This course, part 1 of a 2-course sequence, examines the history of rock, primarily as it unfolded in the United States, from the days before rock (pre-1955) to the end of the 1960s. This course covers the music of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Phil Spector, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, and many more artists, with an emphasis both on cultural context and on the music itself. We will also explore how developments in the music business and in technology helped shape the ways in which styles developed. Rock emerged in the mid 1950s as a blending of mainstream pop, rhythm and blues, and country and western--styles that previously had remained relatively separate. This new style became the music of the emerging youth culture and was often associated with teen rebellion. We will follow the story of how this rowdy first wave of rock and roll (1955-59) was tamed in the early 60s but came roaring back with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and then went psychedelic by the end of the decade.
Preamble
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Из курса от партнера University of Rochester
History of Rock, Part One
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Motown Pop and Southern Soul (1960-69)
Berry Gordy and the rise and first flourishing of Motown. Atlantic, Stax, and southern soul (Memphis, Muscle Shoals, New York). Parallels between Motown and Stax. James Brown and the roots of funk.
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John CovachProfessor of Music and Director
Institute for Popular Music
This week, we talk about the music of Motown,
Stax and James Brown in the context of the 1960s.
Essentially, a kind of a history of black pop in the middle of the decade.
There a few things though before we actually get into the consideration of
Motown, Stax & James Brown that I want to talk to you about just so that we
can identify some of the important issues that go into talking about this music.
One of the first things, and maybe important things for us to discuss for
a minute, is to talk about the issue of race.
And how it plays into a lot of what we're talking about here.
There's probably no issue, in American culture at least,
that is more sensitive in a lot of kind of ways, than discussions of race.
And so we have to be careful the kinds of things that we say that we don't give
the wrong impression or send the wrong kinds of signals,
especially a guy like me, obviously, a white guy talking about black music.
There might be some who would say somebody like me could not really
totally understand the black experience, and
then maybe not really totally understand the music for what it's trying to say.
Well that may or may not be true, and people can have their own views on it.
But fortunately for us, we don't really have to worry so
much about that because what we are really talking about is the history of
black pop as it's seen through the lens of rock and roll.
And it's probably fair to say that rock and roll is a style of music primarily
directed at, at least initially at, white teens and primarily at a white audience.
I mean if one of the failures of rock n' roll may be that
by the time we get into the 70s, and we'll talk about this in part two of the class,
rock n' roll has become very segregated from black pop and
it's like black pop and rock n' roll exist in two very different worlds.
So anyway, one of the things that we'll do this week,
is talk about black pop in the 60s.
But I make the admission or say right
up from that we're talking about black pop as it's viewed from the history of rock.
Now I have maintained for a long time, and I hope one of my scholarly friends or
professors will take me up on this that what we really need
is a textbook that deals with the history of black pop in its own context.
Not the way that people like Motown and Stax and
James Brown fit into the story we're telling about the history of rock, but
one in which, so they're sort of on the side of the stories or of coming in
where they seem to be interesting to us from a perspective centered on rock.
But rather, a perspective that deals with black pop as being the central thing and
maybe thinks of rock as peripheral, or jazz as peripheral,
or country western as peripheral.
But it really sort of takes black pop as the central thing.
That would be a fantastic thing and
probably, dealing with the 60s, a book like that might deal with this differently
than I'm going to do in this week's set of lectures.
When we talk about racial issues, being involved in this music and
our discussions of it, we've already seen
how this plays out in our discussion of music in the 1950s and before.
The idea that there was a kind of a chart segregation, a kind of
separate but not very equal distribution of resources.
Where rhythm and blues, thought of as music for a primarily black audience,
did not really have the same resources, the same attention, as mainstream pop.
Music for primarily middle class white listeners audiences really had.
So we've already seen a kind of a segregation and
some of the kinds of sensitive issues that came up from there.
When songs that were cover versions or
crossovers came from the R&B chart onto the pop charts and
some of these songs were covered by white artists when they original had
been done by black artists, this caused a lot of resentment from black artists.
And this was all sort of tied up in some of the racial issues that our country was
dealing with and to a certain extent continues to deal with.
When I say our country, I mean America for
those of you taking the course outside of the United States.
So let's talk about, having said that,
let's talk about what some of the issues are to focus on this week.
The new black pop that we're talking about that sort of parallels the rise of
the British Invasion and
the American response in the middle of the decade arises from true principal sources.
There's Motown coming out of Detroit that's owned and
founded by Berry Gordy, Jr..
And that's a label that's really interested in finding black pop that
crosses over to white audiences.
And all kinds of steps are taken to try and
ensure that music crosses over to white audiences.
Berry Gordy, Jr. wanting to get the largest possible audience, and so
his strategy was go where the money is.
And the money really was in the white community, and so
he tried to make sure that his artists were able to capitalize on that.
The problem with making an effort to crossover to white audiences is
that a lot of critics have said about Motown that, in many ways, Berry Gordy Jr.
and Motown sold out its blackness for a white audience.
When people make that argument, a lot of times, they juxtapose Motown and
its crossover tendencies with the music of southern soul.
Often just referred to, as a shorthand, as Stax out of Memphis.
And they talk about that music as being more unabashedly black,
making no apologies for its blackness and its roots and
maybe being more authentically black than the Motown music.
Now, we'll tell the whole story about Stax and Memphis and
how it was really sort of distributed by Atlantic.
But the question really comes down to, is
Stax music somehow, or the music on the Stax label somehow blacker than Motown?
And you can see why I start this out with a discussion of race,
because this is an important kind of consideration.
And really, it's more of a kind of a critical reception thing.
Do people perceive that somehow Stax music is black, or more sort of
authentically true to the roots of black culture than Motown music is.
It's an interesting issue, and one that's much debated in scholarly circles.
Now at the same time, you've got James Brown, for
whom nobody has, whatever you may say about James Brown,
nobody has ever said about James Brown that he sold out his blackness.
In fact, he, in many ways,
is kind of an iconic figure
in terms of black pride and
black identity in the 1960s.
So that's a bit of an overview of what we're going to talk about.
Let's move to our first specific lecture now, and
we'll talk about the music of Motown.
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