Alexander Street Modern Popular Music Database - https://search-alexanderstreet-com.brandman.idm.oclc.org/popular-music (Must be logged in)

Popular Music Since 1950: 3 Representative Genres

Jazz

Bar: Another term for measure, often used in jazz.

Bebop (bop): Complex jazz style, usually for small groups, developed in the 1940s and meant for attentive listening rather than dancing.

Blues: Term referring both to a style of performance and to a form; an early source of jazz, characterized by flatted, or "blue," notes in the scale; vocal blues consist of 3-line stanzas in the form a a' b.

Call and response: (1) In jazz, a pattern in which one voice or instrument is answered by another voice, instrument, or group of instruments. (2) Performance style in which the phrases of a soloist are repeatedly answered by those of a chorus, often found in African and other nonwestern music. Chorus In jazz, a statement of the basic harmonic pattern or melody.

Cool jazz: Jazz style related to bebop, but more relaxed in character and relying more heavily on arrangements; developed around 1950.

Free jazz: Jazz style which departs from traditional jazz in not being based on regular forms and established chord patterns; developed during the 1960s.

Front line: In New Orleans or Dixieland jazz, the group of melodic instruments which improvise on a melody, supported by the rhythm section.

Improvisation: Creation of music at the same time as it is performed.

Jazz: Music rooted in improvisation and characterized by syncopated rhythm, a steady beat, and distinctive tone colors and performance techniques. Jazz was developed in the United States predominantly by African American musicians and gained popularity in the early twentieth century.

Jazz rock (fusion): Style which combines the jazz musician's improvisatory approach with rock rhythms and tone colors; developed in the 1960s.

New Orleans (Dixieland) jazz: Jazz style in which the front line, or melodic instruments, improvise several contrasting melodic lines at once, supported by a rhythm section that clearly marks the beat and provides a background of chords; usually based on a march or church melody, a ragtime piece, a popular song, or 12-bar blues.

Note: In notation, a black or white oval to which a stem and flags can be added.

Pitch: Relative highness or lowness of a sound.

Ragtime: Style of composed piano music, generally in duple meter with a moderate march tempo, in which the pianist's right hand plays a highly syncopated melody while the left hand maintains the beat with an "oom-pah" accompaniment. Ragtime was developed primarily by African American pianists and flourished from the 1890s to about 1915.

Rhythm section: Instruments in a jazz ensemble which maintain the beat, add rhythmic interest, and provide supporting harmonies. The rhythm section is usually made up of piano, plucked double bass, percussion, and sometimes banjo or guitar.

Riff: In jazz, a short repeated phrase that may be an accompaniment or a melody.

Scat singing: Vocalization of a melodic line with nonsense syllables, used in jazz.

Subdominant: Fourth note (fa) of the scale, or the triad (chord) based on this note.

Swing: Jazz style which was developed in the 1920s and flourished between 1935 and 1945, played mainly by "big bands." Also, verb for what jazz performers do when they combine a steady beat and precision with a lilt, a sense of relaxation, and vitality.

Swing band: Typically, a large band made up of fourteen or fifteen musicians grouped in three sections: saxophones, brasses, and rhythm. They play swing, a jazz style (see above).

Tag: Brief coda sometimes played at the end of a piece in New Orleans jazz style.

12-bar blues: In vocal blues and jazz, a harmonic framework that is 12 bars in length, usually involving only three basic chords: tonic (I), subdominant (IV), and dominant (V).

The American Musical

Chorus: In jazz, a statement of the basic harmonic pattern or melody.

Musical (musical comedy): Type of American theater created to entertain through fusion of a dramatic script, acting, and spoken dialogue with music, singing, and dancing—and scenery, costumes, and spectacle.

Rock

Beat: Regular, recurrent pulsation that divides music into equal units of time.

Computer: Tool used to synthesize music, to help composers write scores, to store samples of audio signals, and to control synthesizing mechanisms.

Guitar: Plucked string instrument with six strings stretched along a fretted fingerboard.

Polyrhythm: Use of two or more contrasting and independent rhythms at the same time, often found in twentieth-century music.

Rock: First called rock and roll, a style of popular vocal music which developed in the 1950s, characterized by a hard, driving beat and featuring electric guitar accompaniment and heavily amplified sound.

Motown

Techno and Electronic Music

American Folk Music

Country Music

Marching Band

Drum Corps