CLASS NOTES: 1980s New Traditionalists and New Wave (History of Rock, 1970-Present)

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Notes on video lecture:

1980s New Traditionalists and New Wave

History of Rock, 1970-Present

John Covach, University of Rochester

Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on July 21, 2016 (go to class or lectures)

Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:

past, tradition, quotation, 1970s, Springsteen, social, poetical, Glory, rebellious, vocalist, Byrds, hippy, Stratocaster, Eno, Jung, roots, ironically, simplicity, popularity, Woody, three, emphasis, Knopfler, distorted, conscience, rotation, Swing, surrealistic, older, England, Moon, really, Westerner, Americana, romanticized

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the rise of New Wave at the end of the

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a signal event in the sense that it helped define the end of the decade that was pushing back and rejecting the aesthetic, which unified Rock music from the mid-60s to the end of the 1970s

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New Wave into the 1980s had main groups

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1. those who turned to the in an ironic or detached way

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not that you want to return to the past but that you are using the past because you know that your audience understands what that is so it is in marks distanced from your values and intentions

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2. those who were not using the past ironically at all and just blended in to 80s music

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by the time you get to the early 80s, New Wave blended into main stream Rock and was no longer

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you could hear the Cars, Foreigners, The Talking Heads, and Boston all pretty much together on classic Rock radio

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there might have been a difference in but not a difference in kind when it came to style

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3. those who wanted to go back to and celebrate the past authentically, "New Traditionalists"

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a return to the past and a return to the roots of the

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Tom Petty and the Heart Breakers

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wanted his group to sound like an updated version of the

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he wasn't doing this , he just thought this was they way good music should sound

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influenced by Dylan

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a lot of jingly, jangly guitars

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pop hooks, three-to-four minute songs

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he really believes in the tradition of mid-60s American rock and roll

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1985 Southern Accents

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"Don't Come Around Here No More"

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1989 Full Fever

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"Free Fallin

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had videos to go along with them

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e.g. Tom Petty is the Mad Hatter who is cutting Alice who is the cake,

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but they did not even know MTV very well even though their video was playing on it

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New Traditionalists that embraced

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idealistic idea of what America is in a kind of fly-over country

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that basic, kind of, good-sense, wheat-fed America, a notion of a country that probably doesn't exist, but it's an idea that people have

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a bit like the New York that is portrayed in Allen film, if you were to go to New York expecting to find what you had seen in those films, you are bound to be a little bit disappointed

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Bruce

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a singer/song-writer at the end of the 70s

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but as he went on, he really got into a rootsy, New Traditionalist, a return to , a return to the past

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a romantic view of the 1960s, growing up in New Jersey and this kind of thing

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the image of a working class guy who talks good sense

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1975: Born to Run

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1980: The River

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Hungry Heart

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1984: Born in the USA

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Days

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both of these tunes became radio staples

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much video on MTV to support him

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John Cougar Mellencamp

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projects the image of a small-town mid-

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1979: I need a Lover

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1982: American Fool

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Hurts So Good

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Jack and Diane

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it may be easier to think of him as a singer/song-writer fronting a band

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a traditionalist embracing values

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returning to good, simple, direct music

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New Traditionalists from

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Dire Straits

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Mark

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voice from a Bob Dylan tradition

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playing a guitar, a very clean sound

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very different than the cranked-up, distorted Marshall stacks that other bands were using

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1978: Sultans of

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defined Dire Straits as a group that was going back to the and bypassing a lot of heavier Rock of the day

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1985: Brothers in Arms

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Money for Nothing

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plenty of guitar

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an embrace of American roots music

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a criticism of music merchandising

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but went into heavy on MTV

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New Wave and how it merged into mainstream rock in the 1980s

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The Police

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sophisticated musical arrangements that use and intellectual lyrics

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1983 Synchronicity

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Carl

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Every Breath You Take

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King of Pain

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rose as the of the Police was beginning to die down

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the move from the Police to U2 were stage 1 and stage 2 of similar approaches, even though they are very distinctive bands

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simple songs in very innovative ways

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Bono

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a pursuer of causes

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a voice of

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trying to use his fame to affect positive change

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The Edge

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David Howell Evans, born 8 August 1961, a British-born Irish musician and songwriter best known as the lead guitarist, keyboardist and backing

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1987 The Joshua Tree

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producers

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Brian

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Daniel Lanois

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"With or Without You"

