Rock and Roll
1950s

Gospel and the Birth of
Soul
Fusion of West African musical traditions
 The experience of slavery
 Christian practices
 Life in the American South
 The Great Migration transported thousands of African
Americans from the South to Northern cities
 Gospel’s profound influence on secular music
 We listened to this earlier in the semester with Sam Cooke’s
“Loveable and “Wonderful”
 Gospel’s rich vocal harmonies such as the Jordanaires
and the Golden Gate Quartet
 Influenced Girl Groups of the late 50s and early 60s to
Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Elvis, etc.
Basic Elements of Gospel
 Call-and-response
 Complex rhythms
 Group singing
 Rhythmic instrumentation
 Other musical genres took elements of Gospel to
create new sounds
Listening and Analyzing

Southern Tones, “It Must Be Jesus” (1954)

What is the central message of the song? Who is the key figure?

Ray Charles, “I Got a Woman” (1954)

Identify the key figure mentioned

Does it remind you of any song you have heard on the radio?

Kanye West’s, “Gold Digger”

How are these songs similar, dissimilar, what has changed?

How has the central figure changed?

How is the overall meaning different?

What does sampling Ray Charles’s song do to West’s song?
Song Comparisons
 “Wonderful” Sam Cooke (1959)
 Elvis Presley with the Jordanaires, “Too Much”
 Sister Rosetta Tharpe, “Didn’t It Rain” and
 Little Richard, “Tutti Frutti” (1957)
Song Analysis
 Songs are like portals that help you to see the world:
social, cultural, political
 Personal emotional response to music
 Questions of Ethnomusicology: song structure,
instrumentation, etc.
Frameworks to
understanding
 Listening and analysis: Questions of Ethnomusicology
 Timeline: placing song in historical context
 Rock and Roll as a visual culture
 Rock and Roll as Performance
 Rock and Roll as a literary form
 The music industry and technology associated with
Rock and Roll
Chuck Berry
 “Johnny B. Good”
 Instrumentation, Mood, Production, Tempo, Lyrics,
Sounds like
 Class Discussion using Questions of Ethnomusicology
 iPad Chuck Berry
Timeline
 Billboard Chart from Wk 22 1958
 Buddy Holly, “Rave On”
 Sheb Wooley, “The Purple People Eater”
 Wanda Jackson
 National Guard called into Central HS in Little Rock,
Arkansas, 1957
 American Bandstand, joins ABC
 Disneyland opens 1955
 Pre-Civil Rights era
 Berry was an African-American performer whose
audience was significantly white
 American Bandstand on ABC in 1957 brought the
artists to a wider audience
 Record labels such as Chess records in Chicago: Blues
and R&B helped bring difference races together
through music
Visual side of Rock and
Roll
 Elvis
 Beatles
 Lady Gaga
 Fashion, photographic and cinematic presentation
 Berry was being pitched to a teenage audience
 African-American representation in film, theatre and
radio
Performance
 The artist
 The stage set
 Choreography
 Lighting
 Venue
 Fans
 Culture of the music being presented
Rock&Roll as a Literary
Form
 Songwriting
 Narrative
 Storytelling
 Identify five images that seem key to propelling the
story it contains
Technology and
Rock&Roll
 How the music is delivered: record, radio, TV, iPod,
etc.
 Multi-track recording
 Chess Records: Chicago Phil and Leonard Chess
Independent record label
 Major labels of the time: sun Imperial, Atlantic, King
Billboard Charts
 Dates back to 1936
 Tracks Best Sellers in Stores
 Most Played by Jockeys
 Most Played in Jukeboxes
Buddy Holly
 Born in Lubbock, Texas in 1936
 Called the, “single most influential creative force in
early rock and roll”
 Inspired the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan,
Elvis Costello, among many others
 Incorporated rockabilly in his music
 Formed the band The Crickets
 Signed to Decca records
The Day the Music Died
 February 3, 1959 Buddy Holly was killed in a plane
crash along with Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big
Bopper” Richardson
 Referenced in the song, “American Pie” by Don
McLean