Ed Sheeran is a 27-year-old singer-songwriter from the United Kingdom who has captured the attention of the world with his profound lyrics, authentic voice, and raw performance style. He rose to stardom in 2013 with the release of his first hit single, “The A-Team”, an acoustic song that came at a time when popular music was beginning to take on a slower pace. Songs like Sam Smith’s,“Stay With Me” and John Legend’s, “All of Me” were dominating the charts, showing people’s desire for slower songs with beautiful voices. Sheeran’s style catered to that change in tempo, leading him to become a popular artist that would eventually contribute to the changing style of popular music (Lipshutz, 2015).

Ed Sheeran began playing guitar and writing songs at a very young age, proving his natural artistic abilities. He worked hard for years before being discovered and signed with Atlantic Records in 2011. Sheeran put his writing skills to use in creating his debut album, “+” that same year and helping extremely famous artists such as One Direction and Taylor Swift write well-known songs (Biography.com, 2018).

In 2014, Ed Sheeran released his second studio album that contained chart-topping songs. The time of this album is when people really started to fall in love with Ed Sheeran and particularly his songs, “Don’t“, “Photograph“, and “Thinking Out Loud“. It was with this album he won his first and second Grammys and starting making his place in history when “Thinking Out Loud” was named Song of the Year and Best Solo Pop Performance (Biography.com, 2018).

Sheeran’s third album titled, “Divide” was released in 2017. This album features 16 tracks, each with moderate to extreme differences in sound and style than the one before. It, of course, has Sheeran’s classic ballads but also has songs that tap into different genres and cultures (Weatherby, 2017). The diversity of this album has brought something different into pop music and has the potential to influence the direction of popular music. It seems he isn’t afraid of drawing outside the lines and doesn’t care to only create the typical, commercially pleasing songs. Sheeran brings culture into his album with the Irish-influenced, “Galway Girl”, African-Influenced “Bibia Be Ye Ye”, and Spanish-influenced “Barcelona”. Through these songs, Ed has brought different cultures into popular music and penetrated the walls of mainstream pop music.

The Divide album resulted in Sheeran’s third and fourth Grammy with “Shape of You” winning Best Pop Solo Performance and the album winning Best Pop Vocal Album (Biography.com, 2018). Divide was declared the biggest album of 2017, which is no small feat considering that year included Taylor Swift’s comeback album, “Reputation” and Kendrick Lamar’s groundbreaking album, “DAMN” (McIntyre, 2018).

Ed Sheeran is categorized as a pop artist, but his repertoire goes far beyond traditional pop (Apple Music, 2018). Sheeran exhibits folk, hip-hop, and even rap styles in a lot of his music, showing his complexity as an artist. It takes pure talent to pull off so many different styles of music and Ed Sheeran pulls it off so effortlessly, making me believe he will be remembered for this talent far into the future.

Performance Style

Ed Sheeran’s performance style makes him unique as an artist. He does not use a band to accompany him, but rather uses a loop station to deliver his music one hundred percent by himself (Roy, 2017).  While researching Sheeran’s use of the loop station, I found quotes from Gary Dunne, the man who taught Sheeran how to use looping, and found that his perspective perfectly explained why Ed is so impressive for using this station. Dunne explained what Sheeran does on stage as having “complexity and vulnerability” to it considering if he presses one button even a fraction of a second too early, the whole song could fall out of beat (Chalk, 2017). His explanation made me realize how completely immersed in the music Sheeran is while on stage. This performance technique allows him to be the entire maker of his musical art, which is something a lot of artists today cannot say about themselves.

“It’s like watching a painter live paint a picture while doing something else at the same time – to a global TV audience. The pressure is insane!”- Gary Dunne

Sheeran’s raw performance style is another reason I believe he will be written about in textbooks. He’s managing to sell-out arenas and play to those large crowds with the confidence and sheer talent necessary to brave a crowd by himself. There are no theatrics involved nor can Sheeran abandon his looping pedal to run around the stage to engage his audience. It is solely up to his voice, his instruments, and his looping pedal to wow the crowds: a task he handles brilliantly. He will be remembered for this authentic and rare performance style that undoubtedly sets him apart from other pop stars of this generation.

“There are so many singer-songwriters who do what I do that play with a band. Everyone walks away from me and thinking, ‘I’ve never seen that before.’ As soon as you lose that element of ‘wow’ you’re just like everyone else.”- Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran’s Influence

The influence of Ed Sheeran is evident in popular music today. One of the biggest male pop stars, aside from Justin Bieber and Ed Sheeran, is a singer-songwriter named Shawn Mendes. It could be argued that Mendes’s folksy, Ed Sheeran-like music is so popular because Sheeran led people to fall in love with this type of music by having them fall in love with his own music. He paved the way for artists such as Mendes to have a place in mainstream music (Lipshutz, 2015).  Not only has Sheeran influenced the sound of pop music, but he has also influenced the songs in pop music. Sheeran has written countless hit songs for other artists, taking his influence to new heights and securing him a place in history.

