Author: Herman van den Bosch

Ik ben emeritus hoogleraar aan de Open Universiteit en hou me vooral bezig met de wijze waarop we onze leefomgeving op een humane en natuurinclusieve wijze kunnen inrichten. Mijn blogposts gaan over wisselende aspecten daarvan.
Posted on

1990s: ‘Alternative rock’ (History of rock after 1960 6/6)

Record companies started to apply the term ‘new wave’ as a label to groups they wanted to promote as an alternative for punk rock. Music critics rather speak of ‘alternative rock’ – or ‘alt-rock’ – an umbrella term for all music they consider more original, challenging, or experimental than the musical ‘mainstream’. Unlike ‘art-rock’, it is about music that makes audiences dance and sing along, and bands that fans can identify with. R.E.M. is an example, as well as Nirvana, Pearl jam, Red hot chili peppers, Pixies, Cure and Green day’ who all figured in the alt-rock boom in the 1990s and later. Here R.E.M. sings ‘The one I love’. 

Grunch

Another recognisable style developed under the alt-rock umbrella, namely ‘grunge’, with the city of Seattle at its epicentre. Nirvana’s ‘Smells like teen spirit’ on the album Nevermind marked the beginning of this genre.  Listen to singer Kurt Cobain in the song ‘About a girl’ here. I choose an ‘unplugged’ version to illustrate Kurt’s musical prowess. 

Grunge, like punk, was a reaction to the commercialisation of pop music. Grunge refers to the ‘raw’ sound of the music, sometimes also the result of the amateurish nature of the recordings. Grunch combines elements of post-punk and heavy metal. Most songs are introspective, melodic and have a melancholic undertone. Whatever you call the genre, the musical level towers above that of most famous (or infamous) punk groups.

Grunge may be a reaction to the commercialisation of pop music, but the genre also unintentionally contributed to it through its (cash) success. Kurt Cobain, lead singer of Nirvana also known as the voice of generation X, was uncomfortable with this. We don’t know if this led to the fatal self-inflicted shot that ended his life. 

Under the predictable rubric of ‘post-grunge’, bands like Bush and Candlebox imitated the sound of Nirvana. Other post-grunge bands in the early 20ste century included Queens of the stone age, 3 Doors down, Foo Fighters, Nickelback and Matchbox Twenty. Alanis Morissette is one of the female solo artists within the genre. Form your own picture by clicking on the links. Listen here to Queens of the stone age with ‘Go with the flow’.

Britpop

Grunge was a predominantly American phenomenon, and as a reaction to the pessimism of grunge, another form of alt-rock developed in Britain, namely Britpop, fronted by bands such as Blur and Oasis. Oasis’ album ‘(What is the story) Morning glory’ (1995) was the third best-selling album in British history. Listen to Oasis’ song Wonderwall here

Of course, several groups also resisted the fact that these two groups defined the image of Britpop. Examples include Radiohead, Travis and Coldplay. In their turn, they used the label – how could it be otherwise – post-Britpop.  Listen here to Radiohead’s ‘Karma police’, a good example of the broad genre of ‘alt-rock’ because it is more original, challenging and experimental than the musical ‘mainstream’, however you name it.

Rock versus pop

This gives cause to reflect on the terms rock and pop music. Rock artists generally set themselves apart from pop. Either because they found pop too commercial, or because of their artistic pretensions or because of their connection to the subculture from which the music they made came. Much of pop music is made with the intention that a wide audience will appreciate it and buy the albums in question. The ‘producers’ of this music are outspoken professionals with no artistic pretensions in the first place.  They usually employ a mix of styles to create ā€˜hooksā€™ to attract and hold the audienceā€™s attention.

What about art?

But when is art? Such a predicate remains extremely subjective. The fact that songs are ‘played’ and ‘covered’ for decades may be an indication of their artistic level. The same is true of much ‘early music’.  Of the many compositions from past centuries, only a small proportion are constantly played, listened to, praised, and elevated to art. 

Parts of the rock music I am featuring in this series are now widely known and appreciated. Think of the songs that have been in the upper echelons of the Dutch NPO Top 2000 for decades. It’s only one criterion, but I have little problem speaking of art in such cases. I will close this series of posts not with number 1 (Bohemian rhapsody), a work of art par excellence, but with the long-standing number 2, the original version of Hotel California by the Eagles (1977), a song that shows off both my daughter’s and my grandson’s playlists. This version features Felder and Walsh’s famous two-minute-plus guitar solo:

Posted on

Second half 1970s: Punk (History of rock after 1960 5/6)

Punk is a style of music characterised by short, fast songs with simple lyrics and melodies, played on basic instrumentation. Many punk groups produced their recordings themselves and they released them through independent labels. Punk harkened back to the ‘rock and roll’ of the 1950s and the culture of garage bands of the 1960s. The songs were not even that different from those of beat groups in the early 1960s.

Punk opposed what were seen as the musical excesses of the previous period, such as psychedelic-influenced musical styles, art rock, metal and symphonic rock. The songs generally turn against the establishment, such as ‘Career opportunity’s’ by the Clash. And ‘Right to work’ by ‘Chelsea’ that addressed social issues such as unemployment and the grim realities of city life. Resistance to society was increasingly explicit in the way punks dressed. Tattoos, piercings, and metal studded and nailed accessories as well as the mohawk, the pointed hairstyle, gradually became commonplace for a while.

The first punk groups with wider fame were the Stooges with lead singer Iggy Pop, Ramones, Stranglers and Sex pistols. In the US, punk remained an ‘underground’ phenomenon; in Britain and mainland Europe, the music became widespread. 

Iggy Pop and the Stooges

The Stooges released their first album – called the Stooges for short – in 1969. Their fifth and last album – Ready to die – dates from 2013. In the intervening period, the band lived a dormant existence for most of the time. In 2016, the band disbanded permanently as only two members – including Iggy Pop – were left alive. The albums in the pre-1973 period were not a commercial success and critics also gave the band a lukewarm reception. What particularly stuck with many others was Iggy Pop’s ‘stage diving’ and the heroin use of the group’s members.

Many punk rock groups took songs from the Stoogesā€™albums to imitate them. Especially this one: ‘I wanna be your dog’.

Ramones

The Ramones is also an American punk rock band, and its first album ‘Ramones’ (1976) was commercially unsuccessful. Years later, the album received plenty of recognition for its influence on the development of hard rock. The Dutch punk group ‘Heideroosjes’ calls the Ramones its main inspiration. You can listen to Blitzkrieg Bop now:

Stranglers

My favourite punk song is ‘No more heroes anymore’ by English punk rock band Stranglers. This rendition below dates from 1977, the still existing group’s 50th anniversary is coming soon, and the band has explored a multitude of genres in that time. Compare ‘No more heroes’ with ‘Golden Brown’ (1982), which you can listen to HERE (2012). It seems like an innocent tune. Superficially, it’s about a girl but essentially about heroin. What is special about the song is the alternation of three- and four-quarter measures, which gives it a playful character. It is the group’s highest-rated song.

