#Jerry Wexler lyrics meanings

[jourdepluie91]

The political and cultural impact of Aretha Franklin’s “Respect,” explained

At this 1967 performance of the song in Antibes, France, and many others, Franklin wasn’t just singing about a love affair. She was wrapping a statement about feminism and civil rights in the package of a chart-topping song, and paving the way for future musicians to unite politics and pop.

“Respect” is probably Franklin’s best-known hit. It hit the top of the Billboard charts in 1967 and won Franklin two Grammys. It’s appeared in more than 60 TV shows and films, from Scandal to Mystic Pizza. And when Aretha Franklin passed at the age of 76, critics and ordinary listeners alike returned to the song as a way to remember her. The history of “Respect” reveals just how revolutionary an artist Franklin was, and how much her impact endures to this day.

With “Respect,” Franklin created her own version of an Otis Redding song

“Respect” was first recorded by Otis Redding in 1965. The song is a request from a man to his lover: “All I’m asking is for a little respect when I come home.” Lyrically, it’s fairly traditional — as Hanif Abdurraqib writes at Vulture, “There isn’t much interesting in a man insisting on respect when he comes home from work.”

Franklin came to the song in 1967 and made it her own. She subtly shifted the point of view. Where Redding had promised, “What you want, honey you got it,” Franklin sang, “baby I got it.” And where Redding asked for respect when he came home, Franklin requested “a little respect when you get home.” In her hands, the song sounds like a call from a woman to man to acknowledge all that she gives him. That includes “all of my money” — the female speaker in Franklin’s version was apparently not just financially self-sufficient but able to support her partner. Proclaiming this fact proudly still feels revolutionary today.

Franklin also added backup singers, and what are now probably the song’s most famous lines:

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Find out what it means to me

She also added the lines “take care of TCB” (which stands for “taking care of business,” as she once explained to the Los Angeles Times) and “sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me.”

“My sister Carolyn and I got together,” Franklin said in a 1999 Fresh Air interview (her sisters Carolyn and Erma sang backup on the original recording). “Piano by the window, watching the cars go by, and we came up with that infamous line, the ‘Sock it to me!’ line. It was a cliché of the day.”

“Some of the girls were saying that to the fellows,” she explained, “like, ‘Sock it to me in this way or sock it to me in that way.’” Franklin added that the phrase wasn’t supposed to be sexual — it can simply mean something like “tell me” or “give it to me straight.”

In Franklin’s reimagining, “the call for respect went from a request to a demand,” music producer Jerry Wexler told her biographer. And in adding backup vocals using slang she and her sister had heard among women, she recast the song from a specifically female perspective.

“It’s a song written by Otis Redding, who is considered obviously one of the most iconic soul men of all time,” Reiland Rabaka, a professor of African, African American, and Caribbean studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and the author of The Hip Hop Movement: From R&B and the Civil Rights Movement to Rap and the Hip Hop Generation, told Vox. “But Aretha snatches the song away and reinfuses it with these second-wave feminist sensibilities.”

The song became an anthem for feminism and civil rights

Released during a pivotal time in the feminist and civil rights movements, Franklin’s version of “Respect” became emblematic of both.

“So many people identified with and related to ‘Respect’,” Franklin wrote in her autobiography. “It was the need of a nation, the need of the average man and woman in the street, the businessman, the mother, the fireman, the teacher — everyone wanted respect. It was also one of the battle cries of the civil rights movement. The song took on monumental significance.”

The daughter of Rev. C.L. Franklin, a civil rights activist and friend of Martin Luther King Jr., Franklin “grew up in the movement,” Rabaka said. “Her work has a particular meaning for the black freedom movement, for the civil rights movement, for the black power movement, and for black women involved in the women’s liberation movement at that time.”

“Civil rights workers would see her at a fundraiser, right next to Martin Luther King Jr., raising funds for the movement, and then hear her records on the radio,” he added.

“Respect” also had a special meaning for female listeners. Franklin had her first child at 12, Rabaka pointed out, and was involved in abusive relationships. “This is pre-#MeToo movement,” he said, “but a lot of women knew that sister Aretha was singing from a pit of pain.”

“In a patriarchal society,” he added, “love is political.”

“Respect” was a massive mainstream hit

In addition to speaking specifically to listeners involved in the feminist and civil rights movements, “Respect” captivated audiences nationwide. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart and won Franklin two 1967 Grammys, for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording and a new category, Best Rhythm & Blues Solo Vocal Performance, Female. Franklin went on to win the latter category eight times in a row, so many it was nicknamed the “Aretha Award.”

As both political anthem and mainstream hit, “Respect” continued a long tradition. “Since the time of enslavement,” Rabaka said, “African Americans have created music that essentially has one meaning within the black community, and perhaps a separate, qualitatively different meaning once it leaves the community.”

“Just like with Ben E. King’s song ‘Stand By Me,’” he added, “a lot of things are coded.”

Franklin was also able to sing about women’s liberation “without ever labeling herself a feminist,” Rabaka said. “The ways in which Aretha Franklin however so subtly pushed back against patriarchy, that’s a lesson for us all,” he added. “She’s a political genius.”

Her work, both politically engaged and popular, was in some ways a precursor to albums like Beyoncé’s Lemonade and Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly, which deal with topics such as police brutality and Black Lives Matter while topping the charts, Rabaka said.

And, of course, “Respect” itself remains popular to this day. In the wake of Franklin’s death, the song has already inspired numerous analyses and tributes.

“Aretha knew to place emphasis on the word over the actual ask,” Abdurraqib wrote at Vulture, comparing Franklin’s version to Redding’s. “To spell it out, letting the demand hang off of each letter twice. The difference in the two versions is the difference between ‘give me what I want’ and ‘pay me what you owe me.’”

“The reason you learn ‘Respect’ is the way ‘Respect’ is sung,” wrote Wesley Morris at the New York Times. “Redding made it a burning plea. Ms. Franklin turned the plea into the most empowering popular recording ever made.”

Its impact will undoubtedly endure long after Franklin’s death, as new generations hear their own lives reflected in her words. As Rabaka put it, “That song will be relevant as long as there is a lot of disrespect in America.”

[courtneyslullabye]

Music and the Civil Rights Movement.

Bob Fitch photography archive, Stanford University Libraries

We’ve all seen that music proved itself as a mean to help individuals, now let’s see how it affected — and still does— oppressed minorities. 

Today’s post will focus on music during the Civil Rights Movement era. 

This era mainly took place during the 50’s and 60’s in the United States of America. The aim of the movement was to fight the oppression Black people faced (segregation, unequal opportunities, discrimination, etc.) after the abolition of slavery. 

