Asentimental ballad is anemotional style of music that often deals withromantic andintimate relationships, and to a lesser extent,loneliness,death,war,drug abuse,politics andreligion, usually in a poignant but solemn manner.[1] Ballads are generally melodic enough to get the listener's attention.[2]
Sentimental ballads are found in mostmusic genres, such aspop,R&B,soul,country,folk,rock andelectronic music.[3] Usually slow intempo, ballads tend to have a lush musicalarrangement which emphasizes the song'smelody andharmonies. Characteristically, ballads useacoustic instruments such asguitars,pianos,saxophones, and sometimes anorchestral set. Many modern mainstream ballads tend to featuresynthesizers,drum machines and even, to some extent, adance rhythm.[4]
Sentimental ballads had their origins in the earlyTin Pan Alley music industry of the later 19th century.[5] Initially known as "tear-jerkers" or "drawing-roomballads", they were generally sentimental, narrative,strophic songs published separately or as part of anopera, descendants perhaps ofbroadside ballads. As new genres of music began to emerge in the early 20th century, their popularity faded, but the association with sentimentality led to the termballad being used for a slowlove song from the 1950s onwards.[6]
Sentimental ballads have their roots from medievalFrenchchanson balladée orballade, which were originally "danced songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popularpoetry and song of theBritish Isles from the latermedieval period until the 19th century. They were widely used acrossEurope, and later in theAmericas,Australia andNorth Africa.[7][8][9] As a narrative song, their theme and function may originate fromScandinavian andGermanic traditions of storytelling.[10] Musically they were influenced by theMinnesinger.[11] The earliest example of a recognizable ballad in form inEngland is "Judas" in a 13th-centurymanuscript.[12] A reference inWilliam Langland'sPiers Plowman indicates that ballads aboutRobin Hood were being sung from at least the late 14th century and the oldest detailed material isWynkyn de Worde's collection of Robin Hood ballads printed about 1495.[13]
Ballads at this time were originally composed in couplets withrefrains in alternate lines. These refrains would have been sung by the dancers in time with the dance.[16] In the 18th century,ballad operas developed as a form ofEnglishstage entertainment, partly in opposition to theItalian domination of the London operatic scene.[17] InAmerica a distinction is drawn between ballads that are versions of European, particularly British andIrish songs, and 'Native American ballads', developed without reference to earlier songs. A further development was the evolution of theblues ballad, which mixed the genre withAfro-American music.[18]
In the late 19th century, Danish folkloristSvend Grundtvig and Harvard professorFrancis James Child attempted to record and classify all the known ballads and variants in their chosen regions.[12] Since Child died before writing a commentary on his work it is uncertain exactly how and why he differentiated the 305 ballads printed that would be published asThe English and Scottish Popular Ballads.[19] There have been many different and contradictory attempts to classify traditional ballads by theme, but commonly identified types are the religious, supernatural, tragic, love ballads, historic, legendary and humorous.[10]
By theVictorian era,ballad had come to mean any sentimental popular song, especially so-called "royalty ballads".[20] Some ofStephen Foster's songs exemplify this genre. By the 1920s, composers ofTin Pan Alley andBroadway usedballad to signify a slow, sentimental tune or love song, often written in a fairly standardized form. Jazz musicians sometimes broaden the term still further to embrace all slow-tempo pieces.[21] Notable sentimental ballads of this period include, "Little Rosewood Casket" (1870), "After the Ball" (1892), and "Danny Boy" (1913).[22]
Popular sentimental ballad vocalists in this era includeFrank Sinatra,Ella Fitzgerald,Andy Williams,Johnny Mathis,Connie Francis andPerry Como. Their recordings were usually lush orchestral arrangements of current or recentrock and roll orpop hit songs. The most popular and enduring songs from this style of music are known as "pop standards" or (where relevant) "American standards". Many vocalists became involved in 1960s'vocal jazz and the rebirth ofswing music, which was sometimes referred to as "easy listening" and was, in essence, a revival of popularity of the "sweet bands" that had been popular during theswing era, but with more emphasis on the vocalist and the sentimentality.[24]
Soft rock, a subgenre that mainly consists of ballads, was derived fromfolk rock in the late 1960s, using acoustic instruments and putting more emphasis on melody and harmonies. Major sentimental ballad artists of this decade includedBarbra Streisand,Nana Mouskouri,Elton John,Engelbert Humperdinck,Carole King,Cat Stevens andJames Taylor. By the early 1970s, softer ballad songs bythe Carpenters,Anne Murray,John Denver andBarry Manilow began to be played more often on "Top 40" radio.[citation needed]
Some rock-oriented acts such asQueen and theEagles also produced ballads.[1][25][26]
