Something in the Air

Book Review

Something in the Air by Marc Fisher is subtitled: Radio, Rock, and The Revolution That Shaped A Generation.

Did you ever read something that astonished you? I recently read an article naming the top 10 acts that shaped rock music. One of those listed was Chuck Berry and the gist of the statement was Berry showed that black musicians could write and perform as well as white artists. That author would benefit from reading Something in the Air. If you do not know that rock and roll originated with white artists covering black music, this book will give you a very detailed account of exactly how that happened. If you do know, you might learn something new; I did.

Here are some things I did not know before reading Something in the Air:

. A Los Angeles clothing shop that catered to black workers bought an hour of airtime at a local radio station. They requested the disc jockey play music that appealed to black listeners.
. The DJ, Hunter Hancock was playing Jazz when he was told he needed to play race music if he wanted to "reach a huge Negro audience".
. The music industry used the term "race music" to denote songs by black artists.
. In 1946 Billboard magazine added a Race Music chart of hits.
. In 1949 Billboard changed the name to Rhythm and Blues.

I also learned:
. How Bruce Morrow got the name Cousin Brucie.
. Bob Dylan was first heard on the radio doing comedy and he had a complete cast of characters for his acts.
. Allen Freed died at age 43 having been ruined due to his involvement with payola.
. Dick Clark owned a record company, but was not found guilty when disc jockeys were indicted in the payola scandal.
. The Top 10 Hit lists hung in record departments were made up by DJs, not based on scientific study or the Billboard charts of best selling singles.
. Why, even today, radio stations constantly replay the same songs over and over again everyday.