Chapter 3:
Sound Recording
and Popular Music
Some guiding questions
How did the technologies for sound
recording develop?
How did popular music become a mass
media industry?
What was the influence of rock-and-roll on
two media industries?
What companies control the sound
recording industry today?
How has popular music
made an impact upon
20th-century American
culture?
What role has recorded
music played in your life?
How has it shaped and
reflected your identity?
What has been the
relationship between
rock music and youth
culture?
INNOVATIONS IN MEDIA
TECHNOLOGY
Three developmental stages:
NOVELTY stage
ENTREPRENEURIAL stage
CONSUMER MARKETING stage
Early sound recording
technology
deMartinville, France,
1850s
Edison, USA, 1877
Berliner, USA, 1880s
Victor Talking Machine,
USA, 1900s
Forms of recording
Edison’s wax cylinders: analog recording
Berliner’s flat disk vinyl records
Magnetic audiotape (Germany, 1940s)
Stereo sound (1950s)
Digital recording (1970s)
Compact discs (1980s)
DVDs
MP3
Listening to recorded music
Victrolas and then electric
record players became
popular
In 1915, 30 million
phonograph records sold
Music was played and
consumed individually
THE RISE OF RADIO
Issues of paying to broadcast
copyrighted music
1914: ASCAP founded to collect copyright
fees for music writers and publishers.
1924: radio competition cut record sales
in half.
However, costs of royalties forced many
radio stations off the air.
1930s:
Period of courtship
between radio and
recording industries
THEIR MARRIAGE
TOOK PLACE IN THE
1950s
What is POP MUSIC?
Appeals to broad public or to
demographic subgroups
Appeals to popular (that is, not just
highbrow) tastes and styles
Includes blues, country, Tejano, salsa,
jazz, rock, reggae, rap, hip hop, easy
listening, and more
THE RISE OF POP MUSIC
Mass-marketed publishing of sheet music:
Tin Pan Alley in late 1800s
Birth of JAZZ in New Orleans: fusing
rhythm & blues and gospel into swing
bands
Popular vocal stars (harmonies and
crooners) from vaudeville
ROCK AND ROLL came like a storm in the
1950s
ROCK AND ROLL is born!
Fused traditions of country, R&B, pop
Significantly merged music of black and
white cultures in the American South
No music style has ever had such
widespread impact.
Transformed the structure of two mass
media industries: recording and radio
ROCK MUSIC BLURRED
BOUNDARIES
High and low
culture
Masculine and
feminine
Black and white
North and South
Sacred and secular
BATTLES and SCANDALS
in the MUSIC INDUSTRY
Cover Music and Racism
Payola: the practice of record
promoters paying DJ’s to play
their songs on the air
Congressional hearings in 1959
1998: promotional strategy
called pay-for-play emerged
A CHANGING INDUSTRY
post-1960
The British Invasion: sound recording
goes international
Development of Soul and the Motown
label
Political impact of folk rock
Punk and grunge movements
Rap and the rise of black urban style
MOTOWN and SOUL
-Mix of R&B, rock, pop
and gospel
-Motown label founded
by Berry Gordy in 1960
in Detroit
FOLK
MUSIC
Broadly, folk music = songs performed by
untrained musicians and passed down
through oral traditions.
Considered a democratic and participatory
form.
Folk music was popularized by radio and by
grassroots activists like Woody Guthrie,
who championed peace and social justice.
Folk Rock and Sixties
Counterculture
Acoustic singer-songwriters made folk
popular (Dylan, Baez, Taylor, Mitchell).
The Byrds electrified folk in early 1960s to
invent FOLK ROCK.
Rock and Folk-Rock provided soundtrack
for the Sixties Generation, and became
more mainstream in the 1970s.
ALTERNATIVE
SOUNDS
Punk Rock: challenged
commercialism of record
industry
-Represents alienation
and anarchy
Grunge: spirit of punk
infused with more melody
RAP defies mainstream culture
Like punk, developed in opposition to
polished sound of commercial music
industry.
Combined black urban social politics,
masculinity and comic lyrics.
Incorporated black tradition of
rhythmic spoken word.
Rise of Techno/Electronica
Began in Britain in 1980s, Detroit house
music in 1990s.
Features keyboards, drum machine, music
sampling sequenced by computers.
Creators are largely anonymous.
Associated with RAVE dance party culture.
Frequently used in television commercials.
THE BUSINESS
OF SOUND
RECORDING
What is the line between
ARTISTIC EXPRESSION
(performing)
and
BUSINESS
(recording and selling)?
A GLOBAL OLIGOPOLY
Recording industry generates
more revenue than all other
media except TV
A GLOBAL OLIGOPOLY: A
few corporations control most
of industry worldwide
How does the global
oligopoly affect the
kinds of music you are
able to buy and hear?
MAJOR RECORDING LABELS
Five corporations produce 85% of all
American CDs/tapes, 80% of global
market:
Vivendi Universal
Warner
Sony (CBS Records)
EMI (Capitol/Virgin)
BMG/RCA Records
What about independent labels?
“Indies” produce 16% of
America’s music
Can the smaller production
houses survive in the global
marketplace?
Making a Recording
Artist development (A& R agents)
Technical facilities: technical production
specialists oversee recording and
postproduction
Sales and distribution: direct retail,
music clubs, Internet sales
Advertising and promotion: radio, MTV
Administrative operations
What do you think?
Has the birth of the
Internet helped--or
hurt--the chances for
alternative musical
voices to be heard?