What has America done for the music tradition of Western Civilization?

WesternCulture

[WesternCulture]

Or sooner; What has the US done to the music tradition of Western Civilization?

There are plenty of Americans who understand and appreciate great composers like Beethoven, Vivaldi, Albinoni, Bach and Mozart, but something must be wrong with a nation that year after year produces crap like the music of 50 Cent, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga.

I'm European and I admit we make a lot of worthless music too, but at least we Europeans are fostered in the great tradition of composers like the giants mentioned above.

[Boogieman]

I like my nursery rhymes with some soul!

[Sivad]

A little history review is in order, here. In the 18th and
19th Centuries the Americans were busy formulating the
nation and extending our continental boundaries. That
essentially completed in the 20th Century, the Americans
concentrated on protecting your Euroasses from yourselves.
Remember George M. Cohan’s “Over There”? We do. That any
of you Euros choose to consume the musical crap we export
is totally on you.

[opbuzz]

Has anyone heard of Aaron Copland?

[MD Expat in PA]

but something must be wrong with a nation that year after year produces crap like the music of 50 Cent, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga.

Well there is your problem. If you are listing only to pop music stations that only play the likes of 50 Cent, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga (and should I mention all the Brit and European and Asian synthetic auto-tuned “pop stars” as well), then you are missing out on a lot of really good American modern music. If you think all that is out there in terms of American music, is only 50 Cent, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga then you really need to change the channel.

Lake Street Dive - Bad Self Portraits

Ray LaMontagne Trouble

Amos Lee - The Man Who Wants You

J.D. McPherson - North Side Gal

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings "Stranger To My Happiness"

The Civil Wars - The One That Got Away (Studio Cut)

The Lone Bellow - You Never Need Nobody

Old Crow Medicine Show - "Sweet Amarillo"

The Black Keys - Little Black Submarines

The Raconteurs-You Don't Understand Me

The Raconteurs - Old Enough [featuring Ricky Skaggs and Ashley Monroe]

I'm European and I admit we make a lot of worthless music too, but at least we Europeans are fostered in the great tradition of composers like the giants mentioned above.

So you have never heard of Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, George Gershwin, Samuel Barber, John Williams, Bill Conti, Elmer Bernstein, George Gershwin, Danny Elfman, James Horner, Scott Joplin, Jerry Goldsmith, Richard Rodgers?

[opbuzz]

Or for a current composer, Frank Ticheli.

[WesternCulture]

“I like my nursery rhymes with some soul!”

- A nice piece of music indeed.

But this is what music should sound like (and consumption..aaaah I’m so sold for it! Nice $ 45 000 Volvos, HM, IKEA and then relaxing back home in a house built according to Swedish standards with a bottle of Absolut. Swedish quality of life, can’t beat it!!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I5iugfTiIk

[a fool in paradise]

Let me cite Theodore Sturgeon’s Law for you, 90% of everything is crud.

[a fool in paradise]

“I like my nursery rhymes with some soul!”

That explains this Harvard Lampoon parody then (this was pre-National Lampoon and released on Epic but added to the National Lampoon Radio Hour years later).

(Christopher Cerf and Band)
National Lampoon Radio Hour - “Little Miss Muffet” (Otis Redding Spoof)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R7U_jVJ1YA

[driftless2]

Soitanly! We'll make a concerted effort and come to an accordian.

[Boogieman]

Wait a second, you’re complaining about insipid American pop music, and then you like that?

That song is a funk beat (American) with a Jazz flute hook (American), with rap lyrics (American) and a soul backing vocal (American).

Even their accents aren’t Swedish :)

[Boogieman]

I’d never heard that, but yeah that is probably what they are parodying. The singer sounds more like Little Richard to me, but early on Otis was aping Little Richard himself anyway, so it’s not a big difference either way.

[WesternCulture]

Christopher Cerf was great, but an even funnier American who truly understood R&B is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OP5EnaaYjQ

[a fool in paradise]

And here's a bit from John Belushi's high school band (John's doing the giant shouts, otherwise he was the drummer on other songs)...

Scratch that, the audio isn't on youtube right now. Here's the flip (no vocals, only drums, by Belushi)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJgFnrlq7EY&list=UUOgyMHzgCdUrC983nkDt1dw

[Fiji Hill]

I like my nursery rhymes with some soul!

Wow! A solid hummer from the Stax/Volt diskery.

[Pelham]

“True, but both bluegrass and country music were influenced by the blues (and influenced the blues in return).”

I don’t know that I agree with that. Blues derive from African music. Bluegrass and country have Celtic roots.

[WesternCulture]

Good stuff.

Thanks for posting.

Just like Cheech Marin, John Belushi is a fine example of someone who knows both acting and music.

Ceech Marin is truly gifted in both of these areas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLqqZmNFa_A

[a fool in paradise]

Tommy Chong was a musician in Canada for years before he ever became a comedian. He was even in a band on Motown.

[WesternCulture]

I wasn’t aware of this.

Thanks for educating me.

[MD Expat in PA]

Rhapsody in Blue - George Gershwin - New York City

To me, nothing paints a better picture of NYC during the 1920’s (or even still today) than Rhapsody in Blue, which established George Gershwin as a “serious” composer and not just a tin pan alley song writer. In it he fused elements of classical music with the music of the jazz age and elevated jazz to a completely new and more serious art form.

But it was actually thanks to another composer, Ferde Grofé who first took Gershwin’s piece for two pianos (Rhapsody in Blue) and arranged it to be played by a full jazz orchestra and later arranged it as the full symphonic arrangement that most of us are familiar with today.

And speaking of Ferde Grofé; another one of my favorite American classical compositions of the 20th century:

Ferde Grofé: Grand Canyon Suite

Ferde Grofé (1892--1972) was an American composer, arranger and pianist. During the 1920s and 1930s, he went by the name Ferdie Grofé.

Today, Grofé remains most famous for his Grand Canyon Suite (1931), a work regarded highly enough to be recorded for RCA Victor with the NBC Symphony conducted by Arturo Toscanini (in Carnegie Hall in 1945, with the composer present). The earlier Mississippi Suite is also occasionally performed and recorded. Grofé conducted the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in his Grand Canyon Suite and his piano concerto (with pianist Jesús Maria Sanromá) for Everest Records in 1960; the recording was digitally remastered and issued on CD in 1997. In 1958, Walt Disney released a live-action short subject based on the suite and using its music. The thirty-minute Technicolor film, entitled Grand Canyon, used no actors or dialogue, simply shots of the Grand Canyon itself and several animals around the area, all shown with Grofe's music accompanying the visuals. The short won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Subject, and was shown as a featurette accompanying Disney's 1959 Sleeping Beauty.

(00:00) 1. Sunrise
(06:39) 2. Painted Desert
(11:51) 3. On the Trail
(19:52) 4. Sunset
(25:44) 5. Cloudburst

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

I rather like some it, although I’m not sure I’d call it country. Country-pop would be a better term for it.