Humble Beginnings

On April 16^th, 1972 in Lake Jackson Texas, the Queen of Tejano was born – although Selena Quintanilla-Perez would not be dubbed with such an iconic title for a few years yet to come. Music ran deep through Selena’s blood: her father Abraham had been a vocalist in his childhood, and he was the one who recognized her natural talent for singing when she was only six years old.[1] Shortly after Abraham realized his young daughter’s amazing voice, she began performing at her father’s Tex-Mex restaurant.[2] Abraham’s restaurant went bankrupt within a year, which led to the Quintanilla family pursuing music more seriously. At the tender age of 9, Selena joined the band “Selena y Los Dinos” as the front vocalist, touring around the South of Texas for about six years.[3]

The Peak Years

In 1987, Selena won the Female Vocalist and Female Performer of the year at the Tejano Music Awards, which led to a major breakthrough for her career. By the late 1980s, Selena was known as the Queen of Tejano and was signed to EMI Latin Records with a 6-figure record deal. Selena’s popularity grew out of the Latin and Latin-American market – an interesting fact considering that Selena was barely able to speak in Spanish until she gained notoriety and realized that being fluent in Spanish would be beneficial to her career.[4] Some of her songs showcase Selena’s lack of Spanish-speaking skills: even after years of practice learning the language, she still struggle trilling her “r”s correctly and speaking without her Texas-twanged accent.[5] Mainstream American society began to appreciate Selena in the 90’s, which led to her receiving a Grammy for Best Mexican-American Album in 1994. Selena’s band was the first Tejano group to make Billboard’s Latin Top 200 list of all-time best-selling records, which was certainly a historic moment for the Tejano movement.

Other Business Ventures

After Selena gained fame from her vocal talent, she also dabbled into television, film, advertisement, and retail. Some of her various features include the Johnny Canales Show, Don Juan DeMarco, as well as an promotional campaign with Coca-Cola.[6] She also had a clothing line, with two boutique-salons in Texas. Although she was quite wealthy from all of her commercial success, she chose to maintain quite a humble lifestyle, as she continued to live in a working-class area in Corpus Christi, Texas.[7]

Tragic Passing/Post-Humous Influence

Unfortunately, at the young age of 23 Selena was shot by Yolanda Saldivar, Selena’s fan club founder and clothing boutique manager. Although Selena’s death was a tragic loss for the Latin community and mainstream society, it did help further increase awareness about Tejano music.[8] Her bilingual album Dreaming of You was released the same year as her passing, and it ended up being the first Tejano album to reach number one in America. Selena’s success and the awareness that she has brought to Tejano music are clear signs of why she is considered such an influential Latin artist, even though she dabbled into various musical genres. In my opinion, she was one of the first popular, mainstream Latino women in music, which is hugely significant to other women of colour in music (especially those who are also Latino). By captivating the Latino market as well as the American market, Selena broke down barriers for other Latin artists who may have felt constrained regarding their listeners’ demographics: she showed that Latin music can be enjoyed by all. Because of her major influence on Tejano music and other aspiring Latin and Texas-influenced musicians, I certainly think Selena should be included in our textbook.

Selena’s legacy shines on as she continues to influence many notable musicians to this day. Jennifer Lopez, another Latin legend who actually played Selena in the biopic documentary“Selena”, said “The impact that she had on my life, on my career… It was a great thing for her to be my mentor. And it was a great thing to have her teach me so much about how to navigate this business, but also how to navigate through life.”[9] Beyoncé, my favourite musician and overall person of all time, also has cited Selena has a musical influence, as they both grew up in Texas. It seems that Selena somewhat managed to manipulate her Texan accent to her advantage throughout her music, as Beyoncé has said “Definitely growing up in Texas, I heard her on the radio. I think listening to her album — even though I didn’t know exactly what she was saying — it helped me in the studio with my pronunciation. I think she is a legend. I admire her. She was so talented.”

I Could Fall In Love

I chose this song to show because I find it so catchy and beautiful at the same time. As soon as Selena’s gorgeous voice sings the first line of the song, I feel a wave of emotions come over me. This song has a moderate tempo with a common time signature. The instrumentation really adds a lot to the song: it includes a keyboard, synthesizers, as well as flamenco guitar and a Spanish guitar to add that Latin-feel to the piece. There is also a gorgeous, wispy flute in the background that really helps accentuate feeling in the song. The lyrics are quite simple but are so vulnerable and raw – Selena’s expressive singing makes the repetitive lyrics a nonissue. I think this song would be classified as Latin pop, which Selena often dabbled into. As our textbook suggests, each Tejano song is a unique hybrid of Anglo and Hispanic influences.[10] “I Could Fall In Love” perfectly demonstrates the fluidity music: though there are not any traditional Tejano bajo sextos or accordions in Selena’s song, certain instrumentation choices still suggest a hint of Tejano.

