# data[].attributes.body
Indigo Girls

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Brandi Carlile

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Tracy Chapman has won 4 grammies and a total of 8 other music awards. Her song "Fast Car" was a billboard hit and in 2010 Rolling Stones added it to its list of "500 Greatest Songs Of All Time"

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Lana Del Rey is a style icon within the music world. Each album has a slightly different but recongnizable look

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Indie poetic supergroup, boygenius, comprises of Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus, and Phoebe Bridgers. All successful musicians on their own, the group formed in 2018 with the release of their self-titled EP. They released their first full album "the record" in 2023, which won them 3 grammies! I got to see them this past summer, they were incredible!!!

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LGBTQ culture has a huge influence on poetic music. Forerunners like Tracy Chapman, and the Indigo Girls, helped create a space for queer songwriters.

Currently, many poetic songs have queer undertones and themes. A great majority of popular indie artists now are apart of the LGBTQ community!

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"Indie Sleaze" is the fashion style associated with indie pop music. Specifically it refers to years 2006-2012 with the rise of hipster fashion. Fashion and style within poetic music also emulates the feel of the genre; flowy and laid back. Outfits are vintage and messy looking.

This of course depends on the individual artist and their personal aesthetic. Lana Del Rey for example has an old Hollywood look to her that is also reflected in the themes of her music

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These women paved the way for poetic music and musicians. Joni Mitchell is highly regarded as one of the founders of folk song writing, indie music would not be what it is without her influence. She popularized the use of non standard tuning on guitars and other instruments, allowing artists a variety of different sounding melodies.

Carole King has also played an important role in the development of women songwriters. Between 1962 and 2005, she wrote or cowrote 118 songs that hit the Billboard top 100, that has made her one of the most successful song writers of all time.

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These artists are very influential to what we know of indie poetic music now:

Leonard Cohen

Neil Young

Sarah McLachlan

Joni Mitchell

Melanie

Bob Dylan

Simon and Garfunkel

Jeff Buckley

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Artists

Mitski

Phoebe Bridgers

Lucy Dacus

Julien Baker

Hozier

Laufey

Lizzy Mcalpine

Lorde

Soccer Mommy

Faye Webster

Fiona Apple

Weyes Blood

Lana Del Rey

Clairo

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Vocal quality is light and airy. Head voice is a big factor in identifying the poetic sound. Belting and chest voice is only utilized when there is a big emotional release in the song, usually the final chorus or most often the bridge of a song. However, plenty of poetic songs do not follow the typical song structure (ABABCB). The vocal quality emulates the instrumentation, it is vulnerable and dreamy.

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Special thanks to Sarah Connell, Ash Clark, and Micah Weston for helping me (try to) learn Python for my scraping journey! There was no way I could've pulled this together without all of your help and support.

Introduction

I grew up in rural Upstate New York, just below the Adirondacks. In case you're unfamiliar with the area, it's similar to living in the American South but with lots and lots of snow in the wintertime. Given the nature of where I lived, I was surrounded by country music for most of my young life. I enjoyed the majority of it, but as I grew older I began to realize a shift in the styles of country music that I'd hear. Instead of hearing The Chicks' "Cowboy Take Me Away" like I was used to, songs like Zac Brown Band's "Chicken Fried" or Toby Keith's "Beer For My Horses" would play constantly on the radio. I'd always wondered what had happened to the music I used to love, and didn't get anything close to an answer until I had nearly finished high school.

Music has historically been used as an outlet for a particular generation of people to express their thoughts, from anti-war sentiments with rock of the '60s and '70s, to antiracist ideals with modern-day rap and hip-hop. Country music is no exception. The most memorable songs of the mid-to-late 1900s often discuss the lives of working-class Americans living in rural areas, like "Coal Miner's Daughter" by Loretta Lynn and "9 to 5" by Dolly Parton, for example. While this theme is still seen in the country music of today, topics like beer, trucks, girls, and God seem to steal the show. Though often anecdotal in evidence, many point to the attacks on September 11, 2001 as the reason why country music shifted to its current beer-drinkin', tractor-ridin', all-American state. The patriotism embraced by the nation during the War on Terror, especially in rural areas, is reflected in many songs explicitly inspired by 9/11 - The Charlie Daniels Band's "This Ain't No Rag, It's a Flag" and Toby Keith's "American Soldier" to name two. Ironically, though songs like these position the United States as unified against terrorist forces (Boulton, 374), the blatant hyper-patriotism within them has caused a world of generalization, and turned many would-be country fans off to the genre as a whole.

Given the background describes above, my goal for this project was to explore the following research question using the R programming language and word2vec analysis:

Do the lyrics of American country songs reflect the general consensus that an increase in patriotism took place within the genre following September 11, 2001?

That is, do lyrics across the genre contain more words related to patriotism, war, and religion after 9/11 than they did in the years prior to the attacks? While it may seem that the answers to these questions are simply 'yes' or 'no,' through my research and the creation of my corpora I observed much more nuance that should be taken into account.

