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Britpop guitarist Noel Gallagher (b. 1967) was born in Manchester, England. He began teaching himself guitar at the age of 13, later adopting Johnny Marr as his role model. His other inspirations were primarily British guitar bands: the Kinks, the Who, Slade, the Jam and the Stone Roses. After unsuccessfully auditioning for the role of lead ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin

Across the centuries and around the globe, many different forms of music have enjoyed mass appeal for a limited period of time. None, however, have been able to match the widespread influence of the popular music that erupted in America during the mid-1950s and, by the second half of the decade, was exerting its grip over ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

During the mid-1950s, the American and British pop scenes experienced a complete shake-up of the old order. Up until the decade’s halfway point, the airwaves, record stores and jukeboxes were filled with sentimental ballads, novelty songs and instrumentals that largely reflected the tastes of white adults. American artists such as Frankie Laine, Frank Sinatra, Dean ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

Until the advent of rock’n’roll, pop singers and songwriters were, for the most part, divided into two separate camps. The singers were typically faced with the daunting task of unearthing new hit material, unless, like Frank Sinatra, they were so esteemed that they had the best songwriters in the business lining up to write for ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

Although he did not coin the term ‘rock’n’roll’ – which was an African-American slang term for sex – New York disk jockey Alan Freed did popularize it when he attached it to a teen-oriented form of music that evolved from a fusion of rockabilly, R&B and, to a lesser extent, gospel and boogie-woogie. In its early forms, ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

A slapped upright bass, twanging lead guitar and acoustic rhythm guitar; a blues structure with country and blues inflections; a strong beat and moderate-to-fast tempo; a wild, yelping, often stuttering vocal style, together with plenty of echo on the recordings are the main ingredients of rockabilly. The rockabilly style was an eclectic hybrid of R&B, hillbilly ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

While many hit doo-wop records featured full instrumental accompaniment, the groups themselves had usually started out singing a cappella. It was, in short, a music that required collaborative effort but no instrumental outlay or expertise, to be performed on street corners as a means of escape, public entertainment, personal fulfilment and professional ambition. Deriving its ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

A cheap acoustic guitar, a washboard, some thimbles, a tea chest, a broom handle and a length of string, together with a modicum of musical talent – these were all that was required for skiffle, an amalgam of American jazz, blues and folk that caught on with Britain’s largely cash-strapped teenagers in 1956 and ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

As the 1960s approached, the controversy associated with rock’n’roll was superseded by an array of inoffensive smoothies on both sides of the atlantic. However, the ongoing popularity of artists such as Elvis Presley, Bobby Darin, Ricky Nelson, Sam Cooke, and, in the UK, Lonnie Donegan, Billy Fury and Cliff Richard, ensured ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

No one had ever produced records like Phil Spector. There had been lavish orchestrations and raucous sounds, but until the early 1960s, the elements were clearly defined in recordings, with a fair amount of separation allotted to a limited number of rhythm and percussion instruments within the confines of a mainly monaural medium. Spector changed all that. Applying ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

The term ‘singer-songwriter’ tends to be applied to the kind of introspective, socially conscious artist who – in the wake of the folk-inspired movement that was kick-started by Bob Dylan in the early 1960s before peaking in the next decade – performs in a direct yet reflective manner, emphasizing the song’s message over style or calibre of presentation. This is ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

On 1 February 1964, The Beatles’ ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ topped America’s Cashbox singles chart. Six days later, they arrived in New York for their first US visit, and on 9 February an audience of around 73 million people tuned in to see them on The Ed Sullivan Show, which had been booked the previous ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

Characterized by twangy, reverberation-soaked guitars; percussive instrumentals designed to simulate the effect of crashing waves; vocal harmonies underscored by a soaring falsetto – surf music was perfectly suited to an early 1960s pop scene of escapism and innocent fun and was to have a profound and lasting influence on the sound of the rock guitar. Whereas chart-friendly instrumental recordings by ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

A basic line-up of drums, bass and two guitars, sometimes augmented by a piano or a saxophone – this was the blueprint for the 500 or so bands who, staying faithful to the spirit and material of classic rock’n’roll, and to many obscure R&B songs, invigorated the pop scene in and around Liverpool between 1958 and ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

‘Are you a mod or a rocker ?’ a reporter asked Ringo Starr in A Hard Day’s Night. ‘Uh, no,’ he answered, ‘I’m a mocker.’ The question was a pertinent one. On 18 May 1964, just over three weeks after the film was completed, the English seaside town of Margate saw a violent showdown between ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer
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