Early '70s Radio - The American Format Revolution

Zusatztext Music historians are only now discovering what most everybody in the 1970s already knew: commercial radio formats really really mattered. Looking at the five key strands (Top 40, MOR, rock, R&B, and country), Kim Simpson surveys a moment when identity politics and counterculture were becoming niche marketing and new kinds of mainstreams. You can't explain what happened to American popular music after the 1960s without understanding these processes, and Simpson provides an able, accessible guide through a daunting range of sounds and contexts. --Eric Weisbard, University of Alabama and editor, Listen Again: A Momentary History of Pop Music Informationen zum Autor Kim Simpson, PhD, is a writer, musician, and radio host living in Austin, Texas. Klappentext Early '70s Radio focuses on the emergence of commercial music radio "formats," which refer to distinct musical genres aimed toward specific audiences. This formatting revolution took place in a period rife with heated politics, identity anxiety, large-scale disappointments and seemingly insoluble social problems. As industry professionals worked overtime to understand audiences and to generate formats, they also laid the groundwork for market segmentation. Audiences, meanwhile, approached these formats as safe havens wherein they could re-imagine and redefine key issues of identity. A fresh and accessible exercise in audience interpretation, Early '70s Radio is organized according to the era's five prominent formats and analyzes each of these in relation to their targeted demographics, including Top 40, "soft rock", album-oriented rock, soul and country. The book closes by making a case for the significance of early '70s formatting in light of commercial radio today. Vorwort Providing a fresh reevaluation of a specific era in popular music, the book contextualizes the era in terms of both radio history and cultural analysis. Zusammenfassung Early '70s Radio focuses on the emergence of commercial music radio "formats," which refer to distinct musical genres aimed toward specific audiences. This formatting revolution took place in a period rife with heated politics, identity anxiety, large-scale disappointments and seemingly insoluble social problems. As industry professionals worked overtime to understand audiences and to generate formats, they also laid the groundwork for market segmentation. Audiences, meanwhile, approached these formats as safe havens wherein they could re-imagine and redefine key issues of identity. A fresh and accessible exercise in audience interpretation, Early '70s Radio is organized according to the era's five prominent formats and analyzes each of these in relation to their targeted demographics, including Top 40, "soft rock", album-oriented rock, soul and country. The book closes by making a case for the significance of early '70s formatting in light of commercial radio today. Inhaltsverzeichnis Introduction: American Pie: Slicing Up Radio Consumers in the Early Seventies Chapter 1: Watching Scotty Grow: The New Top 40 and the Merging Spheres of Adults and Preteens Chapter 2: Pillow Talk: MOR, Soft Rock, and the "Feminization" of Hit Radio Chapter 3: All the Young Dudes: Progressive Rock Formats and the Taming of the American Male Chapter 4: The Agony and the Ecstasy: The Soul Radio Crisis and the Crossover Cure Chapter 5: What Is Truth: Country Radio's Growing Pains Conclusion: Never Ending Song of Love: The Continuing Legacy of Early Seventies Formatting Bibliography Index ...

Sommario

Introduction: American Pie: Slicing Up Radio Consumers in the Early Seventies

Chapter 1: Watching Scotty Grow: The New Top 40 and the Merging Spheres of Adults and Preteens

Chapter 2: Pillow Talk: MOR, Soft Rock, and the "Feminization" of Hit Radio

Chapter 3: All the Young Dudes: Progressive Rock Formats and the Taming of the American Male

Chapter 4: The Agony and the Ecstasy: The Soul Radio Crisis and the Crossover Cure

Chapter 5: What Is Truth: Country Radio's Growing Pains

Conclusion: Never Ending Song of Love: The Continuing Legacy of Early Seventies Formatting

Bibliography

Index

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: Kim Simpson
• Editore: Bloomsbury Academic
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Tascabile
• Pubblicazione: 30.09.2011
• EAN: 9780826461339
• ISBN: 978-0-8264-6133-9
• Pagine: 288
• Categorie: Scienze umane, arte, musica > Musica > Storia della musica; Radio, Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika, USA, 1970 bis 1979 n. Chr., Rock, Film, Kino, Medienwissenschaften, Fernsehen, TV, Pop Musik