“We Learned More from a
Three-Minute Record Baby
Than We Ever Learned in
School”: Recorded Music
1950-Present
CMAT 102
Prof. Jeremy Cox
Top 40 radio arrives
Todd Storz, then-owner of KOWH in
Omaha, Neb., is credited with inventing the
format in 1951.
Heretofore, AM radio (there was no FM yet)
consisted of long blocks of sponsored
programs ranging from dramas to variety
shows.
Local pop hits were worked in between the
hits. Programmers fastidiously made sure
that the same song didn’t play more than
once per day.
Legend vs. reality
The legend: Storz and his program director Bill Stewart got the
idea during a bar visit in which they noticed that regulars kept
playing the same songs over and over on the jukebox. Although
she’d been listening to it all day, the waitress played the song
again while she was cleaning up after hours. Storz programmed
his station like a jukebox with 40 songs.
The reality? Storz picked up a 1950 University of Omaha study
that found the primary reason people listed to radio was for
music.
The reality? Storz switched another of his stations, New Orleans’
WTIX, to 40-song format in 1953 to lower costs. No DJ necessary.
Government role
Historically, the Federal Communications Commission had
denied new broadcasting licenses on behalf of the “public
interest.” In reality, the practice boosted the entrenched powers:
NBC, CBS, ABC.
In 1947, it gave up being protectionist and started giving out
licenses. Many of the new stations were undercapitalized and
filled the broadcast day with recorded music, rather than
scripted programs or live performances from music halls.
The large broadcasters and their affiliated labels refused to play
ball with the new competition, forcing them to look beyond the
mainstream to hillbilly and R&B records.
Role of record companies
At mid-century, the music people heard was controlled by
an oligarchy (a handful of companies).
In 1948, the top four record companies – CBS-Columbia,
RCA-Victor, Capitol and Decca – released 81% of all titles
that reached the weekly top 10.
By 1958, that share had plummeted to 36%.
What happened?
Rock n’ Roll happened
By the late 1950s, hundreds of small, independent labels
had sprung up, successfully siphoning away market share
from the oligarchs.
According to Peter Tschmuck’s “Creativity and Innovation
in the Music Industry,” the emergence of rock n’ roll fueled
the newly democratic regime.
The old guard hated rock n’ roll. Their talent scouts
ignored rock acts, white and black. But their abhorrence
was rooted largely in good old fashioned racism.
“Race” music
Rock n’ roll drew from many influences, namely country and
western (“hillbilly”) and rhythm and blues.
Rhythm and blues was a 1940s era white adaptation of earlier
“race” music.
The major record labels didn’t want to be associated with
anything they considered crass and obscene, which would
describe their feelings toward black music.
They stuck with Tin Pay Alley music, an NYC-based powerhouse
of artists and publishers that dated to the 1880s. Appealed to
white, middle-class city dwellers (read: $$$).
Tried-and-true TPA stars
Jerome Kern
Cole
Porter
Scott Joplin
Irving
Berlin
Filling the vacuum
Since the big labels wouldn’t sign rock n’ roll and R&B acts,
small, independent labels led by music outsiders snapped
them up.
Carl Perkins of
Sun Records
Chuck Berry of
Chess Records
No. 1 artist of the 1950s
The No. 2 artist?
Pat Boone
Born in 1934, Boone notched his first hit, a cover of Fats
Domino’s “Ain’t that a Shame” in 1955 (helped by his producer’s
disabused the English major of the notion of changing the song
to “Isn’t that a Shame”).
Boone scored a number of hits during the early part of his career
that were covers of songs originally by black groups.
The owner of his label, Randy Wood, played “race” music on his
Nashville radio station, figured out what black audiences liked,
then had the songs re-recorded by whites like Boone.
Controversy
Critics accused Boone and his white contemporaries of
stealing music and success from black artists.
"That's a perversion of history," Boone said. "The recording
directors at the small R&B labels wanted to attract
attention to their artists, and the covers expanded the
impact of the song. Little Richard, Fats Domino and Chuck
Berry were all thrilled because it made it possible for their
songs to finally get heard, and Randy knew that."
What do you think
Groups of five. Here are your topics. One for each.
1.
If not the legal definition of theft, was it cultural theft?
2.
Which version did you like better? Why?
3.
How would you feel if you were a black artist whose song was covered
successfully by a white musician?
4.
Songs were recorded in the segregated South; is there more than a
geographical connection there?
5.
Do you think it’s still easier for white artists to score hits than black
artists?
6.
Pat Boone charted 60 songs and still holds the record for being on the
Billboard charts for 220 consecutive weeks yet is not in the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame. Should he?
Let’s listen
“Long Tall Sally” Pat Boone version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WQvMsBTHKs
“Long Tall Sally” original Little Richard version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFFgbc5Vcbw
Payola
Yes, another 1950s scandal. (And you thought the ‘50s were
so boring and clean.)
Record companies were vertically integrated, controlling
everything from the raw materials to make records to the
distribution of the final product.
The one thing they couldn’t control was the key factor that
led to a disc’s eventual purchase: radio play.
Payola
The term comes from a combination of the words “pay” and
“Victrola,” the trade name of an early reproduction device made
by RCA Victor.
Record companies paid larger stations to play their titles over
and over again, which they hoped would lead to retail sales.
The practice went unchecked for years until the smaller labels
got into the game. A congressional committee found in 1960 that
between 1950 and ‘54, 255 deejays in 56 cities received bribes.
One deejay admitted getting $22,000 to play one song.
As a result, most deejays were stripped of power. From there,
stations would create playlists for deejays to play.
Audience targeting
Independent adio stations in the ‘50s begin targeting
certain audiences, much as magazines had begun doing
decades earlier (“Ladies Home Journal,” “Boy’s Life”).
Independent labels and radio stations formed a symbiotic
relationship that eventually toppled the majors.
In the end, the majors’ thinly veiled racism, abusive market
practices (Payola) and reluctance to change led to their
downfall.
Today
Technological advancements (YouTube, iTunes, Garage Band
recording software) has brought into fuller form the
democratization of music that began in the 1950s.
You control who you listen to (Pandora), how much of it you buy
(single song vs. buying entire album on iTunes) and you can even
bypass the traditional label structure to release your own music
to the masses (YouTube, MySpace).
Result: More music quantity, shakier quality. More consumer
power, less corporate power. Loss of profits to music industry
threatens to undermine the just about the whole thing.
For next week
Read chapter 10 of Baran (on the Internets).
And do your second short essay. You will be given an episode
number for “Lou Grant.” Watch it on YouTube and write a 250word critique.
Don’t just give me a synopsis of the episode. Try to think
critically about what you’re watching. Is the story line believable?
What does it say about how media works and what do you think
about that? What does it get right/wrong, based on what you’ve
learned about the media so far?