Where or Where Has the Music Business Gone? Where, Oh, Where Could it Be?

I cringe just as I hear the apartment door close loudly behind me. Quickly dropping my jacket and bag onto a nearby table, I rush to the kitchen, throw on an apron, and tie my hair into a bun. It’s 5 PM, I’ve just arrived home from work, and I’ve got 30 minutes or so to prepare dinner for the family. Still in a skirt and heels, I’m chopping up cucumbers and tomatoes on one side of the kitchen, while waiting for the water to boil at the stove. I glance at the calendar hanging in front of me, almost forgetting that it was already Thursday—Thursday, December 20, 2027.

Before I know it, I hear keys wiggling at the front door. My daughter Sabrina storms in, yells hello—still not understanding that speaking with her ears plugged with music equals screaming on the top of her lungs—and runs to her room. At 13 years old, Sabrina’s got a regular routine; she gets home, changes out of her school clothing, and plugs her mobile device into her computer—transferring all the songs she downloaded while in school that day onto her hard drive. Five minutes later, she comes out of her room, jumps onto a kitchen chair, and chirps, “What’s up mom? What are you making?” Before I can answer, she begins playing around with our digital kitchen countertop and asks, “Wait, mom, do you remember how I can order soda from the iKitchen store again?”

Ah, the frustration of raising a kid growing up in the 2020s. I remind her that we have plenty of juice and water in the refrigerator, and then ask her how her day at school went. “Well,” she began, “we actually learned something really interesting in history class today. Mom, is it true that when you were a kid, people would pay for music?” I laugh and ask, “Well how do you think all of mine and dad’s CDs sitting in the den got there in the first place?” Sabrina looks at me sort of cock-eyed and says, “Um, I don’t know. I guess I thought…” And from there a springboard of questions came pouring out of my daughter’s inquisitive brain…You mean that if I wanted to hear High School Musical 23 then I would have had to use my babysitting money to buy it? Wait, you mean Lily Allen wasn’t always in Converse commercials and on Converse.com—and she wasn’t always part of the Converse logo? Does that mean that if I wanted to hear Rihanna’s newest single, I would have to wait till I got home and then wait for the radio to play the song—wait, are radios those things that sort of look like funny boxes that are in some of your old pictures, mom?

Back to Reality: Year 2007

I know that might have seemed like a strange way to begin this assignment, but I really think we need to think a little crooked and kooky in order to think straight. We have to think of the extreme case scenario for the long-term future in order to think of the practical scenario in the immediate future. We all know music is taking a radical turn somewhere, at some near point in time, but it’s really hard for us to imagine it. Having lived through so many years of the music purchasing world, it’s hard to even comprehend what a whole new restructuring of the music business might look like.

I know that when I entered the music business program at NYU in 2005 as a freshman, myself and all my classmates constantly voiced our frustration with illegal downloading. We talked repeatedly about telling our friends that illegal downloading was wrong and illegal—yet explained how our friends didn’t feel so guilty. Instead they rationalized—“when I usually buy an album, I only end up liking 2 songs, it’s a total rip off!” or “well Britney Spears has a ton of money, why does she need mine!?” or—the best of all—“everyone else is doing it.” Even after explaining to our non-music business friends that illegal downloading was stealing from whole slew of people—artists, songwriters, producers, studio musicians, and all the others—they merely shrugged us off. It’s funny because now that I think about it, we—as music business students—were fighting like the RIAA, just on a smaller scale. Now in 2007, after taking this class and another music business class (Village Records—a class where students perform the functions of a record label), I’m seriously realizing that things are going to drastically change.

Yet there’s still a hesitance. For example, I remember one day in class, we suggested that music might morph into a cable TV-type subscription model. I listened to you talk about perhaps there being different channels that provided different music services. I considered it. I imagined sitting in front of something that looked like a TV, picking up a remote, and turning on a device that allowed me to click to my preferred channel. And the second I envisioned it in my mind, I rejected it—no, that couldn’t possibly happen, I told myself. A subscription model would mean that I wouldn’t really “own” any of my music; instead it would just play and then be stored as a piece of data on my TV-like music device. What was even crazier—the music would probably be deleted if I ended my subscription with the music service! I got a little sad thinking about all this—I couldn’t imagine music materializing into a service like that. All I really wanted was to be able to hold my music in my hands—to flip through the lyrics and be able to have that full-album listening experience.

