The following questions will help you organize the information in this class. Try to think of specific examples of artists, songs, genres, dates, etc. that could be used in answering each of these questions.

*What has changed and what remains the same in the business of selling popular music between the minstrel show and the present?

*What has changed and what remains the same in the technologies of music-making between the minstrel show and the present?

*What has changed and what remains the same in the technologies of music recording and dissemination between the minstrel show and the present?

*What has changed and what remains the same in youth culture, and the way the popular music industry relates to it, between the minstrel show and the present?

*How have local and regional music cultures shaped the national "mainstream" in different eras, and visa versa?

*What has changed and what remains the same in conventions of musical form between the minstrel show and the present? What are some of the enduring formal conventions of U.S. popular music?

*Which musical instruments have been emblematic of U.S. popular music in different eras?

*What are some important differences in the way Caribbean Latinos (e.g. Puerto Ricans) have participated in U.S. popular culture, as compared to Central American Latinos (e.g. Mexicans and Chicanos)?

*What are some important changes in the way studio production influenced pop music, beginning in the late 1950s?

*What important roles have British bands played in shaping the sound and the genre categories of U.S. popular music? (think especially of rock and roll, punk, heavy metal)

Midterm 1 Study Guide:


REQUIRED LISTENING (book CDs overlap a lot with on-line listening):

Starr and Waterman CD1:1-4, 7, 9

On-line CDs:
CD1: 1-8, 10, 11, 13-16
CD2: 1-3, 7, 13, 14
CD3: 1-3, 5, 6


GENRES:
Church hymns
ballads
fiddle tunes
spirituals
minstrel show
Vaudeville
ragtime
jazz (different regions and streams)
swing
Tin Pan Alley songs (esp. in Vaudeville, theater, and movies)
blues (classic blues and country blues)
hillbilly


IMPORTANT ARTISTS
Virginia Minstrels
Stephen Foster
James Bland
Scott Joplin
W.C. Handy
Bert Williams
Al Jolson
Irving Berlin
Original Dixieland Jazz band
Bessie Smith
Louis Armstrong
Duke Ellington
Count Basie
Benny Goodman
Robert Johnson
Carter Family
Jimmie Rodgers
Ella Fitzgerald
Billie Holiday
Frank Sinatra

STUDY QUESTIONS:

*What were the early 19th century models for popular music?

*What precedents did the minstrel show set for American popular music?

*How did African Americans change both the images and the musical style of popular entertainment through their participation as performers, from the minstrel show through the jazz and blues of the 1920s? And how did the expectations of white audiences constrain them?

*What kind of moral attacks have been made on popular music over the years, and how do you explain them? How do defenders of popular culture respond?

*How did the business model of popular music evolve from the minstrel show to Vaudeville to the era of records and talking pictures in the 1920s and 1930s?

*What are the changing technologies of pop music production and distribution and how do they affect the style of pop music, and also its marketing?

*What different styles and regional traditions contributed to the sound of jazz in the 1930s?

*How does the role of the performer complement and/or compete with the role of the composer in the popular music business?

Part I
1. The first talking picture, released in the U.S. in 1927, was a story about:
a) an African American entertainer
b) a traditional minstrel show
c) a Jewish cantor’s son*
d) World War I

2. An African American bandleader who made his reputation playing for dancing instructors Irene and Vernon Castle and also directing the military band of the Hellfighters Brigade during World War I.
a) Scott Joplin
b) W.C. Handy
c) James Reese Europe*
d) Bert Williams

3. The electronic microphone was first used to improve sound recording quality in:
a) 1901
b) 1912
c) 1925*
d) 1935

4. Tin Pan Alley refers to:
a) a formulaic approach to writing popular songs
b) a neighborhood in New York City in the 1880s
c) a business strategy of the music publishing industry
d) all of the above*

5. Which of the following was discouraged by the singing school movement of the late 18th century?
a) lining out, with individualized expression*
b) singing in a homophonic texture and unified timbre
c) reading music
d) all of the above

6. The first recording that was labeled as “jazz” was made in:
a) 1898
b) 1917*
c) 1927
d) 1935


7. A musician/group whose songs reflected the values of family, home, and Christian faith?
a) the Clef Club
b) the Carter Family*
c) Jimmie Rodgers
d) Al Jolson

