Music 10: Lesson 4 - Popular music of the 20s to the 50s

• The utilization of two or more tonal centers and the modern ways of composing melodies became prevalent.
• Amongst the popular musical styles that emerged was jazz music during the 1920's while rock and roll, ragtime, and big band sound became the famous genres during the 1950's.
• Ragtime is a type of music that became popular between 1897-1918. Its main feature is its ragged or off-beat rhythm.
• Ragtime started as a dance in African communities in New Orleans before being published as a popular music sheet for piano.
• Ragtime is generally in duple meter (2/4) and performed at a moderate march tempo
• One important composer also known as the "king of ragtime" was Scott Joplin (1868-1917) whose famous pieces include Maple Leaf and The Entertainer.
• Like the ragtime music, jazz music also started in African American communities of Southern United States.
• Jazz is a form of art that has a special association with swing, improvisation, developing voice quality, and other musical potentials.
• Improvisation is one of the key essentials in jazz music
• Syncopation and rhythmic swing on the other hand are two of the most distinctive features of jazz.
• The cornet, trumpet, saxophone (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone), piano, clarinet, vibraphone, and trombone are the main solo instruments of jazz.
• It emphasizes brasses, woodwinds, and percussion rather than the bowed string instruments.
• Both solo and ensemble sections make up a jazz performance.
• One of best jazz musicians of the 1920s up to the 1970s is a trumpet and cornet player, Louis Armstrong
• Louis armstrong was also a jazz singer who was very good in bending lyrics and melodies of the songs.
• Other jazz performers are Bing Crosby, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, and Earl Hines to name a few.
• "Dream a Little Dream of Me" is an example of a jazz song performed by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.
• Big band, which is associated with jazz and swing, came in during the 1920s.
• Big bands is a musical group that consists of brass, woodwind, and rhythm instruments.
• The terms like jazz band, jazz ensemble, dance group, society band, or jazz orchestra refer to big band.
• Big bands became popular in radio during the 1930s-1940s like the band of Paul Whiteman and Grand Terrace Cafe Band, where Earl Hines became a superstar in Chicago because of this band.
• Some of the important names in the big band were Count Basie, Bob Crosby, Benny Goodman, and Frank Sinatra to name a few
• During the early 50s, rock music was referred to as rock 'n' roll
• Rock 'n' Roll consists of several black and white elements of American musical styles
• Rock 'n' roll was the most popular form of music in the Western world in the 1950s to the mid 1990s
• The electric guitar, bass guitar, a drum set, and a piano or keyboard makes up the popular instruments of rock 'n' roll
• Elvis Presley was known as the King of Rock 'n' Roll in the 50s
• Allan Freed, a Cleveland disc jockey, first used the term rock 'n' roll in 1951
• Allan got the word rock 'n' roll from the song " My baby rocks me with a steady roll "
• Another popular rock and roll star is Jerry Lee, an American country music singer and song writer.