An Introduction to America’s Music

279

reminded listeners that romance between “free” modern individuals could be

perilous. Just as the simple diatonic idiom of an earlier age’s parlor songs pointed

outward to the network of home, family, and religious relations, the restless,

bluesy harmonies of Broadway and Tin Pan Alley, joined to sophisticated lyrics,

seem to point inward.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION AND REVIEW

1. What are the stylistic characteristics of the blues (melody, harmony, phrase
   structure, lyrics, performance techniques, etc.)? W hich elements are shared
   by the recorded performances of “St. Louis Blues,” “Muleskinner Blues,” and
   “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man,” and which are not?


2. Compare the attitudes and practices of folk song collectors like Cecil Sharp
   and Olive Dame Campbell (see chapter 9) with those of A&R men like Ralph
   Peer.


3. Summarize the role of communications technology in the development of
   country music.


4. What are the distinguishing features of the classic American popular song?
   Consider melody, harmony, structure, lyrics, subject matter, and dramatic
   function.

FURTHER READING

Banfi eld, Stephen. “Popular Song and Popular Music on Stage and Film.” In The Cambridge

History of American Music, edited by David Nicholls, 309–44. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1998.

Gioia, Ted. Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized

American Music. New York: W. W. Norton, 2008.

Handy, W. C. Father of the Blues: An Autobiography. New York: Macmillan, 1941.

Havighurst, Craig. Air Castle of the South: WSM and the Making of Music City. Urbana:

University of Illinois Press, 2007.

Huber, Patrick. Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South. Chapel

Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008.

Kenney, William Howland. Recorded Music in American Life: The Phonograph and Popular

Memory, 1890–1945. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Malone, Bill C. Country Music, U.S.A. 2d rev. [i.e., 3d] ed. Austin: University of Texas Press,

2002.

FURTHER LISTENING AND VIEWING

Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1891–1922. 2 CDs. Archeophone

ARCH 1005, 2005.

Times Ain’t Like They Used to Be: Early Rural and Popular American Music, 1928–1935. Sherwin

Dunner and Richard Nevins, producers. DVD. Yazoo, 1992. An antholog y of short

fi lms featuring early country, blues, and old-time musicians.

CHAPTER 11 | FURTHER LISTENING AND VIEWING

172028_11_254-279_r3_ko.indd 279 23/01/13 8:42 PM