Each time I try to imagine music being delivered in a different form, there’s a block and I feel some sort of resistance. So I figured the best way to approach this is to use my imagination. I’m going to try my best to focus on several trends and models within the industry and ponder their strengths and weakness, as well as try to anticipate what may happen if implemented. At this point, no idea or stretch of the imagination is outrageous. Again, it’s important to think a little crooked before think straight.

Case Study: Emusic

Emusic is currently the second biggest online music site—after iTunes. That’s quite an accomplishment. Emusic offers a combination of the subscription model (such as Napster) and the a-la-carte model (such as iTunes.) Users pay a monthly subscription and can download a certain number of MP3 files a month (that means DRM-free files) from the eMusic catalog, which is increasingly growing.

I signed up for eMusic sometime during freshman year. I cancelled my subscription a month or two later. Why? Well, the human mind works kind of strangely. While eMusic offered a decent price tag, an appropriate filteration of music, and flexibility with MP3 files, I still wanted the option of downloading anything I wanted! I valued eMusic’s function as a filter; though the site contained a limited amount of R&B and hip hop (the type of music I find that I gravitate towards), I was able to discover a lot of world music that interested me. Ultimately, the human mind—or at least my mind—wants a filter, but at the same time wants everything! Little insatiable me…

Trend Study: Company Sponsorships, Brand Alliances, and Licensing

In class we offered the idea that perhaps future musicians would be supported by some sort of company. With the decline of recorded music sales, musicians would sustain a livelihood through corporate sponsorships. A company would be willing to pay artists because they believed an alliance with the musician’s brand would be beneficial to them as a company. Additionally, the company would be willing to pay the money in order to license the musician’s songs in different advertising ventures; as we’ve seen throughout the semester, the power of music in commercials, movies, and TV is incredibly powerful.

At the same time, artist-friendly sites like Pandora.com believe very strongly in helping create a music landscape in which musicians can support themselves. Although the site is a tiny pocket of the industry, it doesn’t hurt to look at how Pandora has structured itself. The site doesn’t charge consumers for their usage, rather is ad-supported as well as investment-supported. In this way, musicians are able to get their royalties from streams on Pandora’s online personalized radio.

Pandora’s model is a great success story and is effective in its function as a small pocket within the industry. However, it seems that in the grander scale of things, revenue made through sites like Pandora only represents ancillary income for the musician. Another great opportunity for musicians is the chance to license their music to film and ad companies. Though, it still seems to me like this revenue is still ancillary income and that it cannot be the focal strategy for an artist. Or could touring + licensing music provide a sustainable income? Perhaps for some musicians, but certainly not for all; I keep wondering how hip hop will sustain itself when its acts tour less and additionally are not coveted for licensing deals because of much sampling clearance.

Though, let’s not be so pessimistic about all this. What if musicians do end up sustaining themselves through partnerships with companies? What if an artist like Amy Winehouse ends up partnering with a Budweiser type company? Will Winehouse then need to reference Budweiser in her songs or have them appear in her videos? Is that something that will turn fans off? Is that likely to even happen?

Trend Study: Ad-based Models

While SpiralFrog* is fading into obscurity, it doesn’t seem like RcrdLbl will. When SpiralFrog announced its free legal downloading ad-supported site, a bunch of my music business friends and I were psyched—until we heard that we’d have to watch short ads before “purchasing” our songs.** That wasn’t it—we wouldn’t even be “purchasing” the songs really; instead the songs would be uploaded onto our computers, but then had the potentiality to disappear if we didn’t log on to SpiralFrog within a month (to see their ads, essentially.)

RcrdLbl seems to have the right idea—functioning as an online record label, offering artists advances, and then offering the artists’ music for free, all of course being supported by the ads on the site. I like this idea and think it’s really innovative. Though, it sort of makes me wonder whether there will ever come a point where advertisers will become a strong force in influencing which artists RcrdLbl chooses to sign.

It seems to me that traditional radio is so lackluster and dull these days because advertisers have such an influence and are pushing radio stations to play the same tracks over and over again to ensure higher ratings. This also leads me to think of all the other forms of media which operate on ads. For one, newspapers that charge anywhere from a dollar to zero cents make their profit from advertising, as do magazines and as does television. Will the newspaper model work for the music business?

