Folk, Country, Blues, Jazz, Rock & Pop Music - a brief history of popular culture.

Since ancient times, music and the arts have glorified God, told stories, communicated feelings, delivered secret messages and entertained people. Music can have a very powerful influence on people to make them think and act in ways that the music and the words encourage. To be educated about music, a person must know what, why and how a musician is trying to communicate with music and lyrics. The media - which includes music recording and publishing - is now a multi-billion dollar business. Money is at the heart of the music business and music is being used to carry a message to the listener, regardless of what kind of music it is.
Popular music and culture in the 20th and 21st centuries has been a tool used to reshape long-held faith and beliefs and the way people think and act. We should carefully consider what we listen to, watch and read and what we allow to influence our children. This a not a page of judgment - the purpose is not to judge others but to examine the consequences and results of pop culture on society.

Folk music.

Folk music is as old as the human race itself. The common folk from cultures throughout history wrote and sang songs about love, faith, life, work, their struggles, their philosophies and about the hope that goodness, mercy and justice would triumph over evil, oppression and injustice. In the United States during the 20th century, folk music anthems were sung in support of the founding of the union movement, left-wing political causes, those who were called "communist sympathizers" and the anti-war movement of the 1960s.

Folk music is more about the voices, the words and the message being heard and less about the amplified volume of the instruments. As such, it became a world-wide phenomenon during the 1960s with the popularity of singer-songwriter groups such as Peter, Paul & Mary - who are still writing and performing regularly. "A Holiday Concert" featuring PPM was an annual favorite for many years. Their strength of lyric writing, merged with a superb blend of 3 strong melodic and harmonic voices along with masterful acoustic instrument interplay & accompaniment is a powerful and beautiful sound - one not matched before or since.

Bob Dylan emerged as the predominant early solo troubador of the 1960s, writing his own songs, delivering them in his often-mimicked style - strumming an acoustic guitar and rhythmically chording on the harmonica in-between the verses. Obviously influenced by the words and music of Woody Guthrie, Dylan was trumpeted in folk circles to be Woody's successor, but Dylan marched to the beat of his own drum. His style began to change and the sound of rock and country music crept in along with an electric band. Acoustic folk music purists didn't like it - many of them said they couldn't understand his words anymore or even what he was trying to say. He was booed by a London concert audience who were shocked by his change in style. But, through the years, Bob Dylan has remained a unique voice in the history of American music. Bob's music changed as the country changed and listeners heard the changes going on within and without him. Often, the poetic symbolism of his message music was unequalled. The words dictated the meter and rhythm of music, which could be, at times, complex. Other songs were simple in word and musical manner. He was a "great communicator" and he told the listener what he thought and felt without guile or guise. Later in his career, he became a born-again Christian and made a few Gospel albums. He joined with other rock legends to form "The Traveling Wilburys." A group of folk-country-rock-pop songs with a jam session feel gives the listener an often humorous, sometimes crude, but often telling collection of songs with a retro sound and feel of the 1960s and early '70s. Many of the tunes have the quality of being written and recorded quickly but the big hits - Handle with Care and End of The Line - are more polished. Dylan was a great influence on the musical and vocal styles of many folk, rock and pop musicians.

The "sudden" popularity of folk music opened the door for the music of many others to be heard. Prior to the commercial success of folk music, singers and players had toiled for years in the background, being known and heard by only a limited audience, closely allied with the establishment of the union movement in the United States.

After the "discovery" of folk music, many other groups emerged on the scene and the records sold to a much wider audience. These soloists and groups wrote and performed, for the most part with acoustic instruments "unplugged." Folk music became so popular that it began to cross-over into rock and roll, pop and country music - becoming pop, folk-rock, country-rock and progressive country from solo artists and bands. Ultimately, folk music is the top favorite style of many because of the dominance of the singers, the words, the timelessness of the message in song and the steadfast commitment to remain a largely acoustic music, refusing to obscure the lyrics with electronics.