 

 

Bibliography

[1] Hewitt, Bill. “Before Her Time”. People Magazine, 43, no. 15. April 17, 1995. Accessed August 5, 2018. https://people.com/archive/cover-story-before-her-time-vol-43-no-15/

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Orozco, Cynthia E. “Quintanilla Perez, Selena [Selena]”. Handbook of Texas Online. August 31, 2010. Accessed August 4th, 2018. https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fquxg

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Blay, Zeba. “17 Artists Inspired By The Divine Queen Selena Quintanilla”. Huffington Post. March 30, 2016. Accessed August 6th, 2018. https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/17-artists-inspired-by-the-divine-glory-of-queen-selena-quintanilla_us_56fa8945e4b014d3fe241b8c

[10] Campbell, Michael. Popular Music in America: The Beat Goes on. Boston, MA: Schirmer Cengage Learning, 2013.

Payola

Payola is the illegal practice of bribing a performer, or more commonly a music station, to play a certain song. Payola was first observed in the press during the late 1930s, when big bands were all the rage.[1] Music labels believed that song exposure and popularity were key to optimizing the amount of performance royalties and sheet music sales of a song, so they would pay popular bands to play their songs.[2] There had been some failed attempts to stop payola throughout the 1930s and 1940s, but payola was only becoming more common with time. In the 1950s, as radio stations became more powerful, the system of payola changed from a bribe between the publisher and the performer to a bribe between record companies and disc jockeys.[3]

The 1959 Payola Scandal

The Payola Scandal of 1959, in which Congress began to crack down on the issue of bribery within the music industry under Congressman Oren Harris, was the product not only an increase in payola over the years, but the rivalry between the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI). ASCAP was allegedly unhappy with how many artists from BMI were getting exposure (presumably through payola), so ASCAP was hoping that through the abolishment of payola, their own musicians would have less competition.

Two of the most well-known disc jockeys of the 1950s, Alan Freed and Dick Clark, were only a couple of the over three hundred DJs who were impacted by the 1959 Scandal.[4] Clark had connections to keep him from getting charged, which left Freed as the most liable and famous DJ guilty of payola – accordingly, he seemed to have suffered the most out of all the DJs involved in payola.[5] Freed was charged with 26 counts of commercial bribery and was given various fines as well as a suspended jail sentence. Freed, the man who is literally credited with thinking of the term rock’n’roll[6], ended up dying broke and with a terrible story attached to his name. Because rock and roll was the most popular genre during the time of the Payola Scandal, the genre became associated with the idea of corruption, which added to the decline of its popularity in the early 1960s.[7]

Payola Laws

 In 1960, Congress officially prohibited payola: secret payments were outlawed, and broadcasters were now required to state if a publisher or artist had paid for their song to be played on air.[8] This new law left room for many creative loopholes from music labels and DJs, not to mention undisclosed payments were still quite feasible if they remained under the Congress’ radar. An example of this is the 2005 case against Sony BMG Music Entertainment and radio stations. After it was discovered that Sony was engaging in some form of payola, they had to pay $10 million and agree to stop paying radio employees to feature artists under their label.[9]

Modern-day Payola

 Under the current payola laws, payola is still very much so alive today, but just in a different way. A commonly seen modern-day version of Payola is streaming services’ ‘Recommended songs/albums based on your listening history’ feature. If you have Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, or any other streaming service, you are likely familiar with this feature. Artists can pay these streaming services to recommend their music next to other artists of their choice. Artists hoping for more exposure can similarly pay streaming services to feature their music on particular popular playlists.[10] The modern version of payola definitely impacts the music we’re exposed to: I often use the ‘track radio’ feature (which essentially curates a playlist of songs based on one song that I want to listen to) when I’m using my streaming service and end up listening to songs I never would have chosen otherwise. I think that modern payola is a gift and a curse – I can personally say that many of the artists and songs I love listening to now were recommended to me by Tidal (my streaming service of choice) based on my frequently searched artists. I don’t think it’s necessarily unethical for an artist to pay to get exposure near artists with similar sounds, because the recommendation is thus understandable. I can also attest to the fact that almost half of my recommended albums and artists on Tidal is music that I would absolutely never listen to, which is frustrating. I think if artists or record labels are going to pay to have their music promoted, they should do so in a way that makes sense (near artists/genres that resemble their sound). Another issue that I have with payola is that artists who are signed to less successful labels, or are independent artists, likely do not have the same resources available to make use of modern-day payola. In an ideal world, there would be no payola and only songs that listeners wanted to listen to most would be given exposure. Sadly, it’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg dilemma – it’s hard to know what generally comes first with the most listened to songs: the song being given a lot of exposure because it is listened to a lot, or the song being listened to a lot because it is given a lot of exposure.

