Pennies from heaven
Subtitle: the American popular music business in the twentieth century
By: Russell Sanjek ; updated by David Sanjek.
Contributors: Sanjek, David.; Sanjek, Russell., American popular music and its business.
Edition: 1st Da Capo Press ed.
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 769
Subjects: Music trade -- United States; Popular music -- United States -- History and criticism
Other titles: American popular music and its business.
Description: The technological and economic revolutions of the twentieth century have transformed the music business many times over. Pennies from Heaven is the definitive account of those transformations, from Thomas Edison's cylinders to Digital Audio Tape, from the rise and fall of vaudeville to the advent of the huge entertainment conglomerates, from the sale of sheet music to the marketing of music videos, from house organists for silent movies to soundtracks which sell in the tens of millions. Along the way, the book describes the workings of the performing rights organizations ASCAP and BMI; the demise of Hollywood's dominance of popular music after World War II; the growth of new genres, from rhythm-and-blues to rap and metal; the transformation of music radio from AM to FM; the establishment of "top 40" and the methods used to collect the necessary data; the rise of rock and its multi-billion-dollar business; the changes in copyright law; the strange career of the FCC; and trends to watch for in the music business as it enters the twenty-first century. The product of years of research, Pennies from Heaven undoubtedly ranks as one of the most essential and comprehensive books on American popular culture.
Notes: Rev. ed. of: American popular music and its business. v. 3, From 1900 to 1984. 1988. Includes bibliographical references (p. 685-724) and index.

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