Music played a huge part during this era, due to the fact that it had the power to mentally unite people and physically mobilise them; it was reassuring, it was mournful, it was a mean to earn money to contribute to the fight for equality. 

Music also evolved the same way the fight did. 

As far as we can go, the first protest songs were spiritual, religious, then as the younger generations joined the movement, these songs became more spread and turned into unofficial anthems of the movement. Younger generations brought folk music as a new weapon, changed the lyrics of religion-inclined protest songs to attract more of their generations and make a greater impact on them. 

Even Black people who have been imprisoned came to learn of these songs as they were being sung in the cellblocks:

“James Farmer, national director of the Congress of Racial Equality and a Freedom Ride participant, recalled one night when a voice called from the cell block below to the freedom riders: “‘Sing your freedom song.’ … We sang old folk songs and gospel songs to which new words had been written, telling of the Freedom Ride and its purpose” (Wexler, 134). The female freedom riders in another wing of the jail joined in, “and for the first time in history, the Hinds County jail rocked with unrestrained singing of songs about Freedom and Brotherhood” (Wexler, 134).“ (1)

These songs reached people, created allies, and became weapons, as Jamila Jones explains during an interview: 

“Highlander was raided by the police, who shut off all the lights in the building. She found the strength to sing out into the darkness, adding a new verse, “We are not afraid,” to the song, “We Shall Overcome.” Jones explains, “And we got louder and louder with singing that verse, until one of the policemen came and he said to me, “If you have to sing,” and he was actually shaking, “do you have to sing so loud?”  And I could not believe it.  Here these people had all the guns, the billy clubs, the power, we thought. And he was asking me, with a shake, if I would not sing so loud.  And it was that time that I really understood the power of our music.”“ (2)

Music has never been a mean of entertainment only, it has always been more than this. It’s a tool, a weapon, an enhancer of the people’s voice. Which is why my subject is going to be something along the lines of: Music and its importance as a political weapon today. 

Sources:

(1) Songs and the Civil Rights Movement, https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/songs-and-civil-rights-movement

(2) https://www.loc.gov/collections/civil-rights-history-project/articles-and-essays/music-in-the-civil-rights-movement/

(3) Jerry Rodnitzky, ‘Protest song’, October 2013. https://doi-org.scd-rproxy.u-strasbg.fr/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2252188

[landonpie669-blog]

What Is Your Favourite Genre Of Music, And Why?

It is a 'list of electronic music genres', consisting of genres of electronic music , primarily created with digital musical devices or www.audio-transcoder.com digital music technology A distinction has been made between sound produced utilizing electromechanical means and that produced using digital expertise. In the phrases of P!nk (whose first album was R&B) "No person wants to hear a love song that you don't mean". Not just the genre itself but arguably the love and romance of Contemporary R&B is useless. Replaced by songs coping with trashy cleaning soap opera, Jerry Springer matters. With more vocal gymnastics and a few vague, treacly high-pitched sound within the background. The fusion of modern R&B to hip-hop tends to dilute both these Genres. Curiously enough, Modern R&B pushed soul music off the charts. Jazz is often performed by ensembles (though single artists can play as well), with significance laid on their means to play off one another, and improvise ex tempore. The improvisational fashion of jazz links it to Indian classical music, which also values improvisation over repetition of set melodies. This intrinsic commonality has produced numerous collaborations between jazz and Indian classical artists. Pt. Ravi Shankar, who ceaselessly collaborated with Western musicians, is without doubt one of the most famous Indian musicians within the West. John McLaughlin, a noted jazz guitarist, fashioned fusion ensembles with Western and Indian musicians corresponding to Zakir Hussain and Vikku Vinayakram. Australia has a wealthy custom of Western classical music with professional orchestras in every capital; an active chamber music, small ensemble and choral sector; and four skilled opera corporations. These are complemented by state youth orchestras, and a whole lot of neighborhood based choirs, orchestras and ensembles. Classical music in Australia is derived from our European historical past and traditions. It is generally notated, written for particular devices, and follows outlined constructions. Contemporary classical or ‘new music' does away with and redefines some traditional approaches. Classical music has a number of varieties, a number of the best known of that are early or medieval music, baroque, classical, romantic, contemporary and new music.

In addition to newcomer Whitley, high traditional nation and influential performers who died throughout the decade included Purple Sovine , Whitey Ford , Marty Robbins , Merle Travis , Ernest Tubb , Wynn Stewart and goodreads.com Tex Williams Although not directly associated with country music, Roy Orbison , a favourite of many nation music fans and whose types wound up being influential with many newcomers, died in 1988. Agrarian settlement in eastern and southern Ontario and western Quebec within the early nineteenth century established a good milieu for the survival of many Anglo-Canadian folksongs and broadside ballads from Nice Britain and the US. Regardless of huge industrialization, folks music traditions have continued in lots of areas till in the present day. In the north of Ontario, a big Franco-Ontarian inhabitants saved folks music of French origin alive.

1992Innovation and variety within the standard music industry, 1969-1990. Am. Sociol. Rev. Defends the importance of enthusiastic about mass artwork as a substitute of fashionable art. Though it's not Carroll's primary focus, he often discusses standard music. Since he made his Billboard chart debut in 1964, Hank Williams Jr. has amassed one of the prolific catalogs within the history of the music enterprise, together with eight platinum albums. Hank Jr. was also some of the-awarded artists of his time, winning a trio of Entertainer of the 12 months trophies from the ACM, as well as again-to-back honors from the CMA in 1987 and 1988. Nietzsche aside, philosophy of music has been dominated by the view that the very best music is autonomous and formally complex (John Dewey is nearly alone in defending the vitality of common art during this time period. Sadly, Dewey mentioned little or no about music.). As not too long ago as 1990, philosophy of fashionable music consisted of variations on a single theme. Philosophers defended the twin assumptions that in style music is essentially totally different from serious" or art music, and that the previous is aesthetically inferior to the latter. In consequence, most philosophers who bothered to debate well-liked music targeting figuring out the aesthetic deficiencies inherent in such music. Adolescents usually are not the only young shoppers of widespread music. A examine with a hundred fourth- by sixth-graders revealed that 98% of these kids listened to popular music, seventy two% of them on most days" or each day. 30 Moreover, it has been reported that kids eight to 10 years of age take heed to music an average of 1 hour per day. 25 With many kids and adolescents listening on iPods or different gadgets using headphones, parents could have little information of what their youngsters are listening to. Rhythm and blues (or R&B) was coined as a musical advertising term in the late Forties by Jerry Wexler at Billboard magazine, used to designate upbeat common music carried out by African American artists that mixed jazz and blues. It was initially used to identify the fashion of music that later developed into rock and roll. By the Nineteen Seventies, rhythm and blues was being used as a blanket term to explain soul and funk as nicely. Immediately, the acronym "R&B" is nearly always used as an alternative of "rhythm and blues", and defines the trendy model of the soul and funk influenced African-American pop music that originated with the demise of disco in 1980.

