Bluegrass music is a genre of American roots music that developed in the 1940s in the Appalachian region of the United States. The name Bluegrass comes from the band Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. Typically a bluegrass band consists of four to seven performers who sing while accompanying themselves on acoustic string instruments. Bluegrass combines elements of old-time mountain music, square dance fiddling, blues, gospel, jazz, and popular music. The instruments used include the fiddle, banjo, guitar, bass, and sometimes the harmonica. Bluegrass vocal harmony features two, three, or four parts often with a dissonant or modal sound in the highest voice, a style described as the "high, lonesome sound." Commonly, the ordering and layering of vocal harmony is called the "stack". A standard stack has a baritone voice at the bottom, the lead in the middle (singing the main melody) and a tenor at the top.
Bill Monroe, born in Rosine, Kentucky is considered "the father of bluegrass music." Bill Monroe and his brother Charlie moved to Chicago as adults where they formed a band known as the Monroe Brothers. This band became one of the most popular acts of the 1930s. In 1938, the brothers split and formed their own bands where Bill adopted the name "Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys" for his band which was named after the nickname for his home state of Kentucky. A large region in central Kentucky was sometimes called the Bluegrass region. After experimenting with various instrumental combinations, Bill settled on mandolin, banjo, fiddle, guitar, and bass for the core of his band. Bill played the fiddle. Earl Scruggs joined the band in 1945 and played an innovative three-finger picking style on the banjo. Lester Flatt joined the band as the guitarist and lead vocals. Chubby Wise joined playing the fiddle and Howard Watts played the upright bass. Some of their popular songs were Big Mon, Uncle Pen, and Wheel Hoss.
Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt formed their own group called "The Foggy Mountain Boys." They included the resophonic guitar or the "Dobro" in their band. From 1948-1969, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs band was a force in introducing bluegrass music to America though national tv. radio, and other appearances. Scruggs wrote and recorded one of the bluegrass music most famous instrumentals, "The Foggy Mountain Breakdown," which was used in the soundtrack for the movie Bonnie & Clyde. By the 1950s, Monroe began referring to his style of music as "bluegrass music," based on his Kentucky roots. Bluegrass bands began forming all over the country and Bill Monroe became acknowledged as "Father of Bluegrass Music." In May 1997, Bill Monroe was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because of the profound influence of his style on popular music. He is also a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor. In the 1950s rock and roll began to take over the country and bluegrass performers began to fade in popularity. However, by the 1960s, bluegrass music had become infused with new energy as a part of folk music revival. When younger performers started adding elements of jazz, pop, and rock to the traditional country base, bluegrass became "newgrass." Bluegrass tunes often take the form of narratives on the everyday lives of people in which the music came from. This makes their music more personal and relatable. As a traditionally blue-collar, working-class style of music, bluegrass singers tackle concepts like railroading, coal mining, and systemic oppression.
Another famous bluegrass singer is Alison Krauss. She was born July 23, 1971 in Champaign, Illinois. At 12 years old she won the Illinois State Fiddling Championship and two years later at 14 she signed a recording contract. In 1990, she won a Grammy Award for her third album, "I've Got That Old Feeling." Her first band "Union Station," included her brother Viktor who played bass. Alison was the lead singer. Their song "Two Highways," in 1989 was Grammy Award nominated for Best Bluegrass Recording.
The Punch Brothers are another bluegrass band consisting of Chris Thile who plays the mandolin, Gabe Witcher who plays the fiddle, Noam Pikelny playing the banjo, Chris Eldridge playing the guitar, and Paul Kowert who plays bass. Chris Thile formed the band in 2006 to record the album, "How to Grow a Woman from the Ground." The band's name comes from the critical line of an earworm jingle that is the centerpiece of Mark Twain's short story "A Literary Nightmare." Their single "Julep" was nominated for Best American Roots Song at the 2016 Grammy Awards. The album reached top 10 on the rock, folk, and bluegrass charts. In 2018 they released their 5th album, "All Ashore." According to Chris Thile, the album is "a meditation on committed relationships in the present day, particularly in light of the current unsettled political climate." "All Ashore" was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album at the 61st Grammy Awards in 2019.
In the music ensembles that I have been to, I have noticed that the stringed and wind instruments are played by mostly women and percussion instruments are played by mostly men. I’ve never thought about why one gender leans more toward one instrument than another until now. I don't really know how a person goes about choosing their instrument as I don't play one myself but I feel a couple different things would influence your choice of instrument. Things such as media, or your favorite artist, or maybe you just randomly chose that instrument because you thought it was interesting. Most men in the US typically play percussion or brass instruments but why? Back in 1788, when the trumpet was first invented, it was widely played in the military. Drums were also used in the military. Thus, the trumpet and the drums were mostly played by men. It also mattered which instrument made you look more attractive. In the 19th century, it was said that brass instruments made men look more attractive and wind instruments such as the clarinet or the flute make a woman look more attractive or “ladylike.” More popular brass instrument players were also male such as Louis Armstrong who played the trumpet. This would give men more of a reason to want to play the trumpet because they have a male figure to look up to. Only 3% of brass players are women.
“The foundations for which instruments women and men should play were laid already in the Middle Ages,” says Lise Karin Meling. Making large bodily movements when playing string and wind instruments was not very ladylike. A sound that was too strong and too powerful was not for a woman's modest character. A too strong and powerful sound did not agree with a woman’s modest and mild character. Almost every piano composition written in the nineteenth century is written for women and girls. Sitting at the piano is a more graceful position. In earlier times the guitar was another instrument that was “graceful" for women. In 1783, German philologist and composer Carl Ludwig Junker wrote an essay explaining exactly which instruments were proper for women to play. Female musicians could keep their bodies in graceful, feminine poses while playing. Musically, the critics thought, the guitar was also a perfect instrument for women because it was made for “simple, unpretentious music, most of all in a subordinate role as an accompanying instrument.” Joan Jett has been widely recognized for being the lead woman in her band Joan Jett & the Blackhearts and the founder of The Runaways which is an all female band. She is a lead guitarist and known as the “Queen of Rock n Roll.”
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