Sexpistols

English punk group Sexpistols released one album: ”Never mind the bollocks. Here’s the sex pistols’ (1977) The group existed from 1975 – 1978 but performed several more times after that. The original line-up consisted of John Lydon (‘Johnny Rotten’), Steve Jones, Pail Cook and Glen Matlock, later temporarily replaced in 1977 by John Richie (‘Sid Vicious’), who could not play any instruments. This group was literally plucked off the streets by would-be manager Malcolm McLaren, who saw the group as his own pop art project, loathed its music but thought he could make money from it. 

On stage and off, the band cultivated an image that the Daily Mirror characterised as ‘filth and fury’. The music was secondary; the media was all about the band members’ behaviour. That, especially after Sid Vicious’ arrival, revolved around riots, (verbal) violence and shocking the public and the rest of Great Britain. The ‘pistols’ became public enemy No 1 after the release of their single ‘God save the queen’. Gradually, gigs were increasingly cancelled to prevent riots. Meanwhile, tensions in the group were running high, the group broke up, Sid Vicious was arrested for murdering his girlfriend and subsequently died of an overdose. 

For the group’s members, it was not the quality of the music that was paramount, but the commotion they created. In that respect, it is true that the Sexpistols were one of the most influential groups of the 70s and 80s.  They have been called an inspiration to Guns N’Roses, Nirvana, Greenday and Oasis, among others. These groups, whose musical quality was miles above that of the Sexpistols, may have adopted from the latter in daring to deviate from social and especially musical conventions, use simple melodies and lyrics, perform an expressive stage act and, above all, play to the audience.

The Sexpistols and thousands of other punk groups provided an outlet for young people who saw little future in the then. Their following ranged from hooligans, revolutionaries, neo-Nazis to addicts. At the 1996 and 2007 reunion concerts, the audience was now a cross-section of people in their thirties and forties, and better times had arrived in economic terms. The individual members of the group meanwhile made a name for themselves, and it must be said, their stage act in 2007 is impressive. You can listen and watch it below. The actual performance of the song ‘Pretty vacant’ starts at 2 minutes from the beginning and is preceded by an atmospheric shot of the venue.

You can watch and listen to this song in its original performance (1976) HERE

Heideroosjes

The Netherlands also had a punk band, the Heideroosjes. Only formed in 1989, the group has 1,500 performances to its name almost all over the world, always in the same line-up. In 2012, the band gave two farewell concerts and another reunion followed in 2019. Here they sing ‘I’ll see you later'(2012)

Eventually, most punk rock groups started making more accessible and sometimes more artsy music and were then referred to as ‘post-punk’. They learned how to get more out of their instruments and discovered that lyrics were more than shouting political slogans. The ‘Clash’ album ‘London calling’ combined punk rock with reggae, ska, R&B and rock and roll and is, according to many, one of the best rock records ever. Listen to the song ‘London Calling’ (1979) here

The record companies did see earning opportunities in groups touting themselves as ‘post-punk’. Anything that could remotely be classified as such was marketed as ‘new wave’. Examples include the Police, the Pretenders, Elvis Costello, Blondie, the Specialsand Madness. British ‘new wave’ later included Standau Ballet, Ultravox, Culture club and Eurythmics. Check out these groups, pick what you like and consider whether you can still make a connection with punk. That will usually not be the musical style, but it may also involve audience interaction.

Posted on

1970s: Hard rock (History of rock after 1960 4/6)

In the late 1960s, hard rock developed into a genre of its own. This was partly due to the influence of ‘acid rock’, the more psychedelically inspired variant of blues rock. One of the precursors was the British band Cream, consisting of seasoned musicians such as Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker. Their album ‘Fresh Cream’ (1966) is a prototype of hard rock.

The group made four albums between 1966 and 1968 and then the members went a way of their own. You can see the three gentlemen here at a reunion in 2005. Would you be interested; you can watch and listen to the entire concert via this link. 

If you wish, you can see a recording of ‘Sunshine of your love’ HERE, at their farewell concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1968.

Hard rock

In the 1970s, hard rock began to sound increasingly harsh. Think of early examples like the Who, Deep purple, Steppenwulf (‘Born to be wild’) and Iron Butterfly (‘In-a-gada-da-vida’). Later, Black Sabbath, Aerosmith and Van Halen, among others, followed. Other examples include Def Leppard (Great Britain), the German Scorpions, AC/DC from Australia, the Swedish band Europe and in the Netherlands Golden Earring. 

In the 1990s, hard rock became one of the most dominant forms of popular music. Guns N’Roses and Bon Jovi occupied prominent places on the charts for years. Also attracting a wide audience were Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny and the Ashbury Jukes, Tom Patty and Bob Seger, musicians who often dwelled on social problems and urban decay. Heart was the first female hard rock band to spawn top-10 albums. Listen to both Heart frontwomen here, a recording from 1976.

English band Led Zeppelin made art-rock out of hard rock with the song ‘Stairway to heaven’. Many music critics consider it the best rock song ever. What follows is a recording from a reunion in 2007, so about 35 years after the first performance and 27 years after the members of the band broke up.  It starts with an acoustic part to gradually swell into hard rock. It ends with an a cappella sung line “And she’s buying a stairway to heaven”. The lyrics are by Robert Plant and the music by Jimmy Page. 

You can see the moved Jimmy Page and Robert Plant back HERE at a concert presented to them in the presence of President Obama and his wife Michelle in 2011.  The ladies of Heart sing and play ‘Stairway to heaven’, accompanied by choir and orchestra.

Led Zeppelin has been dogged until 2020 by a lawsuit from a Los Angeles rock band that felt the intro to ‘Stairway to heaven’ bore a strong resemblance to that one of its own songs. It took until 2020 for this claim to be dismissed.  In another lawsuit, the plaintiff claimed that if you play some passages backwards, the trained ear can hear satanic messages. This claim was also rejected. The judge questioned the existence of a record player with a turntable that could spin backwards. 

Heavy metal

Bands like Deep Purple, Steppenwulf and Black Sabbath are considered as the first “real” heavy metal groups and played with even more volume. Some employed occult lyrics and bizarre attire. You can watch and listen to a recording of Black Sabbath HERE. 

