Brinolia’s Genre Journey

When: 1980 Super Genre: Gospel Description: “Ragtime is a peculiar genre unlike anything else fisted on the Carta and an pounder of Blues and (especially) Jazz, forming a sort of link between popular and earlier non-popular music. At the end of the nineteenth century we see this music, inspired by European brass bands, French contredanse and banjo dance music, emerging in any saloon, bar, or bordello in the United States that harbored a piano. Ironically Ragtime is the complete opposite of the stereotypical far-west out southern US cruel image: disciplined, structured, and calm. Only one person and a piano form this genre. The song structure varies a lot, but is completely written out with no room for improvisation. One hand plays the melody, while the other plays the (also changing) bass line, which creates a certain tension between melody and bass. The name is derived from the earliest examples of “broken” rhythmic songs, known as “rags”. Remarkably, a revival of Ragtime appeared alm...

When: 1880 Super Genre: Gospel  Description: “Between 1880 and 1930, Gospel slowly evolved from small, flickering Spirituals to a bright, popular flame, sung and known by many American people, both black and white, but all fundamentally Christian. Gospel started as emotional church hymns, with a call and response choir. This means that one part of the choir sings a part and the other responds in a different key (harmonizing). This alternating play of chords with unusual intervals would become an important trademark in a lot of popular music. Early or Traditional Gospel (sometimes known as Jubilee) is mostly music performed by barbershop quartets. But after Ragtime, it received accompaniment by a piano. Because there were almost no instruments, the lyrics were obviously important, talking about nothing but good news, hope, and bliss. At the turn of the century, the first Gospel composition was created. By 1920 the term “Gospel songs” was first used, and they were practiced in rural,...