TeachRock

article:
David Bowie: Freak Out In A Moonage Daydream

AYLESBURY, ENGLAND. He is, as he had planned, magnificent. The stage appears impeccably struck, lights arranged to catch the finer angles of his face, making him seem at times wonderfully ape-like and primitive, at others supremely regal, capable of the grand gesture now and again. The band stands behind him in a shock of silver reflections, each part steadily notching its integral role – lead guitar flashy, but always a foil; bass hung back just a stride or two to let you hint the presence; drums anonymous, but precise, punctuating, emphatic. There is never any question of whether they will...

people:
David Bowie

(b. 1947 – 2016) One of Rock’s most enduring auteurs, David Bowie was notable for his influence, his eclecticism, and the knack for self reinvention he repeatedly displayed over a long and prolific career that saw him working in Glam Rock, Soul, Dance Pop, Electronica, Folk, and other genres. Born David Robert Jones in London, Bowie showed his musical restlessness from the beginning. By the time be became a star in the early 70s, he’d already been kicking around the British music scene for several years, with stints as a mod Rock and Roller, a twee music-hall Popster, and a hippie troubadour. He had...

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David Bowie, 1974

article:
The Stooges: The Apotheosis Of Every Parental Nightmare

THE BIGGEST TREND on the rock circuit this year is decadence. Go to any concert, and you'll be amazed at the sudden change in American youth, who are now as far from last year's organic coveralls and bushy hanks of hair as they are from the madras shirts and slacks of 1963; teenagers of both sexes are piling on clots of make-up and swaddling themselves in flashily indeterminate glad rags. Boys with rouge and glitter on their eyelids, girls with the stark white faces and rinsed-out blonde hair of the Marilyn Monroe look they picked up from the drag queens...

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David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust

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David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust (2)

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David Bowie

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David Bowie

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David Bowie, Radio City Music Hall, New York City, 1973

article:
New York: Plug in to the Nerve-ends of the Naked City

In downtown Manhattan the rock 'n' roll war rages on as potential crown princes of Punkdom battle for recognition.. NICK KENT interprets the action IN MANHATTAN you're either uptown or down town and there's really no halfway house to dissolve into while in transit. You case your bearings purely on instinct as the yellow cab careers awkwardly down, down, down from the uptown three-star 51st and 3rd Mafioso hotel (ageing Hawaiian bellboys/the overbearing aroma of styrofoam in the Coffee Shop/the tight-lipped Italianate retired hit-man of a receptionist who always makes you wait for the key, nodding suspiciously to the grease-ball house...

lesson:
Glam: The Return of the Teenager

Grades: High, Middle

Subjects: ELA, General Music, Social Studies/History

Activities: Musical Analysis, Textual Analysis, Timeline, Visual Analysis

Topics: Gender and Sexuality, War, Youth/Teenagers

How was Glam Rock part of a new teenage culture in the 1970s?

lesson:
The History of Music Videos

Grades: High

Subjects: Art/Design, CTE, General Music, Science, Social Studies/History

Activities: Interactive Tech Tools, Visual Analysis

Topics: Media Studies, Technology

How has the relation between sound and image shifted through the history of recorded music, and how did the rise of MTV bring that relationship to a culmination of sorts?

lesson:
Introducing Glam Rock

Grades: High, Middle

Subjects: General Music

Activities: Musical Analysis, Textual Analysis, Think-Pair-Share

How was Glam Rock a reaction to the "seriousness" of popular music at the time?