FABBRI, Franco, A Idea of Musical Genres: Two Applications, in: Popular Music Views, pp.fifty two-eighty one, 1982. While house music started as a distinctly American style, the emergence of progressive home within the UK scene within the early Nineteen Nineties turned house music into a world music model. Progressive home grew out of the Nineties UK rave and club scene and saw producers incorporating parts of trance music into the traditional house model. At the moment, some of the world's greatest DJs like Deadmau5, Avicii, https://bernicekiek966.tumblr.com/post/185934742740/essay-on-comparability-between-pop-music-and Zedd, and Tiesto, are part of the progressive home motion.

Frankly I do not care if the music is pop or rock. Simply the tune and the lyrics needs to be my style and smart. I keep on with four rock bands :Disturbed, Evanescence, Breaking Benjamin and Within Temptation, trigger I just feel calm or nice or excited by their music. I am solely speaking about the songs, not the live shows as a result of I reside in India and I've never been to any live shows. One of the essential reasons I don't like pop music much is as a result of they're at all times so cliched. It's either love songs or partying or drugs or sex. I am simply feeling so damned tired of trendy pop music. I'm additionally afraid that rock is developing those type of attitudes and that is why I stick to only four bands. If you happen to guys could recommend a new song for me, publish your touch upon cretoxyrhinamantelli@gmail. com.

[ben-winch-writer-rocker]

Live, Masonic Auditorium, Detroit, 01/14/1978

Fred “Sonic” Smith and Oppositional Defiance Disorder:

The appeal of MC5 guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith goes beyond his guitar work, savage, deft and incendiary as that work may have been, and far beyond what traces of that work remain via studio and live recordings. In this era of “over-diagnosed” psychological disorders, Smith’s “condition” might well be labelled, like Kurt Cobain’s, “oppositional defiance disorder”. But unlike Cobain, Smith had neither the drive to be a frontman nor the good grace (or self-doubt) to back down in the face of physical opposition. And unlike Cobain, he was no suicide; his anger faced squarely outwards, driven by a righteous indignation that, at first, was anything but self-implicating.

A famous MC5 creation myth paints the young would-be revolutionary. While discussing the band-to-come at a Detroit restaurant with Wayne Kramer and Rob Tyner, Smith knocked a glass over mid-rant and (according to Kramer) said, “Yeah, this is what we’ll do, we’ll just knock shit over if we wanna knock shit over. We’ll be powerful. We’ll take a stand.”

“That ain’t cool,” Tyner said. “That ain’t being powerful. You’re not taking a stand. You’re not proving anything.”

Smith: “Well what are you gonna do about it?”

Tyner: “I’ll do what I have to do.”

Smith: “Then let’s fight.”

So they fought outside in the icy parking lot. After a couple of punches it went to the ground and Smith, an athletic six-foot-plus, came out on top, fist raised. “I could smash your face in,” he said.

And Tyner said, “Well why don’t you?”

As Kramer tells it, for three teenagers this was deep, and they got in the car and drove around for hours analysing what had happened. For Smith, I suspect it was a turning point, maybe not just in his relationship with Tyner (“After that they were tight,” says Kramer) but in his understanding of what nowadays might be termed his disorder. Of course it didn’t stop him fighting (he’d spar with Tyner again, and tackle two policemen when they arrested MC5 manager John Sinclair), but just maybe it started him questioning, turning his ideals from “smash everything” to “smash what needs smashing”, and giving him the dignity and true-seeming righteousness that comes across so strongly in his future wife Patti Smith’s recollections. (Fred Smith died in 1994, aged 46. See Patti Smith’s book M. Train for some touching writing on the man.)

From Detroit delinquent to doting family man, Smith’s trajectory was always up, despite that the MC5 crashed and burned due to record-company hassles and Sonic’s Rendezvous Band never had the chance to repeat that ignominy, largely or partly, if the other players’ testimonies are accurate, because Smith willed it that way—because Cobain-like he taunted and insulted any A & R man plucky enough to make him overtures.

So, like the MC5, like the Flamin’ Groovies, like even—to some extent—the Stooges (whose masterpiece Raw Power was, production-wise, a misfire) Sonic’s Rendezvous Band are one of the great protopunk should-have-been-a-success stories. In a sense they may be the greatest, because of their failure, because of their mystique. And that mystique is rooted not only in mists-of-time semi-invisibility, but in the aura of rebel iconoclast Fred “Sonic” Smith.

Scott Morgan and the Tonic:

But since Sonic’s Rendezvous Band, despite the name, were a two-singer band, let’s discuss the second singer, especially as he was, by any traditional yardstick, the better frontman—louder, more professional, with clearer diction (Smith’s was, make no mistake, awful; fans will be arguing over the substance of his lyrics forever), and more possessing of what some listeners may have taken as charisma. And in any case, the first song on the album is his: “Electrophonic Tonic”.

Scott Morgan, a veteran of fellow almost-made-it Detroit rock band the Rationals, had cut his teeth as a frontman singing Otis’s “Respect” pre-Aretha’s-version and turned that song into a regional hit, which, thanks to the last-minute non-involvement of Jerry Wexler’s Atlantic, never made it national. (Faced with the Rationals’ lofty demand of five grand upfront, Wexler demurred, handed the song to Aretha, and the rest is history.) A soul singer, then, with a hard rock edge, which may simply have been what it took to get across in the intimate and sonically inadequate venues of Detroit in the late 1960s, Morgan delivers his parts here with an R & B frontman’s panache, positioning himself on the classic-rock continuum somewhere between Ted Nugent and Steve Marriot, though when he sets his band loose they kick harder—thanks to ex-Up bassist Gary Rasmussen and ex-Stooges drummer Scott Asheton as much as to Smith’s semi-insane, close-to-breaking-point, post-Chuck-Berry guitar solos—than almost anyone except AC/DC, and with a sheer abandon which the famous Scots-Australians, ever the professionals, rarely mustered.