Blues and jazz music.

Of course, we find the roots of blues and jazz in music from the ancient times through all of music history including the baroque to the post-modern, meaning that the musical materials were already there. Simply listen to some of the music of the great masters of the baroque, classical and romantic eras to hear the changes. Without a doubt the roots of jazz are in the blues - music that derived from African folk music, negro spirituals and hymns sung and played in churches, the work songs of American slaves and the growing urban, inner-city experience after the U.S. civil war with the migration from the farmlands to the city. The application of musical techniques and style was developed more extensively, differently and taken in many directions. Ragtime sought a wider, even concert hall audience. The "rag" style was an African-American departure from European classical music and the American March, showing influences from the style of piano playing popular in turn of the century and early 20th century brothels and "speak easies." "Jazz" may be an abbreviations for "jasmine," a perfume worn by the "ladies of the evening." New Orleans, Chicago and Dallas became known as places where blues and jazz singers and players would go to write, perform and learn their craft. Improvisation is at the heart of jazz. Many music historians claim that New Orleans was the birthplace of jazz improvisation with musical and philosophical influences from the Caribbean Islands and Africa.

Blues melody is built around the blues scale - a scale that can begin on any note with the same pattern of notes. Common blues chord progressions have 8, 12 or 16 bars (measures) of music that repeat. The melodic patterns, chords and rhythms of blues music are well-established according to practices over the years. Theoretically, there are unlimited possibilities for blues and jazz chord changes as any chord may be altered or changed and any chord substituted for any other although there are common alterations and subtitutions played by most musicians.

The improvised melodic line and syncopated rhythms are the hallmarks of jazz. The basic chord of jazz is the seventh with extensions (additional tones above the root such as the 9th, 11th or 13th.) Alterations (chromatically altered notes - flatted or sharped) provide more complex chords beyond the major and minor such as augmented and diminished chords. Substitutions (the replacement of one chord with another) allow for more freedom and variety in melodic improvisation and chord changes. Chords stacked in thirds above the root (1) such as (1-3-5-7-9-11-13) and chords stacked in fourths (1-4-7-10-13-16-19) that are often altered (flatted or sharped) form the patterns for complicated harmonies. For a more detailed study of how to listen to, understand and play music of all kinds, including jazz and blues music, look at the tonal music page.

In jazz, the instrument is an extension of the voice and many jazz techniques are designed to mimic vocal patterns and styles. The call and response pattern derived from church music, work songs and folk music found its way into jazz. The "blue note" bending of melodic tones, playing around the melody in rapidly, sequenced patterns built around modes, scales, chord tones and rhythms that swing, jump or bounce, sometimes in irregular ways, is all part of what makes up the jazz style. Popular jazz found its zenith in the swing music of the big bands.

There was a very easy and uplifting radio format that emerged in the 1980s, called "new age" or "lite jazz." Easy to mid-tempo acoustic instrumental music was at the heart of it. Unfortunately, this radio format disappeared from all but the largest markets or, worse, was dumped for syrupy, bedroom jazz. Commercial satellite radio has revived the format. Among the artists heard were many recording on the Windham Hill, Narada and many other similar, smaller labels. In recent years, the so-called "new age" style is called "new acoustic," "contemporary instrumental" or other names because many of the players are not followers of new age religion - ancient pagan religions, eastern mysticism and occult philosophy.

Keith Jarrett, one of the worlds finest pianists, was classically trained and has played many classical music concerts. He extended solo improvisation concerts to a transcendental level and performed trio concerts (with string bass and drums) of jazz standards throughout the world.

