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Kip Padgett
MUH 3025
2/6/15
Opportunities and Barriers for Black Musicians: Post-War Era
After World War II, new opportunities were present for African Americans artists. These
opportunities were available due to the younger generation (people under 21) making up 1/3
of the population. This younger generation had more appreciation for black artists than their
predecessors. Along with this, in 1939, Broadcast Music Incorporated was founded, which
licensed the African American artists that ASACP would never have wanted to represent.
These factors added up to an overall greater appreciation and respect for African American
artists music, allowing for new opportunities. However, the majority of the American
population still did not respect African American artists, allowing a number of barriers for
African Americans in the music industry to remain.
A portion of the music industry and white listeners finally gave black artists respect and
appreciation during the post-war era. African Americans did not receive an enormous
amount of respect, but they did receive enough to be finally enabled to be heard for the first
time outside of live performances. Along with this, African Americans were finally given a
place of their own in the music industry. An example of this can be seen when looking at an
article written before the war in which Irving Kolodin argues that public radio stations never
play African American artists music. If Kolodin had written his article after the war, he
would not have had a strong argument because in 1949, WDIA, which was owned by whites,
became the first radio station dedicated specifically to African American listeners. Another
example of blacks gaining respect/appreciation is that the music industry finally found the

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terms "race record" and "race music offensive. This recognition can be seen by looking at
when Jerry Wexler conceived the term rhythm and blues in 1948. Due to the facts that Jerry
Wexler worked for Billboard Magazine and the term race records was deemed offensive to
the African-American community, in 1949, Billboard Magazine changed its "race records"
charts title to "Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles. One final example is that African American
musicians now had dominant record companies dedicated to them and the genre of R&B.
These companies include Atlantic, Savoy, and Miracle. These examples were brought about
by African Americans new found respect in the music industry. In short, they allowed
African American musicians to excel finally and be heard by larger audiences.
Though a small portion of the music industry now showed respect to African Americans, a
large portion of the music industry had no respect for them. One consequence of this
obstacle can be seen by looking at the fact that a lot of the music industry stole black
musicians tracks. This theft was possible because back in the post-war era there was no
copyright protection. An example of this is Georgia Gibbs cover of the black musician
Lavern Bakers song Tweedle Dee. While Bakers version managed to reach number 14 on
the Hot 100, Gibbs version reached number 2. Another example is Elvis Presleys 1954
recording of Thats All Right by the African American musician Arthur Crudup. Crudup
ended up having to wait until the 60s to collect his royalties for the song. One final example
of this obstacle can be seen by looking at when the white musician Patti Page sang Oh,
What a Dream, a song Chuck Willis wrote for Ruth Brown, on nationwide TV. This
example displays that black artists would most likely never be on national television during
the post-war era. Due to this fact they were still not capable of receiving the exposure that
white musicians received.

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Thus, it is clear that while new opportunities for African American musicians still existed
during the post-war era, barriers still remained. The barriers African American musicians
faced limited the amount of economic success and publicity they could receive. These
barriers include the stealing black artists tracks by white musicians and black musicians not
being seen on national television. While these barriers are not acceptable, African Americans
being able to have radio stations, music charts and record companies dedicated almost
specifically to them definitely indicates a positive change in racial relationships during the
post-war era.