Not melody or rhythm, but timbre, ‘soundscape’ and volume should give the listener an adrenaline rush. Later, it turned out that heavy metal’s chord progressions are much more complex than at first glance. Strange as it may sound, classical composers like Bach and Vivaldi had a major influence on the genre. Many musicians had conservatory training and played their instruments in a virtuoso manner. 

Here, Steppenwulf plays ‘Born to be wild’ in 1986, a song made famous by the film Easy Rider.

Gothic rock

From the early 1990s, metal groups increasingly adopted gothic elements. Gothic rock is instantly recognisable for its darker sound, with the use of mostly minor chords, reverb, dark arrangements, and dramatic and melancholic melodies. Goth rock was fueled byĀ Gothic literatureĀ associated with themes of sadness, nihilism, dark romanticism, tragedy, melancholy and morbidity. Gothic influences are not limited to metal and punk. They appear in songs by Velvet undergroud (‘All tomorrow’s parties’) and Kate Bush’s ‘Wuthering heights’.Ā 

Symphonic rock

Metal bands regularly use violins and choral singing, and sometimes entire symphony orchestras support their performances. An older symphonic metal song is ‘Dies irae’ by the band Believer on their 1990 album ‘Sanity Obscure’. In this song, metal and classical music merge seamlessly. They were not the only ones: Swedish band Theron also made use of a live orchestra and classical composition techniques during the ‘Miskolc Experience’, which even became more prominent than their metal roots. The band performed with choir and orchestra at the Miskolc Opera Festival in Hungary (2007). Deep purple (Concerto for group and orchestra), Moody Blues (Days of future passed) and Black Sabbath (‘Spiral Architect’) preceded them.

Dutch band Within temptation followed the same path from 2000 In their third album, “The silent force” they played with a full choir and orchestra. Music critic Chat Bower speaks of the optimal balance between the “melody and hooks of mainstream rock, the depth and complexity of classical music and the dark edge of gothic metal”. 

Listen to Within Temptation along with the Metropole Orchestra here.

Later, the group omitted ‘heavy metal’ vocals altogether. Like HERE in a performance by singer Sharon den Adel (Within temptation) together with Anneke van Giersbergen (The Gathering). They sing ‘Somewhere’, also with the Metropole orchestra. 

Finnish band Nightwish, featuring Dutch singer Floor Jansen, also went in the same direction. They use electronics to produce an orchestral sound.  The song ”The phantom of the opera”, with a guest role for Henk Poort peaked on the Dutch charts.

The last band I mention in Dutch group Epica, with the album “The divine conspiracy“(2007). This group also plays along with choir and orchestra here. Their music has been described as combining “a dark oppressive gothic atmosphere with bombastic and symphonic music. This is best expressed in the suite ‘Orchestral Medley’.  You can listen and watch that one here.

This album also features their version of Carl Orff’s ‘O Fortuna’. The band, which has existed since 2002, revolves around singer Simone Simons and composer, singer (‘grunter’) and guitarist Mark Jansen. The band has had many performances worldwide.

Metal is still popular.  Among the first 20 songs on the Dutch NPO top 2000 is four metal songs: in sixth place ‘Stairway to heaven’ by Led Zeppelin, in ninth place Metallica with ‘Nothing else matters’, in 15de place November rain by Guns ‘N Roses and in 17de place Child in time by Deep Purple. These groups did increase their audience base. The members of Metallica cut their hair. The audience got older and increasingly consisted of women. Also the variety of styles increased. Probably because of this, in the early 1980s, 20% of all albums sold in the US were metal, or what passed for that at the time.  

Much of the furore was created by US band Evanescence, led by singer Amy Lee. The group sold more than 20 million albums and is one of the most successful bands of the 21ste century. Apart from ‘metal’, the group also plays ballads, as HERE in ‘My heart is broken’. Essentially, the band’s songs are an outgrowth of Amy’s love of classical music and her desire to express herself in contrasting styles. HERE, the group plays ‘Bring me to life’.

Posted on

Late 60s: Art-rock and psychedelia (History of rock after 1960 3/6)

In the late 1960s, a growing group of young people started using hallucinogenic drugs. This also applied to musicians, who sought musical inspiration in (hard) drugs and wanted to make music that resonated with this group of young people. Halls of screaming fans were a thing of the past for them, insofar as they still performed publicly.  The 13th Floor Elevators from Austin, Texas, are usually considered the first band to use the term “psychedelic” as early as early 1966. This started with folk rock and later continued across all genres. The harder variants, which usually harkened back to blues rock, were also called acid rock. Many bands added oriental scales and various sonic effects to achieve hypnotic soundscapes. 

The Beatles

After the decline of the Mersey beat, the Beatles in Britain were once again forerunners in the fields of both psychedelia and art-rock, reinventing themselves in albums such as ‘Rubber Soul’ (1965), ‘Revolver'(1966), ‘Sergant Pepper’s lonely hearts club band’ (1967) and ‘Magical mystery tour’ (1967). ‘Rubber soul’ marks the transition to a new period in which the Beatles decided to stop performing in public and only do studio recordings. A feature of the whole album was the expansion of the instrumentation, including a Hammond organ. George Harrison was heard on the sitar for the first time. Critics were complimentary, praising the growing maturity of Lennon and McCartney as lyricists. You can listen to Norwegian wood, a self-contained studio recording, here.

Furher renewal followed a year later. In the first half of that year, the group made its final world tour, which was surrounded by riots caused by right-wing extremists, bad weather and negative publicity. The group was fed up with the screaming fans, most of whom completely drowned out the music. The main reason to cancel touring, however, was that the production of the songs became increasingly complicated and the songs took shape and content by experimenting with the technical possibilities offered by the studio. The themes shifted to existential topics like death, overcoming material needs. Lennon and Harrison drew inspiration from LSD but also from Eastern spiritual movements.

You can listen to a song typical of the album HERE. It is ‘Tomorrow never knows’. This is a ‘drone composition’ that uses only one keynote (C) and otherwise consists of several samples varying in length that are mixed. 

Other songs that may have greater fame are ‘Eleanor Rigby’, ‘Good  day  sunshine’ and ‘Yellow  submarine’. Watch and listen to a relatively recent recording of ‘Eleanor Rigby’ here.  Recorded live in New York 2007, sent by Paul Mc Cartney.

 In the absence of live recordings by the Beatles themselves, I refer to Spotify for listening the albums.  Alternatively, below you will find recordings by the Dutch cover group ‘The Analogues’. This group performs all Beatles songs live, if necessary, with an extensive set of instruments.

