The Music of Styx — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:01In this lecture, I'll cover the work of
2. 0:03Stixs, a longrunning rock band that
3. 0:05contributed heavily to the mainstream
4. 0:08rock sound of the 1970s and 80s. Some
5. 0:12important concepts that I'll cover are
6. 0:15the dramatic international success of
7. 0:18sticks with which further promoted
8. 0:21almoraned rock among other genres during
9. 0:24the 1970s and 80s.
10. 0:27I'll cover the rather diverse musical
11. 0:30styles and influences of sticks and
12. 0:34especially focusing on their writing of
13. 0:37power ballads including Lady which
14. 0:40contributed heavily to their success in
15. 0:43rock music.
16. 0:46Sticks is an AO band that formed in 1972
17. 0:50and peaked in the mid to late 1970s and
18. 0:53maybe a bit into the early 80s. Their
19. 0:56sound was shaped very much by the very
20. 0:59influence of their founding members.
21. 1:02Let's look at what made Stixs
22. 1:04successful.
23. 1:07Stixs was truly a giant among bands
24. 1:11during the late 70s and early 80s. A
25. 1:15Gallup poll in 1980 found that Stixs was
26. 1:19the United States's favorite rock band.
27. 1:22Stixs was selling out arenas nationwide.
28. 1:26Their tickets were in high demand even
29. 1:28in the early 80s when the economy was in
30. 1:30a deep recession. And Stixs remarkably
31. 1:34had four triple platinum albums in a
32. 1:37row. This means each of those albums
33. 1:40sold 3 million plus copies. So this is a
34. 1:43marker of significant and sustained
35. 1:47success.
36. 1:50Sticks drew from diverse musical styles.
37. 1:55Although we can still comfortably say
38. 1:58they're an album oriented rock band,
39. 2:02their styles and variations of influence
40. 2:05are due very much to the differing
41. 2:10interests of their two lead singers,
42. 2:12Dennis the Young and Tommy Shaw. both
43. 2:16functioned as lead singers for the group
44. 2:19and at times um were concurrent members
45. 2:24of the band. Um on a live concert you
46. 2:27might hear Dennis Young sing a couple of
47. 2:29songs then you'd hear Tommy uh Tommy
48. 2:32Shaw sing a couple more songs. So they
49. 2:34shared the duties as lead singers.
50. 2:38Dennis the Young, the now former lead
51. 2:40singer for Sticks, was very interested
52. 2:43in pop music. He had a keen
53. 2:45understanding of melody and songwriting
54. 2:47and arrangement of instruments. Tommy
55. 2:50Shaw, the longtime eventual lead singer,
56. 2:53had a preference for hard rock, and he
57. 2:56wasn't alone in this. Um, the other band
58. 2:59members were open to the idea of being
59. 3:03more of a pop band or working maybe in
60. 3:05in electronic music, as we'll talk about
61. 3:07in a bit. Um but um this
62. 3:13this tension among artistic visions
63. 3:15between Dennis D. Young and Tommy Shaw,
64. 3:18pop music versus hard rock music created
65. 3:21a real and frankly lasting tension in
66. 3:25the band and a competition for its
67. 3:27artistic vision. But I think both
68. 3:31influences, pop and hard rock, are
69. 3:33evident and probably contributed in some
70. 3:36ways to the success of Stixs.
71. 3:41Sticks fits into the AO category because
72. 3:44of their ability to blend hard rock
73. 3:47along with acoustic guitar styles,
74. 3:49synthesizers,
75. 3:51and pop melody that was important in the
76. 3:551980s. But they still managed mostly to
77. 3:59keep their credibility with a hard rock
78. 4:01audience which is quite an
79. 4:03accomplishment. Um, notably they worked
80. 4:06in the genre of the rock ballad or the
81. 4:08power ballad quite successfully.
82. 4:10Something I'll get to in a couple of
83. 4:12moments. So let's look at three songs
84. 4:16that illustrate the work of sticks.
85. 4:19Bluecollar man, Lady, and Mr. Robboto.