But let’s back up a little. Harder than anyone? What about Sabbath, Zeppelin, Deep Purple? I’ll make it clear: Sonic’s Rendezvous Band doesn’t do lumbering. Much as they’re classic, classic as hell, you couldn’t call them dinosaurs because they’re too fleet-footed. But nor do they sprint, they’ve got too much distance to cover; every other track here clocks in at over five minutes, and two of them (Smith’s masterpieces “Sweet Nothin’” and “City Slang”) are nearer to seven. The tempo is Sex Pistols and up, the beat almost motoric. (Asheton focusses on hitting hard and keeping the pace; he hasn’t got time for fancy flourishes.) Their roots are in R ’n’ B boogie, just as Sabbath’s were in blues. And I’d say they were just about as ahead of their time as Sabbath, if inevitably (given they had no record deal) nowhere near as influential.

But back to the “Tonic”. It’s a good song: deft, workmanlike, shuffling the same old three classic-rock chords in a natural and not entirely expected fashion. There’s a nice halftime breakdown in the middle. It’s got grit. Those who weren’t bemoaning its classicism (this was a support slot at a Ramone’s gig, after all) were probably shaking their heads in disbelief at its onslaught, unless they were shaking their asses with sheer abandon, tearing up seating, going wild. As an opener and a mission statement, it kicks ass. But for me, it’s only in track two, “Sweet Nothin’”, that the magic happens.

Sweet Nothin’:

Who can say what arcane voodoo is at work here? On the surface it starts out not so dissimilar to track one. We’ve jumped from E to B though, a good sign. (B is a great guitar key, enabling riffs that E makes obscure.) But to start off with, at least, it’s the same three-chord theory. There’s a subtle key-shift in the pre-chorus, and then with the chorus we’re in new territory: the minor sixth—the “Raw Power” chord, the “Suffragette City” chord, the “Sonic Reducer” chord—rears its head and Smith puts his cards on the table. Like Sabbath’s embrace of the devil’s interval, this is a chord-change that would inspire an entire genre—postpunk—and it darkens proceedings and ups the drama as soon as Smith unveils it.

What can I say? “Sweet Nothin’” is an anthem, despite or maybe because of the fact that I can’t hear more than a few words of it. It’s a love song, that much I’m sure of, maybe penned for the soon-to-be Mrs Patti “Sonic” Smith. (Patti Smith was on the scene intermittently in Detroit around the time: the two had sparked up an affair—she was still married to her last husband—and SRB would support her in bigger venues, breaking away from their intimate, not to say dead-end, bar gigs, where according to legend they played for as few as six people.) Whatever the “message”, I don’t care; I feel it in my bones. And when Smith, after repeating the simple refrain “You’re really really something sweet nothin’” in the plainest of minor-key melodies five or six times before the final solo, sing-shouts “You take my breath away”, barely caring if he’s in earshot of the microphone, I know exactly what he’s saying. Besides, whoever said an anthem has to meansomething? What does “Pretty Vacant” mean? “There’s no point in asking, you’ll get no reply.” You either know it deep down, deeper than words, or you never will. “There’s more to the picture than meets the eye” after all, and “Sweet Nothin’” is as good an illustration as any.

To make it clear, “Sweet Nothin’”, in my opinion, is one of the top twenty rock songs ever. It gets in. It obsesses you, or obsesses me, and I say this as someone who discovered it at age 43, via Spotify, through a $200 portable Bluetooth player. As Roberto Bolañosaid, if you want to find out if something’s a masterpiece, translate it. Translate it badly. If it stillretains its power, there’s your answer. And this album, smothered in tape saturation and poorly mixed from the live desk, was hardly a good translation to begin with. It’s not a classic like Bowie’s Low, or Abbey Road, or even the flawed Raw Power—not a finely-wrought work of art. It’s more like a jam tape. And what’s more, like a jam tape that doesn’t half sound familiar. I’ve beenat those jams. I’ve played in them. Not that our jams were as powerful, but I’d say Sonic’s Rendezvous Band stake a convincing claim to sounding like what, to this day, many rock bands want to sound like.

Into the Red:

And so it goes, through the five-minute semi-psychotic choogle of “Asteroid B612” (weird name for Morgan’s declaration of righteous love for his woman, bisected by a brilliant, dexterous-soulful blues-at-11 solo from Smith) to Smith’s five-plus-minute slightly more contemplative but still excoriating “Gone With the Dogs”, which to tell the truth slightly pales, given that Smith’s voice is already hoarse and he’s just graced “Asteroid B612” with some of his tastiest guitar-work. But wait, that accolade may well go to track six, “Song L”, which attempts a truly strange percussive minor-chord motif that doesn’t quitework but adds a new-wave-like aspect to Smith’s palette (it almost sounds—wait for it—sophisticated), before the nuclear explosion of the solo. By now, admittedly, following Morgan’s “Love and Learn”, it all seems slightly like business as usual: high-energy rocker after high-energy rocker; two guitar solos a piece, apparently thrown in whenever Smith feels like it; each song culminating in a swelling classic-rock crescendo. Nonetheless it’s precisely the lack of dynamics that makes this feel so modern. It’s unrelenting.

And I wonder, was it only in the space above zero VU—well into the red—that Smith felt the thrill of being powerful, of knocking stuff over, that had made him want to play guitar in the first place, but without the need to do violence that had very nearly made him cave his friend’s face in? Whatever their motivation, for the remainder of the set he and his collaborators play their hearts out, so much so that by “City Slang”, pretty much the ultimate showstopper, it’s hard to believe they can still play at all. Yes, the performance is patchy compared to the seven-inch version (the only record released by SRB in its lifetime, and a flat-out masterpiece). Smith is barely enunciating by the last shouted refrains. But he always maintained he liked performers that stepped up to or over the line, and all four players do that here. It’s pure adrenalin.

Plainly no band could have kept up this intensity without some serious motivation. And the truth is that by “City Slang” Smith sounds tired. Probably he didn’t have what it takes to be a frontman, at least not a touring frontman, and possibly he knew it. Maybe all he wanted was to sing his songs—because they existed, because he’d written them, because if he didn’t no-one else would. And it’s this near-complete lack of ego—this hesitating on the verge of doing nothing at all, then throwing himself in regardless body and soul—that makes Smith’s performance here one of my all-time favourite perfomances by a male singer, despite its faults. It’s the tone, bluntly masculine but vulnerable, straight-talking, speaking calmly from the centre of the storm. What can I say? He means it, and he really doesn’t much care how it goes over. Or better put, sure, you can tell he’s humbled by the crowd’s ecstatic response, but get a record deal, tour the country, maybe get rich and famous? The song and its performance are their own rewards. And, just maybe, this degree of selflessness could only have come from a singer who didn’t think of himself as a frontman.

