Final Project

For our final project we will review concepts we have learned this semester then you will write a 1-2 page paper explaining the formation of rock and hip hop.

Discussion Questions:

1) a-What circumstances led to the creation of blues music?

During that time share cropping/slavery/discrimination was happening towards black people and they wrote songs from their experiences.

For example: Sharecropping was a bad deal because they didn't get much money. Might not have been able to afford a home. It was very hard work. They only had tools that were from the land owner.

Racism, poverty, weather, flooding, boll weevils (bo weevil)
Segregation--Means separation between races, black were hung for anything white people wanted

Jim Crow laws-- Racism was legal: In parks, busses, restaurants, cemetaries, schools, restrooms, water fountains, movie theaters, businesses, pretty much every where, neighborhoods

b-Who were the influential musicians of this era?
Muddy Waters
Rosetta Tharpe
BB King

Robert Johnson

2) a-What was the British invasion and what led to it?

British kids were listening to the blues, which was different from what they were listening to, the parents were listening to slower/boring music, Pete Townsend said it was watery, African American people wrote the music and white teens were listening to it.

Musicians were playing the blues to the teens of that g,g,generation
They were also copying fashion from America

Then some of the bands came to America and started playing for white teens. The adults didn't like the music because they thought the music was making the teens crazy, parents thought their children were becoming rebelious after listening to the music

b-Who were the influential musicians of this era?

The Beatles, The Who, Hermans Hermits, The Monkeys, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin

3) What was Bo Didley's contribution to hip hop?

He, like, inspired it. He was playing stuff (chords) over and over again which led to the idea of looping.

The lyrics were repeated and talked about himself. He said his name a lot and tried to give himself a brand which is very popular today. For example.... 

4) a-Where and when did hip hop start?

The Bronx, New York. During the 1970's

b- What were the circumstances that led to its development? (for example the subject matter or the instrumentation?)

Many Puerto Ricans were migrating to NY
They were very poor, the neighborhoods looked like trashy junk yards, people peeing in the alley, cars got reposessed, couldn't pay the bills, drug addicts were in the back alleys and drug dealers

So it wasn't a very nice place to live--

The used two turn tables because they didn't have any actual instruments
They scratched, they looped the beats "the break"
This led to "break dancing"
They were listening to it in parks, from peoples apartments, on the street and block parties

You will be graded on:
a) Neatness/Length 330%
b) Relevance (Did you answer the question and stay on topic) 33%
c) Quality of writing (complete sentences/paragraphs, spelling, grammar, etc...) 33%
d) Extra credit given for artwork submitted with writing!!!

Feel free to add other elements to the discussion which you feel are relevant.

The Begginnings of Hip Hop

Show ABC News clip of the  South Bronx in the late 1970s. Discuss as a class:

• What do you notice about this neighborhood? What do you think has taken place there?
• What means do you think people living in this environment would have to express themselves artistically?
• This video clip was left without any sound.  If you were to compose music to accompany this footage, what would that music sound like? What feelings or emotions might you try to convey through your music?

Procedure:

1.  Explain to students that the place shown in the clip is an area of New York City known as the Bronx, a place considered to be the birthplace of Hip Hop. Distribute Handout 1: Map of New York City. Ask students:

• New York City is broken up into five sections, called “boroughs.” What are each of these five boroughs named?
• What famous landmarks do you notice on this map? In which borough are most of these landmarks located?
• Where is the Bronx in relation to Manhattan, where many of the famous landmarks are found?

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2.  Guide students to the point on the map marked “1520 Sedgwick Avenue” and display image of the building. Explain that this is the address of an apartment building in the Bronx where some of the earliest Hip Hop performances occurred, including several house parties emceed by DJ Kool Herc, a resident of the building.  

Ask students:

• Are there any roads or highways demarcated on the map? [Students should find the Cross Bronx Expressway.]

Display photo of the Cross Bronx Expressway. Explain that the expressway was constructed between 1948 and 1972, and was one of the first highways to be built directly through a crowded urban environment. While technologically innovative, its construction deeply affected the communties through which it passed by dividing neighborhoods, lowering property values, and hastening the rate of urban decay in many sections of the Bronx.

