The Early Years

Paving the way for modern popular music, these four songs, Barbary Allen (1666), Soldier’s Joy (1770s), Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair (1854), and After the Ball (1892), each contain a significant features that we have come to expect today. Each song contains a building block that other songs would emulate and a musical hook that would aid in it becoming popular. Finally, each song holds social significance to the day in which it was written.

Barbary “Barbra” Allen, performed by Jean Ritchie (1960)

From the British Ballad tradition, this song tells the story of love, rejection, remorse, death, and affirmation of love postmortem. Utilizing the 5 note Pentatonic scale, each of the verses of Barbary Allen utilize the same lilting melody and phrasing. The first two lines of each verse begin with the same 4 notes providing the musical hook that aids in remembering the piece. This style of song uses a common theme, giving voice to everyone as it speaks of unrequited love and the hope in the power of love to defy death.

Soldier’s Joy, performed by Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers (1929)

Here we see the beginning of popular dance music in the string band tradition. The musical hook is introduced at the beginning and then repeated in the instrumental sections between each verse. The fiddles play phrase A twice followed by phrase B twice. The first verse contains instructions for the dance, similar to modern square dancing or line dancing. The song grew in popularity as it was utilized in social settings, giving not only musical enjoyment but also an understanding of how to participate in the dance.

Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair, music & lyrics by Stephen Foster;

performed by Thomas Hampson & the Jay Ungar Trio (1994)

Stephen Foster, America’s first full-time professional songwriter, pens this lilting piece that set a precedent for songwriters and listeners alike. The arrangement of this song becomes a standard, AABA. The beginning of each A phrase remains the same providing a musical hook, with a bridge, phrase B, containing a new melody and chord structure that provides musical interest to the piece and a brief break from the hook. The final A phrase ends in a musical cadence, the dominant to tonic chord, giving a sense of ending to the section. This layout becomes not only a blueprint for songwriters but also an expectation for listeners.

After the Ball, music & lyrics by Charles K. Harris; performed by the author

In this piece we begin to see the building blocks of the first three songs incorporated into one piece. Building on the British Ballad tradition, After the Ball tells a story interjecting a chorus between the verses. The affect on the listener is a building anticipation for the next part of the story. Its verses are constructed in the Foster layout, AABA. The title is sung twice in the chorus, providing a musical hook and embedding it in the listener’s memory. Finally it is a waltz, a popular dance of the time. In pre-radio America, touring bands and social dances were how music penetrated into the populous. It is hard to overstate how significant it is that this song would have been performed in social settings.

          As popular music begins to take shape, meaningful lyrics, social intersection, and skillful construction of song become the measure of how well a song will be received. With the beginning of the industrial revolution and the invention of the gramophone and radio, we will next see how rapidly new music spreads and how these tell-tales solidify a songs place in history.