Video Examples
Documentaries
This series of videos from Don and Mary Ellen presents important turning points in the evolution of music. The last video in the series, Episode 6, is currently in development.
The Evolution of Music
A Video Series by Don Robertson & Mary Ellen Bickford
Sacred Music From the American South (2013)
A 15-minute documentary that begins with a survey of the major genres of music that arose from the Southeast USA, then further presents the sacred, gospel-music, traditions.
The Roots of American Music (2013)
This important 15-minute documentary video presents the evolution of African-American sacred music from the time of slavery to its modern forms.
Ep. 3 - Positive and Negative Music (2018)
It is 1966. Don Robertson has moved to New York City. During the next two years, he will discover and identify two strains of music: one positive, the other negative.
Ep. 4 - 1967 When Popular Music Met the Fork in the Road (2023)
Don Robertson explains and provides examples of the rise of popular music in the USA and Britain from the 1950s to the year 1967, when the first negative popular music presented itself.
Ep. 5 - The Polyphonic Music Story (2019)
This is the story of the 700-year cycle of European “polyphonic music” – vocal music with multiple separate voices – which began near the beginning of the 10th century and culminated in the glorious choral music of the 16th century.
Episode 6 is currently in development