An Introduction to America’s Music

466 PART 4 | SINCE WORLD WAR II

Listen & Refl ect

1. Listen to Marvin Gaye’s version of this song, which you may fi nd more familiar. How does
   it resemble Knight’s version, and how does it differ?


2. How does the bridge in this song resemble the vamp in “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”
   (LG 18.5) in terms of placement and function, and how does it differ? Along the same
   lines, how does the compound AABA form in this song differ from the large-scale AABA
   in “Wouldn’t It Be Nice?” (LG 18.3)?


3. The function of the Pips in this song is somewhat analogous to the role of the horns in
   “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag.” How are they similar, and how do they differ?

the many types of music surveyed in this chapter, 1960s jazz seems to have been

the least affected by studio practices (although records have had an important

role in the development of jazz at least since the time of Bix Beiderbecke in the

1920s). The half century since the 1960s has seen continued growth in this direc-

tion; perhaps as no coincidence, it has also been a time when musicians and their

audiences have come to place ever higher value on the elusive concept of authen-

ticity. Ever since the 1960s, musicians have paradoxically turned to technological

wizardry to convey messages of direct, unmediated musical expression.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION AND REVIEW

1. If jazz originated in the realm of popular entertainment, what elements of
   entertainment, if any, survive in jazz of the 1960s?


2. W hat were the three trends in East Coast classical music in the 1960s, and
   how did they relate to or differ from West Coast minimalism?


3. How did 1960s rock differ from 1950s rock and roll?


4. What common factors connect rock, country, and soul music in the 1960s?


5. Compare and contrast the two leading soul music labels, Stax and Motown.


6. What connections might you make between the aesthetic goals of John Col-
   trane, the minimalists, and psychedelic rock?

FURTHER READING

Gracyk, Theodore. Rhythm and Noise: An Aesthetics of Rock. Durham, NC: Duke University

Press, 1996.

Frith, Simon. Sound Effects: Youth, Leisure, and the Politics of Rock ’n’ Roll. New York:

Pantheon, 1981.

Reich, Steve. Writings about Music, 1965–2000. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Listening Guide 18.6

“I Heard It through the Grapevine”

GLADYS KNIGHT AND THE PIPS

CD 3.23

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