Here it is, for the entirety of the popular recording era. Educate 'yo self.
1930s
Duke
Ellington: “Mood Indigo”, “Sophisticated Lady”, and “Caravan”
American
music starts with jazz and the foremost jazz composer of any decade is Duke
Ellington – one of the geniuses of American art. His career had begun in the
1920s, but in the 30s he hit his stride. He recorded and rerecorded his own
compositions dozens of times, giving each a unique sound and flair. The New
York of the Harlem Renaissance was Ellington’s playground, and into the 1940s,
in the Blanton-Webster Band incarnation of his group, his fame only grew. But
Ellington wouldn’t want to be confined to ‘jazz’ – he said he made ‘American
music’, no more or less.
George
Gershwin: “Porgy and Bess”
Americans
don’t tend to think of opera as one of their main areas of musical
contribution. But George Gershwin’s folk-opera about a man with no legs and his
love on Catfish Row, South Carolina, was a masterpiece of the American spirit
rendered in music. Listening to it no one could mistake the regional sound for
somewhere else. ‘Summertime’ has become the best-known classic, but ‘I Got Plenty
O’ Nuttin’’ is equally good, and some lesser known tunes, like ‘There’s a Boat
dat’s Leavin’ Soon for New York’ are also magnificent. The original cast is
closest to Gershwin’s vision.
Ira
Gershwin and Vernon Duke: “The Ziegfeld Follies of 1936”
Ira
Gershwin was a supreme lyricist, as talented in his field as his brother George
was in composing. Vernon Duke wrote a number of standards, including “April in
Paris” and “Autumn in New York”. As for the Follies, they were a spectacle
unrivaled on Broadway – a show of incredible proportions that ran from the
1910s-into the 1940s. Part vaudeville, part revue, and part burlesque, many
stars of the era got their start working with ‘The Great Ziegfeld’. Since no
originals survive these recordings are note-for-note replicas based on the
fortuitous discovery of an original score.
Robert
Johnson: “King of the Delta Blues Singers”
While
there are earlier blues recordings and artists than Robert Johnson, he was to
my mind the first undisputed master of the blues. These songs, released on a
compilation decades after Johnson’s death in 1938, became the backbone for a blues-rock
revival in the 60s. Listening to them it is easy to tell why artists like Jerry
Garcia and Eric Clapton revered his work. On these few tracks Johnson makes one
guitar sound like two, and sings in an eerie, otherworldly voice of selling his
soul to the devil to be the best blues player there ever was.
Benny
Goodman: “The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert”
Jazz
had been around since Scott Joplin’s ragtime, but by the 1930s swing was the
predominate genre. Benny Goodman, a white clarinetist, had an integrated band
with musicians like Lionel Hampton and Gene Krupa playing side by side. Jazz
was revolutionary and so this 1938 concert was notable – no one had played jazz
at a venue as prestigious as Carnegie Hall before. It is also the first double
album ever released, heralding a new era in long-playing records. Goodman’s big
band plays a host of favorites from the time, written by the best of the
decade.
1940s
Woody
Guthrie: “Dust Bowl Ballads”
Known
for the American classic ‘This Land Is Your Land’ Woody Guthrie sang songs of
the people. In a new generation of folk musicians which included the likes of
Pete Seeger, Guthrie sang of the plight of the commoner. On this collection,
released in 1940 as a series of 45s, the theme is those who’d suffered during
the dust bowl years. Throughout the decade Guthrie would continue to sing of
different parts of America and its people, from the Columbia River to the union
songs and early protest music of the Almanac Singers.
Aaron
Copland: “Fanfare for the Common Man”, “Rodeo”, and “Appalachian Spring”
Along
with Gershwin, Copland is the definitive American classical composer. His
beautiful, inspiring, works are very much of his time – a decade that tested
the country’s resilience, and strengthened our purpose. A decade that saw us
renewing the pledge to our values, and began reinforcing our cultural identity
as Americans. Celebratory and patriotic, without braggadocio, but with plenty
of swagger these pieces define an American spirit as thunderous as the
timpani’s roll or as gentle as the melodic ‘Simple Gifts’.
