MZGS I – EXAM MATERIAL

HERE YOU WILL FIND THE MATERIAL FOR THE EXAM
OF THE 1950s – 1960s – 1970s

FIRST SOME GENERAL QUESTIONS WE DISCUSSED IN CLASS IN THIS SEMESTER
[AND YES, SOME QUESTIONS ARE DOUBLE IN THESE LISTS. REPETITION IS A GOOD THING]

  1. When was The Summer Of Love? What was it?
  2. When was JFK killed?
  3. Why was 1956 Elvis’s Miracle Year?
  4. Why did people boo Bob Dylan at his concerts in 1965/66?
  5. What is the connection between Soul music and the Civil Rights movement?
  6. Name a couple of musical characteristics of Symphonic Rock
  7. When was Martin Luther King killed?
  8. When was the frst American tour of The Beatles?
  9. Why is “Tomorrow Never Knows” such a groundbreaking song?
  10. What was the difference between punk form the US and the UK?
  11. Why was New Wave called like that?
  12. What was the difference in the recording process between Stax and Motown?
  13. When and what is The Day The Music Died?
  14. What is the name of the backing group of: – Motown, – Stax, – Pet Sounds?
  15. What is Muscle Shoals?
  16. What is Northern Soul? And what does Dave Godin have to do with it?
  17. What did Bob Dylan do in the summer of 1967?
  18. Why was the name Rhythm and Blues invented? By whom?
  19. Who was Alan Freed?
  20. When and what was The British Invasion?
  21. When was Woodstock? What was it?
  22. What and when was the fIrst popfestival?
  23. What was the name of the frst record company of Elvis? Who is Sam Phillips by the way?
  24. Name 2 greatgrandfathers of pop music and which style of music they represent.
  25. Name The Big Three of the Blues.
  26. What happened at Altamont in 1969? And how is this the symbolic ending of the 1960s?
  27. Name The Big Three of early Symphonic Rock
  28. Wat was the Harlem Culture Festival?
  29. When did the Vietnam War end?

FOUR (FIVE?) FOREFATHERS OF POP MUSIC:
HANK WILLIAMS (1923-53) – COUNTRY – SELFDESTRUCTION
ROBERT JOHNSON (1911-38) – BLUES – MYTHOLOGY
WOODY GUTHRIE (1912-67) – FOLK – SOCIAL AWARENESS
LOUIS JORDAN (1908-75) – RHYTHM & BLUES – ENTERTAINMENT
FRANK SINATRA (1915-1998) – CROONER – THE ALBUM

BEFORE ROCKNROLL

  1. Who was Alan Lomax? Why is he so important for pop music historians? [http://research.culturalequity.org/home-audio.jsp]
  2. What are field recordings?
  3. Who was Harry Smith? Why is he so important for pop music historians? [https://harrysmitharchives.com/]
  4. What was the big difference between them in their work?
  5. 33 45 78?
  6. Why was ‘O Brother Where Art Thou’ important for American roots music?
  7. Who were the 4 Forefathers of popular music and which genre do they represent?

8. Could Frank Sinatra be the 5th Forefather? Why?
9. Who are the Big Three of the Blues?
10. What is the difference between Urban Blues and Country Blues?

  1. Which song could be considered to be the first Rocknroll Song?
    [https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/30288/5candidates-first-rock-n-roll-song]
  2. When and what was “The Day The Music Died?”

1950s

THE RIDDLES OF ROCKNROLL [by Leo D’Anjou] – reading questions

  1. What and where is Tin Pan Alley?
  2. What went wrong with TPA in the 1950s?
  3. White teenagers were listening to what kind of radio stations? And what was the effect in the music industry?
  4. What is the phase in-between discovery and consolidation?
  5. Who was Alan Freed?
  6. What was the 1st Rocknroll song to emerge on the Billboard national chart?
  7. What did Bill Haley do with his lyrics (like many other artists)?
  8. Who was Sam Phillips?
  9. What is Rockabilly?
  10. What were the 3 main streams in popular music before Rocknroll?
  11. Why were the vocal groups important for the course of Rocknroll?
  12. What is Doo-Wop?
  13. Name the 6 most important independent record companies in Rocknroll.
  14. What was the name of the record company where Chuck Berry released his singles? Which city are we talking about?
  15. Why was the south of the USA important in the development of Rocknroll?

1960s

  1. Who was the house band of Stax?
  2. In what city did Stax reside?
  3. Where does the name “Stax” come from?
  4. What happened when Otis Redding flew his plane to Wisconsin?
  5. April 4 1968, Memphis. What happened?
  6. In what sense was Stax a “protective bubble” according to Steve Cropper?
  7. What were the consequences of the bad business deal with Atlantic?
  8. Who was Jerry Wexler?
  9. Who was Richard Pryor?
  10. The Stax studio was rebuilt and turned into a …?

1970s

  1. When started and ended the Vietnam War?
  2. What is ‘Watergate’?
  3. Name 2 singer-songwriters who came from Canada to L.A. in the 1960s?
  4. Name at least 3 characteristics of Symphonic Rock.
  5. What is ‘Blaxploitation’?
  6. What does DIY mean?
  7. Why was Symphonic Rock so revolutionary?
  8. Why was Punk so revolutionary?
  9. What did Vivienne Westwood have to do with the Punk dress code?
  10. Name 3 Prog/Symphonic Rock bands.
  11. Which movie brought Disco music into the mainstream?
  12. Who are Gamble and Huff?
  1. What is CBGB’s?
  2. Who designed the Ramones logo?
  3. What was the underground sound before Punk in NYC?
  4. Where did The Ramones get their bandname from?
  5. Which Glamrock band was important to The Ramones?
  6. How did Tommy Ramone end up as the drummer?
  7. Who was the strict task-master of the band?
  8. What do the letters CBGB stand for?
  9. Who counted the songs in?
  10. The Ramones as “retarded … ”?
  11. What happened when The Ramones went to England?
  12. What did they do when they got back to the USA?
  13. What is The Ramones’ quintessential single? Why?