Music in USA

Music is the Universal

Language of Mankind.

Longfellow

Music in our life

Music is a combination of many sounds. They are short and long, weak and strong. Music reflects people's mood and emotions. Music can relax, treat and cure, inspire, provoke our deepest emotions and fill our hearts with kindness, joy and happiness. Having powerful emotional effect, music during history of mankind plays a huge social, cultural and educational role.

The basic of music is the tune. According to the way of performance music is divided into 2 main branches: instrumental and vocal. There are a great number of different styles of music, such as Jazz, Pop, Rock, Classic; and new musical directions. One of the new music directions is Rave.

Nowadays the number of music styles is growing, and every young people, which are fond of music can easily choose that style which appeals to them.

American music appeared as a result of the combination of different music traditions brought by immigrants from various countries. For European American music means rock, jazz, blues. At present American pop music is an essential part of show business. It strongly influenses the music life of the world.

 

 

Radios, Records, and Movies

By the 1920s and 30s new discoveries were changing the world of music. Now people could hear music on records or radios or at the movies.

By the 1930s there were big record players called juke boxes in bars, drug stores and cafes. These machines were modern with bright metal coloured lights. To play the juke, you put money into the machine, chose a song and pushed a button. The juke box then played your favourite music. Young people all over America listened and danced to the music played on the juke box.

Even at home people could listen to music on their new radios and records players. They listened to singers like Rudy Valee, Bing Crosby (Appendix №1), and Frank Sinatra. Many of these singers had soft, romantic voices.

After 1927 movies were no longer silent. Now musicals could be put on film and seen everywhere. Great musicals, like The Wisard of Oz with Judy Garland and Singin' in the Rain with Gene Kelly, were filmed. Busby Berkeley made movies with hunders of dancing girls. Stars like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers danced across the movie screen. Perhaps it was strange to see actors begin to sing or dance in the middle of a kiss or a conversation. But millions of people lined up to see these Hollywood musicals.

The economic situation in the United States became worse after 1929. Banks and businesses closed. Jobs and money were hard to find. People were poor and many were homeless. Live shows were expensive and mostly for the rich. Even poor people could hear and see the famous singers and actors.

 

Country and Folk Music

The people living in the Appalachian Mountains are sometimes called "hillbilies". The first settlers there came from the British Isles, and they brought their folk music with them. This music, mixed with blues, became hillbilly music.

Later, as hillbilly music became more popular, it was called country music. Country songs are often sad stories of love and broken hearts. The centre for this kind of music was Nashville, Tennessee. In the 1920s people listened to country music on the radio. The most famous Nashville radio show was the "Grand Ole Opry". This show, and country singers like Willie Nelson, are still popular today. (Appendix №2)

Not all country people were farmers. Many worked in the mines and at factories. They also loved country music and it became the music of working people.

During the 1930s America had many economic problems. Workers expressed their troubles in the folk music of the time. Folk songs are like country songs but they are more traditional and more serious. They don't just talk about love, they tell about the lives of ordinary people. Woodie Guthrie was a folk-song writer during the '30s. He travelled around the country and wrote songs about the poor people.

During the 1950s folk music became popular again. Martin Luther King wanted to improve the lives of black Americans. He led peaceful marches to change the laws in the United States. The marchers sang old folk songs, such as "We Shall Overcome". Modern folk singers, like Pete Seeger, wrote new folk songs about problems in America in the '50s.

In the 1960s many people were against the war in Vietnam. Folk singers like Bob Dylan (Appendix №3) and Joan Baez (Appendix №4) wrote anti-war songs, the Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind", and other songs about the problems of American society. Folk music continued to be the most political of all music in America.

 

 

 

Teenagers and Rock'n'Roll

The 1950s were an exiting time for music in America. The economic problems of the' 30s and the war of the'40s were over. America was riching again. A new group of people became important-American teenagers. For the first time in history young people had money to spend. They had a new way of dressing, new hair styles and new dances.

In the early '50s slow romantic songs were still popular. But teenagers wanted dance music with a good beat, and so they began to listen to R and B (rhythm and blues) on the black radio stations. A white disk jokey, Alan Freed, began to play R and B on the radio for white teenagers. He was the first person to call this music new music "rock and roll". The fist white group to make a rock and roll hit records was Bill Haley and the Comets, with "Rock Around the Clock". Rock and roll music had a strong dance beat. The musicians played electric guitars and the music was loud and fast. American teenagers loved it.

About the same time, the owner of Sun Record Company, Sam Phillips, said "If I could find a white man who had the Negro(black) sound and the Negro feel, I could make a billion dollars". He found his wish in Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll. Elvis became a new American hero and young people copied his hair style, his dress and his music.(Appendix №5)

On February 3, 1959 three famous rock and roll stars, Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Richie Valens, died in a plane crash. As a result many people thought that rock and roll music had died too. But the music of late '50s lived on. Rock and pop from the '60s to the '90 grew out of this old rock and roll. As the song says, "Rock and roll is here to stay".

 

Sixties Rock

In the 1960s the West Coast became an important centre for rock music. Los Angeles and Southern California are famous for sunshine and surfing. There, a queter kind of rock called surf rock became popular. The Beach Boys sang songs like "Surfin' USA", "California Girls" and "Fun, Fun, Fun". These songs made people dream about the good life in California.

