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11 - Rhythm Changes: Rhythm Guitar from Jazz to Funk

from Part III - Musical Style and Technique

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2024

By
Kate Lewis
Edited by
Jan-Peter Herbst  and
Steve Waksman
Jan-Peter Herbst
Affiliation:
University of Huddersfield
Steve Waksman
Affiliation:
Smith College, Massachusetts
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Summary

During the twentieth century, the electric guitar rose to what Waksman (2001) has described as a “position of relative supremacy in the instrumental hierarchy of popular music” due in part to its ability to function effectively within and across the four textural layers present in popular music. While much of the stylistic research surrounding the electric guitar to date has focused on the lead guitar and its players due to the musical and cultural agency ascribed to the role, the aim of this chapter is to examine the electric rhythm guitar in popular music. The chapter offers a review of the literature and current knowledge surrounding the rhythm guitar and briefly discusses the often problematic divisions of labor between rhythm and lead playing. The chapter then assesses varied approaches to rhythm playing taken by electric guitar practitioners on key recordings from the genres of jazz, blues, R&B, rock and roll, funk, and disco. Rather than reinforcing an assumed binary opposition of lead and rhythm guitar functions, the chapter argues for a consideration of a rhythm-lead guitar spectrum/continuum supported by an assessment of the case studies presented in the chapter.

Keywords

rhythm guitarrhythm guitar spectrumrhythm-lead guitar continuumCharlie ChristianT-Bone WalkerJimmy NolenChuck BerryBo DiddleyCurtis MayfieldNile RodgersBlack popular music
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to the Electric Guitar , pp. 189 - 206
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Selected Bibliography

Adelt, Ulrich, “Electrifying the Beat: Rhythm Guitar Performances of Keith Richards, Joan Jett, and Nile Rodgers,” Rock Music Studies 7/2 (2020): 132–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adelt, Ulrich “Let There Be Guitar: Rhythm Techniques in the Music of Malcolm Young, Maybelle Carter, and Bob Marley,” Rock Music Studies 10/1 (2023): 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coelho, Victor Anand (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Guitar (Cambridge University Press, 2003).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickert, Louis Jr., “An Analysis of Freddie Green’s Style and His Importance in the History of Jazz Guitar,” unpublished PhD thesis, University of Memphis (1994).Google Scholar
Molenda, Michael (ed.), 50 Unsung Heroes of the Guitar (Hal Leonard, 2011).Google Scholar
Moore, Allan F., Song Means: Analysing and Interpreting Recorded Popular Song (Ashgate, 2012).Google Scholar
Palmer, Robert, “The Church of the Sonic Guitar,” in Present Tense: Rock & Roll and Culture, edited by DeCurtis, Anthony (Duke University Press, 1992), pp. 13–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waksman, Steve, Instruments of Desire: The Electric Guitar and the Shaping of Musical Experience (Harvard University Press, 2001).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weinstein, Deena, “Rock’s Guitar Gods – Avatars of the Sixties,” Archiv Für Musikwissenschaft 70/2 (2013): 139–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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