What is considered the most important decade for Rock and Roll?
- the 1960s – and why is that?
This Note is About the 60s and why they are so important in rock history
1. The Rise of Black Music
a) - one of the first kinds of black music that begins to generate action in the 60s is called Chicago blues
-the record label that was associated this was called CHESS Records – performers who were doing this were Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and a bunch of others
- also known as electric blues – why? A KEY instrument
- electric guitar
- this music is not so popular in the US with white people, but weirdly it becomes really popular in another country – ENGLAND
- there was a weird trend in England of listening to this music and trying to play it combining it with a strange folk music called skiffle
- a number of British bands came out trying to mix this all up.
- a lot of bands tried to sound like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley
b) The Next kind of Black Music in This List
- Motown Records
- a record company run by black people and selling records to white AND black audiences
- Berry Gordie Jr. had a genius idea to take young kids from the streets and train them up in a kind of pop music that would SELL
- these kids were trained to sing, dress, dance, be polite, and do what they were told to get white audience ready
- he had a band that did all their albums and he had pro writers who wrote most of their songs – the kids were just performers
- it was a complete BUSINESS
- he wanted to make MONEY
- he made black music that white kids and their families would think was safe and NICE
eg The Jackson Five
- everything was DESIGNED and that made black people and “cool” people a little less interested – and was planned for teenie boppers
c) What were the black folks into then?
- a very interesting type of music that came up from something called SOUL
- Ray Charles started this kind of gospel dance R&B but then a young guy got hold of it and tore it up
- James Brown and he is the Godfather of Soul – he invented the kind of music that influenced ALL modern black music – it was called FUNK and it was awesome
- all the instruments played rhythm – they all played the drums – the rhythm was called “The One”
- the bass plays almost a melody and thumps and plucks and slaps and clicks
- this is the music that black folks grow up with – and in the 70s it becomes white peoples’ music as well
What was the COOL kid listening to in the early 60s?
- a lot of the coolest kids were listening to folk music because it was honest and real and the rock music of the time was phony
- a strange little man showed up in New York and he was playing folk music and he became a HUGE star – his lyrics were the most influential in rock history
- his lyrics were advanced and powerful and about meaningful things and people realized that they had to write good lyrics as well
THEN EVERYTHING CHANGED
THE BEATLES
- nobody hates The Beatles, they only hate themselves and blame the Beatles
- a couple of school kids in England get together and start playing Chuck Berry music – their names are John Lennon and Paul McCartney
- they sounded good and played live A LOT
- they added two other guys George Harrison and Ringo Starr and they tried to get a label deal, but they sucked, so they were told
- then a guy named George Martin challenged them to write a hit and they wrote a song that changd their lives
- it was – I Want to Hold Your Hand
- it became a SMASH and for a couple of reasons, the Beatles get MASSIVE success
- 1. They are charming and charismatic. – people liked them without knowing why – they had some kind of X factor
- 2. Girls love nice harmonies and melodies – song is catchy
- 3. Song can be danced to – fast backbeat, simple and repetitive
- 4. It was influenced by both folk AND R&B
- 5. Devin Scully is just wrong –they had a ton of catchy, fun awesome songs
Somehow these guys cornered a new kind of market and captured a way of performing and singing and playing and doing everything that just NAILED (no!) their target audience – TEENAGE GIRLS
Part of their secret – was combining weird bits of other bands, music styles and trends and finding new things in those old styles
Another part – they were just a bit rebellious (hair was long, suits were kind of mod, they were cheeky, cute, etc)
BUT – they hated their shows
SO – they go into the studio and start experimenting
They start working on new kinds of music influenced by Bob Dylan (lyrics and his acoustic folk) and something else (POT!)
They came up with some really interesting new sounds and they explored using multi-track tricks in the studio
They came up with songs that NOBODY else was doing – totally original, very advanced techniques, influenced everyone else
They’re not a pop band anymore – they’re all new, all cool, all interesting
They become the coolest band in the world with some of the most important songs ever written in pop
There Were Other Key Bands
One in particular
The Rolling Stones – the first hard rock band
- they were the bad boys to the Beatles’ good boy image
- led by Mick Jagger (vocals) and Keith Richards (guitar)
- Jagger was one of the inventors of the modern rock singer – sexy, arrogant, showy, flashy, danced in a saucy way, was a real ladykiller
- Richards was a riff machine – came up with some of the key guitar riffs of all rock, plus he was the laid back, super cool guitar god, and he was also one of the first functioning drug addicts of rock who made it all the way
- They have what some call the first hard rock riff and song – Satisfaction – Keith Richards dreamed that riff, woke up, recorded it and fell back asleep
- In the morning, he had no memory of recording it – fits the old “music that came from the devil” storyline
- They were a blues band at first, but after Satisfaction, they were a rock and roll band
- They started a whole trend of their own that is cool because it leads to METAL and all hard rock
- The line goes from them to:
- Grateful Dead - Skull Captain
- Jimi Hendrix -Robina and Jenna and JLC - Horde VS Alliance
- Led Zepplin - Poppin Fresh and Jabbot
- Black Sabbath - The Gard Dog
- Alice Cooper Mat LoneWolf
- Kiss - Megalon and Dash BrickBrook and K-Dot
- ACDC- Myles and Brandon and Spencer - Cliffie B
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- looking for - more than the obvious, reviews from the group, interesting facts, visuals and video in the blog, looking for something deeper and more meaningful
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