Various:
“Stormy Weather Soundtrack”
The
1943 movie was a showcase for the great African-American recording artists of
the era. Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson – and
many more produce an incredible album. Until this point the only notable musicals
of black America had been “Showboat” and “Cabin in the Sky” – both of which
told the story of the South. For the first time with “Storm Weather” was being
celebrated a more contemporary view. During the 1940s as opportunities arose
from the northern migration and World War II, it was time for a jazz-based
sophisticated sound to emerge.
Hank
Williams: “Move It on Over”, “Honky Tonkin”, and “Lovesick Blues”
In
the late 1940s and into the early 1950s Hank Williams set the mold for what
country music would sound like. He learned from the decade’s best, and for a
while was part of the Grand Ol’ Opry – representing the voice of the
Appalachian musicians. The crooning tone, the fiddle and guitar sound, and the
themes he sang about have been copied and adapted right down to the present.
The songs he wrote have become standards of the country genre. At the age of 29
he died from pills and alcohol – one of the first of too many musicians to die
right as their star was rising.
Charlie
Parker: “Charlie Parker with Strings”
The
counter-culture icon that Jack Kerouac rhapsodizes about in On the Road may seem an unusual choice
for lush string accompaniment. But in the 1940s getting an orchestra to back
you meant you’d made it big – and Parker, the maestro of bebop, had at that.
Bebop was a fundamentally important stage in jazz development, when during the
war years the big bands all broke up due to venues closing and conscription. These
sessions were first released in 1949, and the orchestra serves as a backdrop
for Parker’s dizzying virtuosic heights.
1950s
Ray
Charles: “The Birth of Soul”
Between
1952 and 1959 Ray Charles recorded for Atlantic’s Rhythm and Blues label, and
defined what would become soul music. The sound develops gradually across this
three-disc anthology of some 50+ songs. Charles takes an orchestra-heavy
R&B and begins infusing gospel sounds, moans like a chastened bluesman and
on some tracks, really moves. This
collection showcases both the vocal talent – immediately identifiable to any
listener – and his piano-playing prowess. The sheer diversity of sound is fascinating
to listen to as Charles charts the territory of his newly invented genre.
Elvis
Presley: “The Sun Sessions”
Rock
and roll had predecessors to Elvis. I would argue that Louis Jordan’s ‘Saturday
Night Fish Fry’ is the start – and Chuck Berry would back me up on that one.
Elvis took Berry’s guitar-backed sound, infused some country music a la Bill
Monroe and stole some rockabilly from Carl Perkins, and the phenomenon was
born. These recordings, his first, were made in 1954 and into 1955, before he
released his classic LP “Elvis Presley” – but many of the songs on the “Sun
Sessions” were distinct from the breakout album that hit number one on all the
charts.
Frank
Sinatra: “In the Wee Small Hours”
It
would be bizarre to cover the 40s and 50s without Sinatra, and crooners
generally. Acts like Perry Como, Bing Crosby, and the rest were all some of the
most popular acts of the era. This album, undoubtedly his finest, also marks an
important transition in records. The theme of male loneliness is felt on each
track, in its way becoming the first concept album, or at least song cycle, in
popular music. Frank Sinatra went on to be one of the best-selling artists
of all time, and won the Grammy for
Album of the Year in 1960, 1966, and 1967 – all long after this career high
note.
Leonard
Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim: “West Side Story”
The
gang war retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo
and Juliet, Leonard Bernstein made his initial mark on classical music and
American theater, and a young Sondheim began an incredible career that would
define him as second only to Rodgers and Hammerstein in the pantheon of
Broadway musicals. Sondheim’s later creations will often be based on
non-American themes and stories, such as the English tale of Sweeney Todd. But
West Side Story is totally American – with Bernstein’s marvelous jazz-infused and
Latin-inspired ballets.
