CHAPTER ESSENTIALS

• In the development stage of sound recording, early inventors experimented with sound technology; in the entrepreneurial stage, people sought to make money from this technology; finally, in the mass medium stage, entrepreneurs learned how they could cheaply produce and distribute recorded music to large audiences (pp. 148–150).

• The introduction of magnetic audiotape (which made possible sound editing and multiple-track mixing, with vocals or instrumentals recorded at one location and later mixed onto a master recording in a studio) and tape players in the 1940s paved the way for innovations such as cassettes in the mid-1960s; the commercial use in the 1950s of stereo (more specifically, stereophonic sound, which created a more natural sound by improving on this 1930s invention); and digital recording in the 1970s, which stands in contrast to analog recording. Using digital technology, the first compact discs (CDs)—produced more cheaply than vinyl and audiocassettes—were first sold in 1983 (pp. 150–151).

• In 1992, the MP3 file format was developed as part of a video compression standard, enabling sound to be compressed into small, manageable digital files. This allowed people to easily download music, thereby reducing sales of CDs and other physical formats, revolutionizing the sound recording industry, and shifting the rocky relationship between record labels and radio stations (pp. 151–154).

• As sound recording became a mass medium, it fueled the growth of pop music, which arose out of sheet-music sales. Pop music became a major enterprise, with numerous genres evolving from a common foundation, the first of which were blues and jazz (whose early artists often performed cover music) (pp. 154–155, 158).

• Pop music’s appeal grew quickly, ushering in rock and roll in the mid-1950s. Rock’s strongest influences can be traced back to blues (whose roots come from African American songs from the rural South) and rhythm and blues, or R&B (blues-based urban black music that emerged with the introduction of the electric guitar) (pp. 158–159).

• Rock both reflected and shaped powerful social forces, such as blacks’ migration from the South to the North and the growth of youth culture. It also blurred the boundaries between black and white, and broke down divisions between high and low culture, masculinity and femininity, country and city (white rockers combined country or hillbilly music, southern gospel, and Mississippi delta blues to create a sound called rockabilly), North and South, and the sacred and the secular (pp. 159–162).

• Due to rock’s social and cultural influence, it stirred controversies that eroded its acceptance. These controversies included black artists’ frustration with being undermined by white cover music, and censorship by officials who thought rock turned young people into delinquents (pp. 159–160).

• Despite authorities’ attempts to “tame” rock, it would continue to grow even across national borders, influenced by the emergence of the Rolling Stones and the Beatles in the 1960s, all the while reflecting social, cultural, and political shifts of the time (pp. 162–163).

• As pop adapted to the times, it led to the creation of numerous genres over the next few decades, including soul, folk music, psychedelic music, and eventually punk rock, grunge, alternative rock, indie rock, hip-hop, gangster rap, and country (pp. 163–169).

• Over the years, the recording industry has undergone a shift in its power structure—from numerous competing labels and independent production houses, or indies, to a few major labels swallowing up the indies and buying each other out (pp. 170–171).

• The recording industry makes money through music sales, though selling music has become increasingly challenging in the digital age as a result of file-sharing undercutting CD sales, and online retailers and digital downloading undermining music stores and cutting into the sale of CDs (pp. 171, 174).

• The recording industry spends money to produce the music, including employing people and investing in equipment and other resources to get the job done. The process begins with A&R (artist and repertoire) agents, who are the talent scouts of the business (pp. 174–175).

• Artists and businesspeople divide profits based on CD prices, manufacturing costs, CD packaging design, advertising and promotion, and artists’ royalties. As of 2008, the rules for dividing digital download profits became more standardized (pp. 175–177).

• Popular music has raised many questions about music’s role in our democracy, such as what people should be allowed to say in a song and whether or not they are protected under the First Amendment (p. 177).

• The challenge becomes how to support freedom of expression while resisting powerful control by companies whose profit motives are usually paramount (p. 177).

1. Question 5.1

   How did sound recording survive the advent of radio and the Great Depression?

2. Question 5.2

   How did rock and roll significantly influence two mass media industries?

3. Question 5.3

   Why did hip-hop and punk rock emerge as significant musical forms in the late 1970s and 1980s? What do their developments have in common, and how are they different?

4. Question 5.4

   What accounts for the cost of a typical CD recording? Where do the profits go? Where does the revenue from an iTunes download go?

5. Question 5.5

   Why do so many forms of alternative music become commercially successful? Explain this in economic terms.

• DESCRIBE what kind of music the label specializes in. Is the label limited to one genre or type of music? What/who are some of the groups or artists that the label produces? How does the label distribute its recordings to consumers?

• ANALYZE the patterns. Does the variety of groups and artists the label produces suggest a type of fan the label is targeting? What methods does the label use to promote artists and reach its listeners? Is the label independent or part of a larger recording-industry company?

• INTERPRET your research. What do you see as the major problems facing your label specifically and the industry in general? How do smaller labels overcome these problems?

• EVALUATE the impact of the current industry system on the quality of music produced by your label (and by the industry in general).

• ENGAGE with your community. Try to contact someone from the label—an artist, a producer, or an executive—and pose some of these questions to that person. From this exercise, you are trying to get a sense of the obstacles musicians and artists face in trying to make careers out of their talent and performances.