Essay Instructions: The Popular Music Forum: Assignment #3 - A Paper on an Aspect of Change in Popular Music
“Change is what rock and roll is all about.” ??"Bruce Springsteen
The emergence of rock and roll in the 1950s was dramatic to say the least. In 1954, the year before “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock” hit Number One, record sales stood at $213 million. By the end of 1959, record sales had tripled to $613 million and 80 percent of those sales were to teenagers who bought rock and roll records. Black artists who had never been able to mount a sustained presence in the popular mainstream became established stars in the pop Top Ten and competed on equal footing with white artists, despite the efforts of the major labels to promote cover versions of R&B and rock and roll over the African American originals. Although controversy would continue to surround rock and roll music, the marketplace had overwhelmed every attempt to restrict or retard its growth and rock and roll won out over the objections of parents, critics, and moral authorities who saw it “as a plague on the Nation’s youth.”
The recording industry itself was dramatically reshaped by rock and roll. Prior to rock and roll, the major labels (RCA, Columbia, Decca, and Capitol) controlled the popular mainstream. Of the 162 million selling records sold between 1946 and 1952, the major labels produced all but five. However, rock and roll was virtually ignored by the majors and by 1957 two thirds of records on the pop charts were produced by independent labels.
Although 1950s rock and roll ??" and its wide-ranging cultural effects ??" undoubtedly produced the most dynamic and dramatic changes that ever occurred in the history of popular music, more changes would come and many would produce significant shifts in music and in our culture. The British Invasion of the 1960s ??" led by The Beatles and followed by The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Yardbirds, The Who, The Dave Clark Five, The Hollies, The Animals, The Spencer Davis Group, and, ultimately, Led Zeppelin ??" ended the US domination of pop music. The emergence of psychedelic rock fueled the teen drug culture of the 1960s and carried with it the counterculture revolution of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. In the 1970s, heavy metal, punk, and new wave would redefine the social and musical movements of the 1960s and, in turn, would spawn alternative, glam, and heartland rock and roll in the 1980s. That decade would herald further dramatic upheaval as rap and hip-hop crossed over from inner cities into the popular mainstream and MTV redefined how music was presented and delivered. The changes would keep coming in the 1990s with grunge, indie rock, and Britpop, and, of course, continue today as we cross the millennium and entered the 21st century.
Your Assignment
Identify, explore, and critique any subgenre of rock and roll that brought about change in American popular music that you feel is significant and worthy of examination. It could be a change from the distant past or from the near past and, as a consequence, part of your own personal experience. It could also be a change that is taking place right now and is currently reshaping what we understand popular music to be. Also, your selection does not have to be limited just to “rock and roll”; you can explore any kind or aspect of popular music, as long as you clearly identify the change in which it ushers, how that music changed (or is changing) things, and discuss what effects your selection and its consequential change produced (or is producing) culturally and socially. In the paper, you should cite examples to support your conclusions. It is, of course, advisable to cite outside sources for support and frame your argument in the form of a formal essay (Look over “Presenting Arguments,” “Tips On Writing Papers,” and “Critical Thinking” in the Syllabus).
Some examples you could focus on include, but are certainly not limited to:
MTV brought the music video into the mix of popular music and made music “something to watch.” This, obviously, changed popular music in a dramatic way. Artists whose musical talents may have been questionable became big stars because they were “video friendly.” Hits were driven, not by radio, but by music videos, and the “art of the music video” became a form unto itself. What effects, positive and negative, have been produced by the music video? How has the music video changed our perception of popular music? What effects has the music video had on the quality and significance of popular music in our culture?
Rap/hip-hop has created more controversy than any other musical form in recent memory. The arguments surrounding sex and violence in rap music have been around since the 1980s and continue to the present day. Like many genres of music, rap contains some sexist and violent elements, but is rap actually more sexist and violent than other genres? Is rap racist in its outlook? Does rap encourage listeners to violent behavior and adopt sexist attitudes? Does the media engage in a disproportionate amount of coverage on sexism and violence in rap music?
Music trends seem to run in cycles. “Boy bands” seem to occur and reoccur like clockwork. In the 1970s it was Menudo, in the ‘80s it was The New Kids On The Block, in the ‘90s it was ‘N Sync and the Backstreet Boys. Teen idols reoccur with much the same frequency and predictability. They stretch from Ricky Nelson to Justin Timberlake (during his “N Sync” days), David Cassidy to Zac Efron. Are there trends in the making? Is the past about to once again turn into the present? And if so, what accounts for the cyclic nature of any specific trend? And what changes are wrought if what appears to be change has actually happened over and over again in the past?
