I had the pleasure of seeing the band Alabama perform here in Saskatoon on August 2^nd.

The Band Alabama is an American country and southern rock band that was formed in 1969 by three cousins from Fort Payne, Alabama.

Randy Owen is the lead singer and plays the rhythm guitar, Teddy Gentry plays the bass guitar and is a background vocalist, and lastly, Jeff Cook plays the lead guitar, fiddle, and keyboards.

Alabama the band was known as “Wild Country” until 1977 when the team decided to change their name, shortly after they signed a record deal with RCA records (1).

Alabama seen the most fame in the 1980’s, they had a total of 27 number one hits, seven multi-platinum albums and received numerous awards (2).

All three of the group members styled their hair long and grew out their beards. This made them easy to recognize across audiences. Alabama is also known for broadening country music audience.

Alabama had stopped performing and recording in 2003, but reunited in 2010 and are still touring world-wide to this day. They now combine their country and rock genre with a more modern feel in order to appeal to new generations and it seems to be working well for them.

Alabama combines traditional country music, southern rock and adds some elements of gospel and pop. This blend gives them a competitive edge and differs them from other bands. The band is mostly influenced by country music.

The three members are known for their “sweet” harmonies they create together (3).

Because the band revolves after country, rock, gospel, and pop music, the instrumentation is diverse for a “country” band. Some instruments used are rhythm guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, drums, keyboards, and fiddles.

One of the most evident songs of Alabama I believe has the most country and rock mix is “Song of the South”. It is a perfect mix of country and rock and anyone can tell it is indeed a crossover. There is a fiddle section and then also electric guitar is present in other sections. This crossover makes the song something fun to listen to.

Alabama performed at the SaskTel Centre, which is a fairly large venue and there was a surprisingly big audience present for the band. I could tell the audience was more of the middle-aged and older generations. There weren’t many younger listeners compared to the middle-aged turnout. The crowd was very involved and upbeat with the band, singing along and dancing whenever possible.

I also noticed their lighting was very impressive. It was more of a flashy light show you would experience at a rock concert. The video below shows a good example of what I experienced at the Alabama concert.

It is evident this band makes a person just feel good and want to get up and dance.

I was very happy I decided to attend the concert. I remember multiple songs from my childhood as my parents loved to listen to Alabama.

My favorite song from the group is “I’m in a Hurry” because it can always change my mood to a good one and reminds me to slow down and just enjoy life. My favorite part of the song is defiantly the chorus. The lyrics in the chorus simply say that there’s really no reason to rush in life:

I’m in a hurry to get things done
Oh I rush and rush until life’s no fun
All I really gotta do is live and die
But I’m in a hurry and don’t know why.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy01R9CEFFs

I would recommend to anyone to attend an Alabama concert if they have the chance, I defiantly do not regret it!

My proof of Attendance is the photos I took while at the concert.

 

 

 

 

References:

1. The Alabama Band Website. “Alabama.”. Alabama the Band. Accessed August 5th, 2018. The Alabama Band Website. “Alabama.”. Alabama the Band. Accessed August 5th, 2018. https://www.thealabamaband.com/terms.html 
2. The Alabama Band Website. “Alabama.”. Alabama the Band. Accessed August 5th, 2018. https://www.thealabamaband.com/terms.html
3. Gaither, Bill. “Alabama: How they started singing”. More than Music. Accessed August 5th, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYQmuN9RGdY

 

Prepared by:

Raeann Schneider

The Payola Scandal

Radio broadcasting in America was first popular for supplying the general public with the news, sports, political discussions, and entertainment talk shows. In the 1950’s television became more popular and started playing these popular radio broadcasts on the TV screen instead. The radio was losing its most popular broadcasts, so something else had to replace them, which is when playing recorded music tracks on the air was decided. This shifted the main way to listen to music from live performances to radio recordings.

The people who played these recorded tracks on-air for the public to enjoy were called “Disc Jockeys”, or for short “DJ’s”. In 1950 there were approximately 250 disc jockeys in the US, and by 1957 that number grew to over 5000 (1). Disc jockeys jobs were to sort through tracks and decide which ones to air by choosing top hits from readings of radio requests, sheet music, dancehall favorites, and jukebox tabulations (2), but unfortunately, this wasn’t exactly how hits were chosen to air due to the payola scandal.

