Rose Royce - If Walls Could Talk

In the 1920s, the centre of the jazz world had shifted from New Orleans to the speakeasies of Prohibition era Chicago.. A new style of solo improvisation earned trumpeter, cornet player and gravelly voiced singer Louis Armstrong worldwide acclaim... Standards of musicianship reached a pinnacle, and the decade as a whole became known as the jazz age.

The end of Prohibition in 1933 forced many musicians out of the illegal drinking clubs and into the open. Jazz adapted its style for wider appeal, tailoring itself to the dance hall in the form of big bands and swing... The smoothness of swing provoked a jazz rebellion in the form of bebop, or hot jazz, an experimental form with complex rhythms and harmonies, led by saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and guitarist Charlie Christian, the first to use electrical amplification.

Songs such as This Land is Your Land, caused a quiet revolution in folk music, expressing popular sentiments about the Great Depression and the suffering of the poor... The mixing of musical styles opened up new avenues. Under the influence of swing, country music, which itself was an adaptation of folk and blues, was transformed. Western swing emerged, with amplified guitars and strong dance rhythms, and honky tonk developed.

Source: The evolution of music: Blues, jazz and the rise of popular music by Mandi Goodier

Rose Royce - If Walls Could Talk

• Written by Arthur Baker, Richard Scher & Terry Price
• Released on: 1987
• Genre: Electronic, Disco

"With the recruitment of lead singer Gwen Dickey, aka Rose Norwalt, Rose Royce seemed to have solidified their independence as a band. They garnered their name and broke into the mainstream with their involvement in the Joel Schumacher film, Car Wash."

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