Transcript No Slide Title

Sound Recording and Popular
Music
Chapter 3
“We’ve put a lot of work into making the iPod a
part of on-the-go living.”
—Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, 2006
Youth, Music and Repression
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1700s: waltz viewed as “savage”
1800s: tango viewed as primitive, sexual
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banned in Argentina
attacked by the French clergy
1920s: the Charleston vilified
1950s and ‘60s: rock and roll decried as too
sexual
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The King’s “pelvis”
Development Stages
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Novelty
Entrepreneurial
Consumer marketing
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Recurring themes
Early History of Recording
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de Martinville, France, 1850s
Edison, U.S., 1877
Berliner, U.S., 1880s
Victor Talking Machine, USA, 1900s
Radio gets an edge over recording industry,
1920s
History cont.
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Edison’s wax cylinders
Berliner and vinyl records
Magnetic audiotape (Germany, 1940s)
Stereo sound (1950s)
Digital recording (1970s)
Compact discs (1980s)
DVDs (1990s)
MP3 and music piracy issues (now)
“Our best guess, is that for every legal song
download there are 75 illegal downloads.”
—Gene Munster, music industry analyst, 2006
Records and Radio
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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.
Radio and the recording industry join forces in
the 1950s.
U.S. Pop Music
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“Music should never be harmless.”
—Robbie Robertson of The Band
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Pop music starts as low culture.
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It appeals to the masses.
Likewise blues, country, Tejano, salsa, jazz,
rock, reggae, rap, hip-hop, easy listening,
and more
Rock Music Divides and Joins
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High and low culture
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Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over
Beethoven”
Sinatra vs. Elvis
Masculine and feminine
Black and white
North and South
Sacred and secular
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Ray Charles’s gospel origins
Cover Music and Racism
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Dick Clark promotes white covers of black music.
Elvis listed as co-writer
Pat Boone “king of cover music”
Little Richard outsings Boone.
Ray Charles gets #1 with white cover.
Payola Scandals
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Payola
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The practice of record promoters paying deejays to play
their songs on the air
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Alan Freed ruined
Congressional hearings in 1959
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1998: Promotional strategy called pay-for-play emerged
“The white boy who sang colored”
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1950’s sees radio losing programming to TV.
Creates void filled by rock and roll
Led by R&B penetration (25% by 1953)
Overtly sexual lyrics
Declining segregation
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Elvis
Alan Freed (Cleveland deejay)
Crossover Heroes
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Bill Haley and the Comets (R&B)
Johnnie Ray (R&B)
Chuck Berry (country) ex. “Maybellene”
Ray Charles plays in a white band
Southern music (gospel and country/folk) regains
cultural respectability after CW.
Delta blues, rockabilly, Hooker and Holly
The Times They Were a Changin’
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The 1960s
The British Invasion
Vietnam War
Motown
Oh brother where art thou?
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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.
The Sound of Music
 Recording industry generates more revenue than all
other media except TV.
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Hence the panic over piracy
GLOBAL OLIGOPOLY:
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Four corporations control most of industry
worldwide.
Ownership
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Four corporations at the top:
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Universal (31.8%)
Sony BMG (26%)
Warner Music (14.9%)
EMI (9.1%)
And the Indies (18.2%)
Media Giant
Making Recordings
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Artist development (A&R agents)
Technical facilities: technical production specialists
Sales and distribution
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Advertising and promotion
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Direct retail
Music clubs
Internet sales
Radio
MTV
Administrative operations
The Artist’s Cut
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An artist with a typical 11% royalty rate
makes about $1.80 on a $16.98 CD and sells
500,000 copies.
Free Expression and Democracy
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How can popular music uphold a legacy of
free expression while resisting co-optation by
giant companies?