Chapter 7:

Early American songs	During the mid-nineteenth century, American popular music took on a more diverse character. Songs influenced by British music and European opera continued, but others began developing a distinctively American character. Henry Russell because an influential songwriter in America. He was able to infuse his songs with an American spirit that helped shape popular songwriting. He influenced the greatest nineteenth-century composer of American songs, Stephen Foster. No composer created so many songs that became a shared experience for so many Americans as Stephen Foster. His works included minstrel songs and plantation songs. Many of his songs have become so identified with American culture that they are now a part of the American folk song tradition.



Lyrics	The words to a popular song. The person who writes the lyrics is a lyricist.



Minstrel show	A variety show, popular in the nineteenth century, that included songs, dances, and comical skits. Lively, syncopated minstrel songs formed the nucleus of the minstrel show. A product of the merging of rural American folk traditions with urban, composed music, the minstrel song can be considered the first distinctively American musical\genre.



The nature of popular music	Twentieth-century American popular music includes many genres and styles derived from a merging of European and African musical traditions. It was influenced by a dramatic expansion of the music industry with the advent of recordings, radio, and later television. The roots of today’s popular music go back to the second half of the nineteenth century with songs from minstrel shows, followed, in the early part of the twentieth century, by Tin Pan Alley songs, ragtime, blues, and songs from vaudeville, Broadway musicals and film.



Styles and genres	The 1890s through the 1950s was the greatest period of songwriting in the history of American popular music: these were the years of the Tin Pan Alley tradition. From Tin Pan Alley have come our pop tunes and standards. They include sentimental love songs, syncopated songs and dance tunes, Latin American music, nonsense songs, and show tunes. Vaudeville, a type of variety show, was centered in New York City and replaced the minstrel show in popularity. These variety shows were known at different times as follies, scandals, or vanities. Musicals were created by songwriters such as Kern, Gershwin, Porter, and Berlin. The Jazz Singer, the first commercial movie with a synchronized sound track, was made in 1927. In the decade that followed, composers, arrangers, singers, dancers, and producers headed for Hollywood. Hillbilly music was a product of the rural South. However, in the second quarter of the twentieth century, hillbilly records were sold widely. Western music is an extension of hillbilly. Nashville sound was an era in which the music changed. They were more inclined toward popular music than hillbilly music. With the commercialization and the addition of the Hawaiian steel guitar and electronic instruments, bluegrass continued in the style of the old-time songs and dances. This is mountain music that originally was the music of Appalachian ethnic groups and is now an internationally popular style of country music.



Tin Pan Alley	A period of popular song writing that began in the 1890s and whose most productive years were in the 1920s and 1930s. Many of America’s most beloved songs-the standards-are part of the Tin Pan Alley tradition. Also, Tin Pan Alley symbolized that part of the music industry devoted to the sale of popular songs. The name is derived from the street in New York City where virtually every publisher of popular music was located in the early part of the twentieth century.



Musicals-stage and film	The musical is a unified piece with dramatic flow: a musical play. Musicals were created by songwriters such as Kern, Gershwin, Porter, and Berlin. The best musicals have been produced on Broadway. The first important composer of Broadway musicals was George M. Cohan. The tradition of the Broadway musical continues in the music and lyrics of Stephen Sondheim.



Radio and recordings	Two media-network radio and the production and national marketing, advertising, and sales of recordings-changed the face of the music industry. They created hit songs, determined what songs earned a profit for the creators and producers, and developed a way to report hits. To a large extent, the media determined who would be the starts of popular song, what songs Americans would listen to, and, in effect, what their tastes in popular music would be. The first radio station was established in Pittsburgh in 1920, the first commercial sponsorship came in 1922, and the first radio network came in 1926. By 1929, 40 percent of American families owned a radio. Radio became a powerful medium for selling popular music. Network radio in the 1920s exposed people in the rural South and southwest to the urban music of the northeast.



Standard	A song that has sustained popularity through decades and generations, transcending changing styles and tastes.



Country music	The music includes hillbilly music, string band music, and other old-time country songs; western swing, honky tonk, and cowboy songs; bluegrass; and the “Nashville sound.” Blue grass is the only contemporary medium in which traditional southern rural folk music can survive in our modern urban society. It seems that hillbilly, made more accessible to a larger audience through the Nashville Sound, has moved farther away from its roots. Recent crossover styles, commonly known as pop country and country rock, are dominating the market.



African American influences	Black music, in one sense, is music performed by black Americans and is intended primarily for black audiences. It includes gospel, R&B, soul, Motown, and rap.



Contemporary popular music	Today, contemporary pop includes Garth Brooks, Britney Spears, and Sting. Rhythm and blues and soul are genres that have taken on new meanings. One need only look at the current Grammy or Billboard categories to sense the considerable overlap of styles and labels. Rap and hip-hop seem to be used interchangeably. Rap has entered the mainstream of American music. Gospel and Christian music are current genres of commercial, popular music that are intended for both inspiration and entertainment but not normally for worship. New age music combines elements of jazz, classical, popular, or rock styles. World music, international, and ethnic styles have become important in American popular culture.



Chart	A weekly record of sales of songs in a variety of categories, such as rock, jazz, rhythm and blues, and country. It is used to measure a song’s popularity. The most widely used charts are produced by Billboard. Also, the written or printed arrangement of a popular song or a jazz tune for an ensemble, such as a rock group, studio orchestra, or a jazz band.

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