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Statistics taken from Scholastic Magazine's Institute of Student Opinion
(class of 1956)*:
- there were 13 million teenagers in America
- teens represented a combined income of over $7 billion per year
- 26% more than in 1953 ... just 3 years earlier!!
- average teen had a weekly income of about $10.55
- boys saved about twice as much as girls
- girls spent about a third more
- junior high school girls bought the most records
- 61.7% purchased at least one per month, as opposed to only 46.6% of
junior HS boys
- 48.9% of senior HS girls bought at least one per month, as opposed
to 41.9% of the senior HS boys
- average buyer bought two records per month
- among those who bought over 12 per month, boys took the lead
- Pop Music was still the overall favorite
- overwhelmingly preferred recordings by RCA Victor
*Source: Rock of Ages by Ward, Stokes,
& Tucker (p. 123)
DJs ascend
- commanded ~68% of the air time
- playing 16.4 records per hour
- there were now over 2700 AM stations in the US
The "Big Five" in Descent
-
Independents arise
- 1954 - "Big Five" produce 42 of the year's Top 50
- 1956 - "Big Five" produce only 17 of the year's Top 50 ...
the remaining 33 were produced by 25 different companies
- sheet music sales dropped
- people were playing music by ear (notation didn't reflect the sound
of rock music)
- contrast aural vs written traditions
- alliance between rock & radio
- R&R was thriving abroad
- 7/57--ABC TV gave Alan Freed his own show
- The Moondog Show--first all-R&R experiment
- Moondog Balls--racially-integrated musical events
- 8/57--ABC picked up "American Bandstand" from its Philadelphia affiliate;
introducing Dick Clark
- top record countdown
- solicited audience response to newly released records
- "performances" by contemporary artists (lip-synced to recording)
- instrumental in setting teen fashion & introducing new dances
- 5/3/58--riot broke out at an Alan Freed concert in the Boston Arena
- white girl grabs black vocalist by the genitals
- Freed was indicted for inciting a riot
- both Clark & Freed halted the R&R tours for a while, but they
continued abroad
Top 40 format (initiated in KOWH, Omaha); two
gripes expressed by Ted Collins (producer of Kate Smith's radio show):
- too much rock
- **sticking with only proven records is a disservice to the music industry
in the mid-1950s, stereo recording is introduced by
Capitol Records
TEEN $$$$'s CONTINUED TO RULE THE MARKET!!
Single Sales Drop (Fall 1958)
- too many records available (confusing)
- recession was hitting youngsters
- fewer teens visiting record stores
- lack of an exciting trend
- LP was cutting into singles business
- cost 4 times a much, but had 6 times the music
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