I was reading/thinking about the decline of big band and swing (in the US) recently. Of course, it didn’t happen all at once and had various causes (or, at least, I’ve seen debate on various causes). Mine is not about the rise of rock and roll, but rather earlier the rising dominance of vocal-focused pop (which, again, I full acknowledge existed and had popular works during the swing era). And, of course, I know there was also doo wop and some latin-inspired songs, too.
So, for music historians (or marketing historians), do you know if there was age-segmentation of what was listened to among adults in the latter half of the 1940s and early 1950s? Did 23 year old listen to the same music as 43 year olds? I expect their were some racial and ethnic and urban-vs-rural differences, as well. My understanding was jazz was mostly in the bebop era at the time, which was more “musician’s music” or at least for listening, rather than dancing. Which I would think would lessen it’s appeal. Not quite certain on when the era of samba dancing was. But my main interest is in to what degree there were age-based differences within racial/ethnic/regional groups.
Country Music, my dad was born in 1926 and never was into big bands. My mom was born in 1931 and went straight into the beginnings of Rockabilly as she grew up in west Texas and actually knew (and babysat for) the Holly family. Band was b into Hank Williams Senior and mom enjoyed rock from the beginning and b into the late seventies.
They said they listened to bug band on the radio but never bought big band records, heck they could barely afford a radio.
My parents were in the right age group, but all the records they owned were either classical (my father) or Broadway shows (my mother) so I’m strictly in WAG country here.
My guess is that the death knell for big bands was . . .
Frank Sinatra.
Record executives weren’t dumb. They saw the hysteria caused by Sinatra, and that vocalists were being featured more on radio, so naturally they began pushing the vocalists to the front, making the bands more or less interchangeable. That opened the door for everyone from Dinah Shore and Doris Day to Nat King Cole and Frankie Lane (and a few holdovers like Bing Crosby).
Columbia Records (parent of CBS) released the long-playing 33 1/3 rpm album format in mid-1948. It’s arch-rival RCA (parent of NBC) struck back with the 45 rpm single in early 1949. Both were sonically far superior to the shellac-based 78 rpm earlier format. Plus the same post-war era introduced magnetic tape recording (Bing Crosby became very rich with an early investment in Ampex), also improving sound quality. Together, they were revolutionary.
One of the unexpected consequences was the ability of teens to buy cheap singles for cheap record players, rather than having to share their parents’ bulky consoles. Teens had emerged as a separate consumer segment over the previous decade; now the record companies saw a potential market differentiated from the adult tastes that dominated the album buyers. Sinatra was an ancient 33 by 1948 and a regular on the Your Hit Parade radio program, where he and Peggy Lee sang covers of the hot songs of the week. Very adult.
Another revolution occurred at the same time. Television. Almost all the top radio shows had television versions by the early 50s and radio listenership was declining. Stations fought back with local programming and the rise of what we now know as the dj. Just as experimental as early tv was, these programs found sounds that drew from country, r&b, jazz, folk, and Americana as well as Broadway, crooners, movies, and Tin Pan Alley, the mix that became rockabilly, rock ‘n’ roll, and then rock. Teens found these stations wherever they lived, because AM radio bounced off the ionosphere and could be heard for hundreds of miles, especially at night.
The two worlds overlapped for several years but the gap between teens and adults was visible from the late 40s and a matter of national horror by the mid-50s.
The 1942-44 recording ban by the American Federation of Musicians forced record makers to rely more heavily on vocalists and non unionized “part time” musicians. By the time the strike ended, record labels realized they didn’t need big bands to make top selling records.
The genre of Swing lived on with smaller bands that played Western Swing which evolved and merged with other genres to create Rockabilly and Rock n Roll.
I enjoy the discussion on the “whys” of swing’s decline (though I’ve read these before as I looked into this eras music), but does anyone have any insight into the difference in listening habits of younger, middle-aged, older adults?
