by Erika Cox
The Payola Scandal is mostly associated with the situation between
record companies and disc jockeys in the 1950’s. However, payola was
also popular in the 1920’s and 30’s during vaudeville and big band
times. Yet, the first court case came in 1960.
Payola means the paying of cash or gifts for radio play, and is a
combination of the words “pay” and “victrola”, which stands for LP
record player. Payola has been around since the inception of the radio,
disc jockeys and radio stations were offered money or gifts to play a
particular song.
Getting radio play would allow the songs to reach its expected audience
and help launch the artist’s career. This practice also helped small and
independent labels break the stronghold of the music industry by major
labels. To better understand what was behind the Payola scandal in the
1950’s, let me discuss a little history about the radio industry.
In the 1930’s and 1940’s, the American Society of Composers, Authors and
Publishers (ASCAP) thrived on the sales of sheet music and recordings of
Tin Pan Alley songs, but the creation of radio in the 1940’s was geared
toward recorded music and things started to change in the industry.
After a fierce battle between radio stations and ASCAP over royalty
payments, stations decided to refuse to play any recordings registered
with ASCAP. So, in 1940 radio stations created and began operating their
own publishing company called Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI). ASCAP didn’t
want to share any royalties with radio stations and they tended to
ignore and refuse to play any music composed by Blacks and Hillbillies.
Remember, this was back in the 40’s and 50’s and this association was
riddled with racism and ignorance at the time, to them black music or
country music just wasn’t good enough and therefore, not accepted. This
allowed BMI to have complete control over songs in these two areas
because many record stations supplied these songs to regional areas
mostly ignored by the major networks, in particular, the Midwest and the
South. BMI strengthened and enlarged its control when rock and roll
music, which was at first the music of Blacks and Hillbillies, began and
hit it big.
So, by the time 1960 rolled around you can see how ASCAP most have felt
when BMI was increasing and becoming more powerful each year. Rock and
Roll and Rockabilly – a combination of rock and hillbilly music –
skyrocketed in the 1950’s and the big boys, ASCAP, had to do something
to stop it. It was not surprising at all, in 1959 when urged and backed
by ASCAP, the House Legislative Committee started investigating corrupt
broadcasting practices.
The committee broadened its investigation, which had been focusing on the
rigged TV game shows, to include the practice of payola in radio. ASCAP
believed that once investigated it would show that songs copyrighted
with BMI became hits dishonestly because of payola. As ridiculous and
petty as this sounds, it was the way of thinking back in those days.
This type of thinking came from the fact that many felt rock and roll
music was the music of the devil, it was corrupting teenagers morally,
and that teenagers only were listening to it because they had been
tricked by greedy DJs who pocketed money or gifts to play songs over and
over again until the teenagers were basically brainwashed.
Also, many felt that rock and roll was a fad that would soon (hopefully)
go away and the Payola hearings were an attempt to make sure this would
happen. The committee went after several DJs but focused on one in
particular, his name was Alan Freed. Alan Freed was a very popular DJ
who loved rock and roll music and helped many black artists thrive by
promoting them and their music at various shows and concerts, because of
this Mr. Freed became public enemy No. 1.
Freed would later be indicted
and charged with bribery and tax invasion, he paid only a small fee, but
it cost him his career and in essence his life. Also, Dick Clark was
targeted but on a lower level, he was forced to give up shares he had in
publishing and record companies but was able to keep his show
American
Bandstand and he continued to have a successful long lasting career.
Nevertheless, the Payola scandal didn’t serve ASCAP’s and many others
main purpose, and that was to eliminate rock and roll. After a brief
victory by the powers to be and a three year period of some really
dreadful pop music, rock and roll music came back strong in the
mid-1960’s with the help of the British Invasion and has been riding
high ever since. No rock and roll was no fad it was here to stay.
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