American Music
An
Announcer. Today we’ll speak about
American music and its stars. First of all, America is not America
without American jazz.
Pupil
1. Americans have contributed to many
art forms, but jazz, a type of music, is the only art form that appeared in the
United States. Jazz was created by black Americans. Many blacks were brought
from Africa to America as slaves. The black slaves sang and played the music of
their homeland. Jazz is a mixture of many different kinds of music. It is
combination of the music of West America, the songs the slaves sang, and
religions music. Improvisation is an important part of jazz. This means that
the musicians make the music up as they go along or create the music on the
spot. That is why a jazz song might sound a little different each time it is
played. Jazz became more and more popular. Today, people from all over the
world play jazz.
Pupil
2. The rock’n’roll started in the United States with black musicians, the great rhythm’n’blues players: Muddy Waters, John
Lee Hooker and Chuck Berry. Forty years ago black music and white music were
two completely separated things. Chuck Berry was the first black musician to
cross the barrier and sell records to both black and white young people. His
songs were about the life of teenagers. In 1958 he had a big hit with “Sweet
Little Sixteen”.
Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly mixed black music with white
“country” music to create rock’n’roll. All this was happening in the United
States. But people in Britain were listening to this music, too. The black
rhythm’n’ blues singers and the best rock’n’roll stars like Buddy Holly and
Eddie Cochran were more popular in Britain than in the States. Then, in the
1960s, a strange thing happened. The wind across the Atlantic Ocean changed
direction. The British invaded America – “The Beatles”,” The Rolling Stones”, “The
Kings”, “The Who”. There were concerts with tens of thousands of fans. Girls
screamed and fainted. The name of the music – ‘rock’n’roll’ – changed to
‘rock’.
In the 1960s the style of the musicians changed a lot. Before this time singers
used to dress smartly and have short hair. Then there appeared groups, not solo
singers. And they started to wear crazy clothes and their hair got longer and
longer. By 1968 groups were all in ‘hippie’ gear. The guitar became as
important as the voice: Jimmie Hendrix and Eric Clapton were guitarists more
than singers.
In the 1970s rock went in two different directions. On the soft side, Elton
John, Rod Stewart and the Swedish group “ABBA” became very popular with people
of all ages. On the hard side, “The Sex Pistols”, “The Stranglers” and “The
Banshees”, and a few other bands started to play loud violent music called
‘punk’. Punk was also important as a fashion in clothes. The ‘punk look’ is
still around today.
Something
new and different arrived in 1975. It came from Jamaica in the Caribbean. It had a heavy dance beat, but was not too fast. It was called ‘reggae’, and its
superstar was Bob Marley. Reggae was a mix of rock, African and South American
music. It had a message of peace and optimism. Marley sang:
‘Don’t
you worry about a thing
‘Cos
every little thing
Gonna
be all right.’
Today
there is a number of different popular music styles – pop, heavy metal, rap,
dance, indie, etc. But they all originate from good old rock’n’roll.
Game
Teacher. I’ll give you some balloons with American and English
singers, you should tell who are Americans and whо are English and
what you know about them.
An
Announcer. Excuse me, I’ll interrupt
you. Let’s play a lexical game. How many words do you remember? Guess, what it
is.
1.
Clothes actors wear on the stage.
(costume)
2.
A play in which part of the story
is sung to music. (musical)
3.
People who watch a play at the
theatre. (audience)
4.
What these people do with their
hands at the end of a play. (clap, break into applause)
5.
A person who sings on the stage.
(a singer)
6.
A person who composes music (a
composer)
7.
A person who plays different musical
instruments (a musician)
8.
A group of singers (a choir)
9.
A group of musicians (orchestra )
Pupil
3. I must say that I attended a
concert of modern pop music. There were Prince, Ricky Martin, Britney Spears.
Pupil
4. Ricky Martin is my favourite
singer. His magical career was growing from day to day. He is an international
superstar who has sold more than 15 million records all over the world. He made
a noticeable contribution to the music of our time. His motto is “labour, passionate
love for music and songs”. Ricky is constantly improving his professional and
artistic skills and it is very painstaking work.
