The Issue of Racism in Early Recorded Music & Rise of Black Owned Record Labels

'Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible'

Maya Angelou

"You have to know the past to understand the present"

Carl Sagar

'Sound Recording' was a disruptive technology to prior sheet music and pioneered by Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville in 1857 who would invent the Phonautograph, Graville T Woods 1885 Telegraphony, Charles Cros with the Paleophone in 1887 and Thomas Edison's Cylinder Phonograph in 1878. America were crucial in the development of the record industry having an important role to play which really took shape in the late 1800s. For many African Americans of that era the high cost of phonographs was a barrier in and of itself preventing many African American people from listening to recorded music, at the turn of the century this cost went down and records had become more affordable. Racism has long been interwoven in American history, the denial of opportunities determined by race, exploitation violence and murders as the historical records make clear. The record industry at the time was not immune to racism and heavily restricted African Americans from particular roles and opportunities where exploitative practices prevailed, racism also included emotional abusiveness through mockery which we will look at in the next paragraph, and with the impact of segregation laws this meant that socially blacks were kept separate and unable to integrate effectively.

As highlighted, blacks were heavily discriminated against and denied certain constitutional rights, treated unjustly and faced with brutality. Even after the 13th Amendment to the U.S. constitution took effect in December 1865 which was meant to abolish slavery, injustices continued to persist for many who would experience very public and humiliating overt racism and bullying. In music and entertainment at the time there were many examples of racial slurs and language featured on records which were performed by entertainers. Blackface and minstrel shows were examples where performers attempted to entertain their audience knowingly or unknowingly at the expense of the people whom they misrepresented this was done by mimicking peoples of colour and exaggerating stereotypes which lead to a distorted notion of their ethnicity and culture. This idea of playing the role of the exotic other can be traced back to European theatrical productions of plays such as Shakespeare's Othello.

The minstrel show would later on be replaced by the Vaudeville. Ironically in America Vaudeville entertainment also created many opportunities and successes for particular African American performers such as The Whitman Sisters, Hyers Sisters, Blind Tom Wiggins and John William Boone. There were also a number of rising black entrepreneurs and the control of white owned music companies was put to the test when labels such as 'Broome Special Phonograph Records' had emerged, established by George W Broome in 1919, which was initially dedicated to recording black concert performers such as Harry T Burleigh and managed from his own home in Medford Massachusetts. This would be followed by 'Pace Phonograph Corporation' later renamed 'Black Swan Records Phonograph Company' which was founded in 1921 Harlem New York by African American businessman Harry Pace and launched to give more creative liberties to people of colour. 'The Crisis' an official journal of the NAACP and edited by W.E.B Du Bois invested its profits in the company and board members included James Weldon Johnson and Jack Nail.

Black Swan Records were able to distribute their records widely in a way that had not been done before and had an important place in the history of recorded music. As the label grew Harry Pace himself talked about the pressure he felt from other large white owned labels at the time whom he described as curtailing their progress. The production company eventually declared bankruptcy in 1923 and was bought out by Paramount Records in 1924. Over in Chicago Illinois a small record label called 'Black Patti Records' was founded by Mayo Williams in 1927, named after Sissieretta Jones who was nicknamed the 'Black Patti,' the label would go on to have a brief but eventful run over a turbulent year. The Great Depression started in 1929 and there was a huge decline across the industry during this period. As a result many African American musicians struggled to find work and the country turned more to the radio during these hard times, however the impact of black musicians and black owned record labels is undeniable. The daringness that had been demonstrated to break away from the oppressive practices of racism had challenged the status quo in such a way that there was no turning back. These important events that transpired in history would inspire and form the template for many musicians, performers and labels around the world today.

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Sadly even in Britain there has been a tragic history of subjugation most dominantly but not solely through the impact of colonialism and the British Empire. In the early British sound recording and entertainment industries of the early 1900s there has also been recorded examples of performances containing racially demeaning language to describe black people and peoples of colour where emphasis was on entertaining audiences for other's amusement, and where the culturally different were overly targeted and humiliated, this also lays bare the painful reality of racism and negative attitudes to peoples of colour which also masked very real issues such as inequality, community hostilities, racial tensions and underlying racial biases. It is also a very clear reminder of how different societal perceptions, norms and values were in the late 19th and early 20th Century and how widely accepted racist actions were despite the detrimental trauma this has caused to people of colour and it's devastating impact can still be felt to this day.

However one area that isn't emphasised enough is the fact that this was also a time of demonstrated resilience and determination. The successes achieved by peoples of colour during the early recording industry had opened the doors for generations to come. Music has also been able to create solidarity bringing many people together, from the memorable stories of performers of colour playing to outside audiences beyond their social circles, to the interactions and collaborations between musicians of different cultures through their shared love of music, these positive changes are also an important part of the history. Perhaps then instead of avoiding we should try to face and listen to the history in all its intricacies to try to reach a better understanding of the past despite the flaws starting with our own.

Jonathan Emeruwa

Listen to the Compilation: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry 1891-1922

Read the Anti Slavery Harp a Collection of Songs Book - William Wells Brown 1851

Further Reading:

Black Recording Artists 1877-1926: An Annotated Discography (2015)

Field Recordings of Black Singers and Musicians An Annotated Discography 1901-1943 - Craig Gibbs (2018)

Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919 by Tim Brooks (2005)

Musical Record Payments by the New York Phonograph Company 1892-93 by Patrick Feaster (2019)

Updated 1-03-2023