EVOLUTION OF AMERICAN POP MUSIC
From Rag to Rock n’ Roll

Why did Benny Goodman’s band sound different from the Beatles? How is an Al Jolson song different from one by Elvis? And what did this mean to Americans? How did we evolve from the song “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” to “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” in just 50 years?

This historically informed performance traces the evolution of popular song from the turn of the century to the early 1960’s, illustrating the differences and similarities between music of each decade and style. Through songs by well-known writers such as Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Fats Waller and Frank Loesser, as well as through songs of some lesser-known writers, this show paints an aural picture of the everyday life of each distinct era–ragtime, charleston, blues, jazz, crooning, swing, and rock n’ roll, with some interesting side-trips along the way to Hollywood, Harlem and “Never Never Land.”

AFTER YOU’VE GONE
Henry Creamer & J. Turner Layton, 1918
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CAN’T HELP LOVIN’ DAT MAN
Oscar Hammerstein II & Jerome Kern, 1927
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