Methodology

The process of creating these corpora was much more involved than I ever anticipated. In order to compare the lyrics of country songs before and after 9/11, I needed to create two corpora. The first, which we shall call the Old Corpus, includes lyrics from country albums from 1950 to 2000. The second, which we can call the New Corpus, contains lyrics from 2002 to 2020. I used the Genius API to scape the lyrics I needed using John W. Miller's GitHub client LyricsGenius, but ran into several hurdles along the way. After struggling with an inability to scrape due to issues with metadata formatting on Genius (as well as my general lack of knowledge of Python), I was eventually able to pull the lyrics through a combination running code that would search for and write lyrics by album and artist, and copy and pasting the lyrics into text files by hand. The code below is what I used to pull multiple albums at a time. It was crafted by Ash Clark - without eir help I am certain that I would not have been able to complete this project.

names = ['[insert album here]','[insert album here]']
for thisalbum in names:
album = genius.search_album(thisalbum, "[insert artist name here]")
album.save_lyrics(extension='txt')

Initially, I focused on pulling lyrics from only the most popular artists from each period of time, but after realizing how many more lyrics would be necessary to yield productive results I chose to pull lyrics from prominent artists' entire discographies. Unfortunately, the corpora were not as large as I would have liked due to the time constraint and the issues explained above, but the Old Corpus and the New Corpus' models were trained in RStudio with ~811,000 and ~844,000 words, respectively. Rankings from Taste of Country, The Boot, and Billboard were instrumental in choosing what appeared to be country music's most important artists (and their albums) in the creation of the corpora.

Data and Analysis

Given the way songs are written, there is no single word that allows us to analyze the effects of 9/11 on country music (something like 'patriotism' is ridiculously on-the-nose). It is for this reason that I chose to split my analysis of my corpora into a few sections, making queries based on words that fall into one of three categories: religion, nationalism, and military, topics that are generally considered to be found together especially in conversations about rural areas. Looking at several words in each of these categories and finding which terms are closest to them in both the Old Corpus and New Corpus allows us a firmer grasp on the common contexts in which these words are found. Significant change in the contexts from the Old to the New Corpus may tell us a bit more about the contributions post-9/11 patriotism made on the genre.

Religion

For this section, I took a look at three terms: 'pray,' 'bible,' and 'god.' While these terms seem rather general and somewhat trivial in the broader conversation of religion's place in country music, just looking at the 15 terms most similar to these in both the Old and New Corpora offered some intriguing results. It is important to note that country music has seen the rise and fall of different uses of religion in songwriting across the decades. As I saw during the process of building my corpora, many artists in the 1950s and 1960s would often release hymn albums or records where they'd sing gospel in specific. At the end of the 20th century and into the 2000s and 2010s, Christmas albums were much more common than hymnals, a shift that most likely contributed to what is analyzed below.

Firstly, for 'pray' in the New Corpus we see that 'peace,' 'families,' and 'fight' are the top three most similar terms, whereas in the Old Corpus the top words relate more directly to the act of praying itself ('studying,' 'prayed,' and 'knees'). 'Struggles' and 'forsake' are much lower on the list in the New Corpus, but they still contribute to the connection these words have to the moment following the start of the War on Terror, as well as the war's continuation.

The results for 'bible' are a bit more difficult to parse and find meaning in. It seems that the terms most similar to 'bible' in the Old Corpus are related to family, providing for said family, and reading the book itself. Those in the New Corpus do not offer such clarity. When making queries to try and omit words such as 'accent' and narrow the field to just 'bible' words about religion, I was left with terms of cosine similarities <0.2, which it have decided to omit as they are too vague to offer much solid ground for analysis.

Looking at the terms most similar to 'god' is also quite interesting, providing somewhat similar results to what we saw with 'pray.' In the Old Corpus, 'god' seems to be found in contexts where religion is spoken about rather broadly. Words like 'bless,' 'lord,' and 'prayer' reflect this, while those like 'gathers,' 'tidings,' and 'witness' point toward contexts where going to a church service is sung about, or perhaps the birth of Jesus Christ is referenced (both of which may be the result of the common hymn records I mentioned earlier). In the New Corpus, 'god' appears to be referenced in contexts where they are being thanked for having blessed an individual or a group of people (numbers 2 and 7), or maybe having been a part of a religious upbringing ('hometowns' and 'teaching'). The result I found most interesting here was the inclusion of 'america' on the list. Though it doesn't appear here in the Old Corpus, the phrase 'God Bless America' was common in the 20th century because of the song by the same name. This use in the New Corpus may point toward a new focus on religion's importance to the nation at the start of the 21st century, which is discussed in the next section.

Nationalism

To analyze nationalist tendencies across my corpora (to an admittedly very small extent), I chose queries that would allow me to see the changes that may have taken place in the contexts for the terms 'america' and 'nation.'

