The Nineteen Twenties, Thirties, and Forties

i. The 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s were shaped by the end of World War I, the stock

market crash of 1929, and World War II.

ii. Following the horrors of World War I, the 1920s, dubbed the Jazz Age, were

characterized by simultaneous fear and relief.

iii. The stock market crash of 1929 brought an end to the excitement and freedom of

the decade and sent the economy into turmoil.

iv. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected in 1932 and promised Americans a “New

Deal” to help them get back to work.

v. Just as the Depression was beginning to ease in the United States, Hitler came to

power in Germany, and World War II began; the United States joined the fighting

after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941.

vi. After World War II, a sense of optimism returned; more Americans attended

college, and the birth rate increased.

Chapter 1: The World before Rock and Roll

I. Introduction

i. Elvis Presley’s appearance on Ed Sullivan’s Toast of the Town in 1956 was

controversial.

ii. Elvis’s appearance illustrates what conditions were in place that allowed rock and

roll to develop and saturate American culture.

iii. This chapter will examine the history and development of technologies and

musical styles that helped rock and roll to emerge as it did.

i. National Versus Regional

a. Until the advent of motion pictures and radio, most American culture was

regional; people knew mainly the music they could perform themselves or

hear performed in person.

b. Radio technology, developed in the late nineteenth century, was initially

used for military and maritime communications; in the 1920s, commercial

broadcasts began, and stations were linked into national networks.

c. The programming of radio networks created a national audience for

mainstream pop, whereas country and western and rhythm and blues were not

widely heard on the radio and therefore remained regional styles.

ii. The Rise of the Radio Networks in the 1920s (How Did They Work?)

a. High-power transmitters were used by “clear channel” stations, which

could reach large regions.

b. Radio networks link stations together; early networks such as NBC’s used

phone lines.

c. Before 1945, it was considered unethical to play recorded music on the air,

and audiences expected that what they heard was being broadcast in real time.

d. Network programming included soap operas, adventure shows, comedies,

variety shows, and feeds from dance clubs.

iii. The Migration of Big Corporate Money Away from Radio to Television

a. In the 1940s, companies like the Radio Corporation of America (RCA)

began to put their resources into television, as national audiences migrated

b. Rock and roll was able to spread quickly because the national audience

could be reached through television programs, whereas radio could once again

be used to appeal to regional audiences.

III. Tin Pan Alley

i. Sheet Music Publishers and Professional Songwriters

a. The sheet music business, a second major influence on the mainstream

popular music business, was concentrated in an area of New York City known

as Tin Pan Alley.

b. Tin Pan Alley songs follow a standard formal pattern, often a sectional

verse-chorus format with an introductory verse and a chorus in AABA form.

c. Tin Pan Alley advertising aimed at selling the song itself, not specific

recordings of a song; publishing firms often marketed songs by convincing

professionals or “pluggers” to perform them.

d. Musical theater and movies were used to promote Tin Pan Alley songs,

and radio was the best way to gain exposure.

IV. The Singer Steps Forward

i. The Singers and the Big Bands

a. Radio networks, performers, and music publishers relied on one another to

succeed, leading to many behind-the-scenes negotiations.

b. During the big band era, bands played arrangements of Tin Pan Alley

songs that emphasized the instrumentalists and were suitable for dancing;

singers were used to provide variety and were not the focus.
 c. Bing Crosby is an example of a pop singer who was successful

independent of any particular band.

ii. Frank Sinatra

a. Sinatra started out performing with big bands; when he went solo, he

made the singer, not the band, the star.

b. Many former big band stars followed Sinatra’s lead at the same time

economic circumstances forced a number of big bands to break up.

iii. The Sound of Pop in the Early 1950s

a. Mainstream pop music of the early 1950s was often characterized by

wholesome lyrics and a focus on the singer.

b. In the first half of the 1950s, pop music was designed to be acceptable to a

wide range of listeners, but the sensual and emotional appeal of some singers

foreshadowed rock and roll.

c. Big publishing firms had considered rhythm and blues and country and

western music to be of limited appeal, so they were caught off guard by the

rise of these styles.

V. Regional Styles

i. “Country” Music in the Southeast in the 1930s

a. Country was mainly a regional style before 1945, found in the southeast

and Appalachia; it can be traced to folk traditions, some of which originated in

the British Isles.

ii. “Western” Music in the Southwest and California in the 1930s

a. Western music was defined in part by Hollywood portrayals of cowboys

b. Western swing was a style that put a cowboy twist on big band music.

iii. Jimmie Rodgers, the First Star of Country Music

a. Rodgers was a national star and an important figure in early country

music.

b. Rodgers was known as “The Blue Yodeler” and “The Singing Brakeman,”

images based on rustic stereotypes that seem to have been contrived for

marketing purposes.

