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Jersey Shore sound

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The eastern coast of the U.S. state of New Jersey - the Jersey Shore - hosted for a time a genre of rock and roll that went by a variety of names or, more often, was defined by its artists. A synthesis of pre-Beatles rock and roll and pre-Motown Rhythm and Blues, the genre enjoyed a brief vogue from the roughly the late 1960s through the mid-1980s.

History

The Jersey Shore sound evolved from the mixing of pre-Beatles rock and roll, Rhythm and Blues, and the white urban culture of the Mid-Atlantic states, especially Maryland, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New York and of course New Jersey. The form has a strong Italian-American influence, inasmuch as many of the form's key precursors and artists, from Frankie Valli through Bruce Springsteen, are of Italian anscestry and urban or suburban background. In the late 1990's and 2000's, the Italian-American link would double back on itself, as Steven van Zandt became a star on the organized crime TV show The Sopranos, which itself made frequent references to the Jersey Shore Sound notwithstanding the later appearrance of Frankie Valli himself as a doomed mob captain. In interviews van Zandt would say "growing up everybody knew some of those guys" and in the E-Street Re-United tour Springsteen himself would make no bones about it, introducing van Zandt as "the star of the Sopranooos tel-ee-vision show" and playing "The Godfather" on guitar.

Early progenitors included Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

Characteristics

Jersey Shore music, like its contemporary (and in many respects related) genres of Heartland rock and Roots rock, shares many thematic characteristics; a focus on the daily lives of people (in this case, those living in the stereotypically-industrial society of northern and central New Jersey); a sense of being the underdog (a theme in the genre The Four Seasons' "Rag Doll", "Walk Like A Man" and "Big Man In Town" through Bruce Springsteen's "Darkness On The Edge Of Town (from the eponymous album.

There were other characteristics, however, that distinguished the "Jersey Shore" sound from its related genres:

Artists

Precursors

  • Stax Records - The raw, horn-heavy, danceable soul of Stax/Volt records contrasted with the more heavily produced soul of Motown - and is a key precursor to the Jersey Shore sound.
  • The Four Seasons - This North Jersey-based pop group, mostly Italian-American in anscestry, was among the biggest American bands in pre-Beatles rock and roll. The Four Seasons established a number of the themes that would become associated with the Jersey Shore genre: the biggie-sized romanticism of "Big Man In Town", the "Bum...bum chik" beat of "Dawn" (recapped in countless other Jersey bands' songs, from
  • Gary U.S. Bonds - Bonds, most famous for his 1962 hit Quarter To Three (one of seven top-40 hits between 1960 and 1962(, laid down one of the key precepts of the genre; it was fundamentally party music.
  • White soul - White Soul singers like Van Morrison were key influences.

Major Artists

  • Bruce Springsteen - While Springsteen and the E Street Band did more than anyone to popularize the genre, Jersey Shore rock is an influence on all of his studio albums, rather than a motif. The elements of the genre appear as accents on songs like "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" (from Born to Run, "Racing In The Streets" (from Darkness On The Edge Of Town) and "Incident on 57th Street" The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle among many others, mixed heavily with bits and pieces of Van Morrison and Bob Dylan early in his career, and evolving into more Heartland rock later on. But it was in his live performances (captured on innumerable bootlegs and his Live 1975-1985 album, as well as on songs and albums he wrote for other artists ("This Little Girl" by Gary U.S. Bonds, Hearts of Stone by Southside Johnny) that he let his Jersey Shore roots show most frequently
  • Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes - Immensely popular in the mid-atlantic states and in their native New Jersey, the Jukes never really broke out of the region. Their seminal album was Hearts Of Stone.
  • Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul - Although Van Zandt's solo career spanned five albums, only the first one - Men Without Women - recorded in a day with members of the Asbury Jukes, the E Street Band, The Young Rascals and other Jersey shore bands, was a classic; Van Zandt's future efforts and live performances sans Springsteen didn't live up to the early promise.
  • Bon Jovi - although achieving fame through hair metal pop a decade later than the peak of the era, the band is still in the core tradition with evident R&B and heartland rock influences; at the time they were termed a rediscovery or evolution of the Jersey sound, sometimes the "New" Jersey sound.

Lesser-known Artists

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