Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Payola Scandals To Come To A Real Halt?

This is good news for those of us (which is most of us) who can't quite stomach listening to a popular radio station for an hour or so and hearing the same crappy song twice.

Payola, or disc jockeys and radio stations taking money or favors for airplay for certain songs, was technically banned in 1950, but has been around quite prominently in one form or another ever since.

Fun Tidbit One: The first major instance of payola occurred when a man named Alan Freed, who in the mid 1950's was the most prominent DJ in the country, accepted money from the Chess brothers in return for vastly over-playing the tune "Maybellene," which became wildly popular and ultimately lead to the demise of Muddy Waters' position as the top gun for Chess Records, being replaced by Berry, who held the reigns for longer than Waters could ever have imagined.

Fun Tidbit Two: Alan Freed is the man who named the up and coming style that Chuck Berry was pioneering "Rock and Roll."

I know, I have gotten a little off subect; sorry. But I should also point out here that I do not think that the reason Chuck Berry went on to be the sensation that he was, and still is, was because of the immoral contributions that Freed made to Berry's career and to the revenue of the Chess record company. If you listen to the song, you will quickly realize that it has enough merit on its own to be one of the most popular songs of its time. And as Berry has irrevocably proven, he meant business and was no slouch. I simply think that Freed sped up the process a little; either to the detriment of good old fashioned Delta Blues, or to the progress of a musical revolution that would soon be defined by bands like Zeppelin and The Who, depending upon how much of a purist you are.

Anyhow, this new legislation which promises to even further restrict the practice of payola, will prove to be extraordinarily beneficial to those lovers of music who (if they haven't completely written off radio altogether) have almost reached the point of looking forward to "Love Line," because they can't possibly listen to that depressing "Thirty Seconds To Mars" song one more time without toasting a double shot of cyanide on the rocks.

(Original article pulled from Instapundit).

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?