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The Stooges

Even more so than their rabble-rousing Detroit neighbors the MC5 or their cerebral New York contemporaries the Velvet Underground, the Stooges could be called the antithesis of the Hippie culture that coincided with the band's original lifespan.  The Stooges were primal and confrontational, creating a pummeling sound that sounded palpably dangerous. Although the band’s three original albums came and went with little mainstream attention, the Stooges’ longterm impact is reflected its immense influence upon multiple generations of Punk outfits. The Stooges — frontman Iggy Pop (born James Osterberg, aka Iggy Stooge), brothers Ron and Scott Asheton on guitar and drums,...

video:
Bowie and Rock and Roll Characters

people:
David Edwards

video:
Personal Philosophy

video:
Rebel Rebel

people:
Queen

A one-of-a-kind foursome that combined Hard-Rock bombast, singsongy music hall Pop and campy Glam theatricality, Queen rode its unlikely mix of elements to massive worldwide success, reigning as one of the world's most popular bands throughout most of a 20-year career. Queen formed in London in 1971, when singer Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar) teamed with guitarist Brian May, bassist John Deacon and drummer Roger Taylor. The band's self-titled debut LP arrived two years later, followed by a string of '70s albums — Queen II, Sheer Heart Attack, A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races,...

article:
The Four Seasons: Ten Years And Still Hanging On

IN AUGUST LAST YEAR Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons celebrated ten years as one of the most successful recording groups America has ever produced. Their total world record sales now stand somewhere between 80 and 90 millions. Well below the Beatles, but higher than many more consistent artists like The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys and Creedence Clearwater. But in the rush to document everybody who trod a recording studio floor from 1950 onwards the Four Seasons seemed noticeable by their lack of attention. Maybe as Nik Cohn points out in his definitive book Wopbopaloobop alopbamboom (Paladin) they were such a...

article:
Pat Boone: Boone In The USA

LET'S PLAY the numbers game. According to Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1986, Pat Boone is the fifth highest-ranking artist in the history of theBillboard singles charts. Only Elvis Presley, the Beatles, James Brown and Stevie Wonder were more successful (based on the number of singles charting and their positions). In the '50s, only Elvis was more popular, chart-wise, than Boone. Pat Boone reached the singles charts 60 times, putting him at #8 on that list. Six of those chart singles reached #1, spending a total of 21 weeks in that position, putting Boone in two more Top 10 lists. So much for...

article:
With a Little Help from His Friends: George Harrison and the Concert for Bangla-Desh

STEVE VAN ZANDT, May 2011, Lillehammer, Norway: "The anti-apartheid Sun City project (single, album, video, documentary, book, teaching guide) was a high point and a rare clear cut victory from the ten years I spent immersed in the dark, murky, frustrating labyrinth of international liberation politics. It came in the middle of my five politically themed solo albums and had its roots – like all the charity and consciousness raising multi-artist events that would follow – in the Concert for Bangladesh." August 1st marks the 40th anniversary of two landmark benefit concerts that nearly 40,000 attended at Madison Square Garden...

article:
Cents and Sensibility: Talking Heads

You may find yourself...the leader of a rock band (of sorts)! You may find yourself...starring in a movie of that band's performance! You may find yourself...in a foreign country, staying in a fine hotel and talking to people about that band and that movie! And you may ask yourself...well, how did I get here? And you may ask yourself...what do I do now? Watch out! You might get what you're after. David Byrne, the talking head of Talking Heads, is one of pop music's stranger creatures. This is readily apparent when watching him perform: his onstage demeanour is hugely unsettling; nervous mannerism...

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Jackson Browne

(b. 1948) Jackson Browne emerged from Los Angeles to become the quintessential “sensitive singer-songwriter.” His ability to craft melodic but intimate songs brought him widespread commercial acceptance and helped set the tone for the soft California Rock sound that would flourish in the 70s. Raised in Los Angeles, Browne began writing original songs and performing in local clubs while still in his teens. Shortly after graduating high school in 1966 he moved to New York City to concentrate on songwriting. He became a staff writer for a publishing company and developed a reputation for writing poetic, confessional songs that belied his...

article:
The Kids Are Not Necessarily Alright

Or how the '70s has seen a limp-wristed sell-out of the ideals of the 60s. MICK FARREN discusses the way the Uncle Toms of Teendom have taken Rock off the streets and into the penthouse. WHEN YOU spend a great deal of your waking time hard up against the outpourings of the rock and roll industry, it gets difficult to believe that the music we've all grown up with is actually drifting away from the mainstream of everyday life. Unfortunately, if you do step far enough back to get modern rock trends into perspective with the general movements in society at...

