1942: The Day the Music Stopped

I stumbled across this neat podcast called One Year that does a deep dive into pivotal events that happened over a particular year in American history. All of the episodes sound fascinating, but lindy hoppers will be particularly interested in the episode entitled “The Day the Music Stopped.”

Here’s the description of the show:

“On Aug. 1, 1942, the nation’s recording studios went silent. Musicians were fed up with the new technologies threatening their livelihoods, so they refused to record until they got their fair share. This week, Evan Chung explores one of the most consequential labor actions of the 20th century, and how it coincided with an underground revolution in music led by artists like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.”

I had no idea there was this relationship between the introduction of radio as a medium for transmitting musical performances to the birth of bebop as a music genre! And the connections to our current debates around the impact of streaming services on the livelihoods of musicians are profound.

For more from the One Year podcast, head to their website.