 

Work Cited:

Chalk, Interview Will. “The Man Who Taught Ed Sheeran How to Use a Loop Pedal – BBC Newsbeat.” BBC. June 27, 2017. Accessed August 11, 2018. http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/40418376/the-man-who-taught-ed-sheeran-how-to-use-a-loop-pedal.

Chesterton, George. “How Ed Sheeran Became the Biggest Male Popstar on the Planet.” GQ. September 11, 2017. Accessed August 11, 2018. https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/ed-sheeran-new-album-divide.

“Ed Sheeran.” Biography.com. June 30, 2018. Accessed August 11, 2018. https://www.biography.com/people/ed-sheeran.

“‎Ed Sheeran on Apple Music.” Apple Music. Accessed August 11, 2018. https://itunes.apple.com/ca/artist/ed-sheeran/183313439

Lipshutz, Jason. “The Sheeran Effect: Observing The Beginnings of Ed Sheeran’s Influence on Pop.” Billboard. February 18, 2015. Accessed August 11, 2018. https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop-shop/6473105/ed-sheeran-influencing-pop-shawn-mendes-cody-simpson

McIntyre, Hugh. “Ed Sheeran’s ‘Divide’ Ends 2017 As The Biggest Album Of The Year.” Forbes. January 03, 2018. Accessed August 11, 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2018/01/03/ed-sheerans-divide-ends-2017-as-the-biggest-album-of-the-year/#75fe92c33f04.

Weatherby, Taylor. “Ed Sheeran’s ‘Divide’: Superlatives for All 16 Tracks on the Album.” Billboard. March 08, 2017. Accessed August 11, 2018. https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/7710111/ed-sheeran-divide-album-songs-superlatives.

 

 

 

The practice of payola has had a significant impact on the history of popular American music and remains to be prevalent in the modern music industry. Payola was the practice of recording companies bribing a person of power at a music broadcasting platform to play their songs on the radio. When the term “payola” was coined by Vanity Fair in 1938, the practice had yet to boom and ultimately implode (Shinn, 2012).

Disc Jockeys: The Kings of Radio

In the 1950s, radio station disc jockeys, more commonly known as “DJs” today, became people of power as they solely controlled which songs were played on the radio. This ultimately gave them the power to decide which songs would become popular as radio exposure was, and remains to be, the biggest determining factor for which songs climb high on the charts. The two most powerful disc jockeys during the time of payola were Alan Freed and Dick Clark. Every recording agency competed for the attention of Freed and Clark, showering them with large sums of money, song royalties, and other lavish items (Shinn, 2012).  Letting fate decide whether or not a song got played on the radio was too big of a risk that recording companies were not willing to take. Payola became such a prevalent practice that it was no longer a matter of extra exposure, but a matter of any exposure at all. Money had to be put into radio bribes in order for Record companies to expect a spot on the charts and profits.

The Rise of Payola:

Prior to 1940, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) was the sole monopoly in the music recording industry. ASCAP’s reign ended, however, when a competing recording company, Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) entered the industry in the 1940s. BMI recorded songs outside of the popular genres that ASCAP recorded and radios played. For this reason, BMI had to pay disc jockeys to play their music, beginning the payola battle. With so much airtime being bought by BMI, ASCAP began to struggle to get their songs played on air. Payola wasn’t openly discussed within the industry, but it also wasn’t a secret. This, however, changed when ASCAP got fed up with BMI buying all of the radio airtime and decided to air the industry’s dirty laundry (Schinn, 2012).

The word ASCAP spread about payola only partly contributed to the exposure of this practice. When a couple popular game shows in the 1950s were revealed to be rigged, investigations were carried out and suspicions were raised regarding the media industry as a whole. This led to Congress taking the payola rumors seriously and starting a formal investigation into the matter (Neira, n.d.).

The Investigation:

Alan Freed was asked to sign an affidavit saying he never accepted payola and was fired when he refused to do so (Fong-Torres, n.d.).  Freed and several other disk jockeys, including the famous, Dick Clark had to testify in front of this investigation’s subcommittee. After the resolution of the investigation, Freed’s career was ruined while Clark managed to make it out unscathed.