Funny Anomaly: Japan

Sometime last year, I was sitting in my friend’s dorm, hanging out, looking through her iTunes library. I noticed that she had a nice and diverse array of music and asked her where she got her music from. She laughed and said that over the summer, she had gotten most of her music in Japan. She went on to explain that CD rental stores were pretty common in Japan; consumers would go into the stores, rent whatever CDs they wanted, burn the music onto their computers, and return the CDs. It was common knowledge that consumers were doing so; often rental stores offered CD-Rs themselves! My friend, Wenjia, explained to me that she discovered pretty cool music this way. She excitedly showed off some of her collection.

When this happened I was still in my illegal-downloading-is-bad stage and I was disappointed to see that such things were commonplace in Japan. Another sign that the music industry was doomed, I had thought. Yet what I completely missed was the excitement on Wenjia’s face when she showed her collection to me, when she told me that she was now beginning to like jazz—a genre she had never touched before!

This Japanese anomaly presents a new approach—give people what they want. So, what do people want? Then, we need to consider, when exactly will the buck—or yen—come swinging by?


Talk to the People!

I spoke to some of my NYU non-music business friends about their relationship to music, and here are some of the things I heard:

* “I’ve never downloaded illegally. If I want to buy music, I’ll buy it off of iTunes. I’ll even by a full album if I know I won’t have enough time to go into the store and purchase it.” –Gracie, 20 years old, Italian major
* “I’ve never really bought music before or went to a performance that I can remember. I love to sing, but I don’t listen to music.” –Jacob, 20 years older, Vocal Performance major
* “I don’t think I’ve ever bought an album. I like buying singles—if I hear something on the radio, I’ll buy it through iTunes. Before I never really wanted to buy an album because it would be annoying—I just wanted the single, not all the other songs….I guess I just really buy musical soundtracks. Oh, and recently I bought the Garden State soundtrack—I watched the movie and I liked the music so I bought it.” – Erica, 21 years old, Social Work major
* “I used to listen to a lot of music when I was younger, with the radio and all. Now I don’t really—it’s just much harder to find music these days…though, I did get really excited when my boyfriend Jared bought me my first Beatles CD—he built it up so much for me, and the packaging was really cool and everything.” –Yvette, 20 years old, Psychology and English minor
* “I like music, but I don’t really care to know what artist I’m listening to…I like music because of the mood it puts me in…sometimes I go to AOL Radio and just click on the classical music button and listen…sometimes music makes me feel as if I’m in a different era or generation.” –Tamar, 21 years old, Psychology and Art Studio minor
* “I like hip hop because of the way it makes me feel. It makes me feel confident, it totally pumps me up. It’s great music to listen to on the way to an interview.” –Doug, 24 years old, NYU Medical School
* “Why would I pay for something that I could get for free?” –Matt, 23 years old, NYU alumnus, Finance, Accounting, and Economics major

These are so many points of views! These quotes personify so many customer personas and I think it’s really hard to clearly understand this question—who is our target audience? Is the music industry trying to sell to a specific persona? How much are they thinking about what people want?

Where Does the Buck Come In?

If our last interviewee asks why he should pay for something that is free, then we need to really consider this question: what are people willing to pay for? Through that we can understand what they value and how to deliver on that value.

The following is a chart I put together to delineate this though process.

Conclusions

I came up with more items for the “thing people are willing to pay for” column than for the “things people aren’t willing to pay for” column. I think that’s a great sign. It signifies that while the record industry is practically dead, the music industry has a grand opportunity to survive and thrive. As far as my chart, I would say that the music device category has very little room for entry due to the iPod’s mass appeal. However, the concert sector and the cell-phone-plus-music-bundle sector seem to be places the consumer is willing to spend its money, therefore areas in which the music industry has opportunity.

I do believe that within the next five years or so the industry will restructure itself to wean off of the recorded product and instead place focus on live performances, licensing, and providing consumers with essentially free music with some sort of cost (whether it be a service, a bundle-like item, or a filtering system.) The industry just needs to do it right.

* SpiralFrog's business model has changed since I wrote this essay in the Fall of 2007. They have made deals with several labels, most recently with EMI. The site has also garnered more than a million registered users and five million monthly unique visitors.

** Correction: SpiralFrog members do not have to watch ads before downloading songs. Instead, users see banner ads that do not interfere with their music listening.

The Ditty Bop's Marketing Approach

THE FOLLOWING IS AN ANALYSIS OF THE DITTY BOP'S SUCCESSFUL MARKETING STRATEGY, WITH REFERENCES MADE TO MALCOLM GLADWELL'S CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED "THE TIPPING POINT"...