When analyzing the first term, one will immediately notice the strange set of words apparently similar to 'america' in the Old Corpus ('le,' 'ho,' 'eehee,' etc.). I believe this is the result of grouping of songs from an artist who yodeled in many of their works, though what it has to do with America I cannot infer. When making the query "w2vModel %>% closest_to(~'america'-'le',15)" the results are all <0.3 cosine similarity, but terms include 'her,' 'snoring,' 'cope,' and 'heartbeat.'

To me, the most interesting takeaways from this query of 'nation' use are the Old Corpus' inclusion of 'united' and 'bleeding,' and the New Corpus' 'vietnam,' 'bloody,' and 'slinging.' Interestingly both of these data sets seems to offer a general focus on war, as well as what I believe may be discussion of rural/blue-collar life given the presence of terms like 'downstairs,' 'gears,' 'association,' and 'backdoor' in the Old Corpus and 'factory,' 'generation,' 'trash,' and 'mall' in the New Corpus.

Military

As the title may suggest, this section is concerned with the queries I made for terms relating to warfare. Specifically, I analyzed use of the terms 'war,' 'army,' and 'gun.' Each of these is rather broad and somewhat blunt, which was a decision I made in order to avoid being too specific for my corpora (the terms 'terror' and 'terrorist,' for example, produce no results).

Overall, the results I got from my military-related queries were interesting in what they seemed to lack: differences across the corpora. When looking at these data, it seems that songs from the Old Corpus were focused on the more general aspects of war in the cases of the three terms queried. It does seem, though, that songs from the Old Corpus speak to war as a concept whereas the New Corpus offers what one may consider to be a more personal approach to the topic with words like 'bruises,' 'hospital,' 'cousins,' and 'granddaddy's.'

Conclusions

Given the relatively small scale of this project, it is difficult to offer any definitive answer to my initial research question, but based on the data presented above I can confirm to a certain extent that country music post-2001 takes a slightly more personal approach to the concepts of religion, war, and patriotism. While country music from 1950 to 2000 certainly has its fair share of emotionally-charged songs, including those relating to war and religion, given the prevalence of the terms shown in the previous sections one can reasonably state that country music of the 21st century is more focused on these areas than it was in preceding years. It goes without saying that much more research can be done into the questions I presented in this project. It is my hope that the preliminary work here allows for the questions to be considered on a much broader scale, perhaps with a more comprehensive method of pulling lyrics for analysis (and perhaps a lyric database offering more accurate lyrics than the fan-contributions of Genius).

Reflections & Looking Forward

A point I think is crucial to make comes from Andrew Boulton's 'The Popular Geopolitical Wor(l)ds of Post‐9/11 Country Music, Popular Music and Society':

"...country music songs do not exist in a vacuum, and that meanings are made both inside and outside the text (O´Tuathail ''Condensing''). Expectation matters; context matters; lyrics do not speak for themselves. The meaning of the Dixie Chicks' successful Vietnam-themed song ''Travelin' Soldier'' (2003), for example-conceivably glorifying the bravery and sacrifice of a young soldier, in a similar way to Trace Adkins's reverential ''Arlington'' (2005)-bears re-reading in light of what we know about the politics of the song's performers." (Boulton 375)

Context is ridiculously important when considering song lyrics, especially in dealing with conversations rooted in politics. While Word2Vec modeling offers a glimpse into the contexts individual lyrics are found in, we unfortunately lose the ideological contexts of these artists in the process. As indicated in the Boulton quote above, certain artists may use very similar words in their lyrics, but the meanings may be completely opposite rather than contributing to the same trend.

If future work is to be done on this question using textual analysis, looking at individual country artists' takes on the aftermath of 9/11 and the War on Terror in general may provide some helpful context. Additionally, looking into other potential causes for the patriotic shift seen in the genre would add dimensions to studies. Perhaps the Great Recession contributed to some of the sentiments seen in country music of the mid 2000s, and maybe the end of the Recession contributed to the party-oriented country music we see nowadays from artists like Florida Georgia Line.

My love for certain types of country music hasn't changed. If anything, I've grown even fonder of the genre as a result of my research. Each artist has something to add to the genre as a whole, and while whether or not September 11, 2001 played a direct role in that creative expression for artists overall, I hope that the data presented in this project has helped make evident that a shift has taken place, one that should be examined further.

Works Cited and Further Readings

Boulton, Andrew. (2008) The Popular Geopolitical Wor(l)ds of Post‐9/11 Country Music, Popular Music and Society, 31:3, 373-387, DOI: 10.1080/03007760701563518

Carraway, Katherine. "A Frustrated Lifelong Fan: Country Music Must Stop Pigeon-Holing Itself: Opinion." The Tennessean, Nashville Tennessean, 7 Jan. 2020, www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2020/01/07/county-music-pigeon-holed-after-911/2803772001/.