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Lady Gaga

(b. 1986) Beginning with her 2008 debut, The Fame, Lady Gaga has emerged as one of the biggest Pop stars of the new millennium, with a flamboyant, shape-shifting persona and a theatrical approach to music that’s often likened to performance art, whether she’s wearing a dress made of meat or wrapping herself in gauze like a burn victim. A New York City native, Gaga was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta in 1986. She showed musical ability from an early age, and spent her childhood taking music and acting classes. By her teen years was writing songs, appearing in school plays and...

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Carly Simon

(b. 1943) Carly Simon emerged in the early 1970’s as a consistent hit maker and one of the most popular of the confessional Singer-Songwriters who helped define the laid-back sound of that era. Raised in New York City (where her father Richard was co-founder of the publishing giant Simon & Schuster), Simon began her professional career as part of a Folk duo, playing nightclubs in the city’s Greenwich Village neighborhood with her sister Lucy. Billed as the Simon Sisters, they made three albums together before Lucy quit to start a family. As a solo artist, Simon had several false starts – unreleased...

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Lou Reed

(1942 – 2013) With a poetic sensibility, a street-level outsider mentality and a focus on dark themes, New York City-based singer, songwriter and guitarist Lou Reed proved one of the most influential figures in Rock and Roll over a five-decade career. A native of Long Island, NY, Reed sang in a Doo Wop group in high school, before attending Syracuse University in the early 1960s, where he studied with the poet Delmore Schwarz. After a stint as a staff songwriter at Pickwick Records, Reed came to prominence in the mid-late 1960s as the leader of the Velvet Underground, whose raw, arty minimalism...

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Sweet

The Sweet (later just Sweet) were among the most popular (and Pop-oriented) purveyors of 1970s Glam Rock, racking up a string of hit singles in their native U.K. and beyond. The origins of Sweet go back to 1967, when core members got together as the Sweetshop and began attracting fans on the London pub circuit. Their sound initially was in the Bubblegum Pop vein of acts like the Archies and the Monkees, but the band began to toughen it with a Hard Rock edge, inspired in part by the Who. Their popularity grew steadily throughout Europe, especially in the U.K., where...

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Devo

One of the most iconoclastic acts to emerge from the American New Wave movement in the late 70s, Devo’s long and productive lifespan belies the assumptions of those who dismissed the group as a novelty act during its original heyday. Along the way, the Ohio-bred Art-Punk sci-fi surrealists managed to break into America's mainstream pop consciousness. Although they've shifted styles numerous times, from jagged Punk to bouncy Synth Pop to ironic Easy Listening and back again, Devo has remained true to its conceptual origins, while maintaining the playful sense of subversion with which it started. Devo's central concept of "devolution"...

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Vanilla Ice

(b. 1967) Although he was massively popular for a brief period in the early '90s, rapper Vanilla Ice occupies roughly the same niche in Hip Hop history that Pat Boone filled in the early days of Rock and Roll: he’s often regarded as a white performer who achieved commercial success by sanitizing a "dangerous" musical style for mainstream consumption.  Born Robert Van Vinkle, Ice – who was born in Texas and raised there and in South Florida — released his first album, Hooked, in 1989 on the independent Ichiban label. He then signed with the corporate SBK Records, which released a...

lesson:
“Seneca Falls, Selma, Stonewall”: The Stonewall Riots in the Fight for Equality

Grades: High, Middle

Subjects: Civics, Social Studies/History

Activities: Textual Analysis, Timeline, Visual Analysis

Topics: Civics and Politics, Current Events, Gender and Sexuality, LGBTQ+ History, Social Justice Movements, Women's History

