Country music Study Guide
Commercialization of American Folk Music
1. Early Commercial Country "Hillbilly Music" [Malone 31-76] As the southern migration to the cities exploded, many aspects of rural life were carried along and incorporated into the newer, modern modes of every day life. Significant aspects of this modern change were the impact of traditional music, recordings, and radio broadcasts. With newly implemented programming including barn dances, skits, minstrelsy, and vaudeville performances, these musicians along with the far-reaching power of radio impacted, nurtured, and influenced the hillbilly acclimation to these new urban centers.
American popular music was urban-oriented, with marketing directed toward areas of greatest accessibility and highest population density, and (presumably, at least) people with the most disposable income.
Electronic Mass Media: when the folk music of southern whites merged with the commercial mass media of radio and the phonograph industry.
I. The rapid growth of radio as a means of entertainment and information exchange, particularly for rural areas, radically transformed the entertainment industry.
A. Although the lowest percentage of radio ownership overall was found in the South, it still fared better than the phonograph as a source of cheap and abundant entertainment. Moreover, live music broadcast over the radio sounded better than phonograph records of the period.
B. The first radio station to feature the emerging music was WSB in Atlanta, which began broadcasting March 16, 1922.
C. Much of the programming on early country stations centered around live performances.
The rise of electronic recording allowed records to have a sound better than radio, which had threatened to reduce the recording industry to irrelevance by 1925. This new method allowed softer instruments such as dulcimers, guitars and jaw harps to be heard, and it also meant recording equipment was highly portable—and as such, recordings could be
1. Early Commercial Country "Hillbilly Music" [Malone 31-76] As the southern migration to the cities exploded, many aspects of rural life were carried along and incorporated into the newer, modern modes of every day life. Significant aspects of this modern change were the impact of traditional music, recordings, and radio broadcasts. With newly implemented programming including barn dances, skits, minstrelsy, and vaudeville performances, these musicians along with the far-reaching power of radio impacted, nurtured, and influenced the hillbilly acclimation to these new urban centers.
American popular music was urban-oriented, with marketing directed toward areas of greatest accessibility and highest population density, and (presumably, at least) people with the most disposable income.
Electronic Mass Media: when the folk music of southern whites merged with the commercial mass media of radio and the phonograph industry.
I. The rapid growth of radio as a means of entertainment and information exchange, particularly for rural areas, radically transformed the entertainment industry.
A. Although the lowest percentage of radio ownership overall was found in the South, it still fared better than the phonograph as a source of cheap and abundant entertainment. Moreover, live music broadcast over the radio sounded better than phonograph records of the period.
B. The first radio station to feature the emerging music was WSB in Atlanta, which began broadcasting March 16, 1922.
C. Much of the programming on early country stations centered around live performances.
The rise of electronic recording allowed records to have a sound better than radio, which had threatened to reduce the recording industry to irrelevance by 1925. This new method allowed softer instruments such as dulcimers, guitars and jaw harps to be heard, and it also meant recording equipment was highly portable—and as such, recordings could be