On Thursday, August 2^nd I went to see Alabama in concert. I learned a few things about the band that I was not aware of prior to attending. Alabama started playing together in 1969. They began as a bar band touring the South Carolina Coast but have since succeeded to sell out arenas (Campbell, 2013). Their first number one hit was in 1980, and since have had over forty number one hits. They are dubbed one of the greatest country bands EVER. Originally there were three guys in the band: Teddy Gentry, the bassist born in 1952; Randy Owen, the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist born in 1949; and Jeff Cook, the lead guitarist and fiddler born in 1949 (Campbell, 2013). Gentry and Owen are cousins and are the two originals left in the band, the third, Cook, had to quit touring just last year because of chronic illness. Growing up in Alabama the three are strongly connected to their country roots and culture, as is their music.

Sound

Alabama’s sound is pure traditional country with their vocal style, close harmony, honky-tonk-based rhythm, fiddle, and guitar instrumentals (Campbell, 2013). Modern sounds, like the synthesizer timbres spread throughout the vocals and interludes and the varied textures, are also mixed in their music (Campbell, 2013). Their sound has the perfect balance; they are still their old selves but have incorporated new tones into their music to stay relevant and in order to cater to all age groups.

Song Description #1

In the middle of the concert Alabama performed a gospel song that they used to sing in church together called “Will the Circle be Unbroken”. They had three part harmony on the choruses with Owen singing the verses. Instruments included electric piano, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, drums, and the fiddle for this song. At one point in the song the lead vocalist held out his microphone for the audience to sing along to.

Song Description #2

For their encore Alabama came out and played their hit “Mountain Music”.  It has to be their biggest song ever. The band started acapella with the drummer clapping the beat with his drum sticks, the bass guitar joined shortly after, then the fiddle came in. Part way through the song the fiddle performed a solo. Everyone was on their feet and everyone was singing alone. It was the perfect way to end the night.

Venue and Audience

The Alabama concert took place at the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon, SaskTel Centre can hold about 10,000 people. Some sections were curtained off because of obstructed viewing areas but the stands that were available were full. Although Alabama is stereotypically enjoyed by an older crowd the audience members ranged from children, youth, young adults, adults, and elders. Alabama was engaging with their audience, holding microphones out for people to sing along to on a number of occasions, but not over the top like bro-country bands are these days. They did not perform crazy motorcycle flips on stage like the ones I witnessed at the Florida Georgia Line concert when they came to town. Alabama was “refreshingly simple” is how I would describe it.

When I go to concerts I like to stand up and sing but when there are older audience members around me I try to take a seat unless everyone else is also standing.  People stood to dance and sing to the classics. The environment was nostalgic for those who had grown up listening to Alabama. For me it was nice to hear the band sound EXACTLY the same as they do on the radio. In this day and age you never know what bands are actually going to sound like live be cause of auto tune and all of the work that goes into producing the voice you hear on the radio.

Reflection

This concert meant so much to me as I got to enjoy it with my parents. I got to sing along, dance a little bit, and watch the impact of the music on the audience. I have grown up listening to country radio and I am not a huge fan of the new bro-country songs that all sound the same; it was nice to hear genuine country. There were many couples who were seated on the floor that turned the open area into a dance floor. I loved watching the couples who you knew had danced together for basically their whole lives, it looked natural.

I think it was meaningful to a broader group of older audience members because it would probably be the last time they saw one of the most famous country bands of all time. My absolute favourite part of the concert was knowing every song; Alabama is one of those bands that you can always sing along to because none of their songs are new. At the concert I learned that over the course of Alabama’s career they have raised over 900 million dollars to Saint Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, so if you did not already love them there you go. They are truly amazing.

#M10Q4

Campbell, M. (2013). Popular Music in America: The Beat Goes On. Boston, Massachusetts: Schirmer.

  First of all… what is payola?

Prior to beginning I wanted to admit that I have never heard the term payola. Therefore, if you also went “wait…what” when you heard of the Payola Scandal here’s a quick explanation: payola is manufacturing a popular song by paying for radio air time (This Day in History, 2018). Payola is when you bribe someone to use their influence in order to persuade others. Okay then, let’s get started.

History of Payola

Payola became a well-known word in the 1950s with the convergence of rock ‘n roll and R&B. Radio stations were playing top 40 hits in celebration after the war.  Instead of live performances, records turned into the best way to listen and sell music. Disc jockeys were in high demand and because they were widely needed they could list their price, any price, to labels and distributors. Sometimes this meant extravagant, all-paid trips, free records, and merchandise. Joe Finan, a disc jockey during this time, said the 1950s were “a blur of booze, broads and bribes” (Hutchinson, 2015).

Payola caught the eye of Variety and Billboard who then demanded a government intervention. ASCAP and BMI were performing rights organizations at the time that competed with one another. ASCAP, a group mainly composed of old white men, was sure to mention their opposition to payola trying to accuse BMI, a group mainly composed of young racially diverse writers, of supporting payola. ASCAP was pulling at straws because they were used to being number one. However, in the mid-50s BMI nearly doubled ASCAP’s single releases (Hutchinson, 2015).

