Payola in the 1950s Music Industry PDF

O'Regan, J. (2014). Payola. In W. F. Thompson & J. G. Golson (Eds.), Music in the Social and Behavioural Sciences: Sage. Payola Payola refers to an offer of money or gifts in exchange for promotion. The word itself is a portmanteau of “pay”, take...

O'Regan, J. (2014). Payola. In W. F. Thompson & J. G. Golson (Eds.), Music in the Social and Behavioural Sciences: Sage. Payola Payola refers to an offer of money or gifts in exchange for promotion. The word itself is a portmanteau of “pay”, taken from “payment”, and “-ola”, a common suffix in music- related company names (Pianola, Victrola, and so forth). In the music industry, the term describes a “pay-to-play” practice which started in the 1950s to promote rock and roll records on radio and television. Although the term is most commonly used in relation to 1950s music business practices, payola existed in the Tin Pan Alley era where song “pluggers” were employed to build the popularity of particular songs in the hopes of encouraging greater sales and radio airplay. During the golden age of Tin Pan Alley from the late 1890s to the 1930s, song pluggers worked as professional advertisers to draw consumer attention to new songs that publishers had chosen to prioritise. As songwriters during this era were unlikely to also be performers, publishers needed to find methods to get new songs into the hands of popular singers in order for the song to become a local or national hit. To do this, a song plugger’s job could include anything from surreptitiously paying local performers to perform a new song during their concerts, to more aggressive tactics, such as planting themselves in the audience of a local performance and interrupting the show with a rendition of a new song. As the music industry moved from sheet music sales to record sales, the role of song plugger was transformed into a promotional role at independent record labels. The issue of payola in the 1950s was influenced by several factors: the rise of music on radio, the rise of a teen demographic interested in R&B and rock’n’roll music at the time, and the birth of independent record labels who specialised in and recorded rock and roll music. With the rise of television, dramatic programs and serials were transferred from radio to the small screen. In response, national and regional radio became more focused on the broadcasting of music and, as a result, the power of radio to create national hits grew exponentially. One of the earliest and most influential regional radio shows aimed at teen audiences was Alan Freed’s The Moondog Show, which premiered on Cleveland station WJW in July of 1951 and played selections of R&B records. Other regional shows began to highlight this music too, with Dewey Phillips’ Red, Hot and Blue show on WHBQ in Memphis, and other shows broadcasting from Nashville, Los Angeles and Atlanta. Slowly, rock and roll began to spread across the United States. Freed was the most successful of these DJs and in 1954, he moved to New York to debut his new national radio show Rock and Roll Party. Freed would become a central part of the “payola scandal” in 1959. The post-war economic boom in the United States also played a part in both the rise of rock and roll and the payola tactics used in the promotion of records. During the early 1950s, the United States entered a period of middle-class affluence, with the growth of suburban neighbourhoods, the availability of new technology for the home, and the affordability of automobiles. The children of the baby boom were spared the hardships their parents faced, were not expected to assimilate into adult life as soon as they left high school; they were a prominent demographic who were inclined to spend their disposable income.  For the first time, teenagers had a pop culture that represented them, rather than the tastes of their parents; during the 1950s, teenagers had their own fashions, slang, dances, movies and music. These teenagers became the audience for rock and roll music, which was making its way from a regional trend to a national phenomenon heard on radio stations all over the United States. To this generation, the sound of rock and roll records were exotic, dangerous and sexual; even more importantly, the music upset their conservative parents. Teenagers, and their disposable income, became a legitimate target for sales for the first time in music’s long history. In the 1950s, rock and roll was primarily recorded and released by independent record labels – small companies that were not affiliated with major record labels like Columbia, MGM, Capitol and RCA-Victor. To get their record played on radio, the independent labels needed to encourage relationships with local DJs and radio stations. In order to develop this business friendship, independent labels would often offer incentives of gifts, cash, records, merchandise, dinners and vacations to radio DJs in order to move their releases to the top of the pile for broadcasting. These methods were not illegal at this time, and were a way for small record labels