Group Presentation Assignment

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Group PresentationAssignment

• Start Oct. 12

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NOTES

• Your group should comprise 2-3 people. Each
  member must participate in the presentation. Each
  will receive the group mark
• Create your presentation with PowerPoint and make
  it available for the class
• Make reference to the articles or Bracketts
  notes and cite appropriately
• Length 25 -30 minutes, including playing the
  song
• Presenters will conclude with a Question/Answer
  session
• Three class members will be selected to evaluate
  the presentation.

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Phillip Ennis Musical Stream
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A. Introduction

• Schlock-Rock See Chap 26, 27
• Outline your presentation
• What is the time-frame/region for your genre?
  1960 to Feb. 9, 1964 Begins with the end of the
  first wave of RR and ends with the British
  Invasion centered in Philadelphia and New York.

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B. Artistic System

• Who created the music?
• Mostly professional songwriters wrote the music.
  Entrepreneurs like Dick Clark found teen Idols
  (cute Italian guys) who were taught to perform.
• Some of the Teen Idols Fabian (Turn me Loose),
  Bobby Rydel (Volare). Some good music Del
  Shannon (Runaway)
• Who listened to the music?
• Young dancing teens (mostly white) who watched
  shows like American Bandstand.

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B. Artistic System

• Who distributed the music?
• Small labels like Cameo and Chancellor (partially
  owned by Clark) Top 40 radio
• Who were the musics critics?
• The popular press, the TV networks, Top 40 radio.

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C. Economic Framework

• How/where was the music sold?
• Record stores, juke-boxes, now grocery stores.
• Schlock-Rock peaks during the Payola Scandal and
  was affected by the investigation
• I would add here a summary of the scandal and
  Clarks role in it based on the Life Magazine
  article by Peter Bunzel.

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D. Social Movement

• Which community listened to/ supported this
  music?
• White, middle-class, suburban high-school
  teenagers
• Schlock-Rock provided the sound-track for
  high-school life
• Quiet Bigotry. Note Mr Clark and Coloured
  Payola, 109.

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E. Ethos

• What were the principles/preferences of this
  genre?
• Keep them dancing. Shy away from anything
  controversial like sex, race, politics.
• Focus on celebrity, consumerism, family.

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F. Style

• What did the music sound like? What did it say?
• It was dance music. It had elements of 50's rock
  heavy beat, layered riffs, but often the
  blues-aspects were washed out.
• Lyrics were sanitized and parentally approved.
• Young woman at congressional hearings When I
  hear a Beethoven symphony, I dont feel anything.
  When I hear our kind of music. I feel something
  way deep down, like oatmeal 107.
• Many of the Teen-Idols lacked talent .

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G. A song exemplifying the Genre

• Why did you choose this song?
• The Twist by Chubby Checker (Writ Hank
  Ballard) Parkway 1 1960 / 1 1961
• Stripped-down and souped up Chuck Berry. 12-bar
  blues structure
• Promoted by Dick Clark. Only song to reach 1
  twice. It got everyone dancing separately even
  adults
• Done in the tradition of dance-instruction
  songs but shows the influence of television
• Chubby Checker (Ernest Evans) was a creation of
  Clark and his wife parody of Fats Domino.

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G. A song exemplifying the Genre