Actually, all styles of music have moved toward each other - incorporating and influencing techniques and styles from all other types of music. The globalization of world musics has continued into the 21st century. A continuing, style-changing influence on the entire music world was made by The Pat Metheny Group, fronted by Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays with a cast of supporting players. Mainly considered to be jazz musicians, the "White Album" marked the commercial arrival of a band of musicians who had found a new way to be commercial - by allowing us to hear familiar sounds and music in a new way. Solo recordings from the group's front men continued to break new musical ground and their work beyond the group forged new directions. The influence of these musicians has been to bring together and expand world musics, to bring the synthesizer into the mainstream of jazz, to include a variety of instrumentation, to aid in the development of new instruments and to interface acoustic and electronic instruments.

Bluegrass and country music.

Folk musics from all over the world have influenced popular music. You can hear the folk songs of the British Isles in bluegrass and country music. Bluegrass sounds like country jazz. There is a rhythmic swing to it and the traditional instrumentation of fiddle, guitar, mandolin, sometimes banjo and string bass, gives it a unique and very appealing sound. This music enjoys a resurgence of popularity and among its foremost practitioners are Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby. Skaggs home-grown vocals are combined with his masterful technique on the mandolin. Hornsby's jazzy-country and bluegrass-flavored vocals and fast-fingered piano are a unique blend.
Modern country music emerged from the influence of folk music and bluegrass music. The blues - most often heard in the lyrics - had its shaping impact on country, and later, so would rockabilly - early country rock - and then rock and roll itself. Today, although the conservative, old-style country remains, many of the musicians have broken down the walls between country and rock and only the country vocal twang, the sound of a steel guitar or a country-flavored barrelhouse piano separates the music from rock and roll.

Pop and rock music.

Anything is possible or Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll - the unholy trinity.

A controversial subject arises with the discussion of rock and roll music. The history of rock and roll is actually a sad chapter in the history of the world. Some of the songs are classic because they have beautiful melodies and harmonies and are rhythmically relaxed. They have earned a rightful place in music history. Much of rock and roll and soul music devolved from the blues and jazz. In the best songs the music and lyrics are uplifting - about healthy love and relationships. Much of the music is about lost love or a relationship gone bad or deals with the darker side of human nature. Some of that music is harsh, hard, too loud and too fast. There are both black and white musicians who have honored or dishonored themselves by the music they wrote, sung and played.

The phrase "rock 'n' roll" may have come from the "rocking and reeling" of those in the house at a "sanctified" church meeting. This was a physical, fleshly response to the music they heard. Others claimed that "rock 'n' roll" was just slang for sex. White and black ministers preached that the rise of rock and roll would mean the fall of the youth of America. We saw that fall due to music that encouraged sexual promiscuity and drug use. And, many of the musicians playing the music fell as well. The rap against rock and roll music is that, at first, it was designed to sexually excite the young girls, older girls and women who were listening and watching. All one had to was watch the screaming frenzy of a music hall packed with pre-teens, teens and girls of all ages to see that happening. When they were sexually aroused by the loud, rhythmic music and the suggestive words, the vast majority of boys and men couldn't wait to take advantage of the situation and the girls. There is absolutely no doubt that the morality of the nation declined after rock and roll music was poured into the hearts and minds of children and young people. The next charge is that rock music encouraged drug use. This is a given fact and can be proven simply by reading the lyrics of the songs from the mid 60s into the early seventies. Drug experiences and trips were often thinly veiled by suggestive, descriptive lyrics. Psychedelic music was the name given to it because it supposedly reflected the experience of using drugs or enhanced the activity of using drugs. Illegal and legal drug use, including alcohol, tobacco and many prescription drugs, have harmed many people in the world and the U.S. in particular.

Where did popular music go from there? In the early 1970s, some very good music, called progressive country, became popular. This was often a soft country-rock style with musical influences from bluegrass and folk music. This music would dissolve into country music which became very popular in the 1980s and 1990s. Actually, what used to be called country and western music would become country-rock and eventually, with many a band, there was more of the sound of rock than country.