8. In what year did the Virginia Minstrels popularize the first show that consisted entirely of blackface performers?
a)      1821
b)      1843*
c)      1867
d)      1880

9. Which of the following musical instruments were typically played in minstrel shows?
a) banjo
b) tambourine
c) fiddle
d) all of the above*

10. A composer who died in 1864 and whose songs included minstrel show tunes like “O Susanna” and “Old Folks at Home,” as well as parlor music songs like “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair”
a) Stephen Foster*
b) Scott Joplin
c) Duke Ellington
d) Charles Harris


Part II--LISTENING
Each example will be played twice. Read the questions carefully before listening.

Example 1
11. When was this song composed?
a) 1843
b) 1892*
c) 1917
d) 1927

12. What style of dancing is this song meant for?
a) polka
b) waltz*
c) jitterbug
d) cakewalk

13. This song was an important landmark in the history of American popular song because:
a) it was the first hit song composed by an African American
b) it was the first to use the AABA form
c) it sold a million copies of its sheet music*
d) it sold a million copies of its gramophone recording


Example 2
14. Identify the form of this excerpt and the form of the entire piece from which it is taken, respectively.
a) AA, AABBACCDDEE*
b) AA, AABA
c) AB, AABBACCDDEE
d) AB, AABA

15. Who is the composer of this piece?
a) Stephen Foster
b) Scott Joplin*
c) James Reese Europe
d) Duke Ellington

16. Which of the following distinguished this type of music from previous piano styles, and generated debates among critics about the moral value of this music?
a) 12-bar blues
b) sectional form
c) syncopation*
d) all of the above

Example 3
17. This singer is most strongly associated with what genre of music?
a) country blues
b) classic blues*
c) ragtime
d) swing

18. In what way did this particular song differ from most other songs in this genre (previous question)?
a) it has more formal and harmonic variety*
b) its lyrics are about love disappointment
c) it uses the 12-bar blues chord progression
d) the accompanying instrument “answers” the singer

19. Which of the following describes the structure of this excerpt?
a) two repetitions of a 12-bar blues progression
b) one 12-bar blues progression, and then eight bars of something different*
c) AAB
d) AABA

Example 4
20. Who is this performer?
a) Louis Armstrong
b) Scott Joplin
c) Robert Johnson
d) Jimmie Rodgers*

21. Which of the following do you hear in this excerpt?
a) Hawaiian steel guitar
b) yodelling
c) New Orleans style jazz polyphony
d) all of the above*

22. In what year did this singer make his first commercial recording?
a) 1916
b) 1920
c) 1927*
d) 1935

Example 5
23. Whose band is this?
a) Duke Ellington
b) Scott Joplin
c) Irving Berlin
d) Count Basie*

24. This band’s sound was distinguished from other regional styles of jazz by:
a) marching band instrumentation
b) more elaborate written arrangements
c) its “jungle music” sound, developed for exotic floor shows
d) extensive use of riffs*

25. Which of the following best describes the form of this music?
a) 12-bar blues*
b) AABA
c) verse and chorus
d) call and response


Bonus question:
26. The leader of the band whose 1930 hit, “Manicero,” created an interest in rumba:
a) Xavier Cougat
b) Don Aspiazu*
c) Carlos Santana
d) Jose Feliciano

Your score is listed next to the last four digits of your student ID number.


Last4   Scr1   Scr2   Scr3   Paper
0002      23      24      33     
0007      18                 
0248      19      21      23      12
0440      16      25      37      12
0483      20      20      38      15
0677      26      26      36      14
0736      19      18      38      15
0764      16      20      27      15
0772      22      26      37      14
0833      24      27      36     
0861      16      21      19      12
1184      15      25      35      14
1240      14                 
1273      18      19      25      14
1277      22      24      31      15
1300      23      27      37      15
1467      24      23      32      13
1675      22      26      33      15
1677      25      28      36      14
1720      17      25      36     
1950      22      27      36      12
2308      23      25      35      12
2391      25      27      31      5
2596      16      18      28      13
2629      22      24      26      15
2902      14      16      17      15
3001      17                 
3063      18      26      36      13
3140      25      25      36      13
3271      21      23      35     
3999      22      23      36      11
4050      20      19      27      14
4539      23      25      34      12
4836      22      25      33      13
5484            24      26      12
5539      26      23            15
5984      24      26      34      11
6180      17      16            14
6565      22      21      34      13
6612      22      24      33      7
6827      17      24      35      15
6857      15      23      34      13
6977      15      20      25      13
7074      21      22      33      15
7110      23      26      34      7
7132      9      20      30      15
7259      18      25      32      15
7378            23      21     
7569      20      23      36      14
8074      19      26      35      14
8473      23      25      32      15
9154      26      20      35      14
9160      14      18      29      14
9654      16      22      31      15

