HOLLYWOOD STUDIO MUSICIANS: THEIR WORK AND CAREERS IN THE RECORDING INDUSTRY, Robert R. Falkner. Chicago: Aldine-Atherton, 1971, $7.50, 218 pp

1973 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 454-455
Author(s):  
Robert A. Stebbins
1972 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
pp. 455
Author(s):  
Lawrence H. Streicher ◽  
Robert R. Faulkner

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan-Peter Herbst ◽  
Tim Albrecht

Among the professional roles in the recording industry, studio musicians have received relatively little academic attention. Who has played on a record and who has developed the rhythms, melodies and fills are secrets that remain hidden behind closed studio doors. Since the little public media available mainly recollects memories of past stars or musical developments from more than twenty years ago, little is known about more recent biographies, individual skills and working practices of average studio musicians from different parts of the world. Against this backdrop, the present study explored the skillset of studio musicians in Germany’s popular music recording industry. The interviewees provided rare insights into their careers, expressed their views on technological developments and depicted their economic realities. With increasing power and affordability of music production resources, new business models for studio musicians were developing along with a change of skills. For a long time, the successful studio musician had incredible playing skills, stylistic flexibility and was an excellent sight-reader. These requirements seem to have shifted; today’s musicians must have a broader skillset and be experts beyond their instruments. A repertoire of ideas and sounds to be offered spontaneously in a recording session are highly valuable next to empathy, social skills and a likeable and humble personality. The musicians must be both unique and flexible to serve a project and compete with the many fellow musicians and programmers of computer instruments.


Author(s):  
Damon J. Phillips

There are over a million jazz recordings, but only a few hundred tunes have been recorded repeatedly. Why did a minority of songs become jazz standards? Why do some songs—and not others—get re-recorded by many musicians? This book answers this question and more, exploring the underappreciated yet crucial roles played by initial production and markets—in particular, organizations and geography—in the development of early twentieth-century jazz. The book considers why places like New York played more important roles as engines of diffusion than as the sources of standards. It demonstrates why and when certain geographical references in tune and group titles were considered more desirable. It also explains why a place like Berlin, which produced jazz abundantly from the 1920s to early 1930s, is now on jazz's historical sidelines. The book shows the key influences of firms in the recording industry, including how record labels and their executives affected what music was recorded, and why major companies would re-release recordings under artistic pseudonyms. It indicates how a recording's appeal was related to the narrative around its creation, and how the identities of its firm and musicians influenced the tune's long-run popularity. Applying fascinating ideas about market emergence to a music's commercialization, the book offers a unique look at the origins of a groundbreaking art form.


Author(s):  
Travis D. Stimeling

Nashville Cats: Record Production in Music City, 1945–1975 is the first history of record production during country music’s so-called Nashville Sound era. This period of country music history produced some of the genre’s most celebrated recording artists, including Country Music Hall of Fame inductees Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves, and Floyd Cramer, and marked the establishment of a recording industry that has come to define Nashville in the national and international consciousness. Yet, despite country music’s overwhelming popularity during this period and the continued legacy of the studios that were built in Nashville during the 1950s and 1960s, little attention has been given to the ways in which recording engineers, session musicians, and record producers shaped the sounds of country music during the time. Drawing upon a rich array of previously unexplored primary sources, Nashville Cats: Record Production in Music City, 1945–1975 is the first book to take a global view of record production in Nashville during the three decades that the city’s musicians established the city as the leading center for the production and distribution of country music.


Popular Music ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nakamura Tôyô

What was the first Japanese pop hit? The answer will vary according to definition, but undoubtedly come from one of the following five songs:(1) ‘Kachûsha no Uta’ (Kachusha's Song): first sung on stage by Matsui Sumako in March 1914; words by Shimamura Hôgetsu and Sôma Gyofû, music by Nakayama Shimpei; recorded by Matsui for Orient Records under the title of ‘Fukkatsu Shôka.(2) ‘Sendô Kouta’ (A Boatman's Ditty): released in sheet music form in March 1921; words by Noguchi Ujō, music by Nakayama Shimpei.(3) ‘Habu no Minato’ (The Harbour of Habu): written in 1923; words by Noguchi Ujô, music by Nakayama Shimpei; originally recorded by Satô Chiyako for Victor Records in April 1928.(4) ‘Kimi Koishi’ (You, Sweetheart): written in 1928; words by Shiguré Otowa, music by Sasa Kôka; originally recorded by Futamura Tei'ichi for Victor Records in December 1928.(5) ‘Tokyo Kôshin-kyoku’ (Tokyo March): written in 1929; words by Saijô Yaso, music by Nakayama Shimpei; originally sung by Satô Chiyako for Victor Records in June 1929.By looking at how these five songs were put together and became hits, we may be able to understand the origins of the professional song writer in Japan and the early growth of the domestic recording industry.


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