Miller, John W. "Trucks and Beer 🍺." John W. Miller, 7 Feb. 2018, www.johnwmillr.com/trucks-and-beer/.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Country Corpora: An Analysis of Country Music Before and After 9/11

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Special thanks to Sarah Connell, Ash Clark, and Micah Weston for helping me (try to) learn Python for my scraping journey! There was no way I could've pulled this together without all of your help and support. I grew up in rural Upstate New York, just below the Adirondacks.

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Poetic style derives from the 70's folk genre of music. It focuses on lyricism and poetic storytelling through the music and instrumentals. It is a very emotional genre that uses lyricism to tackle nuanced topics.

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He is the mandolin player: David Kincer, you can see him again front and center with his mandolin!

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My Grandfathers Bluegrass Gospel Band: Gloryland Express. This is one of their vinyl recordings!

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My Grandfathers Bluegrass Gospel Band: Gloryland Express. This is one of their vinyl recordings!

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My grandfather is the man on the right with the sunglasses

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Some important women within the country and folk scene. Between the women who paved the way, to influential contemporary female country artists!

Dolly Parton- Songwriters Hall of Fame, 13 ACMs, 10 Grammys, 9 CMAs, and Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award

Loretta Lynn- 3 Grammys, 7 AMAs, 13 ACMs, and was the first woman in country music to receive a certified gold album

Patsy Cline- Country Music Hall of Fame, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award

Linda Martell- 1st commercially successful black female country artist & the first to play the Grand Ole Opry

Contemporary Women Country Artists

Brandi Carlile

Kacey Musgraves

Reba

Faith Hill

Shania Twain

The Chicks

Maren Morris

Carrie Underwood

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5 Female Artists Creating The Future Of Country Music: Jaime Wyatt, Miko Marks & More | GRAMMY.com

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Country music’s view of women is often reductive, yet a new generation of female country singers are breaking the mold. They’ve cracked open the notoriously slow-to-change genre, nudging it toward aural, queer, gender and racial diversity.

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Personal connection with Bluegrass music

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Personal connection with Bluegrass music

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My Grandmother grew up in southeast Kentucky, Mayking. Her family lived in the coal mine estates that the coal mining companies built for coal miners and their families. My great-grandfather was an amazing musician. He never took lessons, but learned from being around it growing up. He could play the guitar, banjo, fiddle, piano, dulcimer, and just about anything else you put in his hands. He was able to pick up any instrument and play it by ear, but he was known for his insane mandolin skills.

Although I grew up in northern Kentucky, I still feel a strong connection to bluegrass and folk music. Growing up with a musician like my great-grandfather in my life, has changed the way I listen to music as a whole.

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Culture also varies between each sub-genre. There are strong elements of religion and Christianity within the roots of Country music. Within contemporary pop country, there are huge themes of patriotism. I.E Toby Keith and his song "Courtesy of the Red White and Blue". That has not always been the case as can be seen in the Western and Folk subgenres. Artists like Johnny Cash and Woody Guthrie wrote about systemic issues within American society and government. Tyler Childers is a contemporary bluegrass and folk artist who is also not afraid to write about systemic issues, his song "Long Violent History" is a great example of this.

Overall there are themes of a slower more peaceful lifestyle (country lifestyle instead of a more fast paced 'big city' lifestyle)

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Here are some popular songs in each country sub-genre, as well as some of my personal favorites :)

Honky Tonk

Friends In Low Places, Garth Brooks

Devil Went Down To Georgia, The Charlie Daniels Band

Drinkin' My Baby Goodbye, The Charlie Daniels Band

Boot Scootin Boogie, Brooks and Dunn

Chattahoochee, Alan Jackson

Country/Western

Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to Be Cowboys, Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson

The Gambler, Kenny Rogers

Luckenbach Texas, Waylon Jennings

On the Road Again, Willie Nelson

Blue Eyes, Wille Nelson

Rockabilly

Jailhouse Rock, Elvis Presley

Folsom Prison Blues, Johnny Cash

Ring Of Fire, Johnny Cash

Hound Dog, Elvis Presley

Bluegrass

Kentucky Waltz, The Osborne Brothers

I'll Fly Away, Allison Krauss (gospel hymn)

Can the Circle Be Unbroken, The Carter Family

Wildwood Flower, The Carter Family

Indie Contemporary Bluegrass (some of my favorites, I put my personal Indie Bluegrass playlist on this post)

In Dreams, Sierra Ferrell

Just Like Leaving, Bella White

In Your Love, Tyler Childers

Long Violent History, Tyler Childers

Years, Sierra Ferrell

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With Country music being a multi generational genre, there are multiple big historical events that have impacted country music as a whole. 9/11 greatly impacted country music. Country music became "American" music and extremely patriotic; in a time where America was looking for community and togetherness. These patriotic undertones and themes are still prevalent in contemporary country pop music.