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In the Name of Love

Flashcards:

kind of guitar Mark Knopfler had for Dire Straits

Stratocaster

Ideas and Concepts:

Music that brings back my American youth, via tonight's History of Rock and Roll class:

"New Wave into the 1980s had three main groups:1. those who turned to the past in an ironic or detached way (Talking Heads, B52s), 2. those who were not using the past ironically at all and just blended in to 80s music (The Cars), and 3. those who really wanted to go back to and celebrate the past authentically, which we call the New Traditionalists. The foremost singer in this group was, of course, Tom Petty. He truly wanted his group to sound like an updated version of the Byrds. He wasn't doing this ironically, he just thought this was the way good music should sound:lots of jingly, jangly guitars, pop hooks, and three-to-four minute songs. Influenced by Bob Dylan, Tom simply believed in the tradition of mid-60s American rock and roll, and there's no better song to demonstrate this than Free Fallin':

"She's a good girl, loves her mama, Loves Jesus and America, too, She's a good girl, crazy 'bout Elvis, Loves horses and her boyfriend, too, It's a long day living in Reseda, There's a freeway runnin' through the yard, I'm a bad boy 'cause I don't even miss her, I'm a bad boy for breaking her heart, And I'm free, free fallin'."

On early 1980 New Traditionalist bands going back to the roots, via tonight's History of Rock and Roll class: "While Bruce Springsteen and John Cougar Mellencamp were embracing Americana, a kind of good-sense, wheat-fed notion of America, a romanticized version of a country that probably didn't exist, a bit like the New York that Woody Allen portrays in his films, Dire Straights in England was simply going back to the musical roots of the sixties, bypassing the heavier Rock of the day. Lead singer Mark Knopfler, with his voice of Bob Dylan tradition, played a Stratocaster guitar, which guitar enthusiasts know to make a very sharp, crisp and clean sound, much more sophisticated than the cranked-up, distorted Marshall stacks that other bands of the 80s were indulging in, and there is no better song to demonstrate this crispness of sound than their 1978 hit:Sultans of Swing."

Beautiful poetry by Sting, via tonight's History of Rock and Roll class:

"Sting's fascination with Carl Jung and to a greater extent Arthur Koestler inspired him to write this track. As a Hungarian-born novelist who resided in England, Koestler was enthralled with parapsychology and the unexplained workings of the mind. This song is a very sad poem about doing everything right and still being in trouble and not knowing what to do next.

There's a fossil that's trapped in a high cliff wall, that's my soul up there. There's a dead salmon frozen in a waterfall, that's my soul up there. There's a blue whale beached by a springtime's ebb, that's my soul up there. There's a butterfly trapped in a spider's web, that's my soul up there. There's a red fox torn by a huntsman's pack, that's my soul up there. There's a black-winged gull with a broken back, that's my soul up there.

There's a king on a throne with his eyes torn out. There's a blind man looking for a shadow of doubt. There's a rich man sleeping on a golden bed. There's a skeleton choking on a crust of bread. There's a little black spot on the sun today. It's the same old thing as yesterday. King of pain."

Music of my 80s youth, via tonight's History of Rock and Roll class:

"U2 rose to popularity as the popularity of the Police was beginning to wane. The move from the Police to U2 was like stage one and stage two of similar approaches, even though they are very distinctive bands. They both has simple yet innovative songs which spoke to the soul.

Bono (Paul David Hewson), lead vocalist of U2, was a pursuer of social causes, a voice of conscience, trying to use his fame to affect positive change.

The song "In the Name of Love" was a tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. Bono is speaking about those throughout history who have died because they preached of the equality of all men and practiced nonviolence as the only way to achieve their goal of having this equality universally recognized.

Martin Luther King Jr. is the primary example of nonviolent resistance as the only way to bring about changes in civil rights. The song is about singular people who lived their life with pride, not in a boastful way, but with the pride a person has when their thoughts and actions are motivated by their understanding and full awareness of the dignity and sanctity of human life."

Wisdom in music, via tonight's History of Rock and Roll class: "Bono wrote the lyrics to With or Without You during his first night visiting Côte d’Azur in 1986, while struggling to reconcile his responsibilities as both a married man and a musician. His wanderlust in belonging to a musical act was often at odds with his domestic life. While writing the lyrics, he realized that neither facet of his life defined him, but rather the tension between the two did. He explained that the final lyric is about torment and how repressing desires only makes them stronger."