![]() ![]() Additionally, 30 years of radio had created a largely musically illiterate public. Since these artists were under contract to the record companies this gave the record companies increased power as compared to publishers. But Rock ’n’ Roll more and more often combined the two into one. Previously, songs were written by composers and performed by performers. The nature of Rock ’n’ Roll music also helped to change the industry. This was especially due to Americans moving to the suburbs and buying more cars which had built-in radios. Radio, by eliminating live performance and simply playing recordings (due to a hobbled Musicians’ Union from the collapse of the dance band industry) was able to lower its costs and capture a market share as well. The record industry boomed again with increased prosperity and TV variety shows, with performances by new musical artists (especially those playing Rock ’n’ Roll which young people were crazy for), served as marketing fuel for the record industry’s success. In the early ’50s the boom in TV set ownership offered a new medium for music. ![]() This model continued through the mid 1940s.Īfter the war the dance band business began to fade as soldiers and their sweethearts settled down into domestic life en masse. The jukebox industry also began to boom, which increased the sale of records. In the late ’30s, as the US started to come out of the depression, the advent of swing music drove young people to buy records again. But, the new “soundie” technology created a boom in Hollywood and songwriters and performers found a new home in talking pictures. In the 1930s the recording industry dipped with the great depression as Americans began to favor radio (since it was free). It was the first time that American audiences could simultaneously (more or less) all connect to the same new songs and artists. Radio not only paid artists to perform live (playing a recording on-air was unheard of) but it served as a marketing tool for new songs, new musicals, and for performers’ live appearances. There entered the advertising model which has supported radio for generations (with the exception of Public Radio) and now, in the 21st century, also provides the model for streaming services like Spotify. (After all, you can’t sell radios if there’s nothing being broadcast.) At first the programming was free, but radio producers soon realized they had sold nearly everyone a radio and they needed a way to generate a new stream of revenue. In the 1920s radio set producers started broadcast networks. This was yet another source of opportunity for publishers, artists, writers and record companies to earn revenue.īut the biggest boom came with radio. Simultaneously, the technology for recording performances onto a record became better and better, and more and more Americans purchased record players and albums. The “band business” became a huge market between WW1 and WW2. As Vernon and Irene Castle made ballroom dancing all the rage in the 1910s (it was seen as unwholesome by many in the US prior to the Castles) there became a larger and larger demand for dance bands, and published arrangements of popular songs for them to play. The 20th century expanded this model of mass distribution. The constant production of new songs that could capture the public’s attention became a booming model for publishers and songwriters. (Al Jolson famously insisted on including his name as a co-writer on songs he had nothing to do with writing so that he would receive royalties in exchange for making a song famous.) Publishers were able to sell thousands and thousands of copies sheet music to the musically literate public of “hit songs” to be played at home on their pianos. A song could become a “hit” if it was part of a successful operetta (the Merry Widow was famous for its successful merchandising efforts) or if a well-known, touring minstrel or, later, vaudeville performer performed the song repeatedly across the country. In the mid-1800s however there became some opportunities to “mass market” music. In the 1700s and 1800s, music was largely funded by the state, the church, and wealthy private patrons, or was simply played in the home by amateurs. ![]() During the 20th Century music became big business, but the 21st Century may lead us back to an older mode of existence for artists. ![]()
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