Comprehensive Guide to Sound Recording and Popular Music History

Pop music

A genre of popular music that originated in its modern form in the Western world during the late 1950s.

Audiotape

A medium for recording and playing back sound, consisting of a strip of plastic coated with a magnetizable substance.

Cover artist

An artist who performs a new version of a song originally recorded by another artist.

Alan Freed

A disc jockey credited with popularizing the term 'rock and roll' in the 1950s.

Dick Clark

An American television personality known for hosting 'American Bandstand' and promoting rock and roll music.

Streaming payments

Monetary compensation received by artists and record labels from streaming services based on the number of plays.

Stereo

A method of sound reproduction that creates an illusion of multi-directional audible perspective.

Sister Rosetta Thorpe

An influential American singer, songwriter, and guitarist known for her pioneering contributions to rock and roll.

British Invasion

A musical movement in the mid-1960s where British rock bands gained immense popularity in the United States.

Digital recording

The process of capturing sound in a digital format, converting sound waves into binary data.

Motown

A record label founded in 1959 that played a significant role in the racial integration of popular music.

Napster

A file-sharing service that allowed users to share MP3 music files over the internet, launched in 1999.

Folk Music

A genre of music that originates in traditional popular culture and is typically passed down through generations.

MP3 format

A digital audio encoding format that compresses sound files to reduce their size while maintaining quality.

Jazz

A music genre that originated in the African American communities of New Orleans, characterized by swing and blue notes.

Rhythm & Blues

A genre of popular music combining jazz, gospel, and blues influences, originating in the African American community.

Punk Rock

A music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s, characterized by fast tempos, short songs, and a DIY ethic.

Disco

A genre of dance music that emerged in the 1970s, known for its upbeat tempo and use of orchestral instruments.

Grunge

A genre of alternative rock that emerged in the late 1980s, characterized by its heavy use of distortion and angst-filled lyrics.

Hip Hop

A cultural movement and genre of music that originated in the 1970s, characterized by rhythmic vocal style and DJing.

Louie Armstrong

An influential American jazz trumpeter and singer known for his charismatic stage presence and innovative music.

Global Revenue Growth

The increase in global recorded music revenues, which reached a total of $29.6 billion in 2024.

Copyright battles

Legal disputes involving record labels and AI music generation services over copyright infringement.

Streaming fraud

The use of artificial means, such as bots, to mimic human listening on streaming platforms, threatening fair royalty distribution.

Taylor Swift breaks records

Refers to Taylor Swift's achievement of breaking multiple records with her album 'The Life of a Showgirl'.

Artists are rethinking touring

The trend of artists reconsidering the financial viability of touring due to inflation and low ticket sales.

Phonograph

A 19th-century sound reproduction machine that originally recorded onto a tinfoil sheet wrapped around a cylinder.

Gramophone

The U.S. brand name for the phonograph; it played records made of zinc instead of using a cylinder.

33-1/3-rpm LP record

A type of vinyl record that plays at a speed of 33 and one-third revolutions per minute, introduced in 1948.

45-rpm record

A type of vinyl record that plays at a speed of 45 revolutions per minute, introduced in 1949.

Compact discs (CDs)

Digitally recorded discs introduced in 1983, produced at lower cost than vinyl records or audiocassettes.

A.I.-mediated composition

Tools like Amper and Popgun that automate music creation processes.

Spotify

Holds 31% of the total subscribers of the music streaming market, the largest portion of any streaming service.

Apple Music

Comes next with 15% of the music streaming market.

Amazon Music

Holds 13% of the music streaming market.

Tencent Music

Also holds 13% of the music streaming market.

YouTube Music

Holds 8% of the music streaming market's total subscription.

NetEase

Holds 6% of the music streaming market.

Deezer

Holds 2% of the music streaming market.

Yandex

Holds 2% of the music streaming market.

Master recording royalties

Royalties paid to the owner of the master recording.

Public performance royalties

Royalties earned when music is played in public settings.

Mechanical royalties

Royalties earned from the reproduction of music.

Synchronization royalties

Royalties earned when music is synchronized with visual media.

Tin Pan Alley music

Sheet music that started in the 1880s, including ragtime.

Race Records

Black music later renamed Rhythm and Blues in the 1950s and later Soul and Hip Hop.

Blues

A music genre that originated with African-Americans in the Deep South around the 1860s.

Robert Johnson

A significant artist in the blues music genre.

Cover version

A new performance or recording of a song by a musician or group other than the original artist or composer.

Rock and Roll

A cultural storm of music that hit in the mid-1950s, merging Black sounds of rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues guitar with white influences of country, folk, and pop vocals.

Rhythm and Blues (R&B)

Blues-based urban Black music marketed as a combination of blues and jazz, serving as a precursor to Rock and Roll.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Known as the Godmother of Rock and Roll.

Elvis Presley

Referred to as the King of Rock and Roll.

Chuck Berry

Recognized as the Father of Rock and Roll.

Surf Music

Carefree music that developed around the California surf culture in the 1960s, characterized by twanging, distorted electric guitar sounds.

Soul Music

A blend of R&B, pop, gospel, and blues music.

Glam Rock

An extravagant, self-indulgent form of rock that incorporated flamboyant costumes, heavy makeup, and elements of hard rock and pop.

Punk

A minimalist, angry form of rock that includes simple chord structures and often features politically motivated lyrics.

Psychedelic Era

A period in the late 1960s and early 1970s influenced by drugs, featuring artists such as Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead.

Hip-hop

A cultural movement that includes rapping, cutting by deejays, break dancing, street clothing, poetry slams, and graffiti art.

2000s Pop Music

A blended sound of rock, pop, hip hop, and country music, with artists like Lady Gaga and Kelly Clarkson.

Emo

A genre that filled the void for artists who could not find a fitting genre, featuring bands like Dashboard Confessionals.

A&R (Artist & Repertoire) Agents

Talent scouts who discover, develop, and sometimes manage artists.

Streaming Services

The leading revenue generator in music sales.

CD Sales

Constitute about 5.5% of U.S. music sales.