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Rolling Stones List of the 100 Greatest Country Artists of all time. Here is the top 20 according to Rolling Stone

20. George Strait

19. Roger Miller

18. Eddy Arnold

17. Glen Campbell

16. Tammy Wynette

15. Ray Price

14. Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys

13. Buck Owens

12. Patsy Cline

11. Jimmie Rodgers

10. Garth Brooks

9. George Jones

8. Dolly Parton

7. Waylon Jennings

6. Willie Nelson

5. The Carter Family

4. Loretta Lynn

3. Johnny Cash

2. Hank Williams

1. Merle Haggard

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100 Greatest Country Artists of All Time

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The 100 greatest country artists and singers of all time, including Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, Shania Twain, Garth Brooks and Merle Haggard.

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Vocal Quality within country music has become very distinct and easy to decipher and recognize. There is an obvious bit of twang within the voice, but also a speech like quality as well. Vowels are exaggerated, and so are diphthongs; similar to the southern dialect and accent. The voice within the country music genre is seen as just as much as an instrument as the guitar, fiddle, banjo, etc.

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Country music is a wide and vast genre of music. It's roots are in black and africam american culture. It is an american music genre with various sub-genres. It also stems from Irish and Scottish folk that then blossomed into bluegrass and Appalachian Folk. As the years went on more genres emerged: Honky Tonk, Western, Rockabilly, Bluegrass, and Folk!

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https://goodonyou.eco/micro-trends/

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Beyonce started her career in the girl super group Destiny's Child. The group took a hiatus in 2001 and Beyonce started her ever growing solo career. Throughout her career she has won 615 awards. She has been dubbed by the Rolling Stones as one of the greatest vocalist of all time.

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Pop icon Lady Gaga who in total has received 117 awards for her music collectively

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As technology advances, American society and culture change as well. With the rise of social media in the early 2000's overall culture within America is different than previous generations. We have everything at our fingertips, which has caused the need and desire for instant gratification within our society. On the flip side, however, the advancement of technology has led to an overall more accepting society compared to more conservative and traditional decades.

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Fashion evolves and changes with each decade. With technology being what we know today, fashion trends change almost monthly.

In the 90's street fashion was really big. With the rise in popularity of hiphop culture and rap as a musical genre, the fashion also became very popular. Fashion wasn't as in your face as it was in the 80's, but rather more laid back and relaxed.

Early 2000's and the Y2K movement strayed from the laid back style, and was all about big statements within fashion and clothing. Mini skirts, tank tops, and bright colors were back in.

Since the early 2000's, fashion has changed pretty exponentially year by year. Because of social media and online shopping, micro trends change constantly. Overall I feel as though a lot of recent fashion trends borrow from previous decades.

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Top song of each year

1990- "Hold On" Wilson Phillips

1991- "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" Bryan Adams

1992- "End of the Road" Boyz II Men

1993- "I Will Always Love You" Whitney Houston

1994- "The Sign" Ace of Base

1995-"Gangsta's Paradise" Coolio featuring L.V.

1996-"Macarena" (Bayside Boys Mix) Los del Río

1997-"Candle in the Wind 1997"/"Something About the Way You Look Tonight" Elton John

1998- "Too Close" Next

1999-"Believe" Cher

2000-"Breathe" Faith Hill

2001-"Hanging by a Moment" Lifehouse

2002-"How You Remind Me" Nickelback

2003-"In Da Club" 50 Cent

2004-"Yeah!" Usher featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris

2005- "We Belong Together" Mariah Carey

2006- "Bad Day" Daniel Powter

2007-"Irreplaceable" Beyonce

2008- "Low" Flo Rida featuring T-Pain

2009- "Boom Boom Pow The Black Eyed Peas

2010-"Tik Tok" Kesha

2011- "Rolling in the Deep" Adele

2012-"Somebody That I Used to Know" Gotye featuring Kimbra

2013-"Thrift Shop" Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz

2014- "Happy" Pharrell Williams

2015-"Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars

2016- "Love Yourself" Justin Bieber

2017-"Shape of You" Ed Sheeran

2018- "God's Plan" Drake

2019- "Old Town Road" Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus

2020- "Blinding Lights" The Weeknd

2021-"Levitating" Dua Lipa

2022-"Heat Waves" Glass Animals

2023- "Last Night" Morgan Wallen

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Since the 90s there have been plenty of historical events that have shaped the music industry and society as a whole.

1991- Gulf war starts

1993- Bill Clinton elected to office

1995- Oklahoma City Bombing

1996- Bill Clinton reelected

1998- U.S embassy bombing

1998- Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal

1999- Columbine Shooting

2000- George W Bush wins presidential election

2001- 9/11 terrorist attacks

2001- Invasion of Afghanistan

2003- Invasion of Iraq, starting the Iraq war

2004- Bush Reelected

2005- Hurricane Catrina

2007-2008- Recession and Global Financial Crisis

2008- Obama wins Presidental election

2009- Micheal Jackson dies

2011- Death of Osama Bin Laden

2012- Hurricane Sandy

2013- Boston Marathon bombings

2015- Supreme Court affirms same-sex marriage

2016- Donald Trump elected

2018- Douglas Highschool Shooting

2028-2019- Longest government shutdown in American history

2020- Corona Pandemic

2021- Joe Biden Elected

2022- Uvalde School Shooting

2022- Roe v. Wade overturned

2023- Trump indicted and arraigned

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Depending on the genre, the music quality and vocal quality differs.