What were the Stonewall Riots, and what role did they play in ongoing struggles for LGBTQ+ equality in the United States?

lesson:
The Birth of the Microphone

Grades: High, Middle

Subjects: CTE, General Music, Science, STEAM

Activities: Interactive Tech Tools, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis

Topics: Media Studies, Technology

How did the development of microphones in the 20th century change the way people make and listen to music?

lesson:
The Memphis Sound and Racial Integration

Grades: High

Subjects: ELA, Social Studies/History

Activities: Gallery Walk, Maps, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis

Topics: Black History, Civics and Politics, Geography

How has Memphis music culture provided one example of art’s capacity to challenge the racial boundaries that have so often structured American life?

lesson:
The San Francisco Scene, 1967

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High

Subjects: Social Studies/History

Activities: Document-Based Questions, Maps, Role Playing, Textual Analysis

Topics: Geography, Social Justice Movements, Youth/Teenagers

Why did nearly 100,000 young people descend upon San Francisco in 1967 for a “Summer of Love"?

article:
Dan Penn

DAN PENN WROTE his first hit ('Is A Bluebird Blue?' for Conway Twitty) at fourteen, and collaborated prolifically with Spooner Oldham, turning out mid '60s R&B hits like James and Bobby Purify's 'I'm Your Puppet'. In 1967 he produced the Box Tops' 'The Letter'. His more mercurial partnership with Chips Moman also created the much-recorded classic, 'Dark End Of The Street'. "Rick Hall built himself a studio, Fame, and wanted me to write for him. He was good enough to pay me 25 bucks a week, so I started writing for him in '63 and moved to Muscle Shoals from...

article:
Black Flag

LET'S FACE IT – much of what passes for music in our country is, in fact, nothing more than product, the worthless, soulless result of greed and stupidity. The sights are set low, and the history of rock and roll is awash with things that just don't matter. They don't come from the heart and they don't touch any hearts. They glitter for a minute and are gone. Black Flag is another story. Perhaps the most vilified, hated and harassed band in recent memory, Black Flag's entire career, virtually, has been circumscribed by how the police and media portray them. Not even...

article:
Monterey Pops! An International Pop Festival

Reporting for Newsweek took me to Monterey. I'd gone to work for Newsweekright out of college in 1965 – I was a reporter in the London bureau whenRubber Soul came out, Carnaby Street was jumping, and the Who were at the Marquee. In January '67, just as the '60s musical-social ball was bouncing westward, Newsweek moved me to San Francisco. I arrived in time for the Human Be-In and soon was hanging out at the Avalon and Fillmore, interviewing Jerry and Janis, and covering student demonstrations in Berkeley. In May I began to hear rumours of a huge hippie festival: all the best new bands...

article:
Leiber And Stoller : The Blues (1950-1953) & The Rock ‘n’ Roll Years

JERRY LEIBER AND MIKE STOLLER. They rank alongside Berry as rock ‘n’ roll’s wittiest composers and their influence as record producers has been immeasurable. As writers they were the first to bring satire and a social conscience to rock; as producers they ushered out the simplicity of an era in which groups were pulled off the streets to "doo-wop" and "doo-wah" into a microphone for three minutes. From these primitive beginnings to monaural overdubbing, the very first eight-track studios and on into the realms of the technological future-shock, Leiber and Stoller have directed all the phases of post-war record production....

article:
Berry Gordy: Motown Magician

Until recently little was known of Berry Gordy Jnr’s background. Such information as was available made no sense at all except on a romantic level, and Motown’s official version of its own origins is curiously blunt. The aggressive young car-worker is said to have started the company that revolutionized the record industry on nothing more than an 800 dollar loan from his family’s credit union. But this rags-to-riches account overlooks two factors. In the first instance, Gordy was among the hottest songwriters of the late Fifties and had several million-selling compositions to his credit. Moreover, he came – to borrow...