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3.  Direct students back to the map. Ask students:

• What is the proximity between 1520 Sedgwick Avenue and the Cross Bronx Expressway, and how might that affect life at that address? [Students should see that the expressway is right up next to the apartment building.]

4.  Distribute Handout 2: Bronx Demographics 1960-2000. Ask the students to answer the following questions about the socioeconomic conditions in the Bronx based on the information in the two charts:

• The population of which racial/ethnic group increased the most in the Bronx between 1960 and 2000? Which population decreased the most?
• What happened to the poverty rate of the total population of the Bronx between 1970 and 2000? What percentage of the total population was in poverty in 1980?
• What overall conclusions can you draw from these charts about the socioeconomic conditions in the Bronx while Hip Hop was developing there in the 1970s?

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5.  Show video clip from an interview with Hip Hop pioneer Grandmaster Flash. Explain that this news story was produced in 2000, but examines events that occurred in the late 1970s. Discuss as a class:

• Where was early Hip Hop performed? Who was in the audience?
• What equipment did Grandmaster Flash use to build a new musical sound? How did he utilize this equipment in an innovative way?
• What are “the breaks” to which Grandmaster Flash is referring? What is “scratching”? What about the way Hip Hop DJs played this music made it original?
• How does Grandmaster Flash describe the role of the Master of Ceremonies, or MC at a Hip Hop performance?

6.  Divide class into small groups of 3–4 students. Distribute Handout 3: New York City Timeline 1960s-1970s, and Handout 4: "The Message" Lyric Excerpts; to each group.

7.  Show video excerpt of the song " The Message" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, recorded in 1982. Inform students that they will work in their groups to analyze the way the song reflects the social conditions of New York City in the 1960s and 1970s. Students should underline specific lines in the song and connect them to specific events from the timeline. 

[Note to teacher: The video and song lyrics of “The Message” contain some explicit language. The teacher is advised to assess whether or not these materials are appropriate for their students. Also note that the video clip ends before the third verse, but students should be able to complete the assignment using the lyrics on the handout.]

8.  Discuss in groups:

• Why do you think this song was titled “The Message”? What is its message?
• What are the images in the song that reflect life in the city in the 1970s?  (e.g. broken glass, vermin, etc.)

9.  Poll sample answers from different groups. 

10.  Reconvene the class and discuss:

• Why do you think Hip Hop became so popular with the people in urban communities such as the Bronx?
• How did “The Message” reflect the social and economic conditions of the Bronx in the 1970s? Think about both the equipment that was needed to produce it and the themes reflected in its lyrics.

[Teacher can emphasize the idea that early Hip Hop required few resources: a turntable or two, speakers, existing records, and a DJ with a lot of imagination; students can compare this to the instruments, equipment, and resources needed to form a rock band.]

Summary Activity:

Ask students to select one or more events from the timeline not already evoked in the song and write an additional verse for “The Message” to reflect those events and their moment.

Writing Prompt:

Students will select an event from the New York City timeline and conduct further research into it, producing an argumentative essay to demonstrate an historical understanding of that event and how it affected New York City in the 1960s and 1970s. Students should include a clear thesis statement declaring the importance of that event in comparison with other events on the timeline, followed by research-based evidence to support the thesis. Be sure to also explain why the event was important enough to warrant a lyrical mention by Grandmaster Flash in “The Message.”

Extension:

Show video of Grandmaster Flash on ABC's Nightline in 2012. Discuss as a class:

• What specific musical sources does Grandmaster Flash point to as influences? What did he find inspiring about these musicians and records?

Latin Influence in Pop Music

Warm Up:

Examine lyrics from the musical West Side Story. As a class, read the brief introduction to the musical, then play an audio clip from the song "America" performed by the original Broadway cast in 1957. 

Discuss as a class:

  1)    What examples do the characters offer of differences between life in rural Puerto Rico and life in urban New York?

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  2)    How do the lyrics convey a sense of ambiguity, a complicated feeling of being excited about living in America yet also missing life in Puerto Rico?

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Guided Practice:

           

In addition to Broadway musicals, the Latin influence also appeared in other styles of American music from the 1950s and early 60s, including Rhythm and Blues and Pop. Listen to an audio clip of Latin influences in Pop music featuring “Spanish Harlem” by Ben E. King (1960), “Under the Boardwalk” by the Drifters (1964), and “Come a Little Bit Closer” by Jay and the Americans (1964).