86. 4:23Bluecollar Man is a classic mainstream
87. 4:26AO song for several reasons and I think
88. 4:29it it needs the the least explanation.
89. 4:32It's reliant on verse chorus form with a
90. 4:35strong melody made for singing along. It
91. 4:38has some light use of keyboards and
92. 4:40synth common to the time. You hear
93. 4:42synthesizer and other bands like Journey
94. 4:44and Toto along with vocal harmonies. But
95. 4:49at its root, Blueco collar man is a
96. 4:51straightforward rock song and couldn't
97. 4:53be mistaken for some other style. It has
98. 4:56the required guitar solo, and I suspect
99. 4:59in some live performances, this solo is
100. 5:01extended for lengthier jamming.
101. 5:05Next, let's look at Lady.
102. 5:08Uh, with this song, Lady, I'm going to
103. 5:11take a somewhat extended side trip into
104. 5:16the concept of power ballads because
105. 5:19this is a
106. 5:20tradition in rock that Stixs contributed
107. 5:23to.
108. 5:25This won't be a complete coverage of the
109. 5:27power ballad topic, but we'll cover the
110. 5:29basics. So, Lady mostly follows the two
111. 5:33power ballad formulas. A power ballad
112. 5:36has a musical formula and a lyrical
113. 5:38formula.
114. 5:40The musical formula is one of continuous
115. 5:44escalation. The song begins softly and
116. 5:47gains musical intensity becoming louder
117. 5:50as it goes along.
118. 5:52Lady becomes uh I'm sorry, begins with
119. 5:56piano and lead singer. Dennis D. Young
120. 5:59sings this song on most recordings.
121. 6:02After the first verse, the second verse
122. 6:04happens right away with the addition of
123. 6:06bass guitar. And then about a minute in,
124. 6:09the music gets suddenly much louder and
125. 6:11more intense. But
126. 6:15that's not where the the escalation
127. 6:17ends.
128. 6:19Later on, we hear a very strong repeated
129. 6:23drum figure. And near the end of the
130. 6:26song, there's a guitar solo that happens
131. 6:28in the background.
132. 6:31And you might not even notice it the
133. 6:33first time you hear it. I know I didn't.
134. 6:35But all of these factors contribute to
135. 6:38building an escalation along the way
136. 6:41during the course of the song.
137. 6:46The lyrical formulation, the lyrical
138. 6:49formula of a power ballad is a
139. 6:51combination of sentimentality and
140. 6:54uplift. And the goal or the effect here
141. 6:58anyway is that the lyrics create kind of
142. 7:02a fog of emotion. We don't know
143. 7:04necessarily whether a song is happy or
144. 7:08sad. Those are kind of crude emotional
145. 7:10terms, but um there are many ways we
146. 7:13might interpret the emotion of a power
147. 7:15ballot. Another way to put it, a power
148. 7:18ballad often expresses ideas of
149. 7:20melancholy longing or nostalgia
150. 7:24along with some sort of uplift in the
151. 7:27form of a great romance, an emotional
152. 7:30exhilaration or um deep personal
153. 7:33connection with another person. Power
154. 7:35ballads uh address within one song
155. 7:39things such as those.
156. 7:43Lady, I think contains a lot more uplift
157. 7:46than sentimentality, but the lyrics do
158. 7:48mention the idea of sinking into one's
159. 7:51troubles and asking for a delivery from
160. 7:53loneliness while later affirming that
161. 7:57you're my lady. That's the uh the lyric
162. 8:00that is repeated throughout the song.
163. 8:04Released in 1973, we can reasonably say
164. 8:07that lady is one of the earlier rock
165. 8:10power ballads. So the formula I just
166. 8:12mentioned was not too widely adopted yet
167. 8:15but it would become so uh in only a few
168. 8:18years and there are many many other
169. 8:20power ballads that use the two-part
170. 8:23formula musical and lyrical uh
171. 8:27faithfully by Journey Wind of Change by
172. 8:29the Scorpions and Every Rose Has Its
173. 8:32Thorn by Poison are a few examples among
174. 8:35many many many others.
175. 8:39Let's look at the third song in our
176. 8:42discussion on sticks, Mr. Robboto.