An
Announcer. I see, you like music,
don’t you? I know that some people prefer jazz, others enjoy classical music
and what about you?
Pupil
5. I prefer rap. Rap is a style of
music that has been popular in Britain and the United States for over tan
years. The noun “rap” comes from the verb “to rap”. This is an informal word
meaning “to talk quickly and a lot”. Rap music has developed along with
movements in fashion, dance and art. They all form part of what is called “hip-hop
culture” which first developed among black young people in American cities.
These young people are usually called “kids” in American way. Hip-hop kids developed
their own look and their own vocabulary. They go around in small gangs, called “posses”,
wearing huge sport shoes, baggy jeans, back-to-front baseball caps and hoods. A
small beard is a good idea for the man as well. Rap places a great importance
on words which are spoken rather than sung. Rappers call their songs rhymes and
are proud of them. They change the English language to reflect their
experiences and values and to make the language of their own. By changing words
they hope they can change the society they live in.
Pupil
6. I like rock, and I want to tell
you about the king of rock’n’roll, Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley came from a
very poor family. Elvis loved music. He went to church every Sunday and sang in
the choir. When he was 13 his mother bought him a guitar. One day in 1954 he
went to a recording studio called “Sun Records”. He wanted to make a record for
his mother’s birthday. The secretary at the studio, Marion Veisker, heard Elvis
and she told her boss, Sam Phillips. Elvis was Sam Phillips’ dream – “a white
boy with a black voice”. Phillips became Elvis’ manager and Elvis made his
first single “That’s all right, mama”. When disc jockeys played it on their
radio stations American teenagers went wild. In 1955 Elvis appeared on TV in New
York. The following year he went to Hollywood and made his first film “Love
me tender”. We can say that Elvis was the king.
All the pupils sing the
song “Love me tender” by Elvis Presley.
Pupil
7. I like pop and to my mind Michael
Jackson is the best American pop star. He became famous when he was very young.
The group from the Jackson family called “The Jackson Five” went on their first
tour in 1969 when Michael was 11 years old. He was the lead singer. In 1979 Jackson released his solo long-playing album “Off the Wall” which was a landmark in
contemporary pop music. It was a mixture of pop, rhythm, blues and jazz. By
1981 Michael Jackson had released “Thriller” – the biggest selling solo album
of all times. Four of the nine songs on this record were written by Michael
himself. The album was a huge success. Jackson’s career went extra terrestrial.
He is rich beyond anybody’s imagination. We all know that he has his own
“Neverland” mansion near Santa Barbara, a private zoo and a pet-chimpanzee called
Bubbles. Obsessed with his image he has spent thousands of dollars on plastic
surgery: he has his nose and chin remodeled, and he denies he has bleached his
skin to its whiteness as a renunciation of his ethnic roots “I am proud to be a
black American”.
Clip by Michael Jackson.
Pupil
8. And my favourite singer is Britney
Spears. In 1998 she became the youngest solo performer ever to have a
simultaneous No 1 US album and single. The Baptist daughter of a building
contractor and a second grade teacher from Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears spent
her pre-teen years mimicking Mariah Carey on route to gymnastic lesson and
singing in local talent show and national commercials. After auditioning for
the Mickey Mouse Club in Orlando she became a mouse ketteer at the age of 11.
Her look, described in American magazines as “adult teen” and “baby babe” is
best evidenced in the video for one more time, where a ponytailed
school-uniformed Britney dances like Paula Abdul down high school corridors.
“She’s the girl next door”, says the head of the school Barry Weiss. Every girl
wants to be like her and every guy wants to be like her and get to know her.
There is kid appeal.
Song “I was born to make
you happy” by Britney Spears.
Pupil
9. I’d like to tell you about the
importance of music for people. Modern life is impossible without music. The
matter is music plays an important role in the life of people and in my life,
too. I like to listen to music because it stimulates my mood. If cheerful
music is played it makes people dance, it amuses them and cheers them up. They
take delight in music: if sad music is played, it makes people sad too, and it even
makes them cry. In a word, music can raise different feelings in a person.
Therefore, people and music are inseparably connected.
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