The Payola Scandal is defined as “the illegal practice of payment or other inducement  by record companies for the broadcast of recordings on commercial radio in which the song is presented as being part of the normal days broadcast” (3). Payola came to light when record company’s found it difficult to get their musicians heard because the competition was heavy, so they thought of the idea of bribing the DJ’s to play their tracks in order to get their music exposed to the public in hopes it would become popular.

Payola became very popular and no matter if a record company had a star performer or not, they had to put their money where their mouth was in order to get their tracks played more with certain disc jockeys. The most common pay rate for a disc jockey was approximately $50 per week, per record, but more popular disc jockeys that attracted more of an audience received bigger payouts and perks. (1). There weren’t many laws in place in regards of radio broadcasting music at that time because it was still new, so many people were taking advantage of the payouts for playing music.

Eventually, people started to catch on to what was happening and, therefore, the first investigation into payola started. The Payola Scandal was taken very seriously because what these “bribes” were doing was “abusing the publics trust because the airwaves these stations are broadcasting through are the property of the public”, as described by the Harrison Committee (4). This got congress immediately involved. In 1959, US president Dwight Eisenhower called the Payola Scandal an issue of public morality and the FCC proposed new laws to be made that establish the involvement in payola a criminal act (4).

The base punishment for being involved in payola was a $500 fine and up to one year in prison. In 1959, 335 disc jockeys came forward and admitted their involvement (1). The most famous trials were with two major players who had allegations of accepting payola, but both denied. These two were Allan Freed and Dick Clark who were both extremely famous disc jockeys. The committee questioned the DJ’s and Dick Clark was let off, but Allan Freed’s career was the one to shatter as he took the fall for disc jockeys everywhere. Freed was charged with 26 counts of commercial bribery, but was only fined in the end. Everyone Freed knew had abandoned him and let him take the fall, he was then fired by WABC and his famous role as a disc jockey was no more (1). It was then evident that payola was a serious issue since it destroyed the life of the legendary Allan Freed and threatened the career of Dick Clark (1).

Even though there are serious consequences in the involvement of payola, it still exists to this day just in a different form. Disc jockeys are assumed to still compensated for bribes but through competitions and promotional activities so it looks as if they are being paid for something else (5).

I disagree with the activity of payola because I do believe it is a crime to the public. The public should be able to listen to the music we want to hear and enjoy. The public shouldn’t have to miss an opportunity of hearing amazing tracks by an artist just because some labels can’t afford to bribe for a spot in the same league as the big time labels who can. Investigations into payola activities should happen regularly so every artist has a fair chance and popularity should be judged on pure talent and not just how much your record label and afford to make you famous.

 

 

Prepared by: Raeann Schneider

Works Cited

 

1. Hutchinson, Lydia. “Allan Freed and the Radio Payola Scandal”. Performing             Songwriter Website. August 20, 2017. Accessed July 2018.

http://performingsongwriter.com/alan-freed-payola-scandal/

2. Wikipedia Website. “Payola”. Date n/a. Accessed July 2018

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payola#cite_note-1

3. Neira, Bob. “Payola Scandal 50’s Rock Radio”. Modest Radio Museum.

Date n/a. Accessed July 2018.

http://www.modestoradiomuseum.org/payola.html

4. Skrorup, Brent. “What happened to Radio DJ’s?”. Plain Text Website.

March 2017. Accessed July 2018.

https://readplaintext.com/what-happened-to-radio-djs-payola-rock-and-roll-and-race-in-the-1950s-b5f039041bd

5. Sherwin, Adam. “Payola”. Independent website. August 2015. Accessed July 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

 

 

 

The Payola Scandal

Radio broadcasting in America was first popular for supplying the general public with the news, sports, political discussions, and entertainment talk shows. In the 1950’s television became more popular and started playing these popular radio broadcasts on the TV screen instead. The radio was losing its most popular broadcasts, so something else had to replace them, which is when playing recorded music tracks on the air was decided. This shifted the main way to listen to music from live performances to radio recordings.

