Cowboys and Indies: The Epic History of the Record Industry by Garth Murphy — Review

Cowboys and indies: the epic history of the Record Industry written by Gareth Murphy seeks to connect the dots between technological advancements, record labels, genres of music and key figures who played a part in laying the foundation for the modern record industry.

The rise and fall of each new technology would mark the beginning and end of particular record labels, styles of music and the key players that were involved in them.

The book starts with the evolution of “talking machines” by detailing the phonograph invented by Thomas Edison and the graphophone invented by Alexander Graham Bell. They were the first people to imagine the potential for these playback devices. Emile Berliner and Eldridge R. Johnson would license the patent to manufacture the victrola that would improve the design by introducing the recognizable flat disc that would come to be made of vinyl and even later plastic in the forms of Compact Discs, CDs.

RCA would purchase the company and then we have our first introduction of a major record label and we’d come to learn the origin of it’s iconic logo.

The author does a great job of weaving together the evolution of each playback device, court battles, familiar inventors while also introducing some of the musical tastes that would help grow the industry.

RCA was able to grow to dominance due to the rise in popularity of racial satires rooted in vaudeville classical performances, but a shift towards more local street-level danceable tunes built on jazz and blues rhythms from the southern US’s history of slavery. The music would spread using the network established by Black newspapers.

These “field recordings” would get exclusively licensed by labels eventually the dubious concept of paying performers royalties rather than flat fees would be introduced to the artists when the recording industry began to retract due to the great depression. Condenser mics would be invented that could capture the full range of sounds in their natural form.

The introduction of the radio would push blues and jazz further to the forefront of American music starting with amateur radio that, after the government began to regulate the radio airwaves, would set the tone for local radio stations causing the decentralization of popular music in the southern United States.

The book shifts gears from technological advancement to “record men” and the labels that would rise, fall, be purchased by and corporatized by them. The term “record man” would come into use and would be used to describe someone that could spot raw talent before it was able to be appreciated by most people. They could see that with some coaching in the studio and sometimes some slick marketing, the performer could become a superstar.

As artists were discovered, new genres would emerge and “record men” would sign the talent to their label. Once successful, other labels would mimic the process with similar artists. From the rise of bebop and swing with Nat King Cole laying the foundation for fellow crooners such as Frank Sinatra, to the Beatles, prompting the British invasion of the United States. All of this occurred while the new sound from Memphis soon to be called “rock n roll” slowly developed on Beale Street and would spread worldwide with the discovery of Elvis Presley.

My only issue with the book is that they mention BB King and other Beale Streets yet don’t mention some of the other stars of the chitlin’ circuit such as Johnny Ace and Don Robey.

The rise of folk music represented by the success of Bob Dylan and other musicians of the 60’s would come to an end when the record industry scene shifted west to California with stars of the Doors and the Grateful Dead became successful with their psychedelic rock sound after signing with Capitol Records.

The controversial topic of third party radio promotion, sometimes referred to as payola, and its impact on the recording industry comes into play in the 70s and then leads into the disco era of the late 70’s and the import dance record scene’s impact on early hiphop that can be heard on such early classics as “Heart of Glass” by Goldie and Africa Bambataa’s “Plant Rock”

The tailend of the book is still heavy with musical figures such as George Michael, Depeche Mode and former members of Genesis, Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel, but there is a noticeable switch to discussing the new technology of the CD that provided a industry wide boom that started in Japan and the big business acquisitions that birthed the compact disc and would result in many small “record men” taking fully buyouts for their entire catalogs which resulted in the centralization of the music industry that we still see today.

If you’re heavy into the history of the music business this is a great a read that gives you a good understanding as to why the industry is how it is today.