PBS Videos 6-10 In video 6: “Blues in Technicolor”, we learned a lot about how LSD played a major role in rock music. One of the popular figures who promoted LSD was writer Ken Kesey. One of the most prominent groups during this era of rock music was “The Grateful Dead”, who originated in San Francisco, and were heavily into improvising. There was a neighborhood at this time where the early psychedelic bands lived, and this place was called Haight Ashbury. This era also saw what was to be the end of the Beatle’s touring days, because they decided that they would rather experiment with new directions in the music industry. One of the first bands out of San Francisco to have success with pop was “The Jefferson Airplane”. Another major accomplishment from this era was in 1968 when LPs outsold 45s for the first time ever. This era of strong hippy movement which lasted a long while, came to an end by late 1969. In video 7, we learned about “The Velvet Underground” band and how they were associated with famous pop artist Andy Warhol. This same band which was popular in the 1960s, was also a major influence to Jim Morrison. Another extremely popular band during this era was “The Doors”. “The Doors” were major influence to “Iggy Pop”, along with “The Velvet Underground”. One of the most prominent figures in rock during this time was Alice Cooper, and his band. His band was really the definition of cultureless American society. Alice Cooper gained a lot of press for an incident in which he bit the head of a chicken on stage. During this period we also saw the rise of the “Rock Star”, this feat is credited to David Bowie. In video 8, we learned about “funk” and its founding father James Brown. The component that separated “funk” music from the other genres was the increased role of all instruments in contributing to the “groove”. This time period also saw the rise of rock’s first truly integrated band, Sly and the Family Stone. Another thing that we learned from this episode was that “funk music is rooted in rhythm. During this era in the music industry black funk musicians were forced to use a lighter, more melodic sound in order to get airplay on white radio. Towards the end of this era was when we saw the rise of disco music. In video 9 we learned from Jonathan Richman of the “Modern Lovers”, that rock music was primarily about sex, boyfriends, and girlfriends. During this period we also saw the rise of punk music in New York City. One of the earliest groups that we saw rise from this particular genre was the Ramones. Most of the punk groups agreed on a universal rule that no song should contain more than 3 chords. Resulting from the success of punk music in the states, the British society began participating in the punk fad in the year 1976. In this video we also learned about how the music of Jamaica became a powerful force in punk music. One of the artists from Jamaica to perform this genre of music was the world famous Bob Marley. This music was then known, and is still known today as reggae music. Reggae music depends on a solid bass line. In video 10 we saw the rise of Rap music. The lineage of this genre are traced back to Jamaica. One of the main things that set rap music apart from other genres was the fact that the DJ was the star. A couple of early DJs that set the stage for rap music were DJ Cool Herk, and Grandmaster Flash. One of the sub-divisions of rap music that arose during this time was hip-hop. In 1981 we saw MTV come onto the scene, and it played a major role in music marketing. During this time we also saw rap music converge with punk rock through the music of the Beastie Boys. Another thing that we learned about rap music through this video was that rap music allowed people who weren’t great singers to become pop music stars.