1950s Blog

Introduction to Composition & Production

Technology

Fender Bassman in 1952

Musicians found the Fender Bassman amp in 1952 made a fine-quality sound for both bass guitars and electric guitars. The tweed Bassman is also immortal for the role that it played in music from the late ’50s onward. It was initially heard in Buddy Holly’s rock ’n’ roll, Buddy Guy’s blues, and even country music via Luther Perkins with Johnny Cash.

Although the bassman was primarily associated with bassists, guitarists such as Eric Clapton used this amp.

The Fender Champ

The popularity of the electric guitar grew in the 1950s, with guitarists such as Chuck Berry, Ike Turner, Johnny Cash etc all needed something to plug their guitars into. Amps that were available in the 50s, was the Bassman Amp in 1952, as well as the Fender Tweed Champ Amp that was released in the late 1950s. The sound of the Tweed has a warm rich clean tones and wonderful throaty overdrive, their tone is harmonically complex and they are exceedingly touch sensitive.

Amplifiers

The 1950s were a time of modification for every industry, including music recording and production. Rock and Roll and other emerging genres combined newly invented instruments such as the electric guitar, the bass guitar, electric organs, and tube amplifiers, providing a fresh and fierce sound.

Bass Technology

Bass amps were a new invention in the 1950s, as the development of technology was increasing, new kinds of equipment were being developed into the music industry.

Within the 1950s, the electric bass guitar was growing in popularity. This statement helped me to find out the creators of the electric bass, as it was a new invention and a key staple to the rock and roll movement. "Leo Fender and George Fullerton's creation became a key instrument to the rock and roll movement. Along with the Fender Precision Bass guitar, Fender needed something to go along with the new bass, and for something for it to be plugged into. In November of 1951, the revolutionary new Precision Bass was paired with Fender’s TV-front 1×15” Pro guitar amp".

https://www.fender.com/articles/parts-and-accessories/going-low-the-history-of-the-bassman#:~:text=The%20original%20Fender%20TV%2Dfront,specially%20designed%E2%80%9D%20Jensen%20P15N%20speaker.

Furthermore, across decades, other famous musicians took a liking to the amplifier, and what to am was made up of was interesting to find out through this link"The Fender Champ Amplifier was Eric Clapton's main studio Amp for his 1970s hit 'Layla' and throughout Clapton's career he had a close relation to using Fender Amps. Like most Fender amps of the time, the Champion 600’s TV-front design changed to a new tweed-covered “wide-panel” style in 1953; earlier versions still said “600” on the control plate; later ones said “Champ-Amp.” The “narrow-panel” style was adopted in 1955, with the control panel moved to the top, new grille cloth, and a substantial circuitry redesign that would endure mostly unchanged for a decade".

https://www.fender.com/articles/parts-and-accessories/indispensable-undeniable-the-legacy-of-the-champ#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20most%20notable,solo%20album%20461%20Ocean%20Boulevard.

One limitation of the magnetic tape would be its fragility. The tapes were very fragile and needed to be treated with care. As they were a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It must be kept in a clean and tidy environment under maintenance.

But positively once the recording is made, it can be played back hundreds of times, without any loss in quality. A perice of tape may be erased and new materials recorded on it. The subsequent tapes will have the same quality as the first recording.

Within music, Magnetic audio tape is used to capture speech and music, and magnetic videotape provides a low-cost medium for recording analog voice and video signals directly and simultaneously.

Magnetic Tape

By the 1950s, the whole range of sound audible to the human ear could be recorded and reproduced by magnetic tape. The 1940s saw the development of the single track tape recorder, and was succeeded in the 1950s by tape recorders with two tracks offering stereo recording.

Magnetic Tape- Recording audio in a recording tape to store data on a hard disk or hanging signs and displays for buisness. It was invented in 1928 in Germany. In audio applications it produced a high-quality sound that could be easily edited. Radio and recording studios embraced magnetic tape by the 1950s, and consumers soon followed by purchasing reel-to-reel recorders, and later, cassette tape decks. Other applications of this technology included video and data recording.

Magnetic tape offered unprecedented freedom for artists and engineers alike. No longer constrained by the physical limitations of earlier recording methods like wax cylinders or vinyl discs, musicians could experiment with new sounds and styles without fear of ruining their work beyond repair.

Multi-Track Recording Technique

Les Paul was an American Jazz musician famous for being a guitarist. In this video, he discusing his first expeirence with multi-tracking and how he revolutionised ways of recoding live music.