‘Sergant Pepper’ followed in 1967, I release ‘Within you, without you’ here. This song is based on a Hindu Veda and, apart from George Harrison, is played on the album exclusively by Eastern musicians. The Analogues managed to perform a meticulous version of this song

Other songs included ‘With a little help from my friends’, ‘Lucy in the sky with diamonds’, ‘She is leaving home’. All played and sung by ‘The Analogues’.

You can listen to the live unplayable ‘A day in the life’ (followed by ‘Let it be’) here. So much for ‘The Analogues’ contribution, too.

The style of the songs on ‘Sergant Pepper’ – sometimes even within a song – varied widely, The record was considered as a ‘Gesamt Kunstwerk’. That the Beatles’ songs were art was already established after Revolver.  Remarkably, ‘Sergant Pepper’ was initially considered as the Beatles’ best album ever, but as the years went by, ‘Revolver’ took over this position, because of its originality, the quality of the lyrics and the consistency of the songs.

The EP ‘Magical mystery tour’ was the soundtrack to a film of the same name and included well-known songs like ‘Fool on the Hill’. ‘I’am the walrus’ and ‘Hello goodbye. For critics, it was mostly old wine in new bags.

Three more albums would follow:

‘The Beatles’ (the ‘White album’), with songs such as Ob-la- di Ob-la da, While my guitar gently weeps, Julia, Blackbird, I will, Revolution 1 & 9. Most of the songs were much simpler in structure also because the use of LSD had by now been renounced. During the recording, tensions in the group, also due to the ubiquitous presence of Yoko Ono, continued to rise. 

Then came ‘Abbey Road’, whose songs included ‘Come together’, ‘Something’, Maxwell Silver Hammer’ and the 12-minute medley. Critiques were mixed, Some critics felt the sound was too artificial, especially with the overuse of a moog synthesiser. Still, some thought it was the best album ever because it was less pretentious due to the absence of psychedelic influences. Before the album was released, John Lennon had left the group for good. The other members followed soon after.

Their last album was ‘Let it be’ (1970).  Its recording had already started in 1968. According to Paul McCartney, it was supposed to be a solid rock album, with songs that could be performed live, a performance that would be captured on film.  The live performance was limited to a one-off performance on the roof of the Beatles’ record company office, Apple Inc, which led to an unprecedented traffic jam in New York. Songs included: ‘Two of us’, ‘Let it be’, ‘Maggie Mae’, ‘The long and winding road’ and ‘Get back’.

Beach Boys

Another group with high artistic ambitions was ‘the Beach Boys’ and in particular the eldest of the three Wilson brothers, Brian. The song Good vibrations illustrates the artistic direction the group had taken, continuing its original surf sound. Brian Wilson was impressed by the Beatles’ ‘Rubber Soul’ and he wanted to top that album. To free up enough time to do so, he stopped touring and devoted himself entirely to the production of the album, which was to be the best rock album ever, ‘Petsounds’.

The album ‘Petsounds’ eventually included the following songs ‘You still believe in me’, ‘I know there is an answer‘, ‘Sloop John B’, ‘God only knows’ and ‘I just wasn’t made for these times’. He co-wrote the lyrics with Tony Asher. It was recorded in the studio, with the other band members, but mostly with session musicians. The album uses a variety of instruments. More than the use of technology, the complicated vocals define the character of the album. In recent years (2002 – 2016), Brian Wilson has given a series of live performances of ‘Petsounds’. You can watch and listen to ‘God Only Knows’ (London 2002) here 

Pink Floyd

In the list of art bands with a psychedelic slant, Pink Floyd’s ‘Atom Heart Mother’ cannot be left out. The title track alone lasts 23 minutes, divided into six parts. To play this song, the group had to bring a brass section and a choir. You can watch and listen to a 23-minute recording from London’s Hyde Park (1970) HERE.

More accessible is Pink Floyd’s ‘Arnold Layne’. You can see this song here 40 years after its first performance by a still vital band Pink Floyd (Barbican London 2007)

Finally, I mention ‘Velvet underground with songs like ‘I am waiting for the man’. Jefferson Airplane (‘White rabbit’), the Byrds (‘Eight miles high’) and Iron Butterfly (‘In-a-gadda-da-vida’) 

The Woodstock festival is considered the pinnacle of psychedelic rock. Soon after, this genre was on the wane as many hallucinogens, including LSD were made illegal in both the US and Britain. 

Musicians’ quest to create songs of a high artistic standard was by no means over. Symphonic rock is characterised by poetic lyrics, advanced technology, long solos and demonstrations of high technical skill. The compositions use elements from experimental music (Mike Oldfield), avant-garde music (Eno), classical music (Procol Harum) and jazz (Colosseum). Groups often sufficed with studio recordings, but fortunately some also performed live, often accompanied by extended horn groups (Blood sweat and tears). Moody Blues brought in an entire symphony orchestra when they recorded ‘Days of Future Passed’. From this concert you can see ‘Nights in white satin’ here

Major successes were limited, with only a few groups reaching the top of the charts, Pink Floyd being the most successful. ‘The dark side of the moon’ (1973) is an example of ‘art-rock’ par excellence and is one of the best-selling albums of all time. So are symphonic compositions like ‘The Wall’ by Pink Floyd and Tommy by the Who. In the late 1970s, the utopian ideals of art-rock fell into oblivion. Society hardened, virtuosity was rejected as it was supposed to come at the expense of immediacy and accessibility. We then found ourselves on the eve of punk. Earlier, the numerous ‘glam-rock’ groups expressed resistance to both the revolutionary momentum of the 1960s and the pomposity of art-rock. Members of these groups wore flamboyant clothes, but their music was diverse, ranging from simple but powerful pop songs (Marc Bolan, David Bowie) to more complicated music by Roxy Music.

Posted on

Folk rock, country rock & blues rock (History of rock after 1960 2/6)

Bob Dylan (2011) Photo by Kevin Winter

The revolution in music in Western Europe had a huge impact in the US. Until the early 1960s, folk, surf music and the Nashville sound were dominant musical styles there. Almost overnight, these genres faded into the background in favour of music imported from Western Europe; only the ‘Motown sound, managed to hold its own. Talk was therefore of the ‘British Invasion’. The ‘Beatles’ performance on the Ed Sullivan Show (1964) was the starting point. You can see this performance HERE.

A much better picture of the Beatles’ reception in the US is provided by the following recording of their performance at the Washington Coliseum a few days after the Ed Sullivan show. The group sang five of his well-known songs. Remarkably, they more or less had to build the stage themselves.

