Morse invented the telegraph in 1844. The telegraph transmitted messages over wires. Edison recording sound on rolls of foil in 1877. The first ever music disks being played on gramophones, which were invented in 1888 by Berlinger. In the 1890’s the telegraph became wireless due to Guglielmo Marconi. In 1905 Reginald Fessenden creates the first Christmas Eve radio broadcast that uses voices. The Radio Corporation of America worked to develop radio as a medium for communication. In 1920 KDKA in Pittsburgh implemented the first radio station. Companies like AT&T, General Electric, United Fruit Company and Westinghouse bought patents to Radio quickly becomes a source of mass communications allowing people to have access to radio shows such as Guiding Light and dramas like Little Orphan Annie, The Lone Ranger, The Shadow. The United Fruit Company used their patents to talk to ships that were carrying fruit for their company. There were more receivers than transmitters.
Talk radio which provides people with the medium in which they can listen or talk about currents issues. One such channel for talk radio is NPR which was started in 1967. NPR became so controversial at one point that people wanted Congress to ban it. NPR is not the only controversial radio show to have existed. Some of the others are Amos and Andy and Howard Stern. Talk radio also provides a forum for people like Rush Limbaugh to voice his political views.
The 1950’s was the rise of Rock ‘n Roll and Rhythm and Blues with Elvis and Chuck Berry. This was the beginning of people being concerned over how lyrics would affect young people. The 50’s and 60’s then saw the rise of Motown. Dewey Phillips attracted multi-racial audience for Red, Hot & Blue radio show. Soon America was exposed to the rougher sounds of British artists like The Beatles, Dusty Springfield, The Rolling Stones, The Who and many more. In the 70’s the role of the producer grew because of disco and the rise of concept albums. Country music which was seen as pop music for adults became popular again in the 80’s due to the movie Urban Cowboy. Hip Hop became popular in the 90’s. It has been the cause of a lot of controversy because people are afraid hidden or “back masked” lyrics.
The use of Ipods have brought the death of social music because everyone can create their own personal soundtracks. It is believed that this can lead to “withdrawing from social connections”. Today many people create mash-ups by combining the samples of two artists in order to create new music. Mash-ups are infringing on copyright because they are not licensed and they depend on long-tail distribution. Music artists have seen the sales of their CDs decline because consumers can download their music (violating copywriting laws) from a number of different sites. There are still a number of ways for the artist to make money, such as direct sales, and touring.
Reference
Ch07_4thEd.ppt