 

The Result:

In 1960, Congress enacted legislation to contain payola in the Federal Communications Act of 1960. This act stated that if some form of payment was received in place of airing a song on the radio, the payment had to be disclosed to the public on air (Schinn, 2012). One of the main issues Congress had with payola was the fact the public was being misled about how and why songs made it onto the radio (History.com, 2009). This legislation protected the public from ignorance and made payola more difficult to practice. Payola wasn’t outlawed, but more so re-organized to avoid disrespecting the public’s trust.

Modern Payola

Despite legislation, payola still exists today, but in different forms. In this day and age, streaming services have taken over the music world. Radio is still prevalent and influential in pop culture, but streaming services have become a very popular form of listening to music. It has now become detrimental for recording agencies to have their songs played on these services like Spotify and Apple Music, which has caused the payola practice to migrate into the streaming world (Peoples, 2015).

To get a song on a streaming playlist can cost between $2000 and $10000 depending on the number of followers that playlist has. Getting a song on a highly followed playlist can quickly make a song go viral and further getting it played on the radio because of its popularity (Peoples, 2015).

After researching the practice of payola, I have mixed feelings about whether or not it is a serious issue. I sympathize greatly with the independent artists and small, start-up recording companies who can’t compete with the large recording companies deep pockets a, therefore, have trouble reaching success. Even though payola exists in modern streaming services, there are also modern opportunities for independent artists that did not exist before. Apple Music, for example, has created a helpful platform for independent artists to reach success. This does not eliminate the problem of payola, but it at least balances it out.

Regarding the public, I do believe it is unfair for hit lists on the radio and streaming services to be manufactured by payola rather than the actual merit of a song. This misleads listeners and takes away their part in influencing pop culture.

 

Work Cited:

Fairchild, Charles. “Alan Freed Still Casts a Long Shadow: The Persistence of Payola and The Ambiguous Value of Music.” 34, no. 3 (2012): 328-342. Assessed July 16^th, 2018. https://doi-org.cyber.usask.ca/10.1177/0163443711433667

Fong-Torres, Ben. “Biography | Alan Freed.com. ” Alan Freed. Accessed July 17, 2018. http://www.alanfreed.com/wp/biography/.

Messitte, Nick. “How Payola Laws Keep Independent Artists Off Mainstream Radio  .” Forbes. November 30, 2014. Accessed July 16, 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmessitte/2014/11/30/how-payola-laws-keep-independent-artists-off-mainstream-radio/#25c6ddd8519f.

Neira, Bob. “Payola Scandal Rocks 50’s Radio.” Modesto Radio Museum. Accessed July 17, 2018. http://www.modestoradiomuseum.org/payola.html.

Peoples, Glenn. “How ‘Playola’ Is Infiltrating Streaming Services: Pay for Play Is ‘Definitely Happening’.” Billboard. August 20, 2015. Accessed July 16, 2018. https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/6670475/playola-promotion-streaming-services.

Shinn, S. Erin. “The Evolution and Effects of Payola on Popular Culture.” Texas Tech University. May 2004. Accessed July 16^th, 2018.  https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/ttu-ir/bitstream/handle/2346/23324/31295019381150.pdf?sequence=1

“The Payola Scandal Heats up.” History.com. Accessed July 16, 2018. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-payola-scandal-heats-up.

 

Born on May 26, 1883, in Cinncinati, Ohio, Mamie Gardner entered a world without blues music… a world she would change. By the age of 10, Mamie was performing as a vaudeville entertainer, continued on to tour with a minstrel troupe by 1910, and assumed her recognizable last name in 1912 when she married singer William “Smitty” Smith (Garner, 2018). Mamie began showcasing her many talents when she moved to Harlem and began work as a cabernet dancer, singer, and pianist. In 1918 she would have her first, but certainly not last run-in with legendary composer, Perry Bradford when she appeared in his musical, “Made in Harlem”(AAR, 2018).  What Mamie didn’t know at this point, was that her career and place in music history would, coincidentally, be made in Harlem. She recorded her first two songs in February 1920 called “You Can’t Keep a Good Man Down” and “A Little Thing Called Love” composed by Perry Bradford and produced by Okeh Records (Garner, 2018).

August 10, 1920: a historic day for Mamie Smit, African Americans, and American pop culture.

The song “Crazy Blues” was composed by Perry Bradford and later recorded by Okeh Studios on August 10, 1920 (Garner, 2018). This song sold one million copies within the first six months of its release, which quickly made Mamie Smith a household name. Although this song does not fully classify as a blues song, but rather a blues-influenced popular song, it is still widely considered to be the first blues recording in history (Campbell, 2013). The outstanding success of this song sparked a revolution in the music industry as other music producers began searching for female African American singers to capitalize on the newly-discovered “race record” market (Garner, 2018). Mamie Smith broke the glass ceiling and created the opportunity for future black female singers to also make history.