During the 1980s disco was all the rage. Disco has a strong beat and a strong jazz influence. Fans would go to dance clubs, some using cocaine before, during and after. The end of the evening for some dancers was a night of sex, drug-induced or not. In the 1990s rap was on the rise - more talk than music - a sort of ghetto poetry about the life experience of living on the streets and in poor, tough urban neighborhoods. Hip-Hop would follow and those styles are still very popular. But, as many things in life are cyclical, music with pleasing melody and harmony is on the rise again. Old songs have been made new again.

In the 1950s, rock and roll got it's start in the black community. One of the most mellow practitioners was New Orleans' piano player Antoine "Fats" Domino, who stayed home and survived the hurricane that devasted his home town. Little Richard was popular. There were many other black artists and musicians who performed all kinds of music from easy vocals to doo-wap. Pat Boone and Elvis were all the rage because they popularized black music in the white community. Pat Boone's style was so straight and smooth that he was called "white bread" by some. He had a weekly national television show with large, corporate sponsors who sometimes supported his efforts to try to bring the black and white communities together through a shared musical experience. Boone walked away from his popular TV show when the network and the commercial sponsors refused to let Harry Belafonte appear on the program. Pat's detractors said that his non-offensive, polished performances of black music for white audiences opened the door for the evils of rock and roll to rush into the young, white community. One thing that Pat did, especially in his later years, was to try to take the Gospel message of Jesus to the music community that he had such a long history with. Elvis made his first recordings at Sun Records in the 1950s along with Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis. Each took the "rockabilly" style recorded there and went their own direction. Perkins wrote "Blue Suede Shoes" that was a huge hit for Elvis. Cash moved into mainstream country music with his unique style. Jerry Lee Lewis was a wild-man who married a young cousin of his, which was a huge scandal. His music was a raw display of piano pounding the upper keys with repeated chords, fists and fingers all over the keyboard in glissandos and chords and eventually, he would kick the piano bench away and stand up. The lyrics were sexually raw and designed to heat up the young girls in the audience. Elvis did a lot of radio and television in the 1950s. After his Vietnam-era military service in Europe, he came home and started a movie career. Elvis was a very good actor, a natural, making a number of films that were quite good and made better by his acting and singing. After the Hollywood days slowed down, he did some more television and took his show on the road again. Elvis was a great performer and a very likeable guy. After an outstanding Vegas performance to a small room, he made a big comeback tour around the nation. This and some of his other performances of the period were filmed.

By the last half of the swinging 1960s, the feeling that anything was possible was in the air. Pandora's box had been opened and all the good and evil of the world was either changing things for the better or wreaking havoc on the world. The battle cry of the youth counterculture of the late sixties was "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll." This unholy trio was a battle plan to destroy the youth of the United States with promiscuous sex, illegal drugs and rock music - the anthems and chants of a new-age religion. Promiscuous and pre-marital sex would lead to the breakdown of marriage and the traditional family. It would result in the horrible infanticide of abortion as birth control. Drugs, both illegal psychedelics and prescription, along with alcohol and tobacco, would eventually ruin the physical and mental health of many so called "casual users." And the music that was the soundtrack for the new-age indoctrination encouraged listeners to see the old world and the old ways as no longer valid. They would attend concerts in their unholy temples - the music and concert halls - worshipping their new-found gods - the rock and roll stars. The musicians were the "pied pipers" and their fans would hang on their every word and do just about everything the were told to do in the songs including embrace new-age philosophy, transcendental meditation, the occult and evil.

Thinking that they were going to change the world by following a well-known Berkeley graduate and ex-Harvard professor's mantra to "turn on, tune in, drop out" - not only did they leave high school and college but dropped out of society, as it was, as well. Thinking that good was evil, evil was good, right was wrong and wrong was right, they marched on the political conventions, demonstrated with "sit-ins" on the streets, sidewalks and porches of college buildings - even taking over the administration buildings. The shootings of demonstrating students and innocent bystanders showed the world that big brother was not going to let a lot of drug-crazed kids take over the world. The evil powers shaping the world would allow and even encourage young people to spiritually, mentally and physically harm themselves with drugs and to fight and die in a manufactured war but they wouldn't stand for any show of force aimed at taking power and control away from them. That is still going on today.

