Compare and contrast two renditions of the Lieber and Stoller song, Hound Dog, the original 1952 Big Mama Thornton version and the 1956 Elvis Presley cover. What are the differences you hear, both subjective (personal taste, coolness, performance characteristics) and objective (fidelity, balance [frequency content], dynamics [range of audio loudness], production processes [reverb, editing if you can hear these yet]). Your ability to use technological terms will improve if you continue to try to incorporate new terms into your responses.
Equally important, these two recordings bear witness to the social divisions of the era. Black and white cultural differences, used alone, are a highly polarized way to approach the formulation of opinions. If you listen closely to the Thornton original and the Presley cover, you can hear complex cultural pervasion. Pop music is a very useful art in a highly compartmentalized, repressive culture. Whether it was the rejection by the whites’ parents or the rejection by the black intelligentsia (meaning Harlem renaissance and jazz aficionados), rejection was key to both these artists and their careers, and perhaps even more critical to the sustenance of the pop music underground.