Smith’s success came at one of the tensest times in American history between white and black Americans. Post World War 1, many African Americans migrated to Northern cities like New York and Chicago where they were met with resistance from the many white Americans. It was this resistance that threatened the production of Smith’s songs. Fred Hager, recording director of Okeh Records, received boycott threats from pressure groups warning him not to produce songs by Mamie Smith or any African Americans. Despite the threats, Hager took a chance on Smith and exploded her career (Simins, 2016).

“He (Hager) pried open that old ‘prejudiced door’ for the first coloured girl, Mamie Smith”- Perry Bradford

Despite the racial conflicts at the time of Mamie’s rise to fame, she continuously broke through barriers as she went on tour and sold-out shows in majorly white populated cities. On April 23, 1921, Mamie performed in front of a sold-out crowd in Richmond, Indiana, a town that was only 5% African American populated and where 45% of white males belonged to the Ku Klux Klan at one point. Mamie Smith was part of a time of cultural appropriation where white Americans would separate the African American music they loved from the African American Culture they oppressed (Simins, 2016).

 

Mamie was said to have been glamorous and display her wealth through her gorgeous clothing and jewelry (Garner, 2018). It could be assumed the white Americans were able to forget about their distasteful thoughts towards black Americans when it came to Mamie because she displayed a high-class persona that was associated with the dominant white culture.

“You Can’t Keep a Good Man Down”

This song starts out with a higher tempo form of the melody that transgresses into a short, upbeat riff that finally takes us into the smooth playing of the slower melody of the song. The trombone instrumentation becomes very pronounced in the first chorus as the dynamics of the trombone notes get louder and come into the song at consistent intervals. Throughout the entire song, there is a consistent melody coming from the other instrumentation of the Jazz Hounds. I particularly picked up on the smooth playing of the saxophone, the piano and the trombone, which gave texture to this piece of music. This song was one of Mamie’s first songs to be recorded by Okeh Records. This recording got Mamie’s foot in the door at Okeh Records and provided her the start to her career that would later explode because of further recording opportunities.

“That Thing Called Love”

This song also starts with a higher tempo instrumentation that slows down dramatically at the time of Mamie’s vocal entry. I can hear the presence of piano chords which in the chorus which in my opinion, add a more pronounced beat to the song. The chorus also includes beautiful note progressions from the saxophone which adds texture to the song. This was also one of Mamie’s first songs she had recorded that helped set the foundation that later on gave her the opportunity to record her smash hit, “Crazy Blues.”

“Crazy Blues”

This is one of her more upbeat songs with higher-tempo instrumentation and higher-pitched vocals that take away the smoothness present in her other two songs posted on this blog. The trombone has a strong presence throughout the entire song, mainly offering accent notes. The background clarinet instrumentation has a considerably high tempo and at times does not seem to fit the tempo of the vocals, which creates a listening conflict for me personally. This song was a major contribution to the race record market and opened the door for other female African American singers. The history made and large amount of records sold because of this song led to “Crazy Blues” being inducted into the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in 1994, making it Mamie’s Smith most influential piece of work (Gussow, 2002).

Following the success of “Crazy Blues”, Smith toured with the Jazz Hounds in the 1930s where she displayed performance style that was said to be full of animation and her infectious smile and personality (Gussow, 2015). She later progressed into a career in film when she appeared in some African American films in 1940. It is difficult to find extensive, credible information on the death of Mamie Smith, but she is said to have died in 1946 in Harlem (Garner, 2018).

Work Cited:

Callaloo. 25, no. 1 (2002): 8-44. Assessed July 13, 2018.  https://www-jstor-org.cyber.usask.ca/stable/3300383

Campbell, Michael. Popular Music in America: The Beat Goes On. 4th ed.* Boston: Schirmer/Cengage Learning, 2013.

“Cincinnati’s Own, Mamie Smith.” African American Registry. Accessed July 13, 2018. https://aaregistry.org/story/cincinnatis-own-mamie-smith/.

Simins, Jill Weiss. “”Oh Boy! She’s Coming to Richmond”: Mamie Smith Brings the “Crazy Blues,” 1921.” Hoosier State Chronicles: Indiana’s Digital Newspaper Program. July 03, 2017. Accessed July 13, 2018. https://blog.newspapers.library.in.gov/mamie-smith/.

“Smith, Mamie (1883-1946) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed.” St. Clair, Stephanie (1886–1969) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed. Accessed July 13, 2018. http://www.blackpast.org/aah/smith-mamie-1883-1946.