Many members of (future) folk-rock acts, such as ‘Byrds’, ‘Jefferson Airplane’, ‘Lovin’ Spoonful’, ‘Mamas & Papas’ and ‘Buffalo Springfield’, also turned away from traditional folk music in 1964 and 1965. The careers of Chubby Checker, Ricky Nelson, Fats Domino, Everly Brothers and ‘Elvis Presley’ suffered (temporary) damage. The British invasion also influenced the style of garage bands. Their numbers also increased to an estimated 180,000 bands, of which at most a few thousand did record at one time or another. 

A US reaction to the British invasion was not absent. American artists blended the sounds of existing embattled genres with European ‘rock’ influences. 

From ‘folk’ to ‘folk rock’

In the early 1960s, ‘rock’ and ‘folk’ were separate genres, with their own audiences and festivals. ‘Folk’ as a genre – poetic songs accompanied by acoustic instruments – totally snowballed in the 1960s as a result of the ‘British Invasion’, which temporarily established the hegemony of Beatles and Rolling Stones and related groups and artists in the US. But several former ‘folk’ singers struck back. They mixed the existing ‘folk’ repertoire with rock, including the use of electric guitars and drums. One inspiration was the group ‘the Animals’ who turned the acoustic lament ‘House of the rising sun’ into an archetypal folk-rock song. Precursors in the US of ‘folk rock’ were the Byrds and Bob Dylan. The latter indicated that the rock version of ‘House of the rising sun’ had motivated him to perform with electric instruments.

The first folk-rock song of American origin was ‘Mr Tambourine Man’, a composition by Bob Dylan, sung here by the Byrds in 1965. In turn, the Byrds influenced countless other artists such as ‘the Mamas & the Papas’, Simon & Garfunkel and Sonny & Cher.

Compare the folkrock version HERE with the acoustic version sung by Melanie in 1968. 

Bob Dylan’s metamorphosis can be heard on his album ‘Bringing it all back home’. On 7 of the 11 tracks, he is accompanied by a band with electronic instruments. On his later albums, such as ‘Like a rolling stone’, he continued this trend, much to the dismay of some of his original fans, who made no secret of it during performances. I now play two songs from the album ‘Bringing it all back home’. 

Acoustic is ‘It’s all over now, baby blue’, live at the Newport folk festival:

Next you can watch and listen to Maggie’s farm, a solid rock version. Dylan sang this version at the same edition of the Newport folk festival. Bob Dylan achieved great fame as a folk singer, think of songs like ‘Blowin’ on the wind’ and ‘The times they are changing’.  Less well known is that Dylan was a lover of rock & roll from a young age. In 1965, he decided to manifest it as such. According to exegetes, when he sings ‘I don’t want to work on Maggie’s farm anymore’, Maggie’s farm symbolizes the folk music scene. Listen to ‘Maggie’s farm’ here, including the booing at the end.

To this day, a significant group of fans of original ‘folk’ and ‘country’ music has continued to exist, outside the US too. This genre is called Americana or ā€˜roots musicā€™. Examples include The Band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young as well as Ry Cooder and Bonnie Raitt. Another example is the Dutch group ‘CCC Incorporated’. You can hear a recording of the latter here.

From ‘country’ to ‘country rock’

‘Country music’ also suffered badly during the ‘British invasion’.  But many songs by artists like Hank Williams and Merle Haggard remained popular, and their popularity increased again when a dose of ‘rock’ was added. After Gram Parsons joined the Byrds, the group turned to country rock and songs like ‘Sweetheart of the rodeo’ and ‘You ain’t going nowhere’ were considered prime examples of this genre. 

Here you can watch and listen but the latter song (1968):

In the 1970s, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt became performers at respite from this genre. So did John Denver and Neil Young. Members of Ronstadt’s backing band later continued under the name ‘Eagles‘ continued the tradition.

From ‘blues’ to ‘blues rock’

In the development of blues rock, there was no one-way traffic between the US and Britain. As early as 1958, the American blues guitarist Muddy Waters toured Europe (see my exploration of the development of the blues in the US) and, especially in Britain, this led to a true blues boom. This inspired among others the members of the (future) Rolling Stones, Cream, Animals, Yardbirds, Kinks, Who and others. All these bands added a ‘rock twist’ to it.  Their music became so popular in the US in the second half of the 1960s that one could speak of a second British invasion. The blues rock was fiercer and louder that the beat music that was starting to sound dated. In the US, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Canned Heat and the Doors were the first exponents of this new genre.  The members of these the bands often played long solos during performances, following the blues. 

Here, Canned Heat plays ‘On the road again’

Blues rock was getting louder and louder, moving towards heavy metal. I will come back to this in a subsequent post. However, there were also bands that stayed closer to the traditional blues genre. In the 1980s, these included, for example, ‘the Fabulous thunderbirds’ and ‘Stevie Ray Vaughan’.

In the above, we see the dichotomy emerging between ‘soft rock’ and ‘hard rock’. Folk rock and country rock were the basis for soft rock. The emphasis was on harmonic melodies. Key artists were, Carole King, Cat Stevens, James Taylor. Commercial highlights were provided by Fleetwood Mac and Billy Joel.

Hard rock was fiercer, mainly featured repetitive ‘runs’ and distortion of the sound and joined blues rock. This genre had numerous variations from the 1960s onwards, ranging from acid rock, metal, pink and grunge. International successes were mainly achieved by Queen, Thin Lizzy, Aerosmith, AC/DC and Van Halen.

Posted on

Early 1960s: Beatlemania (history of rock after 1960 1/6)

‘Rock & Roll’ caused a furore in the period 1940 – 1960. Initially played and sung by ‘black’ musicians, later white singers gained the upper hand.  The genre spread worldwide, thanks also to the polish the record industry applied to it. This alienated young people who felt more attracted to the catchy melodies and rhythms of the thousands of skifflegroups with their simple instrumentation. Their great example in the late 1950s was Lonnie Donegan. One such skifflegroups were the ‘Quarrymen’ from Liverpool, and when they picked up the pace and called themselves Beatles, the ‘Merseybeat sound’ spread around the world at lightning speed. 

The Beatles left behind an extensive body of work, consisting of 12 albums and a string of singles. The first five albums represent the ‘Merseybeat sound’: ‘With the Beatles’ (1963), ‘Please, please me’ (1963), ‘Meet the Beatles’ (1964), ‘A hard day’s night’ (1964) and ‘Help’ (1965). You can watch and listen to ‘Itā€™s a hard day’s night’ here, sung not by the Beatles themselves, but by the Dutch cover group, ‘The Analogues’.Ā 

Those who still prefer to listen to the real Beatles and take in the enthusiasm of thousands of fans singing along can find a recording of ‘Itā€™s a hard day’s night’ HERE.