Abby DeWald and Amanda Barrett make up the Ditty Bops. They’re not the typical artists you’d expect a major label to sign. They’re quirky—either performing songs in 1920s-style attire, in carrot and artichoke costumes, or in plastic-shopping-bag bikinis. They’re active environmentalists—discarding the tour bus idea for their cross-country 2006 summer tour, opting instead to travel on bicycles. And their music rests completely out of the mainstream music box—a fusion of jazz, cabaret, swing, and ragtime. It comes as no surprise that after releasing two full-length albums with Warner Music, the Ditty Bops ended their contract and self-released an EP, Pack Rat, in early 2007. With or without a major label, the harmony-singing duo has been
successful in creating a compelling artist image and garnering a fair amount of media
buzz and word-of-mouth talk.

The girls originally met each other five years ago while playing in a 1920s cover band together (KCRW). When deciding to form the Ditty Bops, the girls brought along much of the antics they had experimented with while performing in the cover band. For example, their live performances are known to feature multiple costume changes, skits, vaudeville-like theatrics, and even puppet shows. Ditty Bop performances are not meant solely for the performance of songs, but to present a more visual experience.

We spent a lot of class time discussing how we would be creative in constructing our own artist’s marketing campaign. In one class, you asked us if we were fans of music. We looked at you as if you were crazy, wondering why you would be asking us such a question. You proceeded to then ask us if we thought the rest of the population were music fans like us, and if not, how then we would get these people excited about our artists. You encouraged us to stop complaining—whether it be about the majority of people illegally downloading music or the general lethargy the general population had towards music—and just make innovative ideas!

The Ditty Bops have fearlessly taken risks in order to connect with their audience. In fact, for last year’s bicycle tour the girls encouraged their fans to join them in biking from city to city. They even offered discounts at the door to their shows if anyone arrived on a bike (Swartz). By doing this the Ditty Bops were not only promoting environmentally-conscious behavior, but they were also providing an opportunity for fans to feel connected to their music and simultaneously, to a greater cause.

What is intriguing about this tactic is not only that the Ditty Bops were personally inviting their fans to bike with them (though that is certainly unique), but that they weren’t afraid to innovate in regards to the model of live performance. What is amazing about their approach is their ability to take one of the most powerful elements of the concert experience—the communal aspect—and enhance it. By inviting fans to bike to concerts, fans could enjoy the Ditty Bops’ music but also do something positive for the environment together. I could just imagine the feeling of devoted fans biking to their desired venues, just to see the sight of several dozen other devoted fans with their bikes.

What makes the Ditty Bops such a successful act is the strength of their imaging. They make sure to depict themselves as more than musicians. On their website, they take great care to reveal different sides of their personalities. By scanning the website, fans can learn that both members of the Ditty Bops have a love for cooking through looking at their personal recipes. Fans can also learn that the girls have an interest in visual arts by clicking to see Abby’s artwork or the girls’ self-made cartoons. This Business of Artist Management advises managers to assess their artists from all sides—sound, image, songwriting ability, charisma, and personality (Frascogna 83). The authors of the book imply that fans want both good music and a distinct personality. In my opinion, people tend to gravitate towards artists whom they can relate to, whom they feel similar towards, and whom they think values what they do. It is important for managers to flesh out their artist’s image in a way that leaves room for a fan to personally identify.

The Ditty Bops aptly express themselves through their website. They provide content that is very personalized and honest. Their content includes a biography, audio, lyrics, photos, video, art images, live show schedules, a discussion forum, a list of their favorite recipes, a store, links to various websites, and more. It’s not just what they offer on their website, but it’s clearly how it’s offered. For example, audio from their past two albums is available from the “Ditty Bop Jukebox,” which proves to be a memorable graphic (also consistent with their 1920s theme) and a practical way for fans to sample music. Again, the Ditty Bops offer what most artist websites offer, but deliver the content in a clever and personal way. Instead of attaching mere text files with their lyrics, they choose to include hand-written lyrics. Along the same line, instead of providing a strict and professional-sounding biography, each Ditty Bop tells their “story” in a very informal way.

