Traditional Pop
Traditional pop is a term used here to refer to any popular songwriting before the advent of rock and roll in the 1950s as well as music which continues in this tradition. In other words, we mean the songs of Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, early Hollywood, and what has been termed the "Great American Songbook"—vocal music which often has associations with jazz. Indiana has made several important contributions to this tradition, one which is celebrated and documented at The Great American Songbook Foundation in Carmel, Indiana and Archives of Traditional Music in Bloomington. The Bloomington native, songwriter Hoagy Carmichael, wrote many hits in his day, including "Star Dust." Likewise, Cole Porter, the renowned lyricist-composer of musicals like Anything Goes and Kiss Me, Kate, was born in Peru, Indiana and received his initial musical training in Marion. Last but not least, Gennett Records in Richmond was where jazz greats like Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton as well as notable blues and country musicians made some of their earliest recordings in the 1920s.
Recommended Books
The recommended books below include print reference sources and books on a wide sampling of topics related to traditional pop and vocal jazz. Most reference sources will be classified generally under popular music in ML 102.P66 (encyclopedias), ML 128.P63 (bibliographies), and ML 156.4.P6 (discographies). Other books can be found in biographies (especially ML 420) and in popular music of the United States (starts ML 3477). Books are sorted by their call numbers for ease of browsing. Hover over the info icon to see a description.
Tin Pan Alley: An Encyclopedia of the Golden Age of American Song by
For nearly a century, New York's famous "Tin Pan Alley" was the center of popular music publishing in this country. It was where songwriting became a profession, and songs were made-to-order for the biggest stars. Selling popular music to a mass audience from coast-to-coast involved the greatest entertainment media of the day, from minstrelsy to Broadway, to vaudeville, dance palaces, radio, and motion pictures. Successful songwriting became an art, with a host of men and women becoming famous by writing famous songs.
Call Number: ML102.P66 J37 2003 (Music Reference)Publication Date: 2003
The House That George Built: With a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty by
From Irving Berlin to Cy Coleman, from "Alexander’s Ragtime Band" to "Big Spender," from Tin Pan Alley to the MGM soundstages, the Golden Age of the American song embodied all that was cool, sexy, and sophisticated in popular culture. For four glittering decades, geniuses like Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Harold Arlen ran their fingers over piano keys, enticing unforgettable melodies out of thin air. Critically acclaimed writer Wilfrid Sheed uncovered the legends, mingled with the greats, and gossiped with the insiders. Now he's crafted a dazzling, authoritative history of the era that "tripled the world’s total supply of singable tunes." It began when immigrants in New York's Lower East Side heard Black jazz and blues–and it surged into an artistic torrent nothing short of miraculous. Broke but eager, Izzy Baline transformed himself into Irving Berlin, married an heiress, and embarked on a string of hits from "Always" to "Cheek to Cheek." Berlin's spiritual godson George Gershwin, in his brief but incandescent career, straddled Tin Pan Alley and Carnegie Hall, charming everyone in his orbit. Possessed of a world-class ego, Gershwin was also generous, exciting, and utterly original. Half a century later, Gershwin love songs like "Someone to Watch Over Me," "The Man I Love," and "Love Is Here to Stay" are as tender and moving as ever. Sheed also illuminates the unique gifts of the great jazz songsters Hoagy Carmichael and Duke Ellington, conjuring up the circumstances of their creativity and bringing back the thrill of what it was like to hear "Georgia on My Mind" or "Mood Indigo" for the first time. The Golden Age of song sparked creative breakthroughs in both Broadway musicals and splashy Hollywood extravaganzas. Sheed vividly recounts how Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern, and Johnny Mercer spread the melodic wealth to stage and screen. Popular music was, writes Sheed, "far and away our greatest contribution to the world's art supply in the so-called American Century." Sheed hung out with some of the great artists while they were still writing–and better than anyone, he knows great music, its shimmer, bite, and exuberance. Sparkling with wit, insight, and the grace notes of wonderful songs, The House That George Built is a heartfelt, intensely personal portrait of an unforgettable era. A delightfully charming, funny, and most illuminating portrait of songwriters and the Golden Age of American Popular Song. Mr. Sheed's carefully chosen depictions and anecdotes recapture that amazingly creative period.
