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Clyde Stubblefield, 2005
lesson:
Using Graphing to Analyze Music Industry Data
How can graphing be used to analyze music industry data?
article:
Lennon and McCartney: Songwriters — A Portrait from 1966
IT IS NOW ABOUT A DOZEN YEARS since the pop music revolution – since Alan Freed began to play, instead of soupy white imitations, straight rhythm and blues in New York and called it rock'n'roll; since Wild Bill Haley and his Comets roared to the top of the Top Ten with 'Shake, Rattle and Roll'; since the advent of the 45 rpm record and the post-war prosperity stretched that Top Ten into the Top 40, and even the Top 100. Despite adult accusations of the sameness of all the bleating sounds, pop has changed many times in those years. Those...
lesson:
The Blues and the Great Migration
How did the Great Migration spread Southern culture, helping to give the Blues a central place in American popular music?
lesson:
Dolores Huerta and The United Farm Workers Movement
Who is Dolores Huerta, what role did she play in the United Farm Workers movement, and how is she recognized today?
people:
Edwin Starr
(1942 – 2003) Though his career stretched from Doo-Wop to Disco, Edwin Starr will best be remembered for his groundbreaking hit “War,” one of the first Soul records to deliver serious social commentary along with the beat. Born Charles Edwin Hatcher, Starr pursued a musical career in Detroit after serving in the army, adopting his stage name and signing to the local Ric-Tic label. Starr recorded a series of moderately successful singles for Ric-Tic; then he became a Motown artist when Motown owner Berry Gordy bought the label in 1968. Though Starr’s rough vocal style was atypical for Motown, his...
people:
Alan Lomax
(1915 – 2002) Folklorist and ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax was an influential figure in 20th century American music, producing archival and field recordings that significantly boosted public awareness of American Folk, Blues and Jazz traditions, and was instrumental in launching the Folk and Blues revivals that took place among young white musicians and listeners in the 1950s and 60s. Lomax spent much of his life traveling and recording music, first traversing the backroads of the American South and eventually making his way around the world, interviewing musicians playing Folk, Blues, Jazz, Gospel, Calypso, Cajun music, and other genres, and capturing their music for...
people:
Lead Belly
(1889 – 1949) A singular figure in American music, Lead Belly is often called a Blues singer, but his repertoire ran well beyond Blues, and into a breadth of American Folk styles, from prison work songs and field songs to spirituals and square-dance calls. An itinerant singer who was both a songwriter and a repository for tradional songs, Lead Belly built an extensive repertoire that significantly influenced the Folk revival of the 1960s. Huddie Ledbetter was born in 1889 (by most estimates) near Shreveport, Louisiana. He was the son of sharecroppers and took an interest in music as a young boy,...
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...