket out of Dingle.

July 6, 1957

John Lennon (in striped shirt) on July 6, 1957, the day he met Paul McCartney

In the summer of 1957 McCartney auditioned for the Quarrymen with the Eddie Cochran tune "Twenty Flight Rock" and his Little Richard imitation on "Long Tall Sally:' The intoxicated,

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sixteen-year-old Lennon didn't say much. A week later, because of his guitar proficiency, McCartney was invited to join the band. Sometime in 1958 George Harrison, who had been tagging along with the Quarrymen, was invited to become a regular member. The Quarrymen were originally an informal gathering of friends playing music and having a good time. By 1959 the lineup had solidified to include John, Paul, and George on guitar, with John's art college mate, Stu Sutcliffe, playing bass. A talented and respected art student, Sutcliffe had been coaxed by John to spend the sixty-five pounds that Sutcliffe had earned in a national painting competition to buy a bass guitar. Protesting that he had little musical talent, Stu was nevertheless installed as the regular bass player. He spent much of the next year with his back to the audience, doing his best to pick

out the correct notes.

In 1960 the Quarrymen became the Beatles, a professional rock and roll band. "This process included an evolution in names, from the Moondogs (named after Alan Freed's Moondog Rock and Roll House Party radio show) to Long John and the Silver Beatles, to the Silver Beatles, and finally to the Beatles. The name was derived from their love affair with Buddy Holly's Crickets-thus the insect beetle-combined with the common name for rock music of the day, which was known as "beat" music.

Barely out of the garage, the band's early work was sporadic; they played art college dances, backed Johnny Gentle on a Scottish tour, accompanied Shirley the Stripper, and made some appearances at local clubs such, as the Casbah. Then, in August 1960, the Beatles were sent by

dub manager Alan Williams to work at the Indra Club in Hamburg, Germany.

In Hamburg. L-R: Pete Best, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Stuart Sutcliffe

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At the last moment, Paul McCartney asked drummer Pete Best whether he still had his drums. Pete said he did, played a few tunes, and became the regular drummer. The Beatles' four and a half months in Hamburg transformed the band in many ways. Required to play six to eight hours per night, their repertoire expanded considerably. Playing clubs located in "Reeperbahn;' Hamburg's red-light district, the boys were intimidated by their potentially dangerous audiences. Club owner Bruno Korschmeier implored them to "mak schau;' or make a show. Slowly the group learned the skills befitting professional entertainers. The crowd enjoyed the beat, and John would occasionally regale them with his impressions and his costumes that utilized underpants and a toilet-seat necklace.

Hamburg was the beginning of the end for Stu. At the Kaiserkeller he met and fell in love with an art student and photographer, Astrid Kirchherr. She redesigned the group's hair and took their picture on the rooftops of Hamburg. Stu left the band during the group's spring 1961 stay, married Astrid, and enrolled in art school. Rather than add another member to the group, Paul moved over to bass. On April 10, 1962, Stu Sutcliffe died of a brain hemorrhage in Hamburg.

Stu with Astrid

NEMS, “My Bonnie,” and Brian Epstein

Upon returning to England from Hamburg in December 1960, the Beatles sought to increase their local popularity by playing the Cavern Club. During 1961 the Beatles developed a strong following in Liverpool and the surrounding environs. They also returned to Hamburg, where they recorded their first sides as a backing group (using the name the Beat Brothers) to British singer Tony Sheridan. During those sessions, which were produced by Polydor A&R (artist and repertoire) man Burt Kaempfert, the Beatles recorded two songs, the pop classic "Ain't She Sweet," sung by John, and the Harrison-Lennon instrumental "Cry for a Shadow:' Beatle legend has it that "My Bonnie”, a song from those sessions, was the catalyst for Brian Epstein to sign as the group's manager. Ostensibly, a young man named Raymond Jones walked into the North End Music

Store (NEMS) branch at Whitechapel on October 28, 1961, and asked for "My Bonnie" by the Beatles. By coincidence, NEMS manager Brian Epstein was behind the counter. Unaware of the record or the band, Epstein promised to investigate the matter. Nearly two weeks later Brian went

to see a Beatles gig at the Cavern. In December he signed the group to a management contract.

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Brian Epstein brought intelligence, upper-class taste, organizational skills, and money to the Beatles. Brian had spent some time at England's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and had parlayed NEMS record stores into one of the largest in northern England. He was ready for a new project, and the Beatles were it. As a major retailer, Brian had some clout with the record companies. Decca Records agreed to tape a series of songs designed to demonstrate the talents and capabilities of the Beatles, and the band drove through the snow to London for a January 1, 1962, recording session.

Rejection by Decca Records / George Martin and EMI

The Beatles were quite nervous at their first record-label audition but recorded three originals and a dozen pop and rock tunes. A&R head Dick Rowe instead chose to sign a London group known as Brian Poole and the Tremeloes. Proximity, and perhaps the knowledge that few successful groups came out of the provinces, were the deciding factors, and Rowe was marked for life as the man who passed on the Beatles. Epstein made the rounds of the record labels; EMI, Philips,

Columbia, and HMV were not interested in the band.

Finally, George Martin, the manager of Parlophone Records, expressed a slight interest in Paul's and John's singing and the band's raw energy. Arrangements were made for an audition for Martin in June 1962 at EMI's Abbey Road studios. Martin signed the band to a recording contract in July and entered the inner circle. Martin was a composer of classical music and a record producer whose formal musical knowledge and interest in innovative recording techniques complemented the Beatles' basic musical skills and unrelenting curiosity for new musical sounds and ideas. As a composer and a pianist, Martin wrote most of the orchestral arrangements on the Beatles records and played piano or keyboards on several of their songs.

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Pete Best is replaced by Ringo Starr

During the Beatles audition Martin mentioned in an aside to Epstein that, should the band record for his label, he would use a studio drummer. Commenting on Pete Best's drumming, Martin concluded that "it isn't good enough for what I want. It isn't regular enough." Some group members already had strong feelings about sacking Pete, and Martin's opinion sealed the drummer's fate. In August the band asked Epstein to fire Pete-a hypocritical procedure not unusual in the music business. After two years of paying his dues and on the eve of the group's first big record deal, Pete was out, and Ringo was in.

First: recording session, single release, number one hit, LP.

On September 11, 1962, the Beatles assembled at Abbey Road studios for their first Parlophone recording session. Their first single release "Love Me Do" was released on October 5, 1962. Brian guaranteed the record's availability in Liverpool, and he cleverly assured it a position on the British Billboard charts by purchasing 10,000 copies for his stores. The Beatles continued to perform in northern England and returned to Hamburg in December, and "Love Me Do" reached a peak of #17. As their second single, "Please Please Me” moved up the charts on its way to #1, the band recorded their first album, also titled Please Please Me, in a single, wearying, thirteen-hour

session. The album also went to #1 and remained there for thirty weeks.

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Their Influences, Their Sound

The Beatles shaped an original sound that fused elements from classic rock numbers of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Buddy Holly; rhythm and blues tunes from Ray Charles, Larry Williams, the Isley Brothers, and Lieber and Stoller; several Carl Perkins rockabilly songs; early 1960s American pop tunes from Carole King and Motown; and an assortment of British pop tunes. They adopted Holly's two-guitar/bass/drums format, as well as his generally asexual adolescent vision of romance. Chuck Berry's rhythm and lead-guitar styles were also well represented. Vocal influences were Little Richard (a fusion of R&B and gospel energy and falsetto) the Everly Brothers (close tenor harmonies and strummed acoustic rhythm guitar) and the Girl Groups (two-part background harmonies in high registers, often in a call and response style with the lead vocal). George Harrison's electric-guitar solos were especially derivative of the rockabilly/classic rock stylings of guitarists Carl Perkins and Scotty Moore.

Beatlemania!

Throughout 1963 the Beatles' popularity rose to such heights in England that by the fall audiences were totally out of control. This phenomenon was soon labeled Beatlemania. Numerous explanations have been offered for the intensity of Beatlemania-a delirious response that surpassed the excitement generated by American pop idols Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley across the ocean.

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One has it that England, as with the United States, experienced a baby boom following World War

II. The surge of popularity reflected an inordinately large number of teenagers coming of age.

America

By December 1, 1963, they had released their fifth single, "I Want to Hold Your Hand” and second album, With the Beatles, and were turning their attention across the Atlantic, to the United States. Epstein had already tried twice to convince EMI subsidiary Capitol to release the early singles in America. With no British group having ever made a substantial inroad into the American market, Capitol declined. American indies V- J and Swan had Beatles releases in 1963; none climbed higher than #116 on the charts. Pointing to the rising tide of Beatlemania, Epstein and Martin finally convinced EMl (and thus Capitol) to release Beatles records in America. When Capitol released "I Want to Hold Your Hand" backed by "I Saw Her Standing There" on December 26,

1963, the American music-industry pump was fully primed.

The Beatles' conquest of the United States began in earnest on February 7, 1964, when Pan Am flight number 101 landed at New York's Kennedy Airport and the "Fab Four" descended to American soil to the screams of about 10,000 fans. The hysteria of Beatlemania was obvious from the start. Nearly 200 members of the press poised to deliver judgment on the Fab Four, but the Beatles were their usual charming, irreverent selves. When asked about a movement in Detroit to stamp out the Beatles, Paul replied "We've got a campaign of our own to stamp out Detroit." When it got too noisy, John told everyone "Shurrup." Everyone laughed. Two days later, on February 9, 1964, a record 73 million TV viewers watched the Beatles perform five songs on "The Ed Sullivan

Show."

A country that had easily forgotten the beat, rebellion, and authentic emotionality of the classic rock era was now faced with four young Englishmen in their early twenties who dressed in collarless Pierre Cardin suits and bounced happily to the music while giving the occasional nod, wink, or headshake to the audience. For effect, the lads punctuated their performances with falsetto ooohs and breathy yeah, yeah, yeahs. Epstein had successfully transformed the four raw,

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sideburned, bluejeans-wearing rockers into a professional team of polished, nattily attired, and

safely rebellious rock and roll artists.

A Hard Day’s Night- Film and Album

Epstein had already planned the next move, and the band returned to England to appear in its first motion picture. A Hard Day's Night (originally titled Beatlemania) broke from the typically fabricated rock-movie mold. The Beatles would be themselves. Liverpudlian Alan Owen tagged along on tour, then wrote the script. Director Richard Lester sandwiched the six-week shoot-on the London streets, live in concert, and while touring by train- between the United States and pending dates in Europe, Asia, and Australia. The thirteen Lennon-McCartney compositions on the British A Hard Day's Night made up their first all-original album. The strummed opening chord of the title cut introduced the world to the sound of George's twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar.

Touring and the Exploration of New Musical Boundaries

The Beatles continued releasing albums and touring for the next two years. At New York's Shea Stadium in August 1965, they sold an unheard-of 55,000 tickets. Their last performance before a paying audience was at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on August 29, 1966. One of the reasons the band stopped touring was the difficulty in performing their increasingly complex music on stage. Their songs had changed since the days of A Hard Day's Night. Musically, the Beatles had embarked on a continual expansion of the boundaries of rock and roll. They had added new instruments to their recording ensemble, starting with the piano and then extending to flute ("You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away"), fuzz bass ("Think For Yourself"), sitar ("Norwegian Wood"), French horn ("For No One"), and strings ("Yesterday" and "Eleanor Rigby"). Soon other British and American groups were adopting similar instrumental flexibility in rock music recordings.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Alternate Lifestyles / New Lyrics / Drugs

Beatles lyrics were undergoing a concurrent topical evolution-enhanced by friends and acquaintances, especially those from the arts, who were experimenting with alternative cultural lifestyles. Like their American counterparts, Britons pursued a philosophical and political examination of the status quo, also offering a solution that consisted of varying degrees of change or escape. The Beatles participated in these changes, reflecting those experiences musically with shifts in both form and subject.

Bob Dylan was an early catalyst to these changes. In a legendary August 1964 meeting in the Beatles' suite at New York's Delmonico Hotel, Dylan offered them their first psychoactive experience-a marijuana cigarette. By 1965 their pot intake had increased to such an extent that during the filming of their second movie, Help, as Lennon pointed out, "We were smoking marijuana for breakfast .... Nobody could communicate with us because it was all glazed eyes and giggling all the time.”

Bob Dylan

The Beatles didn't stop at creative use of instruments; various unfamiliar sounds began to show up in their recordings. John Lennon recorded feedback on "I Feel Fine" in 1964, claiming to be the first modern musician to do so. The 1966 album Revolver contained some "scratching" and coughing on the "Taxman" introduction. The Beatles continued to distance themselves from the I- IV- V blues-based harmonic progression, favoring instead a variety of chord changes and unusual rhythmic syncopations ("Good Day Sunshine" and "She Said She Said”, for example). Returning home drunk one night, Lennon played a tape backwards in his Kenwood music room and was delighted with the effect-so he introduced backwards sounds on the 1966 single "Rain." Biographer Terence O'Grady describes "the most elaborate and well-developed use of electronic sounds and concrete musical effects" on "Tomorrow Never Knows.”

Harrison playing the Sitar

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Psychedelic period

Revolver (front and back cover)

The Beatles 7th album, Revolver, released in August 1966, confirmed the shift toward more meaningful material. Focusing both inwardly on travails of the psyche and outwardly on con-temporary society, this was hailed as music of inner and outer vision. On the album, George Harrison emerged as a major contributor-offering more classical Indian coloring from his sitar ("Love to You") and the political commentary on the British revenue system ("Taxman"). In "Eleanor Rigby:' a song often dissected by high school English classes, Paul sings a poetic vision of loneliness and alienation to the accompaniment of a string octet. By the time of Revolver, except for the occasional collaboration for a song for Ringo, the Lennon-McCartney songwriting team had essentially dissolved. From that point forward, the vocalist generally wrote the entire song.

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, designated by many rock critics and radio programmers as the greatest rock and roll album in history, took an unheard of four months to produce at a cost of $100,000. Band members cited it as a peak group effort inspired, in part, by the experiences of Paul's trip to the West Coast of the United States. The innovative package was wrapped in a novel album cover and the lyrics were printed on the back of the album sleeve. On the front cover art, the band pictured a mixture of boyhood heroes, cult figures, and persons whose names had a creative ring to them.

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Front & back cover

Album’s gatefold photo

The album is suggestive of a live concert-crowd noises and the introductory title cut are followed by a full complement of songs, a final Sgt. Pepper's refrain, and the encore, or epilogue, ''A Day in the Life;' The album is a collage, each song presenting, in form and content, innovative representations of some of the era's social and artistic concerns. In "Strawberry Fields" and "Penny Lane:' originally intended as part of the album, John and Paul, respectively, return to childhood haunts and memories. McCartney explores the lack of generational communication in "She's Leaving Home;' Drawing from the images of Lewis Carroll and the dreams of son Julian, John paints pictures of "plasticine porters ... looking-glass ties ... and the girl with kaleidoscope eyes" in "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds;' John's clever acronym notwithstanding, he always denied the

song was inspired by LSD. The musical innovations were striking.

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The Maharishi / Death of Brian Epstein / Magical Mystery Tour

Having been showered with critical praise for Sgt. Pepper's, the Beatles turned their attention in August 1967 to spiritual growth and the transcendental meditation (TM) of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. While the Beatles sought spiritual regeneration, an event took place that foretold the band's demise. On Saturday night, Brian Epstein took some carbamazepine, a sleeping bromide, and never woke up. Those who interpreted his death as a suicide could point to many reasons for his anguish. Epstein's contract with the band would expire in a few months and his leadership role, once the band stopped touring and needed no promotion, had diminished severely. He had also previously attempted suicide. Finally, Epstein's homosexuality and his choice to lead a turbulent, physically damaging lifestyle had caused him grief and turmoil in an era that lacked understanding and acceptance in such matters. The coroner's inquest handed down a finding of accidental death due to incautious self-overdoses; toxicity built up from three days of use caused a drowsy Epstein to take a little too much. The significance of this event was probably lost on the Beatles at the time. Retrospectively, it could be seen as the initial “crack” of the band’s subsequent break-up. Their project was a film titled Magical Mystery Tour. Paul suggested a tour patterned after the bus-tripping odyssey of San Francisco-based Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters (chronicled in Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test). Although the score contained several well-received numbers (John's Lewis Carroll-inspired "I Am The Walrus;' Paul's philosophical paradox "Fool On The Hill;' and the hard-driving title cut), many reviewers considered the film to be a self-indulgent bomb. The scathing critical reaction to the December 26 showing appears to

have been, in part, a zealous bombardment of a heretofore untouchable target.

The "White Album", Let It Be, Abbey Road, & Conclusion

The Beatles started an umbrella firm called Apple in April 1967, designed to handle their marketing business. The band set about to consolidate various business ideas under Apple Corps, Ltd., Apple Electronics, Apple Retail and Apple Publishing. In February of 1968 the Beatles went to India for a spiritual retreat with the Maharishi. The first single released on the Apple label was ‘Hey Jude” The song was written by McCartney to reassure Julian Lennon, John’s son, during his parent’s divorce. It was originally titled Hey Jules. It remains the Beatles most commercially successful single. The B-side of the Hey Jude single was the first openly political song recorded by The Beatles, the Lennon song “Revolution.”

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The “White Album” and the first signs of discontent.

The Beatles wrote thirty-four songs during their Indian pilgrimage, and these provided the basis for the band's next foray into the recording studio. The thirty songs that compose The Beatles were recorded between May and October 1968; the two-disc set is nicknamed the White Album because of its stark white exterior. Whereas Sgt. Pepper's had reflected a sense of teamwork-virtuoso performances by one Beatle on another's song and dialogue between members on song structure and arrangements-The Beatles reflected a growing gulf between John and Paul as personal and artistic interests headed in divergent directions. In an inflammatory Rolling Stone interview in 1971, Lennon comments "It was just me and a backing group, Paul and a backing group, and I enjoyed it. We broke up then.”

The recording sessions for the White Album were tense with arguments and fights. The pressure became so great that during one of the sessions Ringo walked out on the band. One week later he was welcomed back to flowers strewn over his drums and a vote of confidence from the other band members. The Beatles (White Album) was released in November 1968 and became the fastest-selling album in history. Dissonance was replacing harmony in the band's lives. It was not simply different interests, such as Paul's now flowering relationship with Linda or John's more flamboyant partnership with Yoko. It wasn't only the differing musical directions, which precluded a teamwork approach to their music. The bottom line was getting in the way; enormous business problems were beginning to surface and lead to conflict. They would eventually provide the most important

tangible reason for the band's demise.

Let It Be

On January 2, 1969, at Paul's urging, the band revamped to a soundstage at Twickenham Film Studios, where they were filmed rehearsing and recording an album. Dubbed the "Get Back" sessions (the project would eventually be called Let It Be) the Beatles played all or part of hundreds of songs, some even dating back to their Hamburg days. Some sessions began at 8 AM, not a good time for nocturnal rock musicians, and McCartney's calls for discipline and organization were resented by other band members. The soundstage was cold and drafty, the emotional environment would go from playful to tense. George, after particularly strong prodding from Paul about a guitar solo, and feeling he was not taken serious by Lennon, became the second Beatle to temporarily quit the band. He reappeared at the next regularly scheduled Beatles business meeting. Yoko's presence at the sessions was also an irritant.

Then one day the band, along with keyboard player Billy Preston, took to the roof of their Apple headquarters, set up their equipment, and played five songs for the cameras. To the delight of the assembled Apple staff and a moerate crowd that listened from the street, the Beatles played what proved to be their last live performance together. In May 1970, one month after the Beatles

breakup, Let It Be was released.

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On 30 January 1969, the Beatles performed an impromptu concert (what would become their final live concert) from the rooftop of their Apple Corps headquarters at 3 Savile Row, in central London's office and fashion

district.

Their Swan Song - Abbey Road

In a strange turn of events given this tumultuous atmosphere, the Beatles returned to their recording home in Abbey Road's newly refurbished, sixteen-track Studio B to collaborate for the last time on record. Recorded in the spring and summer of 1969, Abbey Road was one of the finest technological accomplishments of the decade. The polish and crispness, forged by Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick, come close to contemporary standards. The band played at their motivated, musically mature best. Paul's bass-playing exhibited a tasteful choice of melodic passages, adding yet another dimension to what had historically been a more rhythmically oriented style. In 1980 Lennon stated that "Paul was one of the most innovative bass players ... and half the

stuff that's going on now is directly ripped off from his Beatles period.”

George's songs were singled out for praise. "Something,” which was called by none other than Frank Sinatra the best love song in the past fifty years, exhibited newly developing teamwork between Harrison and Martin. Like a musical prophet, Paul intones the band's final message to the congregation in the song “The End”: "And in the end/ The love you take, is equal to the love you make." It is unclear as to whether the Beatles realized this would be their final message to the

world, but it certainly reads as such.

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Abbey Road was released in late September (in the United Kingdom) and sold phenomenally well, but the unity forged in the studio didn't last. In the ensuing six months tension abounded. John and Paul barely talked. Ringo recorded his solo album of timeless pop favorites, Sentimental Journey. And Paul single-handedly recorded his first solo effort, McCartney. Paul's requested April release date was vetoed by their new manager Allen Klein and the rest of the band, fearing a conflict with Let It Be. Although he eventually won that argument, it was obvious to McCartney what others had felt for a long time: The Beatles were dead. On April 10, 1970, Paul's departure from the band was made public.

Conclusion

The Beatles, like Elvis, were part of a moment. Their popularity coincided with the vast expansion of communications technology. Due to the band's deification, as well as its momentous impact on British and American culture, the subsequent marketing and proliferation of Western popular culture throughout the world made the Beatles the most potent musical force in history. The Beatles proved once again a fitting axiom: You can't remove rock music from its societal context. Young people in the sixties, building on rebellious behavior of the previous decade, created their own lifestyle, challenged the prevailing morality, and initiated an era of creativity and experimentation. The Beatles concurrently drew from a classic rock foundation and blazed a trail that continuously expanded the boundaries of rock music. Their creative integrity, idealism, and spontaneity posed the challenge to leading critics-to evaluate rock music's form and content seriously. The Beatles enabled the discussion of rock and roll as art.

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The Rolling Stones

The best rock and roll encapsulates a certain high energy-an angriness-whether on record or on

stage. That is, rock and roll is only rock and roll if it's not safe.

- Mick Jagger, 1988, Rolling Stone Magazine

top row l-r: Bill Wyman, Brian Jones, Keith Richards/ bottom row l-r: Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts

Along with the Beatles, there were a number of British bands poised on the cutting edge of mid-sixties rock and roll. These contemporaries were led by the Rolling Stones. In February 1963, as the Fab Four were making their way to the top of the British charts, the Rolling Stones were starting their first regular Sunday appearances in the backroom of a London pub. The band, named after the Muddy Waters blues tune "Rollin' Stone,” capitalized on aggressive, unpolished versions of predominantly Black American music to propel it to the forefront of the fledgling British blues movement. By the middle of the decade the Rolling Stones had achieved commercial success on both sides of the Atlantic. When the Beatles self-destructed, the Stones emerged from the shadows to create their own brief golden age. The Rolling Stones were four young London suburbanites (singer Mick Jagger, guitarist Keith Richards, bassist Bill Wyman, and drummer Charlie Watts) and one well-off provincial (guitarist Brian Jones) who went beyond the classic rock music of their youth to discover and follow its blues and R&B antecedents.

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Mick Jagger (b. 1943) grew up in a household of moderate means in suburban London: "My mum is very working class, my father bourgeois, because he had a reasonably good education, so I came from somewhere in between that." His father, Joe, was a physical education teacher and his mother was sure Mick would become a politician, especially after the young Jagger enrolled

in the prestigious London School of Economics (LSE) to study accounting. Indicative of his cautious nature, Mick didn't quit LSE until he was sure that the Rolling Stones had become a

commercially viable group.

Jagger's musical history included the stereotypical introduction to American rock and roll via the classic rockers. Labeled "jungle music" by his father, Mick was crazy about Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, and to a lesser extent Buddy Holly. From there he followed a musical progression back in time, discovering bluesmen Big Bill Broonzy (who toured England before his death in 1958) and Muddy Waters. These roots took hold of young Jagger, who had already demonstrated a propensity toward show business pursuits, appearing as a model on his father's

physical-fitness TV show.

Keith Richards (b. 1943) played with Mick in the same Dartford primary school play-ground until the age of six or seven, when the Richards family moved to a housing development on the rougher side of the tracks. Keith was sufficiently talented as a boy soprano to appear at Westminster Abbey and Royal Albert Hall, but the onset of puberty lowered his vocal range and he turned to rock and roll. Keith wore tight-fitting jeans, violet shirts, and pink socks, practiced air guitar, and listened to Chuck Berry and Little Richard records. In 1958 Doris Richards purchased a guitar for her son. Soon thereafter, Keith was expelled from Dartford Technical School and as a last resort he enrolled at Sidcup Art School. The art school environment proved to be musically enlightening for Richards: "I learned from all these amateur art school people, then I started to discover Robert

Johnson and those cats .... The other half of me was listening to all that rock and roll, Chuck Berry.”

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (b.1942), who went by the name Brian, was raised in the elegant surroundings of Cheltenham, a spa-resort town in western England. Brian excelled in his grammar school studies and learned to play piano (from his mother), clarinet (which he played in an orchestra), and saxophone. Adolescence brought rebellion; rebellion brought him a child out of wedlock and a premature departure from school.

Brian became enamored with jazz saxophone, working day jobs and playing with jazz and rock bands at night. He was graced with a good ear for music and his next infatuation was with blues-style guitar. In London, billing himself as Elmo Lewis (a takeoff on slide guitarist Elmore James), Brian joined a blues band, Blues Incorporated. One day in 1960 Keith boarded a commuter train to London. "So I get on this train one morning and there's Jagger and under his arm he has four or five

albums .... We haven't hung around since we were five or six. We recognized each other straight off ... and under his arm he's got [albums by] Chuck Berry, and Little Walter, Muddy Waters.” Their common interest in music deepened and eventually developed into a symbiotic relationship like that of Lennon and McCartney (somewhat odd, given the natures of the rough, teddy-boy

Richards and the cautious, middle-class Jagger).

In March 1962 Blues Incorporated, including Charlie Watts (b. 1941-2021) on drums and Elmo Lewis on guitar, played its first night at the Ealing Club, a rented room behind the ABC bakery. A few weeks later, Mick and Keith traveled to London to see them. They were astounded by Brian's playing. The nascent Stones now numbered three, as Brian started playing with Mick and Keith. They needed a bass player, so they

placed an ad.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Bill Wyman (b. 1936), who was about six years older than most of the band and had already served a stint in the Royal Air Force, answered their add for a bass player. In addition to a love of classic rock and a feeling for the blues, Wyman arrived with a large amplifier and proffered extra equipment, cigarettes, and a round of drinks; he was welcomed into the band.

Their next task was to find a regular drummer. They tried to persuade Charlie Watts to join to no avail. Watts had little reason to join the Stones, a band without

an assured future. He already had security, having attended Harrow Art School and then being employed as a graphic artist with an ad agency. Charlie's first love was jazz, but his experience with Blues Incorporated acclimated him to the blues and started his friendship with the Stones. Eventually Charlie accepted their offer. In January 1963 all five members were in place and the Rolling Stones were born.

