From Aural Places to Visual Spaces: the Latin/O and General Music Industries
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FROM AURAL PLACES TO VISUAL SPACES: THE LATIN/O AND GENERAL MUSIC INDUSTRIES A Dissertation by CHRISTOPHER JOSEPH WESTGATE Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY August 2011 Major Subject: Communication From Aural Places to Visual Spaces: The Latin/o and General Music Industries Copyright 2011 Christopher Joseph Westgate FROM AURAL PLACES TO VISUAL SPACES: THE LATIN/O AND GENERAL MUSIC INDUSTRIES A Dissertation by CHRISTOPHER JOSEPH WESTGATE Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved by: Chair of Committee, Eric W. Rothenbuhler Committee Members, Antonio La Pastina Patrick Burkart Leroy Dorsey Juan Galdo Head of Department, Richard Street August 2011 Major Subject: Communication iii ABSTRACT From Aural Places to Visual Spaces: The Latin/o and General Music Industries. (August 2011) Christopher Joseph Westgate, B.S., Cornell University; M.A., Columbia University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Eric W. Rothenbuhler This manuscript tells the stories of the Latin/o and general music industries in the United States from 1898 to 2000. It argues that performers transformed the local identities of aural industries based in place and melody into global industries of visual identities designed for space and celebrity. Both the Latin/o and general music industries shifted back and forth along a local-sound-to-global-sight spectrum more than once, from sounds of music rooted in specific places to sights of musicians uprooted across universal spaces between 1898 and 2000. This claim is supported by a textual analysis of archival materials, such as trade press articles, audio recordings, still photographs and motion pictures. While the general music industry’s identity changed, the Latin/o industry’s identity stayed the same, and vice-versa. Specifically, when the general industry identified with transnational performers and images between 1926 and 1963, the Latin/o industry retained its identification with the sounds of music rooted in specific places. From 1964 to 1979, as the Latin/o industry moved from one end of the spectrum to the iv other, only to return to its initial position, it was the general industry that maintained its identification with the midpoint of the spectrum. During the 1980s, the general industry zigzagged from the midpoint to the global-visual end and back again, while the Latin/o industry remained at the local-sonic end of the spectrum. In the 1990s, the Latin/o industry’s local and sonic identity continued, and the general industry moved from the midpoint to the global-visual end of the spectrum with the Latin boom. The general industry’s identity changed during each interval except 1964-1979, the only period in which the Latin/o industry’s identity fluctuated. From Aural Places to Visual Spaces: the Latin/o and General Music Industries should be of interest to anyone invested in the relations between creativity and commerce, substance and style, or geography and genre. v For my parents vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I thank my committee chair, Dr. Eric Rothenbuhler, and my committee members, Dr. Antonio La Pastina, Dr. Patrick Burkart, Dr. Leroy Dorsey, and Dr. Juan Galdo, for their guidance. Thanks to the following folks for their clerical and emotional support: Sandra Maldonado, Pam Vance, Cathy Cordova, Diana Bushong, and Brian Williams. I am grateful to the following people for their research and consultation advice: Steve Bales (Texas A&M University’s Evans Library), Jorge Matos Valldejuli (C.U.N.Y.’s Centro de Estudios Puertorriquenõs), Karen Fishman (Library of Congress), John Wheat (University of Texas’ Briscoe Center for American History), Christian Lusa (University of Texas’ Benson Latin American Collection), Mary Ann Quinn (Rockefeller Archive), Alison Weinstock (Rubén Blades Archives at Harvard University), Cristóbal Díaz-Ayala (The Díaz-Ayala Cuban and Latin American Popular Music Collection at Florida International University), Grover Baker (the Center for Popular Music, Middle Tennessee State University), Michael Panico (Sony Music), Leila Cobo (Billboard), Ayala Ben-Yehuda (Billboard), Eugene Smith (Billboard), Chris Strachwitz (Arhoolie), Delia Orjuela (BMI), Jose Marquez (EMI), Deborah Pacini Hernandez, Claire and the late Richard (Pete) Peterson. I also extend my gratitude to Texas A&M University’s Glasscock Center for Humanities Research and the College of Liberal Arts, both of which provided me support with stipends and fellowships. Finally, thanks to my friends and family for their encouragement, patience and love. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. iii DEDICATION .......................................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................... vii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ................................................................................ 1 Ways to Listen and Look ................................................................ 1 II 1898-1964 ............................................................................................. 21 The Early Years .............................................................................. 24 The Middle Years ........................................................................... 31 The Later Years .............................................................................. 47 III 1965-1980 ............................................................................................. 51 Before the Shift .............................................................................. 52 During the Shift .............................................................................. 60 After the Shift ................................................................................. 65 IV 1981-1989 ............................................................................................. 78 International Sightseeing ................................................................ 80 Regional and Local Sounds ............................................................ 94 Looking Backward and Forward .................................................... 101 viii CHAPTER Page V 1990-2000 .............................................................................................. 106 Before the Boom ............................................................................ 109 During the Boom ............................................................................ 117 After the Boom ............................................................................... 125 VI CONCLUSION .................................................................................... 132 La Coda .......................................................................................... 132 ENDNOTES .............................................................................................................. 142 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................... 171 VITA ......................................................................................................................... 205 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Ways to Listen and Look1 The Latin/o music industry’s independent labels and the “Latin” divisions of the general music industry’s major companies have histories, but they have not been written. Apart from the notable exception of Keith Negus, who is now affiliated with musicology, communication and media scholars have overlooked independent Latin/o labels and the major companies’ “Latin” divisions.2 Scholars of Latin/o culture, meanwhile, have conflated those labels and divisions.3 That conflation does not help us understand how Ramón Ayala (a signatory of Freddie Records in Corpus Christi) and Ricky Martin (a performer signed to Sony-BMG’s Latin division in Miami), for instance, make different kinds of music in different ways for different audiences. For that reason, this manuscript distinguishes the Latin/o music industry’s investment in its own artists (e.g. Freddie and Ayala) from the general music industry’s interests in Latin/o performers (e.g. Sony and Martin) for analytic purposes, and recognizes that the latter industry’s inclusion of the former does not mean the former includes the latter.4 The general music industry is defined herein as an agglomeration of four major entities and thousands of “independent” labels with diverse interests, the majority of which have no explicit relations with Latin/o musicians.5 The “big four” corporate labels ____________ This dissertation follows the style of Communication & Critical/Cultural Studies. 2 —Universal, Sony-BMG, Warner and EMI—currently control between 72 and 87 percent of the global music market, and the number of major labels has ranged from eight to four since the 1940s.6 Each company has horizontally integrated its packaging across platforms, vertically integrated its value chain, and diversified to compensate for loss from sectors that perform poorly. As Patrick Burkart observes, a loose integration approach characterizes the industry’s ownership