From playing back-up to Rob Tyner and sharing the stage with Scott Morgan, Smith transitioned, shortly after this recording, to playing husband and sideman to Patti Smith, collaborating on her 1988 album comeback album Dream of Lifeand its breakthrough single “The People Have the Power”. For someone who started with a will to destroy, the adult Fred “Sonic��� Smith had learned humility. His story, or what I’ve managed to uncover of it, is a true inspiration, because though he never hit the bigtime he lived the dream, doing what he wanted how he wanted at maximum volume, and never with that preening strut of the peacock that suggests it’s all theatre.

Live, Masonic Auditorium, Detroit, 01/14/1978 is a flawed document, and who knows, it may be that Sonic’s Rendezvous Band were never going to break through outside of Michigan. Regardless, it’s a classic. It takes your breath away.

[beautifulnightmarepost]

A Powerful Playlist

1. Respect - Aretha Franklin (Song details)

Released: April 29, 1967 Genre:

Songwriter(s): Otis Redding

Producer(s): Jerry Wexler

For me, the song "Respect" has always been one of the first songs that comes to mind when I think of Women's empowerment. Even though I have heard the song before, listening to this song takes me back to my marching band days. Researching this song promoted motived me to learn the lyrics.

"A little respect oh yeah (just a little bit)

A little respect (just a little bit)

I get tired (just a little bit) Keep on tryin' (just a little bit)

You're runnin' out of fools (just a little bit)

And I ain't lyin' (just a little bit)"

While the song wasn't originally written by Aretha, she truly made it her own by adding a few details. It is worth noting that Aretha was the first one to add the iconic “R-E-S-P-E-C-T" hook line. Thus she, and her creative team helped to make this a woman's empowerment anthem.

Aside from the amazing lyrics, there is just something so cool about the tempo and arrangement of this song. The intro is so upbeat and fun I cannot help but start to dance.

2. “Miss Independent” – Kelly Clarkson

Released: April 10, 2003

Songwriter(s):  Rhett Lawrence, Kelly Clarkson, Christina Aguilera, Matt Morris

Producer(s): Rhett Lawrence

The song “Miss Independent” is another that comes to mind when I personally think about the woman’s empowerment movement. Kelly Clarkson combines creative vocals and thoughtful lyrics to really drive the point home. It is also interesting to note that other artists had turned this song down before it arrived to Clarkson. It would turn out to be her first attempt at writing a song with a group and, after her American Idol Win, it really made her as a star. The lyrics:

“So, by changing her

Misconceptions, she went in a new direction

And found inside she felt a connection”

really drive home the meaning. In short, a catching driving pop tempo and creative lyrics are the reason this song made my list.

3. “Independent Women (Part 1),” – Destiny’s Child

Released:  September 14, 2000

Songwriter(s):  Tone, Poke, Cory Rooney & Beyoncé

Producer(s): Beyoncé, Cory Rooney & Trackmasters

Desitny's child has many inspiring songs about empowerment. I could list, at least five songs that I could have used for my play list! Nonetheless, “Independent Women” is my favorite of their catalog and that is why I picked it for my list. The overall song has creative lyrics and a fun catchy beat. I can still really dance along to this song as a teen. Even as an adult, I still find the words fun and inspiring. This song drives home the idea that woman can provide for themselves. Fun fact, this song spent 11 weeks (about 2 and a half months) at number one on the Hot 100, becoming the group’s longest running number one.

“Try to control me, boy, you get dismissed Pay my own car note and I pay my own bills Always fifty-fifty in relationships”

The above lyrics drive home two important points, equality in the woman’s movement while still maintaining some independence”

4. “None of Your Business" by Salt-N-Pepa

Released: October 1, 1993

Songwriter(s):  Herby “Luvbug” Azor

Producer(s): Herby “Luvbug” Azor

Salt’ Peppa are another amazing female trio. They also have a catalog filled with impowering songs. While it was hard to pick just one, “None of Your Business” will always be one of my favorites. I remember when this song first came out. Yet the lyrics have a different feel now that I am an adult. “None of Your Business,” creative lyrics drive home a this fits right in with the overall theme for woman’s empowerment. This mix of rap and rock make this one of my favorites, because it crosses genres with its creation.

“So the moral of this story is: Who are you to judge?

There's only one true judge, and that's God

So chill, and let my Father do His job”

These words have still stuck with me to this day.

5. “Hard Out Here,” -- Lilly Allen

Released: November 17, 2013

Songwriter(s):  Greg Kurstin &��Lily Allen

Producer(s): Greg Kurstin

Lilly Allen has a catalog of fun quirky yet meaningful songs. I cannot recall exactly where I was when I first heard about this amazing artist... but I remember being instantly hooked. Whenever I am having a rough day, her songs were always one of my go-too. So, needless to say, “Hard Out here” will always be one of my favorite songs by Lilly. This song is a mix of creative lyrics with the artists own brand of fun and quirky sarcasm. Thes lyrics are one of the main reasons why I picked this song for my list:7. “We Run This,” Missy Elliott

Released: February 21, 2006

Songwriter(s):  Rhemario “Rio Beats” Webber, Jerry Lordan & Missy Elliott

Producer(s): Rhemario “Rio Beats” Webber

Miss Elliot is another amazing female artist who has a lot of songs that fall under the theme over Woman’s empowerment. I picked the song “We Run This” because I thought it would best fit the overall flow of my playlist. This song mixes Electronic with hip hop genre of music. It has an upbeat tempo, making it one of those great songs with a fun “vibe.” Even though this song has some explicit lyrics, like the Liliya Allen song listed above, it also makes a point with those lyrics:

“You don't want beef, don't take it that far with a superstar I got my foot on the clutch, see me bounce my butt Misdemeanor too much and I don't give a fuck”

The lyrics shout “I am large and in charge,” and would make a good empowerment anthem.

“There's a glass ceiling to break, uh-huh There's money to make And now it's time to speed it up 'Cause I can't move at this pace"

The goal to break the glass ceiling is an ongoing one for the woman’s empowerment movement. It is nice that this song gives a slight nod to that ongoing struggle. Not to mention, the music video takes a few sharp jabs at entertainment industry. The overall tempo and music arrangement also makes this song memorable.