First Gigs / First Single Release

In 1963 the first wave of popular music mania took hold in England and the Stones were swept up in the tide. Within the year, they established a residency at the Crawdaddy Club and recorded and released their first single-Chuck Berry's "Come On”. With “Come On” The Stones have not quite developed “their sound” yet. That same year they toured as a support act for American rockers Little Richard, the Everly Brothers, and Bo Diddley. One night the Beatles, Britain's most popular rock and roll band, came down to the club to listen. Both groups spent the rest of the night carousing at the Chelsea pad; a few days later the Stones returned the favor, catching the Beatles

show at Royal Albert Hall.

The cover of the book "Stoned"

by Andrew Loog Oldham,

manager of the Rolling Stones.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

In the spring of 1963 Andrew Loog Oldham saw the Stones at the Crawdaddy. He was a public-relations man already at the age of nineteen, having worked as a publicist for Brian Epstein during the release of "Please Please Me" and for Mary Quant and her line of hip designer clothing. What impressed Oldham about the Stones was "Music, Sex. The fact that in just a few months the country would need an opposite of what the Beatles were doing." Oldham recognized the raw emotion and sexual rebelliousness generated by the band and its music, and so he set about to package and sell that image. Early attempts to dress the Stones in matching outfits were sabotaged by band members, who left assorted uniform parts in dressing rooms and hotels across England. George Harrison and the Rolling Stones’ first recording contract

One evening, George Harrison mentioned to Decca's Dick Rowe (the man who rejected the Beatles) that he ought to see about signing the Rolling Stones. Rowe wasted no time in catching them at the Crawdaddy and signing them to a contract. As a record producer, Oldham was strictly laissez-faire; he simply arranged for the recording sessions and turned the band loose in the studio. He couldn't do much more, as his knowledge of music and recording technology was less than elementary. Without much in the way of direction, the recordings reproduced an unpolished authenticity reminiscent of the American originals. The Rolling Stones of early 1964 were still being led by their most talented musician, Brian Jones. Much like John Lennon, Brian experimented with and explored the frontiers of permissible behavior offstage. "He was the first one that had a car;' describes Jones's former partner, Anita Pallenberg. "He was the first into flash clothes and smoke, and acid .... It was back then when it seemed anything was possible." Second Single / First Album / Songwriting

After the Stones released “Come on” they needed a second single record. The Beatles wrote a song for them titled "I Want to Be Your Man” which the Stones released in November 1963 and saw it climb into the top 20. The Beatles later released the song themselves with Ringo singing the lead vocal. Slowly their music was changing; a few original tunes sneaked into their repertoire of covers. The first Stones album, The Rolling Stones, was released in April 1964; it paid homage to their roots while hinting at a new direction. Lead singer Jagger growled and slurred blues favorites in a style dripping with sexual innuendo. But the Jagger-Richards original "Tell Me" had a distinctly different feeling. Jagger sang with crisper pronunciation and the feel was dominated by a twelve- string acoustic rhythm guitar. Of their early writing experiences, Keith comments, "Usually I wrote the melody and Mick wrote the words ... every song we've got has pieces of each other in it." In June 1964 the Stones arrived in New York for their first U.S. tour. According to bassist Bill Wyman this tour was, “a disaster. When we arrived, we didn’t have a hit record [there] or anything going for us.” Though generally ignored by the mainstream press, a piece in the fashion magazine Vogue hinted at their future success: "The Stones have a perverse, unsettling sex appeal with Jagger out in front of his team-mates .... To women, he's fascinating, to men a scare.”

The History and Progression of Rock Music

First Number One Hit: "Satisfaction"

Even though "Time Is on My Side" and "The Last Time" had reached the top 10 and the band was scheduled for an October appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show,” the Stones had yet to conquer the United States. The May 1965 release of the Jagger-Richards composition "(I Can't

Get No) Satisfaction," which mocked the superficiality of life on tour in America, changed all that. (The story goes that Keith woke in the middle of the night at a Florida motel to write the legendary guitar-riff introduction, immortalizing him in rock music annals.) To this Mick added a stream of themes chronicling men on TV, advertising detergent, and voices on car radios giving out useless information and the emptiness of "drivin', doin' this, and signin' that.” Although the song is generally misinterpreted as a diatribe on the inability to achieve sexual satisfaction, only the next to-last chorus and last verse allude to the frustration of not finding a willing sexual playmate. "Satisfaction" hit the charts in June and stayed at #1 for four weeks. In the next eighteen months the Stones would score six more top-10 hits, including three #ls, and each of their three studio albums would achieve top-5 status. The band had finally achieved mass commercial success. This success was further enhanced by Oldham's ability to sell the Stones as the bad boys of rock and roll, the antithesis of the Beatles' positive pop-star image. Jagger's vocal style and onstage performance reinforced this visceral, sensual reaction to the band. Like his blues predecessors, Jagger slurred, growled, and screamed his delivery. Onstage, he sweated, pouted-with those luscious and world-famous lips-and undulated his way across the stage. Writing about a 1965 Stones press conference, columnist Pete Hamill reflects some of these reactions: "There is something elegantly sinister about the Rolling Stones. They sit before you at a press conference like five unfolding switchblades, their fades set in rehearsed snarls, their hair studiously unkempt and matted ... and the way they walk and the songs they sing all become part of some long mean reach for the jugular."

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Musical Explorations

Following the Beatles' lead, the Stones experimented with exotic and orchestral instrumentation. Brian learned to play the sitar for "Paint It Black" and then discarded it. He also played dulcimer on "Lady Jane” flute on "Ruby Tuesday” marimba on "Under My Thumb” and mellotron on "2000 Light Years From Home." This new experimentation in musical coloration, which also included other players on brass, strings, and double bass, gave Rolling Stones songs a musical depth that their earlier material lacked. They were changing along with the times.

The Descend of Brian

Concurrent with these artistic changes was a shift in the power relationships within the band. Brian, who in the early days had been the organizer, spokesman, and equal arbiter of artistic choice, was relegated to second-class status. Artistic direction and power gravitated to the songwriters, Jagger and Richards. Brian attempted to write and failed, leaving him feeling paranoid that his usefulness to the band was over.

Anita Pallenberg Brian and Anita

Brian and the actress Anita Pallenberg descended into an intense and bizarre relationship. The daughter of a German secretary and an Italian artist, Anita was involved with the New York based theater company Living Theater, the oldest experimental theatre group still active in the U.S. In a stormy partnership with Brian characterized by spontaneous acts, sexual experimentation, a profusion of drug use, and Brian's jealous rages and physical abuse, they lived the lives of rock royalty. In 1967 Anita left Brian for Keith with whom she later had three children; the youngest boy died when he was 10 weeks old.

Drugs and Arrest

Life on the edge eventually caught up with Brian, who from then on rode an emotional roller coaster dominated by downhill plunges. The Jagger-Richards friendship and writing alliance left

The History and Progression of Rock Music

him depressed and helpless. His close friend, Guinness heir Tara Browne died in an auto accident, (Years later John Lennon said that it was the newspaper article he had read on Tara Browne’s death that had inspired the lines “He blew his mind out in a car” on the song “A Day in a life”) and his relationship with Anita became combative. Brian sought chemical refuge. His drug intake was a regular morning assortment that left him incapacitated for the rest of the day.

If Brian's personal problems were not enough, the February 12, 1967, police raid on Keith's Redlands home during a party had serious ramifications for the Stones' ascent to the top. That morning Mick took his first LSD trip, and the party, which for a time included George and Patti Harrison, traipsed around the Sussex countryside. Most participants returned to the house for an evening of records and television. At 8 PM, nineteen police, including three policewomen,

pounded on the door.

Mick and Keith were both arrested for possession of drugs. In a remarkable coincidence, Brian was arrested for drug possession in his London home the same day that Mick and Keith were scheduled for a court hearing. These episodes left a mark on the band. The drug convictions made touring difficult, as many countries, including the United States, did not grant visas to persons with drug records. Thus, the Stones touring train ground to a halt. Between October 1966 and July 1969, the band played only one three-week European concert tour

(March-April 1967).

Keith

Back to the Music

In the summer of 1967, the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's. Mick, who had traveled with the Beatles to Wales in the search for transcendental enlightenment, suggested a similarly styled effort for the Stones. Brian argued against it, and his viewpoint proved to be correct. The Stones' predictable attempt at creating psychedelic musical collage, Their

Satanic Majesty's Request, was released in November 1967, but it was clearly not a natural outgrowth of the band's creative nature-in fact it was out of character for the more sexually oriented band. Even if their ideas were creative, the band lacked a producer like the Beatles' George Martin to translate their inspiration into

reality.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

The “Golden Era”

However, their spring 1968 sessions at London's Olympic Studios produced a music that sent reverberations throughout the music world. It was innovative, the sound was crisper, and the musical ideas more sophisticated. Their lyrical worldview had expanded its previous focus on romantic/sexual involvement to include topics of social and political concern. Yet the rhythm section still throbbed, Jagger still growled and howled, and danger and taboo still lurked among the lyrics. The maturing Rolling Stones were anything but tame. They produced a classic quartet of albums-Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main Street-that ensured the Rolling Stones would forever be considered one of rock and roll's greatest groups.

Beggars Banquet Let It Bleed

"Jumping Jack Flash,” the song that alerted the public of things to come, was released as a single in May 1968. Keith's memorable guitar hook proclaims a remarkably strong presence, followed by Jagger's autobiographical maelstrom, which begins "I was born in a crossfire hurricane/And I howled at my ma in the drivin' rain. But it's awww riiight noww-in fact it's a gas!" The song hailed a new Stones era-one that included deeper, more symbolic lyrics and sophisticated musical arrangements. It was also a time when the Stones' artistic and commercial focus shifted from singles to albums. Each of the next four studio albums placed in the top 5, including two #1 s; from those albums only three top-10 singles emerged.

The first album in the golden quartet, Beggars Banquet, was originally scheduled for an August 1968 release. It was issued in time for Christmas, as the band wrangled with Decca over the album cover, which the label considered offensive. The original cover pictured a toilet surrounded by graffiti that offered album information and some choice phrases. The final cover is plain white with black lettering. Inside, however, the Stones reached for and achieved a new quality of artistic consistency.

"Sympathy for the Devil,” the first track on side one, continues the trend of layered, percussion-oriented arrangements begun by the breakthrough single "Jumping Jack Flash." Introductory drum, conga, hi-hat, maracas, guiro, and syncopated vocal sounds, in layered steps, precede Jagger's vocals. Lyrically we are treated to an autobiographical stroll through some of the devil's more

The History and Progression of Rock Music

celebrated carnage. This song reinforced the band's negative image, which was already peaking because of bad-boy antics, violence at concerts, and drug trials. They now paid homage to the devil, singing in the first person. Although there is little (if any) evidence that the band practiced

the occult, regular critics painted them as satanists.

Mindful of a lack of visual footage capturing the energy of the band, the Stones decided to create their own magical event, The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, in December 1968. It was a forty-eight-hour happening featuring authentic circus acts (tigers, acrobats, fire-eaters), bikers, Merry Prankster Ken Kesey, schoolteachers, and a major musical agenda. The circus acts were scattered between performances by Jethro Tull, Taj Mahal, the Who, the Rolling Stones, and the so-called Supergroup (John Lennon on vocal and guitar, Eric Clapton on lead guitar, Keith Richards on bass, and Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience on drums). All the Stones were costumed, and Mick acted as ringmaster. The film, intended for a BBC special, was short-circuited by the band itself and never aired-the band was apparently displeased with their performance.

Brian Jones’ Death & The New Guitarist

Brian and the band were more estranged than ever by this time; his tenuous grip on reality only worsened. He wasn't contributing to the band in the new studio sessions, and his drug conviction still impeded the band's touring plans. Brian finally agreed to leave the band in return for two years' compensation at 100,000 pounds per year. Frustrated by the Stones' new musical direction Brian retreated to his new abode to cleanse himself and prepare a return to his roots.

By most accounts Brian was indeed on the mend. But on July

3, 1969, he drowned in his swimming pool. Although he had consumed alcohol and prescription sedatives, Brian was a strong swimmer and had been left alone for only a few moments by friends. The coroner's inquest ruled "death by misadventure"; several unanswered questions remain about the circumstances of his death. Keith feels that "some very weird things happened that night, that's all I can say."

The History and Progression of Rock Music

New Guitarist

New to the Stones was twenty-one-year-old Mick Taylor

(b.1948), former lead guitarist for John Mayall's Blues Band. (Eric Clapton, the Stones' first choice, had reportedly declined an offer.) At the Stones' Olympic Studios base in London, with producer Jimmy Miller and engineer-friend Glyn Johns teaming up in the control room, the band recorded Let It Bleed, which was greeted with lavish praise. Writer Greil Marcus intoned, "Let It Bleed is not only one of the most intelligent rock and roll albums made, but also one of the most visceral

and exciting."

Amid the swirling controversies of violence, satanism, and Mick's androgynous stage persona, the Stones excitedly prepared for their first American tour in three years. Sensitive to charges of price gouging and befitting the Bay Area's concert-in-the-park tradition, the band had planned to stage a

free concert in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park as their final gig. Turned down by the park commission, the Stones tour management, decided on nearby Sears Point Raceway as an alternative. However, just days before the concert a disagreement over exclusive film rights eliminated that site. Less than twenty-four hours before concert time, the crew dismantled the stage and equipment and moved it sixty-five miles south to a new site, Altamont Raceway. Gimme Shelter, Hell’s Angels, Brutality, Murder, End of the Innocence

On December 6, 1969, a warm overcast day gave way to a cold evening. Facilities for performers and concertgoers were almost nonexistent; there were few rest rooms and little food. The stage, a low temporary affair that would be used by the acts during the show, was surrounded by members of the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club, who were hired to provide a secure buffer between the audience and performers. As the day progressed, chaos reigned. Santana opened, followed by the Jefferson Airplane and a few other bands. Waves of violence, provoked mostly by the brutality of the Angels, rippled through the crowds-onstage and offstage.

Mick, after asking the bikers for more space to perform, launched into "Jumping Jack Flash." Drunk, LSD-sotted Angels set upon similarly drunk and drugged concertgoers who strayed across the imaginary boundary of the war zone. No one, not even performers, promoters, or photographers, was immune from biker violence. During the fourth song and in front of the cameras, Meredith Hunter was stabbed to death by Hell's Angels. The Stones finished the set, afraid that stopping would only trigger more violence. They sprinted to their helicopter and took

off.

Rolling Stone magazine, in a major story, crucified the Stones as most responsible for the tragedy. Columnist-editor and rock elder Ralph J. Gleason called Altamont the end of rock innocence. Promoter Bill Graham, whose warnings of impending doom had been ignored, lashed out at Jagger: "What right do you have to leave the way you did, thanking everyone for having a good

The History and Progression of Rock Music

time and the Angels for helping out? ... What did he leave behind throughout the country? Every

gig he was late, … But you know what is a great tragedy to me? That cunt is a great entertainer."

Jagger looks on disbelief as members of the Hell's Angels motorcycle club, whom the band had hired as the security force in the

Altamont festival, maul a fan who is then dragged onstage.

Touring France

With the exceptions of a European tour in 1970 and an abbreviated English tour in 1971, the Stones stopped performing for a time. In a move that reflected their musical roots, they hired Marshall Chess, the son of Chess Records founder Leonard, as president of their new label, Rolling Stone Records. For their manufacturing and distribution deal they again made a choice with historical significance, signing with Atlantic, the R&B and soul major. In response to the British tax laws, which George Harrison assails in "Taxman" as 95 percent for the government and 5 percent for the rich musician, the entire band moved to southern France.

Sticky Fingers Exile on Main Street

The History and Progression of Rock Music

The classic Sticky Fingers, recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, at Olympic Studios, and at Mick's Stargroves mansion, is a musically tight and emotionally gritty journey through drug-plagued existence. The listener encounters needles and spoons, Sister Morphine and Cousin Cocaine, a demon life, a head full of snow, and Brown Sugar (in reference to either heroin or a female slave or both). Also included is "Wild Horses,” Mick's haunting ballad to Marianne-first recorded by Gram Parsons's band, the Flying Burrito Brothers. The "scandalous" Andy Warhol-designed front cover features men's pants with a working zipper, and the disc label contains Warhol's famous lips logo. Another song from Sticky Fingers which became a classic is “Can’t

You Hear Me Knocking?”

The fourth Miller-produced album, Exile on Main Street, closed out the first decade. Jagger com-ments: "It's a wonderful record but I wouldn't consider it the finest Rolling Stones work. I think that Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed were better records." Like the Beatles' White Album, Exile

contains a variety of sounds, and some contemporary reviewers considered its length to be a drawback. However, the double album captures Keith's creative genius. During the sessions,

however, Richards was continuing to struggle with his heroin addiction.

Out Taylor, In Wood

During the seventies the Stones toured the United States about every three years ('72, '75, '78). The self-contained Stones tour party was an all-consuming juggernaut, becoming more extravagant with each successive tour. Reflecting in part a societal shift toward individual gratification, the newer Stones music ran back to the familiar hedonistic themes of sex, drugs, and rock and roll music. Mick Taylor, perhaps the most technically gifted guitarist in the band's lineup, left in 1974, depressed at the music's narrow focus and his own involvement with heroin. Ron Wood (b. 1947), Faces guitarist and light-hearted Richards crony, filled in for the 1975 tour; he never really left.

Angie

This song was included in their 1973 album Goats Head Soup. It is an acoustic guitar ballad written primarily by Keith. Despite rumors that the song was written by Jagger about a relationship he had with David Bowie’s wife Angela, Jagger denies this. Keith wrote the song soon after his daughter, also named Angela, was born, and according to Keith “the name was starting to ring around the

house. ‘Angie’ just fitted.”

In 1981 the Stones released Tattoo You which became a commercial success for the band. It included the hit songs “Start Me Up” (originally recorded as a reggae song in 1975 titled “Never

Stop”) and “Waiting on a Friend.”

The History and Progression of Rock Music

In 1982 the band signed a four-album contract with a new label, CBS Records. At around this time the problems in relationship between Jagger and Richards started surfacing. Jagger was feeling constrained within the framework of the Rolling Stones and subsequently signed a solo deal with CBS (much to Richards’ dismay). Both Jagger and Richards released solo albums, with considerable success, but by 1989 they got over their “mid-life-crisis” and got back together, releasing their album “Steel Wheels.” In 1993 Bill Wyman officially left the band. Soon thereafter he published “Stone Alone”, an autobiography based on recollections he had been writing since the band’s beginnings. Darryl Jones, former bassist for Miles Davis and Sting, replaced Wyman. In 1994, under a new record label, Virgin Records, the Stones released Voodo Lounge which became a number 1 and number 2 album in the UK and American charts respectively. They closed the 1990s with the album Bridges to Babylon. It included the song “Anybody Seen my Baby?”,

with the video featuring Angelina Jolie.

In the 2000s the Rolling stones continued touring and releasing albums (both solo and as a band). One of the most controversial songs in years for the Stones was “Sweet Neo Con”. Included in the 2005 album A Bigger Bang, “Sweet Neo Con”, written by Jagger, is an antiwar song aimed at the Bush administration and American Neo-conservatism.

On August 24, 2021, drummer Charlie Watts died in London, England of throat cancer at the age

of 80. Hundreds of famous musicians paid tribute to Watts, who was loved by many.

Closing Notes

The Rolling Stones have survived an unprecedented four decades, going-on-five. Throughout their career they have incorporated various musical styles into their own music but regardless of what genre they assimilate, blues, country, reggae, disco, folk, etc., their signature sound is always present. Their records continue to sell, although they do not receive the artistic acclaim of earlier efforts. Their current portraits show graying hair and lined faces, but these rock and roll dinosaurs still crank out that gritty, emotional, arrogant, Black-rooted music that brought them to the dance in the first place. Whereas the early Beatles attracted a spectrum of fans entranced by their safely rebellious mixture of classic rock elements, the Stones initially appealed to Black music fans and those who were titillated by aggressive, crude, and sexual behavior. As the band matured, their adolescent sexual orientation broadened to include introspection and societal examination. These trends of musical expansion and intellectual growth burst forth in the late 1960s and early 1970s-

the "golden era" of the Stones.

During this golden era, the Stones matured as musicians, arrangers, and lyricists, creating multilevel works that rank as some of the period's best. Even with the critical raves over the more fully developed material, they were unwilling to abandon the sexuality, raw creativity, and aura of danger that had carried them this far. They sold themselves as the bad boys of rock. Long after they ceased to evolve in any significant musical or lyrical fashion, or to create a meaningful amount of quality material, younger generations treat the Stones as pretenders to the title. The Rolling Stones-who created the most artistically ingenious and commercially successful white fusion of blues and R&B-rooted rock and roll in pop history-continue into the 21st Century, assured that,

although it's only rock and roll, we'll like it.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

The Who

Basically. .. [guitar smashing is} a gesture which happens at the spur of the moment. I think with guitar smashing, just like performance itself, it's a performance, it's an act, it's

an instant. And it really is meaningless.

-Pete Townshend, 1968, Rolling Stone Magazine

The Who (back row l-r: Keith Moon, John Entwistle, Roger Daltrey/ front: Pete Townshend

Imagine singer Roger Daltrey, resembling a perpetual-motion machine, commandeering the stage for a two-hour athletic romp. Guitarist Pete Townshend swings his right arm in a gigantic windmill motion, striking his guitar to produce loud, crashing, ringing power chords that saturate the hall. Sometimes these blasts are accompanied by agile leaps as Townshend vaults across the stage. Drummer Keith Moon frantically thrashes at his drum kit, occasionally launching one of his drumsticks off a drumhead and toward the audience. These whirlwind surrounds bassist John Entwistle, who stands as if anchored to the stage, motionless except for the blur of finger attack on the bass fretboard.

This hypothetical set climaxes with the song "My Generation." After an extended solo, Townshend raises his guitar above his head and smashes it to pieces against the stage, jamming the remaining skeleton through the protective grill cloth and into his speaker cabinet. Squealing, tortured feedback wails from the speakers, sounding the instrument's death rattle. Daltrey swings his microphone by its cord in an ever-increasing arc until it too smashes into the stage. Moon's bass drum has been set with a small charge of smoke-producing explosive and it erupts as he kicks it off the raised drum podium onto the stage. Standing behind his kit, Moon laughs maniacally at the smoldering pyre. Finally, Entwistle's throbbing bass ceases and the Who straggle offstage, just

another day in the life.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Also, one of the British Invasion bands, The Who have always been considered one of the most energetic and entertaining live bands in rock/pop music history. Even when compared to 1970s hard rock performances, with their displays of athletic prowess, explosive charges, and frantic energy, the Who hold their own. At the same time, the Beatles bobbed their heads and the Rolling Stones sold sex and spectacle. But the incredible power of the Who's live performances has overshadowed the extraordinarily thoughtful and musically interesting material that songwriter-guitarist Pete Townshend composed during the Who's twenty-five-year existence. Of the three major British invasion groups-the Beatles and Stones being the other two-the Who most directly and thoughtfully confronted the philosophical and political issues of the day. To Townshend, good

rock music reflected important societal concerns and was a powerful vehicle for ideas.

Beginnings / Record Deal

Formed in London in 1964, The Who consists of Pete Townshend (b. May 19,1945, London), gtr., voc.; Roger Daltrey (b. Mar. 1, 1944, London), voc.; John Entwistle (b. Oct. 9, 1944, London; d. June 27, 2002), bass, French horn, voc.; Keith Moon (b. Aug. 23, 1947, London; d. Sep. 7, 1978, Eng.), drums.

The Who's demo of "I Can't Explain," with session man Jimmy Page adding guitar, brought them to producer Shel Talmy (who had also worked with the Kinks) and got them a record deal. When "I Can't Explain" came out in January 1965, it was ignored until the band appeared on the TV show "Ready, Steady, Go." Townshend smashed his guitar; Moon overturned his drums and the song eventually reached #8 in Britain. In November 1965 My Generation went to #2 in Britain, but only reached #75 in the U.S. But the Who were already stars in Britain, having established their sound-with Townshend's power chords serving as both rhythm and lead guitar, and Moon thrashing wildly at his cymbals-and their personae. Their second album, A Quick One (Happy

Jack in the U.S.), included a ten-minute mini opera as the title track, shortly before the Beatles'

concept album Sgt. Pepper.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Tommy

In October 1968, the band released Magic Bus, a compilation of singles and B sides, while Townshend worked on his 9O-minute rock opera, Tommy. The band performed the opera only twice in its entirety-at London's Coliseum in 1969 and the Metropolitan Opera House in 1970-although excerpts were thereafter part of the live show. Its story-about a deaf, dumb and blind boy who becomes a champion pinball player and then a totalitarian guru-was variously considered profound and pretentious, but "Pinball Wizard" became a hit and Tommy caught on.

Troupes mounted productions of it around the world (the Who's performances had been concert versions), and Townshend oversaw a new recording of it in 1972, backed by the London Symphony and featuring Rod Stewart, Steve Winwood, Sandy Denny, Richard Burton and others. In 1975, Ken Russell directed the film version, which included Tina Turner as the Acid Queen and Elton John singing "Pinball Wizard." Moon and Daltrey appeared in the film.

Who's Next

The History and Progression of Rock Music

In 1971 they released their fifth album Who's Next. It included Townshend's first experiments with synthesizers ("Baba O'Reilly," "Bargain," "Won't Get Fooled Again") and sold in the millions. This album started life as a rock opera titled Lifehouse. This idea never solidified but many of the songs written for the project were kept for the album. This is considered by many to be the Who’s best album and one of the top Rock albums of all time. Some of the most notable songs include:

“Won’t Get Fooled Again”, “Behind Blue Eyes” and “Baba O’Riley”.

In October 1973, Townshend unveiled the Who's second double-album rock opera, Quadrophenia, a tribute to the tortured inner life of the Mods. It, too, was a hit and became a movie directed by Franc Roddam in 1979, with Sting of the Police in a wordless role. While the Who were hugely popular, Quadrophenia signaled that Townshend was now a generation older than the fans he had initially spoken for. As he agonized over his role as an elder statesman of rock-as he would do for much of the rest of his career-the Who released Odds and Sods, a compilation of the previous decade's outtakes. The Who by Numbers was the result of Townshend's self-appraisal; it lacked the Who's usual vigor but yielded a hit single in "Squeeze Box." The band could dependably pack arenas wherever it went, but it took some time off the road after By Numbers.

Meanwhile, punk was burgeoning in Britain, and the Sex Pistols among others were brandishing the Who's old power chords. Townshend's continuing identity crisis showed up in the title of Who

Are You, but the title song became a hit single (#14) and the album went platinum. It was the last

album by the original band.

Last photo of Keith Moon at a party with Linda and Paul McCartney, taken on the night he died.

Death of Moon

On September 7, 1978, Keith Moon died of an overdose of a sedative that had been prescribed to curb his alcoholism. On the night of his death, he spent the evening having a meal as a guest of Paul & Linda McCartney at the film preview "The Buddy Holly Story". (See picture above)

Keith Moon was one of the most original rock drummers of all time. His style was a primary element in what we know as The Who’s ‘sound’. His mannerisms and loony antics often overshadowed an outstanding technique. The video clip below shows the members of The Who and others discussing Keith Moon’s style and personality.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

In 1979, the Who oversaw a concert documentary of their early years, The Kids Are Alright, and worked on the soundtrack version of Quadrophenia. Kenney Jones, formerly of the Small Faces, replaced Moon, and session keyboardist John "Rabbit" Bundrick began working with the Who. The new lineup toured, but its reception was marred when 11 concertgoers were killed-trampled to death or asphyxiated-in a rush for "festival seating" spots at Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum

in December 1979. Later on Moon was also replaced by Zak Starkey, son of Ringo.

