C7:1 - Assignment
I think that a key aspect of the music industry that was consistent from the 1950s to the 2000s was people having a unique or different thing about them, typically in their image that they present to the public. The thing that developed over time about this was the way in which people chose to reinvent themselves and make themselves new and interesting to their audience.
During the 1950s, Little Richard was a key figure as he not only wrote really catchy and well developed songs, he also was known for unusual behaviours such as playing the piano with his leg up on the piano a notable performance of this is him playing "Long Tall Sally" (below). This showed his unique feature which made him popular among a 50s audience. It changed how people viewed how they could present themselves and made it seem more acceptable to be able to express oneself in spite of what other people thought. He did this because of his acceptance that he didn't fit in to the modern society at the time and so showed his true self as his public image and this helped to develop a unique style of performance among artists and was the first look of a slightly more theatrical aspect to music. This can also be linked to Elvis Presley who was known for dancing in a specific way with his legs that made him unique which is notable in a performance he did of "Hound Dog" (below). When recording tracks, Little Richard and Elvis Presley would've not had the option to layer their recordings and so would've recorded everything all at once.
People who were inspired by both Little Richard and Elvis Presley were the members of The Beatles who were most prominent during the 1960s. The Beatles also had a unique selling point which shows their similarity to artists in the 50s - however, the difference is their difference was in the music as appose to the performance of it. The Beatles became so popular due to their music which was unlike anything most people had ever heard before and this was because they were all very experimental with music and so tried many things that hadn't even occurred to any other artists. This is shown in their song "She Loves You" (below) due to their idea of playing the chords all the way up the guitar in different places along the fret board to create a more full sound without just playing exactly the same thing. By breaking the 'rules', they created a unique sound that interested people. Furthermore, they made it more popular to be in a band. Previously in the 50s, artists were typically solo acts with a band playing music to back them (like Little Richard and Elvis Presley) but The Beatles made it become the norm to have a band as appose to a solo artist. Like previous years, it would've been very difficult to layer their tracks as well as only being able to layer a certain amount of times and so The Beatles would have just recorded everything all at once.
The Beatles inspired many artists and one key one from the 70s and 80s was David Bowie. He brought together both the things the the previous mentioned artists had done - he developed performance and musical technique/sound. He was incredibly experimental (like The Beatles) and this is shown in "Space Oddity" (below) where it uses varying tempos and also incorporates a countdown at the beginning which leads to the performance aspect as David Bowie was one of the first artists to lead on from what was partially started in the 50s, performance. He made music a lot more theatrical due to his love of theatre. This is also shown in the lyrics of "Space Oddity" where the song depicts a dialogue between two characters as though in a musical - another partly theatrical and partly cleverly technical aspect of the lyrics is towards the end where the word "hear" becomes "here" therefore changing the scene from the "Ground Control" to "Major Tom". David Bowie was a big inspiration to many people as he made the cultural movement that mainly appealed to teenagers at the time of not fitting in and embracing that fact and this was reflected in his performance and sound. Performance wise was his eccentric costumes and make up which likely would've been unheard of during his time for a man. Sound wise by having more theatrical 'storylines' and using sound effects as well as a lot of modulation which wasn't typical of the time. By this time, it had become slightly easier for layering different tracks and David Bowie used this to his advantage by making synth chords as, when he started making music, a synth was only able to play one note at a time and so he would layer multiple notes to make the chords. He would also layer his vocals in order to have harmonies. These things can be heard in "Space Oddity".
One of the many people that David Bowie inspired was Madonna in the 80s and 90s. She also used experimentation in performance and she made herself more unique by how much she pushed the boundaries by the lyrics in her songs. This also would've come from her background as she came from a very religious family and her rebellious nature is reflected in the lyrics in her songs and the image she presents to the public. This relates to the aspect of not fitting in to your environment and encouraging the individuality despite the thoughts of others. She developed more of what Bowie had done in terms of performance by making music videos which had started to become popular during Bowie's time (he was one of the first) and then she also made them and made them more based around a theatrical, entertaining performance. She also impacted the music industry by changing the norm to having a female singer rather than a male singer, much like how The Beatles changed the norm from being a solo artist to being in a band. Her theatrical performance in her music videos are prominent in "Like A Prayer"(below).
Madonna was one of the people who inspired Taylor Swift in the early 2000s. Taylor Swift had taken aspects from each of the previously mentioned artists due to these aspects being developed over the five decades through each of them. She also has a very theatrical performance in live performances as well as her music videos and she also has been experimental in her music by switching through multiple genres. She also continued the consistent trait of not fitting in which is shown in how she reinvents herself to be many different eccentric versions of herself. She also perpetuates the narrative of being a rebel which, again, mainly appeals to teenagers which relates to how she found a unique market of teenage girls who like country music. As well as further developing the theatrical and experimental aspects of music and performance, she also was one of the first people to start using the internet as a really good marketing tool with social media. This is shown in her social media presence and her music videos. Her theatrical performance and experimental music is shown in her album "Fearless" and more specifically, her song "You Belong With Me" (below) where there is a lot of crossover of genres (country, pop, folk and rock) with use of instruments such as banjos, mandolins, acoustic guitars and fiddles (typically associated with country music) as well as guitars. Taylor Swift had the most capability to be able to layer her tracks and you can hear it in her songs as she sings most of her own backing vocals (the ones she doesn't sing are the low harmonies which are sung by male singers). This also allowed for her to be able to do what most modern artists do which is to have less musicians as you can record the rhythm first (so everything is in time), and then you can record other instruments over the top and create a song with about 20 parts but only 4 or 5 musicians (or less).
In conclusion, there are consistent factors throughout the six decades which includes a love for people who don't fit in and are different as well as a love for new sounds created through experiments. The development comes also in these areas where the boundaries of the experiments and rebelling against society are pushed more and more by each decade. Each of the artists mentioned have built their personas and performance based on all of the people before them - for example, Taylor Swift is so theatrical in her music videos and has so many mixed genres in her songs indirectly because of the unique performances that Little Richard and Elvis Presley would perform during the 50s and also because of the experimental music that The Beatles produced. Most of the performance that was more like theatre originated more from David Bowie which, again, was built into music videos by Madonna and then Taylor Swift did the same as well as including more theatrical performances of her songs live on stage with sets and props (like in her performance of "Tolerate It" during her Eras Tour). The development is also shown in the amount of different people involved in recording music as, in the 1950s and 60s, you'd have to do it all at once and have as many musicians and you needed parts but then, as time went on, artists began layering different tracks and this resulted in artists being able to create much more full sounds (like the "Wall of Sound" from the 60s) with only a few musicians. This shows the development of performance and technological advances in music from the 1950s to the early 2000s.
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