Miles
Davis: “Kind of Blue”
Jazz
entered a new era with this recording. Say goodbye to swing and bebop. Modal
jazz was something unheard of, essentially, before this LP, except in a few of
Davis’ initial experiments the year before. John Coltrane, arguably, would
reach modal near-perfection on “A Love Supreme” in the 60s. But this album is,
I think, rightly heralded as the finest jazz recording ever made. It also
pointed the way Miles was heading to next with ‘Flamenco Sketches’, on a career
that eventually turned to the other American musical form, rock and roll,
blending it with jazz to create Fusion.
1960s
James
Brown: “Live at the Apollo”
This
album set the bar for all live albums to follow, and yet none have cleared it
yet. The most infectious, raucous, and energetic performance of Brown’s to be
captured on vinyl this recording is the beginning of a new era for R&B.
Live albums go back to Benny Goodman, but now an artist would practically be
expected to put out a live release just to prove they had the charisma and
star-power of an artist like Brown. From the horn section to the vocals, to
screams that rival Beatlemania two years later, this session at the Apollo was
a challenge for all R&B acts to live up to, or step aside.
Bob
Dylan: “Highway 61 Revisited”
Dylan
began the 60s as the voice of a new folk revival, with classics such as
‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ and ‘The Time They Are A-Changin’’. By 1965 he was using electric instruments
instead of just acoustic guitar, and his sound had developed into a full-blown
poetic and sonic tour de force. Scattered with allusions and Americana, this
album, named for the road connecting the Mississippi Delta to Chicago, blew it
all wide open – rock, folk, pop, everything. Dylan’s tunes became the anthem
for the decade – the counterculture, the protests, and the introspection.
The
Beach Boys: “Pet Sounds”
It’s
difficult to recall that The Beatles saw The Beach Boys as an artistic threat.
After hearing “Rubber Soul” and “Revolver” Brian Wilson decided he could one up
them, and released “Pet Sounds” in 1966. This, in turn, prompted the Beatles to
try and one-up The Beach Boys, and so they released “Sgt. Peppers”. It was a
creative rivalry that gave us some of the best music of the decade, and all time.
On this groundbreaking album we have come a long way from surf rock and teen
love songs – a new emotional maturity, and sonic wizardry, lifted rock into a
post-adolescent art form.
Aretha
Franklin: “I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You”
As
the decade progressed soul music, R&B, folk, rock, and even jazz all
started to have their own responses to the Civil Rights movement. Aretha
Franklin became its musical icon, following in the footsteps of Billie Holiday
and Nina Simone, to mention just two. Covering Sam Cooke’s immortal ‘A Change
Is Gonna Come’ certainly helped – which on this recording is given new
virtuosity from Franklin’s remarkable vocal range. She had recorded ten albums prior to this,
but finally with ‘Respect’ got the fame and praise she’d long deserved.
Captain
Beefheart: “Trout Mask Replica”
To
close out the decade, here’s the weirdest of the weird. Captain Beefheart and
his Magic Band (comprised of Zoot Horn Rollo, Antennae Jimmy Semens, and
others) recorded the album in a legendary six hours for twenty-eight tracks,
with the help of Frank Zappa as producer. Of equal note is the amount of preparation
for those six hours: spending eight months in a commune together working on the
songs in cult-like conditions. The result, the high water mark of experimental
rock, blends Delta blues, sea shanties and folk songs, free jazz, and rock into
an incredible suite.
1970s
Janis
Joplin: “Pearl”
Joplin’s
posthumous album and hit was the last hurrah of the late 60s counterculture. It
also represents the start of a female singer-songwriter movement that included
such luminaries in the 70s as Carole King, Laura Nyro, and Joni Mitchell. With
“Pearl” the 60s sound fades out – and an aspect of the innocent idealism and
optimism with it. Joplin’s strained vocals became the stuff of emulation, and
her songs about the American experience entered into the popular canon. She
died in 1970 at the age of only 27 – a disturbingly short career cut off in its
prime – the last of the classic hippies.
Marvin
Gaye: “What’s Going On”
America’s
Motown music scene reached its zenith with Marvin Gaye’s 1971 recording.