The people who played these recorded tracks on-air for the public to enjoy were called “Disc Jockeys”, or for short “DJ’s”. In 1950 there were approximately 250 disc jockeys in the US, and by 1957 that number grew to over 5000 (1). Disc jockeys jobs were to sort through tracks and decide which ones to air by choosing top hits from readings of radio requests, sheet music, dancehall favorites, and jukebox tabulations (2), but unfortunately, this wasn’t exactly how hits were chosen to air due to the payola scandal.

The Payola Scandal is defined as “the illegal practice of payment or other inducement  by record companies for the broadcast of recordings on commercial radio in which the song is presented as being part of the normal days broadcast” (3). Payola came to light when record company’s found it difficult to get their musicians heard because the competition was heavy, so they thought of the idea of bribing the DJ’s to play their tracks in order to get their music exposed to the public in hopes it would become popular.

Payola became very popular and no matter if a record company had a star performer or not, they had to put their money where their mouth was in order to get their tracks played more with certain disc jockeys. The most common pay rate for a disc jockey was approximately $50 per week, per record, but more popular disc jockeys that attracted more of an audience received bigger payouts and perks. (1). There weren’t many laws in place in regards of radio broadcasting music at that time because it was still new, so many people were taking advantage of the payouts for playing music.

Eventually, people started to catch on to what was happening and, therefore, the first investigation into payola started. The Payola Scandal was taken very seriously because what these “bribes” were doing was “abusing the publics trust because the airwaves these stations are broadcasting through are the property of the public”, as described by the Harrison Committee (4). This got congress immediately involved. In 1959, US president Dwight Eisenhower called the Payola Scandal an issue of public morality and the FCC proposed new laws to be made that establish the involvement in payola a criminal act (4).

The base punishment for being involved in payola was a $500 fine and up to one year in prison. In 1959, 335 disc jockeys came forward and admitted their involvement (1). The most famous trials were with two major players who had allegations of accepting payola, but both denied. These two were Allan Freed and Dick Clark who were both extremely famous disc jockeys. The committee questioned the DJ’s and Dick Clark was let off, but Allan Freed’s career was the one to shatter as he took the fall for disc jockeys everywhere. Freed was charged with 26 counts of commercial bribery, but was only fined in the end. Everyone Freed knew had abandoned him and let him take the fall, he was then fired by WABC and his famous role as a disc jockey was no more (1). It was then evident that payola was a serious issue since it destroyed the life of the legendary Allan Freed and threatened the career of Dick Clark (1).

Even though there are serious consequences in the involvement of payola, it still exists to this day just in a different form. Disc jockeys are assumed to still compensated for bribes but through competitions and promotional activities so it looks as if they are being paid for something else (5).

I disagree with the activity of payola because I do believe it is a crime to the public. The public should be able to listen to the music we want to hear and enjoy. The public shouldn’t have to miss an opportunity of hearing amazing tracks by an artist just because some labels can’t afford to bribe for a spot in the same league as the big time labels who can. Investigations into payola activities should happen regularly so every artist has a fair chance and popularity should be judged on pure talent and not just how much your record label and afford to make you famous.

 

 

Prepared by: Raeann Schneider

Works Cited

 

1. Hutchinson, Lydia. “Allan Freed and the Radio Payola Scandal”. Performing             Songwriter Website. August 20, 2017. Accessed July 2018.

http://performingsongwriter.com/alan-freed-payola-scandal/

2. Wikipedia Website. “Payola”. Date n/a. Accessed July 2018

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payola#cite_note-1

3. Neira, Bob. “Payola Scandal 50’s Rock Radio”. Modest Radio Museum.

Date n/a. Accessed July 2018.

http://www.modestoradiomuseum.org/payola.html

4. Skrorup, Brent. “What happened to Radio DJ’s?”. Plain Text Website.

March 2017. Accessed July 2018.

https://readplaintext.com/what-happened-to-radio-djs-payola-rock-and-roll-and-race-in-the-1950s-b5f039041bd

5. Sherwin, Adam. “Payola”. Independent website. August 2015. Accessed July 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

 

 

 

Hello all! My name is Raeann, I am a fourth-year Business Economics student. I chose to do my blog post on Ma Rainey, “The Mother of the Blues”. I hadn’t heard of her until reading about her in this class and I was immediately intrigued when I started researching her found out how brave and bold she really was and how much she didn’t care about what people would think of her. She is an influence to all women, which is why I chose her.

