In the United States, California is commonly associated with the film, music and arts industries, especially the Los Angeles area. Punk rock, country, hip hop and heavy metal all developed partly in California.
This article is a supplemental part of theMusic of the United States series. |
Roots music: before 1940 |
1940s and 50s |
1960s and 70s |
1980s to the present |
African-American music |
Native American music |
Latin, Tejano, Hawaiian, |
The earliest Spanish and English explorers in California encountered Native Americans and established missions to convert them to Christianity. Chanted prayers and hymns were often used, and choirs were eventually formed; many missions formed Native American choirs among recent converts.
As California's European, Asian and African population increased in the 19th century, the state became the earliest west coast territory admitted to the United States. As on the east coast, music at the time was dominated by popular minstrel shows and the sale of sheet music. Performers included the Sacramento-born Hyers Sisters and Black Patti. The state's high Mexican population brought traditional folk guitar to California, including virtuoso Luis T. Romero. Chinese immigrants came to California to work on the transcontinental railroad and soon became a large minority in the state; the San Francisco Chinese Opera House was built in 1880, though two years later saw the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in order to prevent more immigration. The visit of King Kalakaua of Hawaii in 1874 saw the Hawaiian national anthem, "Hawaii Ponoi" (written by the king) set to music by Henry Berger. In the 1880s, Carlos Troyer became a prominent composer, incorporating Spanish and Zuni influences. Polish composer Chevalier Anton de Kontski's Polish Patrol and Awakening the Lion were also quite popular.
In the 1950s and early 1960s, country music was dominated by the slick Nashville sound that stripped the genre of its gritty roots. The town of Bakersfield, California saw the rise of the Bakersfield sound as a reaction against Nashville, led by people like Buck Owens and future star Merle Haggard.
In the early 1960s, youth in southern California became enamored with surf rock groups, many instrumental, like The Chantays and The Surfaris. Surf rock is said to have been invented by Dick Dale with his 1961 (see 1961 in music) album "Let's Go Trippin'". Surf rock's popularity ended in the mid-1960s with the coming of psychedelic music.
Psychedelic music began with the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" in
1966.
The late 1960s saw San Francisco and Hollywood rise as the center for psychedelic rock and a mecca for hippies. Haight-Ashbury became a countercultural capital, and bands like Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother & the Holding Company and The Grateful Dead got their careers started in San Francisco. Hollywood's Sunset Strip area produced bands like The Byrds, The Doors, Love, Buffalo Springfield and
The Seeds.
This era was dominated by country rock acts such as The Eagles and Poco, and singer-songwriters such as Jackson Browne and Joni Mitchell. There were also funk acts that were prominent such as War from the South Central district of Los Angeles, and Sly and the Family Stone and Tower of Power from Oakland. Santana blended rock, jazz, funk and Latin music. This period also saw a number of difficult to classify acts arising who did not sell many records, but proved to be very influential on things to come, such as Kim Fowley and Captain Beefheart, both of whom had been active in the 1960s but reached their artistic peaks during this era, and Sparks, all from Los Angeles. Fowley would go on to manage and produce the all-female proto-punk group, The Runaways.
Hair metal arose along the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles in the 1970s with bands like Quiet Riot, Motley Crue and later Poison and quickly became known for anthemic hard rock and power ballads, as well as band members' distinctively feminine make-up, hair and clothing in spite of the scene's macho posturing. This scene would die out in the 1990s due to grunge and Britpop.
Los Angeles' original late 70s punk scene was not as active as New York City's, nor many other American cities', but it did include legendary cult bands like X.
Youth Brigade of Los Angeles were a group from LA who eventually became known for founding the Better Youth Organization (BYO), which advanced the hardcore scene and humanist ideals. Other Los Angeles-area hardcore and punk groups included Wasted Youth, The Screamers, UXA, The Weirdos,
The Germs, Dr. Know (featuring former child star Brandon Cruz), Legal Weapon and The Mentors (originally from Seattle), along with future underground stars NOFX.
In Orange County, the band Middle Class, from Santa Ana, was probably the most influential; their "Out of Vogue" is sometimes considered the first hardcore recording. The original hardcore bands in Orange County came from the Fullerton area, where The Adolescents, Agent Orange and Social Distortion formed. Social Distortion would later incorporate blues, country and early rock influences into their sound and become one of America's premier roots rock bands. Farther north, Huntington Beach was also an influential center of hardcore, and is known as the origin of slamdancing. Huntington bands like Vicious Circle, True Sounds of Liberty and The Crowd had a reputation for being aggressive and sometimes violent, while Uniform Choice, a somewhat later band, became known as one of the few prominent straight edge band from the West Coast. True Sounds of Liberty (TSOL) was perhaps the most infamous for violence, and for an abrupt and unpopular change towards proto-Gothic rock and, much later, Aerosmith-style heavy metal as the scene developed; future underground stars The Vandals evolved from TSOL's eventual breakdown. Other Orange County bands included Suicidal Tendencies, (who were from Venice but were associated with
Orange County hardcore), China White, Circle One, Shattered Faith and Channel 3. The Dils were originally from Orange County but later relocated to San Francisco.
