What Albums Should My Boyfriend Listen To Get A Sense of "American Music?" <---His Quotes

To give context, my boyfriend is from China and I'm an African-American.

I recently bought my boyfriend an Ipod Touch since he never had a real portable music player. Ever since we started dating he always bugged me about teaching him about "American Music." I never knew where to start because well that's like a hundreds of years worth of musical history. Anyway, I wanted to know what albums you think would give him a good sense of what is American music. I'm thinking around the lines of Michael Jackson "Thriller"/Miles Davis "Kind Of Blue" vein.

if you're looking for like the important pop albums you can't get more American than "Born in the USA" and Huey Lewis and the News - "Sports"

To provide further context he has expressed liking/loving:

Lady Gaga
Kanye West's Graduation
Michael Buble
And when I played him the Supreme's "After All" he liked Florence Ballard's voice the best.

a motown boxset would be awesome.

Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music
+
James Brown, Live at the Apollo
+
Black Flag, Damaged

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_the_United_States

I'm looking for other people's own suggestions/take of the question ilxor.

I never know when people post wikipedia links as being sarcastic or just annoyingly pragmatic.

pragmatism is a good thing.

He and I done the whole wikipedia thing but it is too overwhelming to find a starting point.

Creedence Clearwater Revival

He might hate it considering the list of things in which he's expressed an interest, but they're the very essence of American rock music.

get him some crooners; practically every single one of them is better than Buble

real talk

Also, isn't Michael Buble a Canadian?

If he's mostly into Lady Gaga this might seem like ancient history, but I was able to bond with a German guy who spoke almost no English over how beautiful this Ella and Louis record is:

http://pixhost.info/avaxhome/2007-03-16/ee3d232f1698833eb1.jpg

Yeah I can definitely see him listening to Ella and Louis. He is a lovey dovey sentimentality fool.

Lady Gaga

some iconic madonna, prince, 'saturday night fever'

Kanye West's Graduation

'innervisions', jay-z, 'slippery when wet'

Michael Buble

sinatra! theres probably lots of great 40s and 50s stuff you can spin from this but im kinda a dunce about that period

Also, isn't Michael Buble a Canadian?

No idea nor do I care. He is so boring anyhow.

Sinatra - Songs for Swinging Lovers
An Elvis comp
A Chuck Berry comp
Dylan - Highway 61
A Nina Simone comp
A Motown comp
An Atlantic soul comp
Springsteen - Born to Run or Nebraska (depends what kind of America you want)
The Ramones - first album
A good hip hop comp
Madonna - Madonna
Prince - Sign O' the Times

Cosign Creedence and Innervisions

A Duke Ellington comp

Miles Davis - On The Corner

WmC's initial trio is probably as good as it gets tbh. covers an insane amount of ground with just those three

I think there's a risk if you bombard him w/ an eclectic array of shit that he might feel his quest is futile, so imo if you don't want to offer yr own take on american music per se, then maybe at least offer a theme. like coffee, you cld have ink spots - java jive, cajmere, dylan, sinatra

might be helpful to break stuff down into broad genres for him and go from there. personally, I would say you can't really understand American music without first really getting country, which I see is missing from most people's suggestions.

i almost went "why hasn't anyone mentioned the Beatles?" and then smacked myself on the forehead

lol

Yes, WmC's is brilliant. Contra my previous post, the canon can wait - just give him intense hits of different flavours of American music. I'd just add some Jay-Z or BIG.

It's a fun exercise to think about. I wonder what the British equivalent would be.

I know this is really simple-minded an answer, but why don't you just have him listen to a couple different radio stations? My friend has a road trip game where you hit scan on the radio and listen to one song from each station. It's fun, it exposes you to new stuff, though in more of a serendipitous way and not with some Ken Burnsy 'this is my country' context. Which – serendipity is how I prefer to find music anyway.

Alternately you guys could go to the library together? Big libraries will have all kinds of fun box sets that you can try out for free, go out and pick something together, make it into a date. Maybe this is me personally but when someone comes to me with a 'these are the 100 important albums to listen to that are the fabric of my nation' it feels more like homework (chore) than fun (fun).

i almost went "why hasn't anyone mentioned the Beatles?" and then smacked myself on the forehead

Yeah, I almost suggested Exile On Main St..

That reminds me -- because Charlie and Mick were in attendance -- Aretha Franklin's Amazing Grace.

(There's a 33 1/3 book on it due out soon, too)

ha, I was about to run through all of my techno/dance faves before going "oh... right

that being said: Moby

(Play and earlier Moby, I mean)

Lynryd Skynyrd

!!great idea abbottttt!!

i love folk music with all my heart, but harry smith anthology is kinda raw shit for a noob

give a guy some jazz vocals, motown, ccr, stuff that every library has
see what sticks

"Gold and Platinum"

xpost

also, Bob Dylan "Blonde on Blonde"

I think abbott's radio suggestion is a good one. If he wants a history lesson you can pile up nuggetts/live at paradise garage or w/e you see fit but I don't know if what he wants is to develop the taste of an ilx poster, so something ahistorical might be fun. Also take him to live music?

give a guy some jazz vocals, motown, ccr, stuff that every library has
see what sticks

also: Prince

v.v.v important

album doesn't matter as long as it is pre-0)+>

abbott otm! it does sound like he's asking for homework but those are good ideas to make it fun. also, going out to places with different music policies, as a specific "music date" where you focus on what's on the jukebox or w/v, and seeing what he gravitates towards. am guessing that a lot of the classics mentioned in this thread will come up there.