6. “Bitch” Meredith Brooks

Released: May 20, 1997

Songwriter(s):  Meredith Brooks & Shelly Peiken

Producer(s): Geza X

This song, by name will always come to mind when I think of Woman’s empowerment. Sure, the title might throw some people who are a little more sensitive. In my option its song’s main title is not used in a derogatory fashion. In my option, it feels empowering to call out the main part of the hook. I remember when it first came out... the lyrics struct me as very empowering, even at an early age. It was just fun to call out the tittle (much to the chagrin of my mother). "Bitch" starts off with a slow tempo and seems a bit unassuming, "innocent and sweet". Until the song changes up as the tempo song. Each time I hear this song I cannot help but song. The lyrics are fun yet gives you a something to think about:

“When you hurt, when you suffer I'm your angel undercover I've been numb, I'm revived Can't say I am not alive You know I wouldn't want it any other way”

8. “I'm Every Woman” Whitney Huston

Released: November 17, 1992

Songwriter(s):  Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson

Producer(s): Narada Michael Walden

Whitney Huston will always be one of those amazing female artists. I can still recall when I first heard this song on the radio. As a young girl, it made me feel uplifted, as if I could grow up to be anything. That, hopefully, when I became a woman, that I would be able to go on to do remarkable things. Now, that I am older, I can full appreciate the importance of this song. As with some of the pervious songs, "I am Every Woman" has a good pace tempo. It is one of those fun, yet empowering songs, that gets people up and dancing. Hopefully, this powerful message will continue to be passed down to younger generations, and the singer's legacy will never be forgotten.

“Whatever you want

Whatever you need

Anything you want done baby

I do it naturally

Cause I'm every woman (Every woman)"

9. “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves,” Eurythmics feat. Aretha Franklin

Released:  October 1, 1985

Songwriter(s):  David A. Stewart & Annie Lennox

Producer(s): David A. Stewart

While there are many modern songs for woman’s empowerment, I wanted to add this older tune to provide a better mix.  “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves,” is one of those classic songs that drives the point. These lyrics drive home the theme:

“There was a time When they used to say That behind every great man There had to be a great woman But in these times of change You know that it is no longer true So [,] we're coming out of the kitchen”

Like the other songs in my list, this one has a very upbeat tempo to match the lyrics. It is a very 80's song, but that is not a terrible thing! The arrangement is creative with that fun driving beat that brings out the amazing vocals of Eurythmics and Franklin. The music video also pokes fun of some of those old outdated ideas that once kept women back. Going back to the main theme, this song is about woman moving on to stand proud.

10. Karisome Otome - “Temporary Virgin” by Shiina Ringo

椎名林檎×斎藤ネコ「カリソメ乙女」の歌詞

Released: November 11, 2006

Songwriter(s):  Ringo Sheena, Soil & "Pimp" Sessions

Producer(s): Uni Inoue

I wanted to wrap this playlist with something a little different, but it keeps with the overall pop theme. I discovered this artist by happy accident while researching another topic. Shiina Ringo is an amazing vocal who has written most of her own songs. The fast tempo pairs nicely with Ringo’s voice. “Karisome Otome” is a song with an amazing mix of gernes. The tune starts of soft and sweet, much like Meredith Brooks’s “Bitch.” While the theme of her songs varies, I picked this one because it pokes a little fun at the role women take when it comes to flirting and such. Here is the English translation of the entire song:

I'm just like the women Who stand next to you and stare Sweet intoxication But I'm leaving this affair You lit up my daydreams Like so many other guys Don't you look so lonely There's no sorrow in goodbye

What women want are some simple pleasures To be special We don't need you forever But I fell for your trap Girls will fall like that I was floating on a breeze What you must be feeling It was too late yesterday Despite your deceiving It was me who had my way But women always attempt to tell lies And to disguise, conceal what we want So when I try to deceive won't you believe Or say that you forgive me

In my option the song pokes some light hearted fun at the stereotype that women need men in a long-term sense. There are serval versions of this song, even one in English. Yet, like many of the songs, I wanted to mix things up by adding an artist that might be new to some of my readers.

Thanks for reading my list! Please check out the playlist, on YouTube. Drop me a line if you know any other great songs! I am open and love listening to different genres of music.

Sources:

http://albumlinernotes.com/Liner_Note_Samples.html

https://parade.com/961387/jessicasager/girl-power-songs/

https://www.songfacts.com/facts/aretha-franklin/respect

https://popculture.com/music/news/aretha-franklin-respect-hidden-history-makes-it-more-powerful/

https://kellyclarkson.fandom.com/wiki/Miss_Independent

https://www.songfacts.com/facts/kelly-clarkson/miss-independent

https://genius.com/Destinys-child-independent-women-part-1-lyrics

https://genius.com/Salt-n-pepa-none-of-your-business-lyrics

https://genius.com/Lily-allen-hard-out-here-lyrics

https://genius.com/Meredith-brooks-bitch-lyrics

https://genius.com/Missy-elliott-we-run-this-lyrics

https://genius.com/Whitney-houston-im-every-woman-lyrics

https://genius.com/Saygrace-you-dont-own-me-lyrics

https://genius.com/Eurythmics-sisters-are-doin-it-for-themselves-lyrics

https://genius.com/Sheena-ringo-saito-neko-karisome-otome-temporary-virgin-lyrics

[fivestarjamz]

“Careless Whisper” by Wham! featuring George Michael (1984)

I’m realizing that the songs that should be easiest to write about are often the hardest to write about. I keep asking myself, how can I do justice to a song that means so much to me? I’ll word-vomit this one and see what comes up. Well, it’s not exactly a word vomit because I’ve been thinking about this for a few hours. Anyway...

“Careless Whisper” is arguably the most well-known ballad of the ‘80s. Weirdly, for such an instantly recognizable song, the title is buried in the middle of the second verse and never uttered again. George Michael had a habit of doing this.

I can distinctly remember a day in early 1985 when I discovered who George Michael was. I already knew who Wham! was. Actually, I discovered Wham! before most of America did, courtesy of the “Bad Boys” video airing on New York Hot Tracks in 1983 and the theme of rebellion embedding itself into my brain. I had no idea who the individual members of the duo were, though. So when my friend Omari showed me the 45 of “Careless Whisper”, I was like “who is George Michael?” Of course, I already knew that a “featuring” credit on a song usually signifies that someone who is not the lead artist (or part of the lead group, in this case) appears on the song. A few months later, I was very, very familiar with the name “George Michael”. 

It’s hard to believe that George Michael wrote this song AS A TEENAGER. “Careless Whisper” is a fairly sophisticated love song. No way in hell I could write a song like this at 41, much less being able to express the experience and pain of lost love that permeates the lyrics and the vocal performance as a 17 year old.

There’s a famous story about George traveling to Muscle Shoals studios in Alabama to work on “Careless Whisper” with Jerry Wexler. Wexler famously produced a ton of Atlantic Records sides in the ‘60s and ‘70s, including almost all of the hits of that era sung by future George Michael duet partner Aretha Franklin. George was unhappy with the results, and ended up producing the song himself. The Wexler-produced version eventually made its way onto the internet, and I have to say George’s instincts were 100% right.  There was a point a couple of years ago when I wondered whether I liked Wexler’s version less just because it was unfamiliar and different. Nah, George’s version is better.