The Who released two studio albums with Kenney Jones, Face Dances (1981) and It’s Hard

(1982). Two of the most successful songs from these albums are “You Better You Bet” and

“Eminence Front”.

Warner Bros.

After 15 years with Decca/MCA, the Who signed a band contract with Warner Bros., and Townshend got a solo deal with Atco. His album Empty Glass included an angry reply ("Rough Boys") to Jimmy Pursey of Sham 69, who had insulted the Who during an interview. Townshend also appeared solo with an acoustic guitar at a benefit for Amnesty International, recorded as The

Secret Policeman's Ball. Classical guitarist John Williams played a duet with him on "Won't Get Fooled Again." Face Dances was produced by Bill Szymczyk, who had worked with the Eagles; it included the hit single "You Better You Bet," but Townshend later called the new band's debut a disappointment. In 1983 Townshend announced the breakup of the band. However, throughout

the following years The Who reunited for special events and concerts.

Death of Entwistle

On June 27, 2002, one day before the opening night of The Who’s 2002 US Tour John Entwistle was found dead in a hotel room in the Hard Rock Hotel Casino in Las Vegas. The cause was diagnosed as a heart attack induced by cocaine. The amount of cocaine in his bloodstream was not great, however, with a pre-existing heart condition, his coronary arteries contracted. Entwistle was known to be a frequent cocaine user.

John Entwistle with his collection of guitars and basses

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Power Trio Format

Of the major British invasion groups, the Who were initially the most musically competent. They developed and used the power trio format (using only one guitar, drums, and bass) long before Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Led Zeppelin made it popular. Their definitions of the instruments' respective functions were different than traditional classic rock definitions-typified by the rhythm guitar, lead guitar, bass, and drums used by the Beatles and Stones. The Who's relatively complex harmonic structure, regular use of three-part vocal harmonies, and development

of the "rock opera" format were innovative and sometimes overlooked.

In addition to the quality of the contributions, they also had a significant impact on subsequent rock generations. The rebellious fury of their 1965 teen anthem "My Generation" sowed the seeds of two major musical forms that sprouted later in the seventies, hard rock, and punk. Townshend's power-chording, Moon's active drumming style, Daltrey's aggressive lead vocalist image, and the band's volume and overall stage show were all precursors to hard rock; punk roots are visible in the music's frantic driving pulse and its reactive get-out-of my-face sentiment.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

The Kinks

Formed in England 1962

Ray Davies (b. June 21,1944, London), gtr., voc.; Dave Davies (b. Feb. 3, 1947, London), gtr., voc.; Mick Avory (b. Feb. 15, 1944, London), drums; Pete Quaife (b. Dec. 27, 1943, Tavistock, Eng.), bass.

After the Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who the Kinks are considered the fourth and last successful band of the British Invasion. However, when people refer to the British Invasion, they usually mention the Beatles, the Stones and the Who, forgetting or overlooking the Kinks. Part of the reason why they’re not as well-known as the others is because they often did not get the breaks

they needed.

The Kinks never appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone, not even once, while the Beatles, together or apart, have graced it more than 30 times. And while those other groups were all invading America back in the '60s, the Kinks were stalled at the gate, blocked by the American Federation of Musicians after 1965 for reasons still unknown.

Power Chords

Their early hits, "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night," paved the way for the power chords of the next decade's hard rock. But most of leader Ray Davies' songs have been chronicles of the beleaguered British middle class, scenarios for rock theater and tales of show

The History and Progression of Rock Music

business survival. After their first burst of popularity, the Kinks became a cult band in the mid-Seventies until, buoyed by the new wave's rediscovery of the Davies catalogue, they returned to arenas in the Eighties.

Formation

Ray Davies was attending art school in England when he joined his younger brother Dave's band, the Ravens. In short order, Ray had taken over the group--renamed the Kinks-retaining bassist Pete Quaife and recruiting Mick Avory to play drums. With this lineup they released a pair of unsuccessful singles before recording "You Really Got Me," a #1 hit in England that reached #7 in the U.S. in 1964.

First Number 1:

The following year, "All Day and All of the Night" and "Tired of Waiting for You" both reached the Top Ten in the U.S. and set a pattern for future releases of alternating tough rockers ("Who'll Be the Next in Line") and ballads ("Set Me Free").

The Kinks first two albums, Kinda Kinks (1965) and The Kinks Kontroversy (1965), are considered some of the best works of the British Invasion. The Kinks Kontroversy, though containing another hard-rock 45, "Till the End of the Day," was increasingly introspective, with songs like ''I'm on an Island." In 1966, the Kinks released two singles of pointed satire, "A Well-Respected Man" and "Dedicated Follower of Fashion," indicating the personal turn Ray Davies' songs were taking. Also, that year, an appearance on the American TV show "Hullabaloo" resulted in a problem with the American Federation of Musicians that wasn't resolved until 1969 and prevented the group from touring the U.S. for some time. "Sunny Afternoon" (#14, 1966) from

Face to Face was their last hit of that period.

During their years of exile, Ray Davies became increasingly introspective; he later composed the first of many concept albums, (The Kinks Are) The Village Green Preservation Society, an LP of nostalgia for all the quaint English customs (such as virginity) that other bands were rebelling against. Dave Davies, who had been writing the occasional song for the Kinks almost from the beginning, had a "solo" hit in England with "Death of a Clown," a Kinks song that he wrote and sang. More of Dave's singles followed ("Susannah's Still Alive," "Lin· coin County"), none of which repeated the success of "Clown." A planned solo album was recorded, but released in drips and drabs years later as “Collections.”

Rock Opera / “Lola”/ RCA

The Kinks' next LP, Arthur, or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire, was, with the Who's Tommy, an early rock opera, written for a British TV show that was never aired. The Kinks' next concept album, Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One, was built around the story of trying to get a hit record; the proposed hit, "Lola," reached #9. The group left Reprise for RCA, continuing to work on concept pieces, once again without hits. Nevertheless, they were acquiring a reputation as a cheerfully boozy live band, and their live performances were

The History and Progression of Rock Music

known for the group's messy musicianship and onstage arguments between Ray and Dave Davies, while Ray clowned with limp wrists. This was chronicled on Everybody's in Showbiz, a double album split between Ray Davies' first road songs and a loose live set.

Concept albums became soundtracks for theatrical presentations starring the Kinks in the next years. Preservation Acts 1 and 2, Soap Opera and Schoolboys in Disgrace were all composed for the stage, complete with extra horn players and singers. For all the elaborate shows, though, the

albums weren't selling.

The Kinks left RCA and concept albums behind in 1976. In the meantime, new groups began rediscovering the Kinks' catalogue, notably Van Halen ("You Really Got Me") and the Pretenders

("Stop Your Sobbing"). In 1990 the Kinks were inducted into to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Ray Davies

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Chapter 4

American Counterculture and Avant-Garde

The Doors

Formed in 1965, Los Angeles

Jim Morrison (b. Dec. 8, 1943, Melbourne, Fla.; d. July 3,1971, Paris), voc.; Ray Manzarek (b. Feb. 12, 1935, Chicago), kybds.; Robby Krieger (b. Jan. 8, 1946, Los Angeles), gtr.; John

Densmore (b. Dec.1, 1945, Los Angeles), drums.

Sex, death, reptiles, charisma, and a unique variant of the electric blues gave the Doors an aura of profundity that has survived the band by a decade. By themselves, Jim Morrison's lyrics come across as adolescent posturing, but with Ray Manzarek's dry organ and Robby Krieger's jazzy guitar, they became eerie invocations whose power has been envied and imitated by any number of bands. Their music is a fusion of blues rock, hard rock, and acid rock, with elements of progressive rock.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Beginnings

Morrison and Manzarek, acquaintances from the UCLA Graduate School of Film, conceived the group at a 1965 meeting on a Southern California beach. After Morrison recited one of his poems, "Moonlight Drive," Manzarek-who had studied classical piano as a child and played in Rick and the Ravens, a UCLA blues band suggested they collaborate on songs. Manzarek's brothers, Rick and Jim, served as guitarists until Manzarek met Krieger, who brought in John Densmore; both had been members of the Psychedelic Rangers. Morrison christened the band the Doors, from William Blake via Aldous Huxley's book, The Doors of Perception. This 1954 book details Huxley’s experience with the recreational drug Mescaline. The title comes from William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell:

If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man

had closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern”

The Doors soon recorded a demo tape, and in the summer of 1966, they began working as the house band at the Whisky-a-Go-Go, a gig that ended four months later when they were fired for performing the explicitly Oedipal "The End," one of Morrison's many songs that included dramatic

recitations. By then, Jac Holzman of Elektra Records had signed the band.

Number 1 Hit

An edited version of Krieger's "Light My Fire" from the Doors' debut album, Strange Days, became a #1 hit, as did the album, while "progressive" radio played (and analyzed) "The End,”.

Morrison’s image as the embodiment of dark psychological impulses was established quickly.

The Lizard King

I am the Lizard King I can do anything I can make the earth stop in its tracks

I made the blue cars go away

The History and Progression of Rock Music

For seven years I dwelt In the loose palace of exile Playing strange games With the girls of the island Now I have come again To the land of the fair, and the strong, and the wise Brothers and sisters of the pale forest O Children of Night Who among you will run with the hunt? Now Night arrives with her purple legion Retire now to your tents and to your dreams Tomorrow we enter the town of my birth I want to be ready’

(final stanzas of The Celebration Of The Lizard, a poem by Jim Morrison)

Strange Days (1967) and Waiting for the Sun (1968) both included hit singles and became best-selling albums. Waiting for the Sun also marked the first appearance of Morrison's mythic alter ego, the Lizard King, in a poem printed inside the record jacket entitled "The Celebration of the Lizard King." Though part of the poem was used as lyrics for "Not to Touch the Earth," a complete "Celebration" didn't appear on record until Absolutely Live (1970)

Strange Days Waiting for the Sun

The titled track from the album Strange Days includes the first appearance of the Moog

Synthesizer on a major Rock album. This modular synthesizer was developed by American Robert Moog in 1964, and was later randomly used by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and the Grateful

Dead in the late 1960s, reaching its peak and more integrated usage with the 1970s progressive

rock bands, such as Yes, Pink Floyd, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Morrison Arrested in Miami

It was impossible to tell whether Morrison's Lizard King persona was a parody of a pop star or simply inspired exhibitionism, but it earned him considerable notoriety. In December 1967, he was arrested for public obscenity at a concert in New Haven, and in August 1968, he was arrested for disorderly conduct aboard an airplane en route to Phoenix. Not until his March 1969 arrest in Miami for exhibiting "lewd and lascivious behavior by exposing his private parts and by simulating masturbation and oral copulation" onstage, did Morrison's behavior adversely affect the band. Court proceedings kept Morrison in Miami most of the year, although the prosecution could produce neither eyewitnesses nor photos of Morrison performing the acts. Charges were dropped, but public furor (which inspired a short-lived Rally for Decency movement), concert promoters' fear of similar incidents and Morrison's own mixed feelings about celebrity resulted in erratic

concert schedules thereafter.

The Soft Parade (1969), far more elaborately produced than the Doors' other albums, met with a mixed reception from fans, although it too had a #3 hit single, "Touch Me." Morrison began to devote more attention to projects outside the band: writing poetry, collaborating on a screenplay with poet Michael McClure, directing a film, A Feast of Friends (he had also made films to accompany "Break on Through" and the 1968 single "The Unknown Soldier"). Simon and Schuster published The Lords and the New Creatures in 1971; an earlier book, An American Prayer, was privately printed in 1970 but not made widely available until 1978, when the surviving Doors regrouped and set Morrison's recitation of the poem to music.

L.A. Woman, Paris, Heroin Overdose

Soon after L.A. Woman (1971) was recorded, Morrison took an extended leave of absence from the group. With wife Pamela Morrison, he moved to Paris, where he lived in seclusion until he died of heart failure in his bathtub in 1971. Partly because news of his death was not made public until days after his burial in Paris' Pere Lachaise cemetery, some refuse to believe Morrison is dead. His wife, one of the few people who saw Morrison's corpse, died in Hollywood of a heroin overdose on April 25, 1974.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

The Doors continued to record throughout 1973 as a trio, but after two albums it seemed they had exhausted the possibilities of a band without a commanding lead singer. Manzarek had hoped to reconstitute the group with Iggy Pop, whose avowed chief influence was Morrison, but plans fell through. After the Doors broke up, Manzarek recorded two solo albums, and one with a short-lived group called Nite City; he produced the first three albums by Los Angeles' X, and in 1983 he collaborated with composer Philip Glass on a rock version of Carl Orff's modern cantata, Carmina Burana. Krieger and Densmore formed the Butts Band, which lasted three years and recorded two albums. In 1972, a Doors greatest hits collection, Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine was released, but only hit #55. Krieger released an instrumental album and toured in 1982.

Ironically, the group's best year was 1980, nine years after Morrison's death. With the release of the Danny Sugerman/Jerry Hopkins biography of Morrison, No One Here Gets Out Alive, sales of the Doors' music and the already large Morrison cult grew even more. Record sales for 1980 alone

topped all previous figures.

Père Lachaise Cemetery

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) pianist-composer / Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) / poet-playwright

Marcel Proust (1871-1922) writer / Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) /poet-writer Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) painter-sculptor / Edith Piaf (1915-1963) / singer

Maria Callas (1923-1977) opera singer / Marcel Marceau (1923-2007) / actor -mime artist

These are some of the world-famous artists buried in the largest cemetery in Paris, France, the Père Lachaise Cemetery. This cemetery is a necropolis (a big cemetery with elegant tomb monuments) and it’s the most visited one in the world. It also includes monuments for World War I & II soldiers, victims of concentration camps, and victims of tragic aerial accidents. The cemetery has been included in various films, literary works, and even in video games and songs. Only people that die in or had lived Paris may be buried there. However, very few plots are available and there

is a waiting list. Below are two of the most ornate tombs in Père Lachaise Cemetery:

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Frédéric Chopin French painter Theodore Géricault

Oscar Wilde (filled with lipstick kisses left by fans)

And another famous figure is also buried there, this time a rock star/poet: Jim Morrison (1943-

1971).

The original tomb included a bust of Morrison (left photo), but it was soon desecrated with graffiti, had its nose sliced off by degenerate souvenir hunters, and then it was stolen. It was replaced by a bronze plaque that reads "James Douglas Morrison 1943-1971,” with an inscription in ancient Greek that translates as: "According to the divine spirit within himself." The photo on the right shows doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek visiting the grave in 2003.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

The Velvet Underground

Formed in New York City, 1965, Lou Reed (b. Mar. 2, 1944, Long Island, N.Y.), voc, gtr.; John Cale (b. Dec. 3, 1940, Wales), viola, bass, kybds., voc.; Nico (b. Christa Paffgen, Cologne, W. Ger.), voc; Sterling Morrison,

bass, gtr.; Maureen Tucker, drums.

The Velvet Underground never sold many records, but, as one critic put it, it seemed that every Velvets fan went out and started a band. While their songs were constructed on the same three chords and 4/4 beat employed by most groups of the late Sixties, the Velvets were unique in their intentional crudity, in their sense of beauty in ugliness and in their lyrics. In the age of flower power, they spoke in no uncertain terms of social alienation, sexual deviancy, drug addiction, violence and hopelessness. Both in their sound and in their words, the songs evoked the exhilaration and destructiveness of modern urban life. The group's sound and stance were of seminal importance to David Bowie, the New York Dolls, Patti Smith, Mott the Hoople, Roxy Music, the Sex Pistols, the Cars and countless others of the proto-punk, punk, and post-punk movements.

Beginnings

In 1964, John Cale met Lou Reed in New York City. Both had been classically trained-Cale as a violist and theorist, Reed as a pianist-but by the time of their first meeting Cale was experimenting in the avant-garde with La Monte Young and Reed was writing poems about down-and-out street life. Cale, Reed, Sterling Morrison (recently of the King Hatreds) and Angus MacLise (per-cussionist in Young's ensemble) formed a group that played under various names-the Warlocks, the Primitives, the Falling Spikes-in galleries and at poetry readings around lower Manhattan. As the Primitives, they recorded a series of singles on Pickwick Records, for which Reed had once worked as house songwriter. In 1965, MacLise abruptly packed up and went to India (he died of malnutrition in Nepal in 1979 at the age of 41). Maureen Tucker was enlisted to take his place on

The History and Progression of Rock Music

a per diem basis, which became permanent when she constructed her own drum kit out of

tambourines and garbage-can lids.

Andy Warhol and Nico

On November 11, 1965, the group played their first gig as the Velvet Underground, opening for the Myddle Class at a high school dance in Summit, New Jersey. Within a few months, they had taken up residency at the Cafe Bizarre in Greenwich Village, where they met pop artist Andy Warhol. When the group was fired by the Bizarre's management for performing "Black Angel's Death Song" immediately after being told not to, Warhol invited them to perform at showings of his film series, Cinematique Uptight, and then employed them as the aural component of his traveling mixed-media show, the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. For the latter, he augmented their lineup with singer/actress Nico, whom he gave equal billing on the group's first album, The Velvet

Underground and Nico, although she sang only a couple of songs. The album was recorded in 1966, and two singles "I'll Be Your Mirror" b/w "All Tomorrow's Parties" and "Sunday Morning" b/w "Femme Fatale"-appeared. The album, which included Reed's "Heroin" and "Venus in Furs" (a song about sado-masochism), was not released for almost a year. Sporting a Warhol cover with a peelable illustration of a banana, the album sold more copies than any other Velvets record.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

With Andy Warhol (second from left)

Goodbye Warhol / Velvet fades / Dropped by MGM

The group ended their association with Warhol when they performed in Boston minus Nico and the rest of the Inevitable troupe and took on Steve Sesnick as their manager. Without Warhol's name and knack for generating publicity, the Velvet Underground faded from public attention. Their following was reduced further when the uncompromisingly noisy White Light/White Heat

came out. It had been recorded in a single day after a tour of mostly empty theaters. Cale quit the group. Rather than find another electric violist, the remaining members enlisted Doug Yule, who had played with a Boston folk-rock group, the Grass Menagerie. The third album, titled The Velvet

Underground, recorded in Los Angeles with Yule, was much softer than either of its predecessors, and it cost the group all but the most loyal of their following, MGM dropped them, and it was some months before Atlantic signed them.

Upon their return to New York to record in the summer of 1970, the Velvet Underground played a month-long engagement at Max's Kansas City (with Billy Yule deputizing for Tucker, who was pregnant). These were the group's first appearances in New York since 1967, and they rekindled some interest. But soon after their fourth album, Loaded, was finished, Reed, at odds with Sesnick, left the group and moved to England, where he lived for two years before reemerging as a solo performer. Although he denounced Loaded, claiming it was remixed after his departure (a charge Yule and Morrison denied), the album introduced "Sweet Jane" and "Rock and Roll." With the success of Reed's solo career and, to lesser extents, Cale's and Nico's, the Velvet Underground generated more interest in the Seventies than it had during the group's existence. Two live albums were released in 1974: The Velvet Underground, recorded in 1969 in Texas and California, and Live at Max's Kansas City, recorded the night of Reed's last appearance with the group.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Discussion Assignments for Class Projects

3 topics.

Discussion Format and Topic Assignment

To enhance and diversify the discussions, each student will be assigned one of the three topics. The topic designation will be determined by the first letter the student’s last name.

For example, if your last name is Jones, your topic will be Topic 2, which covers all last names

that start with the letters I through P.

Last names starting with the letters A-H Topic 1

Last names starting with the letters I-P Topic 2

Last names starting with the letters Q-Z Topic 3

Topics for Discussion 2

Topic 1:

Why was the early sixties musical “British Invasion” so successful and warmly embraced in the United States? Be as specific as possible.

Topic 2:

What makes the music of the Beatles so widely popular even today? Give concrete examples.

Topic 3:

The Doors: Do you love them, dislike them, or just indifferent? Explain why? Was Jim

Morrison ahead of his time or was he just a mediocrity who mastered the art of shock value?

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Chapter 5

From Psychedelia to Hard Rock

The mood of the Beatles’ 1966 album cover Rubber Soul, with its slightly distorted photo and

rubber looking letters foreshadowed what would later be identified as psychedelic art.

The literal meaning of the word psychedelic means “mind manifesting,” and the root comes from the Greek words psyche, meaning mind, and delos, meaning manifesting or revealing. The psychedelic arts imitate, suggest, or reproduce effects (such as distorted or unusual images or sounds) representing an altered state of reality, like those produced by psychedelic drugs. Also known as "acid rock," psychedelic music ostensibly intended to musically re-create the "trips" induced by these mind-expanding drugs, and would often include sound effects like high levels of reverb, feedback, delay loops, backwards sounds, unorthodox use of instruments, with a liking for

Indian instruments and keyboards, extended jams, abstract or obscure lyrics, etc.

Psychedelic bands, such as the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, came out of San Francisco and its Haight-Ashbury district, the early center of hippie activity; concurrently, Britain produced Pink Floyd. Their music made use of electronic effects, extended forms and popular exotica like Middle Eastern modalities and Indian raga, and introduced extended improvisation into rock, often with musically dubious results but occasionally, as in the Grateful Dead's "Dark Star," with enough sustained invention and group interplay to stake a legitimate claim to the rock band as jazz ensemble. Nevertheless, all music that refers to drugs is not necessarily psychedelic, and all psychedelic music does not necessarily refer-explicitly to drugs. Though psychedelia has become quaint and nostalgic, many of its innovations persisted through subsequent genres like progressive rock and some forms of fusion.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Monterey Pop Festival

The Monterey Pop Festival was the first extensively promoted rock music festival. It was put together by promoter Lou Adler, producer Alan Pariser, publicist Derek Taylor (of the Beatles) and John Phllips of The Mamas and the Papas in 1967, lasted for three days (June 16-18) and was attended by approximately 200,000 people. The festival is largely known for hosting the first major American appearances by The Who and Jimi Hendrix, and the first major public performances of

Janis Joplin and Otis Redding.

Haight-Ashbury and the Summer of Love

Haight Ashbury is a district of San Francisco, commonly known as The Haight, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. The Haight is associated to the hippie movement of the mid-late 1960s. The Summer of Love pertains to the summer of 1967, when up to 100,000 young people gathered on the Haight-Ashbury area, proclaiming a cultural, ideological, and political rebellion. While hippies were active in various cities throughout the United States, San Francisco became the center of the hippie movement. This group rejected commercialism and supported alternative lifestyles such as communal living and free love,

which often included psychedelic drugs and creative expression.

The Music

Between 1965 and 1970, waves of Bay Area bands were formed, brewed their eclectic blend of folk-rock and revivalist blues, and achieved some level of national prominence. Some of the most famous were The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. San Francisco-area rock was composed of a variety of musical and lyrical ingredients. Some of it reflected the current musical trends, such as the two-guitar ensemble and two-plus-four rhythmic emphasis of classic rock and early Beatles music; lyrics critical of traditional societal values and behavior; and an emotive, earnest vocal style reflective of the ongoing folk-rock boom. However, there were also significant musical and cultural departures from contemporary popular styles, seen in the distorted, extended guitar improvisations, which paralleled those of the emerging sixties blues revival and took on more major-scale melodic character than their blues counterparts; the lyrics emanating from gay Area groups, which were more likely to contain references to altered consciousness and counterculture concerns; and Bay Area musicians themselves, who challenged the commonly held music-industry

notion of elite star-versus-commoner relationship with the audience.

Due to the proximity to San Francisco and Berkeley's alternative culture community, the musicians' artistic output strongly reflected the community's escape from the straight world and its idealistic search for a different set of values and existence. This quest manifested itself in many ways, including music that tested existing boundaries and lyrics and were highly critical of mainstream society. Thus, the conditions under which this San Francisco-based music emerged

The History and Progression of Rock Music

and flourished included the legacy of a free-spirited, anything-goes attitude, previous successful counterculture communities, a history where political activism played an integral role, and several ballroom venues where the symbiotic musician/audience relationship could be born and nurtured.

The Jefferson Airplane

A San Francisco native named Marty Balin opened a club called the Matrix in the spring of 1965, and then formed a folk-rock group that would become the club’s house band. The Jefferson

Airplane, a group of mostly middleclass, ex-folkies, rock and roll converts-debuted at the Matrix in August 1965. Meanwhile, the ballroom scene was being born. A group of friends called the Family Dog rented the Longshoreman's Hall near Fisherman's Wharf, contracted with the region's budding talent, and dubbed the October 16, 1965, event A Tribute to Dr. Strange. Posters were colored in with magic marker, advertising the Jefferson Airplane, the Marbles, the Great Society (featuring vocalist Grace Slick), and area music pioneers the Charlatans. San Francisco Chronicle jazz and popular music journalist Ralph J. Gleason, an early scene supporter, described the night:

"Long lines of dancers snaked through the crowd holding hands. Free form improvisation ('self-expression') was everywhere. The clothes were a blast. Like a giant costume party.... It was a

gorgeous sight”

The Jefferson Airplane were the first San Francisco psychedelic rock group to sign a contract with a major label, the first to appear on American national television, the first to attain hit records and the first to tour the US East Coast and Europe. The Jefferson Airplane not only epitomized the burgeoning Haight-Ashbury culture but also provided its soundtrack. They established a psychedelic unity with communal vocal harmonies and a synthesis of elements from folk, pop, jazz, blues, and rock.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Grace Slick (born Grace Barnett Wing on 1939) was not only one of the lead singers for Airplane but also of Jefferson Starship and Starship. She also had a solo career of close to thirty years. She is known for her strong and expressive vocals and for her thought-provoking introspective lyrics. The song “White Rabbit” is a song from Jefferson Airplane’s 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow, and it was a top ten hit for the band. Written by Grace Slick around early 1966, the song combines imagery from the Lewis Carroll’s novels Alice’s Adventures in

Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass with the effects of mind-altering drugs.

White Rabbit

One pill makes you larger And one pill makes you small

And the ones that mother gives you Don't do anything at all

Go ask Alice When she's ten feet tall

And if you go chasing rabbits And you know you're going to fall Tell 'em a hookah smoking

caterpillar Has given you the call Call Alice When she was just small

When men on the chessboard Get up and tell you where to go And you've just had some kind of mushroom

And your mind is moving low

Go ask Alice I think she'll know

When logic and proportion Have fallen sloppy dead

And the White Knight is talking backwards And the Red Queen's "off with her head!"

Remember what the dormouse said: "Feed your head Feed your head Feed your head”

The History and Progression of Rock Music

The Grateful Dead

Formed in San Francisco in 1965, the Grateful Dead are probably the most improvisatory 1960s rock group. They played long, free-form concerts with their country-blues and folk-tinged rock songs, usually for audiences largely composed of Dead Heads, their fan club cult. In true psychedelic style, they specialize in live shows rather than the recording process, preferring the moment to the artifact. Their members are Jerry Garcia (1942-1995) vocals, guitar, and principal songwriter / Mickey Hart (b.1943) drums / Phil Lesh (b. 1940) bass / Brent Mydland (1952-1990) vocals and keyboards / Bill Kreutzmann (b.1976) drums / and Bob Weir (b. 1947) vocals, guitar, and songwriter.