article:
Long John meets John Lee Hooker

THEY COULD hardly have been a bigger contrast in background and appearance: the young, very tall, bright white Englishman Long John Baldry, and the mature, short, dark brown American John Lee Hooker. But they had the blues in common and when I brought Baldry and Hooker together recently they got along like old friends. John Lee was amazed that Long John, who is a mere 23, has been listening to blues records for 11 years "Yes, the first disc I bought was Muddy Water singing 'Honey Bee' on French Vogue. Then I got another French Vogue, Big Bill Broonzy's 'Blues...

article:
Doo-wop: At The Hop

White vocal groups of the Fifties embraced a variety of styles and sounds, ranging from adult pop groups (the Ames Brothers, the Four Aces, the Hilltoppers), through shameless pop-rockers who covered the R&B hits of the day (the Crewcuts, the McGuire Sisters, the Diamonds) to a vast army of teenage singing groups who naturally absorbed black vocal mannerisms.  Some, like the Skyliners and the Belmonts, rivaled the best black harmony groups but, before the emergence of such quartets, white doo-wop was synonymous with plagiarism and what might be termed 'sham-rock'. The king of sham-rock was Bill Randle, a Cleveland disc jockey...

lesson:
The Origins of Disco

Grades: High

Subjects: ELA, Ethnic Studies, General Music, Social Studies/History

Activities: Creative Writing, Gallery Walk, Musical Analysis

Topics: Black History, Dance, Gender and Sexuality, LGBTQ+ History, Social Justice Movements

What are the cultural, economic, and geographic origins of Disco and how has the genre been presented, remembered, and represented in popular culture?

article:
The Sex Pistols are four months old…

THE SEX PISTOLS are four months old, so tuned in to the present that it's hard to find a place to play. Yet they already have a large, fanatical following. So their manager, who runs a rubber and leather shop called Sex, hired a strip club where the two sides could meet. The small, sleazoid El Paradise Club in Soho is not one of the more obvious places for English rock to finally get to grips with the '70s, but when you're trying to create the atmosphere of anarchy, rebellion and exclusiveness that's necessary as a breeding ground, what better...

video:
The Blues Were Born

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Mudhoney, Seattle, 2013

article:
Kurt Cobain: I’m Not Gonna Crack!

Poisoned by the chalice of instant success, bedridden with road-rash after a ton of amp-smashingly intense gigs – what's happened to Nirvana's tortured singer and distillery of teen spirit, Kurt Cobain? "All I need is a break," he says... FOR NOW, Kurt Cobain and his new wife, Courtney Love, live in an apartment in Los Angeles' modest Fairfax district. The living room holds little besides a Fender Twin Reverb amplifier, a stringless guitar, a makeshift Buddhist shrine and, on the mantel, the couple's collection of naked plastic dolls. Scores of CDs and tapes are strewn around the stereo – obscurities such...

lesson:
Indigenous Music from Wounded Knee to the Billboard Charts

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High, Middle

Subjects: ELA, Social Studies/History

Activities: Document-Based Questions, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis

Topics: Civics and Politics, Dance, Native American History, War

In what ways did the music of Native Americans mark them as outsiders from the developing narratives of “American-ness” in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and how did the federal government attempt to use music as a tool to force assimilation?

lesson:
The Transcontinental Railroad featuring Work Songs Collected by John Lomax

Grades: High

Subjects: Social Studies/History

Activities: Maps, Musical Analysis, Primary Source Analysis, Think-Pair-Share, Timeline

Topics: Pre-20th Century History

In what ways did the Transcontinental Railroad contribute to the physical, cultural, and musical growth of the American West in the late 19th Century?

lesson:
Native Americans and Westward Expansion featuring Redbone

Grades: High

Subjects: Social Studies/History

Activities: Document-Based Questions, Primary Source Analysis, Station Activities

Topics: Native American History, Pre-20th Century History, Social Justice Movements

What were the experiences of Native Americans during Westward Expansion and how did the U.S. government use music and other aspects of culture to force assimilation on Native Americans?

