Stage to Studio: Musicians and the Sound Revolution, 1890-1950 (Studies in Industry and Society, 9)
Author: James P. Kraft
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ISBN: 0801850894
Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr (July, 1996)
Sales Rank: 792,708
Average Customer Rating: 5 out of 5
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Absorbing history of an art and a business
James Kraft, a historian at the University of Hawaii/Manoa, tackles a huge but underexplored topic: the impact of the major technological innovations of the early twentieth century on the livelihood of the performing musicians. For those interested in the lives of musical stars, whether in the classical or popular fields, this book will be disappointing. Kraft regards music-making as very much a business: this is a history of the struggles of organized labor, in the form of the American Federation of Musicians, to maintain job security and incomes for their rank-and-file members in the face of two revolutions that changed the business of supplying music to the masses forever. The first was the advent of sound movies, which in a very few years wiped out the livelihoods of thousands upon thousands of musicians who had performed live music for showings of silent films in moviehouses across the nation. The second was radio, which quickly proved a boon for the sound recording industry, further eroding the need for live performers. STAGE TO STUDIO is an absorbing and carefully researched chronicle. As a performing musician I emerged from reading it more aware of just why it is that it is so difficult to make a living as a musician now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, and grateful to Petrillo and other major players in the AFM who, against all odds, struggled to preserve work and benefits for the beleaguered members of their union.
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