Midterm 2 Study Guide:


REQUIRED LISTENING (book CDs overlap a lot with on-line listening):

Starr and Waterman CD1:15-19, CD2: 1-4, 6-9, 11, 13-16

On-line CDs:
CD1: 10
CD2: 16
CD3: 5, 6, 8, 10-12
CD4: 1, 3-7, 9-12, 16
CD5: 5-7, 10,11
CD6: 1, 7, 10
CD7: 1,3, 5-8, 10-12
CD12: 1-4, 6,7, 10-12


GENRES:
Rumba
Son
Mambo
Cha cha cha
Salsa
Boogaloo
Latin Soul
Western swing
Honky Tonk (Country and Western)
Rhythm and Blues
Jump bands
Rock and Roll
Doo wop
Psychedelic rock
Motown
Soul
Latin Rock
Urban folk music
Folk rock

IMPORTANT ARTISTS:
Machito
Tito Puente
Louis Jordan
Hank Williams
Muddy Waters
Ruth Brown
Ray Charles
Fats Domino
Little Richard
Bill Haley
Elvis Presley
Chuck Berry
Buddy Holly
Ritchie Valens
Woodie Guthrie
Pete Seeger
Bob Dylan
Beatles
Beach Boys
Aretha Franklin
James Brown
Temptations
Supremes
Jackson Five
Jefferson Airplane
Grateful Dead
Janis Joplin
Merle Haggard
Jimi Hendrix
Eric Clapton
Led Zeppelin
Santana
Cannibal and the Headhunters
Joe Cuba
Eddie Palmieri
Willie Colón
Ruben Blades


STUDY QUESTIONS:

What are some of the cultural and historical differences between different Latino communities in the U.S.?

What genres of "Latin" music have been especially influential and recognized in the U.S. mainstream?

What are some of the ways that Latino musicians and communities in New York have shaped Latin music?

What are the "western" and honky tonk influences in Country and Western in the 1940s and 1950s?

Why did so many independent record companies arise after World War II, and how did they influence the development of U.S. popular music?

What connections can you make between developments in recording and broadcasting and changes in U.S. pop music culture between the 1940s and the 1960s?

What connections can you draw between politics and social change and pop music genres of the 1950s and 1960s such as rock and roll, country & western, soul music, urban folk music?

How did the cover version phenomenon of the 1950s reveal problems of both racism and copyright law?

What relationships can you explain between R&B and African American church music?

Why do you think the Beatles had such a huge impact on American popular music in the 1960s?

What are are some of the tensions that arose as folk musicians moved into the popular music realm in the 1960s?

How innovations in the 1950s and 1960s (in recording and broadcast technology, studio production, song-writing, and performance) create alternatives to the Tin Pan Alley model of pop music business?

How have the English and U.S. pop music scenes influenced one another?

How were the values of the "counter-culture" reflected in the music of the 1960s? How above the values of the civil rights movement?

How did salsa music speak to the political and cultural concerns of Latinos, especially Puerto Ricans?

