Chapter 3: Sound Recording and Popular Music. Some guiding questions zHow did the technologies for...
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Transcript of Chapter 3: Sound Recording and Popular Music. Some guiding questions zHow did the technologies for...
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, 1877Berliner, USA, 1880sVictor Talking
Machine, USA, 1900s
Forms of recording
Edison’s wax cylinders: analog recordingBerliner’s flat disk vinyl recordsMagnetic audiotape (Germany, 1940s)Stereo sound (1950s)Digital recording (1970s)Compact discs (1980s)DVDsMP3
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, popSignificantly merged music of black and
white cultures in the American SouthNo 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 whiteNorth and SouthSacred and secular
BATTLES and SCANDALS in the MUSIC INDUSTRY
Cover Music and RacismPayola: 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 rockPunk and grunge movementsRap 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 SOUNDSPunk 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)
andBUSINESS
(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 LABELSFive 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, MTVAdministrative operations
What do you think?
Has the birth of the Internet helped--or hurt--the chances for alternative musical voices to be heard?