MODULE Introduction to Communication Media

CHAPTER 3: Sound Recording and Popular Music

Objectives:

a.) Identify the different sound recordings and popular music.

b.) Research on popular rock music in the Philippines.

The Development of Sound Recording

Before the Internet, the first major media convergence
involved the relationship between the sound recording
and radio industries.

A. From Cylinders to Disks: Sound Recording Becomes a

Mass Medium. Sound recording, like most new
media, passed through three developmental
stages. The novelty stage involved
experimenting with hog’s-hair bristle as needles,
connected to a vibrating membrane. In the entrepreneurial
stage, Thomas Edison envisioned the phonograph as a kind of answering
machine. In the mass medium stage, the gramophone and technology for
record duplication allowed people to collect and play back recordings.

B. From Phonographs to CDs: Analog Goes Digital.

Several innovations advanced the sound recording industry:
magnetized audiotape, stereophonic sound, digital recording, and
compact discs.

C. Convergence: Sound Recording in the Internet Age.

While music’s convergence with radio saved the radio industry in the 1950s,
music’s convergence with the Internet began to unravel the music industry in
the 2000s.

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 1MP3s and File Sharing. The rise of MP3s in the late 1990s led to
rampant illegal downloading and file-swapping, which resulted in
copyright lawsuits by artists and record companies. The recording
industry is now adapting its business to the digital age by embracing
legal downloading.

 The Future: Music in the Stream, Music in the Cloud. New

technologies may challenge the prominence of the MP3 player, for
new music formats, devices, and distribution channels are in
development.

D. The Rocky Relationship between Records and Radio. The free

programming of radio threatened the recording industry. The marriage of
the two media eventually enabled both to prosper.
II. Popular Music and the Formation of Rock

A. The Rise of Pop Music

Pop music’s origins claim many
influences, including the piano
craze of the early twentieth
century, jazz, blues, and
vaudeville.

B. Rock and Roll Is Here to

Stay.
Rock and roll hit in the 1950s and was considered the first integrationist
music in the United States.

 Blues and R&B: The Foundation of Rock and Roll.

Development of two musical genres: blues and rhythm and blues.

 Youth Culture Cements Rock and Roll’s Place.

Rebellious teens in the 1950s are attracted to rock music.

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 Racial Integration Expands Rock and Roll.

A significant factor in the growth of rock and roll was the breakdown of
racial barriers between white and black cultures.

 Rock Muddies the Waters.

Rock and roll tested traditional boundaries in five critical ways.

• High and Low Culture. Songs like “Roll over Beethoven” challenged
• Masculinity and Femininity. Rock-and-roll stars such as Elvis
Presley, Mick Jagger, and Little Richard often employed
androgynous appearances, confusing issues of sexuality.

• The Country and the City. The rockabilly sound (Buddy Holly and
Carl Perkins) merged urban Memphis rhythms with Nashville
country & western; rhythm and blues spilled into rock and roll.

• The North and South. Many young northern middle-class teens

loved the southern lower-class-influenced rock and roll.

• The Sacred and the Secular. Many of rock and roll’s early figures had
close ties to the church and gospel music.

C. Battles in Rock and Roll.

Producers and performers experienced a great deal of resistance in
popularizing rock and roll.

 White Cover Music Undermines Black Artists. Clean-cut white artists

were employed to cover black performers, who were considered too
controversial in the racist atmosphere of the 1950s.

 Payola Scandals Tarnish Rock and Roll. Payola is the paying of

deejays or radio programmers by record promoters to play their
labels’ songs.

 Fears of Corruption Lead to Censorship. By late 1959, the disruptive

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early figures of rock and roll had largely been replaced by a new
generation of clean-cut white singers.

D. A Changing Industry: Reformations in Popular Music

In the 1960s, rock music was beginning to spread out in several directions.

 The British Are Coming! In 1964, the Beatles, with their new fashions
and reinterpretations of American blues and rock, opened the door for
the “British invasion.”

 Motor City Music: Detroit Gives America Soul. The independent

Motown label from Detroit nourished soul and black popular music.

 Folk and Psychedelic Music Reflect the Times. Folk music brought a
political edge to the popular scene, while rock turned psychedelic and
then went mainstream.

 Folk Inspires Protest. From its simple, democratic origins, folk

became “finger pointin’” music that addressed social injustices.

 Rock Turns Psychedelic. The link among alcohol, drugs, and music
became much more public in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

E. Punk, Grunge, and Alternative Respond to Mainstream Rock.

Punk rock raised its anarchic head in mid-1970s Britain with the Sex Pistols.
Punk was reinterpreted as grunge in the early 1990s with groups like
Nirvana.

 Punk Revives Rock’s Rebelliousness. Punk rock rose in the late 1970s
to challenge the orthodoxy and commercialism of the record business.

 Grunge and Alternative Reinterpret Rock. The grunge scene updated

punk and represented a significant development in rock in the 1990s.

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F. Hip-Hop Redraws Musical Lines.

A political form of black music, rap emerged in the late 1970s.

G. The Reemergence of Pop.

Television shows like American Idol and Glee, as well as online retailers like
iTunes, have led to the flourishing of pop music in recent years.
III. The Business of Sound Recording
The sound recording industry is controlled
by a global oligopoly of companies.

A. Music Labels Influence the Industry.

Although recording industry sales have
dropped since 2000, the U.S. and global
music business constitutes a powerful
oligopoly.

 Fewer Major Labels Control More

Music. Together, four companies
control more than 85 percent of the recording industry market in the
United States.

 The Indies Spot the Trends. Independent labels produce 11 to 15

percent of America’s music.

B. Making, Selling, and Profiting from Music.

The music business is divided into several areas:

 Making the Music. Recording companies are generally driven by

A&R (artists and repertoire) agents, the talent scouts of the music
business.

 Selling the Music. The Internet has become a major venue for selling
and downloading.

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 Dividing the Profits. The process of dividing revenue among record

labels, composers, and performers varies according to the method of
distribution.

C. Alternative Voices. A number of recording artists have succeeded in the

music industry without signing with a major label.

 Independent Record Labels. Indies play a major role as the music

industry’s risk takers.

 The Internet and Promoting Music. Band Web sites have become a
key self-promotional tool, but social media sites and video sites have
made it even easier to promote albums, upload videos, and interact
with fans. Some unknown artists have found the Internet especially
useful in establishing a presence and attracting record labels.
IV. Sound Recording, Free Expression, and Democracy
Popular music today is confronted with direct censorship over explicit lyrics and
indirect censorship via corporate control.

For More Knowledge:. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o3ZcDl34hQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bVketPj5to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDr1nx0U5GM

Reference:
file:///C:/Users/Dean_04/Downloads/Chapter%201%20Mass%20Communication_%20A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RRyX9mI5Lw
%20Critical%20...%20-%20JoanMerriam.com.pdf

Campbell, R., Martin, C.R., and Fabos, B. (2016). Media Essentials: A Brief Introduction,
Third Edition. Boston: Bedford St. Martins. ISBN: 978-1-4576-9376-2. Available for
purchase or rental through the MSU Bookstore, Amazon, and other third-party
.booksellers.

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