Outside of New York, London, and Cleveland, San Francisco probably had the earliest punk scene, at least as far back as 1976. The scene was aided by San Francisco's legendary laidback attitude towards alternative lifestyles, and the legendary record label Alternative Tentacles. Crime and The Nuns were first, followed by Chrome, The Mutants, VKTMS, The Contractions, Angst, The Sleepers, Pop-O-Pies, Sick Pleasure (aka Code of Honor), Crucifix, The Offs, Negative Trend, The Avengers (band), SSI, Flipper and Pink Section. The most influential San Francisco hardcore band was the Dead Kennedys, whose frontman, Jello Biafra, became a noted social activist even after the band's dissolution (Biafra is also noted at the inventor of stagediving). Many hardcore bands moved to San Francisco, including legends MDC, as well as Verbal Abuse, DRI, The Dicks and Rhythm Pigs (all from Texas).
San Diego's hardcore scene was never highly evolved, though The Neutrons gained limited success, eventually changing their name to Battalion of Saints.
Also of note is the band Bad Religion, who hailed from the western San Fernando Valley and were only marginally associated with hardcore punk rock from the South Bay area. The punk scene in the eastern San Fernando Valley
was closely tied in with that of nearby Hollywood and produced bands such
as The Dickies, Fear, and The Angry Samoans.
Berkeley, California experienced a hardcore boom led by Fang. Berkeley also saw hardcore fusing with heavy metal to form thrash metal and bands like Slayer, Possessed, Faith No More, Metallica and Exodus.
Berkeley would later become a magnet for pop-punk bands like Green Day.
San Jose's most famous hardcore band was Whipping Boy, who played with local bands like Tongue Avulsion and The Faction.
In the 1980s, skacore bands like Operation Ivy - who became
Rancid in the 1990s - became popular, primarily in southern California and in the Long Beach area. During the middle of the next decade, descendants like Sublime, Rancid and No Doubt became mainstream sensations.
At the same time that Gothic rock began in the United Kingdom, a
parallel death rock scene evolved in Los Angeles out of the punk scene,
with bands like 45 Grave and Christian Death.
Inspired by bands like The Gun Club and Ohio transplants
The Cramps, cowpunk bands such as Tex & the Horseheads,
Blood On The Saddle and The Lazy Cowgirls arose from Los Angeles in the
1980s.
The Paisley Underground scene would arise out of Los Angeles in the
mid-1980s around Redd Kross, The Three O'Clock
(originally The Salvation Army), The Bangles,
The Dream Syndicate and others.
Santa Cruz spawned Camper Van Beethoven in the mid-1980s.
Jane's Addiction would arise out of Venice in the late 1980s.
During the grunge era of the early 1990s, Los Angeles became
less important nationally as a source of alternative rock, and bands
like The Nymphs, The Hangmen and The Miracle Workers never got the attention they might have if from Seattle. The only internationally popular bands that came out of Los Angeles during this time were Hole
and Stone Temple Pilots.
In the mid-1990s, Beck came out of the Silver Lake indie-rock
scene.
The early 2000s have seen the emergence of
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club from San Francisco.
Also during the 1980s, hip hop music flourished in Los Angeles and surrounding areas, especially Watts and Compton. Derived from
New York City, hip hop drew upon primarily Jamaican and East Coast influences, though early 1970s black nationalist poets
The Watts Prophets were also notable. The earliest forms of Los Angeles hip hop were hardcore hip hop artists like Ice-T (whose mid-80s "6 'N Da Mornin'" is arguably the first West Coast gangsta rap track) and a kind of dance music called electro hop. Among the most popular electro hop groups was the World Class Wrecking Cru, which included future star Dr. Dre, among others. In 1989 (see 1989 in music), Dr. Dre, along with
Eazy-E and Ice Cube, released Straight Outta Compton under the name N.W.A The album took many hip hop fans by surprise, as it single-handedly placed West Coast hip hop on the map and quickly moved
gangsta rap into the mainstream. In 1991 (see 1991 in music), Dr. Dre's solo debut, The Chronic, made West Coast hip hop and
Death Row Records the dominant sound in hip hop, drawing primarily upon George Clinton's P funk for samples and the general, slow, lazy funk. Death Row Records soon acquired Tupac Shakur, Warren G and Snoop Doggy Dogg as a
feud developed between the East and West Coasts. In the mid-90s, Shakur and his rival Notorious B.I.G were both shot and killed. Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight was imprisoned, and most of the label's acts tried to leave. The lack of leadership helped put New York, Atlanta and New Orleans on the top of the hip hop charts.
In the 1990s, underground hip hop flourished in the San Francisco Bay Area. Early pioneers included Too $hort and E-40; their success helped pave the way for new performers like RBL Posse, whose [1992]] "Don't Gimme No Bammer" achieved some crossover success.
Early foreign influences
Country music
Surf rock
Psychedelic rock
Early 1970s
Heavy metal
Punk rock
Hardcore
South Bay
In South Bay, American hardcore punk was born with bands like Black Flag and the Minutemen, who formed in the mid- to late 1970s. San Pedro, Hermosa Beach, Wilmington, Manhattan Beach and Hawthorne spawned more locally famous acts like Red Cross, who would later incorporate garage rock,power pop and glam influences into their sound and change their name
to Redd Kross The Last, Circle Jerks, The Skrews, Saint Vitus, The Descendents and Saccharine Trust. The famous movie about the hardcore scene, The Decline of Western Civilization, was shot in this area, largely in an abandoned church in Hermosa called the Creative Craft Center.Los Angeles
Orange County
San Francisco
San Diego
San Fernando
Berkeley
San Jose
Skacore
Postpunk and indie rock
Hip hop
References
External links