Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919 (Music in American Life)

Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919 (Music in American Life)
by Tim Brooks

Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919 (Music in American Life)
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Book Summary Information

Author: Tim Brooks
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-09-25
ISBN: 025207307X
Number of pages: 656
Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Book Reviews of Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919 (Music in American Life)

Book Review: the holy grail of American music research
Summary: 5 Stars

For anyone interested in the pre-1920 recording industry--and especially in the history of the earliest recording artists of color--Lost Sounds is the archaeological dig of your dreams. Immaculately researched, beautifully written, and illustrated with photos, advertisements, and lyrics, it's a big stately volume: the growth of the popular song, the emergence of the mass media and entertailment industries, the appalling state of period race relations, the existentially twisted story of the minstrel show, and the amazing evolution of recording technology are all on readable (and sometimes haunting) display. So are the riveting stories of legendary artists George Washington Johnson (the ex-slave whose "Laughing Song" was used briefly in a recent Xerox ad), Bert Williams (featured in PBS' Broadway documentary series), Charley Case (a vaudeville comic who was rumored to be "passing"), and dozens of others. You'll be moved to comb the local antique shops for cylinders, and to try building your own record-yourself-on-tinfoil kit.

Summary of Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919 (Music in American Life)

Available in paperback for the first time, this groundbreaking in-depth history of the involvement of African Americans in the early recording industry examines the first three decades of sound recording in the United States, charting the surprising roles black artists played in the period leading up to the Jazz Age and the remarkably wide range of black music and culture they preserved. Applying more than thirty years of scholarship, Tim Brooks identifies key black artists who recorded commercially and provides illuminating biographies for some forty of these audio pioneers. Brooks assesses the careers and recordings of George W. Johnson, Bert Williams, George Walker, Noble Sissle, Eubie Blake, the Fisk Jubilee Singers, W. C. Handy, James Reese Europe, Wilbur Sweatman, Harry T. Burleigh, Roland Hayes, Booker T. Washington, and boxing champion Jack Johnson, as well as a host of lesser-known voices. Many of these pioneers faced a difficult struggle to be heard in an era of rampant discrimination and "the color line," and their stories illuminate the forces - both black and white - that gradually allowed African Americans greater entree into the mainstream American entertainment industry. The book also discusses how many of these historic recordings are withheld from the public today because of stringent U.S. copyright laws. "Lost Sounds" includes Brooks's selected discography of CD reissues, and an appendix by Dick Spottswood describing early recordings by black artists in the Caribbean and South America. Tim Brooks is Executive Vice President of Research at Lifetime Television. He is coauthor of "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows" and "The Columbia Master Book Discography", and the author of "Little Wonder Records: A History and Discography". He is past president of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections and the winner of its Lifetime Achievement Award. Dick Spottswood is a freelance author, broadcaster, and record producer. He is the author of the seven volume reference work, Ethnic Music on Records.

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