Gertrude Pridgett was born on April 26, 1886, in Columbus Georgia. She was a talented singer and dancer who performed in local talent shows until she met her future husband William “Pa” Rainey. Once Gertrude and Pa married on February 2, 1904, she was then known as “Ma Rainey”(1).

“Ma” and “Pa” decided to tour south together and perform in tent shows. As they traveled, Ma had been exposed to country blues music for the first time and safe to say she fell in love with it. Ma then started to incorporate authentic blues into her song repertoire. (1)

Ma Rainey became extremely well known for being one of the first singers to perform blues music and people recognized her as “The Mother of the Blues”.(1)

Ma was known to not have a beautiful voice,“Ma’s music was rough, earthy, bold and bawdy, but profoundly moving” (2). Her voice was huge and commanding and she knew how to deliver her songs in a real and captivating way (1). She also was famous for her “moaning”, in a few songs she would moan and groan and crowds would go wild! The deep moaning blues video below captures her expressive moans.

 

 

Ma Rainey was known for writing about real life issues that everyone else was afraid to talk about. Rainey had sung about race, homosexuality, gender inequality, infidelity and much more. People were attracted to Ma’s realness and bravery for singing about issues that most people felt at that time was too inappropriate to talk about. Many believed Ma was singing “ahead of her time” (3).

Rainey had been faced with many challenges in her life. She was one of the first popular African American female recorders of all time. In the early decades of the 20^th century this was extremely unusual because females did not have leading roles at the time, and African Americans were trying to get by in a white-dominated country. Despite these racial and gender inequalities, Ma Rainey had ignored them and stood up for herself and blues music and continued to entertain with her forward and honest opinions.

Rainey recorded a song called “Black Bottom”, and as you listen to it, you can tell she did not care about what people will think about her lyrics.

Another daring issue Ma was willing to address was her own sexuality. Ma was married to Pa, even though both of them were accused of infidelity while separated on the road. Ma had even addressed that her affairs were not only with men, but instead with women, revealing herself as a homosexual in her music. In the 1920’s this was a bold subject to touch on, but Ma did it!

Ma’s song “Prove it on Me” was a clear indicator that she was interested in women. Some of the telling lyrics are:

 

Where she went, I don’t know
I mean to follow everywhere she goes;
Folks say I’m crooked. I didn’t know where she took it
I want the whole world to know

They say I do it, ain’t nobody caught me
Sure got to prove it on me;
Went out last night with a crowd of my friends
They must’ve been women, ’cause I don’t like no men

 

Above, Rainey is implying here that people are saying she is “crooked” because back in the 1920’s homosexuality was frowned upon and if you weren’t heterosexual then there was something wrong and “crooked” about you. She also implies “she don’t like no men” which is another obvious sign Ma was implying she was a lesbian.

 

 

Through her bravery and boldness in what she wrote and how she sang it, Ma influence African Americans, women, homosexuals and many others by not being afraid to talk about real issues that happen in peoples everyday lives and society as a whole.

Ma Rainey was able to influence all of these people because she was dedicated to her music and performed as much as she possibly could. Between 1920-1926 Ma did over 100 recordings (1). She was always on the road and expressing herself through blues and sharing her stories.

Ma retired in the 1930’s when blues music popularity started to fade (4). Ma Rainey passed away in December of 1939. She will always be know as the gutless artist who influenced many other musicians of her day, people in society, and most of all blues music.

 

Works Cited

(1) Biography.com website. “Ma Rainey”. April 27, 2017. Accessed July 18, 2018.    https://www.biography.com/people/ma-rainey-9542413

(2)  Raudler, Dave. “Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey”. Jazz rhythm website. Date n/a.        jazzhotbigstep.com

(3) Friedrich, Brandon. “Ma Rainey’s Lesbian Lyrics” Billboard website. July 6, 2017.         billboard.com/ma-rainey-lesbian-lyrics

(4) rockhall website . “Ma Rainey Biography”. Acessed July 18, 2018          rockhall.com/inductees/ma-rainey

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