Abbott OTM thirded. And really, how many of us came to the music we love via carefully selection/scholarly research?

The Eagles, Bob Dylan, Death Cab For Cutie

well, most of us grew up in America or some other western nation and had a whole childhood and adolescence to marinate in American music before really deciding what our 'taste' was -- nothing wrong with helping a curious guy who didn't have that experience play catch up in a somewhat organized way beyond just 'turn on the radio, dude' (although i do like the idea of Abbott's radio game)

Thx, Shakey & DL, I know I jumped in quickly but that trio was chosen pretty carefully. Would be fun to load up all those discs, hit Random Play, and connect the dots.

And really, how many of us came to the music we love via carefully selection/scholarly research?

actually a surprising amount! i mean - a random example for myself plucked from this thread, nina simone. very conscientiously got her best of out of the library because i thought i 'should", loved it instantly.

different people treat learning about different topics as either fun or obligatory homework, it's all about the attitude. i'm sure i will get really into educating my son about music as he gets older but i'm gonna try and keep it all about showing him what's enjoyable (and him showing me what he personally enjoys) and not about just handing down the canon.

At age 14, I turned into an industrial dance head because one of my brother's college friends made me a mixtape of Cabaret Voltaire, Skinny Puppy, Ministry, and Depeche Mode tracks because I told him I liked dance music; this led me to follow Rolling Stone's dance charts that also had a lot of industrial and techno acts in it and basically set the stage for my current MO for finding out about music, which is "hear about something, then track down the artists, their record label and their producers"

Man, this is a really interesting questions though. I can tell I'll be thinking about it all day.

1. non-American bands like "oops I can't say The Beatles" – but so fucking many Americans love them (or other music made by not-American ppl). NOT that I am trying to say "haha Britishes we like your music so it's 'American music' now, suckers." But where do you draw the line? I am thinking like one example: "For What It's Worth" is the cliché go-to song to illustrate young ppl speakin' their minds on TV, movies, news, seems p fucking boomertacular American. OTOH lot of the Buffalo Springfielders are Canadian. So should we say that song is right out even tho it is an important part of the nation's telecasting cliché depository?

America just seems like a country happy to appropriate whatever it likes – look how many fucking loanwords are in the English language (not that Americans own the English language). The distinction between "stuff that is essentially American because U.S.ers made it" and "stuff that is essentially not American because even though it captured the <3 and imagination of Americans, it was made by someone else" is just interesting my loquacious self today, is all. Think think think.

Actually you should just play this song for your friend and call it good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QS7wWzwak4

oh yeah the whole avenue of musical theater is whole other conversation

wai wai wai wai wait

Why has nobody mentioned the Beach Boys yet??

actually a surprising amount! i mean - a random example for myself plucked from this thread, nina simone. very conscientiously got her best of out of the library because i thought i 'should", loved it instantly.

I should have qualified that, as I myself had the same experience with a John Coltrane record, and immediately thereafter embarked on a scholarly (and insanely rewarding) quest. I guess what I was getting at was oftentimes the music we love the most is that which has hit us unexpectedly, which is why I love the radio idea ("Who the fuck is this? Lou who? Lou Christie? Does he have other records? Are they all like this?" etc.)

You guys are all much nicer than me, too, I think –– I would just be tempted to play terrible modern jingoistic stuff and say "see? America."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAWFBTvoW5k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woLQI8X2R6Y

Man I can't believe I just listened to all of "Let The Eagle Soar."

I also have to say the disadvantage of the radio game is no one ever back-announces whatever song you just heard. So it remains **a mystery** (unless you use a search engine). Radio game is how I discovered every country song I've ever enjoyed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgylOni0JSI

I wld take Abbbottt's radio/library approach but also make super damn sure there is some vintage Sinatra, Prince 1981-1988, CCR, and something from the golden age of FM studio perfection (ie some Steely Dan or Fleetwood Mac or Hall & Oates). And a nice Ellington comp.

Listen to lots of classic rock radio and look at him v v pointedly when 'Tom Sawyer' comes on.

Did Fleetwood Mac become American with the addition of Buckingham/Nicks? Or because every home in America had a copy of Rumours?

AGH! There's my Beatles slap-forehead moment.

Would be curious to see what he'd recommend for you to get a sense of "chinese music".

I suggest a Les Paul/Mary Ford comp to (partially obv) cover the post bigband/pre rocknroll, non-crooner era of American popular music.

Would be curious to see what he'd recommend for you to get a sense of "chinese music".

yeah I'd love to have that as homework

Me too, I only know I LOVE solo pipa music but I have just 2 discs of it...

Thank you guys for your suggestions.

For those commenting on it sounds like homework it is totally his personality. Whenever we disagree about a fact we go on wikipedia or google to prove who is right. So him going to the library checking out a book or cds is his way of doing things. I'm going to print this page out and/or type out the suggestions for him when I give him the ipod.

Keep on talking if you like. I find it interesting how the intersection of British music into USA got some people pausing of suggesting bands like The Beatles.

Oh also ha ha/confused on some people calling him my "friend" when I said "boyfriend" on the thread title.

your friend the boy

???