Pop is very light and bubbly. It's music to dance to and designed to be popular and streamed on the radio.

R&B came from jazz gospel and blues. Depending on the specific subcategories the music sound can vary. It is very jazzy and laid back, with a more soulful found. It is not "canned" like pop music.

Rap blossomed in the 90s. Coming from the hip hop and the plight of black people. It is spoken word or poetry music to a beat.

Overall vocal quality is extremely tied to the groove of the beat or the song.

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Nirvana

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Pearl Jam

Radiohead

The Smashing Pumpkins

2pac

FooFighters

Mariah Carey

Notorious BIG

Dr Dre

The Fugees

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1990's-Now

Following the 80's the pop genre grew exponentially. Music genres continued to grow and evolve to what we know now. There are hundreds of different musical genres, one for almost any niche. The rapid advancement in technology has created a whole new world for music.

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Live Aid

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Ryan White

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One of my mom's high school yearbook photos, big hair was the trend throughout the 80s. Sophomore year

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8th grade yearbook picture. Big hair and scrunchie, classic 80's look

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Pop Culture blossomed in the 1980s.

Music

MTV launched in 1981

Cassette tapes

Thriller Music video

LiveAid 1985

Led Zeppelin breaks up after John Bonham's death

"The Breaks" becomes the first certified gold Rap song

Film (notable and influential films)

ET 1982

Footloose 1984

The Princess Bride 1987

The Outsiders 1983

Stand By Me 1986

Ghostbusters 1984

Top Gun 1986

Back To The Future 1985

Dirty Dancing 1987

Ferris Bueller's Day Off 1986

Social Movements

LGBTQ rights and AIDS activism, ACT UP founded in 1987

Anti Nuclear and peace movement

Equal Pay and Workplace Rights Movement

ADA and disability rights movement gained traction in the 80s which led to the Americans With Disabilities Act

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Reagan became the 40th president in 1980 and hope was high in America. While some remember him fondly, he is still a very controversial figure. His war on drugs led to mass incarceration and disproportionately targeted black communities, which led to an even harsher police state in America. He had a very delayed and ineffective response to the AIDS epidemic which took the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. This made homophobia even more rampant as AIDS hit the queer community the hardest.

Other significant historical moments

Cold War (and the subsequent end of the cold war) and high tensions with the Soviet Union

Chernobyl disaster 1986

Challenger Disaster 198

Berlin Wall falls 1989

John Lennon Assassinated 1980

Regan assassination attempt 1981

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Fashion in the 80s was all about going full out. Hair was big, colors were bright and neon and tight clothes were in! Fashion in the 80s was a huge shift from the previous decade. Clothes weren't as free-flowy or had muted colors like the 70s. Big statements pretty much sum up 80's fashion. Some big trends were shoulder pads, poof dresses, high-waisted jeans (that they would peg as says my mom), and neon colors and designs. Punk style was also relevant in the 80s with leather jackets and dresses and dramatic makeup. Makeup in the 80s was bright and bold.

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Pop singing that we are more familiar with these days can be found in most 80s songs as well. There is no vibrato and a talky, breathy quality within the sound. Because of the new wave synth sound, vocals were less complicated, the background music made up for that.

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1980

"Call Me" Blondie

1981

"Bette Davis Eyes" Kim Carnes

1982

"Physical" Olivia Newton-John

1983

"Every Breath You Take" The Police

1984

"When Doves Cry" Prince

1985

"Careless Whisper" Wham! featuring George Michael

1986

"That's What Friends Are For" Dionne

1987

"Walk Like an Egyptian" The Bangles

1988

"Faith" George Michael

1989

"Look Away" Chicago

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Madonna

Whitney Houston

U2

The Smiths

The Cars

The Police

Prince

Blondie

Queen

Journey

Phil Collins

Tina Turner

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The 80s decade has become one of the most recognizable decades. It has defined itself through it's synth music, outlandish style, and important pop culture moments. It also is defined by many historical moments as well.

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Muisc and fashion Icons Cher, Elton John, and Diana Ross. They are more of the disco era.

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During the 70's rock and roll gained more traction and public appreciation. During the 70s iconic rock and roll bands emerged like: The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Eagles, and AC/DC.

70's folk is known for its Appalachian-inspired feel. In Laurel Canyon, folk rock thrived. Big names like The Mamas and The Papas, Joni Mitchell, and Linda Ronstadt and many others lived in Laurel Canyon. Laurel Canyon inspired talented artists to collaborate like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

Vocal quality depended on the genre. It was overall much more emotionally induced compared to Motown. Folk is known for its light and airy quality with lilting harmonies.