177. 8:46With this song, we can find a couple of
178. 8:48important rock traditions in play, even
179. 8:51though this is far from a typical rock
180. 8:53song.
181. 8:55Mr. Robboto is a song that was released
182. 8:58on a concept album. The concept album is
183. 9:02an album in which all the songs are
184. 9:05connected by a single theme or plot.
185. 9:07This practice was more common in the
186. 9:101970s and faded in the 80s and 90s,
187. 9:12although we can still find uh later and
188. 9:15even current examples.
189. 9:18Mr. Robboto was released off a sticks
190. 9:21album called Kilroy Was Here. The story
191. 9:25is about a future in which rock music
192. 9:28has been outlawed.
193. 9:30The story's protagonist
194. 9:32named Kilroy is a former rock star who's
195. 9:36been imprisoned for his music. And he
196. 9:38escapes by disguising himself as a robot
197. 9:42when he finds out that a young musician,
198. 9:45Jonathan Chance, played by the other
199. 9:47lead singer, Tommy Shaw, is also on a
200. 9:50mission to bring back rock music.
201. 9:53You might think of a concept album like
202. 9:55this as a story with chapters which with
203. 9:59each song being a chapter in the story.
204. 10:05This is uh progressive rock tradition.
205. 10:08The concept album that is progressive
206. 10:11rock a form of rock popular in the 70s
207. 10:14often mixes rock style with other genres
208. 10:17including classical music. Progressive
209. 10:20rock might use concept albums and
210. 10:22longer, more extended songs.
211. 10:25Progressive rock uses lyrical themes
212. 10:28like science fiction, dystopian
213. 10:31futuristic settings, folklore,
214. 10:33literature. Um, it strays pretty far
215. 10:36from the typical rock themes of love,
216. 10:40sex, and things like that. Mr. Robboto
217. 10:44isn't truly a progressive rock song, but
218. 10:47it draws on the tradition in these ways
219. 10:50with kind of a futuristic setting,
220. 10:53almost science fiction, but not quite.
221. 10:56Um, and being part of a concept album.
222. 10:59Sticks was known for their work in
223. 11:02progressive rock during the 1970s.
224. 11:07Mr. Robboto is perhaps the most
225. 11:11well-known sticks song among casual
226. 11:13listeners because of its success on the
227. 11:16charts and its crossover appeal into the
228. 11:20pop music world, but it's not
229. 11:23representative of the overall musical
230. 11:26style of sticks.
231. 11:29Mr. Robboto, released in 1983, has a
232. 11:32much more electronic sound. It draws on
233. 11:35traditions of electronic dance music of
234. 11:37the 80s with synthesizers.
235. 11:40So, this song caused a lot of conflict
236. 11:43within the band
237. 11:45and it was controversial among fans. Mr.
238. 11:48Robato alienated a lot of Stixs fans who
239. 11:52loved the established hard rock sound
240. 11:55that Stixs had. And Dennis D. Young uh
241. 12:00with his interest in pop music came into
242. 12:03conflict with other band members.
243. 12:05Initially
244. 12:07they gave D Young the benefit of the
245. 12:09doubt because he had written several hit
246. 12:11songs for them previously including Lady
247. 12:15and ultimately this conflict
248. 12:19became one about the overall creative
249. 12:22direction and vision of the band. And
250. 12:24after Mr. Robboto Stixs even broke up
251. 12:26for a short time afterward.
252. 12:30So to wrap up Stixs,
253. 12:33they were an AO band with a variety of
254. 12:36influences and practices.
255. 12:39They had hard rock songs. They had
256. 12:42ballads. They had progressive rock songs
257. 12:45and even electronic pop songs, Mr.
258. 12:49Robboto that were influenced by
259. 12:52progressive rock. Although I'd say at
260. 12:54their heart they're really a hard rock
261. 12:57band.
262. 12:59These varying approaches to music drew
263. 13:02them millions of fans and they were
264. 13:04always known as a great live arena band
265. 13:07as were so many other AO bands. So that
266. 13:11does it for this lecture on sticks.
267. 13:13Enjoy listening.