Stage to Studio: Musicians and the Sound Revolution, 1890-1950

by James P. Kraft

Overview

Award for Best Research in the Field of Record Labels or Manufacturers from the Association for Recorded Sound CollectionsWinner of the Kenneth W. Baldridge Prize from the Phi Alpha Theta Honor Society, Hawaii Region

Between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth century, technology transformed the entertainment industry as much as it did such heavy industries as coal and steel. Among those most directly affected were musicians, who had to adapt to successive inventions and refinements in audio technology—from wax cylinders and gramophones to radio and sound films. In this groundbreaking study, James P. Kraft explores the intersection of sound technology, corporate power, and artistic labor during this disruptive period.

Kraft begins in the late nineteenth century's "golden age" of musicians, when demand for skilled instrumentalists often exceeded supply, analyzing the conflicts in concert halls, nightclubs, recording studios, radio stations, and Hollywood studios as musicians began to compete not only against their local counterparts but also against highly skilled workers in national "entertainment factories." Kraft offers an illuminating case study in the impact of technology on industry and society—and a provocative chapter in the cultural history of America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801877421
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	11/19/2003
Series:	Studies in Industry and Society , #9
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.61(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

James P. Kraft is a professor of US business, labor, and the American West at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. He is the author of Stage to Studio: Musicians and the Sound Revolution, 1890–1950 and Vegas at Odds: Labor Conflict in a Leisure Economy, 1960–1985, and Havoc and Reform: Workplace Disasters in Modern America.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1. Working Scales in Industrial America
Chapter 2. Boom and Bust in Early Movie Theaters
Chapter 3. Encountering Records and Radio
Chapter 4. Playing in Hollywood Between the Wars
Chapter 5. Rising Militancy
Chapter 6. Recording Ban
Chapter 7. Balancing Success and Failure
Conclusion
Appendix. AFM Membership, 1896–1956
Notes
Essay on Sources
Index

Editorial Reviews

Historians might not have answers to the questions of technology displacing and deskilling workers, but they can lay out the facts and be sympathetic to the victims. This Kraft has done. He writes clearly and without bias, [and] has an understanding of his subjects that comes from his own background as a musician.
—André Millard, American Historical Review

In Stage to Studio, James Kraft presents a concise, well-researched, and well-written historical account of the actions and reactions of unionized musicians as they faced new technologies and changing conditions of labor in early twentieth-century America . . . an important contribution to the literature on organized workers in America.
—Emily Thompson, Technology and Culture

Combining techniques from social history, labor history, and the history of technology, Kraft weaves together archival material, oral history data, and secondary sources to produce an accessible narrative and a rich analysis.
—Harris M. Berger, Antenna

From the Publisher

Historians might not have answers to the questions of technology displacing and deskilling workers, but they can lay out the facts and be sympathetic to the victims. This Kraft has done. He writes clearly and without bias, [and] has an understanding of his subjects that comes from his own background as a musician.

American Historical Review - André Millard

Kraft treats popular culture on the highest academic level and fills a void heretofore ignored by labor historians.

Reviews in American History - Ronald L. Davis

Kraft has given us a superb history that shows the complexity of how 'even the most celebrated accomplishments of the capitalist market system can be, and usually are, accompanied by social dislocation.' I am not typically drawn to labor histories, but Kraft has shown the finer side of his craft, and in so doing has preserved for the broadest audience the experiences of an overlooked yet remarkable, indeed invaluable, group of people who have brought all of us much joy through their music. They deserve our collective remembrance.

H-Net Reviews - Craig H. Roell

In Stage to Studio, James Kraft presents a concise, well-researched, and well-written historical account of the actions and reactions of unionized musicians as they faced new technologies and changing conditions of labor in early twentieth-century America . . . an important contribution to the literature on organized workers in America.

Technology and Culture - Emily Thompson

"Historians might not have answers to the questions of technology displacing and deskilling workers, but they can lay out the facts and be sympathetic to the victims. This Kraft has done. He writes clearly and without bias, [and] has an understanding of his subjects that comes from his own background as a musician."

American Historical Review - André Millard

"A concise, well-researched and well-written historical account of the actions and reactions of unionized musicians as they faced new technologies and changing conditions of labor in early twentieth-century America."

Technology & Culture

An addendum to American entertainment history tracing the 19th century boom of musicians and their decline as the recording and film industries began to expand into the 20th century. Kraft (history, U. of Hawaii) likens professional musicians to the artisans of the 1800s facing big recording studios and Hollywood stages and the "entertainment factories" which they engendered, often leaving local performers out in the cold. Thus, their history becomes a case study of the impact of technology on industry and society. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Combining techniques from social history, labor history, and the history of technology, Kraft weaves together archival material, oral history data, and secondary sources to produce an accessible narrative and a rich analysis.

Antenna - Harris M. Berger