History Of Rock N' Roll Midterm Exam: Questions With
Complete Answers
Apollonian vs. Dionysian Right Ans - Apollonian: (Greek god Apollo)
emphasizes the objective, calm experience of the reasoning mind, freed of the
violent desires of the feeling body
Dionysian: (Greek god Dionysus) emhasizes the subjective, passionate
experience of the emotional, erotic, sensous mind, very much rooted in the
body
Rockism Right Ans - The idea that Rock N' Roll amounts to loud music
played by white guys with guitars
Common practice Right Ans - Term used in classical music; classical
musicians recognize the fact that, despite, the evolution of different styles and
historical periods, there was a shared vocabulary of harmony, melody, form,
texture, format, performance techniques-- a general, complete musical
language, which lasted for a very long time.
It's the same for rock music; a set of musical conditions was laid down
beginning in the 50s and definitively in the 60s, involving guitars, drums, bass,
and sometimes horns or keyboards, a folk and blues grounding, a
straightforward electric amplification technology, subject to various forms of
tweaking, an emphasis on verse/chorus lyrics and sometimes improvisation
Muddy Waters Right Ans - Hoochie Coochie Man (rhythmic grid), 12 bar
blues, verse chorus format, refrain blues
Name: McKinley Morganfield
-muddy was a young man living on a rural plantation in Mississippi when he
was recording country blues
-muddy left Mississippi travel to Chicago and started using an electric guitar
-Chicago blues
Beat Right Ans - The level of pulse that best expresses the heartbeat of they
social flow. It tends to be on the faster side, like a heartbeat
Measure Right Ans - The grouping of beats into larger, clearly perceptible
units of time. Since measures group beats, the measure is slower than the beat
,Downbeat Right Ans - The pulse that marks the first beat of each measure.
The downbeat is commonly the strongest beat of each measure
Upbeat Right Ans - Any beat of the measure that is not a downbeat
Oral tradition vs. Written tradition Right Ans - Oral tradition: principally
learned and transmitted by ear
Written tradition: written notation, sheet music, and the classical-based
written tradition
Two beat feel vs. four beat feel Right Ans - 4/4: four beat feel which is more
intuitive and closer to the reality of much rock musicianship. Was introduced
in jazz beginning with swing. This style walks or plays a note evenly on ever
beat of the measure
2/4: called two beat time, was the motor of traditional popular music in
America before the 1920s (boom chuck or oom pah)-- including marching-
band music, country music, ragtime, much early jazz. In 2 beat music the bass
tends to emphasize 2 notes per measure in a down-up pattern that leaves
some space between the notes
Backbeat Right Ans - Duple rhythms have a downbeat at the beginning of
the measure, but also a secondary or opposite downbeat somewhere in the
middle. This middle beat is called a backbeat (rather than just another upbeat)
Boogie woogie Right Ans - Conveys a feeling of rhythmic power by
pounding or leaning insistently on every beat of the measure, making the
music intense and exciting. Boogie rhythm is intimately connected to blues
form and expression and to dance music. Boogie craze in the late 1930s.
Boogie Sophie piano style anther African American innovation of the early
20th century, is marked by intense rhythmic emphasis not just in the
downbeat a but in every beat. Eight best rhythm
Swing beat vs. Straight beat Right Ans - Straight rhythm is produced when
offbeat a are equal and dividing the beat into two even halves.
Swing rhythm is when the off beats are unequal with the first half of the beat
lasting longer than the second half because it gives a lilting or swinging feel to
the beat; it divides the beat into three parts instead of two and groups the first
two of these together making a long-short oattern
, Syncopation Right Ans - A musical attack that occurs in a relatively weak
beat (or offbeat) at the expense of a neighboring strong beat which receives
no attack or else a much weaker attack that produces the same effect as no
attack
Walking rhythm or bass Right Ans - Four beat feel
Timbre Right Ans - The specific, unique quality of sound made by any
voice, instrument, or combination of the two. Timbre varies according to the
voice or instruments played, the performers, and the environment , including
studio conditions and sound processing
Fixed pitch Right Ans - One unvarying pitch (piano)
Variable pitch Right Ans - Bending and sliding, all the way up and down its
range (guitar, voice)
Scale Right Ans - A melodic grid or framework of notes on which actual
melodies are built. It goes up or down just as melodies do
Octave Right Ans - The higher or lower replication of a note which happens
when you doh me or halve its rate of vibration. In western music it encloses
eight pitches of a common scale
Diatonic (major, minor, modal) Right Ans - Denotes the traditional scales
from western classical music and the traditional mainstream popular music
that emerged in relation to it
Major: said to express strength or happiness and is found in a great deal of
music involving positive feelings but can be used for all kinds of emotions
Minor: said to express suffering or sadness but can be used to express almost
any emotion. Heavy metal, hard rock, folky, medieval, hip hop
Chromatic Right Ans - Second basic scale type is considered the opposite of
diatonic. It has 12 pitches. Uses the white notes and sharps or flats. Spacey,
scary
Chromatic inflections Right Ans - Added sharps or flats into the diatonic or
other scales in order to add color, spice, or some other desirable quality. This
has varying degrees of chromaticism.