LSD chemist Owsley Stanley bankrolled the Grateful Dead-a name from an Egyptian prayer that Garcia spotted in a dictionary-and later supervised construction of the band's state-of-the-art sound system. The Dead lived communally at 710 Ashbury Street in San Francisco in 1966-67 and played numerous free concerts; by 1967's Summer of Love, they were regulars at the Avalon and Carousel ballrooms and the Fillmore West.

MGM signed the band in 1966, and they made some mediocre recordings that were eventually released in 1971. Their legitimate recording career began when Warner Bros. signed them. While their 1967 debut album featured zippy three-minute songs, Anthem of the Sun and Aoxomoxoa included extended suites and studio experiments that left the band $100,000 in debt to Warner Bros., mostly for studio time, by the end of the Sixties. Meanwhile, the Dead's reputation had spread, and they appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and Wood-stock in 1969.

The lineup of The Grateful Dead varied throughout the years due to members simply leaving the band and to deaths. Jerry Garcia, probably the most famous member, struggled with heroin addiction and in 1995, while residing in a drug rehabilitation facility, died of a heart attack.

In 1987 they released “Touch of Grey” their only song to reach the top 10 of Billboard’s Hot 100. It was released in the album In The Dark. The music was written by Jerry Garcia and the lyrics by Robert Hunter.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

JANIS JOPLIN

Singer Janis Joplin (1943-1970) was arguably the leading white blues singer of the Sixties. Even before her death, her tough blues-mama image only barely covered her vulnerability. The publicity concerning her sex life and drinking, and drug problems had made her something of a legend. Born into a comfortable middle-class family, Joplin was a loner by her early teens, developing a taste for blues and folk music; soon she retreated into poetry and painting. She ran away from home at age 17 and began singing in clubs in Houston and Austin, Texas, to earn money to

finance a trip to California. By 1965, she was singing folk and blues in bars in San Francisco and Venice, California, had dropped out of several colleges, and was drawing unemployment checks. She returned to Austin in 1966 to sing in a country & western band, but within a few months a friend of San Francisco impresario Chet Helms told her about a new band, Big Brother and the

Holding Company, that needed a singer in San Francisco. She returned to California and joined Big Brother

At the Monterey Festival (1967) Joplin made a riveting performance of the song “Ball and Chain.” A video of the performance captures Cass Elliot from The Mamas and the Papas in the crowd saying “Wow!” Bluesy-Free Form renditions like this one became Joplin’s trademark style, a style which was later emulated by various Hard Rock singers from the 1970s, Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin being one of the most notable. Joplin and Big Brother rocked the show at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. Albert Grossman agreed to manage them, and Joplin was on her way to becoming a superstar. After a successful first LP with Big Brother, Columbia Records signed the unit, and Cheap Thrills, with the hit single "Piece of My Heart," became a quick million-seller. Within a year, Joplin had come to overshadow her backing band, and she left Big Brother (though she appears, un-credited, on a few tracks on the group's 1971 Be a Brother LP), taking only Sam Andrew with her to form the Kozmic Blues Band.

Joplin toured constantly and made frequent television appearances. Finally, the Kozmic Blues LP appeared, with gutsy blues-rock hits like "Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)." During this time, she became increasingly involved with alcohol and drugs, eventually succumbing to heroin addiction. Yet her life seemed to be taking a turn for the better with the recording of Pearl. She was engaged to be married and was pleased with the Full Tilt Boogie Band she'd formed for the Pearl album (Pearl was her nickname). On October 4, 1970, her body was found in her room at Hollywood's Landmark Hotel, face down with fresh puncture marks in her arm. The death was ruled an accidental heroin overdose. The posthumous Pearl LP yielded her #1 hit version of former lover Kris Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee" and was released with one track, "Buried Alive in the Blues," missing the vocals Joplin didn't live to complete. Several more posthumous collections have been released, as well as the 1974 documentary, Janis. The 1979 film The Rose, starring Bette Midler, was a thinly veiled account of Joplin's career.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

The "Guitar Giants"

Gibson Les Paul Classic Guitar

I copied most of my runs from B. B. [King] or Albert King or Freddie King. There's no reason why they [other guitarists] should listen to me when they can listen to

the masters, you know, the source. -Eric Clapton, in an interview with journalist

Fred Stucky

Lots of young people now feel they're not getting a fair deal, so they revert to

something loud or harsh, almost verging on violence .... It's more than music. It's like a church, like a foundation for the lost or potentially lost. - Jimi Hendrix, as

quoted in Hopkins's The Jimi Hendrix Story

In 1966 two London-based guitarists and their newly formed trios emerged from the scene with an innovative musical blend-a guitar-centered style that fused elements of the blues with the culturally acquired conceptual distortion of the experimental sixties. Eric Clapton, a blues aficionado, and former guitarist with the British R&B band the Yardbirds, formed the group Cream; Jimi Hendrix, an American without substantial success as a soul guitarist, was enticed to England to form the Jimi Hendrix Experience. For the first time in rock music's evolution, audiences were attracted primarily by an instrumentalist playing a series of improvised solos rather than by a group, singer, or repertoire of songs. The previous generations of classic rock and the early 1960s had their guitarists-Chuck Berry, Scotty Moore, Buddy Holly, Duane Eddy, and others-but at no time did the instrument or the instrumentalist achieve such monumental status as it did during the Guitar King era.

Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix drew from a variety of sources to find early artistic and commercial success-Clapton initially as a blues revivalist and Hendrix as a soul and R&B session man-and each finally played solid-body guitars, the Gibson Les Paul (Clapton) and Fender Stratocaster (Hendrix) during their peak years. Eric Clapton was the first of the two to achieve commercial notoriety.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton was born on March 30, 1945, in Ripley, England and raised by his grandparents in suburban London. Clapton grew up a self-confessed "nasty kid." In the groups the Yardbirds, Cream, Derek and the Dominos and his own bands, guitarist Clapton has continually redefined his own version of the blues. He studied stained-glass design at Kingston Art School and started playing guitar at 17. He stayed with his first band, the early British R&B outfit the Roosters (which included Tom McGuinness, later of Manfred Mann and McGuinness Flint), from January to August 1963 and frequently jammed in London clubs with, among others, future members of the Rolling Stones. He joined the Yardbirds in late 1963 and stayed with them until March 1965, when they began to leave behind power blues for psychedelic pop.

Upon leaving the Yardbirds, Clapton did construction work until John Mayall asked him to join his Blues Breakers in spring 1965. While with Mayall, he contributed to several LPs while perfecting the blues runs that drew a cult of worshipers (the slogan "Clapton is God" became a popular graffito in London). Also with Mayall, he participated in a studio band called Powerhouse (which included Jack Bruce and Steve Winwood), and they con-tributed three cuts to a 1966 Elektra anthology, What's Shakin'. Clapton left the Bluesbreakers in July 1966 and cut a few tracks

with Jimmy Page, then with bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker he formed Cream.

Clapton perfected his virtuoso style, and Cream's concerts featured lengthy solo excursions, which Clapton often performed with his back to the crowd. During his tenure with Cream, Clapton contributed lead fills to the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and appeared on Frank Zappa's We're Only in It for the Money. When Cream broke up in November 1968, Clapton formed the short-lived supergroup Blind Faith with Baker, Winwood and Rick Grech. During their only U.S. tour, Clapton embraced Christianity, which he has given up and reaffirmed periodically ever since. As a corrective to Blind Faith's fan worship, Clapton began jamming with tour openers Delaney and Bonnie, then joined their band as an unbilled (but hardly unnoticed) sideman. Clapton's 1969 activities also included a brief fling with John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band (Live

Peace in Toronto).

He moved to New York in late 1969 and with several members of the Bramletts' band, and friends like Leon Russell and Stephen Stills, whose solo albums Clapton played on, he recorded his first solo album, Eric Clapton, which yielded a U.S. #18 hit, the J. J. Cale song "After Midnight."The album marked Clapton's emergence as a strong lead vocalist, a role he continued to fill after forming Derek and the Dominos with bassist Carl Radle, drummer Jim Gordon and keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, all former Delaney and Bonnie sidemen.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

The Dominos' only studio album, the two-record Layla, was a guitar tour de force sparked by the contributions of guest artist Duane Allman. The title track, an instant FM standard, was a tale of unrequited love inspired by Patti Boyd Harrison (wife of ex-Beatle George), whom Clapton married in 1979. Clapton toured on and off with the Dominos through late 1971 and sat in on albums by Dr. John and Harrison, who enticed Clapton

to play at the benefit concert for Bangladesh in August 1971.

Patti ("Leyla") and George Harrison

Depressed and burdened by a heroin habit, Clapton retreated to the isolation of his Surrey home for most of 1971 and 1972. With the aid of Pete Townshend, he began his comeback with a concert at London's Rainbow Theatre in January 1973. Supported by Townshend, Winwood, Ron Wood, Jim Capaldi and others, Clapton released tapes from the ragged concert in a September 1973 LP.

By the time 461 Ocean Boulevard was released, he had kicked heroin for good.

In the Seventies, Clapton became a dependable hit maker with the easygoing, more commercial style he introduced on 461- a relaxed shuffle that, like J. J. Cale's, hinted at gospel, honky-tonk and reggae, retaining a blues feeling but not necessarily the blues structure. Playing fewer and shorter guitar solos, he emphasized his vocals-often paired with harmonies. He had hits with his cover of Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" (1974) and originals "Lay Down Sally" (1978) and "Promises" (1979). His albums regularly sell in gold quantities; Slowhand and Backless were certified platinum. He had a Top Ten hit in 1981 with "I Can't Stand It."

Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix was born Johnny Allen Hendrix in Seattle, Washington, on November 27,1942, while his father was in the army; he was flung from relatives to friends of relatives to foster homes. His mother was wild and consumptive, leaving the family for the final time when Jimi was ten. His father, Al, returned from the war, but it was many years before he could earn enough as a gardener to establish a home for Jimi and younger brother Leon. Jimi found solace in music, his father's jazz and R&B

record collection, and his first guitar, an acoustic that he acquired when he was fourteen.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Jimi Hendrix, like Clapton, also began his career listening to blues records in his room and he never forgot those roots. Although his quasi-blues music differs a great deal from Clapton's, in one way they are the same. Both loved the blues and never lost the ability to transmit the depth and emotionality of the blues to the audience. But unlike Clapton, Hendrix expanded guitar playing beyond a fusion of stylistic elements, past the borders of notated music into the realm of sounds. In creating this sound spectrum, he was also forced to master the evolving "effects" technology of the time. In creating sound by controlling the guitar and its effects technology, Hendrix had no

peer. In some ways-more than two decades after his untimely death-he has yet to be equaled.

As a teenager, Hendrix taught himself to play guitar by listening to records by blues guitarists Muddy Waters and B. B. King and rockers such as Chuck Berry and Eddie Cochran. He played in high school bands before enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1959. Discharged after parachuting injuries in 1961, Hendrix began working under the alias Jimmy James as a pickup guitarist. In 1965, Hendrix formed his own band, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, to play Greenwich Village coffeehouses. Chas Chandler of the Animals took him to London in the autumn of 1966 and arranged for the creation of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, with Noel Redding on bass and Mitch Mitchell on drums.

The Experience's first single, "Hey Joe," reached #6 on the U.K. charts early in 1967, followed shortly by "Purple Haze" and their debut album. Hendrix fast became the rage of London's pop society. Though word of the Hendrix phenomenon spread through the U. S. he was not seen in America (and no records were released) until June 1967, when, at Paul McCartney's insistence, the Experience appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival. The performance, which Hendrix climaxed

by burning his guitar, was filmed for Monterey Pop.

As 1968 ended, disagreements arose between manager Chas Chandler and comanager Michael Jeffrey; Jeffrey, who opposed Hendrix's avant-garde leanings, got the upper hand. Hendrix was also under pressure from black-power advocates to form an all-black group and play to black audiences. These problems exacerbated already existing tensions within the Experience, and early in 1969 Redding left the group to form Fat Mattress. Hendrix replaced him with an Army buddy,

Billy Cox. Mitchell stayed on briefly, but by August the Experience was defunct.

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Woodstock Festival - 1969

Hendrix appeared at the Woodstock Festival with a large informal ensemble called the Electric Sky Church, and later that year he put together the all-black Band of Gypsies with Cox and drummer Buddy Miles (Electric Flag), with whom he had played behind Wilson Pickett. The Band of Gypsies' debut concert at New York's Fillmore East on New Year's Eve 1969 provided the recordings for the group's only album. Hendrix walked offstage in the middle of their Madison Square Garden gig; when he performed again some months later it was with Mitchell and Cox, the group that recorded Cry of Love, Hendrix's last self-authorized album, and played at the Isle of Wight Festival, his last concert in England, in August 1970. A month later he was dead. The cause of death was given in the coroner's report as inhalation of vomit following barbiturate intoxication.

Suicide was not ruled out, but evidence pointed to an accident.

Jimi Hendrix was one of the most innovative and influential rock guitarists of the late Sixties and perhaps the most important electric guitarist after Charlie Christian. Hendrix pioneered the use of the instrument as an electronic sound source. Rockers before him had experimented with feedback and distortion, but he turned those effects and others into a controlled, fluid vocabulary every bit as personal as the blues he began with. Hendrix's studio craft and his virtuosity with both conventional and unconventional guitar sounds have been widely imitated, and his image-as the psychedelic voodoo child conjuring uncontrollable forces-is a rock archetype.

In the years since his death, virtually every note Hendrix ever allowed to be recorded has been marketed on approximately 100 albums. Of these-recordings dredged up from his years as a pickup guitarist, live concerts, and jam sessions, both bootleg and legitimate-most attention has been given to a series produced by Alan Douglas, who recorded over 1,000 hours of Hendrix alone at the Electric Lady studio in the last year of his life. With the consent of the Hendrix estate, Douglas

edited the tapes, erased some tracks, and dubbed in others, with mixed results.

Led Zeppelin

The History and Progression of Rock Music

Led Zeppelin was formed in England in 1968 by Jimmy Page (b.1944) guitar / John Paul Jones (b. John Baldwin-1946) bass / Robert Plant (b. 1948) vocals / John "Bonzo" Bonham (1948-1980 drums. It wasn't just their deafening volume, hard beat and hard-edged arrangements that made

them the most influential and successful heavy metal pioneers; it was their elegance.

Led Zeppelin used a guitar style that drew heavily on the blues, and their early repertoire included remakes of songs by bluesmen Howlin' Wolf, Albert King and Willie Dixon. But what Jimmy Page brought to the band was a unique understanding of the guitar and the recording studio as electronic instruments, and of rock as sculptured noise; like Jimi Hendrix, Page had a reason for every bit of distortion, feedback, reverberation, and out-and-out noise that he incorporated-and few of the bands that imitate Led Zeppelin can make the same claim.

Page and Robert Plant were grounded also in British folk music and fascinated by mythology, Middle Earth fantasy and the occult, as became increasingly evident from the band's later albums (the fourth LP is entitled in Druidic runes). A song that builds from a folk-baroque acoustic setting to screaming heavy metal, "Stairway to Heaven" fittingly became the best-known Led Zeppelin song and a staple of FM airplay, although like most of their "hits," it was never released as a single.

When the Yardbirds fell apart in the summer of 1968, Page was left with rights to the group's name and a string of concert obligations. He enlisted John Paul Jones, who had done session work with the Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, Lulu, Dusty Springfield, and Shirley Bassey. Page and Jones had first met, jammed together, and discussed forming a group when both were hired to back Donovan on his Hurdy Gurdy Man LP. Page had hoped to complete the group with drummer B. J. Wilson of Procol Harum and singer Terry Reid. Neither was available, but Reid recommended

Plant, who in turn suggested Bonham, drummer for his old Birmingham group, Band of Joy.

The four first played together as the session group behind P. J. Proby on his Three Week Hero. In October 1968, they embarked on a tour of Scandinavia under the name the New Yardbirds. Upon their return to England, they recorded their debut album in thirty hours. Adopting the name Led Zeppelin (allegedly coined by Keith Moon), they toured the U.S. in early 1969 opening for Vanilla Fudge. Their first album was released in February; within two months it had reached Billboard's Top Ten. Their second album reached #1 two months after its release, and since then every Led Zeppelin album has gone platinum. After touring almost incessantly during their first two years as a group, they began limiting their appearances to alternating years. Their 1973 U, S. tour broke box-office records throughout the country (many of which had been set by the Beatles), and by 1975 their immense ticket and album sales had made Led Zeppelin the most popular rock & roll

group in the world.

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Swan Song

In 1974, they established their own label, Swan Song. In 1975 they released their sixth album. Titled Physical Graffiti it is a

double album and the first on their label Swan Song.

On August 4, 1975, Plant and his family were seriously injured in a car crash while vacationing on the Greek island of Rhodes. As a result, the group toured even less frequently. That and speculation among fans that supernatural

forces may have come into play (Plant believed in psychic phenomena, and Page, whose interest in the occult was well known, resides in the former home of infamous satanist Aleister Crowley) also heightened the Zeppelin mystique. In 1976, Led Zeppelin released Presence, followed by 1979's

In through the Out Door, the band's last group effort.

Death of Bonham

In 1980, Bonham died at Page's home of what was described as asphyxiation; he had inhaled his own vomit after having consumed alcohol and fallen asleep. That December, Zeppelin released a cryptic statement to the effect that they could no longer continue as they were. Soon thereafter, it was rumored that Plant and Page were going to form a band called XYZ (ex-Yes and Zeppelin)

with Alan White and Chris Squire of Yes; the group never materialized.

In 1982, Page released a solo LP, the soundtrack to the movie Death Wish II. Plant's solo debut, Pictures at Eleven, released the same year, was a Top Five hit. That December, the group released Coda, a collection of early recordings and outtakes. As of 1983, Led Zeppelin's concert movie The Song Remains the Same (originally released in 1976) is still a staple of midnight shows around the country, and Zeppelin tunes like "Stairway to Heaven," "Kashmir," "Communication Breakdown," "Whole Lotta Love" and "No Quarter" are still in heavy rotation on AOR radio

playlists.

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Chapter 6

Progressive Rock

Keith Emerson and the Moog Synthesizer

"Few styles of popular music have generated as much controversy as progressive rock. This style, which emerged in the wake of the counterculture, today is best

remembered for its gargantuan stage shows, its fascination with epic subject matter drawn from science fiction, mythology, and fantasy literature, and above all for its

attempts to combine classical music's sense of space and monumental scope with rock's raw power and energy. Its dazzling virtuosity and spectacular live concerts

made it hugely popular with fans during the 1970s, who saw bands such as King Crimson, Emerson, Lake and Palmer (ELP for short), Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd,

and Jethro Tull bringing a new level of depth and sophistication to rock.

On the other hand, critics branded the elaborate concerts of these bands as self-

indulgent and materialistic. They viewed progressive rock's classical/rock fusion attempts as elitist, a betrayal of rock's populist origins. Not only has progressive

rock been largely despised by the rock critics, but it has also been largely ignored by popular music scholars. This is probably because it does not prominently

chronicle minority or working-class disaffection in the manner of punk or reggae, and therefore does not easily lend itself to the neo-Marxist interpretations which

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have been the hallmark of popular music scholarship." - Excerpt from the book

Rocking the Classics by Edward Macan)

From Psychedelic Rock to Progressive Rock

Generally, "progressive" denotes a form of rock music in which electric instruments and rock-band formats are integrated with European classical motifs and orchestrations, typically forming extended, intricate, multi-sectional suites. The progressive rock (also known as “Art-Rock”) movement began in Britain in the late Sixties as an outgrowth of psychedelia's adventurism and owes its lyrics' frequent use of cosmic themes to acid rock. But progressive rock is a Seventies genre, accenting a daunting instrumental virtuosity and grandiosity over down-to-earth directness. They created lush, well-orchestrated music while expounding on the world through lyrics. Often, allegorical tales were woven with strange and sometimes/menacing fairy-tale characters. Art-rock was structurally complex when compared to blues-rooted hard rock contemporaries, and it featured a sound collage of keyboards, synthesizers, and studio-layered instruments. Many of the progressive rock musicians, unlike the previous generation of 60s rockers, had studied at universities, often in the classical music program.

Pink Floyd

(L-R: Roger Waters, Nick Mason, Syd Barrett, Richard Wright)

Formed in 1965, Pink Floyd, who started as one of the bands of the London psychedelic underground, changed course when lead singer and guitarist Syd Barrett became mentally ill and was replaced by guitarist David Gilmour. At this point Roger Waters became their principal lyricist and leading force when it came to the thematic content of the albums. With the release of 1973's The Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd abruptly went from a moderately successful acid-rock band to one of pop music's biggest acts. The recording, in fact, remained on Billboard's Top 200

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album chart longer than any other release in history. Along with 1979's The Wall, it established the band as purveyors of a distinctively dark vision. Experimenting with concept albums and studio technology and breaking free of conventional pop song formats, Pink Floyd anticipated the

progressive rock of the '70s and ambient music of the '80s.

Beginnings

As early as 1964, Pink Floyd's original members, except Syd Barrett (born Roger Keith Barrett), were together studying architecture at London's Regent Street Polytechnic School. With Barrett, an art student who coined the name the Pink Floyd Sound after a favorite blues record by Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, they began playing R&B-based material for schoolmates. By 1967 they had developed an unmistakably psychedelic / space rock sound; long, loud suite-like compositions that touched on hard rock, blues, country, folk, electronic, and quasi-classical music. Adding a slide-and-light show, one of the first in British rock, they became a sensation among London's underground as a featured attraction at the UFO Club.

In 1968 Barrett, allegedly because of an excess of LSD experimentation, began to exhibit ever more strange and erratic behavior. “He basically fried his brain with LSD,” said Waters. David Gilmour joined to help with the guitar work. In 1968 it was officially announced that

Barrett was no longer in the band.

Syd Barrett - Before and After

The photo on the right is from 1974, during the Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd’s 9th album) sessions at Abbey Road Studios, the day Syd dropped by unannounced. Serendipitously, the band was recording “Shine On Your Crazy Diamond”, the song written about Syd. None of the band members recognized him at first; he had shaved off all his hair (eyebrows included) and had gained a lot of weight. He behaved unpredictably during the session, spending part of the time jumping up and down while brushing his teeth. At one point during the sessions Roger Waters asked him what he thought of the song, and he said he didn’t like it and left the studio. This would be the last time they would ever see him again. Syd died in 2006 at the age of 60.

Cause of death was reported as pancreatic cancer.

The Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett story (originally called Syd Barrett: Crazy Diamond) was released in 2003 and was directed by John Edginton. According to his sister, Barrett watched the documentary when it was broadcast on the BBC. He apparently found it "too loud", although he did enjoy seeing Mike Leonard, who he referred to as his "teacher". He also enjoyed hearing "See Emily Play" again.

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Post-Barrett

The band recorded two albums with Barrett, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967) and A Saucer

Full of Secrets (1968). After Barrett’s departure the band started moving away from their psychedelic style into one of experimentation which included extended jam sessions as well the incorporation of noises, feedback, electronic music, and a variety of percussion instruments. A good example of this period is the album Ummagumma from 1969. On their next album Atom

Heart Mother (1970) Pink Floyd recorded for the first time with an orchestra, an album subsequently despised by Waters and Gilmour. By the time of their next album Meddle (1971) the “Pink Floyd Sound” was already quite focused. Drummer Nick Mason considers Meddle as the band’s “first real album”.

From 1969 to 1972 Pink Floyd made several film soundtracks, the most dramatic being Zabriskie

Point, in which Michelangelo Antonioni's closing sequence of explosions was complemented by

Floyd's "Careful With That Axe, Eugene"

Dark Side of the Moon

“Dark Side of the Moon was an expression of political,

philosophical and humanitarian empathy that was

desperate to get out” - Roger Waters

Their breakthrough came in 1973 with The Dark Side of

the Moon. The themes were unremittingly bleak-alienation, paranoia, schizophrenia-and the music reflected the lyrics perfectly, with the subtle and simple finesse, often making use of ‘space’ (silence) in their playing. During the recording sessions Roger Waters went around the studio with a portable tape recorder and interviewed people at random. One of the questions he asked them was “When was the last time you got mad and were you in the right (was your anger justified).”

Throughout the album one hears these taped voices surfacing at key moments. Yielding a surprise American hit in "Money," (#13, 1973), the album went on to mammoth long-running sales success. Ultimately remaining on the Billboard Top 200 album chart for 741 weeks, longer than any other release in history, Dark Side showcased the talents of Pink Floyd's chief members: Waters' lyrics, Gilmour's guitar. The two would continue to dominate the band but soon furiously contend against each other.

The group's subsequent albums explored the same territory, with Waters' songs growing ever more bitter. Wish You Were Here (1975) was dedicated to Barrett and elegized him with "Shine On You Crazy Diamond." The Wall (1979), one of Pink Floyd’s finest albums, topped the US. chart for 15 weeks, while its nihilistic hit, "Another Brick in the Wall," was banned by the BBC and in 1980 became the band's only #1 American single. The Wall is considered by critics as the

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band’s first truly “socially conscious” album, however, the “non-political” Dark Side of the

Moon is perhaps more politically effective than The Wall:

“Dark Side of the Moon imaginatively involves the audience in its depiction of the human condition and encourages then to think through the ramifications for

themselves. On the other hand, “The Wall” too often simply lectures the audience

and tells them what to think.” -From Rocking the Classics by Edward Macan.

Meanwhile Pink Floyd's stage shows had become increasingly elaborate. For the Dark Side and Wish tours, there were slide/light shows and animated films, plus a giant inflated jet that crashed into the stage; for Animals, huge inflated pigs hovered over the stadiums; for The Wall (due to enormous expense, performed 29 times only in New York, LA, and London) there was that, plus an actual wall built, brick by brick, across the stage, eventually obscuring the band from audience

view. Shortly thereafter, Wright left, due to conflict with Waters.

The Final Cut

With the album The Final Cut (1983), subtitled A Requiem for the Postwar Dream, Waters penned his darkest work yet. It also marked the effective end of the original Pink Floyd, with Waters bitterly departing, and Gilmour and Mason cementing their alliance. (Two films related to the original band-minus Barrett-have been made: the documentary Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii (1971) and The Wall (1982). In 1986 Waters sued Gilmour and Mason, asking the court to dissolve the trio's partnership and to block them from using the name Pink Floyd. A year later Waters lost his suit, and the other members, as Pink Floyd, released Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987).

In 1990 Waters presented an all-star cast, including Sinead O'Connor, Joni Mitchell, and Van Morrison, in a version of The Wall performed at the site of the Berlin Wall (chronicled in The Wall-Live in Berlin). Two years later he released the dour Amused to Death, inspired by the book

Amusing Ourselves To Death by Neil Postman.

With Wright rejoining Gilmour and Mason as a full band member, Pink Floyd garnered immediate success with The Division Bell in 1994. Named after the bell in the British House of Commons that summons members to parliamentary debate, the album featured songs written by Gilmour in collaboration with his ex-journalist girlfriend Polly Samson. Two weeks after its release, The

Division Bell shot to #1 on the album chart, and in late spring the band embarked on an elaborate American tour. PUL.S.E. (#1, 1995) documented the '94 tour, including a live performance of Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety. In September of 2008 Richard Wright died of cancer at the age of 65. He was working on a new solo album.

Roger Waters the “activist”

Waters is famously known for his favoritisms toward left-wing politics. The song “Pigs” from Animals addresses the greedy businessmen or the corporate giants and condemns their exploitation of the common man or the “Sheep.” He has been decried for condemning the US and other democratic countries, yet not having any moral issues touring in these countries and making

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millions of dollars, all the while saying nothing about the political oppression and human rights abuses in Korea, Russia, Cuba, China, and Venezuela. From being called a “Jew Hater,” an “Anti-US communist,” and a fraud, Waters reputation has been damaged by his outspoken views on world affairs, leading many to dismiss him as “an angry dinosaur who is desperately trying to be relevant again.”