He expresses how the idea struck him one day and how it wasnt easily accpeted at first by West Track studios

The early technology of the multi-trackopen new opportunities in recording productions, i wanted to find out exactly why the multi-track as used and how it was used "The multi-track recording techniques took the audio world by storm, transforming tunes into larger-than-life symphonies. These innovative methods allowed engineers and musicians to record multiple instruments and vocals individually onto separate tracks, which could later be mixed to create a polished final product. This gave more freedom to creating music and later revolutionized the music industry, as the growth of technology increased and more people had access to it".

https://brilliantio.com/how-was-music-recorded-in-the-1950s/

Multitracking was developed by the US company Ampex and through the experiments of the guitarist Les Paul. By 1954 Ampex had produced the first eight-track tape machine at Paul's request, but eight-track machines remained rare within the industry until the late 1960s. Nevertheless, the techniques that Paul pioneered would become central to how music is recorded and have remained so to this day.

ht://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/emergence-of-multitrack-recording#

Compositional Techniques

Lyrical content in the 1950s

Within the 1950s, lyrics differed according to the genre of music that they were intending to create. The 50s was the beginning of rock n roll, which revolutionized the music industry and created an image for youths to reject authorities. The 1950s was additionally the decade for the recognition of blues music and the rise of black music.

Influences

Blues music had a huge influence on mainstream American popular music. Artists such as Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles and Johnny Cash were all inspired by the rhythm of blues lyrics about freedom and liberation from racial discrimination. Elvis Presley was inspired throughout his life while growing up in Tupelo Mississippi, which was a large foundation of the black community

Chuck Berry was one of the pioneers of rock and roll music, he refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive, with lyrics focusing on teen life and consumerism and his own brand of showmanship that became a major influence on subsequent rock music.

The lyrics of Blues artists often portrayed emotional trauma, such as death, loss, suffering, and unpredictability. This is done by one of the most important elements in Blues music, which is known as “tension and release.” Where the music builds intensively and then eventually dissolves and relaxes.

Lyrics of blues music

Blues lyrics originated from African-American slaves in the 19th Century. "African slaves brought their musical traditions with them when they were transported to work in the North of America. Their musical lyrics included spiritual practices and speaking about freedom while working on cotton farms. The themes of blues music incorporate expressing feelings of entrapment and melancholic expression". Blues lyrics were highly influential and are still referred to today in certain lyrics and genres. blues paved the way for soul music and hip-hop, discussing about racial discrimination and wanting a better life.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zkbh2v4

Structure

The structure of the song, as he lists the effect the women has on him, ' her complexion is fair, man, she knocks me out the way'. He repeats the chorus as a response to what he is saying about her looks and complections that he can not have her. He recalls the chorus as:

'You upset me, baby

Yes you upsets me, baby'

As a type of call-and-response of realisation from his character setting his heart out on something he can't have. Therefore this blues song incorporates grieving and loss

B.B King 'You Upset Me Baby'

This blues classic by B.B. King was released in 1957 and embarks on some of the key concepts of a classic blues song. "The song recalls the overwhelming feelings of love and desire about a woman's mesmerizing appearance. Within the lyrics he lists off the woman's looks by saying in his first lines '28 in the waist, 44 in the hips, she got a crazy leg' explaining that he is overwhelmed by his feelings for her, which disrupts his emotional state and possibly his ability to function normally". The song breaks down the feeling of insanity and unnatural feelings. , which

https://www.songtell.com/b-b-king/you-upset-me-baby

In this video, B.B. King explains what blues music means to him and how it doesn't always have to be associated to sadness and melancholic expression, but instead, he explains how it can be about passion and positivity.

Within music, call and response can be associated with an AB structure where the singer calls out a statement or question and then they responds to that statement.

But additionally, it doesn't have to be just lyrics. Call and response can be associated with instruments. For example in Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry, in the chorus he says 'Go Johnny Go Go' and the guitar plays its riff as each time Berry shouts the chorus. This is a form of call and response, as Berry calls out and the guitar responds.

Call and Response

The origins of call and response

The lyrical technique originated within African cultures, which used the musical form to denote democratic participation in public gatherings like religious rituals, civic gatherings, funerals, and weddings. Often associated with gospel music, as the leader calls out a prayer and the audience either repeats it or has a response to that calling. It creates a sense of inclusivity and reaching out to speak about your true inner feelings about grief, sadness, loss, etc.