Call Number: ML385 .S582 2007Publication Date: 2007
Stardust Melody: The Life and Music of Hoagy Carmichael by
Georgia on My Mind, Rockin' Chair, Skylark, Lazybones, and of course the incomparable Star Dust--who else could have composed these classic American songs but Hoagy Carmichael? He remains, for millions, the voice of heartland America, eternal counterpoint to the urban sensibility of Cole Porter and George Gershwin. Now, trumpeter and historian Richard M. Sudhalter has penned the first book-length biography of the man Alec Wilder hailed as "the most talented, inventive, sophisticated and jazz-oriented of all the great songwriters--the greatest of the great craftsmen. "Stardust Melody follows Carmichael from his roaring-twenties Indiana youth to bandstands and recording studios across the nation, playing piano and singing alongside jazz greats Jack Teagarden, Benny Goodman, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, and close friends Bix Beiderbecke and Louis Armstrong. It illuminates his peak Hollywood years, starring in such films as To Have and Have Not and The Best Years of Our Lives, and on radio, records and TV. With compassionate insight Sudhalter depicts Hoagy's triumphs and tragedies, and his mounting despair as rock-and-roll drowns out and lays waste to the last days of a brilliant career. With an insider's clarity Sudhalter explores the songs themselves, still fresh and appealing while reminding us of our innocent American yesterdays. Drawing on Carmichael's private papers and on interviews with family, friends and colleagues, he reveals that "The Old Music Master" was almost as gifted a wordsmith as a shaper of melodies. In all, Stardust Melody offers a richly textured portrait of one of our greatest musical figures, an inspiring American icon.
Call Number: ML410.C327 S83 2002Publication Date: 2002
My Song: A Memoir by
Harry Belafonte is not just one of the greatest entertainers of our time; he has led one of the great American lives of the last century. Now, this extraordinary icon tells us the story of that life, giving us its full breadth, letting us share in the struggles, the tragedies, and, most of all, the inspiring triumphs. It is a very personal look at the people and the world in which Belafonte has long moved. He has befriended many beloved and important figures in both entertainment and politics--Paul Robeson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sidney Poitier, John F. Kennedy, Marlon Brando, Robert Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Fidel Castro, Tony Bennett, Bill Clinton--and writes about them with the same exceptional candor with which he reveals himself on every page. This is a book that pulls no punches, and turns both a loving and critical eye on our country's cultural past. As both an artist and an activist, Belafonte has touched countless lives. With My Song, he has found yet another way to entertain and inspire us. It is an electrifying memoir from a remarkable man.
Call Number: ML420.B32 A3 2011Publication Date: 2011
Going My Way: Bing Crosby and American Culture by
Bing Crosby's innovations as recording artist, actor, businessman, and radio and television performer. A multidisciplinary exploration, plus personal testimony from family members and colleagues. Going My Way: Bing Crosby and American Culture is the first serious study of the singer/actor's art and of his centrality to the history of twentieth-century popular music, film, and the entertainment industry. The volume uses a wide range of scholarly and cultural perspectives to explore Crosby's unique and lasting achievements. It also includes tributes and reminiscences from Bing's widow Kathryn, his grandson Steve, his record producer Ken Barnes, and one of his most popular successors, Michael Feinstein. Other contributors include Gary Giddins, the author of a widely acclaimed recent biography of the singer, and Will Friedwald, the acknowledged expert on the development of the "Great American Songbook." In addition to studying Bing Crosby's innovations and remarkable achievements as a recording artist, Going My Way explores his accomplishments as an actor, businessman, and radio and television performer. Going My Way makes an impressive case not only for Crosby's considerable talent and inimitable style, but also for his raising the quality of popular singing to the level of art.