Bibliography

[1] Coase, R.H., “Payola in Radio and Television Broadcasting”, The Journal of Law & Economics, Vol. 22, Issue 2, 1979: 270, accessed July 16^th, 2018, doi: 10.1086/466944

[2] Ibid.

[3] Coase, R.H., “Payola in Radio and Television Broadcasting”, The Journal of Law & Economics, Vol. 22, Issue 2, 1979: 286, accessed July 16^th, 2018, doi: 10.1086/466944

[4] Kelly, K. “A Brief History of American Payola”. Noisey – Vice. February 14, 2016. Accessed July 18, 2018. https://noisey.vice.com/da/article/64y8y9/a-brief-history-of-american-payola

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7]  Campbell, Michael. Popular Music in America: The Beat Goes On. 4th ed. Boston, MA: Schirmer Cengage Learning, 2013.

[8] Kelly, K. “A Brief History of American Payola”. Noisey – Vice. February 14, 2016. Accessed July 18, 2018. https://noisey.vice.com/da/article/64y8y9/a-brief-history-of-american-payola

[9] Sherwin, A. “Payola: One of music’s oldest arrangements back with a bang on streaming playlists”. Independent UK. August 20, 2015. Accessed July 18^th, 2018. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/payola-one-of-musics-oldest-arrangements-back-with-a-bang-on-streaming-playlists-10464513.html

[10] Ibid.

Hi everyone! I’m Kaitlyn, a fourth year BA Honours Psychology student. I have taken ten years of piano lessons and am so blessed to say I have been teaching piano for the past six years. Although my major is in psychology, I have taken many Women and Gender Studies classes, and after a quick Google search of Ma Rainey, I knew I wanted to learn more about this strong, shameless woman! With that said, here is my blog post about Ma Rainey.

Even if her name is not familiar to you, Ma Rainey’s impact on jazz culture and performance has likely impacted the work of some of your favourite entertainers. Ma was the first popular stage performer to integrate true blues music into her pieces. Before she was dubbed “Mother of the Blues”, Rainey was Gertrude Pridgett, a charismatic girl born in Columbus, Georgia on April 26, 1886. By the time Pridgett was 14, she was travelling around the South singing cabaret in various talent and tent shows.[2] In fact, Rainey first experienced blues at one of these shows, when a fellow performer shared a song about a man leaving her – Rainey was instantly intrigued. At age 18, Gertrude married William Rainey, a comedy songster. The couple began touring together in 1915 and were dubbed the “Assassinators of Blues”.[3]  Only a year later, William and Getrude separated, which led to Gertrude choosing to venture into solo headlining under the name Ma (short for Madame) Gertrude Rainey.[4] Ma’s performances were known for their extravagance: acrobats, contortionists, and comedy bits were common before Ma hit the stage, and when she finally graced the audience with her presence, it wouldn’t be unlike her to do so in a golden gown, tiara, gold-capped smile, and with an ostrich plume and gun in hand.[5] She was a true performer, always bringing zest and power to slow, blues songs with her commanding voice and amazing stage presence. It is safe to that Ma Rainey was one the original black divas, as she was confident in dazzling costumes and felt completely comfortable being herself on stage. Her lyrics also often included messages of poverty, racial inequality, and sexual fluidity, which adds to her significance as an artist.[6] Instead of trying to succeed by hiding the challenging parts of her identity, such as an appearance that was not deemed beautiful by society, being a member of a marginalized race, and a sexual orientation that was outside of the societal norm, Ma was open about these aspects of her life and used them to help build her legacy.

