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A New Mental World

Ryan André Brasseaux

in Cajun Breakdown: The Emergence of an American Made Music

Records and radio built an industry around imagination. Media technologies created an auditory world where sound, language, and music expanded listeners’ mental worlds. The Cajun imaginary represents ... More

Records and radio built an industry around imagination. Media technologies created an auditory world where sound, language, and music expanded listeners’ mental worlds. The Cajun imaginary represents in this study the varied ways in which individuals understood their connection to a larger imagined community—America—through the soundscape generated by mass communication. This chapter examines those communication networks directing the flow of cultural exchange between Cajuns and mainstream mass media between 1946 and 1955. As this auditory sphere enveloped Cajun life, an emergent Cajun musical subgenre sprouted: Cajun honky tonk—small but amplified string bands featuring an accordion. The Opera, O.T., Khoury, and Folk Star labels are also discussed here in relation to the most famous and influential Cajun artists to emerge during the post-World War II era—fiddler Harry Choates and accordionist Iry LeJeune. The premise of this study is derived from conclusions of the landmark treatise The Psychology of Radio compiled in 1935 by Hadley Catril and Gordon Allport, who suggest that an individual’s engagement with mass culture within this universal network of sound could stimulate a “new mental world” for the listener.Less

Artist Advocates: The Corporate and Entrepreneurial Generations of Arts Trade Union Activists

Daniel B. Cornfield

in Beyond the Beat: Musicians Building Community in Nashville

This chapter looks at how a new generation of Nashville arts trade unionists is reinventing arts trade unionism for the contemporary generation of enterprising artists. With the advent of recorded ... More

This chapter looks at how a new generation of Nashville arts trade unionists is reinventing arts trade unionism for the contemporary generation of enterprising artists. With the advent of recorded music, corporate major labels, and mass distribution through radio airplay by the early 1950s, the chapter shows how Nashville AFM Local 257 had been transformed into a union representing both live and recording musicians and artists by a generation of arts trade union leaders who act as “corporate-era arts union activists.” Throughout the corporate era, Local 257 has developed and enforced master contracts with corporate signatories that apply especially to the major-label recording industry. The new generation of arts trade union leaders—the “entrepreneurial-era union activists”—are endeavoring to revitalize arts trade unionism as the Nashville music scene transitions from the corporate era of major labels into an era of indie entrepreneurial music production and distribution.Less

Sociological Congruence and the Shaping of Recorded Jazz

Damon J. Phillips

in Shaping Jazz: Cities, Labels, and the Global Emergence of an Art Form

This introductory chapter explains that the book examines the early years of the market for jazz in order to understand why some tunes had long-term appeal while others did not, and how the market ... More

This introductory chapter explains that the book examines the early years of the market for jazz in order to understand why some tunes had long-term appeal while others did not, and how the market boundaries of jazz evolved as a part of this process. Using empirical puzzles and focusing mostly on the period 1917–1933, the book investigates why some songs are re-recorded by many musicians over time while others receive no such following. The book draws on sociological congruence as a mechanism to explain how the context of production affects the appeal of jazz recordings. It shows that jazz has been influenced by the social structure of the geography and producing organizations. A market for jazz could not have formed, flourished, and maintained legitimacy without a smaller set of tunes to serve as a common point of reference by musicians, record labels and companies, consumers, and critics.Less

African American Blues and the Phonograph: From Race Records to Rhythm and Blues

William Howland Kenney

in Recorded Music in American Life: The Phonograph and Popular Memory, 1890-1945

Commercial recordings of music made by African Americans, discs designed by record companies to sell to African Americans, finally emerged in the 1920s as a further extension of earlier ethnic music ... More

Commercial recordings of music made by African Americans, discs designed by record companies to sell to African Americans, finally emerged in the 1920s as a further extension of earlier ethnic music recording programs. The phonograph's mediation of the musical experience for both performers and listeners emerges clearly enough in ethnic records, but all the more so in those marketed to African Americans. Just as the recording industry had created its spinning encapsulations of ethnicity, so too it now turned to making engravings of the sounds of race. From 1920 to 1945, the race record era, many different companies made recordings of African American music, but four major record labels—Okeh, Paramount, Brunswick/Vocalion, and Columbia—took control of the field. Race records, however, present a dilemma: several Black musicians and singers claimed that despite the rich eclectic variety of Black popular music, they were allowed to record only blues.Less

