History of Music
Here at LAL Torbay we try to encourage as much communicative activity as possible in our Young Learner classes by allowing the students to work on projects together. In this way they are using English to discuss, investigate and work together, and then continuing to use it to create the finished work. Here is an example of a piece of work produced by two of our Young Learner students.
Time to Rock
Is there a person that doesn’t like music? Everybody loves it! There are many types of music, so that everybody can find something for him / herself. Describing all of them would be impossible, so we have decided to tell you about only one (our favourite) type of music – ‘Rock’.
“Rock” is a general name which we use for many different music genres. From the late 40s until now it’s been the most popular sort of music. It is listened to by everybody, regardless of age, sex, nationality or style. The music itself started to form in the 40s but the name was first used in 1951 by Alan Freed. This music style evolved from blues, R'n'B and jazz. It was very harmonic and rhythmical but more aggressive than previous popular music. Most of the songs were about love or teenagers’ problems. The main instruments were rhythmic and lead guitar, bass guitar and drums. The precursors of rock were such artists as Elvis Presley, Bo Diddley or Chuck Berry.
Elvis Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century and he was widely known as the King of Rock and Roll. He made his first record in 1953 and played in his first film in 1956. The most popular songs recorded by The King were ‘All Shook Up’ and ‘Jailhouse Rock’.
Between 1974 and 1979 Rock and Roll transformed into Punk Rock in the US and the UK. Groups created hard, fast music with short songs, stripped-down instrumentation and often political lyrics. Punk took a ‘Do It Yourself’ style of music production, and many bands set up their own production companies and sold their songs through informal radio and tv channels. One of the most well-known of the punk bands of this time was ‘The Sex Pistols’.
In the late 70’s punk music evolved into a new type which became known as ‘New Wave’. In some of the new wave songs all the instruments were replaced by a synthesiser and the music became more ‘futuristic’. The German group ‘Kraftwerk’ along with British bands such as ‘Joy Division’, ‘Depèche Mode’ led the way with this new style.
By the 90’s rock was dominated by commercialised and highly produced pop, rock and ‘air-metal’ artists. With the arrival of MTV image and style became more important than the music itself. Unhappy with the way rock was going a number of US bands created a style that contrasted with this music. It became known as ‘Grunge’ because of the dirty sounds of the music and the untidy appearance of the musicians who rebelled against the over-groomed appearance of the popular artists. The song lyrics were often concerned with themes of social alienation and entrapment, although it was also known for its dark humour. One of the most well-known Grunge bands was ‘Nirvana’.
By Julia and Anna