“Careless Whisper”’s album version begins with a long, synth-spiked intro in which George sings the part more commonly known as the second verse of the single version. Then that drum fill and the motherfucking MOST RECOGNIZABLE SAX SOLO IN HISTORY kicks in and I still get chills, thirty-three years later.

And if you haven’t heard El DeBarge (featuring Kamasi Washington) kick the shit out of “Careless Whisper” during his BET Awards tribute to George last year, allow me to present you with this. A much better tribute than Adele or Coldplay was able to muster. 

“but nooowwwwww who’s gonna dance with me? PLEASE stay!” uggghhhhhhh...it gets me every single time. Sam Smith couldn’t touch this with a ten-foot pole.

Four star songs between “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” and “Careless Whisper”: “A Capella (Something’s Missing)” (Brandy, 2008) | “Capuccino” (MC Lyte, 1989)  | “Captain” (Dave Matthews Band, 2002) | “The Captain Of Her Heart” (Double, 1986) | “Captured” (Ephraim Lewis, 1992) | “Car Thief” (Beastie Boys, 1989) | “Car Wash” (Rose Royce, 1977) | “Caramelo Duro” (Miguel, 2017) | “Caravan Of Love” (Isley/Jasper/Isley, 1985) | “Cardova” (The Meters,-a song I discovered via NWA, 1969) | “The Card Cheat” (The Clash, 1979) | “Careful” (Guster, 2003) | “Careless Memories” (Duran Duran, 1981)

[primeseductress-blog]

Rhythm and Blues

Rhythm and blues, also called rhythm & blues or R&B, term used for several types of postwar African-American popular music. The term was coined by Jerry Wexler in 1947, when he was editing the charts at the trade journal Billboard. He found that the record companies issuing black popular music considered the chart names in use to be demeaning. The magazine changed the chart’s name in June 17, 1949, issue, having used the term rhythm and blues in news articles for the previous two years. Although the records that appeared on Billboard’s rhythm-and-blues chart thereafter were in a variety of different styles, the term was used to encompass a number of contemporary forms that emerged at that time. Perhaps the most commonly understood meaning of the term is a description of the sophisticated urban music that had been developing since the 1930s. When Louis Jordan’s small combo started making blues-based records with humorous lyrics and upbeat rhythms that owed as much to boogie-woogie as to classic blues forms. This music, sometimes called jump blues, set a pattern that became the dominant black popular music form during and for some time after World War II. Among its leading practitioners were Jordan, Amos Milburn, Roy Milton, Jimmy Liggins, Joe Liggins, Floyd Dixon, Wynonie Harris, Big Joe Turner, and Charles Brown. While many of the numbers in these performers repertoires were in the classic 12-bar A-A-B blues form, others were straight pop songs, instrumentals that were close to light jazz, or pseudo-Latin compositions. Within this genre there were large-groups and small-groups of rhythm and blues. The former was practiced by singers whose main experience was with big bands and who were usually hired employees of bandleaders such as Lucky Millinder or Count Basie. The small groups usually consisted of five to seven pieces and counted on individual musicians to take turns in the limelight. Thus, for instance, in Milton’s group, Milton played drums and sang, Camille Howard played piano and sang, and the alto and tenor saxophonists, each would be featured at least once. 

https://folklife.si.edu/talkstory/2016/tell-it-like-it-is-a-history-of-rhythm-and-blues

https://www.britannica.com/art/rhythm-and-blues

[darylelockhart]

How Aretha Franklin found her voice

by Adam Gustafson

Aretha Franklin performs at New York’s Radio City Music Hall in 1989. AP Photo/Mario Suriani

Vocal juggernaut. Social activist. Artistic collaborator. Diva.

As Aretha Franklin is laid to rest, the Queen of Soul will deservedly be remembered in an array of tributes reflecting the immense legacy of her life and music.

Her voice is ingrained in the canon of American music, and she’s had a number of staggering accomplishments. But to me, one period of her career stands out as the most significant: the years after she left the world of gospel music.

Her jump to mainstream music meant a move into a segment of the industry that was dominated by men who had very specific assumptions about how a woman should sing – and what she should sing about.

Franklin’s ability to assert control over her career was a watershed moment for female artists seeking to find and maintain their own artistic voice.

Columbia tries to mold a starlet

Aretha Franklin began her career in Detroit singing gospel under the tutelage of her father, C.L. Franklin. As a teenage mother of two in the mid-1950s, sticking with gospel would have been a sensible path for the young singer.

During the 1950s, a number of gospel singers began successfully transitioning into secular music, including notables such as Sam Cooke and Willie Mae Thornton. The ambitious Franklin followed suit and left Detroit for New York City.

In 1960, Aretha Franklin signed a contract with Columbia Records after being pursued by John Hammond, a talent executive who, earlier in his career, had signed Billie Holiday.

At Columbia, Franklin recorded her first non-gospel album, “Aretha: With the Ray Bryant Combo,” which was released in February 1961. Reviews were mixed. It wasn’t so much the quality of the record as it was the hodgepodge nature of its tracks.

The album opens with “Won’t Be Long,” a song written by John Leslie McFarland, who penned a number of hits for 1950s rockers like Bill Haley and Elvis Presley.

The track is a streamlined piece of R&B with a tinge of rock ‘n’ roll thrown in for good measure. Franklin’s role on the song – and the album – is entirely as a vocalist. The keyboard playing and song arrangements – two of Franklin’s particular strengths – were left to her male backing ensemble and production crew.

‘Won’t Be Long’ is a peppy song, but it doesn’t exactly showcase Franklin’s talents.

As much as the song rocks, it plays into the same male fantasy of girls pining away for boys who have run off.

“I get so lonesome since the man has been gone,” she sings, echoing a tired trope. Despite the message, it’s Franklin’s voice – jubilant and strong – that takes over. By the end, the meaning no longer matters. What’s left is Franklin, who clearly doesn’t seem all that bothered about the idea of her man staying or leaving.

After “Won’t Be Long,” things get truly odd. The energy of the opening fizzles as Franklin’s cover of “Over the Rainbow” begins. The juxtaposition of these two songs epitomizes the confusing nature of her first album. It’s almost as if the executives at Columbia couldn’t decide which silo of “feminine popular singer” Franklin should occupy, so they tried a bit of everything.

The rest of the album sustains the same random vibe; Franklin covers standards from Gershwin to Meredith Wilson, with an overdose of McFarland tunes in between.

The album didn’t generate much traction, and her career at Columbia can only be described as frustrating, with her artistic impulses continually suppressed by a company that seemingly wanted to mold a starlet rather than an artist.

