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?