For my 3rd and final blog post, I’d like to talk about Adele. I strongly feel that she will be included in the future editions of our great textbook. There are various reasons for that which I will happily discuss.
The last time that happened was in 2000, when ’N Sync’s blockbuster No Strings Attached sold 2.42 million copies—albeit long before streaming services obviated the need to buy albums. But by the first week’s end, Adele had sold 3.38 million copies of 25, making it the biggest sales week in history. Then sales passed another million the following week. Then another. (Lansky)
The numbers presented to us by one of the sources of my choice speak for themselves. This is a big record breaker. pop’s oldest soul with songs that are intimate and simple. (Lansky) This holds absolute validity and can be easily justified by one of my favourite songs by this greatest artist. Please watch the Youtube video:
Adele’s dismissal of this is a big part of why she reminds people of the way music used to sound—she writes it the way music used to be written, decades ago, before that teen-pop boom of the late ’90s (Lansky)
That’s a part which inspires me the most. Most current pop artists release tons of albums nonstop with a lot of them sounding familiar to existing or future songs to be produced. This exact thing separates Adele from the most. One; however, can not ignore her beautiful, powerful and sometimes manly voice, which is the main tool in delivering the emotional prism to music listeners.
Adele’s music resides in a musical sweet spot that appeals to a widely diverse cross-section of music fans, from young popsters who tend to gravitate to the more hyper R&B-flavored electronic pop that saturates the top 40, to older fans who appreciate Adele’s extraordinary voice, her elegant class as a performer, and her mature approach to pop songcraft. (Gerard)
The facts which are presented above are pretty much the main factors I’ve decided to write about Adele. Below are the other 2 songs I would love you to listen to.
Mamie Smith (née Robinson) (May 26, 1883 – September 16, 1946) was an American vaudeville singer, dancer, pianist and actress, who appeared in several films late in her career. Mamie Robinson was born probably in Cincinnati, Ohio, although no records of her birth exist. When she was ten years old, she found work touring with a white act called the Four Dancing Mitchells. As a teenager, she danced in Salem Tutt Whitney’s Smart Set. In 1913, she left the Tutt Brothers to sing in clubs in Harlem and married a waiter named William “Smitty” Smith. (mildlifefanclub, 2012)
Mamie Smith’s “Crazy Blues,” the first recording of an African-American singing the blues, revolutionized pop music. Witnesses claimed that after its release in 1920, the song could be heard coming from the open windows of virtually any black neighborhood in America. “That record turned around the recording industry,” remembered New Orleans jazzman Danny Barker. “There was a great appeal amongst black people and whites who loved this blues business to buy records and buy phonographs. Every family had a phonograph in their house, specifically behind Mamie Smith’s first record.” (Mamie Smith: The First Lady of the Blues, 2013)
So, as to the importance of Mamie Smith in the history of music, “Crazy Blues” is a very important record, because it opened doors of the recording industry to African-Americans, whether they were Blues, Jazz or popular singers or musicians. (Mamie Smith (1883-1946), 2018) She hasn’t really faced any challenges in racial, socio-economic or gender aspects, but rather lived a lavish lifestyle. Smith found herself suddenly wealthy, and she spent much of her earnings on clothes, jewelry, real estate, and servants. (Garner, 2018)
Three Songs:
First and most importantly choice would be, with no doubt, “Crazy Blues”. The choice is explained by the importance of the song described above and obviously for the way the music itself is structured and how there is a controversy that is that parts of it are and parts of it aren’t really blues as a genre. The song’s ingenious structure mixes three verses of 12-bar blues with three verses of 16-bar professional songwriting that uses a harmonic idiom similar to what might appear in a Scott Joplin rag or World War I pop song. The recording is in the key of E, and verses four and five are straight 12-bar blues. Verse two is a slightly modified 12-bar blues, going to the dominant in its second bar. Verses one, three, and six are 16-bar structures with trickier chord progressions and some chromaticisms, such as the descending bass line in the ninth through eleventh bars of verse one. Verses three and six feature secondary dominants that sound relatively “sophisticated” next to simpler blues verses two, four, and five. (Mamie Smith: The First Lady of the Blues, 2013)
A fact from a journal article I’ve read really fascinated me. One would not know, from the dozens of retellings of the “Crazy Blues” story, including Perry Bradford’s own, that his composition as Smith sings it reaches an emotional crescendo in the final verse with the following couplet: I’m gonna do like a Chinaman… go and get some hop Get myself a gun … and shoot myself a cop. (Gussow, 2002) This just reflects a lot of social context which was actual at the time and I find it fascinating.