The government didn’t take the payola accusations seriously until a particular scandal where the over-half-a-million-dollar question on “Twenty-One”, a TV show, was rigged in 1958 (Neira, 2004).

Government investigation

Why involve congress in the first place you ask? Abuse of public trust. Airwaves over radio stations are property of American citizens and the government didn’t want any lawsuits on their hands (This Day in History, 2018).

Radio stations fired their DJs due to the threat of losing their licenses. In 1959 over 300 disc jockeys worldwide admitted to charging “consulting fees” of over $263,000. One DJ even admitted that he received over twenty grand to play one record (Hutchinson, 2015).

Major players

Alan Freed and Dick Clark were two young disc jockeys who grew to be quite popular during the time of the payola scandal.  Freed was deemed to be rough around the edges. Much to everyone’s disapproval he associated with black musicians. “He jive talked, smoked constantly and looked like an insomniac” (Hutchinson, 2015).

Clark was virtually Freed’s opposite. He lived a clean and respectable life due to his partial ownership of labels, publishers, distributors and agencies. It should come as no shock that when put on the stand, after both denying participation with payola, Freed got charged with twenty six counts of commercial bribery and Clark got off scot free (Hutchinson, 2015).

Result

Clark became a famous cultural icon dear to the hearts of Americans and Freed, who invented rock ‘n roll’s name, died five years after his prison sentence poor and alone (Kelly, 2016). The aftermath of the payola scandal also consisted of a Federal Communications Act passed by congress in 1960. The new law forbid “under-the-table payments and required broadcasters to disclose if airplay for a song had been purchased” (Hutchinson, 2015). If you got caught you would receive a fine of at most $10,000 and a year in jail (Hutchinson, 2015).

Today’s version

Labels hire indie promoters to sell records to radio stations, promoters pay radio stations in cash, giveaways, and assorted swag, and those same promoters lure an additional cost from the stations to “consult” on which songs should be included in the playlist rotations (Kelly, 2016). The bigger labels have bigger budgets and can beat out any new up-and-comers. Hence the vicious cycle continues to repeat itself.

Why should we care?

Lester Bangs, an American journalist, critic, author, and musician, expressed his fear that the future of radio would be a “sanitized, soulless music landscape” (Kelly, 2016). And I would assume we are pretty much there. Stations are so swayed to play certain songs that the playlist you are forced to listen to on a daily basis are bland, repetitive, and numbingly dry.

Payola, bad or good?

As someone who listens to the radio every time I get into my car I think payola is essentially a suspiciously bad thing. Even though I do like the idea of sending merchandise and giveaways to stations in order for them to reward their listeners I cannot get over the influence and persuasion that occurs as a result. Don’t get me wrong, support is a huge thing but it errors on the side of bribery and the fallout is me hearing the same song five times in one hour. Nobody likes that.

#M6Q3

 

(2018). The payola scandal heats up. This Day in History. Retrieved from https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-payola-scandal-heats-up

Kelly, K. (2016). A brief history of American payola. Noisey. Retrieved from https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/64y8y9/a-brief-history-of-american-payola

Hutchinson, L. (2015). Alan freed and the radio payola scandal. Performing Songwriter. Retrieved from http://performingsongwriter.com/alan-freed-payola-scandal/

Neira, B. (2004). Payola scandal rocks 50’s radio. Modesto Radio Museum. Retrieved from http://www.modestoradiomuseum.org/payola.html

Around 100 years ago two boxers competed for the “heavyweight king of the world” in a wooden arena in Reno, Nevada. James Jackson Jeffries was referred to as the “Boilermaker”. After retiring from his undefeated career he started farming. Age 35, six foot one and a half inches, 227 pounds. John “Jack” Arthur Johnson was referred to as the “Galveston Giant”, a previous title winner. Age 32, five foot eleven inches, and lighter than Jeffries. Johnson had everything going for him, except that he was African-American. Going into the fight Jeffries stated: “I am going into this fight for the sole purpose of proving that a white man is better than a Negro”. Johnson on the other hand had equal rights on the line and he would not back down (Walsh, 2010).

The only thing Scott Joplin had in common with Johnson is that he too was African-American. Joplin was born in 1867 in Texas on the “black side of town”. He studied piano and European musical culture and became famous in 1899 for his work “Maple Leaf Rag”. Joplin was in New York City around the time of the fight of the century completing his opera: Treem

onisha. Ragtime got a different spin put on it by Joplin; he added African syncopation and opera lyrics  (Walsh, 2010).

Joplin wanted more than fame. As did Johnson.

Newspapers lit up the following day to rehash what occurred once the fight had ended. Most of the twenty six people dead and hundreds injured were black  (Walsh, 2010).

Johnson went on to get married a number of times, lose more fights, and go to prison. In 1946 he crashed while racing and died at age 68  (Walsh, 2010).