Dealing with topical issues like Vietnam and the burgeoning environmental
movement the songs are still timeless. The central theme of the recording is
love – love for the earth, for each other, love to end racial prejudice and
discrimination. As a sublimely beautiful suite the songs flow into one another
and end on an uplifting note of hope. In 2016 these messages, and the visions
of the artist whose life was cut short from gun violence, still hold deep and
valuable meaning.
Willie
Nelson: “Red Headed Stranger”
Country’s
first concept album. Nelson was the brightest light in the ‘outlaw country’
music scene that stripped away the glitz of artists such as Gram Parsons and
the be-sequined ‘Nashville sound’. Country music went in a lot of directions
since Hank Williams, many of them quite interesting, but for the purest
American sound nothing compared to the likes of Willie’s stripped-down outlaw
tunes. The outlaws continued into the 80s with the likes of Townes van Zandt, a
revival of roots prior to the pop-country that began to dominate the scene
since the 1990s.
The
Modern Lovers: “The Modern Lovers”
“The
Modern Lovers” had been recorded 1971 and 1972, a solid four years prior to the
Ramones’ breakthrough in 1976. With the Ramones punk being a recognized ‘sound’
the Boston-based Modern Lovers’ album, amidst the flood of other punk
recordings the same year, was finally released. This album, then, is the birth
of punk – the movement that would later hop the pond and go global ushering in
a new, raw, edginess in rock and roll. Don’t be surprised if the sound on these
takes is muted in comparison to later developments – they also helped influence
new wave.
Weather
Report: “Heavy Weather”
Jazz
got…weird…in the 1970s. Embracing psychedelic rock at the start of the decade,
it then tried to embrace the new synthetic rock sound at the end of the decade.
This attempt at reconciliation is what led to “Heavy Weather” featuring Wayne
Shorter and Joe Zawinul. It’s an odd sound – but you immediately recognize the
scads of imitators that followed for the next ten-plus years. It marks the last
breath of creativity in jazz before a long dry spell into the nineties, and
arguably all the way into the aughts. But the influence of the new synthetic,
electronic sound didn’t go away.
1980s
Michael
Jackson: “Thriller”
Arguably,
Jackson’s “Thriller” is so universal to call it ‘American’ is perhaps limiting.
But Jackson’s music is firmly rooted in the sounds of the time, while simultaneously
managing to create the blueprint for American pop music that continues to this
day. Besides, as the greatest selling album of all time, it would be just plain
weird to not include it. Released in 1982 “Thriller” totally reshaped basically
all of the main pop genres of the decade. The disco of “Off the Wall” was gone
– and dance music would never be the same, especially thanks to those zombies…
Bruce
Springsteen: “Born in the USA”
Rock
got an infusion of Americana in 1984 with Springsteen’s unapologetically
‘Murican album. Sure, it now had synthesizers, but the rock chops were still
there from “Born to Run”. On a closer listen songs like ‘Glory Days’ are more
ironic and embittered than given credit on a first pass. Working class songs by
the 80s were songs of loss, of disappointment. The New Jersey-based rock god
was actually telling a story of patriotism in the face of hardship, even
decline. The year the United States reelected the smiling, confident Ronald
Reagan, this music was telling a more critical, nuanced story.
Paul
Simon: “Graceland”
One
may question, in an album heralded for its crossover with South African
artists, the ‘Americanness’ of a work such as Simon’s “Graceland”. But the root
of it is in the title. Worldbeat is all about taking local musical traditions
and, you know, making rock songs out of them. By far Simon’s best work since
splitting from Garfunkel in 1970, this recording blends a whole slew of
American genres together, from rock and roll to zydeco. The Apartheid
controversies will likely never be wholly forgotten, but at this point we
should just let the music speak for itself.
Public
Enemy: “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back”
Hip-hop
was one of the big musical developments of the decade. With origins in groups
like Sugar Hill Gang and Run DMC, by the end of the decade a new consciousness
had emerged – hip-hop was smart, edgy, provocative, and thoroughly American.