San Francisco was a centre for young people and rock music in the late 1960s. This was the time of the Vietnam War, student protest, hippies and drugs. Hippies talked about love and peace. They wore brightly coloured clothes and had long hair. They listened to rock and folk-rock music.

Drugs were a serious problem during that period. The deaths of three young rock stars, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and the great guitar-player Jim Hendrix, were all related to drugs. (Appendix №6)

Not all of all the rock musicians came from California or the USA. That was the time of the great British rock groups like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. British rock musicians had a very important place in the rock music of the '60s in America.

Another kind of softer rock music was created by the singer-song writers about this time. Singers like Joni Mitchell and James Taylor wrote their own words and their own music. Their songs were about love and friendship, good and bad times.

In the 1960s big rock concerts were very popular. The most famous concert was Woodstock. In 1969 in New York State a million young people came together to hear the rock stars. This peaceful Woodstock concert was the most important musical event of the '60s.

 

Soul, Disco, Rap

After World War the second a large number of black people moved from the South to big industrial cities, like New York, Detroit and Philadelphia. Many black people lived in poor parts of the city, such as Harlem in New York. Musicians wrote and sang songs about life in the big cities. Life was hard, but music and dancing made in a little easier.

Popular black music had a strong beat for dancing. At first this music was called rhythm and blues. By the 1960s it was called soul.

In Detroit, a black musician named Berry Gordy started an all-black record company. It was called Motown. Motown, or motor town, is another name for Detroit where cars are made. Most of famous soul musicians, such as The Supremes, The Temptations, and The Jackson Five, recorded with Motown.

Soul music was always dance music, but in the 1970s a new type of dance music became popular-disco. Disco is a kind of soul music, often with Latin or salsa rhythms. Discos opened up all over America. At discos, the music was on records (discs), not live. Many of the disco musicians were black, like Donna Summer, but disco dancing was popular with most Americans.

In the 1980s a number of black musicians became superstars, for example, Prince, Michael Jackson, and Whitney Houston.
(Appendix №7) Some old stars, like Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin, made new hit records.

Rap is a very skilful kind of fast street talk, with a strong rhythm. It began with young black people in big cities. When rap talking is combined with music it is called rap music. Rap music became very popular in the 1980s.

 

 

 

Latin American Music

Many people in the United States came from Spanish-speaking countries. The south-western part of the United States first belonged to Spain and later to Mexico. There are many Mexican-Americans in such states as California, Texas and Arizona. Mexican folk music is a part of their culture. Mexican folk music and dance is closely related to Spanish and native American folk music. On special occasions, Mexican bands called mariachi bands play their music. The musicians wear large Mexican hats and Mexican cowboy suits with short jackets and silver decorations.

After World War Two many Spanish-speaking people came to the United States from the islands of Puerto Rico and Cuba. They settled in big cities in the East and in Florida. They brought Latin American music and instruments with them. This music is often called "salsa" (sause, in English). Like the chili sause, this music is "hot". It combines Spanish music with African drums and rhythms.
(Appendix №8)

Many popular musicians have Mexican or other Latin American backgrounds. Stars like Richie Valens and Carlos Santana have made Latin Americans music popular with all Americans.

Jazz musicians have also used Latin Americans sounds. Miles Davis, Chick Corea and many other jazz stars play music with Spanish or Latin American instruments and rhythms.

Leonard Bernstein, a classical musician, wrote the music for West Side Story. This musical is a New York story based on Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. The two lovers belong to two gangs are enemies and the show ends in a street fight. One of the gangs is Puerto Rican. Some of the songs, like "America", have a Latin or Salsa sound. They tell about the problems of young Puerto Ricans growing up in a big American city.

 

New and Old

By the 1970s rock music had become complex, with long guitar passages. It was not easy to dance to that music. Dance music was mostly disco, but many young people were bored with it. They preferred a new kind rock music. It was loud and simple, with a strong beat. This music was called Punk or New Wave. Groups, like the Ramones and the Talking Heads, became popular in the late '70s.

In the 1970s and 1980s new discoveries changed the way we listened to music. With a Walkman people could take music with them. They could listen to their favourite music on the train, in the plane, out jogging or anywhere they chose.

In 1981 a new TV station, MTV, was started.(Appendix №9) Twenty-four hours a day this station played music videos. Those videos became very popular. Soon every hit song needed a video to go with it.

1980s were a time of new trends, but more traditional rock music also continued to be important. The biggest American rock star of the '80s was Bruce "the Boss" Springsteen. He wrote songs about America and difficulties of modern life. His song "Born in the USA" was one of the most famous songs of the'80s. Heavy metal groups, with their long hair and loud music, looked and sounded a lot like the groups of twenty years before. Some musicians, like Tracy Chapman. Ment back to nonelectric instruments.

In the'80s, an in the'60s, musicians and music fans became concerned about many problems in the world. They were worried about the environment and about starving people. Videos like "USA for Africa" and concerts like "Live Aid" were made by musicians from many countries. The money from these shows was given to help solve world problems. Music brings the people of the world together, and perhaps with music we can also change the world and make it a better place.