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

In 1996 Pink Floyd was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Still antagonistic with his former band mates, Waters didn't attend the ceremonies. After a successful solo tour in 1999, he embarked upon writing a modern opera about the French Revolution, recording with an 80-piece

orchestra and l00-member choir.

Genesis

The long career of Genesis breaks down neatly into two contrasting eras: For the first half (1967-1974) Genesis was a cult band fronted by theatrical vocalist Peter Gabriel, playing majestic art rock that set the style for such American acts as Kansas and Styx-story songs set to complex, richly textured soundscapes with hints of classical music. After Gabriel left, drummer Phil Collins took over as lead singer-proving himself a more mainstream and commercial front man and the band's audience expanded exponentially, as Genesis streamlined its music into romantic pop songs and abandoned costume drama for laser lightshows. By the mid-'80s, Genesis was one of the world's

most popular bands.

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Beginnings

Upon graduating from secondary school (high school), the four members lived together in an English country cottage and rehearsed for several months before playing their first gig in September 1969. They gradually developed an elaborate stage show and by 1972 Gabriel had

begun the practice of wearing a new costume for each piece, which he acted out as he sang.

Their songs grew into extended suites on the albums Nursery Crime, Foxtrot, and Selling England by the Pound. They gained a large following in England and a dedicated cult in the United States. In 1974 Genesis' theatricality peaked with a concept album of nearly an hour and a half in length, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, in which Gabriel played Rael (the story’s protagonist), who undergoes various metamorphoses in a surreal Manhattan. The “meaning’ of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway has been debated and Gabriel, who wrote the story, has been nebulous about any specific significance. Like many great works of art, it is open to interpretation and the experience, or journey, is ultimately more important than the result.

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and Gabriel’s departure

Around the time of the Lamb album Gabriel started to feel limited by the constraints of being part of a band. Gabriel’s growing interest in projects outside the band and his attention-grabbing stage personae led to the resentment of his band mates. They felt that he was being unfairly credited as sole creative force of the band. This fact, coupled with Phil Collins’ growing interest in commercial music, created tension in the band. Gabriel announced that he was leaving Genesis before the tour supporting the Lamb but stayed with the band until the end of that tour. Gabriel soon started a solo career, and the group took 18 months to adjust. It auditioned over 400 singers before deciding Collins could take over; on tour, the trio employed a second drummer so that Collins could roam the stage. Genesis dispensed with costumes and continued to perform older material, which was credited to the whole group. The albums A Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering expanded me band's cult (the latter included Genesis' first hit single, “Your Own Special Way".

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Hackett Leaves

Guitarist Steve Hackett became the first band member to release a solo album. The album, Voyage

of the Acolyte, included bandmates Collins and Rutherford. Enjoying the complete creative control and freedom of composing and recording his solo album Hackett began to feel disenchanted with Genesis’ democratic approach to songwriting and song selection for the albums. In 1977, after the Wind and Wuthering Tour Hackett left the band.

.. .And Then There Were Three…

The three remaining members released their next album, aptly titled... And Then There Were

Three…, in 1978. With somewhat shorter songs …And Then There Were Three…became the band’s first gold album, eventually going platinum (these classifications are based on the number of album sales; however, they vary depending on the population of the country in which the album is sold. From low to high they include Gold, Platinum, and Diamond). Genesis began to score U.S. Top 40 hit singles in the late 70s and 80s. "Follow You, Follow Me" reached #23 in 1978. After Gabriel’s departure Genesis gradually became more commercial. For Abacab (1981) Genesis incorporated shorter songs; the album sold 2 million copies, and the title song and "No Reply at All" were hits. The latter featured the Earth, Wind & Fire horn section, which also appeared on Collins' 2-million-selling solo debut, Face Value (1981). That album yielded the Top 20 hits "I Missed Again" and "In the Air Tonight".

For the July 13, 1985, Live Aid concert, Collins performed on his own in London that morning, then flew via the Concorde to the Philadelphia show to perform there solo later that day, as well as play drums in the Led Zeppelin reunion with Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. Also in 1985, Mike Rutherford launched Mike + the Mechanics, whose debut album produced hit singles with "Silent Running" and "All I Need Is a Miracle”. The Living Years yielded a #1 hit in the title track, which was inspired by the death of Rutherford's father. Genesis returned to the charts with Invisible Touch (1986), containing the title track, “Throwing It All Away, and "Land of Confusion". The viciously satirical video for the latter featured England's Spitting Image puppets of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and others. The song "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" was featured in TV commercials for Michelob beer. The hits continued for Genesis into the '90s: We Can't Dance, "No Son of Mine", "Hold On My Heart, and "I Can't Dance".

Collins’ Departure

The album was Collins' last studio effort with the group. He announced his departure in 1996, the same year his album Dance Into the Light was released. It hit #23 but failed to produce any Top 40 singles. Collins diversified in 1999, recording a live album of greatest hits arranged for a 20-piece big band and lending his vocal and songwriting skills to the soundtrack for Disney's animated Tarzan. (He won an Oscar for Best Original Song, for "You'll Be in My Heart.”) Genesis continued, returning to the studio in 1997 with a new singer, 28-year-old Scotsman Ray Wilson, formerly of Stiltskin. Their next release Calling AIl Stations (1997) was touted as a slight return to the band's progressive-rock roots but often lacked the authentic edge of the Gabriel years and

the commercial appeal of the Collins-era catalogue.

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Yes

l-r: Peter Banks(guitar), Chris Squire (bass), Jon Anderson (lead vocal), Tony Kaye (keyboards), Bill Bruford (drums)

One of the most successful progressive-rock bands in history, Yes combined virtuosic musicianship, suite-like neoclassical structures, and three-part high vocal harmonies to form an elaborate whole that most critics called irrelevant high flown indulgence-and that audiences loved. After undergoing byzantine personnel changes, they updated their sound in the mid-'80s and enjoyed greater commercial success than ever.

Yes was formed in London in 1968 after Jon Anderson met Chris Squire at a London music-industry bar in 1968. One of their first engagements was opening for Cream's London farewell concert in November 1968. With their debut album, which mixed originals with covers, the band won instant critical acclaim in Britain, hailed as "the next super-group” by the press Their second album Time and a Word, which used an orchestra to flesh out intricately shifting arrangements,

was somewhat less well received.

Enter Howe / Enter Wakeman / Atlantic Records warning

At this point, Yes had yet to break through in America, and Atlantic Records informed them that the next album might be their last. Banks left to form Flash, and new guitarist Steve Howe helped make The Yes Album (#40, 1971) their breakthrough. Rick Wakeman, who became Yes’ Keyboardist in 1971, was the first Rock Keyboard player to surround himself with multiple keyboards.

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With continual FM airplay it went gold. In 1971 Tony Kaye left to form Badger (he later joined Detective and then Badfinger). His replacement was Rick Wakeman. Their next album Fragile (1972) consolidated the band's success. Highlighted by an edited "Roundabout", the album went

gold.

Fragile - front and back cover (designed by Roger Dean)

Close To The Edge (a progressive rock masterpiece)

Close To The Edge- Front and inside art (by Roger Dean)

With Close to the Edge (1972), Yes' aspiration reached new heights. Consisting of three extended cuts: the title piece on side one, Close to the Edge, is close to nineteen minutes, while the two cuts on side two, "And You and I" and "Siberian Khatru," are each about ten minutes long. In 1972, rock music pieces of this length were still rare, even in progressive rock, and releasing an album to three pieces of this duration was a major commercial risk. Nonetheless, in those years there was a significant market for sophisticated rock music and the album quickly went gold. The Close to

the Edge LP is considered by a large body of critics and fans as the best album of the band's output, and the title piece is one of the supreme examples of the progressive rock style.

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At around the time of the composing of Close to the Edge Jon Anderson had taken a passionate interest Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha, a literary novel which traces an individual's evolution from ghastly materialism to spiritual awareness, largely in an Eastern / Buddhist context. According to Edward Macan, author of the book Rocking the Classics, the concept of Close to the Edge is about that most prototypical of countercultural subjects, the spiritual quest:

“Siddhartha, of course, was one of the cornerstones of countercultural spiritual thought. While I do not find any direct quotation of Siddhartha in Close to the Edge, the general framework in which Anderson and Howe present spiritual "progress" in the lyrics is certainly similar. In short, I see Close to the Edge as one of the major "spiritual quest" epics to come out of the countercultural scene during the late 1960s and early 1970s-perhaps the most richly developed of all. The four movements of Close to the Edge appear to express distinct stages of the spiritual quest. I would graph the four stages as follows:

Movement I, "The Sold Time of Change": The Call

Movement 2, "Total Mass Retain": Adversity and Triumph

Movement 3, "I Get up, I Get down": Self-Examination and Assimilation

Movement 4, "Seasons of Man": Attainment

It is possible, of course, to see this general pattern played out in other concept

albums of this period: one thinks, for instance, of any of several Moody Blues albums. However, I am convinced that the Spiritual Quest motif had never been

this richly developed in popular music-and perhaps has never been so richly developed again. In this sense, I suppose, Close to the Edge might be said to

represent contemporary popular music's answer to Wagner's Parsifal.” - From Rocking the Classics by Edward Macan.

According to drummer Bill Bruford the album titles for both Fragile and Close to the Edge were suggested by him: “I had proposed the groups fourth album be called Fragile because I thought

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we were breakable, and the band art director, Roger Dean, brilliantly parlayed the idea up to the prescient image of the fragile planet earth with implications of a delicate and breakable eco-system. I had suggested the fifth album be called Close to the Edge because I continued to feel we were on

the verge of implosion.”

After recording it, Drummer Bill Bruford left to join King Crimson (whose leader, Robert Fripp, had once been approached to replace Peter Banks). His replacement was session man Alan White,

who had played in John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band.

Wakeman’s first departure

The live Yessongs (1973) was followed by the critically scorned Tales From Topographic Oceans (1974). The album sold well, however, and the band continued to be a top-drawing live act. But Tales brought to a head conflict between Wakeman, an extroverted meat-eating beer drinker, and the other players, who were sober vegetarians. Wakeman, openly expressing his disillusionment, soon left. Wakeman's replacement was Patrick Moraz (like Wakeman, classically trained), of progressive-rock band Refugee. He debuted on Relayer (1974), which, like Close to the Edge, featured an extended suite and forays into jazz fusion. With the release of Yesterdays (#17, 1975), a compilation including tracks from the first two (uncharted) Yes albums, the band took a year off as each member pursued solo projects. Wakeman rejoined the band, and they recorded Going for the One (1977) and Tormato (1978) which was a return to shorter, tighter song structures. But though Yes continued to sell albums and fill arenas, its days seemed numbered. Wakeman left again, followed by Anderson, who had written most of Yes' lyrics. Trevor Horn and Geoffrey Downes of the new-wave band the BuggIes (who had a hit with "Video Killed the Radio Star") debuted on yes’ next album Drama (1980). Shortly thereafter Yes broke up.

Anderson continued to make solo albums. Squire and White planned to start a band called Cinema. But in mid-1983 Anderson, Kaye, Squire, White, and South African guitarist Trevor Rabin re-formed Yes and went on with 90125 (1983) and its Rabin-penned #1 single, "Owner of a Lonely Heart," both to score the band's highest chart position and to redefine its sound. Rabin's songwriting dominated The Big Generator (1987), after which Anderson quit. By 1989 the band's personnel squabbles reached new intensity; after a court battle over the group name, Squire, White, Rabin, and Kaye continued as the official Yes, while the warring faction of Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, and Howe toured and recorded using their surnames. The two camps reconciled on Union (1991), going on to a world tour that, for all the logistical unwieldiness of its eight-player lineup, was a huge commercial success.

In 1993 Anderson, Bruford, and Howe joined the London Philharmonic in an album of symphonic versions of Yes songs. In 1997 the band, with new guitarist Billy Sherwood and additional keyboardist Igor Khoroshev, released two albums in one month, the catchy pop of Open Your Eyes and the more typically ambitious Keys to Ascension, vol. 2. By this time, Rick Wakeman, while still pursuing a career in Christian music, was back in the Yes fold. The Ladder (1999) echoed the

progressive-rock melodrama of the band's early heyday.

On June 27, 2015, Chris Squire died from acute erythroid leukemia. Squire was 67.

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Emerson, Lake and Palmer

L-R: Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, Carl Palmer

With Greg Lake's predominantly acoustic ballads becoming hit singles, Keith Emerson's classical keyboard mastery and Carl Palmer’s virtuoso drumming the trio was enormously popular in its time, although it never regained momentum after a 1975-77 hiatus. The group was formed after Emerson, then leading the Nice, and Lake, formerly of King Crimson, jammed at the Fillmore West in 1969 while both were touring with their respective bands. Emerson had studied classical piano and later dabbled in jazz. Emerson formed the Nice in 1967, and broke up the band to work with Lake, whose background included work with various local bands from the age of 12 (the Shame, the Gods, and later, King Crimson).

After plans to work with Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell fell through, in June 1970 Emerson and Lake decided on Carl Palmer, a veteran of Arthur Brown, and Atomic Rooster. ELP debuted on August 25; just four days later the trio appeared at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, playing Emerson's transcription of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, which later became the band's third album. Its debut LP, recorded in October 1970, went gold on the strength of Lake's

"Lucky Man" (1971).

FM radio play and colorfully bombastic concerts-with Emerson's electric keyboards flashing lights and whirling around; Palmer's $25,000 percussion set including xylophone, tympani, and gong as well as an elevator platform, and the usual lights and smoke-cemented the group's following. Each of ELP's first nine albums went gold. Trilogy, which reached #5, contained the trio's highest-charting single, Lake's gentle "From the Beginning" (1972). In 1973 the group formed its own Manticore Records, which released albums by Italy's Premiata Forneria Marconi (P. F.M.) along with ELP's Brain Salad Surgery (which included the FM staple "Still ... You Turn Me On").

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Brain Salad Surgery

Brain Salad Surgery (1973)

ELP's 1973-74 world tour required 36 tons of equipment, including a quadraphonic sound system, lasers, and other paraphernalia, and was documented on the triple live set Welcome Back, My

Friends, to the Show That Never Ends.

Bob Moog (inventor of the Moog Synthesizer) and Keith Emerson with the Modular Moog Synthesizer at

Rich Stadium, Buffalo before a concert. (1974)

With 6 million in sales behind them, ELP took a two-year break, ending it in 1977 with the release of Works, volume I and, later that same year, volume II. Though advertised as ELP albums, both albums consisted largely of solo pieces, such as Lake's "C'est la Vie" and "I Believe in Father Christmas." A 1977 world tour called for an entourage of 115 people, including full orchestra and choir, but had to be drastically reduced when ticket sales didn't materialize. Shortly after the late-1978 release of Love Beach, the group's only LP to that point not to make the Top 40, ELP announced its breakup.

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Having witnessed fellow progressive rockers Yes' mid'80s commercial revival, Emerson and Lake put ELP back together in 1985-only this time the P stood for veteran drummer Cozy Powell; Palmer wasn't interested in rejoining at the time. Following a U.S. tour, Powell left. This time when invited, Palmer accepted, but when rehearsals for a new ELP album proved unproductive, Emerson and Lake recorded instead as "3" with a California guitarist named Robert Barry. This

configuration's 1988 LP, To the Power of Three, attracted little attention.

Emerson, Lake, and Palmer tried once again, and came up with Black Moon, released in 1992 on the Victory label. Despite dismal sales, ELP discovered a vast audience for its live show: A nine-month 1992-93 world tour took the group to America, Europe, and South America. At the end of 1993, the band started to work on a new album, but the sessions had to be interrupted when Keith Emerson developed nerve problems in his right arm, The album, In the Hot Seat, had to be pieced together, since Emerson couldn't play, and it was an artistic and commercial failure. After the keyboardist had recovered, the band resumed touring-which had always been their greatest strength anyway, as exemplified by the several live albums they have released over the

years.

During the early 1990s, Keith Emerson’s right hand developed arthritis and nerve damage. Around this same time, he went through a divorce, struggled with financial problems, and started drinking alcohol. By the early 2000s his hand had recovered enough to play, but he soon discovered that he was suffering from Focal Dystonia, a neurological illness that affects specific muscles of the body and causes spontaneous muscular spasms. The condition of his hand progressively became worse, and Emerson became depressed, anxious, and worried that he could no longer play good enough to perform. Suffering from a heart condition and alcohol-related depression, Emerson committed suicide on March 11, 2016, from a self-inflicted gunshot to his head. He was 71.

Greg Lake died in London on 7 December 2016, after a long battle with cancer. He was 69.

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Discussion Assignments for Class Projects

Discussion Format and Topic Assignment

To enhance and diversify the discussions, each student will be assigned one of the three topics. The topic designation will be determined by the first letter the student’s last name.

For example, if your last name is Jones, your topic will be Topic 2, which covers all last names

that start with the letters I through P.

Last names starting with the letters A-H Topic 1

Last names starting with the letters I-P Topic 2

Last names starting with the letters Q-Z Topic 3

Topics for Discussion 3

Topic 1:

The use of drugs by musicians of the 1960s, a tradition they inherited from the older blues and jazz players, led to the birth of psychedelic music and culture. How did this music influence the

development of recording studio techniques as well as musical styles?

Topic 2:

Many of the progressive rock musicians, unlike the previous generation of 60s rockers, had studied at universities, often in the classical music program. Do you think that the reason progressive rock is not broadly popular today is due to the decline in the quality of education and ‘thinking’ in our contemporary society, or is it simply because most people just want to rock out and dance, instead of being challenged into “listening” to the music? Do you feel that short-attention-span and immediate gratification, common characteristics of our times, have a role in this?

Topic 3: The composition “Close to The Edge” by Yes, is considered a masterpiece of Progressive Rock Music. After listening to the piece (at least 3 times) and reading about it, what are your thoughts. This composition is over 18 minutes long and has multiple sections, like a concert symphony; Your response should consider both the entire piece as well is the separate sections.

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Chapter 7

Punk Rock

Graffiti in East London (1976) by Judy Greenway

Overview of Britain during the 1970s

Like the Golden Age of Capitalism in the United States (the post-World War II economic boom discussed in Chapter 1), the 1960s were a prosperous and productive decade for England. By 1970, the daily household chores of most families had been simplified by time-saving devices such as microwaves and dishwashers, which reduced the time spent on housework and cooking, affording many women the opportunity take up outside jobs. However, the tide was about to turn, and the country would soon be facing one of its most challenging economic and social periods. While women were experiencing a new freedom in employment opportunities, many were still expected to be the primary caregiver in the home, despite working full-time jobs as well. Large feminist protests took place at the Royal Festival Hall in 1970, protesting to the Miss World Competition and denouncing it as a “cattle-market.” The grim economic crisis during the first years of the decade produced high unemployment, particularly affecting young people, eliciting strikes and protest rallies. Police racism was rampant, causing additional rifts in the country, and by the end of the decade civil rights uprisings were spreading throughout the cities. With the economy suffering and unemployment rising, violence rocketed in the ghettos. Rebellion was in the air and, as is often the case, the younger generation led the charge. Punk culture, as a manifestation of protest and rebellion, emerged from this troubled time.

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The early punk rock bands swaggered from this turbulent environment, led by the Sex Pistols, trashing British sensibilities with chaos, shocking appearance, and angry diatribe. By the time the Pistols had disintegrated less than two years later, numerous others had joined in the fun that would change the face of rock/pop music forever. The mainstream acts would eventually adopt many elements from punk music, including lyrics, stance, and style. In so doing they rejuvenated the music industry's sagging fortunes. The succeeding fusion, which became known as new wave, would be a popular mainstay of the eighties.

Majors Labels, Independent Labels (Indies), and the Market

Dynamic economic and artistic movements were influencing the way music was created and marketed by the end of the decade. Record-industry consolidation was continuing at a steady pace; fewer labels, owned by larger corporations, were selling a greater percentage of the product. The ramifications of this trend were enormous. Since rock music radio programming was also highly concentrated in the hands of a few major consultants, and because smaller markets took their cues from the larger ones, AOR (album-oriented rock) radio-station playlists were becoming shorter and shorter and more tightly controlled. These facts conspired to make it very difficult for musi-

cians, other than those signed to the top labels, to become popular nationwide.

At the same time, major labels were in the process of pruning their rosters of the acts that could not guarantee significant future profits. The strategy of the major labels thus consisted of signing proven dinosaurs to lengthy contracts, with the rationale that these artists could be safely relied upon to sell each release. Should new artists or musical styles be needed, they could turn to the industry's farm system, the independent labels. The indies provided a place for new talent to be discovered and nurtured. This was a shift for the majors, who would previously sign and release ten new or unknown acts themselves, hoping that one would succeed and cover the losses of marketing the rest. Now, they only signed what they believed to be sure things. The ramifications

of this philosophy were considerable.

Record labels and radio programmers took fewer chances on unknown talent, relying on known quantities to generate profits. The newer artists they did sign tended to sound a lot like other profitable acts, thus shrinking the aural and lyrical landscape. When listeners became bored with the same old music and infuriated at record prices that had jumped two dollars in nearly as many years, they began to react. The burgeoning cassette technology (which allowed for home taping), coupled with other economic variables plus the loss of interest on the part of certain (generally older) segments of the listening public, caused a fall in product sales in the late 1970s. The number of units sold dropped for the first time in 1979 and didn't reach the 1978 peak again until 1988. Dollar figures for gross sales took until 1984 to surpass the 1978 levels-an event that would have

taken longer had it not been for the introduction of the costly compact disc (CD).

This tightly controlled, economically oriented, financially conservative environment provided the context for the fourth rock and roll explosion. Against a backdrop of lush, studio focused, rock/pop music, with lyrics lacking significant societal commentary, and the fabricated sounds of disco there erupted a raw, primal, reactive form called punk rock. Its in-your-face mentality, primitive musicality, and relevant lyrics eventually forced popular culture, rock/pop music, and the industry to sit up and take notice.

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Punk Rock

“Their clothes were elaborately contrived to make the wearer appear as terrifyingly repugnant as possible, alluding to anything that would induce immediate outrage in the eye of the beholder .... Hair shorn close to the skull and dyed any color so long as it didn't look natural, spiked up with Vaseline; noses, ears, cheeks, lips, and other extremities pierced with a plethora of safety pins,

chains and dangling insignia; ripped and torn jumble sale shirts, strangled with a thin tie and mangled with predictable graffiti of song titles, perversions or Social Observations; black leather

wrist bands and dog collars studded with silver spikes sometimes with leashes attached.”

A 1977 description of punk rock fans at London's punk venue, The Roxy, by Julie Burchill and

Tony Parsons in The Boy Looked at Johnny.

The Music

Punk was a heterogeneous style, comprising a complex mélange of ingredients and orientations, spread across a spectrum of artists. The music was generally driven by a frantic, eighth-note pulse carried by the entire ensemble. Words were spewed forth by vocalists unconstrained by previous notions of pitch or melody. Most lyrics reflected feelings toward a disintegrating and corrupt society and the plight of sub-cultural compatriots. The music and lyrics were imbedded in a confrontational stance that reflected varying degrees of righteous anger, performance technique, avant-garde artistic exploration of shock value, and intent to bypass the usual music-production institutions.

The punks' music, lyrical worldview, stance, and style (clothes and behavior) the elements of rock/pop's fourth major explosion-had roots on both sides of the Atlantic. Groups on the fringes of sixties American rock/pop contributed heavily. Michigan rockers the Stooges played with such an unabashed enthusiasm and minimalist musical orientation that selections from their early recordings sound remarkably like seventies punk. Lead singer Iggy Pop's (James Osterburg)

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behavior was self- destructive and shocking. He was sometimes so stoned and intoxicated while

onstage that he stumbled about ranting and raving, threw up on the audience, and fell off the stage.

Godfathers of Punk Rock

Iggy Pop

New York's Velvet Underground (discussed in Chapter 4) provided their own shocking contrast to the prevailing pop-rock sensibilities of the day. Under the watchful eye of artist Andy Warhol, the band-touring as a part of his Exploding Plastic Inevitable mixed media show and playing at his East Village Electric Circus venue-turned out their otherworldly version of the sixties.

The Underground with Reed and Iggy Pop and the stooges were important punk forebears, creating musical, topical, and stylistic foundations upon which subsequent artists, and eventually the punk

genre, stood.

The New York Dolls adopted the lack of musical pretension and group intensity and added transvestite costuming, glamour makeup, Jagger-like stage posing by lead singer David Johansen, and stage-lurching by guitarist Johnny Thunders. Their no-frills repertoire included "Pills" and "Trash" and they were popular in the burgeoning lower Manhattan New York club scene (CBGB's, for example) of the mid-seventies. There, they demonstrated an I-couldn't-care-less attitude.

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Punk's direct musical antecedents, The

Ramones, were four leather-jacketed high school dropouts from Forest Hills, Queens. They redefined music as a sparse, intense, three-minute buzzsaw blast dominated by eighth-note unanimity from strummed, distorted guitar, bass, and drums. This became the musical basis for the Sex Pistols. (The Ramones reportedly played thirty-three songs in a single one-hour performance.) Like Lou Reed, the Ramones adopted stage names (Joey, Johnny, Richie-replaced by Dee Dee-and Tommy)-all ending with the surname Ramone.

Briton David Bowie (born David Jones) was one of punk's most influential ancestors. Bowie, whose schooling, and training included art, theater, mime, and music, was a master at creating stories and characters that both symbolized and became reality. In 1972, during the glam rock era, Bowie created a stage persona called Ziggy Stardust. Ziggy, Bowie’s wild and androgynous alter ego, was introduced in the concept album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the

Spiders from Mars (1972).

The story presents a world that will end in five years and tells the story of the ultimate rock star, Ziggy Stardust. The man who had appeared in a dress on the cover of a previous album was transformed into a cosmic traveler. Bowie's expressions of alienation worked at two different, sometimes competing, levels; his costumed personae were sometimes symbolic, shocking statements while his feelings were taken as a realistic expression of alienation. This duality of pretense and reality side-by-side also came to exist in punk.

From the 1970s to his final album Blackstar (2016), Bowie has continually reinvented his music and image and has consistently produced memorable and lasting songs, always rich in melodic, harmonic, and lyrical content. Bowie died of liver cancer in January 2016.

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Roots of Punk

Cover of the 1977 album God Save The Queen by the Sex Pistols

Socio-Economic

There are two major explanations for the emergence and in-your-face nature of punk music in mid-seventies England. They are contrasting but do not have to be seen as exclusive; combining them provides a plausible rationale for the birth of punk. One theory cites the deteriorating British economy as punk's major impetus. Under this scenario, a growing underclass of disaffected youth was created by the lack of economic and educational opportunities in Britain. Jobs paying living wages were unavailable, and the schools with class-based entrance systems forced many working-class youths into a dead-end education. These increasingly disillusioned youth faced a future of subsistence living within the British welfare system (the dole). The youth saw it as no future, and so they struck back. It is possible to view the music, the reactive lyrics, and the antiauthoritarian nature of their stance as reflective of these conditions.