Call Number: ML420.C93 G65 2007Publication Date: 2007
Ella Fitzgerald: A Biography of the First Lady of Jazz by
Stuart Nicholson's biography of Ella Fitzgerald is considered a classic in jazz literature. Drawing on original documents, interviews, and new information, Nicholson draws a complete picture of Fitzgerald's professional and personal life. Fitzgerald rose from being a pop singer with chart-novelty hits in the late '30s to become a bandleader and then one of the greatest interpreters of American popular song. Along with Billie Holiday, she virtually defined the female voice in jazz, and countless others followed in her wake and acknowledged her enormous influence.
Call Number: ML420.F52 N5 1995Publication Date: 1995
Nice Work If You Can Get It: My Life in Rhythm and Rhyme by
Looking back on his beginnings as a performer, one of America's most popular cabaret singers pays tribute to the Gershwins and the other composers who inspired him, reflecting on what made their music great. Feinstein is well known as a pianist and a singer, but at his essence, he is an archivist and the keeper of a flame. Perhaps the foremost interpreter of the golden age of popular music, Feinstein worked closely with Ira Gershwin during the last years of the lyricist's life, cataloging and organizing his oeuvre. The anecdotes about daily life at the Gershwin home with the gentle, dying Ira and his fractious wife, Lee, as well as the story of how a young kid out of Columbus, Ohio, got such a dream job in the first place, are fascinating enough, but there's much more. Through Feinstein's association with Gershwin, he met many of the great songwriters of the 1930s and 1940s--and he heard plenty about the ones he was unable to meet. This wonderfully entertaining book is filled with stories about almost all the musical greats: Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, and Jerome Kern, to name a few. Although a bit of dirt is dished, what shines through on every page is Feinstein's deep affection for these men and his absolute love for the music they wrote. It's impossible for readers (of a certain age, anyway) not to read this book without a rich, toe-tapping soundtrack playing in their heads. An absolutely essential addition that will have as long a shelf life as the music it chronicles.
Call Number: ML420.F332 A3 1995Publication Date: 1995
Sessions with Sinatra: Frank Sinatra and the Art of Recording by
Frank Sinatra was not only the greatest popular singer of the century—he was also the ultimate recording artist. In addition to introducing and perfecting a unique vocal style, he was also his own in-studio producer—personally supervising every aspect of his recordings, from choosing the songs and arrangers to making minute adjustments in mike placement. One of the thrills of listening to Sinatra is wondering how he did it—and this book explains it all, bringing the dedicated fan and the casual music lover alike into the recording studio to glimpse the fascinating working methods he introduced and mastered in his quest for recorded perfection. Featuring 100 photographs of Sinatra working with orchestras and arrangers, listening to playbacks, and, of course, singing, Sessions with Sinatra tells the whole story of how he created the Sinatra sound and translated the most intense personal emotions into richly worked-out songs of unrivalled expressiveness.