with no distribution or marketing department to compete with the much larger major record labels. However, the major labels also participated in this practice too. In 1959, the United States Congress began to investigate the practice of payola in the music, radio and television industry, after which new legislation was passed to make the practice illegal. This change instigated the proceedings of the “payola scandal” – a federal investigation which saw hundreds of radio DJs admit to accepting payola in front of the United States House Oversight Committee. Alan Freed, as host of the most popular rock and roll radio show in the country, and Dick Clark, host of the TV show American Bandstand, were at the centre of the investigation. The payola hearings were in part motivated by the battle between the two main performing rights associations in the United States: the very traditional ASCAP, who represented the old guard of pop songwriters, and BMI who represented young songwriters, both black and white, who wrote and performed rock and roll. Freed and Clark, as the two most powerful forces in the promotion of rock and roll on radio and television, were thoroughly interrogated. Both denied accepting payola for playing particular records on air, though it was difficult for investigators to believe this, given their position in popular culture. Clark managed to escape the scandal relatively unscathed due to his cooperation throughout the investigations; American Bandstand was broadcast until 1989. Freed, however, did not fare as well. He openly admitted that he accepted “gifts of friendship” from record labels, but remained insistent that the gifts would not sway him to play a record on air that he didn’t personally want to play. This honesty worked against him and he eventually lost his influential radio show and served a six-month suspended sentence with a $300 fine. The small record labels found it harder to compete with the majors in the wake of the scandal, leading to a period where popular music aimed at teens was safer, less controversial, and more likely to be on a major label. The rock and roll industry would eventually recover from the blow of the payola scandal in the shape of ‘Beatlemania’ in 1964. In 1971, new allegations of payola in the music industry came to light after journalist Jack Anderson wrote an exposé in the Nashua Telegraph outlining the proof he had uncovered in his own investigations. Although the FCC was already attempting to investigate claims of payola in the music industry at this time, its investigations had met with little success. In June, 1973, the second major payola scandal came to light as a result of the Federal Strike Force Against Organised Crime (also called Project Sound) uncovered links to Columbia Records. This evidence lead to the firing of both Clive Davis, the head of Columbia Records, and David Wynshaw, his aide, for the misappropriation of $94 000 of company funds. It was also uncovered that Columbia set aside over $250 000 for “promotional purposes” which was more accurately spent on free records for local stores and on gifts of drugs to radio DJs (sometimes referred to as “drugola”). Project Sound launched a full-scale probe into the use of payola, subpoenaing local radio stations, record labels and other related businesses to appear before a federal grand jury. The trials lasted until 1977. Before the 1973 scandal, it had been a decade since anyone had been charged under the payola statute which was established in 1959. Payola is still prevalent in the music industry, however, it has taken on different forms. Much of the criticism of “pay-to-play” tactics in recent years have been directed towards Clear Channel Communications, an American mass-media company owning over 850 radio stations, ticketing companies, venues, billboards and other avenues of music promotion. After changes to the Telecommunications Act in 1996 which relaxed caps on media ownership, Clear Channel was able to own the largest percentage of the mass-media market. While the days of trading radio plays for drugs and records may have passed, independent record promoters (a new term for song pluggers), are employed by major record labels to perform the role of a middleman between the labels and radio stations. Money is exchanged in return for addition to national rotation on Clear Channel radio stations. While this practice is not as overt as the payola practices of 1959 and 1973, it still bears many of the same characteristics. See also: Recording Industry; Pay-to-play; Popular Music. Further Reading: Covach, John and Flory, Andrew. What's That Sound? An Introduction to Rock and Its History. New York: W. W. Norton Limited (2012). Sharlet, Jeff. Big World: How Clear Channel Programs America. In M. Hart & P. Bresnick (Eds.), Da Capo Best Music Writing 2004. United States: Da Capo Press (2004). Seagrave, Kerry. Payola in the Music Business: A History, 1880-1991. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc (1994). Shuker, Roy. Popular Music: The Key Concepts (Second Edition). Abington: Routledge (2005).