Week 9
Classic Rock
It is difficult to find a musical definition of “classic rock,” so I will attempt to give a musical description of the music we call “classic rock.” This is based on a loose musical form that began during the late years of the British invasion.
It’s chord progression can be almost anything, but is most often a blues progression or a doo-wop progression. However, since this era was also during the rise of Album Oriented Rock, or “art”rock, almmost anything worked, as long as it had a strong rhythm and repeatable musical elements.
A good model is Cream’s song “Sunshine of your Love” or Iron Butterfly’s “In a gadda da vida.”
Each piece begins with a musical motif played by the bass and/or guitar and bass and percussion which actually becomes the melody of the song. However, this motif can be played by anything: it only needs to have a repeated pattern, so it could be a drum set, handclapping, singing, etc…… and…… it will often continue throughout the song. Or…… it doesn’t have to.
This can be confusing, but doesn’t have to. “Classic” rock usually follows a pre defined pattern of familiar musical cadences which an audience can easilly follow, and perhaps, even sing along with. So what we have is
1. some kind of rythmic and/or musical statement (sometimes called a riff) which begins the tune, and more often than not, keeps going throughout,becoming the actual melody.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt51rITH3EA
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=in+a+gadda+da+vida
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpY_9qY-j1g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiC__IjCa2s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAp_1vgGWxA