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Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison was an inventor and business man. He is best known for creating electric power devices, mass communication, sound recording and motion pictures. Thomas Edison is very important to music because he created the phonograph, which is a device used for playing music. -
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Reconstruction Period
The reconstruction period was a time following the civil war. After the civil war, hundreds of freed slaves began to travel through the South and look for new jobs. They had nothing, and no job skills. When the Reconstruction ended, life became very different after Jim Crowe laws were introduced. This started a new era of freed slaves singing on street corners, work camps and juke bars for very little money and food. -
Phonograph
The phonograph is a device created for mechanical recording and reproduction of sound. It was used for recording messages and music. The receiver is made out of a tinfoil covered cylinder, and a thin membrane called a diaphragm. A wheel is turned, as someone speaks or sings into a horn while the needle carves grooves into the tinfoil. -
The Blues
The Blues is a uniquely American American form of music. It was born in the Southern-Middle states between the years of 1800s and 1900s. The Blues evolved from shouts and field hollers sung by working slaves in plantation fields and camps. These songs were parts of everyday lives in Africa. In America though, the world began to change. Working songs evolved from the fields to the stage known as The Blues. -
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The First Blues Singers
Country Blues: The first blues singers were W.C. Handy,(Father of the Blues,)and Leadbelly. They were usually solo male singers accompanied by a acoustic guitar.
Classic Blues: Bessie Smith, Mamie Smith, and Ethel Waters are some of the most popular classic blues singers. The songs were sung by females with smaller backup groups.
Urban (Chicago) Blues: Muddy Waters(McKinley Morgan Field)was one of the most popular singers during this era. This era is known for going electric for the first time. -
Ralph Peer
Ralph Peer was a talent scout and music publisher in the 1920s and 30s. Peer founded cowboy music in June of 1923 when he took recording technology to the South, to record regional music outside of the recording studio. During and after World War ll, peer published songs such as "You Are My Sunshine," and "Deep In The Heart Of Texas." In the 1950s, Peer then strated publishing rock n roll music. -
Traditional Rural Music
Traditional rural music evolved in America from the folk music brought to the New World by British immigrants. The region of Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia were the most popular areas for this type of music tradition. By the earliest twentieth century, city dwellers began to call the folk music "hillbilly music." The folk tradition music included lyrics that told stories about love and work songs. Unlike African work songs, these songs were came in forms of sea chanteys. -
Recording Technology
Before 1925, records were made using the acoustical process. The acoustical process is when a group of singers and band gather in front of a horn, which captures the sound the musicians produce. The sound was then transferred onto a wax disc, where a stylus cut grooves into the disc. Unfortunately, records made using this process sounded tinny due to the poor frequency response of technology. In 1925, the electrical process was introduced where microphones were introduced to convert the sound. -
Grand Ole Opry
Grand Ole Opry is a country music stage located in Nashville, Tennessee. Before radios were available all over the country, live music was recorded and played live on the radio station WSM so you could hear live music weekly. It was a one hour radio station that played "barn dance" music, founded in November of 1925 by George D. Hay. Nashville is now known as the "Hub of Country Music" because of the Grand Ole Opry. -
First Pop Singers
First Important Pop Singers: Al Johnson, became Broadway's biggest star in the 1900s. In 1927, Johnson starred in the first successful talking picture, "The Jazz Singer."
Bing Crosby: Bing Crosby became the most influential singer with his laid back personality. In 1926, Crosby started making records with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. -
Gospel
Gospel music emerged from the style of spirituals that had been a part of black religious culture.The man who commercialized gospel music was Thomas A Dorsey,who is known as the Father of Gospel music.Before he started playing religious music,Dorsey was a part of the Hokum Brothers, their hit single being"It's Tight Like That."Their songs contained lewd humorous lyrics and had styles similar to songs by Chuck Berry and Little Richard.Other gospel stars include Mahalia Jackson, and Rosetta Tharpe -
Doo-Wop
Doo-Wop was the most popular black music in the 1950s. It goes back to the 1930s, and the popularity of male gospel music. The Mills Brothers (four brothers from Ohio,) created a tightly woven cross between jazz and barbershop vocal harmonies with only a guitar. The Ink Spots were also influential to Doo-Wop, featuring lead vocalist Bill Kenny, who sang melismatically, with gospel inspired tenor vocals. These groups were incredibly popular in the 1930s-1940s. -
Cowboy Music
Cowboy music is usually the types of music you would hear in cowboy movies. People of note for cowboy music are Jimmie Rodgers (Father of Country Music,) Roy Rodgers, and Gene Autry. Gene Autry was known as the singing cowboy. He would walk in to bars where he would play on a horse, and he would make the horse do tricks while he was singing. Songs of note are "Waiting for a train" By Jimmie Rodgers, and "Don't Fence Me In" by Gene Autry. -
Western Swing
Western Swing was a type of music in the 1930s that was inspired by jazz rhythms and instruments. People of note for western swing are Bob Willis, who was widely known as the King of Western Swing. Popular songs by Bob Willis are, "New San Antonio Rose," and "Faded Love." -
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The Swing Era
During this era, "big band jazz," or swing music, became the most popular form of pop music. Swing music is known as music that made people want to dance. Swing music helped people get through the Great Depression. It started dozens of dance fads such as the Jitterbug, Lindy Hop and the Rumba. The first star of the swing era was Benny Goodman. His fame started at the Palomar Ballroom in Santa Cruz, California. Many teens showed up that night with their friends to dance and listen to music. -
Rhythm and Blues
When the blues went electric, the music began to speed up and become more dance able. The style was developed in the 1940s, out of jazz and blues roots. As the swing era came to a close in 1946, boogie-woogie bass and tenor sax solos opened. Lionel Hampton had one of the first R&B hits in 1942 with "Flying Home." Wynonie Harris had the biggest R&B hit of 1947 with "Good Rocking Tonight." Elvis Presley later on covered the song. Joe Turner's 1954 hit "Shake, Rattle and Roll," was also covered. -
Bluegrass
The banjo was the biggest instrument used when playing Bluegrass music. The most important person of note was Earl Scruggs, who was known as the "Banjo Wizard." He was also known for creating the three finger banjo picking style, now known as "Scruggs Style." His three finger banjo picking was played many different ways on a five string banjo. Songs of note are "Foggy Mountain Breakdown." -
Honky Tonk
This is one of the first country genres when the electric guitar was played. Honky Tonk was played in bars, roadhouses, and truck stops, so when truck drivers would stop they would have something to listen to. People of note are Ernest Tubb and Hank Williams. Hank Williams was one of the most influential American singer and song writer in the 20th century. Songs of note for Honky Tonk are "Hey Good Lookin," and "Lovesick Blues." -
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Post-War music
The pop music business was transitioning. These were the calmer years, before the music industry became a storm. Race music (Rhythm and blues) and Hillbilly music (Country) became more popular as the years went on. More popular labels started to ignore these styles of music. Many white people started to cover music that was written by black people, (Pat Boone, who was a tool.) Covers of R&B music were effective for a while, until teens decided they wanted the original, and demanded for them. -
Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra is known as the first pop singer to create a unique image. Being influenced by jazz singers like Billy Holiday, Sinatra began to interpret songs in his own new way. Sinatra became a solo artist in the 1950s after leaving the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. His tough guy image made him look dangerous, but also likable at the same time. Playing music in the Rock and Roll genre at first, Sinatra's macho man image became an image for other rock stars to follow.