The 2nd choice of a song would be “Do It, Mr. So and So”. I love the simplicity of the song and the ease it is being listened to. Simplicity even translates through the fact that the only instrument being played in the background is the piano.
“It’s Right Here for You” would be my 3rd choice of a song. It wasn’t as popular; however, a fact that it was recorded with her band Jazz Hounds instead of the regular one which was usually provided by her recording studio and it was made up predominantly of black musicians, rather than regular white males.
Bibliography
Garner, C. (2018, JUL 27). African American History: Smith, Mamie (1883-1946). Retrieved from An Online Reference Guide to African American History: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/smith-mamie-1883-1946
Gussow, A. (2002). “Shoot Myself a Cop”: Mamie Smith’s “Crazy Blues” as Social Text. Calloloo, 25(1), 8-44.
Mamie Smith (1883-1946). (2018, JUL 27). Retrieved from Red Hot Jazz: http://www.redhotjazz.com/mamie.html
Mamie Smith: The First Lady of the Blues. (2013, NA NA). Retrieved from Jas Obrecht Music Archive: http://jasobrecht.com/mamie-smith-the-first-lady-of-the-blues/
mildlifefanclub. (2012, MAR 22). Mamie Smith Biography. Retrieved from Last.fm: https://www.last.fm/music/Mamie+Smith/+wiki
Payola Scandal is an event which, in my opinion, has to be touched upon when studying Music in America and all over the world. It is in a way a reflection of how things are done in business world, whether it is music, tv shows, sports or any other area where big money is involved. I’d like to begin my post by defining a very interesting sounding word as “Payola”. Payola itself- a catchy and hyper-literal contraction of ‘pay’ and ‘Victrola’ (i.e. record player)- has been around as long as the record business. (Kelly, 2016)
Payola became a household word in the 1950s. The decade’s music scene was the convergence of a number of seismic factors—the rise of rock ’n’ roll and R&B (which coincided with the rise of small labels), the introduction of the inexpensive 45 rpm single, radio’s shift to Top 40 music (once television took over dramatic programming), post-war prosperity and the emergence of the teenager as an economic force. Records began to replace live performance as the main way to hear—and sell—music. And labels recognized that popular disc jockeys could influence sales. In 1950, there were approximately 250 disc jockeys in the U.S. By 1957, the number had grown to over 5,000. The increase was partially due to the sheer amount of new records being produced, both by major and indie labels. As the name suggests, a disc jockey was responsible for sorting through all these releases (naturally, the sorting was influenced by payola). These on-air personalities had so much clout with younger listeners, Time magazine called them the “poo-bahs of musical fashion and pillars of U.S. low- and middle-brow culture.” (Hutchinson, 2015)
MAJOR PLAYERS
The most famous and powerful figures associated with Payola and the Payola Scandal are officially Alan Freed and Dick Clark. Alan Freed and Dick Clark both played important parts in the rise of rock ’n’ roll (Freed embodied the incendiary spirit of the music more than Clark, refusing to play white cover versions of black songs, such as Pat Boone’s “Tutti Frutti”). And though they both denied ever accepting payola, it’s almost impossible to imagine two young, popular jocks not succumbing to a little temptation. Guilty or not, it was Freed who ended up taking the fall for DJs everywhere. (Hutchinson, 2015)
THE PAYOLA SCANDAL ITSELF
The late 1950s turned out to be treacherous time for some radio and television DJs and celebrities. TV quiz shows had become one of the most popular forms of entertainment – as contestants on these shows could win huge amounts of money for answering questions correctly. Unfortunately, it turned out that some of the shows were rigged.
In 1959, a star contestant on the TV quiz show Twenty-One, named Charles Van Doren – who had become a national sensation for his assumed brilliance on the show – admitted later that he was given the correct answers beforehand.