Setting Franklin free

Franklin became exasperated with a label that didn’t understand or support the music she was trying to create. By 1966, after nine albums, Columbia and Aretha Franklin parted ways.

Enter Jerry Wexler, the R&B pioneer and Atlantic Records executive who’d been closely following Franklin’s career. Now free of Columbia, Franklin signed with Atlantic Records, which was known as one of the best R&B labels in America.

Wexler’s strategy with Franklin was simple. Rather than attempting to adhere to older standards – as Columbia’s producers were prone to do – Wexler would simply stay out of Franklin’s way, giving her a freedom that led to her creating some of the most exciting and forward-thinking soul music of the era.

A key moment came when Wexler arranged a recording session at the legendary FAME studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

The FAME Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Library of Congress

That session produced the song “I Never Loved a Man the Way I Loved You,” which was recorded live at the studio. Thematically, “I Never Loved a Man” isn’t all that different from the Columbia release of “Won’t Be Long” – it essentially plays into same male fantasy trope.

But the music is clearly about Franklin.

Utilizing musicians from Muscle Shoals and Memphis’ Stax Records, the song contains a grit and energy that isn’t on the Columbia recordings. With punctuating horns and bluesy guitar fills, the band expertly supports Franklin without overstepping.

‘Everything came together for Franklin in Muscle Shoals.’

While “I Never Loved a Man” may have been the first song released and the title of the album, it was the album’s opening track that truly launched Franklin’s star.

Drop the needle on the album, and you’ll hear horns and a spunky guitar riff. As Franklin sets in to the opening lyric – “What you want, baby I got it” – her piano can be heard hitting like a second drum kit, adding a percussive boom to the entire song.

According to Wexler, the idea to cover “Respect” and the arrangement were Franklin’s. Upon hearing the song that many now herald as a feminist anthem – rather than a song about a relationship – Otis Redding, who wrote the tune, infamously told Jerry Wexler, “That little gal done took my song.”

The rest is history.

About The Author

Adam Gustafson is an Instructor in Music at Pennsylvania State University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. 

[andrewezellwash]

(via Where the Term “Rock and Roll” Came From)

WHERE THE TERM “ROCK AND ROLL” CAME FROM

October 5, 2010

Daven Hiskey

Comments

Today I found out

where the term “rock and roll” came from.

The word “roll” has been used since the Middle Ages to refer to, among other things, having sex: “Let’s go for a roll in the hay”; “Rolling under the sheets”; etc.  The word “rock”, again among other things, has been used since at least the 17th century as a term meaning “shake or disturb”. A couple hundred years later, this had also spread to black gospel singers using “rock” to refer to being shaken in a spiritual sense, as in spiritual rapture (rocked).

By the early 20th century “rock” had morphed somewhat to being used as a slang term by black Americans referring to dancing to music with a strong beat, principally rhythm and blues- at the time called “race music” or “race records”.  The specific 1922 slang definition of “rock” was something to the effect of “to cause to move with musical rhythm”; it also had strong sexual overtones when used in this way.

Around this same time, these two terms, “rock” and “roll”, had naturally merged together, forming a double entendre, typically referring to very suggestive or scandalous dancing as well as simply having sex, depending on how you looked at it.  One example of this is the 1922 song “My Man Rocks Me, with One Steady Roll”.

Another early reference to the term “rock and roll” was a 1935 J. Russel Robinson lyric from Henry “Red” Allen’s Get Rhythm in Your Feet and Music in Your Soul,

If Satan starts to hound you, commence to rock and roll.  Get rhythm in your feet and music in your soul…

At this point, the phrase “rock and roll” was relatively well known among black Americans.  This particular tune was also later covered by quite a few popular white musicians, such as Benny Goodman, which may have helped spread this phrase somewhat.

The term got its biggest global boost through a Cleveland, Ohio disk jockey named Alan Freed.  Freed played early forms of rock and roll (mix of rhythm and blues and country music, primarily) on his radio show and called the mix “rock and roll”, a term he was previously familiar with from race records and songs such as “Rock and Rolling Mama” (1939) and “Rock and Roll” (there were three songs named this in the late 1940s).

Freed was encouraged to call this mix of music “rock and roll” by his sponsor, record store owner Leo Mintz, who was trying to boost sales on race records by getting white shoppers to buy them.  Race records weren’t very popular at the time among white people, but by re-branding the music “rock and roll”, the music quickly became extremely popular among teenagers of all ethnicities, largely thanks to this and Freed’s radio show, The Moondog Rock & Roll House Party.  (Incidentally, classic style “race records” were in the process of being re-branded around this same time to “Rhythm and Blues”, thanks to famed music journalist and producer Jerry Wexler.)

In any event, Freed’s show was also the primary reason why Cleveland was chosen for the location of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the 1980s.  When deciding between cities, the selection board chose Cleveland owing to Freed having played a significant role in popularizing rock and roll music and the branding the style of music “rock and roll”, though he obviously didn’t coin the term itself, as noted previously.

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy subscribing to our new Daily Knowledge YouTube channel, as well as:

How the Momentous “Rock Around the Clock” Song Almost Never Was

The Song Commonly Called “Teenage Wasteland” is Actually Named “Baba O’Riley”

The Night Elvis was Shown from the Waist Up

Why the Beatles Split Up

The Woman Eric Clapton Thought was His Sister was Actually His Mother

Bonus Facts:

A similar brand of music to “rock and roll” was “rockabilly”, which was a style of music that was a cross between country music, rhythm, and blues (as was rock and roll), but leaned more heavily on the country side of things, instead of the rhythm and blues side, and was played primarily by white musicians.  The term itself is a portmanteau of rock (from “rock and roll”) and “hillbilly”.  Popular rockabilly artists included Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash.  The influence of rockabilly music is clearly seen on early British rock and roll, particularly in the case of the Beatles.

Country music was originally called “hillbilly music”.  In the 1940s, Ernest Tubb helped re-brand this type of music “country music”. Tubb: “‘Hillbilly, that’s what the press use to call it, ‘hillbilly music.’ Now, I always said, ‘You can call me a hillbilly if you got a smile on your face.’ We let the record companies know that they were producing country music ’cause we all come from the country.”

One of the first songs credited for starting the rock and roll craze was the song “Rock Around the Clock”, by Bill Haley & His Comets.  The song wasn’t terribly successful at first, but was used a year after its release in the movie Blackboard Jungle.  This spurred it on to becoming one of the biggest music hits in history, at the time, and helped introduced rock and roll to mass audiences throughout the planet.

The word “rock” is thought to have Celtic origins and comes to us through the Old English “rocc”, meaning “stone or obelisk”.