Record Labels

William Robin

in Industry: Bang on a Can and New Music in the Marketplace

In the 1990s, Bang on a Can jumped from releasing albums on the academic label Composers Recordings, Inc. to signing a contract with the major label Sony Classical. Their path emblematized an unusual ... More

In the 1990s, Bang on a Can jumped from releasing albums on the academic label Composers Recordings, Inc. to signing a contract with the major label Sony Classical. Their path emblematized an unusual moment in recording contemporary music: after Nonesuch’s 1992 recording of Henryk Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 became extraordinarily popular, major labels looked to contemporary music as a means to reach new listeners. Whereas new music had previously been the provenance of noncommercial labels like CRI, major labels began investing in new composers and new institutions like Bang on a Can in the hopes of turning new profits. From Sony, Bang on a Can jumped to Philips’s Point Music and released their rendition of Brian Eno’s Music for Airports, an album designed to reach new rock audience; and from there, amidst the industry tumult of the late 1990s, they struck out on their own with the independent label Cantaloupe Music.Less

Arab Musiconomics, Culture, Copyright, and the Commons

Nagla Rizk

in The Development Agenda: Global Intellectual Property and Developing Countries

This chapter examines the Arab music industry in the light of the region's socio-cultural, economic, political, legal, and institutional realities. It sheds light on the current practices and value ... More

This chapter examines the Arab music industry in the light of the region's socio-cultural, economic, political, legal, and institutional realities. It sheds light on the current practices and value chains, with the objective of examining the role that copyright plays—or does not play—in this context. The focus is on two major groups: the pop stars and the underground musicians. The main hypothesis is that there actually prevails an informal, and sometimes illegal, commons in a system where significant monetary appropriation comes mostly from live performances, mainly weddings and public parties. Within the framework of economic, cultural, and institutional realities in the region, copyrighted items end up being used as reputation promoters. Based on the analysis presented, the chapter argues for acknowledging and formalizing the Arab commons. It also recommends finding new, alternative, and suitable business models as well as flexible intellectual property regimes that would promote access and contribution to Arabic musical content.Less

How to Make It in the Music Business without Really Trying: Colonial, Sugar Hill, and Merge Records

David Menconi

in Step It Up and Go: The Story of North Carolina Popular Music, from Blind Boy Fuller and Doc Watson to Nina Simone and Superchunk

Superchunk never hit it big, but their label Merge Records did, scoring chart-topping records and an Album Of The Year Grammy Award with Montreal’s Arcade Fire. They were just the latest and greatest ... More

Superchunk never hit it big, but their label Merge Records did, scoring chart-topping records and an Album Of The Year Grammy Award with Montreal’s Arcade Fire. They were just the latest and greatest label in local history, going back to Colonial Records, which released Andy Griffith’s 1953 hit routine “What It Was, Was Football.” In Durham, Sugar Hill Records became one of the top bluegrass labels in the 1980s. But while other labels came and went, Merge was the one with the most staying power of all.Less

Music as Commodity

Nancy K. Baym

in Playing to the Crowd: Musicians, Audiences, and the Intimate Work of Connection

This chapter begins by laying out the confusing artists face as they try to make sense of the new media landscape. It begins with a history of music as a profession, focusing on how it moved from ... More

This chapter begins by laying out the confusing artists face as they try to make sense of the new media landscape. It begins with a history of music as a profession, focusing on how it moved from being seen as a participatory practice to a commodified one, separating musicians from audiences as it did, and changing how they related to their audiences. It discusses the rise and fall of major record labels and the shift to the digital. It argues that as the music industry has become decentralized, musicians have had to do more of the work for themselves. It closes with an analysis of the kinds of entrepreneurial and relational skills musicians need in this new environment.Less

Consolidation of a Life in Music

RON PEN

in I Wonder as I Wander: The Life of John Jacob Niles

When Niles was 65, his concerts slowed down and his younger audience were curious about his high voice and dramatic articulation. He began to consolidate his life works in recordings. Niles chose to ... More