Art School Aesthetics

Another interpretation of punk music places much of the impetus, especially for the style and stance, on the art -school origins of punk mentors and rock band members. Various popular music authors argue that numerous band members attended art school-the Pistol's Glen Matlock, the Clash's Joe Strummer, and Adam Ant, to name just a few. In addition, many important managers (like the Pistols' Malcolm McLaren) and other genre businessmen brought their art-school backgrounds to the mix. Art-school dialogue about shock value, performance as art, situationist theories of subversion, and fashion were manifested in punk rock. What artists wore, the material they performed, how they performed and what they said through lyrics, and audience communication during shows were the function of aesthetic considerations. To them, "Punk rock was the ultimate art school music movement."

Pub Rock

Both arguments are mirrored in the events that brought about the rise of punk in mid-seventies Britain. Against the background of the studio-centered pop-rock that dominated the charts-Elton

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John, Chicago, Abba, and others-a small but enthusiastic group of "pub rock" bands belted out R&B and classic rock covers along with some originals. For them, pop-rock's stadium-sized concert extravaganzas had lost touch with the music and its meaning. Thus, these disaffected rockers returned to the intimate sweaty pubs where it all began in the early sixties. These bands were also critical of music industry giants and the way they conducted business. Pub rock's success prompted the establishment of small record labels that initially distributed records through a network of oldies specialty shops. Dave Laing credits pub rock with creating viable venues and the alternative network of labels and distribution used by transition punk rockers. Some band members, such as Joe Strummer of the 101ers, simply stepped over the line from pub to punk.

1976: The Rise of Punk Rock

The Sex Pistols

Nineteen seventy-six saw the rise of punk rock, with the Sex Pistols as the most visible proponent. Bands were formed by former pub rockers and assorted street youth, who saw the opportunity for expression despite minimal musical proficiency. The Damned released punk's first album and were known to shed clothing during their performances. The Clash formed that July and appeared with the Pistols at the 100 Club's summer punk festival.

As quickly as venues opened for this new underground sound, fights would erupt at gigs, and the bands (even including the Pistols) would be banished. Bands were in the process of developing new modes of communicating with their audiences and breaking down the audience/musician barrier. In a solution that was true to punk's aggressive stance and shock value, band members sometimes incited the crowd, which responded with flying bodies, cans, and spit. Typical of this behavior was Johnny Rotten's epithet to an April 1976 audience: "Bet you don't hate us as much

as we hate you!" If punk artists sought to shock and incite their audience, as well as straight society, the ability to get an aggressive response out of the audience was a measure of potency, effectiveness, and bonding. The notion of playing in the corporate-rock ballpark was anathema to the punk players and caused all sorts of emotional and economic turmoil. The majors didn't

necessarily like the music; however, they knew it would sell.

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By the end of 1976 the Sex Pistols had signed a record contract with England's largest label, EMI, and had recorded and released their first single, ''Anarchy in the UK." The situation came to a head in three months. ''Anarchy in the UK" contained the outfit's typical blast at tradition and authority. Rotten growled lyrics designed to put fear and loathing in the hearts of upstanding citizens. They contained buzzwords like "anti-Christ;' "anarchy;' and "destroy" and visions of spiked haired, self-mutilated, booted punks roaming the urban landscape bent on destruction. The music was not simplistic three-chord or one-chord idiocy, as journalists painted it.

"Anarchy in the UK" sold 50,000 copies and reached the top 40. The print media and television had fewer vested interests in promoting punk rock than did the record industry. Mainstream newspapers were most likely to use terms such as crazed, pathological, rancid, and savage to describe the music and its players. On December 1, 1976, the Pistols were interviewed live on the British news magazine show "Today.” Host Bill Grundy's not-so-subtle attempts to incite the Pistols finally paid off; he urged Steve Jones to "say something outrageous." Jones responded, "You dirty bastard,” Grundy exhorted "Go on, again,” and Jones threw out, "You dirty fucker" and "You fucking rotter." The next day's headline stories contained the U.K. press screaming with outrage over the Pistols' behavior. An upcoming U.K. concert tour, with the Clash scheduled to open, shrunk from nineteen to three dates. EMI chairman Sir John Read apologized, but pressure from a variety of sources, including other label artists, allowed EMI to drop the Pistols from its

roster. The band received 30,000 pounds in compensation.

Sid Vicious

March 1977 was a busy month for the Pistols: Rotten's mate, the barely musical Sid Vicious, was recruited to play bass, and Glen Matlock, stating that he left the band because he was "sick of all the bullshit,” was out. The Pistols also signed to A&M Records, but three days later they were dropped, receiving 75,000 pounds in compensation. Thus, in the space of three months the band had accrued approximately $250,000 for being kicked off two record labels. Not bad for a group of malcontents.

Virgin Records became the third label to sign the band. They released "God Save the Queen" in May 1977. The negative publicity surrounding punk and the Pistols had caused the band to be banned from performing at most venues. (They would tour later in the year billed as the Spots.) "God Save the Queen" caused further problems. Its release was coordinated with Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee, a celebration of her twenty-five-year reign as England's beloved monarch. However, the lyrics on the new release mocked the Queen and labeled her regime as mindless and fascist, and they were considered under the circumstances to have gone far beyond the boundaries of good taste. The tune was banned from most radio playlists and was unavailable at major record stores. Yet "God Save the Queen" sold 2 million copies and was listed, signified in the racks by a blank piece of

paper, at #2 on record store charts.

"God Save the Queen" contains more than early rock's three-chord structure. While not the techno-pop harmonic structure of material from art-rock bands like Pink Floyd, Yes, and Genesis, this

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song and those appearing on the subsequent album, Never Mind the Bullocks, Here's the Sex

Pistols, are harmonically more complex than most blues and classic rock.

Excerpt from “God Save the Queen” by the Sex Pistols

God save the queen, the fascist regime

They made you a moron, potential H-bomb

God save the queen, she ain’t no human being

There is no future in England’s dreaming

Other songs from Never Mind the Bullocks, which was released in December 1977, were musically like "God Save the Queen" and attacked a variety of targets and sensibilities, including former record company EMI, Germany and the holocaust, self-serving young Britons, and, of course, the musical and cultural mainstreams.

The Pistols run out of ammunition

In time, the Sex Pistols themselves became targets of punk's violent attitude against the establishment. Rotten was slashed by razor-wielding attackers; Cook was beaten with iron bars as he emerged from the tube (subway). By now their performing options were limited, the band had lost its most proficient songwriter in Matlock, and Vicious was feeding a healthy heroin habit. Under these circumstances they careened through a January 1978 U.S. tour. After their January 14 date at Winterland in San Francisco, Rotten left, Vicious overdosed, and Jones and Cook, following McLaren's instructions, flew to Rio to record with Great Train Robber Ronald Biggs. Johnny Rotten would later revert to his given name, John Lydon, and front a new band, called Public Image Ltd. (PiL). After attempting to make it solo, Vicious was charged with brutally murdering his girlfriend Nancy Spungen in their room at New York's Chelsea Hotel in October 1978 (see the 1989 movie Sid and Nancy). The next February he died of the effects of a heroin overdose. Steve Jones maintained a musical career as a studio guitarist; Paul Cook faded from the scene.

The Clash

L-R: Joe Strummer, Nicky 'Topper' Headon, Paul Simonon and Mick Jones

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The Sex Pistols were the seminal punk group, shock rockers assaulting the strictures and conventions of mainstream society. For them it was fun and games. Other bands and artists traveled similar paths, diverging from the Pistols model at certain junctures to produce their own punk parables. The Clash functioned as an alter ego for the Pistols. Inspired by the Pistols, the Clash were also personally reckless and abusive, but as a group they were more artistically thoughtful, politically insightful, and musically creative. The Clash even endured commercial success, fought and won music industry battles, and found life after punk.

The Clash began in July 1976 after pub rocker Joe Strummer saw the Pistols and prevailed upon former London SS members Mick Jones (guitar) and Paul Simonon (bass) to form a new band. Drummer Terry Chimes (later replaced by Topper Headon) rounded out the band. The Clash signed with manager Bernie Rhodes, a former McLaren assistant. They opened several shows for the Pistols and were signed to CBS Records in January 1977 for 100,000 pounds as the majors rushed to find punk acts. By spring the Clash's first single, "White Riot" (#38), and first album, The Clash (#12), were on the British charts.

Their Sound

There was something about the Clash, at least on record, that transcended the line drawn by the Pistols. Without abandoning punk's simplicity and aggressiveness, the Clash displayed more musical literacy. Their ensemble of two guitars gave the songs more texture, Simonon abandoned the eighth-note tonic drone for bouncier, syncopated, melodic bass parts, and Chimes used more cymbals and fills to color his drumming. As instrumentalists they were better, and their musical choices were more interesting-the little touches like the harp and Cropper-like soul-guitar fills on "Garageland" and claps and stops on "Remote Control" are indicative of this approach.

Reggae and Punk

The Clash also had an interest in reggae, the Jamaican import favored by Britain's West Indian working class. The band recorded with famed reggae producer Scratch Perry ("Complete Control"), recorded his song "Police and Thieves;' and added reggae rhythmic elements to other tunes. Reggae's Rastafarians were seen as an alienated, oppressed community who had success-fully been able to channel their rage into a music that combined the very personal with the political. They were its living essence with no compromise-harassed by the police, forced to live in untenable conditions, yet markedly proud and visible in their dreadlocks (long uncut hair) and camouflage clothing.

Some punk bands admired reggae from afar, adopting a symbolic stance or even some musical elements; others, like the Clash, went further and became actively involved in Britain's racial politics. With skinheads and British Nazis (under the banner of the National Front) conducting forays into minority communities, the Clash and others participated in concerts sponsored by Rock Against Racism (RAR) and the Anti-Nazi League. Paradoxically, punk's anti-anything stance attracted young supporters of the rightist organizations; some punk groups didn't care but others rejected this audience.

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Fundamental differences between punk's two major protagonists

Whereas the Pistols stayed within a limited musical framework, the Clash were consciously as-similating influences from external styles and rapidly expanding their musical boundaries. The Clash, through lyrics and social deeds, chose to present their criticism of imperialism, racism, and an abusive economic system in concrete personal and political terms, as opposed to the unconscious, undirected rage of the Pistols' shocking stories and situations. The Pistols were

content to strike out and expose; the Clash wanted to have some impact on their audience.

To a chorus of claims that they had sold out punk, the Clash released their third album in January 1980. Chosen in 1989 as the #1 album of the eighties by Rolling Stone magazine, London Calling

contains more breadth in music and topics than previous works; as punk's audience was diminishing, the Clash was expanding beyond punk's limiting borders. Several musical styles grace this double-album release: swing, Berry-style classic rock Bo Diddley beat, reggae-influenced rock, and even a Springsteen-like song (The Card Cheat, with familiar keyboards, sax, and lyric meter). Most songs contain social and political commentary, including the especially poignant "Spanish Bombs" (about Spain's Civil War and contemporary struggles); the "Guns of Brixton" (asking "When the police kick in the door, will you die with your hands on your head or a gun in your hand?"); and the potential nuclear hell and ice-age holocaust of the title cut.

The band returned to the United States later in 1980, where at Electric Ladyland Studio they recorded the three-disc successor, called Sandinista (named to celebrate the recent success of the leftist revolution in Nicaragua). Although both previous albums broke the top 40, their 1982 effort, Combat Rock (1982), and the single release, "Rock the Casbah,” propelled the Clash into the American mainstream. Within a few years, however, the strains within proved too severe and, after

accusations of selling out were hurled among band members, the group disintegrated.

Last Strains of Punk and Summary

The vast artistic territory between the Pistols and the Clash was populated by a colorful collection of punk rockers. Some went down with the ship before 1980, clinging loyally to the true stuff; others made the transition, along with the Clash, into new wave. Punk was clearly reactive, to popular music and the music industry, to the economic and cultural status quo, and even to members of the punk community itself. Punk's intention was to disrupt the everyday life of the established order to expose society's oppressive nature. The resulting actions-shocking, rude, and obscene behavior, confrontational dressing, minimalist music, and attacking lyrics-produced a

ripple effect, first inside the music world and then moving outward.

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Chapter 8

1980s: Lennon, New Wave, Live Aid, and Heavy Metal

The Dakota - 1West 72 Street, New York, NY 10023

Yoko and John by the Dakota building on the S.E. corner of 1 West 72 Street.

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At around 5:00 p.m. on December 8, 1980, on a mild New York City evening, John Lennon left his apartment in the Dakota (the apartment building in Manhattan's Upper West Side where he lived) on his way to the Record Plant recording studios to work on Yoko’s song “Walking on Thin Ice.” Before entering his chartered limousine, he briefly stopped to sign autographs for fans waiting outside the building’s entrance. One of the “fans” he signed his autograph for was the person that was about to tragically end John’s life. The sessions at the studio went well, and the Lennon’s had plans to stop at a nearby restaurant for dinner when John told Yoko he first wanted to say goodnight to his 5-year-old son Sean before he went to sleep for the night. At approximately 10:50 pm, upon their return home, as Lennon and Yoko were walking back in through the building’s archway entrance, the “fan” that he had signed his autograph for less than 6 hours before, pulled out his gun and shot Lennon 5 times on his back. Severely bleeding from his external wounds and mouth, he staggered up five steps to the reception area where he cried, "I'm shot! I'm shot,” and fell on the floor, scattering cassettes that he was carrying. He was soon rushed to Roosevelt Hospital on West 59th Street by officers James Moran and Bill Gamble, followed by officers Herb Frauenberger and Tony Palma, who drove Yoko Ono to the hospital. In the car, officer Moran asked, "Do you know who you are," Lennon nodded but could only make a moaning and gurgling sound when he tried to speak, and lost consciousness shortly thereafter. At the hospital, there was an attempt to resuscitate Lennon, but sadly he was pronounced dead at 11:15 p.m. According to the article John Lennon: the last day in the life by Vanessa Thorpe from the British daily newspaper The Guardian, witnesses noted that the Beatles song “All My Loving” came over the hospital's sound system during the moment Lennon was pronounced dead.

The Dakota’s archway entrance

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NEW WAVE

Punk music was too offensive and unpredictable to join the stagnating rock/pop world. Still, when punk's musical and lyrical elements were co-opted into the mainstream, there occurred a rejuvenation of popular music. These were the NEW WAVE musicians, a repugnant media term coined to signify an indefinably broad spectrum of music (much like the term "alternative" is used in the nineties). New wavers reproduced some of punk's minimalist musical feelings, including an eighth-note rhythm but without the rigidity, the droning vocal style, and the absence of harmony and improvised solo. Many new wave lyrics adopted punk's critical attitude toward society but without the shock element. It also borrowed punk's penchant for unconventional dress and quirky stage movement.

First Wave of POP-PUNK Synthesis

The first wave of this punk-pop synthesis included English artists Elvis Costello and the Attractions, the Police, the Jam, punk survivor Billy Idol, Joe Jackson, the Pretenders (with American Chrissie Hynde), UB40, and integrated (or two-tone) bands such as Madness, the Specials, and the English Beat. In the United States punk had appealed to a white, suburban drop-

out aesthetic, but it did not achieve the commercial success garnered in England.

Elvis Costello and The Attractions

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Elvis Costello’s 1989 album Spike includes two songs co-

written with Paul McCartney, “Veronica and Pads,” and

“Paws and Claws.”

Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney in the studio working on

the latter’s 1989 album Flowers in the Dirt, which includes

four songs co-written by them, “Flowers in the Dirt,” “You

Want Her Too,” “Don’t Be Careless Love,” and “That Day

Is Done.”

The Talking Heads

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l-r: Jerry Harrison, David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz

American punk-pop synthesists included Talking Heads, Blondie, the B-52s, the Motels, Pere Ubu, and the hardcore Dead Kennedys. Each of these bands in one way or another adapted punk's music, worldview, dress, and performance style. Thus, an era that began with a new, controversial, underground form exploding upon the public consciousness, ended a few years later as more

palatable elements were molded and co-opted for use in the rock/pop mainstream.

This new pop-punk had similar rejuvenating properties for the music industry in the late 1970s and early 1980s, much as classic rock and the British invasion did in earlier eras. Initially rejected for radio airplay and major-label promotion, new wave's freshness (in the face of the tired rock/pop formula), rebelliousness, and critical outlook caught the attention of increasingly disenchanted rock/pop music fans. Its sartorial potential for new looks and images wasn't lost on industries connected with popular culture and the teen market. Finally, the punk fire, visible in subsequent styles of rock/pop, gave a sense of power and community to millions of youths who, despite the assurances of the power players in the industrialized world, felt lost in a life out of control.

On 1980s radio dials across the country, rockers from the 60s and 70s like the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, the Doobie Brothers, and Rod Stewart were still significant players on album- oriented rock (AOR) radio, the dominant rock format for youthful American listeners. In addition to Led Zeppelin, AOR also sported middle-of-the-road hard rockers like Foreigner, Journey, Styx, Rush, and Bob Seeger and his Silver Bullet Band. Pop-rockers like Neil

Diamond, Linda Ronstadt, Diana Ross, and Olivia Newton-John populated the softer adult

contemporary (A/C) stations that appealed more to women and an older pop-rock clientele.

Punk-influenced new music (the so-called "new wave") was just budding on radio, however; within a few years it would proliferate and cover the media. The key ingredient in new wave's success was the linkage of music and video, a dynamic that was institutionalized with the birth of MTV (Music Television) on August 1, 1981, with the debut video “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles. At a time of Reagan administration deregulation and declining record sales, the Warner Bros. conglomerate, in partnership with American Express, took a chance They created a twenty-four-hour television channel, beaming to a target audience of twelve-to thirty-four-year-olds music videos much the same way that radio broadcast songs.

On a studio set in New York, actors playing the role of VJs (as opposed to DJs), dressed in the latest clothing, walking the walk, and talking the talk. These VJs, following a rigid musical format but playing to the audience on a set designed to look casually thrown together, attempted to reproduce visually the music and feel of AOR radio.

During the early years MTV lost money, in part due to cable's lack of penetration into major urban centers (entire boroughs of New York City and the city of Los Angeles were not yet wired for cable). However, after years in the red and a continued refinement of the format, MTV was able

to succeed in a way that would change popular music.

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The Beatles - ‘music video’ pioneers

Montage from the Strawberry Fields Forever video

The Beatles had been releasing publicity videos for their hit songs since 1964, but those generally consisted of the group lip syncing their songs in a photo/film studio. In 1967, their promotional video for their double A-sided single release, "Strawberry Fields" /" Penny Lane,” took the art of the music video to a new level; The one for “Strawberry Fields” captured the spirit of psychedelia, featuring band members prancing about an old upright psychedelic piano in the countryside, climbing trees, and splashing paint; the video for Penny Lane depicted the band parading on horseback past a shopping district pictured as Penny Lane.

What may have initially been the impulse by musicians to expand artistic expression to the visual dimension was, by mid-decade, recognized as an important way for record companies to promote product. Major labels viewed music videos essentially as TV commercials, designed to sell merchandise. Also, by mid-decade numerous media analysts were exploring the impact of the new marriage between rock music and video. Music videos capitalized on contemporary rock music values of brash individualism, impatience, youthful rebellion, and sensual delight and included cinematic techniques such as dissolves, split screens, superimpositions, backlighting, and

intercutting among others.

“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”

In its early years MTV had a democratizing impact on the music industry. It introduced new and less mainstream artists to mainstream audiences. By the mid-eighties, however, MTV was acting much more like a radio station in business and formatting practices. Charges of racism were also leveled against MTV in its early years as African American artists received little or no airplay. Very few Black performers were successful on the AOR rock charts. When Michael Jackson hit

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big in 1982 (and "Billie Jean" and "Beat It" dominated the Billboard charts in 1983), MTV was able to point to Jackson 's videos in rebuttal. It wasn't until the significant crossover success of rap in the late 1980s that MTV viewers were regularly exposed to Black music.

The Compact Disc (CD)

In another business decision of the early 1980s by Sony, Philips, and other market controllers, a decision that many believe saved the U.S. music industry, the public was introduced to the compact disc. For about $12 to $15 consumers could buy the cleanest most precise sound available. Thus, at a time when multinational conglomerates had acquired the major record labels, consumers would now buy the hardware (amplifier and

CD player) and software (disc) from one company (Sony/Columbia Records, for example). The strategy was to convince consumers that the CD was so superior in quality to vinyl records and tapes that it was imperative they replace their entire record collections with CDs. It was a clever move, as the greater profit margin of the CD ($12 per unit as compared to $6 for records and tapes) garnered windfall profits for the record industry. In 1982 the sale of 53 million CDs generated nearly the same amount of money as 125 million albums.

“Perhaps it’s not surprising that the first CD release was of classical music. Classical enthusiasts had

more audiophiles in their numbers than pop fans in 1982, when the Dutch company Phillips developed the

CD as we know it now. The first CD they pressed was Herbert von Karajan conducting the Alpine Symphony

by Richard Strauss. By the winter of 1983, about half a million CDs had been pressed. Phillips had

developed the CD in close cooperation with Sony. Engineers from both companies had been working together for years to solve problems and establish standards for the new format, and it was adopted more

rapidly in Sony’s homeland, Japan than in the U.S” - from Phillips Company web site.

The first CD: Herbert von Karajan conducting

the Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauss

By 1983 the record-selling slump was over. Total product revenue on sales of CDs, cassettes, vinyl, and videos nearly tripled between 1984 and 1994. In 1994 nearly twice the numbers of CDs were sold (662 million) as cassettes (345 million), and the sales of CDs continue to increase as cassette sales decline. Vinyl LPs are nearly but will never die; they continue to be manufactured as specialty items and are still a viable medium of exchange in some parts of the world. To this day there are those who swear by the superior audio quality of analog (vinyl records) over digital (CD) sound. In 2008, the band Coldplay released their latest album, Viva la Vida or Death and All

his Friends, in both CD and vinyl formats.

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Artists’ Profile

Peter Gabriel

Since leaving Genesis in 1975 to begin a solo career, Gabriel has revealed a new array of guises, including soundtrack composer, social activist, world-music aficionado and benefactor, music-video innovator, and multimedia artist. Gabriel's first solo album was an eponymously titled effort, as were his next three. (The idea, he once explained, was to suggest issues, as one would for a magazine.) The first and second LPs drew attention for the respective singles "Solsbury Hill" and "DJY". The third, produced by Steve Lillywhite, yielded "Games Without Frontiers" and showed Gabriel striving to break rock conventions: For instance, drummers Jerry Marotta and Phil Collins (Gabriel's former Genesis bandmate) were prohibited from using cymbals.

Gabriel's fourth album, subtitled Security (1982), was the singer's first to go gold; it also gave him his first Top 40 single with the song “Shock the Monkey.” That same year, Gabriel financed the World of Music, Arts, and Dance (WOMAD) Festival, designed to bring African and Far Eastern music-which had increasingly influenced his work-to Western ears. To offset the festival's debt, he staged a Genesis reunion concert and released a WOMAD album, featuring cuts by himself, Robert Fripp (the producer of his second LP), and Pete Townshend alongside ethnic-music sources. The WOMAD Festival became an annual event, and the organization eventually spawned an education program and record label. In 1984 Gabriel was tapped to score Alan Parker's film Birdy; the singer consequently won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes. In 1985 he founded Real World Inc., aimed at developing cross-cultural projects in technology and the arts. The following year, he started the United Nations University for Peace, intended to fund an international human-rights computer network, and set up Real World Studios, a recording complex near Bath, England, where artists including Van Morrison and New Order have since worked. A Real-World record

label, dedicated to exposing ethnic music from around the world, was established in 1989.

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The year 1986 also saw Gabriel's commercial breakthrough. The album So, coproduced with Daniel Lanois, reached #2 and produced the funky, chart-topping "Sledgehammer," which Gabriel accompanied with a groundbreaking video full of provocative live-action-animation images. Gabriel joined U2, Sting, and others for a 1986 tour on behalf of Amnesty International. A 1988 Amnesty tour followed, with Gabriel, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Tracy Chapman, and Youssou N'Dour. Also in 1988, Gabriel performed "Biko," his tribute to South African civil-rights martyr Steven Biko) at a Nelson Mandela tribute at London's Wembley Stadium and composed music for Martin Scorsese's controversial adaptation of The Last Temptation of Christ. The 1989 soundtrack album won a Grammy for Best New Age Performance.

Gabriel's next studio album, 1992's Us, was inspired by his mid-'80s divorce from childhood sweetheart Jill Moore and the breakup of a subsequent relationship with actress Rosanna |Arquette. The album reached #2 and generated "Digging in the Dirt" and "Steam". In 1994 the musician added another branch to his corporation, called Real World Multimedia, to use technology as another creative outlet. The division published its first CD-ROM, "Xplora 1," an interactive look into Gabriel's various projects, that year. A follow-up, "Eve," featuring Gabriel's music and the work of several visual artists, was released in 1997. The musician helped develop

an attraction for the London Millennium Dome, which opened on New Year's Day 2000.

Peter Gabriel’s recording output is sparse, with the time span between releases averaging 8 years. After the 2002 release of his album UP, his subsequent releases took pace in 2010 (Scratch My

Back) and 2011(New Blood), and both albums were arrangements/covers of older songs. However, Gabriel has remained highly proactive in humanitarian causes and assisting other artists.

The many character costumes of Peter Gabriel

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The Police

l-r: Stewart Copeland, Sting, Andy Summers

Formed in 1977, The Police's clever, forward-looking combination of pop hooks, exotic rhythms, adventurous management, and good timing won the trio a mass following in America and around the world. Its distinctive sound-songs centered on Sting's bass patterns and high, wailing vocals, with Summers' atmospheric guitar, and Copeland's intricate drumming-was among the most influential approaches since punk. While the Police seemed at first to be a white reggae band, it later incorporated ideas from funk, minimalism, Arab, Indian, and African music. But as the chief singer, songwriter, and bassist, Sting began harboring solo ambitions, which led to the band's

untimely demise in 1984, following its fifth and most successful album, Synchronicity.

Sting, who got his nom de fame because of a yellow-and black jersey he often wore as a young musician, had been a teacher, ditch digger, and civil servant and had worked with several jazz combos in Newcastle, England, including Last Exit, before he met American drummer Stewart Copeland at a local jazz club. Copeland, the son of a jazz-loving CIA agent and an archaeologist with an appreciation for classical music, had grown up in the Middle East, attended college in California, moved to England in 1975, and joined the English progressive-rock group Curved Air.

After Curved Air broke up in 1976, Copeland formed the Police with Sting and guitarist Henri Padovani in 1977, replacing Padovani with Summers after some months of club dates. Summers had played with numerous groups since the mid-'60s, including Eric Burdon and the Animals, the Kevin Ayers Band, the Zoot Money Big Roll Band, and Neil Sedaka; he had also studied classical

guitar in California.

From the start, the Police distinguished itself for its maverick business practices. Before recording anything, the threesome portrayed a bleached-blond punk-rock band in a chewing-gum TV commercial-a move that drew the scorn of Britain 's punks. But in punk style, the group's first single, "Fall Out" (with Padovani), was homemade and frenzied. Released in 1978 by Illegal

Records Syndicate (LR. S), "Fall Out" sold about 70,000 copies in the UK.

The following year, the Police signed with A&M records, negotiating a unique contract that awarded the group a higher than-standard royalty rate instead of a large advance. The Police's next

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unorthodox move was to tour America before releasing any records there. Through Frontier Booking International (FBI)-Stewart's brother Ian Copeland's agency the band borrowed equipment, rented a van, and traveled cross-country to play club dates, sowing the seeds of a following that would make its first US. release, "Roxanne," a moderate hit (#32, 1979; it was already a British hit). Reggae music one of the strongest elements in the early music of the Police

as evident in the songs “Roxanne’ and “Can’t Stand Losing You.”