VI. Recordings and Radio

i. Superstation Radio Broadcasts in Prime Time

a. At first, country and western radio programming was limited to local and

regional stations; the Grand Ole Opry became more widely available when

the station that carried it, WSM in Nashville, became a clear-channel station

in 1932 and NBC began broadcasting a half-hour version over its network in

1939.

b. National Barndance was a midwestern program that was carried on the

NBC network in 1933; many other barn-dance shows reached regional radio

audiences.

ii. Country Music during World War II (War Buddies)

a. During World War II, military personnel serving together overseas shared

their records, which helped disseminate country music.

iii. Nashville Becomes Country and Western Headquarters

a. After World War II, Nashville became a center for country music
 recording and publishing, due in part to the influential publishing firm Acuff-

Rose.

VII. Hank Williams, Country Music Singer-Songwriter in the Big Business of Country

and Western

i. A Short Career That Cast a Long Shadow

a. Hank Williams’s popularity as a country and western musician was

virtually unrivaled in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

b. Williams had an emotional singing style that projected sincerity.

VIII. Bluegrass, the New, Old-Time Country Music

i. Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys

a. Bluegrass developed during the post–World War II era and can be traced

to Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys.

b. Bluegrass music showcases virtuosic instrumental soloing.

c. By the early 1950s, country and western music was known nationally,

although it remained separate from mainstream pop and had a smaller market

share.

IX. Rural (Delta) and Urban Blues

i. Migration Patterns from the Rural South to the Urban North

a. In the years following World War II, rhythm and blues was popular music

played by black musicians for black audiences; most white listeners had no

familiarity with it.

b. Blues music was popular after World War I; sheet music by W. C. Handy

and recordings by black female singers such as Bessie Smith sold well.
 c. Rural blacks began to migrate to urban centers in the 1930s and 1940s,

which helped make the city of Memphis a center for black music; as blues

musicians moved into urban venues, they formed combos featuring electric

guitar, bass, piano, drums, and harmonica, a style of electric blues that came

to be centered in Chicago by the 1950s.

d. While most rhythm and blues remained outside the pop mainstream, Louis

Jordan and his Tympani Five had a series of hit singles in a style known as

“jump blues.”

ii. Regional Radio and the Black Experience in 1950s America

a. As radio adapted to the emergence of television, more commercial stations

took a regional approach to programming; beginning in 1948, black stations

began programming and advertising specifically to local black audiences.

iii. Independent Labels Target Regional Audiences

a. Independent record labels specializing in black music began to appear at

the same time as black radio stations; independent labels thrived by focusing

on local or regional markets.

b. Between 1945 and 1955, nobody expected that white listeners would hear

rhythm and blues; rhythm and blues was not a single musical style, but a

designation given to a number of styles expected to have a black audience.

X. Rhythm and Blues as a Marketing Category That Includes a Broad Range of Musical

Styles

i. The Influence of Gospel Music (Rural Southern Church Traditions)

a. Many rhythm and blues styles were indebted to gospel music, from which
 they drew sophisticated harmony singing, vocal embellishments, and call and

response between soloist and chorus.

ii. Chess Records and Chicago Electric Blues

a. Chicago’s electric blues scene developed in part due to an independent

label called Chess, opened in 1947 by Phil and Leonard Chess, two white fans

of black music; Chess recordings were known for rough-edged and emotional

vocals and a technically unsophisticated recorded sound.

iii. Atlantic and Black Pop

a. Atlantic Records, based in New York, attempted to bring rhythm and

blues to a broader audience; Atlantic’s recordings were influenced by

mainstream pop and generally focused on the singer.

iv. Doo-Wop (Urban Vocal Music)

a. Doo-Wop emerged in urban neighborhoods; it consisted of a cappella

vocal arrangements that often contained nonsense syllables.

XI. Rhythm and Blues as a “Dangerous Influence” on American (White) Youth

i. Stagger Lee and the Black Male Swagger

a. White teenagers were increasingly drawn to rhythm and blues in the

1950s, which concerned some parents; the Stagger Lee myth was a racial

stereotype of black men that underpinned some of these fears and

misunderstandings.

ii. Hokum Blues and Fun with Double Meanings

a. “Hokum blues” was a musical tradition in black culture that played on

sexual double entendres.

hokum blues; when the song was covered by the all-white band Bill Haley and

His Comets, the lyrics were adapted to be more acceptable to white audiences.

c. Haley’s “Shake, Rattle and Roll” also adapted the rhythmic feel to give

more of an impression of good, clean fun.

d. As with country and western, the market for rhythm and blues was distinct

from the mainstream pop market, and the music business in 1955 remained

segregated.