lesson:
The Black Origins of Punk

Grades: High, Middle

Subjects: ELA, General Music

Activities: Creative Writing, Station Activities

Topics: Black History

How did the bands X-Ray Spex, Bad Brains, and Death define Punk on their own terms?

lesson:
Greta Thunberg, Music, and the Climate Crisis

Grades: High, Middle

Subjects: General Music, Science, Social Studies/History

Activities: Musical Analysis, Performance, Role Playing, Textual Analysis

Topics: Civics and Politics, Contemporary Music, Current Events, Environment, Social Justice Movements, Youth/Teenagers

How have musicians helped spread climate activist Greta Thunberg’s message?

lesson:
“Y’all Better Quiet Down”: Black and Latinx LGBTQ+ Pioneers

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High

Subjects: Social Studies/History

Activities: Station Activities, Textual Analysis

Topics: Black History, Civics and Politics, Gender and Sexuality, Latin American History, LGBTQ+ History, Social Justice Movements, Women's History

How did Black and Latinx people in the LGBTQ+ community take initiative in the Stonewall Inn rebellions, Gay Liberation Movement, and in the preservation of LGBTQ+ history?

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Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young

Folk Rock supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young rose in the late 1960s from the ashes of several highly successful acts. Both Neil Young and Stephen Stills were previously part of Buffalo Springfield, David Crosby was a member of the Byrds, and Graham Nash arrived from the British Invasion group the Hollies. Known for their soaring harmonies and laid-back Folk Rock sound, the group’s core is the trio of Crosby, Stills, and Nash, with Young as an on-and-off fourth member. The group initially formed after Crosby, Stills, and Nash sang together at a party in Los Angeles and were excited by...

lesson:
Art, Music, and the AIDS Epidemic

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High

Subjects: Art/Design, Social Emotional Learning, Social Studies/History

Activities: Charts and Graphs, Document-Based Questions, Gallery Walk, Station Activities, Textual Analysis, Timeline, Visual Analysis, Visual Art

Topics: Civics and Politics, Gender and Sexuality, LGBTQ+ History, Media Studies, Social Justice Movements, Social-Emotional Learning, Technology

How did the LGTBQ+ community creatively respond to the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and 1990s, and protest government inaction in addressing the epidemic?

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De La Soul

When De La Soul burst upon the Rap scene in 1989, their laid-back vibe, eclectic  musical tastes and clever wordplay immediately made an impact for their sharp contrast to the macho bragging and intense beats that ruled the day.  Their gentler take on Hip-Hop is credited with expanding the definition of what Rap music could be, and paving the way for future “alternative” Rap artists. De La Soul was formed in suburban Amityville, Long Island, NY, by high school friends Kelvin Mercer, David Jude Jolicoeur and Vincent Mason, who’d soon be better known by their stage names: "Posdnuos," "Trugoy the...

lesson:
Singing Democracy During the Second Great Awakening

Grades: AP/Honors/101

Subjects: Social Studies/History

Activities: Document-Based Questions, Role Playing, Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis

Topics: Black History, Contemporary Music, Pre-20th Century History, Social Justice Movements

What was the Second Great Awakening, how did it change American society, and how does Sacred Harp singing exemplify its ideals?

lesson:
The New York City Underground

Grades: High, Middle

Subjects: Art/Design, General Music

Activities: Textual Analysis, Visual Analysis, Visual Art, Visual Design

How did New York bands interact with the city's art scene to create something new?

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Joan Baez

(b. 1941) Beyond her stature as a performer and recording artist, Joan Baez is significant for her status as one of the first musicians of her era to use her talent as a vehicle for political activism. A prominent voice during the 60s Folk revival, Baez was one of the scene's most distinctive vocal interpreters, and her commitment to social justice has led her to lend her voice to a variety of antiwar, human rights, and environmental causes. She was also instrumental in popularizing the work of Bob Dylan, as well as several other soon-to-be-famous songwriters. The daughter of a Mexican-born...

lesson:
The Sound of Blue Collar Detroit

Grades: High

Subjects: Social Studies/History

Activities: Charts and Graphs, Textual Analysis

Topics: Economics, Geography, Labor History, Social Justice Movements

How did Rock and Roll serve as an expressive tool for the working-class youth of Detroit?

