Brinolia’s Genre Journey

When: 1953 Super Genre: Rock ‘n’ Roll / (country) Description: “ Rock ‘n’ Roll was musically speaking not a great step forward; its origins in Boogie Woogie and R&B were obvious. It was mainly a racial thing: young, attractive, white singers bringing black music into the living rooms of white people (especially girls), and turning heads by shaking their pelvis and/or standing on pianos. At the same time, Hillbilly Country musicians became influenced by early Country Blues and created uptempo Country with a strong beat, slapped upright bass, and stuttering vocals: Rockabilly. Both genres, as well as some Country music, originated on the famous Sun Records label in Memphis. Rock ‘n’ Roll often overlaps with Rockabilly’s simple, uptempo blues with three chords, a boogie back beat, and the holy instrument trinity of rock: drums, guitar and bass. As one can see, early Rock ‘n’ Roll was difficult to separate from early Rhythm ‘n’ Blues. However, the often overlooked effect of amphetamine...

When: 1939 Super Genre: Country Description: “ Country before the forties had a bit of a multiple personality disorder. While one part of it evolved as a crazy, fun barn dance music, the other part went the opposite way. It evolved as an introvert, back-to-the-roots music that wasn’t happy at all, and often involved tragic ballads, known as Honky Tonk. Most Honky-Tonk songs deal about relationship problems, alcohol abuse, financial worries or other misfortune. Instead of large barns, this music was played in the more intimate bars of southern USA, which were called “honky-tonks”. However, honky tonks were still large enough to force the artist to implement electric instrumentation, in order to top the crowd volume-wise. Honky Tonk also introduced a steady 4/4 beat to Country Music, which diverted the genre from Folk. Honky Tonk artists often sang with a thick, southern tongueand in a nasal tone. Combined with cowboy hat, boots, and costume, the caricature of the traditional Country sin...

When: 1925 Super Genre: Country Description: “ Before Country, there was already evidence of a type of music played by white Americans living in the hills or rural areas (the countryside, especially Appalachia) and (so-the-tale-goes) often named Billy: the Hillbillies. They made acoustic music with whatever instrument they could lay their hands on: classic guitar, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, bass, and later Hawaiian style slide guitar. All these instruments produced sharp, short tones fitting for the rough, mountainous environment. Irish and British Folk music, popular among European immigrants in the US, laid the foundations for a new kind of hymn that formed the blueprint for Country. And under the influence of Blues and Celtic Folk, this liquor- (and gun-) fueled proto-country or Hillbilly music gradually became a whole new group of music. The lyrics of Classic Country dealt with individual stories like Blues, but were more suited for a younger audience (there was no place for sex and ...

When: 1947 Super Genre: Country Description: “ Hillbilly Country evolved into something completely different in the forties. A lot of focus was put on the strings, which were fiercely fiddled, to create another type of Classic Country, called Bluegrass. Bluegrass took its name from one of the first practicing bands: Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys, who in their turn were named after the state Kentucky aka “the Bluegrass Country”. Bluegrass is that typical, atmospheric, hi-pitched, hyperactive country most people know. Violins are very common, alongside mandolin, guitar and banjo. Although Bluegrass sounds like it’s not taking itself seriously, it is actually very reactionary and serious music, rising up against authority. Bluegrass is more zealous than other country genres, spreading forth revolution and highly religious messages, like a musical crusade. A bit like political Folk music one could say, but with a certain supercharged overdrive. Bluegrass swears off electric instrument...

When: 1910 Super Genre: Blues Description: “ Country Blues means rural Blues; Blues far away from the city, at a time when there existed almost no popular music whatsoever. Country Blues did not evolve out of Country music: it was the other way around. Therefore the only existing music besides Folk and Classical music at the time of Blues’s conception was Gospel. Almost automatically, Blues becomes the antithesis of Gospel. Wandering black singers who lost their faith due to misfortune slowly but steadily developed their personal, secular type of Gospel or more accurately: “badspel”, as there was little positive news for them to tell. At first they simply used (cheap) banjos, and later bottleneck guitars on which they liked to play blue notes while singing AAB verses. The music was very spontaneous and improvised: singers would play any chords and sing any lyrics that would come to mind, but often about tragic or depressing events. Folk or Country Blues has almost as many different sub...

When: 1943 Super Genre: R&B Description: “(Jump) Blues dramatically changed when the band stopped being an anonymous whole but received a face: the frontman, the singer/songwriter. The moment black musicians stepped forward with their own music, driven by a powerful and driven backbeat, it quickly was discarded as something vile, not meant for “decent, white people”. The previous term for R&B, “Race Music”, already made that very clear. Race Music was a Billboard category reserved for Blues music, as Jazz and Gospel also featured white musicians. Such outspoken racism was put to a halt in 1948, with the replacement of the term by “Rhythm and Blues”, abbreviated as R&B. Thus at first R&B was seen as synonymous with Blues, but it quickly developed into a separate style. True R&B (from the forties, as the term received a new meaning at the end of the century) had very few instruments, similar to Gospel. Melodies became shorter and more repetitive like riffs, and a stea...

When: 1940 Super Genre: Blues / (r&b) Description: “Shouting, clapping, backbeat, big bands…: Jump Blues is unmistakably the most swinging, optimistic and humorous type of Blues, a large contrast with some other Blues genres. When the rest of the world was concerned with WWII, the East Coast of the US seemed t o live in a happy bubble with this uptempo, bouncing, rolling, rumbling and tumbling music (and let's not forget jumping of course). But Jump Blues also became highly popular in the West Coast, where it was played at L.A.’s clubs and evolved into West Coast Blues. Jump Blues is proto Rhythm & Blues and therefore proto Rock ‘n’ Roll, which implies that it was simply too popular and catchy to be constrained within the family line of Blues.” -  Musicmap Sample Song: Shake, Rattle and Roll by Big Joe Turner Up next…Rhythm & Blues