Public Enemy epitomized this revolution in the music of the black community, no
more so than on their 1988 release “Nation of Millions”. Prisons, gangs, and
Louis Farrakhan are all discussed – what does it mean to be militant, who are
the role models, and what role do black Americans have in our society – this
album confronted listeners with serious questions.
Madonna:
“Like a Prayer”
Where
would the 80s be without Madonna? At the end of the era Madonna took some vocal
lessons and put out an album that went beyond poking a stick at the serious
set. Her sexuality, themes, music videos – everything she did during the decade
defined the American pop lifestyle. But “Like a Prayer” has a lyricism absent
from most of the pop in a pop-saturated decade. Madonna would go on in the 90s
to even greater maturity, with “Ray of Light”, but here she’s classic.
1990s
Alison
Krauss: “I’ve Got That Old Feeling”
Bluegrass’
origins go back to the Appalachian traditions of the 1800s. But there never was
a bluegrass masterpiece until Alison Krauss’ 1990 release. Playing violin and
singing classic songs the record would help see Krauss rise in American music
consciousness, one of many female singers from the country/bluegrass/roots
field who became popular in a way not witnessed since Patsy Cline. Alison, it
should be mentioned, bring a certain vocal sweetness to the album – perhaps
since she was only 19 years old when it hit the Billboard charts.
A
Tribe Called Quest: “The Low End Theory”
The
improvisational style of jazz and freestyling rap seemed like an obvious
pairing from the get-go, but it wasn’t until this 1991 release that the two
American genres blended into a masterpiece. Quest’s abstract lyricism was
matched by samples from Art Blakey, Freddie Hubbard, Eric Dolphy and other jazz
legends, as well as a notable appearance by bassist Ron Carter. It was a
standard of the 90s alternative hip hop scene, when most of the sound had been
influenced by the late-80s NWA and was predominately focused on gangsta themes
and escalating violence.
Ted
Hawkins: “The Next Hundred Years”
One
of the most remarkable blues albums of all time, Hawkins’ story lends a depth
of feeling to his plaintive, strained voice. Ted Hawkins spent years of his
life as one of America’s countless street performers, singing for change on the
sidewalk in California. Time spent in jail, a heroin addiction – his life plays
out as a litany of a man who’d lived the blues – there’s no production value in
creating the sound of hardship and regret in his songs. He got his break and
proceeded to record an incredible album of blues music unlike any other.
Jonathan
Larson: “Rent”
After
a peak in popularity during the 1960s Broadway took a cultural left turn in the
70s that alienated it from most American households. Then came the dark Andrew
Lloyd Weber years, which continued into the 1980s. Thanks to Disney literally
cleaning up Broadway by the 1990s the American musical tradition was ripe for
revival, and no show better captured the new direction and reemergence of
popularity than Jonathan Larson’s New York City-based adaptation of the 90s
bohemian life, “Rent”. Dealing with drugs and AIDS set a template for Broadway
fandom that continues to this day.
Moby:
“Play”
The electronica
scene had been simmering since the late 70s and techno, a subgenre of
electronica, was essentially an American invention out of Detroit in the 80s.
But as the last decade of the millennium came to a close electronica burst
forth in the States to claim a previously unimagined prominence in our auditory
soundscape, which it has never quite relinquished. Moby’s “Play” was
undoubtedly the tipping point for this sonic revolution, with its weird
post-modern sound alternating with catchy loops and hooks. Selling an
incredible 12 million copies it ushered in the new century.
2000s
Jill
Scott: “Who is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1”
An
R&B-soul sound for the new millennium, and one of the decade’s first
offerings. The 90s brought forth a revival in female musicians of all genres,
thankfully, which have carried on undaunted into the Beyoncé age. Scott’s first
release exemplifies neo soul on some tracks, but can be more fearless, less
easy-listening, and downright experimental. Between track 17 and the final
track are some 30+ 4-second breaths, in and out, each a track unto itself. That
final track also exemplifies the penchant for remixes, this one by Mos Def,
that are still dominant.