  3)    What are the chart positions of these songs, which are included in the video?

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  4)    What do the chart positions signify about the popularity of these songs during the early 1960s?

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  5)    Which elements of these songs seem Latin in nature? Consider the percussion, the rhythm, the lyrics, and the vocal delivery.

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The rise of Latin music in popular culture mirrored a boom in Latino immigration to the U.S. between the 1940s and 1960s. Watch a montage of short clips from Democracy at Work in Rural Puerto Rico, a film produced in 1940 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Pay close attention to how the film portrays the economy of Puerto Rico and the quality of life on the island.

  6)    What industry is the Puerto Rican economy based upon? How does the film portray the nature of this type of work? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

  7)    If you were living in Puerto Rico under these conditions, what are some reasons you might choose to immigrate to the United States? 

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Display the following graph showing U.S. immigration statistics and dispersion of Puerto Ricans in the United States.

  8)    How does the Puerto Rican population living in the U.S. change between 1920 and 1950?

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  9)    When does the greatest population change take place?

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  10) What does this graph tell us about the dispersion of Puerto Ricans in the U.S.?

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  11) During 1950, what percentage of the total Puerto Rican population living in the U.S. live specifically in New York City?

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Check out the following three photos depicting life in New York City during the 1940s and 50s: 

Mechanical training offered at a Brooklyn factory (1942),

A policeman practicing Spanish phrases (1958)

and New apartment buildings under construction in Spanish Harlem, where a large concentration of the Latin Americans resided (1947).    

Imagine you’ve just moved from Puerto Rico to New York City.

  12) How do you imagine your life in the U.S. differs from your life in Puerto Rico? Consider your living situation, language barriers, employment opportunities, neighborhood, access to education, etc. Cite any details you can infer from the photographs, when applicable.

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Check out Handout2: Tito Puente and El Barrio. Read the introduction and interview excerpt aloud to the class.

  13) What did growing up in Spanish Harlem, or El Barrio ("the neighborhood") provide for Tito Puente in terms of his music education?

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Watch a clip of Tito Puente performing "Maria Cervantes" in the 1950s, in which he is playing a vibraphone, a percussion instrument.

  14)  In your opinion, what are some elements of this performance that Tito Puente may have learned while playing music “in the street,” rather than learning formally in university? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

  15) This performance aired on television during the 1950s. Do you think this performance was solely for a Latin-American audience, or might this music have appealed to a wider audience? Explain your reasoning.

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Read the following quote aloud from Charlie Thomas, an African-American New York native who sang in the R&B group, the Drifters:

"Brought up in Harlem, you’d be around a lot of Puerto Ricans, so the Latin feel is part of your life...weekends and all night long, that’s all you’d hear: the sound of Puerto Rican drums going through your head.”

  16)  If you were a musician or music fan living in New York City during the 1940s and 50s, how might you be influenced by the “Latin feel” that was then prevalent in the city?

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Check out the following two images, an album cover from Desi Arnaz’s 1947 recording “Babalu” and a 1956 magazine cover featuring I Love Lucy stars Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. In addition to being a popular Latin musician during the 1940s and 50s, Arnaz’s character on television, Ricky Ricardo, was also a Cuban-American bandleader.

  

I Love Lucy ran from 1951 to 1957 and was the most-watched show on American television for four of its six seasons.

  17) How might the popularity of I Love Lucy have affected mainstream America’s familiarity with Latin American music during the 1950s?

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  18) In your opinion, by conveying a marriage between an American woman and a Cuban man, how might I Love Lucy have advanced the idea of integration and cultural mixing in 1950s America?

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Closure: S. write about one of the two:

Prompt #1: What examples of cultural mixing did you take note of during your “trip” around midtown Manhattan? How did Latin-American music and dance seemingly influence popular art and culture in 1950s New York City?

Prompt #2: Which rhythms, genres, artists, or instruments were prevalent in your own musical upbringing? Was there a particular style of music you heard often at home or in your neighborhood? Does this exposure influence your choice of music today, and if so, how?