The performance of the Beatles and many other British groups in clubs in Hamburg contributed greatly to the ‘sound’ and breakthrough of the new genre. The musical revolution affected not only professional groups such as ‘Gerry & the Pacemakers’, ‘Searchers’, ‘Freddie & the Dreamers’, ‘Herman Hermits’ and ‘Hollies’, among others, but also thousands of amateur groups who played the music of their idols or wrote their own songs. A phenomenon that resembled the American ‘garage bands’ I will come to write about. Singers like Dusty Springfield, Cilla Black and Petula Clark were also influenced by the new musical style.

The Netherlands had an early professional scene – Nederbeat – with groups like ‘Outsiders‘, ‘Q65‘, ‘Motions‘, ‘Shocking Blue‘ and, of course, ‘Golden Earring’. ‘Golden Earring’ made music continuously and in the same line-up from 1961. Only when George Kooymans fell seriously ill in 2021, the band decided to stop immediately.

Here is an (acoustic) recording of ‘Just a little bit of peace in my heart’. A song from 1968, which the group played until its last performances, and which has been continuously on the Dutch Radio 2 top 2000 since 1999 (2023: place 599). George Kooymans wrote this song after the end of his relationship with Melanie Gerritsen. He regretted it terribly and fortunately for him, she came back to him a year later.  They married and eventually celebrated their golden wedding anniversary together.

One of the most distinctive features of ‘beat music’ is its driving character, which is caused by the first three beats of each bar having an equal emphasis and the fourth beat having a distinctive ‘backbeat’.

It was not only ‘Merseybeat’ that set the tone. Some groups were more strongly influenced by American rhythm & blues, also because of direct contacts with musicians there. These included “Rolling Stones”, “Yardbirds”, “Spencer Davis group”, “Moody Blues”, “Animals“, “Them” and “Kinks“. 

Here is a 1965 recording of the very young ‘Rolling Stones’ with ‘I can get no satisfaction’. 

In many places, young people were also making music themselves. It was referred to as ‘garage rock’ because the usually young musicians practiced in the garages of their parents’ houses. GarageĀ rock songs often revolved around the traumas of high school life, such as lying girls and unfair teachers.Ā 

Here just a ‘random’ garage rock song in some venue. What rarely happened: This little band became famous and later called themselves ‘The Who’. If you know that, you immediately recognize the young Peter Townsend and Keith Moon.

By now, the term ‘Rock & Roll’ had moved into the background and was mainly referred to as ‘rock music’. In subsequent years into the first decade of the 21ste century, ‘rock’ would become an umbrella term for a variety of genres, with influences from almost all other genres, including classical music. From 2010, the influence of hip-hop, dance and electronic dance music increases, but as is the case with disco, the influence of ‘rock’ in popular music remains strong. 

Musicians in the 60s-80s embraced the predicate ‘rock’ to differentiate themselves from ‘pop’, which they condemned as being commercial. That said, many rock songs became roaring commercial successes and their creators made gold money. During this period, ‘rock’ was also seen as the musical expression of youth culture sometimes also of resistance to society. The blurring of the line between ‘rock’ and ‘pop’ repeatedly led to new more radical expressions of ‘rock’ such as ‘punk’ and ‘grunge’. 

I explore the development of ‘rock’ after 1960 in six consecutive episodes.

Posted on

Becoming ā€˜movedā€™ by music (2): Voices

Pop choir Just4Fun from Oosterwolde

In the previous post, I explored the impact of the interplay of rhythm, tempo and timbre. For a while we ignored the role of melody by focusing at the effect of percussion instruments. The combination of these three elements has a huge influence on our experience. It is hard to stay in your seat with a band like ‘Slagerij van Kampen’. This is thanks to a brisk tempo, a stirring rhythm, the balance between repetition and variation and the variety of percussion instruments, each of which has its own unique timbre.Ā 

In the final performance, however, melody was reintroduced. By combining percussion and other instruments, the timbre became more varied and touching. This added to the overall experience.

Given de added value of melody, letā€™s focus on the impact of the human voice. To amplify its effect, we will not listen to individual singers with their particular characteristics but compare several choirs. In the first recording, the effect on the audience of human voices united in a chorus is immediately apparent. This is a performance by ‘John’s Boys’, an all-male choir from Wales.

The singing is like a warm bath. It gives you goose bumps, just like the jury members. You become emotionally involved in the content of the song, even though you hardly understand it, because of the polyphony and the changes in volume. It is also an indication of how important it is to have a look at the singers, which makes the emotions come across much more strongly.

I go one step further.  The Belcanto Choir from Vilnius sings a composition by composer Karl Jenkins (also from Wales), titled Adiemus, from the 1995 album ‘Adiemus: Songs of Sanctuary’. The lyrics consist only of meaningless words. The singing voices acts as instruments but at the same time no instrument can match the effect. The music itself contains Celtic and African elements. 

Like the first song, the singers’ enthusiasm is infectious and the polyphony, solo accents as well as the alternation between loud and soft bring the variation that keeps the listener enthralled. 

In both cases, the audience will literally move, but more so emotionally. That this succeeded is also proven by the long-standing listing of this piece of music on the NPO Radio 2 Top 2000.

Now, I compare the impact of both performances with that of two other choirs. Both perform the song ‘Can you feel the love tonight’, composed by Elton John in 1994 for the film ‘The Lion King’.  At first, we listen to the giant San Francisco Gay Men’s Choir, with orchestral accompaniment.

The massiveness, the polyphony and the swelling crescendos make the performance impressive, but what is missing is the emotion that played such a central role in the previous examples. Then again, the human voice is a wonderful ‘instrument’, but apparently it takes more than a perfect performance to bring about the emotive involvement in the listener. The question then is what that ‘more’ consists of.

You can listen and watch now the same song, ‘Can you feel the love tonight’, sung by a small choir called The King Singers.  Two things are different.  First, the choir succeeds in conveying the emotional value of the song through their expressive way of singing. Second, the variation in timbre goes far beyond polyphony alone. The singers’ individual voices are blended with the collective voices, and the registers from high to low are fully utilised.

Both heart and body are engaged when percussion instruments are added to a choir. The penultimate song that I’m going to present is the choral arrangement of the popular song ā€œAfricaā€. This song was released by Toto for the first time in 1982 and is still on the NPO Radio 2 Top 2000 list. It is an ode to Africa, tropical showers included. The song owes part of its popularity to the fact that ik makes you feel a touch of Africa. The Angel City Chorale also from Los Angeles essentially conveys that by its vivid impression of the tropical rain. The experience that his choir creates cannot be substituted by any orchestral presentation. Responsible for this are the imitation of rain and thunder, the enthusiastic presentation of singers and soloists, the polyphony and the way the singers move. The musical accompaniment enhances this effect but never dominates the choir.  The effect of rhythm and tempo does strengthen it.