When the wordballad appears in the title of a song, as for example inthe Beatles' "The Ballad of John and Yoko" (1969) orBilly Joel's "The Ballad of Billy the Kid" (1974), thefolk music sense is generally implied. The termballad is also sometimes applied to strophic story-songs more generally, such asDon McLean's "American Pie" (1971).[27][28][29]
Prominent artists who made sentimental ballads in the 1980s includeStevie Wonder,Lionel Richie,Peabo Bryson,Barry White,Luther Vandross andGeorge Michael.[31]
The 1990s mainstream pop/R&B singers such asBoyz II Men,Celine Dion,Shania Twain,Whitney Houston andMariah Carey.[32]
Newer female singer-songwriters such asSarah McLachlan,Natalie Merchant,Jewel,Melissa Etheridge andSheryl Crow also broke through on the AC chart during this time owing to their ballad-sound.[33]
A popular trend in the early 2000s was remixing or re-recordingdance music hits intoacoustic ballads (for example, the "Candlelight Mix" versions of "Heaven" byDJ Sammy, "Listen to Your Heart" byDHT, and "Everytime We Touch" byCascada).[34]
In the 2010s, indie musicians likeImagine Dragons,Mumford & Sons,Of Monsters and Men,the Lumineers andEd Sheeran had indie songs that crossed over to the adult contemporary charts, due to their ballad-heavy sound.[35]
Mostpop standard and jazz ballads are built from a single, introductoryverse, usually around 16bars in length, and they end on thedominant – thechorus orrefrain, usually 16 or 32 bars long and inAABA form (though other forms, such as ABAC, are not uncommon). In AABA forms, the B section is usually referred to as thebridge; often a briefcoda, sometimes based on material from the bridge, is added, as in "Over the Rainbow".[36][37]
The most common use of the term "ballad" in modernpop andR&B music is for an emotional song about romance, breakup and/orlonging.[22] The singer would usuallylament anunrequited or lost love, either where one party is oblivious to the existence of the other, where one party has moved on, or where aromanticaffair has affected the relationship.[38][39]
| Power ballad | |
|---|---|
 To emphasize the emotional aspect of a power ballad, crowds customarily hold uplighters adjusted to produce a large flame (or, as a more recent alternative, a turned-onsmartphone screen or flashlight function).[40][41] | |
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Early 1970s |
| Other topics | |
Simon Frith, the British sociomusicologist and former rock critic, identifies the origins of the power ballad in the emotional singing ofsoul artists, particularlyRay Charles, and the adaptation of this style by performers such asEric Burdon,Tom Jones, andJoe Cocker to produce slow-tempo songs often building to a loud and emotive chorus backed by drums, electric guitars, and sometimes choirs.[42] According toCharles Aaron, power ballads came into existence in the early 1970s, when rock stars attempted to convey profound messages to audiences while retaining their "macho rocker" mystique.[43] Thehard rock power ballad typically expresses love or heartache through its lyrics, shifting into wordless intensity and emotional transcendence with heavy drumming and a distortedelectric guitar solo representing the "power" in the power ballad.[44][45]
Aaron argues that the hard rock power ballad broke into the mainstream of American consciousness in 1976 as FM radio gave a new lease of life to earlier impassioned songs such asBadfinger's "Without You",Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" andAerosmith's "Dream On".[43]The Carpenters' 1972 single "Goodbye to Love" has also been identified as a prototype of the power ballad, driven by the hard rock guitar sound ofTony Peluso.[46] Britishheavy metal bandJudas Priest wrote many power ballads, starting with "Dreamer Deceiver" and "Beyond the Realms of Death".[45]
American rock bandStyx has been credited with releasing the first true power ballad, the song "Lady", in 1973.[47] Its writer,Dennis DeYoung is called the "father of the power ballad".[48] In the 1980s, bands such asJourney andREO Speedwagon contributed to the power ballad becoming a staple of hard rock performers who wanted to gain more radio airplay and satisfy their female audience members with a slower, more emotional love song.[citation needed]Mötley Crüe was one of the bands showcasing this style, with songs such as "Home Sweet Home" and "You're All I Need".[49] Nearly every hard rock andglam metal band wrote at least one power ballad for each album, and record labels often released these as the album's second single.[citation needed]
Whengrunge appeared as a counterpoint to the excesses of 1980s hard rock and glam metal, one of the distinctions of the grunge style was the absence of power ballads;[49] however, some songs from this era such as "Rooster" by Alice in Chains (1992), which Ned Raggett described as the band's "own particular approach" to the style,[50] and "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden (1994)[51] have been described using this term, and songs in its subgenrepost-grunge included ballads.[citation needed]
Latin ballad refers to the ballad derived frombolero that originated in the early-1960s in Latin America and Spain.
One of the most well-known Latin ballad singers of the 1970s and 1980s wasJosé José. Known as "El Principe de La Cancion" (The Prince of the Song), he sold over 40 million albums in his career and became a huge influence to later ballad singers such asCristian Castro,Alejandro Fernández,Nelson Ned,Manuel Mijares andLupita D'Alessio.[52]