The Star System Deepens
The popular publications of the 18th century up to the early 20th century for music compositions held the public attention for listening pleasures. Tin Pan Alley in New York was a center for top hits and publicists would hire performers to play melodies in large gatherings over and over to get songs stuck in people’s heads, inspiring purchases. Accessibility, playability, and memorability were some of the best characteristics for music to have, as the juke box was the piano prior to the advent of recorded sound. Music boxes were also popular versions of music reproduction, but song availability was not as broad as having an individual in the house that could play an instrument. Notation was a component of reproducing music that did not pervade all cultures. Many relied on memory, tradition, and heritage to transmit cultural properties of song and ceremony. The differences of these evolutions are a critical insight into the place where we stand now and our relationship to popular sound.
The advent of recorded music began a whole new journey into our cultural transmissions. Appropriations and borrowing exploded, and new inventive styles were quick to emerge with the sheer range that recorded music allowed. While quality was certainly lacking, for the first time, people were able to share sounds of authenticity from areas of the globe that were previously silent to them. Technicians from early recording companies spread out across continents, seeking to capture traditions and songs from every corner of the earth. Odeon Records, the Victor Talking Machine Company, Gramophone, and many others began immediately capturing as much as they could. This turning point would build a new meaning the idea of popular icons. Figures would emerge within their own spheres of influence, and others would rise to become world-wide celebrities. Edison’s foray into film and media, the founding of Hollywood, and the merger of sound to pictures created a vast network for personas, capturing our attention and making up the fabric of much that we consider our heritage today.
We tell stories in a vastly different manner than we ever have in human history. The star system, (better known as the celebrity culture of the 20th and 21st centuries), has replaced the previous age of religious worship and the ancient veneration of legends and Gods. As we venture further through the development of new technology and systems of communication, this star system becomes even deeper. No longer are we gravitating around single performers. Even as I write, the lines of genre and style blur. The new horizon venerates thousand of stars, with new discoveries and logarithmically faster rates. While these methods of sound and song sharing and creation continue to build, many of our old favorites fade away. It is no mystery that we are surrounded by such overwhelming losses of our venerated stars from the past. The human life span coincides with the time period in which they thrived.
As the decade continues on, the age of the Star System, the birth of the recording celebrity, and the time of the movie icon will bring more passing’s of revered favorites. The creation of numes in the 800s of Europe may have been one of the starting points for recording sound, but the advent of the vinyl record was surely one of its most impactful. Our eyes shifted in the 1300s from honoring the Gods that songs were written about to the pages and composers that created them. During the age of film and media, the television brought us a new place of worship. The experience of music continues to change, and I am reminded this morning of one interesting prophecy that came during the birth of MTV. Enjoy today’s listening example of “Video killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles in 1979., and thanks for reading!