M5Q3- Paul Anka

 

Paul Anka is a famous Canadian singer, songwriter and actor. He began his career as a teenager at age 14 when he recorded his first single “I Confess.” It was his hit song “Diana” that launched his career as it reached number one on US and Canadian music charts and sold more than 20 million copies. In the late 1950’s, Paul Anka was travelling the world performing for his dedicated fans all before his 20^th birthday.¹

 

 

Paul Anka also tried his hand at acting in the 1960’s and starred in the movie “The Longest Day”, which he also wrote the theme music for. Paul Anka faced challenges when young peoples taste in music began to change from the pop music he was famous for to rock and

roll and the likes of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Paul Anka’s solution to this was to market himself to a more mature audience and leave his teen singer image behind.² He performed in various nightclubs in New York City, Las Vegas and Los Angeles in order to target an older audience. Throughout the 1960’s- 1980’s Paul Anka toured, released records and continued song writing. He wrote the theme song for The Tonight Show and wrote “My Way”, a hit classic for his friend Frank Sinatra. To date, Paul Anka has released more

than 120 albums and written and/or collaborated on roughly 900 songs. His accomplishments lead him to be inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008.³ An extensive list of Paul Anka’s work can be found here.

 

 

Anka differed from other crooners of the era in that his remarkable songwriting abilities were and still are multifaceted and diverse. It is this special gift that has allowed Anka to have a long and successful career. He has written songs for artists such as Frank Sinatra, Tom Jones, Buddy Holly and Michael Jackson. Paul Anka also released a successful Spanish album entitled “Amigos.”⁴         

Paul Anka has received many awards for his contributions to music in Canada including being the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame, being inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and Canada’s Walk of Fame.^5,6,7

Interesting Fact: The track “Don’t Matter to Me” featuring Michael Jackson on Drake’s new album Scorpion, has Paul Anka listed as co-writer. This is because Michael Jackson and Paul Anka teamed up in 1983 to create a duets album together. They worked together for about a month before Michael Jackson released Thriller and much of their duet work went into storage.⁸

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. “Paul Anka Biography.” Biography. https://www.biography.com/people/paul-anka-3424 (accessed July 17, 2018)

2. Cole, Rachel. “Paul Anka.” Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paul-Anka (accessed July 17, 2018)

3. King, Betty. “Paul Anka.” The Canadian Encyclopedia. https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/paul-anka-emc/ (accessed July 16, 2018)

4. O’Connor, Austin. “10 Things You May Not Know About Paul Anka” AARP. https://www.aarp.org/entertainment/music/info-04-2013/10-things-about-paul-anka (accessed July 17, 2018)

5. “Paul Anka” Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. http://www.cshf.ca/songwriter/paul-anka/   (accessed July 17, 2018)

6. “Canadian Music Week Announces Paul Anka as the Recipient” Canadian Music Week. http://cmw.net/canadian-music-week-announces-paul-anka-recipient-lifetime-achievement-award-canadian-music-industry-hall-fame/ (accessed July 17, 2018)

7. “Paul Anka” Canada’s Walk of Fame. https://www.canadaswalkoffame.com/inductees/2005/paul-anka (accessed July 18, 2018)

8. “How Paul Anka brought Michael Jackson to Drake’s new album Scorpion.” CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/anka-drake-dont-matter-to-me-1.4728229 (accessed July 18, 2018)

 

M6Q3   The Payola Scandal

Payola can be defined as “a secret or private payment in return for the promotion of a product, service, etc., through the abuse of one’s position, influence, or facilities.”¹ In the 1950’s and even today this means private payment or bribery from a record company or artist for radio play to increase popularity of a song and/or record without the public knowing.

In 1959, when the payola scandal occurred, radio air play was the number one way for record labels to promote their artists, giving disc jockeys a great amount of power. Record labels wanted listeners to hear their artists and therefore took matters into their own hands by paying (or giving other incentives) disc jockeys for air play. The extent of the payments ranged from a couple hundred dollars to Chicago DJ Phil Lind admitting to accepting $22,000 to play one record.² The practise of payola became so prevalent that eventually an investigation was launched by the US government.³

 

Dick Clark and Alan Freed were two major players caught up in the payola scandal. Alan    Freed, the disc jockey who essentially gave “rock and roll” its name, ended up taking the fall for many corrupt disc jockeys and the payola scandal ultimately cost him his career.⁴ Dick Clark, business man and host of popular TV show American Bandstand, testified before congress in 1960 and was not charged for any crimes and went on to have a successful career including creating and producing the American Music Awards show.⁵ He was required to dissolve all of his musical interests and shares to save his TV career.

 

 

 

 

The Federal Communications act was amended and payola officially became illegal in 1960, making it a misdemeanor charge.⁶ People guilty of payola face fines of $10,000 and/or prison for one year or less. This took away much of the power that disc jockeys had as they now did not have the power to decide what was played. On radio stations today, broadcasters are required to disclose to listeners when information is aired in exchange for money or services and/or when sponsorships are involved.⁷

Even after payola became illegal it still went on under-the-table and still does today. Payola is the reason why you won’t hear many undiscovered artists and groups on the radio. Instead, there are artists you hear repeatedly and repetition almost forces us to enjoy whatever is on the radio. You can also find payola on television and internet. In 2015, it was revealed that many music labels were making payments to Spotify in order to get songs on certain playlists.⁸ Not to mention the leaked Sony- Spotify contract revealing millions in advanced payments and advertisements for Sony on Spotify.⁹ It has become normal for major music label marketing teams to include playlist promotion (soliciting of songs to streaming companies) in their marketing strategies.¹⁰

For upcoming artists, this means an uphill battle to get their music heard as it costs around $300,000 to get a song on radio at a national level.¹¹ I believe it has a negative impact on the music industry as many talented artists are not able to get their music out at a large scale due to major music labels paying for spots on playlists and top charts. Artists today can use free social media websites (Facebook, Instagram Twitter) to help get their voices heard which was not the case in the 1960’s. Payola has also become a lot more complicated today than simply slipping a disc jockey $200 and a record. A lot goes on under the table and much of the public does not know which major music labels own large percentages in Spotify, Deezer and other streaming services and therefore can influence who is on the top charts and popular playlists.

In todays society this can be tied into “social media influencers” who are paid to promote certain products. Instead of products becoming popular on their own from people buying them and enjoying the product, social media influencers are offered monetary compensation in exchange for promoting certain products. This occurs extensively on Instagram and YouTube. Although influencers are required to state if it is an advertisement or paid promotion/partnership, promotions like these can significantly boost sales depending on the influencers size of following.