Production Techniques

The use of this technique became possible with the advent of magnetic tape for use in sound recording. The singer Buddy Holly used double tracking in the 50s in his song 'Words of Love' used harmonizing.

Double Tracking

Double tracking consists of recording a vocal part two times or more and then attempting to match each performance as closely as possible to the original, both in phrasing and in pitch.

https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/what-is-double-tracking.html

In the early 1950s, it was discovered that double-tracking lead vocals in a song gave it a richer, more appealing sound, especially for singers with weak or light voices. This overdubbing technique, titled “sound on sound,” was transferred to mono tape machines once they were available, and produced Paul and Ford’s 1951 release “How High the Moon,” one of the first pieces of recorded music to include doubled vocals. Ford also harmonizes with herself at the end of the song. For a total nugget of music history, watch Paul and Ford demonstrate their recording process of the song on live TV in 1953.

https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/a-brief-history-of-vocal-doubling.html#:~:text=This%20overdubbing%20technique%2C%20titled%20“sound,music%20to%20include%20doubled%20vocals.

Double tracking was used by other artists after the 1950s, which the beatles were popular to using double tracking in their songs.

Disorted guitar sounds

The development of siorted guitar sounds came about by accidnetal amp damage. In the popular early recording of the 1951 Jackie Brenston/Ike Turner hit “Rocket 88” where guitarist Willie Kizart reportedly poked a hole in his amp’s speaker to make it fuzz out.

https://bobbyowsinskiblog.com/story-behind-how-guitar-distortion-was-born/#:~:text=While%20the%20music%20world%20freely,Kinks%20on%20“You%20Really%20Got

The earliest examples of guitar distortion were started to be used at the very end of the 1940s. With guitar players always being the leading force of experimentation in modern music, they noticed that their tube amps would get their sound all messed up with the volume turned to those “dangerous” levels. The sound gave off a rough and edgy tone to the guitar

This video was really clear and helpful to me, by breaking down the composition of the guitar functions in the 1950s, as well as the history of distortion. by "manipulating an instrument's waveform to change the sound".

Notable Music Producers of the 1950S

Chet Atkins

Chet Atkins was an American musician and had the nickname "Mr Guitar"He possessed a true love of the guitar and played as a young man for hours until sleep would overtake him.

Chet Atkins worked his way from low-playing radio gigs to success as a recording artist and also became one of the most prolific record producers in history.

His career started out in the 1940s, when he began as a session guitarist where his unique signature style of playing three fingers of the melody, while the thumb supplied bass rhythm. In the 50s, Atkins helped to create the 'Nashville sound', responding to changing music tastes and the dominance of rock n roll in the youths.

RCA established its first Nashville recording studio in 1954 and put Atkins in charge of its daily operations. In 1956 he played on Elvis Presley's 'Heartbreak Hotel', which secured Atkins's place in the company. Atkins later became manager of operations at RCA in 1957 and convinced the company to build the legendary RCA Studio B.

Studio B was one of the most famous recording studios to create the Nashville Soun. The a style characterized by background vocals and strings that helped establish Nashville as an international recording center, located on Nashville's Music Row.

https://jbonamassa.com/chet-atkins-mr-guitar-of-the-nashville-sound/

https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/chet-atkins-1924-2001/#:~:text=Although%20other%20Nashville%20producers%20were,%2C%20%E2%80%9COh%20Lonesome%20Me.%E2%80%9D

Mitch Miller

Mitch Miller was an American choral composer and record producer. He was one of the most influential figures in American popular music during the 1950s and early 1960s, both as the head of Artists and Repertoire at Columbia Records and as a best-selling recording artist with an NBC television series, Sing Along with Mitch.

As a bandleader, he seemed for a short time to have totally transformed the kind of records bought by young people. His sound was unique: the blast of his French horns on numbers such as 'Tzena, Tzena, Tzena' or 'My Truly, Truly Fair' made his work instantly recognizable. In a way, his style was a forerunner for rock'n'roll.

Miller worked at Mercury Records, first as a classical music producer, then as head of Artists and Repertoire. In 1950, Miller moved to Columbia Records, where he worked as a record producer, recording artist, and director of Artists and Repertoire until the late 1960s.

During his tenure at Columbia, Miller discovered and promoted many performers, including Frankie Laine, Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett, Jo Stafford, Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra, Patti Page, and Guy Mitchell.

https://archives.nypl.org/mus/23001#:~:text=During%20his%20tenure%20at%20Columbia,with%20the%20company's%20house%20band.

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