In the US, pop music is essentially a vocal genre. Instrumental pop successes are novelty or niche items (what instrumentals have made the top ten in the past fifty years? Herb Alpert, disco-fied Beethoven, and---?) .
The French guy--"Love is Bleu"; Glen Campbell and another guitarist--Mason Williams?; Charlie Daniels Band and other Bluegrass bands; but yes, especially the top 40 is almost exclusively vocal-oriented.
But American popular song has roots in both European and African-American Art musics, often via the theatre.
Here I would beg to differ, with respect, and with reference to specific historical developmental periods. The thesis I present in my music history class is that American Popular Song did not grow up in the large, East-Coast seaport cities, which maintained close ties to Europe and European culture from the late 18th century on, but in the North American heartland where successive waves of pioneers settled, each bringing its own ethnic background and culture. That culture included folksongs and hymns from many traditions, and songwriters kept writing new songs about current events in the older styles. Those styles were very much based on easy-to-learn-and-remember melodies (often incorporating repetition), vocal ranges limited enough to be sung by anyone, and simple chordal accompaniment rather than complex polyphony.
Essentially this formed the background, in the first half of the 19th century, for the brand new "music of the people" which emerged in the second half, having been essentially protected from the influence of European art music during that gestation period. Yes, the sentimental ballads and minstrel songs of Stephen Foster can be compared with Schubert's art songs, but I wonder how much of that music Stephen Foster or James Bland actually knew well. And similarly, the many hymns of Lowell Mason and William Bradbury compare favorably with those of European hymnists, but I wonder whether they were conscious imitations.
And as strong as African-American influence has been in American Popular Music (especially in the development of Jazz), that influence came rather later and formed one of the three important branches of American Popular Music, and one could argue whether the term "African-American Art music" is even valid in the context of its origins and North American developments.
The third branch, American Musical Theater, had its own indigenous predecessors as well, which included the Minstrel Show, Vaudeville, and Burlesque (not unknown in Europe, to be sure, as witness the Follies Bergeres), but with a distinctly North American Flavor. European operetta did not come to North America until the 1890s or later, and once again was known in the East-Coast seaports but not so much in the interior heartland, where Ballad Opera was considered high art!
The key, for me, is differentiating between developments in the seaports (and later on the riverports, to be sure) and developments in the interior of a continent that is vast beyond the experience of most Europeans (give or take Russians!).
But why the present divorce between "serious" instrumental music (whether Jazz or classical) and "popular" song?
I'm not sure that's a valid dichotomy, but I would have to think about it. What's not to be serious about popular song?
I have lots of small ideas (for example, the musicians' union strike from recording during WWII) but no grand ideas to explain this.
Hmmm. I was a bit too young to belong to the union during WW II, although I was forced to join at the age of 15 in the early '50s, but I don't remember a strike against the recording industry. In fact, new recordings by popular singers and big bands were considered extremely important for morale during the war, and that I DO remember. What I do recall is the strike by ASCAP against the broadcast industry, which ASCAP did win but which broke the stranglehold that Tin Pan Alley had enjoyed on American Popular Music and opened up the broadcast industry to the many small-time and ethnic musics that subsequently became powerful forces in the industry. (I can never remember whether that came before or after WW II, but I doubt that it happened during the war itself. Too many ASCAP celebrities like Irving Berlin considered themselves an important part of the war effort--which they were!)
Thanks for your very interesting comparison of European and North American musical cultures!
John
-- John & Susie Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
