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"Se houver sentimento, a musica é boa". Ray Charles
Em 5 de março de 1955 foi declarado morto o saxofonista Charlie Parker,
um dos expoentes maiores de um estilo de jazz radical que fazia
menos concessões ao gosto popular, o bebop, que foi criado
na segunda metade dos anos 40 e revisto, radicalizado e ampliado
nos anos 50 com o hard bop. Em resposta à agressividade do
bebop e do hard bop, aparece também nessa década o
cool jazz, com uma proposta intelectualizada que está para
o jazz assim como a música de câmara está para
a música erudita.
Os anos 50 foram de enorme prosperidade para os Estados Unidos. Ao
fim da Segunda Guerra Mundial, o país havia saído vencedor e ainda mais
poderoso, sua economia finalmente se recuperando por completo da depressão
dos anos 30. O padrão de vida melhorava e cada vez mais se consumiam
eletrodomésticos e outros utensílios. As famílias de classe média se
mudavam para os idílicos subúrbios, onde afastadas do caos das cidades
podiam desfrutar da pax americana. Com dinheiro sobrando, os americanos
se divertiam nos drive-ins, com o rock'n'roll de Bill Haley e Seus Cometas,
Little Richard e Elvis Presley, entre outros.


Os beats tomavam de assalto a cena cultural e literária norte-americana,
pregando a retomada de uma tradição visionária e dionisíaca, vivia-se
a paranóia da Guerra Fria e a institucionalização do “american way of
life”. Kerouac, Ginsberg, Snyder e McClure abriram-se para outras culturas,
com a introdução do zen e do budismo e o resgate dos mitos indígenas
norte-americanos. Recuperaram a tradição oral da poesia, fazendo-a saltar
da página impressa para a fala, em recitais pioneiros que fundiam poesia
e jazz (foi exatamente no famoso recital da Six Gallery, em San Francisco,
1955, que o movimento beat teve início).

Não é atoa que os anos 50 são chamados de os "anos dourados". O Rio
de Janeiro vivia um raro momento de florescimento artístico, como poucas
vezes se viu na história da cultura nacional. O Brasil vivia então um
período de crescimento econômico que acabou se refletindo em todas as
áreas. Em 1956, Juscelino Kubitschek tomou posse na Presidência da República
com o slogan desenvolvimentista "50 anos em 5".
Tom Jobim entao com 29 anos, trabalhava pela primeira vez com
seu grande parceiro, Vincícius de Moraes. O nome mais conhecido
da música brasileira em todo o mundo é certamente Tom Jobim. De
seu acervo, sete composições passaram do recorde de um milhão
de execuções em todos os tempos. "Garota de Ipanema"
superou os quatro milhões. A Bossa Nova fruto daqueles anos dourados
se tornaria um dos gêneros musicais brasileiros mais conhecidos
em todo o mundo, especialmente associado a Tom Jobim e João
Gilberto.
John Coltrane
John Coltrane começa sua escalada ao patamar de mito na
banda de Miles Davis. Como o sideman do “pai do cool” marcou a
história da música com momentos inesquecíveis, como
a versão daquele quinteto de Miles tocando versões clássicas de
clássicos como “Autumn Leaves” e “Stella by Starlight”.
Surgimento do Pop
O entrelaçamento das inovações tecnológicas
às práticas cotidianas é fundamental para
o entendimento da cultura pop, como, aliás, para o de qualquer
manifestação cultural.
A estrutura de produção/circulação/consumo
das cadeias mediáticas agrega os músicos, os distribuidores,
a audiência e os críticos. Assim, os dispositivos
midiáticos englobam as pessoas que criam e interpretam
a música, as mídias e os locais de apresentação,
os distribuidores, sejam comerciantes, promotores de shows ou
divulgadores; os críticos que buscam padrões para
avaliação das canções, e a audiência,
que varia desde consumidores ocasionais até colecionadores.
É no desdobramento desse cenário durante o pós-guerra
que surge a música que marcou profundamente o século
XX: a música pop.
| 1950s
1951:
WJW Cleveland DJ Alan Freed allegedly coins the term "rock
and roll" during a broadcast of his "Moondog Rock and
Roll Party." A hugely popular figure during the genre's early
years, Freed organized concerts and tirelessly promoted this "new"
music.
His contributions would be overshadowed by scandal in 1960 when
the United States Congress, the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched a payola investigation
that uncovered chart rigging, and kickbacks and other corruption
in the music business. In 1962, Freed, then with WINS New York,
pleads guilty to two charges of commercial bribery, for which he
receives a fine and a suspended sentence. It spells the end of his
legendary career.
1954:
Elvis Presley records Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup's "That's
All Right" with guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black
at the Memphis Recording Service, later known as Sam Phillips' Sun
Records. Often credited as the birth of rock'n'roll, the July 5
recording is captured during a break in a session while Presley
is fooling around with the tune. The resulting single (b/w "Blue
Moon Of Kentucky") starts the ball rolling on an iconic career
that redefines celebrity and
©EPE stardom.
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1955: The film "Blackboard Jungle" is released,
boasting a soundtrack that features Bill Haley & His Comets'
"Rock Around the Clock." In July, the song reaches No.