Call Number: ML420.S565 G73 1999Publication Date: 1999
The Songs that Fought the War: Popular Music and the Home Front, 1939-1945 by
Poet Rod McKuen once observed that "1939-1945 was a terrible time for the world, but it was a glorious time for songs and fighter pilots." Anyone who was alive during World War II remembers with fondness the music of the period. Songs such as "I'll Be Seeing You," "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," "It's Been A Long, Long Time," and "Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition" became standards that are still around today. But what's most amazing about the popular songs of the war years is just how many there were. World War II was one of the most fertile periods of American popular songwriting; it was also the heyday of such "big bands" as those of Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, and Harry James, and of vocalists such as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Shore, Kitty Kallen, and, of course, the Andrews Sisters. This outpouring of music included romantic ballads, rhythm numbers, dance tunes, and novelty songs, and the war itself occasioned the writing, publishing, recording, and performance of thousands of war-inspired songs. Professionals wrote virtually all of the wartime songs we still sing today, but thousands of other numbers were written by inspired (or not-so-inspired) amateurs: men, women, and even children eager to express their patriotism through lyric and melody. Although a central part of home front popular culture during World War II, these war-related and war-inspired songs had never been systematically analyzed or interpreted. In The Songs That Fought The War, John Bush Jones examines hundreds of these tunes in the context of the times. He begins with a look at the contemporary music industry and the astonishing array of songwriters (including amateurs) prior to Pearl Harbor and during the war. Then he turns to songs written and popularized before Pearl Harbor, including tunes that touted isolationism and patriotism in the late 1930s, songs written by Americans about the European allies, and songs from England that became popular in the United States. Post-Pearl Harbor tunes included songs about the draft, enlistment, army life, national pride, and a few about wartime personalities such as FDR and MacArthur. Humorous songs about shortages, rationing, and Victory Gardens and sentimental ballads about boys abroad missing girls back home (and vice versa) expressed home front anxieties and efforts, not least of which was the German hit among both the Allies and the Axis, "Lili Marlene."
Call Number: ML3477 .J68 2006Publication Date: 2006
Listening for America: Inside the Great American Songbook from Gershwin to Sondheim by
Few people in recent memory have dedicated themselves as devotedly to the story of twentieth-century American music as Rob Kapilow, the composer, conductor, and host of the hit NPR music radio program, What Makes It Great? Now, in Listening for America, he turns his keen ear to the Great American Songbook, bringing many of our favorite classics to life through the songs and stories of eight of the twentieth century's most treasured American composers--Kern, Porter, Gershwin, Arlen, Berlin, Rodgers, Bernstein, and Sondheim. Hardly confining himself to celebrating what makes these catchy melodies so unforgettable, Kapilow delves deeply into how issues of race, immigration, sexuality, and appropriation intertwine in masterpieces like Show Boat and West Side Story. A book not just about musical theater but about America itself, Listening for America is equally for the devotee, the singer, the music student, or for anyone intrigued by how popular music has shaped the larger culture, and promises to be the ideal gift book for years to come.
Call Number: ML3477 .K363 2019Publication Date: 2019
Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy: Gennett Studios and the Birth of Recorded Jazz by
That a small midwestern town was one of the most important communities associated with jazz in its infancy may be hard to believe. But the tiny independent record company, Gennett, which assembled a downright fantastic roster of talent during the 1920s, sat next to the railroad tracks in Richmond, Indiana. Kennedy traces Gennett Records' history from its beginnings as a branch of a family-owned piano business to its demise during the Depression. He recounts how Fred Gennett discovered the new music developing in Chicago and why such artists as Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, and Bix Beiderbecke made the trip to Richmond to record. The company was also important for signing hundreds of country musicians when their sound was virtually unknown beyond Appalachia. Kennedy clearly loves the music made in Richmond, yet he does not have a starry-eyed view of the actual Gennetts as businessmen. He commends them for marketing Black musicians before anyone else would but concedes they did not always pay them fairly and discloses that the company also profited from recording Ku Klux Klan speeches.
Call Number: ML3792 .K45 1994Publication Date: 1994
Torch Singing: Performing Resistance and Desire from Billie Holiday to Edith Piaf by
With an ethnographer's eye, Stacy Holman Jones offers us a cultural critique of torch singing--as much more than the familiar tune of a woman's lamenting her own willing deception and passivity. She takes us into the space between music and language, allowing us to view torch singing not only as an expression of burgeoning desire but also of a more firmly resolved resistance and promise of change. An engaging read for performing arts and music professionals, and instructors in mass media and experimental ethnography.
Call Number: ML3918.P67 H65 2007Publication Date: 2007
Interlibrary Loan
Users are encouraged to search for items beyond University Libraries' catalog via RILM Abstracts of Music Literature and WorldCat. Materials not available in print or online may be requested through Interlibrary Loan. Please allow up to seven days for electronic delivery and up to fourteen days for delivery of physical items.