Americana Defined

[tagutcow]

Incidentally, I wrote an "Americana" piano piece a few years ago. I need to add two more movements to it and clean up the first three.

http://www.myspace.com/craftybeing

Click on "Apple Blossom".

 

[Maharlika]

Originally Posted by tagutcow

Incidentally, I wrote an "Americana" piano piece a few years ago. I need to add two more movements to it and clean up the first three.

http://www.myspace.com/craftybeing

Click on "Apple Blossom".

Sounds Awesome! What is your inspiration?

 

[HEWSINATOR]

Originally Posted by Connemara

It's really a post hoc invention, but The Band is often identified as Americana.

The Band? The group made mostly of Canadians?

 

[skidsm]

hank williams

 

[tagutcow]

Originally Posted by Maharlika

Sounds Awesome! What is your inspiration?

They were literally based on melodies I found myself humming as I was walking. Like I said, I'm going to add two more movements- one quite developed- so the overall impression of will be more of a Classical piece rather than just some cutesy sketches.

 

[tagutcow]

I can't help but be struck by the stylistic similarity of Norman Rockwell and Art Frahm.

 

[Maharlika]

Never seen those before. Seemed pretty racy for the 50's, perhaps not.

 

[A Y]

For me, Americana is stuff that evokes a certain feeling, which is why not all American artists produce Americana, like John Cage or Jackson Pollock, because they don't evoke the quintessential American spirit. For Americana, I think of vast open spaces and the long journeys to go across them. I also think of classic American optimism and opportunity --- the chance to start over and make your own life from hard work --- and American eclecticism. These things are usually expressed with a simplicity and earnestness that may have very sophisticated things going on underneath, but appear simple and direct on the surface.

The inspiration may be prosaic, small-town American life, but the masters have always been able to take everyday material and elevate them to greatness.

+1 on Ives. The popular Copland pieces (Rodeo, Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid) evoke these feelings. Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 is like a sepia-tinged, nostalgic vision of these things. John Adams's Dharma at Big Sur is like the California version of these things. John Philip Sousa is another great example. Balanchine's Stars and Stripes ballet is a great example of an immigrant's take on Americana, like Swan Lake x America. I think a lot of his ballets are like tributes to an ideal vision of America.

Barber:
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John Adams (music starts about 1 minute in):
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--Andre

 

[robbie]

The antithesis of Postmodernism.

 

[crazyquik]

Originally Posted by HEWSINATOR

The Band? The group made mostly of Canadians?

Best Southern Rock band to ever come from Canada.

 

[tagutcow]

Originally Posted by robbie

The antithesis of Postmodernism.

Give Charles Ives a listen and get back to us on that.

America basically pushed the Western world into the Postmodern age, and so it's no accident that many things we identify as being characteristically American (which is what Americana is-- American in character) have a post-modern aspect to them.

A Y correctly identified the "eclecticism" of Americana. This part expresses it very well:

Originally Posted by A Y

For Americana, I think of vast open spaces and the long journeys to go across them. I also think of classic American optimism and opportunity --- the chance to start over and make your own life from hard work --- and American eclecticism.

As clichÃ

d as it is, it comes back to the frontier spirit, the optimism that comes from the sense that there's always something new to explore, and the sense of not being particularly weighted down by cultural memory (both a good and a bad thing.)

 

[JustinW]

Originally Posted by crazyquik

Family farms
Farm Aid (Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp)
country music
wheat fields big enough to feed all of Africa

Substitute Kasey Chambers and Slim Dusty for Willie and JCM, and you are talking Australiana there!

 

[crazyquik]

Originally Posted by tagutcow

Originally Posted by A Y
For Americana, I think of vast open spaces and the long journeys to go across them. I also think of classic American optimism and opportunity --- the chance to start over and make your own life from hard work --- and American eclecticism.

As clichÃ

d as it is, it comes back to the frontier spirit, the optimism that comes from the sense that there's always something new to explore, and the sense of not being particularly weighted down by cultural memory (both a good and a bad thing.)

Part of this thread was hinting at the 1950s ideas of America, etc.

This part of this really made me think of Mad Men though, or at least Don Draper.

 

[designprofessor]

Originally Posted by Agnacious

Norman Rockwell

this picture with a meth lab out back....

 

[crazyquik]

First time I've ever looked at that picture closely.

The gentleman standing is where a contrast-collar shirt with a striped body and self-cuffs

I wonder what his screenname is?