Introduction to Lesson 18: Race Labels
A record labelA brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos or the company that owns it. A record label can also refer to a publishing company that manages music brands and trademarks and coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing, promotion, and enforcement of copyright for sound recordings and music videos. Record labels often conduct talent scouting and development of new artists ("artists and repertoire" or "A&R") and maintaining contracts with recording artists and their managers., or record companyA brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos or the company that owns it., is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos or the company that owns it. A record label can also refer to a publishing company that manages music brands and trademarks and coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing, promotion, and enforcement of copyright for sound recordings and music videos. Record labels often conduct talent scouting and development of new artists ("artists and repertoire" or "A&R") and maintain contracts with recording artists and their managers. The term "record label" derives from the circular label in the center of a vinyl record that prominently displays the manufacturer's name and other information. Within the mainstream music industry, recording artists have traditionally been reliant upon record labels to broaden their consumer base, market their albums, and promote their singles on streaming services, radio, and television. Record labels also provide publicists who help performers gain positive media coverage and arrange for their merchandise to be available via stores and other media outlets. Record labels can have a subsidiary label, which often does not appeal to its primary consumer base but rather to a different constituent group or an unpopular or unfavored stylistic category. The term "catalog" has come to be used in a metaphorical sense to describe the totality of songs controlled by a music publisher or the recordings owned by a record company (hence "back catalog" refers to previously issued material).
Race labels, which began in the 1920s, were record companies that marketed African American music to Black listeners, such as Paramount Records, which labeled itself "The Popular Race Record" in marketing materials. As seen in the Paramount Records' flyer, it markets the featured song "Sunshine Special" (1927) by Blind Lemon Jefferson and other artists such as The Beale Street Sheiks and their recording "Jazzin' the Blues" (ca. 1927) and "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" (ca. 1927) by Gertrude "Ma" Rainey.
Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog"
The lyrics are metaphorically about a "man," Although she refers to him as a hound dog, with lines such as "Daddy I know, you ain't no real cool cat" and "you ain't lookin' for a woman, all you're lookin' for is a home" she is speaking about a man.
Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog"
The lyrics are about the animal "hound dog" and how it's no friend of Presley's because he's often crying, is not high class, and has never caught a rabbit.