In the final show everything comes together: the subdued nature of the sung word is suddenly reversed and, through a change in tempo, rhythm and timbre, leads to a complete turnaround in the audience’s perception. The audience, who at first listened breathlessly, now breaks into applause and dancing here and there. A performance that moves the ‘whole person’. I will follow him” was originally sung by Petula Clark in 1961. Now you listen to AndrĆ© Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra.

Posted on

Becoming ‘moved’ by music: The impact of rhythm, tempo and timbre

On this site I will be regularly dwelling on the question ‘what does music do to you’ and ‘why is that’. This post and the next one provide preliminary answers.Ā Ā I will return to these issues in due course.

We start simply. We leave out melody. What that leaves is rhythm, tempo and timbre. Each of these can be three simple or varied. Just fancy that you walk with a few people. Someone claps their hands every first beat of the beat, indicating the tempo. But what is the effect? Sure enough, your little group will be ā€˜in tuneā€™ for a short time and walking will be easier. Even the most basic form of music encourages movement.

Combine stamping your foot on the ground and clapping your hand. That sounds different from just clapping on your hands. The difference is the timbre. Variation in timbre makes music more engaging.

We now look at samba band Segura from Maastricht. Pay attention to the rhythm, tempo and timbre.

What they do is to play short pieces in succession. The rhythm is hardly varied, the tempo fast, and occasionally speeds up, and the timbre is two-tonal. The little drums and the bass drums. No wonder samba bands are so popular. After a short time practicing, you can join in. The leader does the solos. People do move with the musicians, but you don’t stay to listen to them for long. It is possible that the repetition of themes has a transcendental effect on some people.

The next band is different cake. It is the world-famous Top secret from Basel in Swiss. The drummers practice themselves to death. Just listen to the difference with the former band and try to name it with the concepts of rhythm, tempo and timbre.

There are six notes (five differently tuned bass drums) and a group of high-pitched drums. With these, they produce widely varying rhythms, with constantly variating changes in tempo, do does the timbre too. At the same time, they make quite a show of it. The interplay is getting closer to perfection.

Only: it is overcomplicated. You keep watching and listening, but whether you will also stamp your feet or clap your hands? I didnā€™t.

Compare the impact of Top secret with that of Sanct Sebastiaan from Sanct Huibrechts Lille (Belgium), the percussion section of a traditional ā€˜schutterijā€™. They replaced the traditional repertoire with a modern one, using almost the same instruments as Top Secret, and producing a comparable timbre. When marching, tempo and rhythm changes are limited. The result is a show that is less complicated, but easier to follow, without any superfluous acrobatics. The video below shows their performance at the World Music Contest in the year 2023.

A preliminary conclusion: To start moving on music, the tempo should not vary too much, but not too slow; variation in rhythm and timbre will increase listenersā€™ engagement. 

We now look at the fourth performance, a percussion group called ā€œSlagerij van Kampen”. 

It is somewhat like the drumming in the former performances. The difference is in the timbre. They have dozens of different drums, they perform an entire concert work where they allow maximum differences in timbre and occasionally in rhythm, but each of the parts of the concert work basically has its own tempo. While listening, you feel that your limbs want to join in. It is now no longer about walking ā€˜in tuneā€™ but rather about dancing!

Variation of timbre can be increased by adding melody with the use of non-percussion instruments. We are listening to ā€˜Slagerij van Kampenā€™ again. In their show ā€˜Beats ā€˜n brassā€™ they have supplemented the line-up with brass players, organ and guitar. This huge change in timbre will further enhance listener engagement. The energetic drumming and musical themes reinforce each other. Therefore almost no band or orchestra lacks a rhythm section.

Given the importance of the interplay of melodic and percussive instruments, the question arises as to the contribution of the human voice. This is discussed in the next post.

Posted on

The 15-minutes city and to what residents care about (7/7)

To what extent does the 15-minute city match the ideal images of residents, many of whom are used to using the car?

For decades, the behaviour of urban planners and politicians, but also of residents, has been determined by images of the ideal living environment, especially for those who can afford it. The single-family home, a private garden and the car in front of the door were more prominent parts of those images than living in an inclusive and complete neighbourhood. Nevertheless, such a neighbourhood, including a ‘house from the 30s’, is still sought after. Attempts to revive the idea of ‘trese ‘traditional’ neighbourhoods’ have been made in several places in the Netherlands by architects inspired by the principles of ‘new urbanism’ (see photo collage above). In these neighbourhoods, adding a variety of functions was and is one of the starting points. But whether residents of such a neighbourhood will indeed behave more ‘locally’ and leave their cars at home more often does not depend on a planning concept, but on long-term behavioural change. 

An important question is what changes in the living environment residents themselves prefer. Principles for the (re)design of space that are in line with this have the greatest chance of being put into practice. It would be good to take stock of these preferences, confront (future) residents conflicting ideas en preconditions, for instance with regard to the necessary density. Below is a number of options, in line with commonly expressed preferences.

1. Playing space for children

Especially parents with children want more playing space for their children. For the youngest children directly near the house, for older children on larger playgrounds. A desire that is in easy reach in new neighbourhoods, but more difficult in older ones that are already full of cars. Some parents have long been happy with the possibility of occasionally turning a street into a play street. A careful inventory often reveals the existence of surprisingly many unused spaces. Furthermore, some widening of the pavements is almost always necessary, even if it costs parking space.

2. Safety

High on the agenda of many parents are pedestrian and cycle paths that cross car routes unevenly. Such connections substantially widen children’s radius. In existing neighbourhoods, this too remains daydreaming.  What can be done here is to reduce the speed of traffic, ban through traffic and make cars ‘guests’ in the remaining streets. 

3. Green

A green-blue infrastructure, penetrating deep into the immediate surroundings is not only desired by almost everyone, but also has many health benefits. The presence of (safe) water buffering (wadis and overflow ponds) extends children’s play opportunities, but does take up space. In old housing estates, not much more is possible in this area than faƧade gardens on (widened) pavements and vegetation against walls.

4. Limiting space for cars

Even in older neighbourhoods, opportunities to play safely and to create more green space are increased by closing (parts of) streets to cars. A pain point for some residents. One option for this is to make the middle part of a street car-free and design it as an attractive green residential area with play opportunities for children of different age groups. In new housing estates, much more is possible and it hurts to see how conventionally and car-centred these are often still laid out. (Paid) parking at the edge of the neighbourhood helps create a level playing field for car and public transport use.