Congress had a field day with the TV “quiz show” scandals, and then turned to the radio industry where a new kind raucous “rock ’n roll” music was shaking up the established order — and some thought, fueling juvenile delinquency as well. (Doyle, 2014) Things escalated quickly and of course the 2 all-eyes-on-me figures at the time were in the center of the scandal and subsequent investigation- Alan Freed and Dick Clark.
Government Investigation
The whole affair dragged on and got increasingly complex, but in the end, not much came of it. Dick Clark, with his wholesome, all-American looks, good manners, and boyish charm charmed the committee and got off scot-free, while a disheveled, defiant Alan Freed paid the price. Of course, it can’t have hurt that Clark quietly severed a variety of business connections that might’ve tarnished his image, too (at the time, he was a part owner in seven indie labels, six publishers, three record distributors and two talent agencies)
It’s a damn shame that the man who’s credited with coining rock’n’roll’s very name will forever be associated with payola; sure, he was as guilty as anyone else, but Alan Freed ended up taking the fall for an entire rotten network of sticky-fingered DJs. It’s speculated that Freed bore the brunt of the committee’s ill will because unlike the squeaky-clean Dick Clark, Freed was a heavy smoker, a jive talker, a rock’n’roll lifer who freely associated with black musicians and refused to betray his own principles by signing an affidavit swearing he’d never accepted payola. He was charged with 26 counts of commercial bribery and handed a bundle of fines and a suspended jail sentence. He lost his television show, his radio show, and found himself blackballed, rendered virtually unemployable by the fallout from the payola scandal. Five years later, he died penniless and alone. Dick Clark went on to become one of America’s most beloved cultural icons. (Kelly, 2016)
Aftermath
“One of the results of the payola scandal was the change in radio,” explains John Jackson in his book, Big Beat Heat – Alan Freed and the Early Years of Rock ’n Roll. “WINS radio in New York dropped rock ’n roll and played Frank Sinatra three days straight. Other stations dropped rock. Disc jockeys no longer could chose songs and play what they wanted. The station play list came in. And music became bland.” (Doyle, 2014)
21st century Payola
Nowadays, labels hire indie promoters to flog records to radio stations, promoters pay radio stations in cash, giveaways, and assorted swag, and those same promoters often draw a second salary from the stations themselves to “consult” on which songs to add into the rotation. Bigger labels have bigger budgets, which gives promoters bigger incentives to get results. (Kelly, 2016)
My Thoughts on Payola
This part is purely based on my personal feelings and opinion. I would say it doesn’t necessarily affect the music we are exposed to in a bad way, since, In my theory if payola takes place, the bigger record labels win the bid, since they are bigger record labels with bigger financial power and probably good quality music which they choose to promote in order to generate revenue. People at those record labels are professionals and wouldn’t heavily push trash music with zero chance of attracting millions in audience. This is why its not necessarily a bad thing. Also in our advanced age of different streaming sources, free or paid, people will know for themselves what they like and what they do not like, despite all the payola efforts which are trying to be thrown at us through radio and television. It however doesn’t give an equal chance to a true talent to be noticed but again with our enormous variety of ways like YouTube, Applemusic, Soundcloud and many other ways of getting noticed, payola doesn’t make it very hard.
I think I’ve covered the topic well using words, but watching a video would add a little more to your understanding in regards to this topic. The first video is presented by Decades TV Network and takes us back in time talking about Payola Scandal. The second but equally interesting video is the interview with Dick Clark himself.
I’ve read other posts in regards to Payola Scandal presented by my fellow classmates and was happy to realize that the quality of the research is similar across the blog among all contributing members.
Bibliography
Doyle, J. (2014, FEB 28). Moondog Alan Freed. Retrieved from The Pop History Dig: http://www.pophistorydig.com/topics/tag/alan-freed-payola/
Hutchinson, L. (2015, AUG 20). Alan Freed and the Radio Payola Scandal. Retrieved from Performing Songwriter: http://performingsongwriter.com/alan-freed-payola-scandal/
Kelly, K. (2016, FEB 14). A Brief History of American Payola. Retrieved from Noisey. Vice.: https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/64y8y9/a-brief-history-of-american-payola