Alan Lomax's Influence On Modern Popular Music

Hank Snow was a popular and important musical artist, active before 1960, who is not included in the Dalhousie University 2017 - 2018 Popular Music until 1960 course. Hank Snow’s, “country standard I’m Movin’ On, a twelve-bar blues, came out before 1960. ” In this paper I will argue that Hank Snow and his song I’m Movin’ On must be a required listening in this course as he has had historical significance, has influenced musical artists (several that are covered in this course) and most importantly he is a Nova Scotia native with a successful musical country career on an international scale. I will provide relevant background information on Hank Snow as well as proof of his importance in the areas of historical significance, musical influence

Alec Robertson, Dennis Stevens, ed., A History of Music Volume 2 (New York: Barnes and Noble, Inc., 1965), Pg. 85.

Born ten years after the death of Walt Whitman, there was no possible way for Langston Hughes to ever meet or communication with Whitman, but that did not mean Hughes could not establish a connection to him, or at least his work. In 1925, Hughes wrote a poem titled “I, Too” was inspired by and directed in response to the poem “I Hear America Singing”, which was composed by Whitman much earlier. Whitman’s poem consisted of a variety of different American laborers who “sing” as they do their jobs. This well-known poem never specifically addresses the ethnicity of these singing laborers of the American population, but Hughes sets about to rectify that omission.

“When first entering in America, British folk music was distinguished by three-chord tunes, sparse instrumentation (with some fiddlers), mostly male performers, improvisation, the singers’ sporadic shouts (Scottish “yips”), Christian themes served up in hundreds of hymns, and a secular collection of songs that told stories, generally about love and lost love, using metaphor and symbol to tell those stories” (Allen 101). By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, British music changed and became Americanized. Vocal harmonizing slowly evolved, and fiddlers were accompanied by those who played banjo, an African American opening. “Tambourines and “bones” (tapping out rhythms using pork rib bones) were a minstrel show contribution” (Allen 102). When African Americans were forced into slavery and brought to North America in the 1600s, they brought their own musical traditions and sounds. Slaves who were on the Mississippi River Valley delta soil developed what will later be introduced as blues music. On the plantations, slaves greatly changed British American hymn singing. They took non-religious British American songs and turned it into their own forms of music that followed their culture and taste of music. Blues emerged in the early twentieth century at the same time country music became settled from its folk roots. Blues music talked about the indifferences African American slaves were going through at that time. “The blues voiced human

In a poem by Louise Enrich called Dear John Wayne a line from a cowboy and Indian movie states the position of many European settlers in the Americas

and Willie Nelson. The song is an old southern anthem of the basic tale and fate of growing up. The song goes on to

come blasting out of all the bars and “honky tonks”. Louis just wanted to be something

Originally named The Muleskinners, The Hamilton County Bluegrass band was founded by a group of university students in Auckland in 1962.[9] For the young members, their first encounter with bluegrass would be the theme song “The Ballad of Jed Clampett” from the television show The Beverly Hillbillies. The show was one of the few American shows airing on New Zealand television at the time. The Flatt and Scruggs theme tune and Scruggs style banjo influenced player Paul Trenwith, who said “that’s how I wanted to learn banjo, and we found out there was a whole music genre that went with that, so we chased that up.”[10] Television was one of the key ways that the bluegrass genre was and still is transmitted internationally. The dominance of

The original name of this band was Bill Haley and the Saddlemen from 1949 – 1952 and performed country style. It was during this time that Haley became one of the top cowboy yodelers. However a great deal of the Saddlemen recordings didn’t get released until the 70s and 80s. They included wonderful tunes like “Rose of My Heart” and “Yodel Your Blues Away”. Members of this group included Haley piano, Johnny Grande accordion, and Billy Williamson steel guitarist.

Johnson and Moore have styles that helped them become famous musicians in country music. Once they moved to Nashville, their talent was obvious to recording agencies. Johnson’s plain, scary appearance creates a style that shows he does not need to dress sharp for fans. Everything is found in his music. Moore’s heavy dose of southern, country charm allows him to be a great singer and songwriter. Although Johnson and Moore have such different personalities, they are friends for the love of music and respect as another musician. The hard work these men put into their music shows the long journey they both have had, and plays a big role in their fame. Johnson and Moore are two of the most respected country musicians today, even though they have such different

Kenny Rogers was from Houston Texas where he knew by high school he wanted to pursue a music career. The road to his solo career consisted of many different bands and little success along the way. With a rock sound and a few hits that were only local, he started a group called “The Scholars” in 1956. After that group fizzled out Rogers went on to play in a variety of other

In the year 1927, George D. Hay a director at Nashville radio station was in his preparation to kick off on his program that he introduced in the year 1925 (Kyriakoudes, 2004). The program was known as the WSM Barn Dance that was locally listened to and was also well known countrywide. When the program started, Hay introduced a mixture of comedy and “hillbilly” music entertainment which was off schedule and later on the conductor who was known as Walter Damrosch shut off the show which was airing at NBC network. They claimed that there was no place in the classics for realism as country music had no place for lyrics or for writing music that had reality inside them, (Kyriakoudes, 2004). However, it implies that Hay had introduced musicians on his show that had meaningful music which compiled of both entertainment and realism.

The 1930s were a great time for music and new kinds of it. For example, “Though the jazz age had ended, during the 1930s jazz continued to mature as a musical form.[...] Big bands began transforming it into danceable swing music” (Cynthia, Baker 1). Jazz was transforming into something people liked more and more. It was exciting because people could now dance to the music. Music continued to transform and new forms came into existence, “Another style of music that developed during the decade was distinctly western in form”(Cynthia, Baker 2). A new style was invented that would grow into one of the more famous genres that continues to be popular today, Country Western. This shows growth because the Western United States was developing its own

Introduction Throughout this discussion I will be making a series of arguments that support the changes to modern popular music that were induced by John and Alan lomax. As the work they achieved is vast, I have broken it down into various sub-categories to facilitate better analysis. Academic Being initially raised in the presence of “cowboys” it comes as no surprise that John Lomax became interested in cowboy ballads from a young age. His parents believed that education was important and sent John to college for a year in 1887. With his new found qualification, John became a Principle and teacher.

Throughout history, music have defined or depicted the culture and social events in America. Music has constantly played an important role in constituting American culture, where people have expressed themselves through music during flourishing and turbulent times. In the 1930’s, Swing music created a platform for audiences to vent their emotions in the midst of Great Depression and political unrest. Such strong relationship between music and culture can be seen throughout history, especially in the sixties.