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Some of Billboard Top 100 Songs by year. From 1966-1979

1966

"California Dreamin", The Mamas & The Papas

"96 Tears", ? and the Mysterians

"What Becomes of the Brokenhearted", Jimmy Ruffin

1967

"To Sir With Love", Lulu

"The Letter", The Box Tops

"Ode to Billie Joe", Bobbie Gentry

1968

"Hey Jude", The Beatles

"Love is Blue", Paul Mauriat

"Honey", Bobby Goldsboro

1969

"Sugar, Sugar", The Archies

"Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In", The 5th Dimension

"I Can't Get Next to You", The Temptations

1970

"Bridge Over Troubled Water", Simon & Garfunkel

"(They Long to Be) Close to You", The Carpenters

American Woman", The Guess Who

1971

"Joy to the World", Three Dog Night

"Maggie May" & "Reason to Believe", Rod Stewart

"It's Too Late" & "I Feel the Earth Move", Carole King

1972

"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", Roberta Flack

"Alone Again (Naturally)", Gilbert O'Sullivan

"American Pie", Don McLean

1973

"Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree", Tony Orlando and Dawn

"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown", Jim Croce

"Killing Me Softly with His Song", Roberta Flack

1974

"The Way We Were", Barbra Streisand

"Seasons in the Sun", Terry Jacks

"Love's Theme", Love Unlimited Orchestra

1975

"Love Will Keep Us Together", Captain & Tennille

"Rhinestone Cowboy", Glen Campbell

"Philadelphia Freedom", Elton John

1976

"Silly Love Songs", Wings

"Don't Go Breaking My Heart", Elton John & Kiki Dee

"Disco Lady", Johnnie Taylor

1977

"Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright)", Rod Stewart

"I Just Want to Be Your Everything", Andy Gibb

"Best of My Love", The Emotions

1978

"Shadow Dancing", Andy Gibb

"Night Fever", Bee Gees

"You Light Up My Life", Debby Boone

1979

"My Sharona", The Knack

"Bad Girls", Donna Summer

"Le Freak", Chic

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The 70's included a variety of different styles and trends. There were far more options for the every day person to express themselves through the clothes they wore. 70's included the hippie movement, disco movement, and the punk rock movement, which all had their own styles. Denim was the new thing, and pants were much more accepted for women to wear compared to the early motown style. Clothes were much more flowy and expressive. Bell Bottoms were a huge trend along with leather jackets and bold patterns and colors. Due to the rise of synthetic material, the 70's became known as the "Polyester Decade" (https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/1970-1979/). Throughout the '70s, gendered clothing and color expectations lessened. Facial Hair also became widely popular, compared to the clean-cut and shaven look of the Motown era.

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Between the late 60s to the late 70s, many historical life-altering events took place. Following up the social and civil unrest of the 60s led to the peace movement. But the civil unrest did not end. The Vietnam War and the draft affected everyone in the United States.

The hippie movement encouraged disembarking from societal norms and embracing peace and acceptance. Through rock, disco, and folk, gender roles were loosened and influential figures embraced both femininity and masculinity, like Elton John and David Bowie.

People did not trust the government like they used to. This only increased with Watergate. The Watergate scandal started in 1972. Nixon's administration was caught breaking into the Democratic Party's headquarters and trying to bug and steal information. Recorded tapes of Nixon admitting this and admitting to trying to cover it up, came to light and hence Nixon resigned in 1974

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Culture blossomed in the 70s in many different ways

Films

iconic films came out in the 70s such as, Star wars, Rocky, The Exorcist, Grease, and Jaws to name a few. All these movies have left a lasting impact on pop culture.

TV

Sitcoms rose in popularity and started to tackle more serious issues. Popular sitcoms of the 70s were The Brady Bunch, All In The Family, Happy Days, Good Times, and MASH.

Social Movements

Social movements grew even more traction in the 70s. The Environmental movement, Women's Liberation Movement, Civil Rights Movement, Queer Liberation Movement, and the Anti War Anti Capitalist movement are all examples.

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Joni Mitchell was born November 7th, 1943 in Fort Macleod, Alberta Canada. She taught herself guitar and was known for her unique guitar tunings that led to her own recognizable sound. Her first album was "Song To A Seagull" and has released a total of 19 studio albums. She has won 11 grammys and is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!

She is known for her poetic song writing and her non standard tuning and beautiful harmonies. She is regarded as one of the most influential female artists of the 20th century, and one of the greatest songwriters by Rolling Stones.