1 on Billboard's Best Sellers in Stores chart, the precursor to
the Top 100. It marks the start of the "rock era."
1955: Journeyman blues guitarist Chuck Berry plays his demo
of "Ida Mae," a hillbilly tune from the Bob Wills repertory,
for label pioneer Leonard Chess. The lyrics are changed to "Maybelline,"
the topic, cars and girls. Berry invents and perfects the template
for teenage rock'n'roll in subsequent hits, "Sweet Little Sixteen,"
"Roll Over Beethoven," "Johnny B. Goode" and
a dozen others, without which the early Beatles, Beach Boys and
Rolling Stones would lack both material and a sense of how to play
it.
1955: Ray Charles fathers rhythm and blues -- or R&B
-- with "I Got a Woman," his pioneering -- and some said
sacrilegious -- marriage of blues and gospel. Subsequent ventures
in music (country and western) and business (owning his master recordings)
provided further testament of Brother Ray's genius. Charles died
June 10, 2004, of liver disease; four months later his final album,
"Genius Loves Company," became his first platinum recording.
1955: Dámaso Pérez Prado's irresistible mambo
"Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" (RCA Victor) becomes
the first Latin track to hit No. 1 on Billboard's pop singles chart,
which measures U.S. sales. Its success illustrates the broad possibilities
of Latin music.
1956:
Johnny Cash releases his third Sun Records single, "Folsom
Prison Blues." The song initially peaks at No. 4 on Billboard's
country singles chart, but at the time, few among that inner circle
in Memphis could have predicted the Kingsland, Ark. native would
become an international icon. more
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1957:
Buddy Holly and his band, the Crickets, chart their first single
and only No. 1 record, "That'll Be the Day" for Decca
subsidiary Coral Records. Besides Berry, Holly would be rock's most
prolific singer/songwriter ("Peggy Sue," "Not Fade
Away") for but a tragic year or so. He perished in the Feb.
3, 1959, plane crash, along with Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper,
that would be memorialized as "the day the music died."
1957: "American Bandstand" is first broadcast nationally
on Aug. 5 on ABC, hosted by Dick Clark, who took over that role
on the Philadelphia-based program a year earlier. Practically a
teen-viewing requirement, the pop music and dance show aired daily
until 1964 (when it moved to Los Angeles), then weekly through 1987.
1957: The "Nashville Sound" is born as producers
Owen Bradley and Chet Atkins introduce a more string-oriented approach
and smoother sound to help keep Nashville's country music business
contemporary in the wake of the rock'n'roll explosion. Patsy Cline's
"Walkin' After Midnight" springs from that era as do Jim
Reeves' "Four Walls" and Ferlin Husky's "Gone."
All three songs are hits in 1957.
1958: The Recording Industry Association of America certifies
its first gold single for Perry Como's "Catch a Falling Star"
(RCA), based on 1 million copies sold to U.S. retailers, and first
gold album the cast recording of "Oklahoma!" (Capitol)
based on $1 million in sales to U.S. retailers.
In 1975, the rules were revised with a gold album needing U.S. shipments
of 500,000 copies and $1 million in sales; the next year, platinum
awards are added for shipments of 1 million albums and 2 million
singles. Multi-platinum releases are recognized in 1984 and in 1999
the RIAA introduces the diamond award for releases that have shipped
10 million copies.
1958:
Composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein becomes music director of the
New York Philharmonic and launches the "Young People's Concerts"
television series, which runs for 14 seasons with Bernstein and
introduces classical music to generations of listeners in the United
States and around the world.
1958: A year after an American standard is set by the Recording
Industry Association of America, the world standard for stereo records
is established and the first stereo LPs are sold.
1958: A landmark Latin music year as The Champs' "Tequila"
(Challenge) hits No. 1 on the Billboard charts, Perez Prado's "Patricia"
reaches No. 2 and Del-Fi signs Ritchie Valens, who would become
the first Chicano rock star.
1959:
Berry Gordy launches Motown Records in Detroit with $800. The "Motown
Sound" orchestrates an iconic chapter in music history, thanks
to songwriters Holland-Dozier-Holland, backing by the Funk Brothers
band and an enviable roster including the Supremes, Stevie Wonder,
Marvin Gaye, the Miracles, the Temptations and the Jackson Five.
The label's first No. 1 pop hit is the Marvelettes' "Please
Mr. Postman" (Dec. 11, 1961).
1959: The Dave Brubeck Quartet releases "Time Out"
(Columbia), an essential album of original compositions, including
alto saxophonist Paul Desmond's classic "Take Five," which
features odd time signatures such as 7/4 and 9/8. The album solidified
Brubeck's fame following his appearance on the cover of Time magazine
in 1954 and subsequent college-circuit playing engagements -- marking
the first tapping of the commercial potential of performing at colleges
and universities.
1959: Saxophonist Ornette Coleman startles the jazz world
with his aptly titled, landmark recording "The Shape of Jazz
to Come." His third album and Atlantic Records debut features
his firebrand quartet comprised of trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist
Charlie Haden and drummer Billy Higgins. Dubbed "free jazz"
and "avant-garde jazz" because of its innovative dispensing
of chordal improvisation and harmony, Coleman's melody-rich music
would swing open the doors to a myriad of experimental jazz excursions.
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