Coined in the early 20th century, the word payola is a hybrid of “pay” and “Victrola” (the first popular portable phonograph, the Victrola was a crank-driven turntable with a built-in speaker that looked like an oversized trumpet) [2] The purpose of payola is to get a song heard by a wider audience, typically via radio, with the expectation that the song will then yield increased profits. The word connotes nothing more than an elevated form of bribery[3]

The precursors to payola amounted to plain bribery, beginning in the early 1900s. During this time, the main way publishers found to connection was vaudeville, and this was precisely the medium from which payola originated.[3] Back then, music publishers routinely plied traveling vaudeville performers with gifts to spread the latest songs across the country. When audiences heard the featured songs, it would result in increased sheet music sales, then the industry’s main source of revenue.[2] It didn’t stop there. Often there were shills in the vaudeville theaters, paid for applaud a little louder for particular songs, driving up their popularity. And then there were the guys in charge of stocking the song rolls inside coin-operated player pianos in saloons, who weren’t above taking a little extra to load in certain titles.[1] By the early 1920s, payola was an accepted fact of the business.[2]

After the demise of vaudeville, the practice even transferred to Broadway, with the companies paying the musicals’ writers to put their singles into the shows. Even in these early times of payola, the songwriters were not receiving any of the cutbacks and so naturally were upset.[3] However, the performers were enjoying the exclusivity they experienced and condemned talk of ending payola for fear that inferior artists would destroy “free” songs at minor halls [7] So rampant was the practice that in the early 1930s, the National Broadcasting Corporation even proposed bringing it above board, by charging music publishers and record companies a flat rate for each exposure of a new song. The problem was, this would’ve interfered with the individual deals that the era’s singing stars and big band leaders already had in place.[2] Laws regulating payola were drafted over forty years ago, and no piece of legislation has since been made to control the strikingly similar practices of modem radio. With the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that allowed radio conglomerates to expand ownership even more, the situation looks bleak for the artists and labels to control the payola situation without lobbying for updated legislation.[3] Payola is not now, nor ever has been, illegal, yet various pieces of legislation exist in an effort to combat the breach of the ideas of creative freedom and ethical business practices payola challenges.[3]

The Major Players

-Alan Freed

The New York Times headline read “Alan Freed Is Out in ‘Payola’ Study” on November 22,1959. Alan Freed was not only the man who coined the term “rock and roll”[6] but also one of the most popular DJs in the country. The day before the article broke. Freed was fired from his job at WABC radio. After losing his job as host of the television show “The Big Beat”, the next day Freed was served a subpoena from the New York district attomey.[3]

When the grilling started, Freed’s friends and allies in broadcasting quickly deserted him. He refused—“on principle”—to sign an affidavit saying that he’d never accepted payola. He was charged with 26 counts of commercial bribery. [1] His death in 1965 from alcohol-related medical problems cemented his disgrace, and his memory entails little more than a sad martyr for the cause of rock and roll and the worldly business practices that inevitably accompany it[5].

-Dick Clark

The other main target in the payola probe was the hit show American Bandstand’s host Dick Clark. Although he gave up a great deal of money, Clark’s reputation remained unscathed throughout the ordeal. For his testimony at the subcommittee meeting, Clark delivered a prepared statement that while acknowledging the outside financial benefits he had been receiving for the duration of his career, also explained the ” ‘unique opportunity’ to turn his ‘expert knowledge’ of popular taste into a steady source of income” [5] in an increasingly fickle industry.

His concluding remarks to the subcommittee assured them that he was “glad to have participated” [5] in the new ethical standards for the music business that Congress was trying to create. By the end of the probe Clark was secure in his financial status and his public image somehow rocketed to new heights. As Clark told Rolling Stone in 1989, the lesson he learned from the payola trial was: “Protect your ass at all times.” Surprisingly candid words from the eternal teenager.[1] Seen as overly commercial by most serious rock fans, Clark now represented a film figure for all pop music genres. Clark’s status has remained unmatched as his popularity soars even today, with the payola scandal acting as an insignificant scratch in his past [5].

After Freed went down in 1960, Congress amended the Federal Communications Act to outlaw “under-the-table payments and require broadcasters to disclose if airplay for a song has been purchased.” Payola became a misdemeanour, with a penalty of up to $10,000 in fines and one year in prison.[1]

Nowadays

Now, many radio stations have already changed the way to add such songs but not playing at all. They were just paper adds. Although the payola worked to place such songs on play lists, the airtime needed to spark interest for album sales was not being provided.[3]People ‘s attention was brought to payola again.

In 1984 the House Oversight and Investigation Subcommittee announced that it had just completed a new probe of record promoters and their influence on radio play lists.[3] Two Indies that were thought of as the most notorious among the top thirty who were known simply as the “Network” were Joe Isgro and Fred DiSipio. The men were said to have ties to the mafia and were receiving up to $300,000 per song from record labels to make play Ust adds across the country [7]

Payola is absolutely illegal action and we must say no to it. Also, we may found it’s hard to eliminate payola entirely in the long term. The expert and regulation still take much efforts on it but few improvements. In my opinion, Payola’s negative side is evident that its control audience’s preference as well as the whole society’s preference. All audience have their right to listen and choose without force to choose. Even though it is difficult to take effective action, we still need work to find effective regulations or measures to meet payola.

Cited

[1]“Alan Freed, Dick Clark and the Radio Payola Scandal.” Performing Songwriter Ent., LLC, 24 Aug. 2015, performingsongwriter.com/alan-freed-payola-scandal/.

[2]“Paying the Piper a Little Something Extra: A Short History of Payola.” Mental Floss, 7 Nov. 2011, mentalfloss.com/article/29183/paying-piper-little-something-extra-short-history-payola.

[3] Shinn, Erin S. The Evolution and Effects of Payola on Popular Culture. 2004

[4] Boehlert, Eric. “Pay for Play.” Salon.com 14 March 2001 . http://dir.salon.com/ent/%20Feature/2001%20/03/14/payol/index.html

[5] Miller, James. Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll. 1947-1977. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999.

[6]Barnes, Tim. “Loosen Up: The Rolling Stones Ring in the 1960s”. Ch. 1 of Living Through Pop. Ed. Andrew Blake. London: Routiage, 1999.

[7] Segrave, Kerry. Pavola in the Music Industry: A History, 1880-1991. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1994.