In 1923, Rainey began recording for the Paramount label. “See-see Rider” was among the few songs she released that year, which became one of the most well-known blues songs of all time.[7] Since this song was such a success for Rainey, I have chosen it to show to you. As you listen to the song, you may notice that the lyrics are quite sad – it chronicles the story of a woman who is in love with an unfaithful man, which can be heard through a slow tempo in duple time with various instruments accompanying Rainey’s voice. The pretty clarinet tune in the background gives an interesting contrast to the otherwise morose song, and the trumpet brings in the blues feel. I think that the emotion in Ma Rainey’s voice in this song is likely why it became so popular.

The next song that I have picked to help represent Ma Rainey is called “Prove It On Me Blues”, which is one of Ma Rainey’s songs that suggests her interest in women. Ma sings “Went out last night with a crowd of my friends / They must’ve been women, ’cause I don’t like no men”. The discussion of sexual matter as observed in this song is typical for blues songs. I find this song to be one of Ma’s catchier tunes even though the speed is not too fast. The inflections that Ma uses during the song and her powerful voice make it quite the earworm, especially due to the strophic form of the song in which the “Sure got to prove it on me” part is often repeated. Ma Rainey’s label promoted this song with a picture of her in a three-piece suit and fedora, talking to some women while police men watch from across the street watch (see below). Ma maintains a lower register for most of the song, and the instrumentation seems to include drums, a bass, piano, and a nice melody mimicking Ma’s voice from 1:25-2:00 that sounds like a horn of some sort.

Lastly, I have chosen “Big Feelings Blues” to share with you. I chose this song because it is the last song that Ma recorded before she was dropped by her label in 1928. Ma’s contract was cancelled because Ma was unwilling to change her music style to represent a change in audience’s preference, and male swingers and swing music was taking over.[9] This song utilizes less instruments, with just a banjo mainly strumming chords in accompaniment with Rainey’s soothing voice. The tempo of this song is slightly faster than that of the last two examples I have shared: I find that this song also has a bit more of a sway to it than the last two, and it seems to have a 4-beat syncopation with an accent on the first beat of each four. I find it ironic that this is the last song that Rainey recorded with her label, because I think it best highlights the power of her voice that does not require intricate instrumentation in accompaniment.

Ma officially retired from the music scene in 1935, choosing to instead spend her time on the two entertainment venues she was involved in.[10] Four years after her retirement, on December 22, Rainey died in Rome, Georgia. Through her bold performative and musical choices, and especially her impact on blues, Rainey has inspired various other musicians such as Big Mama Thornton, Dinah Washington, and Bessie Smith, as well as poets such as Langston Hughes and Sterling Brown.[11] Ma Rainey’s integration of blues into her music has had an indescribable impact on all blues musicians to this day.

Bibliography

[1] The Biography.com website. “Ma Rainey Biography’. Biography.com. April 27, 2017. Accessed July 11, 2018. https://www.biography.com/people/ma-rainey-9542413

[2] Giamo, Cara. “The Queer Black Woman Who Reinvented The Blues”. Atlas Obscura. April 27, 2016. Accessed July 10, 2018. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-queer-black-woman-who-reinvented-the-blues

[3] The Biography.com website. “Ma Rainey Biography’. Biography.com. April 27, 2017. Accessed July 11, 2018. https://www.biography.com/people/ma-rainey-9542413

[4] Giamo, Cara. “The Queer Black Woman Who Reinvented The Blues”. Atlas Obscura. April 27, 2016. Accessed July 10, 2018. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-queer-black-woman-who-reinvented-the-blues

[5] Ibid.

[6] Obrecht, Jas. “Ma Rainey: The Life and Music of “The Mother of the Blues””. Jas Obrecht Music Arhive. August 7, 2010. Accessed July 15, 2018. http://jasobrecht.com/ma-rainey-the-mother-of-the-blues/

[7] The Biography.com website. “Ma Rainey Biography’. Biography.com. April 27, 2017. Accessed July 11, 2018. https://www.biography.com/people/ma-rainey-9542413

[8] Obrecht, Jas. “Ma Rainey: The Life and Music of “The Mother of the Blues””. Jas Obrecht Music Arhive. August 7, 2010. Accessed July 15, 2018. http://jasobrecht.com/ma-rainey-the-mother-of-the-blues/

[9] Ibid.

[10] The Biography.com website. “Ma Rainey Biography’. Biography.com. April 27, 2017. Accessed July 11, 2018. https://www.biography.com/people/ma-rainey-9542413

[11] The Biography.com website. “Ma Rainey Biography’. Biography.com. April 27, 2017. Accessed July 11, 2018. https://www.biography.com/people/ma-rainey-9542413

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