Both Outlandos d 'Amour and Reggatta de Blanc entered the US. Top 30, while in the UK. "Message in a Bottle" and "Walking on the Moon" went to the top of the singles chart. A 1980 world tour took the Police to Hong Kong, Thailand, India, Egypt, Greece, and Mexico-countries that rarely receive foreign entertainers. Zenyatta Mondatta, which contained "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" (1980) and "Don't Stand So Close to Me" (1981), was the group's first US. Platinum album. It was followed by a second million-seller, Ghost in the Machine, which secured the Police

among the big hit makers of the decade with "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" (1981).

Meanwhile, the three musicians worked on various outside projects. Sting embarked on a film career; Summers collaborated with Robert Fripp on two albums. Copeland recorded with Peter Gabriel, released a solo EP as Klark Kent, and composed the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola's movie Rumble Fish (1983). The three regrouped for 1983's chart-topping Synchronicity, which spawned the monster hit "Every Breath You Take" (1983), and produced "Synchronicity II" (1983), "King of Pain," (1983), and "Wrapped Around Your Finger" (1984).

After a triumphant world tour, it was announced that the Police would take a "sabbatical" to devote time to individual pursuits; but in 1985, as Sting released the successful solo album The Dream of Blue Turtles and started touring with a new band (which included renown jazz musicians Kenny Kirkland, Branford Marsalis, and Daryl Jones), it became clear that the singer had no plans to reunite with Copeland and Summers. In later years, interviews revealed a playful but real tension between Sting and Copeland, causing speculation that this interaction may have played a part in the

group's end as well.

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Still, fans were hopeful when the group played together at several shows on Amnesty International's Conspiracy of Hope Tour in 1986. That year also brought a Police greatest hits compilation that was supposed to include new tracks but didn't, largely because Sting wouldn't write any. Instead, the trio included "Don't Stand So Close to Me '86," a subpar new version of the original hit, which peaked at #46. (Several remixes were intended, but a freak polo accident

prevented Copeland from drumming.) It was the Police's last recording to date.

l-r: Adam Clayton, Bono, Larry

Mullen Jr., The Edge

U2 began the '80s as a virtually unknown "alternative" group and ended the century as one of the most widely followed rock bands in the world. The Irish rockers were influenced initially by punk's raw energy, but they immediately distinguished themselves from their post punk peers with a huge, soaring sound (centered on Dave "the Edge" Evans' reverb laden guitar playing and Paul "Bono" Hewson's sensuous vocals) and songs that tackled social and spiritual matters with an open, tender urgency. U2 shunned the sort of ironic expression and electronic gimmickry that were considered hip in the '80s, until the '90s, that is, when the band began drawing on such elements to reinvigorate and broaden its sound. By 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind, U2 had revived its straight-ahead approach. U2 has maintained not only its massive popularity but also its status as one of the most adventurous and groundbreaking acts in rock music.

Beginnings

The band members began rehearsing together while students at Dublin 's Mount Temple High School (the city's only nondenominational school). None was technically proficient at the beginning, but their lack of expertise mothered invention. The Edge's distinctive chordal style, for instance, stemmed largely from the guitarist's inability to play complicated leads, while bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr provided a rhythm section that was mostly pummeling ardor The novice musicians quickly developed a following in Ireland and found a manager, Paul McGuinness, who remains with them to this day They recorded independently before signing to Island Records in 1980.

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U2's 1980 debut album, Boy, was produced by Steve Lillywhite. On it, the group earnestly explored adolescent hopes and terrors, rejecting hard rock's earthy egotism and punk's nihilism. Bono, U2's lyricist, was (and still is) a practicing Christian, as were the Edge and Mullen, and on a second LP called October the singer incorporated imagery evoking their faith. Boy and October generated the respective singles "I Will Follow" and "Gloria," which got some airplay in the US. An American

club tour generated further interest, thanks to U2's incendiary live performances.

Their next album War cemented U2's reputation as a politically conscious band; among its themes were "the troubles" in Northern Ireland, addressed on the single "Sunday Bloody Sunday" Another single, "New Year's Day," went to #11 in England and #53 in the US., while War topped the British chart and hit #12 stateside. The group commemorated its 1983 tour with the live EP Under a Blood Red Sky, recorded at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado. 1984's The Unforgettable Fire, was the first of several fruitful collaborations with producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. The album generated the group's first American Top 40 single, an ode to American Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, called (In the Name of Love)". In 1985 U2 was proclaimed "band of the '80s" by

ROLLING STONE and made a historic appearance at Live Aid. The following year, the group joined Sting, Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed, and others for the Conspiracy of Hope Tour benefiting

Amnesty International.

U2 entered the pop stratosphere with 1987's The Joshua Tree, a critical and commercial smash that topped the albums chart that year and spawned the #1 hits "With or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," as well as "Where the Streets Have No Name". The LP, which was produced by Eno and Lanais, won the group two Grammys, for Album of the Year and Best Rock Performance. In 1988 U2 wrapped up a triumphant worldwide tour by releasing Rattle and Hum, a double album that combined live tracks with new material, and featured guest appearances by Bob Dylan and B.B. King. Rattle and Hum seemed bombastic to some critics; an accompanying film documentary also garnered mixed reviews. The LP nonetheless shot to #1, and

produced a #3 single, "Desire" (1988).

The band's next LP, 1991 's Achtung Baby, reached #1 and drew rave reviews. The LP marked a stylistic departure, featuring more metallic textures, funkier beats, and intimate, world-weary love songs. Hit singles included " Mysterious Ways." "One,” "Even Better Than the Real Thing," and "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses.” Another track, "Until the End of the World," was featured in Wim Wenders' 1991 film of the same name. Lanois, who produced Baby with support from Eno and Lillywhite, won a Grammy for

his work.

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In 1992 the band embarked on its Zoo TV Tour, a flashy, multimedia extravaganza that juxtaposed the rugged simplicity of its previous shows. Bono adopted a series of wry guises-the leather-and-shades-sporting Fly, the demonic MacPhisto-that he'd use for encores and, in the Fly's case, press appearances. In 1993, as the tour wound down, the band reentered the studio and made Zooropa, a quirky, techno-drunk affair coproduced by Eno, the Edge, and engineer Flood. The album reached #1 but yielded only the minor hit "Stay (Faraway, So Close)" (1993), which was also on the soundtrack to Wenders' 1993 movie Faraway: So Close. Johnny Cash sang lead on the track

"The Wanderer."

In 1993 the band renewed its contract with Island for an estimated $170 million. U2's contribution to 1995's Batman Forever soundtrack, "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me," was a Top 20 hit. Also, in 1995 the group collaborated with Eno as Passengers on a largely instrumental album called Original Soundtracks I; the only track to get attention was "Miss Sarajevo," on which Bono shared vocals with opera singer Luciano Pavarotti. Proceeds from the single's sales went toward war relief in Bosnia. 1997 saw the release of the electronica-heavy Pop; the album debuted at #1 in 27 countries, including the U.S., and garnered hit singles in "Discotheque" (1997) and "Staring at the Sun". U2 embarked on its next stage extravaganza, the Pop-Mart Tour, from 1997 to 1998. With a supermarket theme that played upon the concept of commercialism, the tour was even more grandiose than the Zoo TV Tour had been, with immense props that included a giant olive with a 100-foot-long toothpick, a 35-foot-high lemon, and a 100-foot-tall golden arch. At the tour's conclusion, U2 released a greatest-hits compilation with a remixed version of "Sweetest Thing: previously the B side of "Where the Streets Have No Name" This time the song was released as a single (1998).

Bono returned to political activism in 1999, with much of his focus on fighting world poverty. He met with President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, as well as the Pope, as a representative of Jubilee 2000 - a nonprofit group devoted to convincing nations to forgive third-world debt in the new millennium.

Pope John Paul II trying on Bono’s glasses

He also co-wrote a song, "New Day: with Wyclef Jean of the Fugees; the single's proceeds benefited relief efforts in Kosovo and the Wyclef Jean Foundation. The pair performed the song at the United Nations, as well as at NetAid, a concert held simultaneously in London, Geneva, and New Jersey's Giants Stadium, while being simulcast live on the Internet, to benefit several causes, among them third-world debt relief and global poverty.

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In early 2000, the Wim Wenders movie The Million Dollar Hotel, based on a story co-conceived by Bono, was shown at the Berlin Film Festival and released in many countries. Bono coproduced the film, made a cameo appearance in it, and U2 recorded two new songs for the soundtrack, one of which, "The Ground Beneath Her Feet," was written around lyrics by controversial author Salman Rushdie. The Ground Beneath Her Feet is a novel by Rushdie (published in 2000) which uses the Orpheus and Eurydice myth as the underlying thread of the story, in this case the protagonists are rock musicians.

In addition, Bono recorded tracks with Lanais and Eno as the Million Dollar Hotel Band. U2 released an album of new material, All That

You Can't Leave Behind in late 2000, featuring the single "Beautiful Day". Both album and single won Grammys in 2001.

Salman Rushdie and Bono

Live Aid

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During the eighties popular music increased its dialogue around issues of political, economic, and social justice. In fact, artists and concert promoters chose to link those causes with major concert events to publicize issues, raise funds, involve more artists, and help promote the business of rock music. These "mega-events" (Live Aid, Farm Aid, and the Amnesty International human rights tours were the biggest) hoped to redirect some focus from sex, drugs, and rock and roll toward a

discussion of social responsibility.

Scholars disagree on the cumulative impact of these and other events. Some felt that they served to co-opt the oppositional intentions of the artist and audience for industry gain while providing a social safety valve to fans wishing to express dissatisfaction. Others, like Dave Marsh, believe that it enhanced "the reawakening of a section of the rock audience to its own social potential and a quantum leap in the public awareness of the horrifying problems of poverty, hunger, homelessness and racism."

The Concert for Bangladesh - 1971

The mega-events of the 1980s reflected the structure and format of the golden era concerts, the Monterey Pop Festival, Woodstock, and Watkins Glen. The Concert for Bangladesh, organized in 1971 by former Beatle George Harrison at New York 's Madison Square Garden, was the original large-scale benefit concert. It raised nearly $250,000 with performances by Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Billy Preston, Ravi Shankar, Jim Keltner, members of Badfinger, and other friends. In the late 1970s anti-Nazi and antiracist groups in England staged a series of concerts called Rock Against Racism featuring the Clash, Elvis Costello, X-Ray Spex, and Steel Pulse.

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Live Aid, an event organized by Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldoff, raised $67 million for starving Africans. On July 13, 1985, concerts were held simultaneously in London, Philadelphia, and Sydney, linked electronically and broadcast to 1.5 billion people in a hundred countries. Entertainers included Paul McCartney, the Who, and David Bowie at England's Wembley Stadium and Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger, Tina Turner, Madonna, and the Led Zeppelin survivors at Philadelphia's Veteran's Stadium. Phil Collins hopped a supersonic Concorde and played both shows.

Live Aid was a catalyst, and it was closely followed by Farm Aid in September 1985, an effort by Willie Nelson and John (Cougar) Mellencamp to publicize the plight of the family farm. In October 1985 Artists United Against Apartheid (AUAA) released the album Sun City, organized by "Little Steven" Van Zandt, Bruce Springsteen's former guitarist. Bob Geldoff

AUAA members Springsteen, Peter Gabriel, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Miles Davis, and others challenged all musicians to confront the political system in South Africa and to uphold a performance ban by not playing Sun City-"I ain't gonna play Sun City!" was their rallying cry.

Amnesty International

In the fall of 1988 Amnesty International, the international organization working worldwide to free political prisoners, organized its Human Rights Now! Tour. Bruce Springsteen, Peter Gabriel, Sting, and Tracy Chapman made up a core of touring musicians who added local performers at each stop. They played six U.S. cities and then twenty other shows in places like London, India, Zimbabwe, the Ivory Coast, Costa Rica, Argentina , and Brazil . Springsteen commented, "I think Amnesty makes the world a less oppressive, less brutal place to live, and I want to help Amnesty do its job.” In the fall of 1990 artists including Sinead O'Connor, k.d. lang, David Byrne, and Annie Lennox released Red, Hot and Blue, a tribute to Cole Porter with proceeds going to benefit AIDS research.

These actions raised funds and told audiences that some stars were not afraid to take public stands on political and social issues. One might ask, how much consciousness-raising and political activity did these actions generate from audience members? For one thing, Amnesty International gained 200,000 new members after the tours and, following a large letter-writing campaign, three of the six political prisoners that had been targeted were released. Other organizations also felt an upsurge of interest and activity. Thus, artist involvement did make a difference: It exposed fans to important issues, prodding them to think and act.

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At the same time, however, it is also apparent that the music industry, though always careful to promote its liberal image, makes decisions based on the bottom line, a status quo favorable to huge multinational corporations maintaining increasing control over the sale of popular culture.

Political controversy is dangerous to this kind of control and does not sell records like other topics such as sex and (safe) rebellion. For example, when Rupert Murdoch's FOX-TV network broadcast its five-hour version of the eleven-hour Nelson Mandela Birthday Celebration to the United States, the political introductions to songs by Peter Gabriel, Jackson Browne, and Little Steven-as well as most of the African musical performances-were cut. Thus, the American public viewed a concert

devoid of much of its more forceful political content.

Ironically, Nelson Mandela later became a friend and champion of a dictator in whose country there are no elections, no freedom of speech or press, there are human rights violations, and in which any criticism of the government is punished with imprisonment or death, Cuba’s Fidel Castro.

Mandela and Castro

Bruce Springsteen

One of the most politically active major rock/pop

artists of the seventies and eighties was Bruce Springsteen. His songs-depicting young people as they struggled in the small-town decay of the American dream-resonated throughout the land. With the release of his classic Born to Run in 1975, Springsteen's stories of yearning, escape, and reflection, all told in an ordinary almost simple-minded style, reached the musical mainstream. In concert the E Street Band would power through an emotional three-hour journey, led by Springsteen. The man who listened to Buddy Holly every night before he went on and paid his dues playing Jimi Hendrix covers in the sixties was viewed as a son of the earlier genre. Born to Run went to #3 and the Boss (Springsteen’s nickname) appeared on the

cover of both Time and Newsweek.

A contractual wrangle with his former manager kept Springsteen out of the limelight for three years, however his 1980 #1 The River and the acoustic Nebraska sold well. In the summer of 1984, when Springsteen was popular but not quite a superstar, he released Born in the U.S.A., complete with American flag imagery on the cover. It went to #1 for seven weeks, stayed on the top-40

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album charts for nearly two years, and produced seven top-10 singles, including "Dancing in the Dark," Glory Days,” and the poignant "My Hometown." The title cut, "Born in the U.S.A,” describes the story of dead-end working-class life in America. The singer's brother goes to Vietnam, marries there, and is killed, and the singer, a veteran who comes home and can't get a job, wails the agonized and cynical "Born in the U.S.A. " refrain.

President Reagan once cited the song during a self-serving appeal to voters, and Springsteen was forced to rebut Reagan from the stage. He backed up his actions by donating money from concert proceeds to local food banks, veterans groups, the homeless, and activist trade-union groups. Springsteen continued into the nineties with only a few releases, some political activity, and a focus on his family.

Heavy Metal

Ladies of Metal: Nita Strauss and Lzzy Hale

Nita Strauss played in The Iron Maidens, Femme Fatale, and the LA Kiss musical backing group. Popular Guitar Magazine ranked her as one of the top 10 guitarists you should become familiar with. In June 2014, Nita began playing with Alice Cooper’s band.

Lzzy Hale, lead singer, guitarist, and namesake of the metal band, Halestorm embodies modern metal. She became the first female-fronted band to win a Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Grammy in 2013 for their song “Love Bites (So Do I),” a song that defies the stereotype that girls can’t rock. Her cover (with Halestorm) of The Beatles song “I Want You,” displays her

impressive vocal talent.

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At the same time the pop megastars like Michael Jackson and Madonna topped the charts, heavy metal's fourth generation was born. Together, hard rock/metal styles achieved sufficient commercial success to lay claim to being the most popular rock genre of the decade. This guitar-based power rock-the first generation was the Who, Cream, and Hendrix, the second generation Led Zeppelin-developed a third style called heavy metal in the late seventies. Though initially a cult style, metal matured and broadened its appeal in the eighties. By 1989 Rolling Stone magazine had announced that heavy metal was in the mainstream of rock and roll.

Madonna and Michael Jackson

Back in the 1970s the audience for early metal was most often young, white, alienated, working-class male teens, who embraced a music that offered an identity and image of power, intensity, spectacle, and danger. By the mid-eighties the audience for heavy metal had expanded to include

preteens, those in their late twenties, and some from the middle class.

The early metal ensemble consisted of drums, bass, and one or two guitars. In the mid-eighties bands like Van Halen added keyboard and synthesizer, broadening both their sound and appeal. In their 1984 album, titled “1984” the keyboards were used more extensively than in previous albums. The lead single from the album “Jump” became Van Halen’s one and only #1 hit, earning them a

Grammy award.

The earlier rhythm section best reflected the Zeppelin model-solid, simple, and at times lumbering. Later, responding to punk and classical influences, rhythm players cranked it up a couple notches in speed, thus requiring better technique. Though the guitarist shared the spotlight with the vocalist, the guitar solo remained the musical highlight. It evidenced roots in both the blues (using bent notes and repetition), and the classical tradition, with classical music guitar technique, song structure, and arpeggiated chords and phrases. The lead vocalist drew some moves and energy from earlier hard rock performers but also adopted shock stance from punk and dress and entertainment from glam (an early-1970s rock style dominated by the so-called glitter bands, such as the New York Dolls).

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Ozzy Osbourne

Heavy metal evolved in England and the United States simultaneously. England 's Black Sabbath, with lead singer Ozzy Osbourne’s wails and growls, provided an early image of death, demons, and the occult. Osbourne left to go solo in 1978, importing American guitar wizard Randy Rhoads from Quiet Riot and employing various gruesome actions as a part of his stage show. Noted for images of animal mutilation during shows, legend has it that Osbourne had to undergo painful rabies shots when he bit the head off a bat thrown from the audience. Rhodes died in a plane crash in 1982.

Judas Priest added a second guitar to its lineup in the mid-seventies, speeded up the songs, and became known for its biker look and leather theatricality. Iron Maiden, named for a medieval instrument of torture, continued the themes of gloom and doom along with images of the anti-Christ, as on their Number of the Beast album (1982). Def Leppard paid close attention to studio details and used keyboards and special effects to move closer to the musical mainstream and in-

creased commercial success.

Van Halen

In the United States, Van Halen released its self-titled first album in 1978-produced by Kiss's Gene Simmons-and by the mid-eighties had a #1 single, "Jump" (1985), and #1 album, 5150 (1986). David Lee Roth flaunted his showmanship and ego as frontman, but it was Eddie Van Halen, the guitarist and composer, who drove the band. Eddie reinvented metal-guitar virtuosity, using superior dexterity, speed, and a two-hand hammer/harmonic technique on the fretboard that challenged and awed all other contemporaries.

l-r: Alex Van Halen, Michael Anthony, David Lee

Roth, Eddie Van Halen

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With "Eruption, the second cut on the first Van Halen album, Eddie served notice of his arrival. Robert Walser maintains that Van Halen's classical music training as a pianist and violinist and his study of music theory were instrumental to this success. The education and advanced technique were reflected in the facility, fluidity, and musicianship that Eddie demonstrated as composer and guitarist. (He even quotes violin etudes in the "Eruption" solo.) Los Angeles was also the base for other American bands, like Mötley Crüe, Quiet Riot, and later Guns 'n' Roses, whose 1987 release, Appetite for Destruction, was hailed as a blend of old hard rock boogie and the deep emotionality of the blues; Lead singer Axel Rose drew praise from fans for his performance style, nihilistic authenticity, and vocal wail. At the same time, however, he was criticized for lyrics and remarks that put down gays, women, African Americans,

and immigrants.

Speed Metal

Metallica

l-r: Ulrich, Trujillo (top), Hetfield, and Hammett

Another strain of metal, which derived some of its power and pace from punk, is speed metal-a style considered by metal purists to be more authentic. Metallica, speed metal's most successful proponent, combines outstanding guitar work with fast and synchronized ensemble playing.

In her description of "Master of Puppets," the title cut from their 1986 album, writer Katherine Charlton notes that this is far from a simplistic form, with changes in meter, tempo, accent, and the use of arpeggio patterns, all coordinated at a speed of over

200 beats per minute.

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Yngwie Malmsteen

Swedish-born Yngwie Malmsteen is another metal guitarist acknowledged as a stylistic pioneer. Malmsteen studied classical guitar and piano as a youth and was especially dazzled by the music of violin virtuoso Nicolo Paganini. Crediting Bach and Paganini on his albums, Malmsteen developed a style

based on technique, speed, and precision.

Like Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads, Malmsteen doesn't just quote from classical music, he integrates his training and attitude with that musical form. Listen to a young Yngwie playing the instrumental "Evil

Eye" on Alcatraz 's 1984 live album, Live Sentence.

Metal Music and Society

Heavy metal music has been disdained by critics as one-dimensional, imaginatively poor, juvenile and “extreme volume to cover up for lack of substance.” Nonetheless, there is no denying that some metal musicians and composers are among the most accomplished of any rock/pop genre. In addition, some critics describe some of the music’s negative messages (particularly messages of violence, destruction, and the occult) as perniciously affecting young listeners. Scholar Robert Walser addresses some of those criticisms by placing the music in its historical context: "The context ... is the United States during the 1970s and 1980s, a period that saw a series of damaging economic crises, unprecedented corruptions of political leadership, erosion of public confidence in governmental and corporate benevolence, cruel retrenchment of social programs along with policies that favored the wealthy, and tempestuous contestations of social institutions and representations, involving formations that were thought to be stable, such as gender roles and

family.”

In all fairness, heavy metal, along with any other style of music, was not formed in isolation. With social and economic institutions such as family relations and the educational system stumbling, and family-sustaining jobs declining, it was natural for a style music to reflect the disillusionment, fear, and powerlessness evoked by those conditions. And if we consider durability as one of the testaments of value, hard rock/heavy metal maintained a place in the nineties mainstream, and to a smaller degree, continues into the 2000s. Every type of music serves a purpose, and there is

plenty of room for different styles and for diverse tastes.

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Discussion Assignments for Class Projects

Discussion Format and Topic Assignment

To enhance and diversify the discussions, each student will be assigned one of the three topics. The topic designation will be determined by the first letter the student’s last name.

For example, if your last name is Jones, your topic will be Topic 2, which covers all last names

that start with the letters I through P.

Last names starting with the letters A-H Topic 1

Last names starting with the letters I-P Topic 2

Last names starting with the letters Q-Z Topic 3

Topics for Discussion 4

Topic 1: What was Punk Rock Music reacting or rebelling against? Did it fade away because it was primarily reactionary (and thus only relevant to its time and place) or because it threatened the establishment and was too primitive, too nasty, too honest? Is there a parallel between the Punk Rockers of the mid-seventies and the classic rock and rollers in the late 1950s? Please mention

some band names in your analysis to support your point.

Topic 2: Heavy Metal Music: do you love it or can’t stand it? Explain Why? What are some of it innovations and outstanding features? Do some of the messages in the lyrics of heavy metal bands create destructive and negative influences in teenagers? If so, how? To what extent is a loud dynamic level important in the appreciation of Heavy Metal music?

Topic 3: The individual who shot and killed John Lennon is sometimes mentioned by name in books and other publications, but often his name is left and replaced with adjectives like “lunatic,” “assassin,” “disturbed,” “murderer,” etc. Do you feel that including his name glorifies him and his crime, and perhaps influence other disturbed individuals, as well as being disrespectful to Lennon’s living family and close friends? Or would you be fine, if you were a writer, including his name?

Your answer may include pros and cons.

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Chapter 9

1990s: Grunge/Rap Metal/mp3

The Berlin Wall - November 1989

November 1989 marked an historic event of worldwide consequences. That month an ecstatic crowd climbed on the Berlin Wall and began tearing it down, marking the end of the Cold War. In 1991 the Soviet Union would collapse and two years later the European Union would be created. As a result, many countries converted to capitalism and most of the world also embraced democracy (with the exceptions of the Islamic world, China, Cuba, and North Korea).

The USA had won the war, however, there were alarming signs of social problems, including street gangs, racial riots, drugs. In 1989 Bush declared a "war" against hallucinogenic drugs (a war against the cartels of Colombian and other "drug lords"). By the end of 1999 the World Health Organization estimated that 16 million people in the world had died of AIDS (more than half the victims being under the age of 25).

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The internet has had a far-reaching impact on society. While the 1980s saw its commercialization and the first privately owned Service Providers the 1990’s witnessed its expansion into popular use. Like all tools, digital technology and the internet are just means to an end, but these “ends” were not always wholesome. Computer "hackers" realized that the Internet made it possible to violate institutions such as banks and government agencies. The term "cyberpunk" had been coined in 1980 by Bruce Bethke in a tale that basically predicted the advent of digital terrorism, and then William Gibson's "Neuromancer" (1984) publicized the notion of human beings that can connect

into computer networks.

The "cyber" world was also becoming a substitute for the decline of the sense of community. For example, in 1985 the "Whole Earth Review", founded by Howard Rheingold in 1973 in Sausalito, established the "Whole Earth Lectronic Link" (or "WELL"). These were "sites" where people with similar interests could exchange ideas. The "usenet" on the Internet was divided in interest groups. And perhaps the first cyberspace for ordinary people was a game, "Dungeons & Dragons", introduced in 1980 by British student Roy Trubshaw, the first case of "MUD" ("multi-

user dungeon").

The Music

Over the decades, rock music has always been the soundtrack of alternative youth lifestyles. The lifestyle of the generation of the 1990s was basically a transitional one, torn between the anger and frustration of the 1980s and the cyberworld to come. The most apparent change in lifestyle affected the girls. They were the daughters of the women who had fought for emancipation and equality in the 1960s. They were the children of the sexual revolution. Women were becoming less and less dependent on men, and less oriented towards a family-based future. The "riot-grrrrls" movement that came out of Seattle was only the tip of the iceberg of a widespread grass-roots phenomenon of young women asserting their identity, their problems, and their values; and beginning to create a history of their own, after centuries of male-dominated history. It is not a coincidence that the 1990s witnessed a boom of female musicians. Courtney Love (right) with her band Hole

Musically, the 1990s saw the rock genres of the 1980s grow apart rather than fuse. Each of those genres (industrial, gothic, roots-rock, noise-rock, indie-pop, techno, ambient, etc.) multiplied and evolved in a fashion largely independent of the others. An involuntary catalyst for the commercial success of the various subgenres was the magazine Billboard, that finally changed the way it

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ranked singles and albums by tallying actual sales at retail stores instead of using the industry-manipulated word of mouth. Suddenly, rock outsold pop, and "minority" genres such as hip-hop and country entered the charts. This, in turn, led the industry to invest more in these genres.

There were perhaps fewer new genres created in the early 1990s than in any of the previous ages. Even grunge was, fundamentally, just a revival of hard rock. On the other hand, old genres diverged much more than in any previous decade, de facto splitting rock music into a loose

federation of subgenres.

