Skip to main content

Smashing Pumpkins - Being Beige

Sometimes the people held on to old forms, like lining hymns, in which the preacher sings the first line and the congregation follows... or spirituals, which the whole church sings, preferring them to a fancier program by the choir, to which the congregation passively listens. Bringing choirs and organs and musical directors into the southern folk church silenced the congregation and the spiritual in the once folky Baptist and Methodist churches, so that the folk moved out and founded the song heavy sects of the Holiness movement.

Use of instruments likewise expressed traditional preferences. Strict old fashioned groups, like the Primitive Baptists, simply banned all instruments as tools of the devil, and this conservatism fostered the preservation of the older songs with scales and with ornamentation. The fiddle and the banjo were called the devil's stalking horses, the square dancers and jollifications where they were played were out of bounds for the straitlaced, and church members who persisted in playing or following this music could be brought before the congregation and put out of church. Until very recently, perhaps the Fifties, therefore, the piano and the harmonium were seldom heard in most folk churches. Stringed instruments, however, met a friendlier reception among white folk religionists, the guitar, the banjo, and then little combinations, first in old timey, then in bluegrass style, appeared in the evangelical churches and on recordings. Groups like the Carter family commonly sang sacred songs on their audio and recording dates... and the serious convert could have the string music he enjoyed, without feeling a threat to his religion.


Smashing Pumpkins - Being Beige
  • Composed by: Billy Corgan
  • Released in: 2014
  • Genre: Rock, Alternative Rock

"The Smashing Pumpkins was formed in 1988 by frontman Billy Corgan, lead vocals and guitar,  D'arcy Wretzky, bass, James Iha, guitar, and Jimmy Chamberlin, drums, with their music containing elements of gothic rock, heavy metal, dream pop, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, and shoegazing."

See previous Song of the Day

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau - Long Before

Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau - Long Before Recorded in: December, 2005 Recorded in: New York, NY Genre: Jazz "Pat Metheny has participated in the academic arena as a music educator. At 18, he was the youngest teacher ever at the University of Miami. At 19, he became the youngest teacher ever at the Berklee College of Music, where he also received an honorary doctorate." See Previous Song of the Day  

David Sylvian - The First Day

When the story of Blues is told to the world, the small town Holly Springs, Mississippi and the North Mississippi region as a whole, is often left out. But, those who know, know that this region is the Hill Country, and it is the home of a style of blues unlike others and continuing to shape popular music culture. Mississippi Hill Country Blues, like all forms of the blues, is deeply rooted in the cultural memories and experiences of those who first performed it. It builds upon the African and diasporic emphasis upon rhythm as not just beats and timing, but giving syncopation and polyrhythm both rhythmic elements, an elevated role in music much like that of the melody. The driving rhythm and aggressive groove, established primarily by sitting on one chord for long phrases, set Hill Country Blues apart from other forms like Delta Blues. Hill Country Blues is the soundscape of the region that includes several counties and towns around Holly Spring, Senatobia, and Como, Mississippi. The r...

Spiritualized - Spread Your Wings

Spiritualized - Spread Your Wings Released in: February 1995 Duration: 6:17 Vocals: Jason Pierce "The first Spiritualized release was a space rock esque cover in 1990, a record which heralded the official split of Spacemen 3. On 15 June 1997, Spiritualized became the last band to play at Factory Records' Manchester nightclub." See Previous Song of the Day