Crooner

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Crooner

Crooner is an epithet

Epithet

An epithet is a descriptive word or phrase accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a person or thing, which has become a fixed formula....
given to a male singer of a certain style of popular songs, dubbed pop standards. A crooner is a singer of popular ballad
Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative story and set to music. Ballads were characteristic of particularly British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the nineteenth century and used extensively across Europe and later north America, Australia and north Africa....
s and thus a "balladeer". The singer is normally backed by a full orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is an Musical ensemble, usually fairly large with string, brass, woodwind sections, and possibly a percussion section as well. The term orchestra derives from the name for the area in front of an theatre of ancient Greece reserved for the Greek chorus....
or big band

Big band

A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with playing jazz music and which became popular during the swing from the early 1930s until the late 1940s....
. Generally, crooners sang and popularized the songs from the Great American Songbook

Great American Songbook

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Encyclopedia

Crooner is an epithet

Epithet

Orchestra

Big band

Great American Songbook

Great American Songbook is a term referring to the interrelated music of Broadway theatre musical theater, the Hollywood musical, and Tin Pan Alley, in a period that begins roughly in the 1920s and tapers off around 1960 with the emerging dominance of rock and roll....
. "Crooner" was originally used as a negative term, and many people given the term, such as Russ Colombo, did not consider themselves to be crooners. In an interview, Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an United States singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a solo artist with great success in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers"....
said that he did not consider himself or Bing Crosby

Bing Crosby

Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an United States popular singer and actor whose career lasted from 1926 until his death.One of the first multimedia stars, from 1934 to 1954 Bing Crosby held a nearly unrivaled command of record sales, radio ratings and motion picture grosses....
to be crooners.

Evolution

Crooning is a style that has its roots in the Bel Canto

Bel Canto

Bel Canto may refer to:*Bel canto, a opera term that literally means "beautiful singing"*Bel Canto , a novel by Ann Patchett*Bel Canto , a Norwegian pop/electronica band...
of Italian opera

Italian opera

Italian opera is both the art of opera in Italy and opera in the Italian language. Opera was born in Italy around the year 1600 and Italian opera has continued to play a dominant role in the history of the form until the present day....
, but with the emphasis on subtle vocal nuances and phrasing found in jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
as opposed to elaborate ornamentation or sheer acoustic volume

Volume

The volume of any solid, liquid, plasma, vacuum or theoretical object is how much three-dimensional space it occupies, often quantified numerically....
found in opera houses. Before the advent of the microphone

Microphone

A microphone, sometimes referred to as a mike or?more recently?mic, is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal....
, popular singers, like Al Jolson

Al Jolson

Al Jolson , born in Lithuania, Russian Empire, was a highly acclaimed American singer, comedian, and actor, and, according to PBS, the "first openly Jewish man to become an entertainment star in America." His career lasted from 1911 until his death in 1950, during which time he was commonly dubbed "the world's greatest entertainer.? Numerous...
, had to project to the rear seats of a theater, which made for a very loud vocal style. The microphone made possible the more personal style. Crooning is not so much a style of music as it is a technique in which to sing.

Some crooners, most notably Nat King Cole

Nat King Cole

Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an United States musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist....
, Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra

Dean Martin

Dean Martin was an United States singer, film actor and comedian of Italians descent. He was one of the best known musical artists of the 1950s and 1960s....
, Bing Crosby

Bing Crosby

Jean Sablon

Jean Sablon was a popular French singer and actor.The son of a composer, with brothers and sisters who had successful careers of their own in musical entertainment, Jean Sablon studied piano at the Lyce? Charlemagne in Paris....
, incorporated other popular styles into their music, such as blues

Blues

Blues is a music genre based on the use of the blues chord progressions and the blue notes. Though several blues musical form s exist, the 12-bar blues chord progressions are the most frequently encountered....
, dixieland

Dixieland

Dixieland music or sometimes referred to as Hot jazz or New Orleans jazz is a style of jazz which developed in New Orleans, Louisiana at the start of the 20th century, and was spread to Chicago and New York City by New Orleans bands in the 1910s....
and even native Hawaiian music. Crooning became the dominant form of popular vocal music from the late 1920s to the early 1960s, coinciding with the advent of radio broadcasting and electrical recording. For example, Bing Crosby

Bing Crosby

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals, by modulation of electromagnetic radiation with frequency below those of visible light.Electromagnetic radiation radio propagation by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space....
show, Kraft Music Hall

Kraft Music Hall

The Kraft Music Hall was a major NBC radio variety program, featuring top show business entertainers, in a 16-year span from 1933 to 1949....
(1935-1946) was heard by 50 million listeners every Thursday evening

Decline

After 1954 popular music became dominated by other styles, especially rock 'n' roll, while the music of latter-day crooners such as Perry Como

Perry Como

Pierino "Perry" Como was an United States singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with it in 1943....
and Matt Monro

Matt Monro

Matt Monro was an English people singer who became one of the most popular entertainers on the international music scene during the 1960s. Throughout his 30-year career, he filled cabarets, nightclubs, music halls, and stadiums in Australia, Japan, the Philippines, and Hong Kong to Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas....
was recategorized as "easy listening

Easy listening

Easy listening music is a style of popular music and radio format that emerged in the mid-20th century, evolving out of Swing music and big band music, and related to Beautiful music and Light music....
" or "adult contemporary." Crooners have remained popular among fans of traditional pop music, with contemporary performers such as Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett is an United States singer of traditional pop music, pop standards and jazz.Raised in New York City, Bennett began singing at an early age....
, Tom Jones

Tom Jones (singer)

Sir Thomas John Woodward Officer of the British Empire , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer-songwriter, particularly noted for his powerful voice and wide vocal range....
, Michael Bublé

Michael Bublé

Michael Steven Bubl? is a Canada big band vocalist and actor. He has won several awards, including a Grammy Award and multiple Juno Awards. While his first album reached the top ten in Lebanon, the United Kingdom and his home country of Canada, it achieved only modest chart success in the United States....
and Engelbert Humperdinck

Engelbert Humperdinck (singer)

Engelbert Humperdinck is a well-known Pop music singer who rose to international fame during the 1960s and 1970s, after adopting the name of the famous Germany opera composer Engelbert Humperdinck as his own stage name....
keeping the form alive. While both male and female singers sang in this style, the term "crooner" is rarely, and improperly, used to describe a female singer.

List of famous crooners

Sources

Michael Pitts and Frank Hoffman. The Rise of the Crooners (Scarecrow Press, 2002).
Giddins, Gary. "A Pocketful of Dreams" Boston: (Little, Brown and Company, 2001).
Various Artists. "Fabulous 50's Crooners Sing Their Hard To Find Hits" Ontario: (Hit Parade Records, 2006)