Grunge

Due largely to the influence of MTV, the rock music of the early 1990s was dominated by highly commercialized bands and “hair metal” artists who placed a great deal of emphasis on image and style. As a reaction to this trend, bands (especially from around Seattle, Washington) started writing and performing music which brutally contrasted with mainstream rock. This music was more of a fusion of older styles than a brand-new sound. Elements of hard rock and hardcore punk (driven by guitar distortion and feedback) were combined with angst-filled lyrics which often dealt

with social isolation and sometimes mocked commercial rock.

This style came to be known as Grunge, meaning “dirt” or “filth”, due to the disheveled appearance of the musicians (who were rebelling against the polished images of the mainstream artists) and the “dirty” sound of the music.

Nirvana

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While Grunge was pioneered by a few bands, such as Soundgarden and the Pixies, it wasn’t until Nirvana’s release of the album Nevermind, which included the single “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, that Grunge became an international phenomenon. Nirvana is thus credited with

bringing the genre to the mainstream.

In 1991 the Seattle-based trio took the angry, nihilistic message of the Sex Pistols' landmark 1977 single "Anarchy in the U.K. " to # 6 with its own sarcastic blueprint for frustration, "Smells Like Teen Spirit." The band's reign was tragically cut short slightly more than two years later, on April 5, 1994, when leader Kurt Cobain took his own life following at least one earlier

suicide attempt and severe bouts with drug addiction, a chronic stomach ailment, and depression.

He was 27.

Nirvana (l-r: Dave Grohl, Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic)

Kurt Cobain (1967-1989) and Krist Novoselic (b. 1965) grew up in Aberdeen, Washington, a small logging town 100 miles southwest of Seattle. When Cobain was eight, his secretary mother and auto-mechanic father divorced, leaving him constantly moving from one set of relatives to another. As a child he loved the Beatles, but by nine discovered the heavier music of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Kiss. Cobain met the 6-foot-7-inch Novoselic, son of a local hairdresser, through

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mutual friend Buzz Osborne of the Aberdeen band the Melvins. Osborne introduced them to the

hardcore punk of Black Flag and Flipper.

In 1987 Cobain and Novoselic, both of whom had long felt alienated from their working-class peers, formed Nirvana and started playing parties at the liberal Evergreen State College in nearby Olympia. The following year, Seattle independent label Sub Pop signed the band and released its first single, "Love Bug" b/w "Big Cheese."

Nirvana's debut album, Bleach, recorded for $606.17, came out in 1989 to kudos from the underground-rock community; it sold an initial 35,000 copies,

considerable for an indie-label release.

In 1990 Nirvana put out another Sub Pop single, "Sliver" b/w "Dive," and recorded six new songs (including "Smells Like Teen Spirit") with producer Butch Vig. During the recording sessions Kurt and Krist became disenchanted with Chad Channing’s drumming and soon after the sessions were done, he was replaced by Dave Grohl (b. 1969). After Nirvana’s demise Grohl would become the founder of the band The Foo Fighters.

A major-label bidding war ensued; DGC ultimately offered the group a $287,000 advance (rumors had it at $750,000). With Nevermind, Nirvana succeeded at getting grunge to the populace on a grand scale: After an initial shipment of 50,000 copies, the record kept selling, eventually bumping new albums by Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks, and MC Hammer from the top of the chart. Nevermind ultimately sold 10 million copies in the U.S. alone; it also produced another hit, "Come

as You Are".

By early 1992, Nirvana's success was biting back. As "Smells Like Teen Spirit" continued climbing up the charts, Cobain began bemoaning the group's meteoric rise, worrying that fans were missing the point of Nirvana's antiestablishment message. Simultaneously, his new relationship with Courtney Love, singer of the band Hole, had become a hot topic in the gossip columns. The couple married on February 24. When Love became pregnant with Cobain's child and was quoted in a Vanity Fair article as admitting she had used heroin during the pregnancy, news of the couple's

alleged drug addiction hit the media fan.

Scrutiny of the Cobain - Love affair reached a level of intensity matched in the pop world only by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, or the ill-fated punk couple Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen. On August l8, 1992, the Cobains delivered a healthy seven-pound baby, Frances Bean (named after the tormented, lobotomized '40s film actress Frances Farmer). After a battle with children's services in L.A., which challenged the Cobain's parental fitness based on Love's comments in

Vanity Fair; the couple was granted custody of the child.

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Amid the chaos, Nirvana released Incesticide, a collection of early singles and outtakes. Beginning in spring of 1993, a series of events occurred that foreshadowed the demise of Cobain and Nirvana. On May 2, the singer overdosed on heroin at his Seattle home. The following month, he was charged with domestic assault after Love summoned the police during an argument over Cobain's gun collection. On July 23, Cobain overdosed again, this time in the bathroom of a New York hotel room before a

Nirvana show at the Roseland Ballroom.

On September 21, Nirvana released In Utero, which debuted at #1 and ultimately produced the Modern Rock radio hits "Heart-Shaped Box" and "All

Apologies."

On January 7, 1994, Nirvana performed what would be their last American concert, at the Seattle Center Arena. On February 6, the band departed for a European tour, but after a series of throughout the continent, decided to take a break, during which Cobain remained in Rome. At 6:30 am on March 4, Love found Cobain unconscious in the couple's room at Rome 's Excelsior Hotel, the result of an overdose of the tranquilizer Rohypnol. At first deemed an accident, later reports uncovered a suicide note. Cobain remained in a coma for 20 hours. When the Cobain’s returned to Seattle, things took a turn for the worse, On March 18, police arrived at the Cobain home again after the singer locked himself in a room with a .38-caliber revolver, threatening to kill himself. On March 30, Cobain checked in to the Exodus Recovery Center in L.A., but fled on April 1, after telling staff members he was going outside for a smoke. On April 8, he was found dead in a room above the garage of the couple's Seattle home, the result of a self-inflicted .20-gauge shotgun wound to his head. For weeks afterward, fans, the news media, MTV, and radio mourned his death with specials about Nirvana and the generations they inspired, In November 1994, MTV Unplugged in New York, an album of the acoustic show taped in 1993, was released. There have been a few conspiracy theories regarding Cobain’s death; some even point a finger at Courtney.

Nirvana's success changed the course of rock music in the '90s, cementing the rise of alternative rock and legitimizing the differences in perspective between the earlier baby-boom generation of rock fans and the subsequent so-called Generation X. Cobain's expressions of support for women and homosexuals challenged the earlier rock & roll status quo. With his sensitive lyrics and outward frustrations over the disordered state of the world, Cobain brought a new edge and urgency to pop music.

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Lollapalooza is an American music festival which primarily features punk, hip hop, alternative rock bands. It was conceived in 1991 by Perry Farrell, the singer of the band Jane’s Addiction as

a farewell tour for his band. The festival and ran until 1997 but it was later revived in 2003.

Other prominent bands that formed in the late 80s and early 90s includes Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam and Korn. A metal band with an alternative-rock edge, Alice in Chains was among the biggest to emerge from the grunge scene that spawned Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden. Formed in 1987, Seattle, Washington, the group's dark, bitter songs, laden with references to drug addiction and death, occupy a musical landscape somewhere between Metallica's dense head bangers and Pearl Jam's grinding anthems. By 1989 the group had signed to Columbia Records, where it became the beneficiary of an aggressive promotion campaign that saw the release of a five-song promotional EP, We Die Young;

and had the group opening for a range of disparate acts, including Iggy Pop and Poison. As a result, by September 1991, Face Lift had sold a half-million copies and featured the Grammy-nominated "Man in the Box."

Alice in Chains - Bottom row L-R: Layne Staley (vocals) /Jerry Cantrell (guitar & vocals) / Mike Starr

(bass) Standing: Sean Kinney (drums).

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The group's thematically bleaker sophomore effort, Dirt, went platinum in 1992 (eventually selling 3 million copies), and the group's appearance on the following summer's Lollapalooza Tour confirmed its popularity.

Pearl Jam

L-R:

Stone Gossard (guitar)

Mike McCready (lead guitar)

Jeff Ament (bass)

Eddie Vedder (vocals & guitar)

Matt Cameron (drums)

Though it was responsible for popularizing the Seattle sound and style known as "grunge," Pearl Jam, formed 1990, Seattle, Washington, proved to be more than a flash-in-the-pan

by expanding on its initial solid, guitar-heavy Led Zeppelin-influenced songs and by making good use of charismatic Eddie Vedder's impassioned vocals. Leaping from obscurity to superstardom, the band sold over 15 million copies of its first two albums. After a couple of years during which it got mired in high-profile controversies, Pearl Jam recovered and firmly established itself as a durable band working in a classic-rock mode.

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They initially called themselves Mookie Blaylock, for the basketball player, but changed the name to Pearl Jam, after a psychedelic confection made by Vedder's half-Native American great-grandmother, Pearl. The band did not forget Blaylock: Their debut album, Ten, was named for his uniform number. On the strength of its Mother Love Bone connections and a growing national interest in the Seattle scene, Pearl Jam was signed by Epic Records in early

1991.

Ten by Pearl Jam

Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain criticized Pearl Jam, stating that Ten was not a true alternative album because it had to many prominent guitar leads. He went on to call them commercial sellouts. Cobain later reconciled with Vedder, and they were reportedly on friendly terms before Cobain’s death. Although Pearl Jam was originally marketed as an "alternative" band, its connection to classic rock of the '60s and '70s soon became apparent. Vedder filled in for Jim Morrison at the Doors reunion for the 1993 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies; he also took part in concerts honoring Bob Dylan and Pete Townshend. The band backed Neil Young on "Rockin' in the Free World" at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards.

On April 9, 1994, a day after Kurt Cobain’s death, Pearl Jam visited the White House and posed in the Oval Office with President Bill Clinton. The President later took the band’s frontman Eddie Vedder to one side to ask him whether he should address the nation on Kurt Cobain’s death. Vedder

advised against it, because of concerns it might provoke copycat cases.

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Rap Metal

Korn

L-R: Ray Lucier (drums) / James Shaffer (guitar) / Jonathan Davis (vocals) / Brian “Head” Welch (guitar)

Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu (bass)

If point of impact of the early-'90s grunge explosion can be traced to Nirvana's Nevermind, the full commercial arrival of rap-metal can be pinpointed to August 1998-the month Korn's aptly titled third album, Follow the Leader, debuted at #1. Rage Against the Machine had reached that landmark two years earlier, but Follow the Leader opened the floodgates; subsequent releases by Korn and fellow rock rappers Limp Bizkit would all ei-ther bow at #1 or entrench themselves in the Top 10 for weeks and months on end well into the turn of the 21st century.

Formed 1993, Huntington Beach, CA, Korn’s self-titled debut album was largely ignored by MTV and radio, but

relentless touring and a rabid fan base (via gigs and the Internet) eventually pushed sales past the 2-million mark. The follow-up, 1996's Life Is Peachy, debuted at #3 and also went double platinum. The album also gave the band its first taste of MTV rotation with the video for "A.D.I.DAS." and a headlining slot on the Lollapalooza festival tour.

By the time the quadruple-platinum Follow the Leader hit stores two years later, Korn didn't need

invitations to join other festival tours-it headlined its own.

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Limp Bizkit

L-R: Sam Rivers (bass) / DJ Lethal (turntablist) / Fred Durst (vocals) / John Otto (drums) /

Wes Borland (guitar)

While Rage Against the Machine and Korn first took the rap-rock genre into Top 10 territory, Limp Bizkit, formed 1994, Jacksonville, Fl., carried it into the record books. Highlighted by the call-and-response anthem "Nookie," the band's second album, Significant Other -knocked the Backstreet Boys' blockbuster Millennium off the top of the charts in 1999, and 2000's Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water debuted at #1 and became the

year's fastest-selling rock album.

Significant Other

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The band's first album, Three Dollar Bill, Y'all$ attracted controversy early on when the story broke that Interscope had bought advertising time from a Portland, Oregon, radio station to play the single "Counterfeit" 50 times. Limp Bizkit weathered the payola storm and saw its rap/metal cover of George Michael's "Faith" become a Mod-em Rock hit. During its concert performances that year, the band would emerge onstage at the beginning of each show from a giant toilet. By the time Significant Other bowed at the top of the chart in late 1999, Limp Bizkit had become a rock superstar, headlining its own tour, and garnering a prime slot at the ill-fated Woodstock '99 (where the band's performance of "Break Stuff" would be cited by many as initiating the mayhem and hooliganism that ultimately brought the three-day

festival down in flames). Three Dollar Bill, Y'all$

The controversial Woodstock appearance did little to slow Limp Bizkit down, however. Durst, who made no secret of his ambition to be an industry power player as well as a rock star, was given his own Flawless imprint by Interscope and was appointed senior vice president of A&R. During the summer of 2000, Limp Bizkit went against the grain of the music industry by aligning itself with the controversial online song-trading software company Napster by participating in a free-admission tour with Cypress Hill (Napster picked up the bill). The band's third album, Chocolate

Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water, debuted at #1 in October 2000, selling more than a million copies its first week in stores. Earlier that year, the band also had scored another Modem

Rock hit with the Mission: Impossible-2 soundtrack offering, "Take a Look Around."

The mp3

The first half of the 1990s also witnessed some other significant events in the history of rock music. In 1992 the mp3 was invented. The mp3 is a digital audio encoding format designed to reduce (through compression) the amount of data required to represent an original (uncompressed) audio

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recording. While the fidelity of the original sound is compromised the significantly smaller mp3 files (about 1/10 the size of the original) allows easier transmission and storage. This facility of file transmission and storage coupled with the portability of mp3 players revolutionized the music

market.

Apple’s iPod Shuffle mp3 player can store 4GB (on the average

about 1,000 songs).

In 1994 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum opened in Cleveland, Ohio. The museum is dedicated to recording the history of some of the most influential artists, producers, and others who

have contributed to the music industry in a major way.

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Paul McCartney was finally inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 (pictured here). As evident by her T-shirt, Stella felt that her dad’s induction was well overdue. For a musician to become eligible for induction into the hall of fame he /she must wait 25 years after the release of their first recording. McCartney’s first recording release as a solo artist was in 1970, which would have made him eligible in 1995 (John Lennon’s first solo recording release was in 1969, and was inducted in 1994, his first year of availability). Many musicians have lost respect for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction committee which has often favored popularity over

artistic accomplishment.

Sean Lennon, Yoko Ono, and Paul McCartney at

John Lennon’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall

of Fame (1994)

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Chapter 10

1990s Part 2: Globalization and the

Internet/Naptser/Singer Songwriters

Bill Clinton- 42nd President of the USA

The new world order produced a period of massive global growth. Many in the West fell to the illusion of permanent prosperity. Many in the developing world sensed the end to poverty and starvation.

The first "baby boomer" to become president, Bill Clinton, was elected in 1992, becoming, at 46, the third-youngest president; only John F. Kennedy and Theodore Roosevelt were younger. The economic growth during his eight years was the longest in the history of the USA. He signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Violent Crime Control and Law

Enforcement Act, but was unable to pass his plan for national health care reform

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The world was transformed by the Internet. Throughout the decade, more and more innovative software changed the way people lived their lives. In 1991 the World-Wide Web invented by Tim Berners-Lee in Geneva debuted on the Internet. From that moment on, an endless stream of new

companies gradually changed the "American way of life":

by Marc Andreessen in 1994 to browse the Web

by Jerry Yang in 1994 to search the Web

by Craig Newmark in 1995 to serve the community

by Jeff Bezos in 1997 to sell books over the Internet, later extending to sell multiple products

by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998 to search the Web

by Pierre Omidyar in 1998 for selling and buying online

by Shawn Fanning in 1999 - a system to share music files

by Jimmy Wales in 2001- a worldwide collaborative encyclopedia

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“dot.com”

A new economy appeared in the USA, the "net" economy, whose drivers were the "dot.com" companies. By 1999, the US had 250 billionaires, and thousands of new millionaires were created every year by a jovial stock market. By 2000 e-mail had become universal, replacing traditional

("snail") mail and even telephones as the main medium of long-distance communication.

Novels and films speculated on the ideas of "cyberspace" and "virtual reality" (a computer

simulation of real life in cyberspace).

Internationally, the security of the USA was no longer threatened by major powers but by a small group of terrorists: Al Qaeda, led by an Islamic fanatic from Saudi Arabia, Osama bin Laden, from his base in Afghanistan. In 1993 they attempted to blow up New York 's World Trade Center with a car bomb in the parking lot below the North tower. They failed to knock down the towers, but they did kill six people and injured thousands. In 1998 they bombed two USA embassies in Africa, killing scores of people.

The economic boom ended soon, and with a bang. In April 2000 the stock market for high-technology companies crashed, wiping out trillions of dollars of wealth. The mood turned to gloom when, at the end of the decade, George W. Bush of the Republican Party became president on a

technicality, beginning one of the most divisive presidencies of all times.

Hanging Chads

Thus, the world, and in particular the USA, went through one of the most breathtaking decades in memory. The 1990s were roughly the equivalent of the roaring 1920s: a flamboyant party before a big crisis.

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The Baby Boomers and Generation X

The new generation, dubbed "Generation X" (people born between the mid 1960s and 1981), was living largely in the shadow of the generation of the previous generation, the "baby boomers". The contrast was not encouraging for the kids. The Baby Boomers grew up in the 1950s, in a world of unlimited economic opportunities, while the Generation X grew up in the 1980s, in a world of economic recession, AIDS, drugs, climate change and street gangs. The Baby Boomers grew up in a world of stable families, while the Generation X grew up in a world of pervasive family breakdown. When the generation Xers became adults, the world was dominated by Baby Boomers: Microsoft's founder Bill Gates (who had become the world's richest man) USA president Bill Clinton.

There was also a stark contrast between Generation X and their baby-boomer parents in the way body and mind were perceived. Their parents had fostered aerobics as devices to enhance inner, psychological health, not just bodily health. Generation X seemed only interested in the bodily part, so much so that this was a generation in which the traditional relationship between smoking cigarettes and doing drugs was reversed: kids were more likely to do drugs (that hurts your mind) than smoke cigarettes (that hurts your body). They were more likely to engage in random sexual activities (that may terminate their emotional life) but always using "protection" (to avoid contracting AIDS, that would terminate their physical life). The "gym culture" was by now pervasive: it was important to look good (as opposed to boast one's mental skills), to be artificially athletic (as opposed to being knowledgeable), to perform courageous acts for the sake of proving

one's fitness (as opposed to accomplishing something for the sake of an ideal).

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When it comes to the rest of the world, an important shift took place in the mindset of this generation. The influx of immigrants from non-Christian parts of the world (India, Middle East, Far East) abolished the Christian monopoly on moral values, creating a higher degree of cultural

relativism. Generation X was less prejudiced against non-European cultures.

The Music

The Nineties continued to see the expansion of alternative rock, both artistically and commercially. The general trend of the era was towards more and more abstract music, music that had lost its original label of dance/party music. The cheerful atmosphere of the age and the introduction of digital sound-making devices finally led to the birth of truly new genres: post-rock, trip-hop, drum 'n' bass, etc. If the early 1990s had been devoted to revisiting the past, the late 1990s laid the foundations for a unique future.

The Nineties can also be considered the decade of singer songwriters whose music tends to be more personal and intellectual: such as (L-R below) Tori Amos, Alanis Morissette, and Beck.

Two of the most unique voices were from Ireland and Iceland, Sinead O’Connor (left below) and

Bjork (formerly of the Sugar Cubes), respectively.

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the downward spiral (1994) by Nine Inch Nails

Industrial music staged a dramatic comeback in Chicago with two of the most visible acts of the

decade: Ministry and Nine Inch Nails.

Hard sounds still ruled in the aftermath of grunge, and New York (Unsane, Helmet, Surgery,

Monster Magnet) and Los Angeles (Tool, Stone Temple Pilots, Korn) had their share of the pie.

Techno was the new trend in dance music. Invented in the Eighties in Detroit by the triad of disc jockeys Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May, techno crossed the Atlantic and established itself in England and in the continent (Front 242), marching hand in hand with the rave scene. America was left behind (Moby and not much else). But while the huge party was punctuated by the thumping rhythms and catchy melodies of house and pop music, many of the new genres hinted at a dormant existential malaise, a sense of alienation and

disorientation.

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Globalization: Britain

Britain was the place for psychedelic music. It started with the Liverpool revival of Echo And The Bunnymen and Julian Cope, then it picked up with dram-pop (Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance)

eventually folding into a form of ambient music.

The Chemical Brothers (Ed Simons &Tom Rowlands)

In 1995 the British electronica duo The Chemical Brothers released the album Exit Planet Dust. They fused “techno” and rock creating the “big beat”.

By the end of the decade, Britain was awash in Brit-pop, a media-induced trance of super-melodic pop that spawned countless "next big things", from Verve to Oasis to Blur to Suede to Radiohead, the band that finally disposed of it.

Exit Planet Dust (1995) by The Chemical Brothers

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The 1990s were also the decade of heavy metal, that peaked in Los Angeles and that soon split into a myriad of subgenres (doom metal, grind-core, death metal, etc) and funk-metal - Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against The Machine in L.A. and Primus and Faith no More in San

Francisco. Marilyn Manson was the late phenomenon that recharged the genre.

Frank Zappa (1940-1993)

Other significant events from the 1990s include the death of the American eclectic rocker Frank

Zappa of cancer at the age of 53. He composed rock, classical, electronic, and jazz music, often fusing these genres. He produced close to 60 albums with the band The Mothers of Invention.

In 1985 Zappa testified before the US Senate Commerce, Technology and Transportation committee. He condemned the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), an organization co-founded by then-Senator Al Gore’s wife Tipper Gore created to deal with the subject of objectionable song lyrics (curse words, sexual or satanic content) and proposing voluntary labeling of records. Zappa saw their actions as leading towards censorship. Below is the prepared statement

he read for the Senate:

The PMRC proposal is an ill-conceived

piece of nonsense which fails to deliver any real benefits to children, infringes the civil

liberties of people who are not children, and promises to keep the courts busy for years

dealing with the interpretational and enforcement problems inherent in the

proposal's design. It is my understanding that, in law, First Amendment issues are

decided with a preference for the least restrictive alternative. In this context, the

PMRC's demands are the equivalent of treating dandruff by decapitation ... The

establishment of a rating system, voluntary or otherwise, opens the door to an endless parade of moral quality control programs based on

things certain Christians do not like. What if the next bunch of Washington wives demands a large

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yellow "J" on all material written or performed by Jews, in order to save helpless children from

exposure to concealed Zionist doctrine?

The Beatles Anthology

In 1995 the Beatles released their Anthology; a documentary film, three albums and a book about the history of the Beatles told in their own words. In included never before heard songs and outtakes from their career as well as two “new” songs that were finished by Paul, George, and Ringo from a song recorded on demo tape by John Lennon in 1977 (Free as a Bird) and 1979 (Real Love).

Paul and George during the Anthology Sessions

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World Music and Electronic/Digital Music

The interest in World Music by western artists that had started in 1980s (Peter Gabriel) continued through the 1990s but with much greater integration. New instruments have always motivated musical innovation; the limitations and capabilities of an instrument determine, to a large extent, the type of music composed. For example, take the tape loops that bands like the Beatles (Revolution #9, Tomorrow Never Knows) and Pink Floyd (Opening of Money) used; the nature of the tape loops (continuously going round and round on the tape recorder) is repetition and thus ‘repetition’ in turn became part of a style. The same principle applies to any instrument, from the Harp playing glissandos to the synthesizer sequencer playing ‘beats’.

The new electronic medium also liberated the musician from the burden of finding a "band" and a "producer" before being able to deliver his or her music to the audience.

Mediocrity Blossoms - Even a monkey can press a button

The boom of independent music had changed the dynamics of the music industry. At about the same time, the CD (cheap to manufacture) replaced the vinyl album (expensive to manufacture). Shortly thereafter, the Internet allowed musicians to directly distribute their music, thus bypassing

the selection of the old-fashioned "record label".

Unfortunately, the combined effects of these phenomena resulted in a boom of mediocrity. Among independent/avantgarde musicians, it became commonplace to release just about anything they recorded or just thought of recording, without any accountability or competition. Only a few

minutes of the hours of recording that they released were truly indispensable.

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The album becomes obsolete

On the other hand, it was unfair to compare the quality of the "albums" released during the vinyl era (when making and distributing an album was an expensive process) with the quality of the "albums" released during the CD era (when making and distributing an album had become a cheap process). Ultimately, the "album" was rapidly becoming an obsolete concept.

The 1990s saw the apex and the downfall of the music industry. In 1979 Sony and Philips had invented the compact disc (CD), a digital storage for music, and the same year Sony had launched the "Walkman" portable stereo. In 1981 MTV debuted on cable tv. During the 1980s these innovations spread and redesigned the way music was marketed and sold. As the new paradigm took hold, the music industry seemed to enjoy its best time ever. In 1996 Mariah Carey's One Sweet Day topped the U.S. charts for an unprecedented 16 weeks, breaking all the Presley and Beatles records. In 1997 Elton John's Candle in the Wind became the best-selling song of all times, overtaking Bing Crosby's White Christmas. In 1999 'N Sync set the new record of sales in the first

week of a new release (2.4 million copies)

In 1999 the world's music market was worth 38 billion dollars. The music world was ruled by five "majors" (Universal, Warner, Sony, EMI, BMG) that controlled 95% of all albums sold in the world, and 84% of the 755 million albums sold in the USA. The USA accounted for 37% of world sales, Japan for 16.7%, Britain for 7.6%, Germany for 7.4%, France for 5.2%, Canada for 2.3%, Australia for 1.7%, Brazil for 1.6%, Holland for 1.5%, Italy for 1.4%. Basically, the compact disc had helped the music industry to multiply its revenues. However, the tide would soon change in

mammoth proportions.

In 1999 the online file sharing system Napster was introduced by Shawn Fanning. It would lead the way in turning the music industry on its head.

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Discussion Assignments for Class Projects

Discussion Format and Topic Assignment

To enhance and diversify the discussions, each student will be assigned one of the three topics. The topic designation will be determined by the first letter the student’s last name.

For example, if your last name is Jones, your topic will be Topic 2, which covers all last names

that start with the letters I through P.

Last names starting with the letters A-H Topic 1

Last names starting with the letters I-P Topic 2

Last names starting with the letters Q-Z Topic 3

Topics for Discussion 5

Topic 1:

Do you agree or disagree with the labeling of records that contain explicit lyrics? Do you think that any form of censorship is always a bad and dangerous thing?

Topic 2:

The compact disk seems to be destined to the same fate of the vinyl record: almost complete extinction. Will the world’s technology become completely wireless/virtual? If so, based on what we have seen in the 1990s and 2000s, what consequences will this have on the quality of music?

Topic 3:

How do you see music developing in the coming decade of the 2020s? Your answer should

include musical, sociological, as well as media and performance aspects.

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Oxford University Press. Ennis, Philip H. 1992. The Seventh Stream: The Emergence of Rock’n’roll in American Popular Music. Wesleyan University Press. Frith, Simon. 1996. Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Lankford Jr, Ronald D. 2009. Women Singer-Songwriters in Rock: A Populist Rebellion in the 1990s. Scarecrow Press. Macdonald, Ian. 2005. Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties. Chicago Review Press. Sarig, Roni. 1998. The Secret History of Rock: The Most Influential Bands You’ve Never Heard. New York: Billboard Books. Stuessy, Joe, and Scott David Lipscomb. 2013. Rock and Roll: Its History and Stylistic Development. Pearson. Walser, Robert. 2014. Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal

Music. 2014 ed. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press. Whiteley, Sheila. 2003. The Space Between the Notes: Rock and the Counterculture. Routledge.