Part I
1. A New York-born bandleader who played regularly at the Palladium ballroom in the 1950s and helped create the New York style of mambo:
a) Frankie Garcia
b) Willie Colón
c) Benny Goodman
d) Tito Puente*

2. A musician from Georgia who got his professional start in Seattle, made his first recordings with Atlantic records in the 1950s, and created controversy by using elements of gospel music in his pop songs:
a) James Brown
b) Ray Charles*
c) Jimi Hendrix
d) Jerry Lee Lewis

3. What helps explain the proliferation of indies in the 1940s and 1950s?
a) the invention of inexpensive magnetic tape recording
b) the fact that major labels had dropped many of their regional and ethnic music during the economic hard times of World War II
c) radio disc jockeys that promoted local music
d) all of the above*

4. Singer Pat Boone made his reputation in the 1950s by:
a) acting in motion picture musicals
b) singing at the Grand Ole Opry
c) recording "cleaned up" cover versions of hits by black singers*
d) riding a bicycle while playing the guitar

5. An instrumentation used by Louis Jordan in the 1940s as well as by early rock and roll stars like Fats Domino and Little Richard:
a) power trio
b) 4-piece guitar band
c) jump band*
d) swing band

6. Where did Elvis Presley make his first recordings?
a) Sun Studios in Memphis*
b) Chess Records in Chicago
c) Atlantic Records in New York
d) RCA in Los Angeles

7. A Mexican American band from East L.A. that opened for the Beatles on their 1965 tour:
a) Santana
b) Cannibal and the Headhunters*
c) El Chicano
d) War

8. Motown artists like the Supremes and the Temptations were different from "soul" music stars like Aretha Franklin or James Brown in this way:
a) Motown artists were trained in an elegant style of presentation that was meant to appeal to both black and white audiences *
b) Motown artists were almost exclusively from New York
c) many Motown artists were white
d) all of the above

9. In what way did FM radio provide new possibilities for popular music in the 1960s?
a) the signal traveled further than AM
b) FM stations played longer songs and sometimes full albums*
c) most FM stations played Latin music
d) all of the above

10. This musician migrated from Oklahoma to California during the dustbowl drought of the 1930s, and inspired the modern folk music movement with his songs about political and social injustices.
a) Merle Haggard
b) Bob Dylan
c) Bill Haley
d) Woodie Guthrie*


Part II, Listening

Example 1
11. This singer is:
a) James Brown*
b) George Clinton
c) Ray Charles
d) Nat King Cole

12. In which year did this crossover hit bring soul music to the attention of a mainstream audience?
a) 1956
b) 1965*
c) 1972
d) 1977

13. The form of this excerpt is best described as:
a) a complete 12-bar blues
b) call & response throughout
c) starting as call & response, then beginning a 12-bar blues*
d) starting in 12-bar blues, then becoming call & response


Example 2
14. Who is this singer?
a) Little Richard
b) Elvis Presley
c) Fats Domino
d) Chuck Berry*

15. This song was viewed as unusual for an African American musician because of:
a) its use of electric guitar
b) its strong back beat
c) its verse and chorus form
d) its country music elements*

16. This musician is best known for:
a) his electric guitar playing*
b) his country western songs
c) his conservative family values
d) his dual career as musician and professional baseball player

Example 3
17. Who is this singer?
a) Pete Seeger
b) John Lennon
c) Bob Dylan*
d) Elvis Presley

18. In what way was this song was typical of the urban folk music movement?
a) acoustic instruments
b) progressive political lyrics
c) strophic (ballad) form
d) all of the above*

19. Some people accused this artist of later "betraying" the folk music movement by:
a) signing with RCA Victor
b) using amplified instruments*
c) volunteering for the army
d) all of the above

20. bonus: Where was this musician born?
a) New York
b) Texas
c) Oklahoma
d) Minnesota*

Example 4
21. In what year was this recorded?
a) 1957
b) 1962
c) 1967*
d) 1973

22. Who was the producer of this recording?
a) George Martin*
b) Brian Wilson
c) Sam Phillips
d) Phil Specter

23. The lyrics of this song make reference to:
a) the Vietnam war
b) drug use*
c) civil rights
d) the drummer's girlfriend

24. bonus: The sound made at the end of this excerpts was created in the studio by splicing and rearranging a recording of:
a) rush hour traffic
b) an orchestra tuning up*
c) police sirens
d) a Muddy Waters guitar solo

Example 5
24. Who is this bandleader and trombonist?
a) Tito Puente
b) Joe Cuba
c) Machito
d) Willie Colón*

25. Which of the following elements of this song functions as a distinctive symbol of Puerto Rico?
a) the trombone
b) the cuatro*
c) the coro
d) the congas

