| Between 1940 and 1960, America's music industry experienced a rapid transformation that substantially altered the ways popular music was marketed and distributed. As a result, conceptions of such music's place in the broader national culture also evolved. These changes were sparked by a series of conflicts involving the institutions that controlled virtually every aspect of commercial music in the United States. These conflicts included the ASCAP radio ban of 1941, the American Federation of Musicians recording ban of 1942, the payola/quiz show scandals at the end of the 1950s, and others. Though these disputes were usually predicated on economic factors, the arguments and posturing that preceded their respective resolutions also drew on social, political, and cultural concerns.; By tracing the negotiation strategies and public rhetoric that marked these disputes, we see how the culture industry strengthened its role in the ever-ongoing public debate over national values. An inadvertent but highly significant consequence of this was that previously marginalized groups dramatically increased their access to mainstream outlets of American culture. African-Americans, working class whites, and teenagers all benefited as a result of expanded opportunities to make and consume music. As a result, they too established voices, and a greater stake, in the ongoing debate over what it means to be American. While this initially threatened the conformist ideals of popular music's corporate powers, those powers soon learned how to accommodate these new constituencies' tastes and expressions, converting them into profits.; For, even as traditional representatives of cultural propriety faded from influence, corporate and government forces blocked any truly radical threats posed by this new diversity of voices, whether to popular culture or the economic and political systems with which it was integrated. This is evident in the conflicts listed above, wherein the competing sides rarely questioned the notion of democratic capitalism even as they negotiated its relative terms. So, while the means and conditions of cultural expression in America were regularly challenged and revised, the underlying values most associated with corporate America were never seriously threatened. |
