Monday, January 29th, 2024
To change one's life, start immediately, do it flamboyantly, no exceptions.
— William James
MUS106 Lecture 9: Rock Hiatus
- music industry’s objections against rock
- ”Payola” - “Pay to Play”, i.e., favors were required for radio play - independent labels had to bribe DJs to be played on the radio
- independent labels (most famous early rock artists) vs big corporate labels (Big 6)
- In 1960, Congress investigated commercial bribery (in the form of cash and songwriting credit)
- focused on indie labels & rock DJs
- scapegoat: Freed
- Freed: Dick Clark
- ”Payola” - “Pay to Play”, i.e., favors were required for radio play - independent labels had to bribe DJs to be played on the radio
- first-wave rock hiatus: many individual innovators exited the industry
- 1957: Little Richard quits rock to enter ministry
- 1958: Jerry Lee Lewis was boycotted on radio after press learns of his pedophilia (marries 13-year-old cousin)
- 1958: after “Elvis the Pelvis”, Elvis Presley enters the army
- 1959: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, Big Bopper die in plane crash
- 1960: Chuck Berry convicted under Mann Act
- 1960: Congressional Payola hearings
- what does music industry want
- stability & predictability
- control (big 6 were losing control to indie labels)
- money
- artists begin forming groups
- ”Doo-Wop”
- main pop form in 50s
- nonsense syllables
- 4-6 singers
- originated from Black vocal groups
- complex harmony
- ”Sh-Boom” (1954) by The Chords
- chart ranking: R&B 2nd, Pop 9th
- ”Sh-Boom” (1954) cover by Crew Cuts
- chart ranking: pop 1st
- whitewashing
- Doo-Wop progression (a.k.a. Heart and Soul progression, ice cream chord changes, 50s progression)
- I-vi-IV-V
- ubiquitous
- girl groups
- popularized in early 1960s (only as backup in 50s)
- why? post-WW2 optimism, innocense
- music was produced by people from the Brill Building
- NYC
- popular music “factory”
- professional industry insiders
- The Shirelles: pop success
- ”Will You Love Me Tomorrow”
- 1st time a girl group got 1st on the pop chart
- one night stand from the perspective of woman, but with refined lyrics & rhyme scheme so that it could be played in the radio with massive success
- ”Will You Love Me Tomorrow”
- Phil Spector: producer
- from LA - shifts music industry westward
- ”Wrecking Crew” - studio orchestra and band
- wall of sound: saturated (all frequencies), detailed, layered recordings
- control freak!
- 2009 murder conviction (killed his girlfriend), died in prison (2021)
- wanted to turn songs into “little symphonies for the kids"
- "Be My Baby” recorded by Ronettes, produced by Phil Spector
- The Crystals
- ”He is a Rebel”
- Phil Spector didn’t like the original recording, asked The Blossoms to record it, but attributed to The Crystals
- Lead singer Barbara Alston from The Crystals couldn’t perform it, so she was replaced by the lead singer from The Blossoms
- ”He is a Rebel”
- rock hiatus
- brill building
- wall of sound
- Motown
- surf rock
- Motown: name of an independent label that was so influential that it became a genre
- epitomy of refinement
- interested in everybody (no specific target audience?)
- founded by Berry Gordy Jr in 1959 & Detroit
- originally called “Tamla Records”, and created 28 sublabels / “imprints”, one for each purpose (e.g. political, pop - Motown, LGBT, etc) so that each one’s brand image is not affected by others
- a different version of Brill Building - writers, producers, musicians, etc
- ”assembly line” for songs
- Funk Brothers
- studio band for Motown from 1959-72
- played on more #1 hits than Beatles, Elvis, Rolling Stones, etc combined
- created arrangements on the fly (head arrangement)
- The Supremes
- 17 appearances on Ed Sullivan Show
- most popular group in Motown
- The Temptations
- Motown’s first Grammy Winners (1969)
- “My Girls”