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Bob Dylan

Woody Guthrie

The Carpenters

Neil Young

Mamas and The Papas

James Taylor

Jackson Brown

Linda Ronstadt

Fleetwood Mac

Carly Simon

Carole King

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The late 60's to the 70's brought major changes. With society changing and evolving, it also blossomed a major change within the music industry. Music was much more emotionally expressive, and complex. Folk rock brought appalachian roots into the mainstream. Disco offered an artistic outlet to the oppressed. It was a time of change and "fighting the power"

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My Grandmama and her date for one the school dances

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My grandma in the mid 60's. She told me the dress code at her high school forbade girls to wear pants, so she rarely wore them

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Late 60s, getting crazy with some shorts! This is my great grandma and her sister. Very 60s with the block dress with some polka dots on it

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Some Pictures of my grandma in the mid 60s :)

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Some Pictures of my grandma in the mid 60s :)

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Skeeter Davis was born in 1931 in Glencoe Kentucky, but moved to Cincinnati in the mid 30s. Her family then relocated to Erlanger in Northern Kentucky (About 10 minutes from where I live which is pretty cool, I had no idea!). In highschool (she went to the other highschool in my district, Dixie Heights) she met Betty Jack Davis and they became a musical duo. After highscool, the two moved to Detroit to pursue music.

They signed a record deal with RCA Victor. In a devastating car crash, Betty Jack Davis was killed and Skeeter was seriously injured as they were on a bus ride back from a show they had in West Virginia.

The Davis sisters disbanded in 1956, and Skeeter started her solo career.

In 1963 her song "End Of The World" became a huge hit. It did not completely top the charts that year, but make it to the top 10 hits. The next year she was nominated for a Grammy!

She had a long and successful career despite all the tragedy she faced. Sadly in 1988 she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and eventually passed from it in 2004 at the age of only 72.

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"Color Blocking" was a huge trend in the 60's

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 The Supremes: Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, and Diana Ross

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Women's Fashion and Influential Figures 

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Women's Fashion and Influential Figures 

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Was considered pretty risque and out there for that time period

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Clean and crisp fashion. Shirts were well fitting and tucked in

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School Dances and Sock hops were big social events of this time period!

Sock Hops were more casual and other school dances specifically the prom were more formal, though nothing like what we see today

Motown was music meant to dance and groove to!

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The style was clean-cut and modest. It was not common for women to wear pants. Men were also well put together and also conservative.

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Vocal Quality in Motown is a very distinct sound compared to what we are used to hearing on the radio nowadays. In the article "Singing Guide: Motown Musical" it states, "One common feature of Motown is the use of melodious phrases with soulful inflections. To master the Motown sound, it is essential to keep your voice supple and relaxed. Focus on achieving a pure, straight tone with as little vibrato as possible."

Another key feature of Motown is it's tight harmonies and call and response with background singers. It's easy to identify if a song is from the Motown era if there are backing vocals with crisp harmonies.

A great example of this is is "Please Mr. Postman" by The Marvelettes

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Please Mr. Postman - Single Version / Mono

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Please Mr. Postman - Single Version / Mono

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The 1950s-1960s was a turbulent time for the United States. The economy was booming and the nuclear family was the standard for American families. As quality of life increased for white Americans, Black people, and other POC groups were left completely behind. They faced extreme adversity and inequality; civil unrest was growing.

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March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom August 1963

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Some of the most popular songs from 1955-1965

1955

"Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White", Perez Prado

"Rock Around the Clock", Bill Haley & His Comets

"The Yellow Rose of Texas", Mitch Miller

1956

"Heartbreak Hotel", Elvis Presley

"Don't Be Cruel", Elvis Presley

"Lisbon Antigua", Nelson Riddle

1957

"All Shook Up", Elvis Presley

"Love Letters in the Sand", Pat Boone

"Little Darlin", The Diamonds

1958

"Volare (Nel blu dipinto di blu)", Domenico Modugno

"All I Have to Do Is Dream" / "Claudette", The Everly Brothers

"Don't" / "I Beg of You", Elvis Presley

1959

"The Battle of New Orleans", Johnny Horton

"Mack the Knife", Bobby Darin

"Personality", Lloyd Price

1960

"Theme from A Summer Place", Percy Faith

"He'll Have to Go", Jim Reeves

"Cathy's Clown", The Everly Brothers

1961

"Tossin' and Turnin'", Bobby Lewis

"I Fall to Pieces", Patsy Cline

"Michael", The Highwaymen

1962

"Stranger on the Shore", Acker Bilk

"I Can't Stop Loving You", Ray Charles

"Mashed Potato Time", Dee Dee Sharp

1963

"Surfin' U.S.A.", The Beach Boys

"The End of the World", Skeeter Davis

"Rhythm of the Rain", The Cascades

1964

"I Want to Hold Your Hand", The Beatles

"She Loves You", Louis Armstrong

"Hello, Dolly!", Louis Armstrong

1965

"Wooly Bully", Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs

"I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)", Four Tops

"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", The Rolling Stones

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Aretha Franklin & Etta James. Queens of Motown

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Influential artists:

Jackson Five

The Temptations

The Four Seasons

Marvin Gaye

Etta James

Stevie Wonder

Aretha Franklin