Society did and still does need to change. But, the power of the international bankers and global corporations is even more entrenched today than it was then. The drug counterculture was encouraged and allowed to happen so that there would be many casualties and deaths in the ranks of the youth. The meaningless Vietnam-war seemed to have no other purpose than to send more young people off to fight and for what? The baby-boom generation was the largest the world had ever seen. They would have taken over the world by sheer numbers if they hadn't been fooled into believing that self-destructive behavior was okay. They were indoctrinated with feminist philosophy and the evil lies of individual choice and sexual freedom no matter the consequences for others or for the nation as a whole. They were conditioned into accepting that murdering an innocent baby was just another type of birth control. They were indoctrinated by the media into believing that the baby wasn't really a person or a human being. The delusion insisted that, despite a heartbeat, sounds of breathing, blood flow, movement in the womb, rapid development and many more signs of life, the fetus was not actually a living being. With the development of ultrasound, even more sights and sounds can be seen and heard that show that little child growing into a living person from the very moment of conception.

The assasinations of Martin Luther King and the Kennedy brothers gave the little people of the world "the blues" and lowered expectations for major change as many thought that "big brother" had struck not once but three times to beat down the hopes and dreams of the people. Maybe things got a bit too wild in the sixties.

Progressive and other rock music.

The late 1960s through the 1980s was also the time for progressive rock. A couple of bands taking the spiritual high ground were Yes and Genesis.

Todd Rundgren, beginning with his rock band "Nazz," brought a major talent to popular music. His personal, inspirational and ground-breaking work continues today. A man not afraid to go it alone and step out where others fear to tread musically and philosophically, has produced numerous recordings worth a listen: Nazz, A Wizard/A True Star, Something/Anything, Second Wind, No World Order and the list goes on. Ever wondered where the name "Nazz" came from? Maybe it stands for "The Nazarene" as in Lord Buckley's verbal salute to Jesus in his work, "The Nazz."

Pop and soft rock music.

A pleasantly mellow-voiced James Taylor has written tunes that are also mellow, sometimes bluesy and always popular. Taylor became an instant international star after his first album. His early style - soft, country-rock tinged with folk music - was accessible to many. He performed early with Carole King and quickly rose to the top of the music charts. Some of his detractors claim that his style became too commercial and predictable. His music became standard easy-pop fare with sometimes simple and sometime challenging lyrics. He overcame a heroin addiction and may have found the Lord of Love along the way.

Jimmy Webb has penned some of the best music and lyrics since the 1950s through the present day. Writing some of Glen Campbell's greatest early hits, Webb's career was built on writing and arranging songs sung and covered by many other pop, rock and country musicians.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the feeling was free and easy and on radio's most popular format, which was known as "top 40," an eclectic mix of styles was the rule. You could hear pop, folk, easy, rock, soul and progressive country all at the same place on your radio dial. This continued through the early to mid seventies when radio stations began to program for target audiences - urban contemporary, easy listening, light rock, progressive rock, progressive country, hard rock, soul, jazz, classical, folk. During the seventies, Austin TX was a great place to hear the music of Michael (Martin) Murphey who then was singing progressive country music - doing impromptu concerts in student union buildings. The Armadillo World Headquarters featured many top musical acts and local performers in an outdoor forum where listeners sat on the floor, drank a beer and enjoyed. Jerry Jeff Walker could be heard singing frequently around the town. Austin is a performance and recording hub for all kinds of music today. Nashville is a recording town for all kinds of music including Christian and country, Los Angeles - a rock and jazz hub and New York - a center for classical music, musical theatre, folk music and all kinds. Often, established artists and musicians live near the big music towns where they record while others choose to live in less crowded parts of the world and record at nearby studios or in their own homes. With the Internet, music is available anywhere and the music and recording industry has greatly changed because of it.


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