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Joni Mitchell

(b. 1943) Initially branded as a Folk singer, Joni Mitchell came to prominence as part of the wave of introspective Singer Songwriters who emerged in Los Angeles in the early 1970s. A restless creative spirit, she soon moved beyond those labels, embracing Jazz, Pop, and African and Latin rhythms, and turning out an idiosyncratic body of work that earned her critical plaudits and a legion of devoted fans. Her 1971 album Blue was particularly hailed as a masterwork, and is often ranked among the 20th century’s best and most influential albums. Growing up in Alberta, Canada, Mitchell was drawn to painting...

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Sam and Dave

Sam Moore and Dave Prater made for one of the most successful Soul acts of the 1960s, racking up a string of hard-grooving hits with a tag-team vocal style that owed a debt to the church music both men had grown up singing. Solo performers at the outset, the two southerners – Moore from Florida, Prater from Georgia – formed a duo in 1961, after meeting at a club in Miami. After bouncing between various labels and issuing a series of singles that received regional airplay but failed to ignite, the pair’s moment came when they were signed by Jerry Wexler...

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The Shirelles

One of the earliest and most consistently successful Girl Groups, the Shirelles were a quartet of teenagers from Passaic, N.J., who in the late 1950s and early 1960s scored a run of classic hits whose romantic innocence was sweet as the group's harmonies. Originally known as the Poquellos, the girls — originally Doris Coley (later Doris Kenner-Jackson), Addie "Micki" Harris, Shirley Owens (later Shirley Alston Reeves) and Beverly Lee — were schoolmates of the daughter of Scepter Records founder Florence Greenberg. Greenberg auditioned them and was impressed enough to sign the group and become their manager, renaming them the Shirelles....

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The Temptations

The most successful male group of Motown Records' 1960s heyday, the Temptations personified the label's R&B-pop crossover ideal. With powerful vocal harmonies, snappy attire, and slick dance moves — not to mention access to Motown's best songwriters, producers, and studio musicians — the quintet made music that was immaculately crafted yet punchy and gritty, appealing to black and white listeners alike. The Temptations were a consistent chart presence from the mid-60s through the early 70s, with their evolving sound reflecting the era's volatile mood. The five Detroit singers who comprised the Temptations' classic lineup — David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, Paul...

people:
The Byrds

Formed in Los Angeles in 1964, the Byrds are credited as the first Folk Rock group, pioneering a sound that bridged the gap between popular Folk acts like the Kingston Trio and the bands of the British Invasion. The core members of the band — Jim (Roger) McGuinn, Gene Clark and David Crosby — all had roots in the Folk world, having put their time in playing in coffee houses with groups like the New Christy Minstrels and Les Baxter’s Balladeers. As with so many musicians in the early 60s, it was the wake-up call of hearing the Beatles that...

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George Harrison and Gerald Ford, 1974

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Gasoline Shortage, 1973

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Bonnie Raitt in 1976

people:
Talking Heads

Probably the most self-consciously arty of the 1976 school of bands to rise from New York's Punk scene, Talking Heads managed to achieve considerable commercial success with music that grew more ambitious and challenging through the band's dozen-year recording career, ranging from tightly wound minimalism to expansive Funk to polyrhythmic Worldbeat to catchy Pop-Rock.  Much of Talking Heads' distinctive sensibility was forged at the Rhode Island School of Design in the early 70s, where singer/guitarist David Byrne, drummer Chris Frantz and bassist Tina Weymouth met as students. The trio subsequently landed in New York in time to become a part...