Jay
Z: “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)”, “99 Problems” (Danger Mouse remix), “Empire State of
Mind”
Personally,
my favorite Jay Z album is 2001’s “The Blueprint”: the name says it all. After
a decade of West Coast - East Coast feuds that killed Tupac and Biggie, a
blueprint was needed for where hip hop was headed in the 21st
century. But the decade was, in large part, Jay Z’s to own. In 2003 Rolling
Stone left Jay Z off their Best Artists list. By 2012 he was on it, after years
of changing his sound, experimenting, giving up, and trying again. Each of
these tracks represents a different phase in his legacy. He kept the “gangster”
moniker but by then we all knew what he really was – an artist.
The
White Stripes: “Elephant”
The
title for most influential rock album of the aughts is tricky. The garage rock
revival of The Strokes on “Is This It” set a tone for the alternative scene of
the decade, but that album is almost too universal. The White Stripes’ 2003
release, however, I can’t imagine being made anywhere else. There’s a
blues-influenced spookiness to the whole endeavor, beyond the pair’s well-known
fondness for playing up their mysterious background and relationship. There
were more ‘indie’ records out there, and the folk-influence of that genre is
important – but “Elephant” became immediately timeless.
Jason
Moran: “The Bandwagon: Live at the Village Vanguard”
Jazz
began to make some truly interesting developments in the 00s after a long
absence from popular music. To be fair, though, the artists pushing boundaries,
like Moran, are not exactly household names, even though Moran is a star in the
contemporary jazz scene. In 2002 Moran’s Bandwagon trio gave a performance at
the legendary Village Vanguard – disquieting, uncomfortable, and edgy. It’s
hard to classify his sound as anything that had come in jazz before. In the
next decade as jazz becomes more popular, with artists like Esperanza Spalding,
Moran paved the way.
Neko
Case: “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood”
‘Alternative’
was the key for critical success of the past decade. Country music once again
underwent a shift, both in terms of the popification of country rock, and new
alternative country rock. On the one hand you have the Dixie Chicks, the other,
Neko Case and the like. There’s a deep Americana to both sounds, but Case’s is
inarguably the more beautiful. The album is so broad it has also been
classified as Rock and Folk – both of which work just as well. The sound is
purely American, no matter the labels. In 35 minutes you discover a whole world
– familiar and yet new.
2010s (so far)
Kanye
West: “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”
Hip
hop finally got its “Sgt. Peppers” with West’s incredibly lush 2010 production.
Previously West had already stunned the hip hop world in his transition from
producer to artist with “The College Dropout”. But on this album he digs deep
into music’s past and dredges up the best, mixing it with a stunning host of
contemporary collaborations from Rhianna to Bon Iver (and even Chris Rock): a
veritable who’s who of the current music culture. Themes run deep as well,
ruminating on fame to what it means to be black in America, and far more.
Anais
Mitchell: “Hadestown”
A
folk opera? Isn’t this where we started out? The second definitive American
album of this decade so far is Anais Mitchell’s indie-folk rock tour de force. Telling
the story of Orpheus in a Cajun-infused and Appalachian bent, with help from
the likes of Ani DiFranco and, once again, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, the
Vermonter’s first offering is a complex, layered, nuanced piece of Americana.
It’s pleasing to come full circle with this allegorical tale of loss, love and
foiled redemption – the same themes of Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” – as American
music evolves it still manages to stay the same.
Lin-Manuel
Miranda: “Hamilton”
It
doesn’t get more patriotic than this – including “1776”. A hip hop minority-cast
retelling of Hamilton’s life with plenty of Broadway panache. What could be
more American? After a decade of strong performances from “Avenue Q” to “The
Book of Mormon” nothing has quite had the huge success – the necessity – of Lin-Manuel
Miranda’s one-man magnum opus. And the timing was providential, as the nation
had discussions on race the likes of which hadn’t been heard for decades. Cast
in the light of the founding fathers, and contemporary language, it will reign
for decades to come.
