Thursday was one of my favorite media literacy lectures covering the history of a variety of formats of popular music, starting with hillbilly, folk, and the so-called race records.
We started out with Chuck Berry performing “You Can’t Catch Me” from the film Rock, Rock, Rock.
We then moved on to the British invasion with a 1965 clip (I believe) of The Who playing “The Kids Are Alright” in front of a lake. Like the Chuck Berry clip above, this is obviously a lip synch as there are no microphones or cables in either. But it’s a lot of fun seeing the boys in their early 20s working at being too cool for school.
Coming up next, we moved into the era of the concept albums such asThe Beatles “Sgt. Pepper,” Frank Zappa’s “Freak Out,” and, of course, The Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds.” Rather than using a period clip of them playing “God Only Knows,” I went with this one from the launch of the BBC Music Service from 2014. It’s an amazing compilation featuring a Who’s Who of music from the last 50 years, including among so many others Dave Grohl, Sam Smith, Chris Martin, Elton John, Lorde, Florence Welch, Stevie Wonder, Brian May, Chrissie Hynde, and Pharrell Williams.
And because “God Only Knows is the greatest pop song ever, here’s a bonus video of the Beach Boys playing their classic hit back in 1966. (This clip is actually from a 16mm silent film synched up with the original recording.)
Most accounts on the history of hip hop place it’s birth at block parties and with mix tapes from the Bronx in the 1970s (including my textbook), but PBS’s music education series Sound Field shows that the roots of hip hops rhythms and rhymes can be dated back to the 1940s, and uses this example from the gospel group The Jubalaires performing “Preacher and the Bear” in style that sounds an awful lot like early rap.
I closed out my lecture with the great Rosanne Cash playing her tribute to country music radio “50,000 Watts” from her album “The River & the Thread.”
And finally… pre-class video was Robert Plant and his band from his album “Saving Grace” playing a Tiny Desk concert. He’s come a long ways from arena Led Zeppelin shows.