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POPULAR MUSIC
The Origins
At the end of the 18th century the modern concept of song imposed itself to celebrate recurrences, a person or political anthems (Risorgimento)
Canzone Napoletana
The popular song heritage of regional songs, stornelli , serenades
Before WWI
Entrance of the masses in the political scene leads to the introduction of a new kind of song: the political song (anthem of the workers)
Migration (Mamma mia dammi cento lire, Core ingrato)
Opera (Puccini)
WWI
Patriotic anthem (Il Piave)
Protest song (Addio padre e madre)
Sentimental (O’ soldato innamurato)
The era of the radio (fascism)
Since 1924 radio broadcasting lead to the spread and notoriousness of the songs. It also brought to an evolution in the musical patterns
Music became the background of the work of housewives and craftsmen.
The success of popular music lead to the decline of the traditional popular song; another consequence of radio was the removal of the bourgeois and high-educated classes from practicing music
30’s
Fascism orientated music towards a youth public to celebrate the idea of society that to build: songs exalted the male values of the fascist youth ness
Jazz (from Us)
Latin rhythms (from South America, tango and salsa)
Fascism and Jazz
Jazz was proscribed by the regime half of the 30’s, particularly after 1938.
But the relation between fascism and jazz was ambivalent: many fascist hierarchs loved Jazz and Mussolini’s son Romano was an excellent pianist himself
Spread of dance rooms
WWII
Out of 2500 songs that came out during the war, only 100 were war songs: music was an attempt to escape a dramatic reality
During the civil war the songs became more politicized. The privileged themes were the war (Bella Ciao) and the political emancipation of the workers.
The Americans, in the South first, introduced the boogie woogie
The Afterwar
Songs have the function to rise the moral of Italians (refrain of Simmo’ e Napule: forget the past, simmo’ e Napule paisà)
Begins the era of the canzone all’italiana: love is the central theme
American rock’n roll
South American rhythms
Buscaglione, Carosone
The turning point of 1955
Neapolitan song famous at a national level (Carosone, Murolo)
Rock’n roll (Adriano Celentano and Fred Buscaglione)
Festival di Sanremo
60’s and 70’s
After the international success of the Beatles many bands are formed in Italy
But Italian popular music will develop in a different way: songwriters (a northern phenomenon) attracted the public rather than (Italian) bands: De Andrè, Paoli, Tenco, Jannacci, Dalla, De Gregori, Gaetano.
Late 60’s and 70’s: English and American artists influenced a new generation of songwriters and bands (Battisti, Equipe 84, Dik Dik, Pfm), but the most important songs and LP to hit the charts remained English or American, or English or American songs translated into Italian.
Late 70’s-80’s
Next to songwriters and rock bands (Vasco Rossi) begins the Disco era: disco music is almost entirely imported.
90’s-Today
New songwriters + globalization of musical production; but as well as in cinema the most important successes remain old stuff (crisis of Italian cultural production): Italian popular music continues to follow the same pattern (songwriters, import from Us-Uk, latin dances)
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