Joplin couldn’t find publishers for his work, his health failed, his pia

no rags dwindled, and in 1917 he died at age 49. His work Treemonisha finally got its world depute in 1972  (Walsh, 2010).

Optimism for the African-American Community

Joplin was hopeful when President Roosevelt had Booker T. Washington at the White House for dinner in 1901. Joplin honoured this event in his work. However his optimism was not shared by othe

rs as racist newspapers spread the following day (Walsh, 2010). Joplin continued to compose music that referenced important events and ones that related to the harsh realities of African-American.

In 1910 black migrants began to learn of the opportunities that they had been kept from in the past: sports and entertainment. These outlets allowed immigrants to work towards “the American dream” (Walsh, 2010). All-black musicals on Broadway began to flourish; Clorindy, the Origin of th

e Cakewalk, and In Dahomey. The Harlem renaissance began in the 1920s encompassing poets, painters, writers, and musicians. Joplin missed it by a few years (Walsh, 2010). The dramas, shows, songs, and art culture get-togethers aimed to make the relationship between the races less violent.

Sports too, especially boxing, allowed for the mingling of races though

white America viewed the heavyweight title as a symbol of white supremacy. The fight was viewed in theatres everywhere. Jeffries couldn’t keep up to Johnson’s quick movements. In the 15^th round Jeffries finally got floored and lost for the first time.  Johnson reflected the growing sense of optimism in a less humbling way than Joplin did but they for the same reasons. Equal rights. Johnson’s successes encouraged other African-American athletes to compete against white people in American stadium

s to demand equality. Johnson taking down Jeffries was a huge shock to the nation, an African-American boxer won the heavyweight title again in 1937  (Walsh, 2010).

Stereotypes

Johnson used his fame with an attitude of “anything you can do I can do better”. Throughout the fight he taunted Jeffries nonstop (Walsh, 2010). Johnson challenged racial stereotypes by fighting a well-known boxer and winning, becoming famous, attaining wealth, working his

butt off, and getting with the ladies. He bought fast cars, dated and married white women, and opened cafes and nightclubs to prove his point  (Walsh, 2010).

Philosophy

 “In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.”  – Booker T. Wa

shington

Joplin intentionally adhered to the philosophy of Booker T. Washington while Johnson unintentionally embraced the philosophy. Joplin’s Treemonisha reflected Washington’s lesson because the young female character lead her people, defeated obstacles, and advocated for education. Washington believed training and education were the keys to racial advancement and that one should demonstrate equality with patience

, industry, thrift, and usefulness. Johnson embraced the philosophy through his boxing training and overcame obstacles by winning the heavyweight championship (Walsh, 2010).

Vulture Tone

The tone of the article by Mark Harris suggests that everybody feels sorry for themselves and no one takes responsibility. Comparing it

to the article by Michael Walsh it is a lot more negative. Walsh’s article was hopeful regarding the future of sport and music for African-Americans, it encompassed the attitude of “it can only get better (Walsh, 2010).  In contrast, Harris’s article expresses that hope for humanity

is lost because we are a materialistic society and instead of caring about natural disasters and poverty we are tuning in to watch two men make millions of dollars by beating each other half to death  (Harris, 2017).

Eras of History

Harris’s article suggests that celebrities, and as a result, people in general, are constantly re-branding themselves in the era of Trump. Pop culture embodies a man who is self-selling, ignorant and cynical (Harris, 2017). We live by the retraction of personal responsibility, we clear ourselves from blame. Pop culture wouldn’t be popular if it weren’t for us. We share the fault. This statement highlights what the forefront issues are in our society “seeking fame, not love, because, after all, when you’re a star, they let you do anything” (Harris, 2017).  Wealth and power are the be-all, end-all.

Walsh’s article suggests that people were held responsible for their actions. The era, for African-Americans, embodied Washington’s philosophy where each finger had to be contribute to the hand. One should be patient and useful whereas Harris’s article suggests the opposite (Walsh, 2010).

Influence on Popular Music

Reading the article makes me think twice about listening to popular music these days. I wasn’t thinking about Taylor Swift in that light at all. I own many of her cds but I have realized that she promotes being a victim and she has branded herself promiscuously so that I can no longer take her seriously. When you turn on the radio you should try to understand what the artist is getting at and what story they are trying to tell. I’m positive my interest in songs played on C95 will dwindle now that I have the Trump era mindset in my head.

#M2Q2

 

Harris, M. (2017). Taylor Swift’s ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ Is the First Pure Piece of Trump-Era Pop Art. Vulture. Retrieved from http://www.vulture.com/2017/08/taylor-swift-look-what-you-made-me-do-pure-trump-era-pop-art.html

Walsh, M. (2010). A Year of Hope for Joplin and Johnson. Smithsonian. Retrieved from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-year-of-hope-for-joplin-and-johnson-123024/

Hi classmates! It took me a while to figure out how to blog but here I am. Looking forward to taking Music 111 and getting to know you a bit about you all through your posts. Cheers to a great course everyone! Happy blogging.