When Niles was 65, his concerts slowed down and his younger audience were curious about his high voice and dramatic articulation. He began to consolidate his life works in recordings. Niles chose to record with Moses Asch, on a new label that seemed more supportive of his role as a folk artist. All three of Niles's albums for Disc were recorded in 1946 and released in 1947. Asch was more visionary than pragmatic, and the disc label folded one year later in 1948. Niles was distressed at the prospect of starting up another label with Asch, so John Jacob and Rena decided to control the recording business themselves.Less

Jeff Parker and the Chicago Jazz Scene

in Genre in Popular Music

This chapter investigates the tensions and contradictions in local discourses on jazz in Chicago. Jeff Parker is the main subject of this chapter because his activities cross many boundaries and ... More

This chapter investigates the tensions and contradictions in local discourses on jazz in Chicago. Jeff Parker is the main subject of this chapter because his activities cross many boundaries and because he is an excellent focal point for understanding the structure of the jazz scene. Some of his many collaborators, including Josh Abrams, Ted Sirota, and Tortoise, and their connections with local record labels and clubs are also considered. Ideology shapes the boundaries of jazz discourse in Chicago, though some gatekeepers pretend to be neutral. Chicago's cultural life is defined in relation to larger cities, especially New York and Los Angeles. Down Beat and Jazz Times dominate the genre discourse and sustain a hierarchy between different jazz cultures. Wire has become a leading voice in experimental music cultures with a hip cosmopolitan identity. Its editorial attitude became more self-conscious, and a canon began to take shape.Less

Gospel Singing as Black Popular Culture

Mark Burford

in Mahalia Jackson and the Black Gospel Field

Gospel music was integral to the culture of many black churches, but gospel singing offered pleasures to its practitioners and fans that extended beyond musical worship. In the late 1940s, Jackson’s ... More

Gospel music was integral to the culture of many black churches, but gospel singing offered pleasures to its practitioners and fans that extended beyond musical worship. In the late 1940s, Jackson’s career was interwoven with two phenomena that nudged black gospel singing toward the realm of popular culture: the “song battle” and the high-profile programs of religious music presented at Harlem’s Golden Gate Auditorium by promoter Johnny Myers. Pitting Jackson against such rivals as Roberta Martin and Ernestine Washington, the battle of song offered gospel singers alternate forms of prestige and extended to gospel audiences opportunities for active and engaged participation. Myers made instrumental use of the song battle format, deploying a roster of local talent and national stars and connections with New York–based independent record labels. It was through this Myers “syndicate” that Jackson was introduced to Apollo Records, launching her career as a recording artist.Less

. Hard Times

David W. Johnson

in Lonesome Melodies: The Lives and Music of the Stanley Brothers

This chapter describes the Stanley Brothers’ struggles in the early 1950s with no record label or steady radio show to promote them. In May 1952 they moved to station WOAY in Oak Hill, West Virginia, ... More

This chapter describes the Stanley Brothers’ struggles in the early 1950s with no record label or steady radio show to promote them. In May 1952 they moved to station WOAY in Oak Hill, West Virginia, repeating the pattern of doing radio shows to promote in-person performances, and, in mid-1952, without a contract, recorded four songs for Rich-R-Tone. But in the spring of 1953 the brothers signed with Mercury Records. During the Mercury years, Ralph also began writing songs as well as tunes, and was credited with contributing three songs to the band’s fifth Mercury session on November 28, 1954.Less

Shreveport Southern Soul: The Murco Story

John Ridley

in Shreveport Sounds in Black and White

This chapter focuses on the little-known record label Murco, which documented the Shreveport soul scene. Murco’s roots were in the Bayou Records store, a retail outlet purchased by local businessman ... More

This chapter focuses on the little-known record label Murco, which documented the Shreveport soul scene. Murco’s roots were in the Bayou Records store, a retail outlet purchased by local businessman Dee Marais in 1960. In addition to selling records, Marais occasionally recorded local musicians in the back of his store, and, from his base in Shreveport, Louisiana, issued most types of music from gospel through country to rock-and-roll. But between 1967 and 1973 he concentrated largely on soul.Less

