Are questions on pop music legit. for University Challenge?

[Ian]

The whole question of how an expectation developed that pop/rock artists in the US/British/European mainstream should ( for credibility) in the main write as well as perform their own material is quite interesting,( and FWIW I have always thought that there may have been a step change at the hands of the likes of Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly).

I'm probably wrong , but over time, and across genres I would have thought that in the main, statistically, the writing /performing roles are far more often separate than combined. Electronic music I guess also has a tendency to the composer/performer combination too ?

It was the introduction of new technology - i.e. the electric guitar, and bass as well as relatively portable keyboard instruments that facilitated the emergence of the ‘beat combo‘ that could compete volume-wise the soon-to-be old-fashioned big-band. Almost overnight self-contained bands were formed - often simply groups of friends (from all walks of life) who could get together and make self contained music without needing permission or input from the established music business. Prior to this, popular music had much more in common with classical music in that all the music tended to be composed and written out to be played by session musicians.

Definitely a big part of this movement was the self-containedness of writing your own material , indeed it was probably the most important thing. In my experience, working in a recording studio, it is nearly always the composer who is self motivated to make things happen. And sure, this does lead to a credibility issue - which can be, if you think about it, a bit of a problem for non-performing writers - who then tend to end up working with certain kinds of artists where this factor is not so much an issue - leading, onwards, to the so-called 'manufactured band'.

[Ian]

I am, Bach and Mozart and earlier. But not a lot after 1826.

Ooh, you rebel, you.

[Sir Velo]

I am, Bach and Mozart and earlier. But not a lot after 1826.

What happened in 1826?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

What happened in 1826?

Just time to put the kettle on ready for Just a Minute!

[french frank]

What happened in 1826?

Beethoven Op 135? If incorrect, adjust date accordingly.

[Lat-Literal]

I too would like to hear more about George Martin's role in aeolian cadences. However, it is the sociological aspects raised by this thread that are starting to really appeal. At six, there is briefly on the black-and-white a picture of flower children in the field. Grandfather - Labour - is finding it easy to identify with and parrot Alf Garnett - "b----y student layabouts; they should cut their hair". The alternative manifesto for a generation arrives just a year or two later. We are all going to play football on a stage while singing "Maggie May" and there is no reason why this shouldn't be forever. So, I can't quite "place" universities of the 1960s/early 1970s in my mind. I had assumed that everyone was on a Paris inspired march to the soundtrack of Jefferson Airplane. No one who was with Bamber Gascoigne looked like they would be convincingly outside that category, whatever presentation they chose. I can't say it was something that I would have found easy so I felt that it was right by the early 1980s that it had gone. But perhaps it wasn't mainly like that anyway?

This isn't a flippant point.

Public sector work was not two or three people sitting deep in thought to the chime of a city clock. A beautiful room that was so quiet that you could even hear a pin drop. It was an open plan egg-and-spoon race, often three-legged. That was very disappointing to me. Similarly, no amount of Camerons and Johnsons have ever convinced my father that a grant to an independent school was a passport to a Burmese jungle. To him even now, everyone in such places doffs their caps and says "well, a very good morning to you", that is, so far as that it is possible when all are ivy. Higher education was closer to what I had anticipated though it was only mildly radical. Rather I found there at 19 what I thought was the essence of a good comprehensive school. Nevertheless, I think I would have liked to have heard the beginnings of the aforementioned chime there - but no. It's an elusive thing.

[vinteuil]

Beethoven Op 135? If incorrect, adjust date accordingly.

... written in 1826, but not performed until the Schuppanzigh quartet did it in 1828.

I think you shd move yr postquam non to 1828 - you will then capture the last works of Schubert...

[Bryn]

Poor not so old Mendelssohn. 19 years or so too late with his Op. 80 quartet for frenchie to give it consideration.

[french frank]

... written in 1826, but not performed until the Schuppanzigh quartet did it in 1828.

I think you shd move yr postquam non to 1828 - you will then capture the last works of Schubert...

You know where you and Bryn can put your postquam nons, don't you! . Heavens, people will be wanting to include Bruckner and Mahler next!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

No Pop at all this week - and two rounds on Classical Music. (One of which referred to a work by a certain Brian Ferneyhuff - the brow does not get higher.)

[Richard Tarleton]

Indeed - excellent round!

[ardcarp]

...and so obsessed with The Periodic Table this week; they might have sneaked in Borodin somehow.

[Serial_Apologist]

...and so obsessed with The Periodic Table this week; they might have sneaked in Borodin somehow.

Is that the one that comes around once a month?

[ardcarp]

[Stanfordian]

The students are probably better off with popular music questions as most of them struggle with classical music.

I agree what is this obsession with the Periodic Table!