Med332 the birth of the rock and roll consumer

• 1. #med332 - @rob_jewittRock and roll and the birth of the popular music consumer

2. Overview:- The baby boom and social context (1950s)- Structural forces shaping the music industry- The product (aka the music) 3. Between 1945 and 1955, youthchanged from a taken-for- grantedand largely unacknowledgedtransitional stage betweenchildhood and adulthood to acultural category marked byparticular stylistic trends, tastes inmusic and accompanying patternsof consumption- Bennett, 2001: 7 4. Common narrativethe youth culture of the 1950s andlater could not have happenedwithout teenagers having becomea significant market that is,without their having significantdisposable funds. Having thatmoney and an increasedindependence from family,teenagers began to identifythemselves as a group.- Shumway, 1992: 11920 5. Socio-economic shifts post-WW2Boom extended to working classNew techniques of mass production 6. Young folkThe young had emerged as a new,major market in the 1950s in Britainand Western Europe, following theUnited States which had experiencedless disruption in the 1940s thanwar-torn Europe. Young people wereemployed in relatively well-paid jobsin new industries- Bucock 1993: 28 7. commodities designed specifically for them 8. Leisure was no longer simply a momentof rest and recuperation from work, theparticular zone of family concerns andprivate edification. It was widened intoa potential life-style made possible byconsumerism. To buy a particularrecord, to choose a jacket or skirt cut toa particular fashion, to mediatecarefully on the colour of your shoes isto open a door onto an activelyconstructed style of living.- Chambers 1985: 16 9. Popular music as mass production 10. Cultural industriesemploy the characteristic modes of productionand organization of industrial corporations toproduce and disseminate symbols in the form ofcultural goods and services, generally, thoughnot exclusively, as commodities- Garnham 1987: 25 11. Marked by: Incessant drive for capitalist expansion Creation of new novel markets Rapid turn-over of disposable products 12. Capitalistorganisation Cultural/socialactivityMusic industryCreative expression 13. youth music capital 14. Demographic shifts77 million babies bornbetween 1946 and 1964By 1964, 40 % of thepopulation of the UnitedStates was under twenty- Grossberg, 1992: 172 15. Rejection of parent cultureMarlon Brando in The Wild One (1953)Mildred: Hey Johnny, what are you rebelling against?Johnny: Whadda you got? 16. AuthenticityRocks special place (with and foryouth) was enabled by itsarticulation to an ideology ofauthenticity [] where they couldfind some sense of identificationand belonging, where they couldinvest and empower themselves inspecific ways- Grossberg 1992: 2045 17. Creative geniuses? 18. Elvis PresleyPresley took the song (Thats All Right Mama), and the strongrhythmic element in it, but kicked it out of the heavy almostponderous groove Crudup (the original artist) used. What Presleysucceeded in doing was injecting the blues with an abandonedhillbilly attitude. ... The result was a musical hybrid, destined toprove more exciting than either its blues or country parents,while retaining elements of both.- Welch 1990: 36 (link) 19. 4 crucial developments1. the relative importance ofparticular genres2. the dominance of certainforms of radio format3. the role of technology4. the shifting status of recordcompany majors andindependents 20. Copyright and genres1909 sheet music protections1914 ASCAP to collect royalties 21. only ASCAP licensed music couldbe played in Broadway musicals,performed on the radio andincorporated into movies ... bythe 1930s it effectively controlledaccess to exposing new music tothe public- Peterson 1990: 99 22. Technology: 45s vs 33s 23. The 1950s decade was the goldenera for small independents, whichembraced blues, gospel, modernjazz, country, R&B, and rock nroll. From 1948 to 1954, about onethousand new record labels wereformed, and for many of these itcame down to what music could berecorded most cheaply- Kennedy and McNutt 1999: xvii 24. the average income of blacksrose by 192 per cent between 1940and 1953, when 90 per cent ofblacks were in some form of paidemployment, and the total value ofthe black consumer market was$15,000 million.- Brian Ward, 1998: 31 25. Summary Broad demographic changes helps go someway to explaining the emergence of rock androll (but not all the way) Generational divide in conjunction witheconomic upturn and expanse of capitalistenterprises saw investment in black musicalforms Explore the music in detail on Monday 26. Sources: Andy Bennett (2001) Popular Music Cultures, Maidenhead: Open University Press Robert Bucock (1993) Consumption, London: Routledge Iain Chambers (1985) Urban Rhythms: Pop Music and Popular Culture, London: MacMillan Nicholas Garnham (1987) Concepts of Culture: Public Policy and the Cultural Industries, in CulturalStudies, 1, 1 (January): 237. Lawrence Grossberg (1992) We Gotta Get Out of This Place: Popular Conservatism and PostmodernCulture, New York: Routledge. Kennedy and McNutt (1999) Little Labels Big Sound: Small Record Companies and the Rise ofAmerican Music, Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press. Richard A. Peterson (1990) Why 1955? Explaining the Advent of Rock Music, Popular Music, 9, 1:97116. Sanjek (1988) American Popular Music and Its Business. The First Four Hundred Years. Volume III:From 1900 to 1984, New York: Oxford University Press. Roy Shuker (2001) Understanding Popular Music, London: Routledge David R. Shumway (1992) Rock and roll as cultural practice, in Anthony DeCurtis (ed) PresentTense: Rock and Roll Culture, Durhman, NC: Duke University Press Brian Ward (1998) Just My Soul Responding: Rhythm and Blues, Black consciousness and RaceRelations, London University of California Press Richard Welch (1990) Rock n Roll And Social Change, History Today (February): 329.http://www.historytoday.com/richard-welch/rock-n-roll-and-social-change