Evolution of Urban Popular Music: From Blues to Rock and Roll
Characteristics of Urban Popular Music
- Technological Advancement: Technological progress has significantly influenced music composition and perception.
- Social Connection: Urban music reflects a mix of cultures, social conflicts, and movements like civil rights, pacifism, and environmentalism.
- Youthful Identification: It serves as an identity symbol for younger generations.
- Commercial Function: Popular music is a commodity subject to market laws.
- Mass Media Relationship: The connection with mass media aids rapid diffusion but can lead to formulaic patterns.
- Use of New Instruments: Often based on the union of voice, guitars, and drums, with advancements in sound processing and spectrum enlargement.
Origins of Urban Popular Music
Urban popular music (UPM) is rooted in the traditions of immigrant communities in the United States. African slaves’ musical practices blended with white settlers’ traditions, giving rise to work songs and spirituals. Anglo-Saxon traditions led to country music. Ragtime, jazz, and blues emerged, eventually fusing into rock and roll.
Work Songs and Spirituals
Work songs or chants helped overcome the monotony of labor. Spirituals were religious songs in mixed African and European communities, characterized by:
- Syncopation and setback notes
- Limited melodic scope and spontaneous polyphony
- Themes of liberation and hope
Blues
Blues likely resulted from the convergence of work songs and European ballads. Its characteristics include:
- A 12-bar pattern divided into three 4-bar phrases
- Simple harmony using tonic, subdominant, and dominant chords
- Blue notes or intentional detuning on the III and VII scale degrees
- Prominent use of guitar, often with slide technique
- Use of banjo and violin in bands
Delta blues is an acoustic style with plaintive vocals and slide guitar (Robert Johnson, Bessie Smith). Boogie-woogie is a fast, danceable blues piano style. City blues incorporated bass, drums, harmonica, or piano, leading to amplified and distorted guitar sounds (John Lee Hooker, B.B. King).
Jazz
Jazz improvisation is based on:
- Brass band traditions
- Ragtime’s syncopated melodies (Scott Joplin)
Jazz includes common features of black music, emphasizing improvisation. Soloists play over a repeated chord progression. Swing featured big bands (15+ performers) with trumpets, trombones, saxophones, clarinet, piano, guitar, bass, and drums. It’s characterized by a constant dance beat and riffs. The swing era peaked in the 1920s and 1930s (Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Glenn Miller).
Country Music
Country music characteristics:
- Acoustic instruments: bass, guitar, banjo, mandolin, violin, drums, pedal steel guitar
- Modal scales and folk/classical phrasing
- Alternating bass and chords (I, IV, V levels)
- Binary or ternary (country waltz) rhythm
Bluegrass and hillbilly are notable subgenres. Country music gained popularity through radio and singing cowboys (Bill Monroe, Dolly Parton).
Precedents of Pop-Rock
Race records featured blues, jazz, gospel, and boogie-woogie. Country music and swing were on white radio stations. Rhythm and blues replaced “race music” in the 1950s, blending urban instrumentation, gospel vocals, swing, and boogie-woogie. This fusion led to rockabilly, combining black music features with clean country style.
Rock and Roll
Rock and roll emerged in 1954 with Bill Haley & The Comets’ “Rock Around the Clock.” Elvis Presley popularized rockabilly with his blues-influenced vocals and energetic performances. Chuck Berry was a key figure, known for his songwriting, guitar solos, and stage presence. Other influential artists included Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Buddy Holly.