5. Public space and (shopping) facilities

Sometimes it is possible to turn an intersection, where for instance a cafƩ or one or more shops are already located, into a cosy little square. Neighbourhood shops tend to struggle. Many people are used to taking the car to a supermarket once a week to stock up on daily necessities for the whole week. However, some neighbourhoods are big enough for a supermarket. In some cities, where car ownership is no longer taken for granted, a viable range of shops can develop in such a square and along adjacent streets. Greater density also contributes to this.

6. Mix of people and functions

A diverse range of housing types and forms is appreciated. Mixing residential and commercial properties can also contribute to the liveliness of a neighbourhood. For new housing estates, this is increasingly becoming a starting point. For business properties, accessibility remains an important precondition. 

7. Public transport

The desirability of good public transport is widely supported, but in practice many people still often choose the car, even if there are good connections. Good public transport benefits from the ease and speed with which other parts of the city can be reached. This usually requires more than one line. Free bus and tram lanes are an absolute prerequisite. In the (distant) future, autonomous shuttles could significantly lower the threshold for using public transport. Company car plus free petrol is the worst way to encourage sensible car use.

8. Centres in plural

The presence of a city centre is less important for a medium-sized city, say the size of a 15-minute cycle zone, than the presence of a few smaller centres, each with its own charm, close to where people live. These can be neighbourhood (shopping) centres, where you are sure to meet acquaintances.  Some of these will also attract residents from other neighbourhoods, who walk or cycle to enjoy the wider range of amenities. The presence of attractive alternatives to the ‘traditional’ city centre will greatly reduce the need to travel long distances.

The above measures are not a roadmap for the development of a 15-minute city; rather, they are conditions for the growth of a liveable city in general.  In practice, its characteristics certainly correspond to what proponents envisage with a 15-minute city. The man behind the transformation of Paris into a 15-minute city, Carlos Moreno, has formulated a series of pointers based on all the practical examples to date, which can help citizens and administrators realise the merits of the 15-minute city in their own environments. This book will be available from mid-June 2024 and can be reserved HERE.

Posted on

Will the 15-minute city cause the US suburbs to disappear? 6/7

New concentrated construction in the suburbs

Urbanisation in the US is undergoing major changes. The image of a central city surrounded by sprawling suburbs therefore needs to be updated. The question is what place does the 15-minute city have in it? That is what this somewhat longer post is about

From the 1950s, residents of US cities began moving en masse to the suburbs. A detached house in the green came within reach for the middle and upper classes, and the car made it possible to commute daily to factories and offices. These were initially still located in and around the cities. The government stimulated this development by investing billions in the road network. 

From the 1980s, offices also started to move away from the big cities. They moved to attractive locations, often near motorway junctions. Sometimes large shopping and entertainment centres also settled there, and flats were built on a small scale for supporting staff. Garreau called such cities ‘edge cities’.

Investors built new suburbs called ‘urban villages’ in the vicinity of the new office locations, significantly reducing the distance to the offices. This did not reduce congestion on congested highways.

However, more and more younger workers had no desire to live in suburbs. The progressive board of Arlington, near Washington DC, took the decision in the 1980s to develop a total of seven walkable, inclusive, attractive and densely built-up cores in circles of up to 800 metres around metro stations. In each was a wide range of employment, flats, shops and other amenities . In the process, the Rosslyn-Balston Corridor emerged and experienced rapid growth. The population of the seven cores now stands at 71,000 out of a total of 136,000 jobs. 36% of all residents use the metro or bus for commuting, which is unprecedentedly high for the US. The Rosslyn-Balston Corridor is a model for many other medium-sized cities in the US, such as New Rochelle near new York.

Moreover, to meet the desire to live within walking distance of all daily amenities, there is a strong movement to also regenerate the suburbs themselves. This is done by building new centres in the suburbs and densifying part of the suburbs. 

The new centres have a wide range of flats, shopping facilities, restaurants and entertainment centres.  Dublin Bridge Park, 30 minutes from Columbus (Ohio) is one of many examples.

It is a walkable residential and commercial area and an easily accessible centre for residents from the surrounding suburbs. It is located on the site of a former mall.

Densification of the suburbs is necessary because of the high demand for (affordable) housing, but also to create sufficient support for the new centres. 

Space is plentiful. In the suburbs, there are thousands of (semi-)detached houses that are too large for the mostly older couples who occupy them. An obvious solution is to split the houses, make them energy-positive and turn them into two or three starter homes. There are many examples how this can be done in a way that does not affect the identity of the suburbs (image). 

This kind of solution is difficult to realise because the municipal authorities concerned are bound by decades-old zoning plans, which prescribe in detail what can be built somewhere. Some of the residents fiercely oppose changing the laws. Especially in California, the NIMBYs (not in my backyard) and the YIMBYs (yes in my backyard) have a stranglehold on each other and housing construction is completely stalled. 

But even without changing zoning laws, there are incremental changes.  Here and there, for instance, garages, usually intended for two or three cars, are being converted into ‘assessor flats’ for grandma and grandpa or for children who cannot buy a house of their own.  But garden houses are also being added and souterrains constructed. Along the path of gradualness, this adds thousands of housing units, without causing much fuss.

It is also worth noting that small, sometimes sleepy towns seem to be at the beginning of a period of boom.  They are particularly popular with millennials. These towns are eminently ‘walkable’ , the houses are not expensive and there is a wide range of amenities. The distance to the city is long, but you can work well from home and that is increasingly the pattern. The pandemic and the homeworking it has initiated has greatly increased the popularity of this kind of residential location.

All in all, urbanisation in the US can be typified by the creation of giant metropolitan areas, across old municipal boundaries. These areas are a conglomeration of new cities, rivalling the old mostly shrinking and poverty-stricken cities in terms of amenities, and where much of employment is in offices and laboratories. In between are the suburbs, with a growing variety of housing. The aim is to create higher densities around railway stations. Besides the older suburbs, ‘urban villages’ have emerged in attractive locations. More and more suburbs are getting their own walkable centres, with a wide range of flats and facilities. Green space has been severely restricted by these developments.

According to Christopher Leinberger, professor of real estate and urban analysis at George Washington University, there is no doubt that in the US, walkable, attractive cores with a mixed population and a varied housing supply following the example of the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor are the future. In addition, walkable car-free neighbourhoods, with attractive housing and ample amenities are in high demand in the US. Some of the ‘urban villages’ are developing as such.  The objection is that these are ‘walkable islands’, rising in an environment that is anything but walkable. So residents always have one or two cars in the car park for when they leave the neighbourhood, as good metro or train connections are scarce. Nor are these kinds of neighbourhoods paragons of a mixed population; rents tend to be well above the already unaffordable average.