26. In this excerpt you can hear a transition from the verse to a new section of the song; this new section is called:
a) guajeo
b) coro*
c) clave
d) jibaro

27. bonus: The improvising role of the singer in this section is referred to in Spanish as:
a) sonero*
b) clave
c) guajeo
d) mambo

Final Exam study questions

The final exam will cover all the material that we've gone over in class since the second miderm. Listening examples will be drawn only from this last part of the course. In the non-listening portion of the exam, though, there will be 10 questions that require you to make comparisons between different eras and that will refer to important developments that we've discussed throughout the course. These question may help you to prepare for this comparative portion of the exam

For these questions that ask you to think comparatively across different historical eras, try to identify moments (new technologies, population shifts, new business strategies, influential artists, songs, etc.) when important changes happened. Also think about things that may have remained essentially the same despite these changes. For all the questions below, try to think of specific examples that you could use in answering the question.


COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS:

*What has changed and what remains the same in the business of selling popular music between the minstrel show and the present?

*What has changed and what remains the same in the technologies of music-making between the minstrel show and the present?

*What has changed and what remains the same in the technologies of music recording and dissemination between the minstrel show and the present?

*What has changed and what remains the same in youth culture, and the way the popular music industry relates to it, between the minstrel show and the present?

*How have local and regional music cultures shaped the national "mainstream" in different eras, and visa versa?

*What has changed and what remains the same in conventions of musical form between the minstrel show and the present? What are some of the enduring formal conventions of U.S. popular music?

*Which musical instruments have been emblematic of U.S. popular music in different eras?

*What are some of the important ways that popular music and its marketing have either responded to, or actively shaped, social identities (racial, ethnic, regional, generational) in different eras?

*What are some important differences in the way Caribbean Latinos (e.g. Puerto Ricans) have participated in U.S. popular culture, as compared to Central American Latinos (e.g. Mexicans and Chicanos)?

*What are some important changes in the way studio production influenced pop music, beginning in the late 1950s?

*What important roles have British bands played in shaping the sound and the genre categories of U.S. popular music? (think especially of rock and roll, punk, heavy metal)


QUESTIONS ON RECENT CLASS MATERIAL:

*How did the popular music business and media change in the 1970s, compared to the 1960s?

*What are the differences between disco as a commercial music genre, as compared to disco as a club culture? What about hip hop as commercial genre vs. hip hop as street culture?

*To what extent is hip hop a U.S. music, and in what ways could you describe it in terms of an international musical exchange and development?

*If punk and metal share a rebellious impulse, what makes them different?

*What does funk music have in common with soul? What other styles does it draw from and relate to, and what are some of its innovations?

*How did MTV change the music business and shape popular music taste in the 1980s?

*Why did turntablism and rapping split off from each other in hip hop music?

*What are some of the factors that explain how the music of a very small country, Jamaica, became internationally popular in the 1970s?

*What examples can you give of music scenes that developed in a specific city or region and later got promoted nationally on major record labels?

*What are some of the connections (and distinctions) between electronica, disco, and hip hop?



MUSICIANS/BANDS:
(You will also want to know some of the major musicians/bands from earlier in the course in relation to the historically comparative questions)

Merle Haggard
Sly and the Family Stone
George Clinton, Parliament/Funkadelic
Bootsy Collins
Village People
Donna Summer
Bee Gees
Eagles
Carol King
Stevie Wonder
Earth Wind and Fire
Lou Reed, Velvet Underground
? and the Mysterians
Ramones
Sex Pistols
The Clash
David Bowie
Kiss
Judas Priest
Madonna
Michael Jackson
Cindy Lauper
Quincy Jones
Skatalites
Jimmy Cliff
Bob Marley
Paul Simon
Ry Cooder
Grandmaster Flash
Public Enemy
Proyecto Uno
NWA
Daddy Yankee
Akwid
Kid Frost
Nirvana
Pearl Jam




LISTENING FOR FINAL EXAM:

CD8: 1, 3, 4, 6, 8-11
CD9: 1-6, 9, 11-15
CD10: 5, 7, 8, 9
CD11: 1, 2, 9, 10, 11
CD12: 14-17

Starr & Waterman book CD 2: 18