Death

S. Alexander Reed

in Assimilate: A Critical History of Industrial Music

This chapter considers changes in the industrial music scene during the 1990s. The period was marred by a number of high-profile deaths including the death of Chicago scenester poet Lorri Jackson in ... More

This chapter considers changes in the industrial music scene during the 1990s. The period was marred by a number of high-profile deaths including the death of Chicago scenester poet Lorri Jackson in October 1990 from a heroin overdose; Jeff Ward, the drummer for Ministry side project Lard committed suicide during that decade; AIDS claimed both singer Dean Russell of Moev and Hans Schiller of the San Francisco-based EBM act Kode IV also in the 1990s; in 1995, Lee Newman of former WaxTrax! band Greater Than One died of cancer. The chapter also describes the near convergence of gothic and industrial audiences, the rebirth of underground industrial music, and how independent labels fostered an alternative to the poisonous ambitions of rock stardom.Less

“This Is Going to Be Good for All of Us”: Tango and the Cultural Industries

Morgan James Luker

in The Tango Machine: Musical Culture in the Age of Expediency

This chapter contrasts the valorization of heritage-making efforts with the equally powerful discourses of cultural diversity, which are now broadly institutionalized within governmental engagements ... More

This chapter contrasts the valorization of heritage-making efforts with the equally powerful discourses of cultural diversity, which are now broadly institutionalized within governmental engagements with culture and the arts. Diversity, in this context, does not refer to any kind of ethnic and/or racial difference but to variety in media content and point of origin. As a key concept in contemporary cultural policymaking efforts, diversity discourses play a crucial role in shaping the form, content, meaning, and circulation of musical sounds and practices, including tango. This chapter focuses on how these discourses have been put into practice, concentrating on the activities of the discográficas (record label) program of the city government of Buenos Aires’s Sub-Secretariat of Cultural Industries. Dedicated to developing the local music industry as both an economic and cultural resource, the discográficas program mobilizes musical diversity as a means of reconfiguring the economic, social, and cultural domains of the city. These policies both extend the reach of state authority into new domains and attempt to account for at least some of the demands of previously silenced groups.Less

Final Years: Concert Stage and a Return to Broadway, 1971–1983

Richard Carlin and Ken Bloom

in Eubie Blake: Rags, Rhythm, and Race

The final chapter examines Eubie’s revived career on stage and record in the 1970s and 1980s. Furthermore, the chapter discusses key figures who played a role in promoting his career, including ... More

The final chapter examines Eubie’s revived career on stage and record in the 1970s and 1980s. Furthermore, the chapter discusses key figures who played a role in promoting his career, including historian Robert Kimball; composer/pianist William Bolcom and his wife, singer Joan Morris; recording engineer Carl Seltzer, who partnered with Eubie in forming Eubie Blake Music (Eubie’s record label and publishing company); and lawyer Elliot Hoffman, who championed and protected Blake’s work. The chapter also explores the impact of the mental decline and deaths of Noble Sissle and Andy Razaf on Eubie; Julianne Boyd’s production of a new musical review, Eubie!, which brought his return to Broadway; the show’s development and casting, including bringing Maurice and Gregory Hines to Broadway and their subsequent success; and difficulties dealing with the show’s producer, Ashton Springer. Finally, the chapter relates Eubie’s complex feelings about racism; his work with two biographers, African American journalist Lawrence Carter and jazz writer Al Rose; Rose’s fights with Elliot Hoffman over the writing and publication of his biography; late accolades; and Eubie’s final performances and death.Less

. Making Record Time

David W. Johnson

in Lonesome Melodies: The Lives and Music of the Stanley Brothers

This chapter describes the Stanley Brothers’ recordings for the Rich-R-Tone label, run by Hobart Stanton. For their recording sessions, Stanton brought the brothers into the studio of rival Bristol ... More

This chapter describes the Stanley Brothers’ recordings for the Rich-R-Tone label, run by Hobart Stanton. For their recording sessions, Stanton brought the brothers into the studio of rival Bristol radio station WOPI, which was located a few blocks from WCYB. The Rich-R-Tone recordings hold special significance because they identified the roots of the Stanley Brothers’ music.Less