"Record Label Marketing" insists that artists need to give their fans something of value on their website (Hutchison 246). The Ditty Bops’ website truly gives fans an insight into the Ditty Bops, which is something a real fan vaulues. At the same time, it is important to continually deliver valuable content to fans, so that they have a reason to return (246). The Ditty Bops do so by updating their cartoon blog titled “The Environmentalist’s Dilemma.” During their summer 2007 tour, the Ditty Bops offered a blog describing their experiences. During their 2006 cross-country bike tour, they offered a cartoon blog of their “adventures on the road.” While the content here is creative and interesting, I noticed that the blogs do not allow for any posting of comments. I’m surprised to see this since the Ditty Bops seem so interactive in every other way.

The Ditty Bops are masters at creating interesting content. Not only are their musical works interestingly and innovatively composed, but their website is distinctive and absurdly clever. In my opinion, the girls have also created an aura around them that is memorable and distinctive. Author of the best-seller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell would call this quality “stickiness.” Gladwell believes that contagious behavior occurs because of a memorable message that spurs action, the influence of certain types of people, and the general environment in which the message is transmitted through (Gladwell 7). The reason why the Ditty Bops sell out concerts and why they have created such a buzz around themselves is because their sound is unique and memorable, but also because their musical message ties into something that is empowering and encourages action.

A friend of mine recently told me that he thought the green movement was the new take on the hippie movement. While I don’t think the “green” movement is as all-encompassing as the hippie movement was in the 60s and 70s, I do understand what he is implying. There is something about this community that is passionate and particularly active. Being tied to such a cause, that encourages—and essentially needs participation in order to be effective—is a key ingredient in the Ditty Bop’s “stickiness” formula.

In today’s music industry, talent and persistence is not enough to cause a word-of-mouth phenomenon. In fact, today’s music environment does not really allow for a truly “sticky” message to be generated and released. While the Ditty Bops’ music and brand is memorable, hearing music these days doesn’t necessarily spur any sort of immediate purchasing action. In previous days, when music was only to be heard from radio, listeners would hear a good song—essentially a “sticky” message—and be driven to buy the product so that they could own it. Today, music is ubiquitous and readily available—internet radio, podcasts, myspace, TV shows, illegal downloading sites, you name it. No one necessarily needs to take out a dollar bill to hear music anymore.

Because the current musical environment doesn’t naturally stimulate a cause of action, the Ditty Bops’ alliance with the green movement could prove to be very beneficial to them—since the green environment is a context of action and activism. The Ditty Bops have already attempted to accumulate sales from their green-minded fan base. On their website store, their latest album’s picture and lyric book is available on 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper. This would appeal to fans who wished to purchase some exclusive content, but be environmentally friendly at the same time. Perhaps some fans would even be propelled to purchase the item in order to support what they felt to be a worthy cause. The Ditty Bops also offer artist t-shirts that are “sweatshop free.”

An even more impressive item found in their online store is a tote bag that reads “you and I save the world.” The bag is an organic cotton tote, made in the United States and is “printed without the use of PVC (polyvinyl chloride—an environmentally hazardous plastic material used in screen painting.)” Below the image, the Ditty Bops inform their fans that the tote is a product of their own nonprofit organization titled “You and I Save the World.” Though the Ditty Bops are not reaping in any profit from this item, the product is another way to lure fans to their cause, while perhaps simultaneously strengthening their fans love for the music.

Additionally, the tote bags are inherently marketing mechanisms. While a t-shirt would effectively market the Ditty Bops, the tote bag is an accessory that could be worn numerous times, and could even be worn on a daily basis. Firstly, that means there is a great likelihood that the tote-wearer will explain the product—and hopefully the music of the artists who sold it to them—on a daily basis. Such a word-of-mouth style is called a “referral program”—which is a marketing tactic in which tools are created to help fans refer the artist to their friends (Hutchison 232).

The tote bag makes perfect sense. As a girl, I can say that other girls comment on my clothing or/and other accessories I may be wearing on a very regular basis. This is usually just a way to start conversation. Yet the interesting thing here is that when prompted to answer friends—or even strangers—where the bag was from, the “message” would be quite comprehensive and memorable. Perhaps the friend or stranger could be stirred to check out the Ditty Bops for themselves. Secondly, because a bag could be worn on a daily basis—as opposed to t-shirt—the tote-wearer is inherently reminded of the Ditty Bops on a daily basis. And even if the tote bag becomes less special to the fan as time goes on, she will be reminded of the Ditty Bops each tine a person asks her what bag she’s wearing.

The Ditty Bops’ online store is an effective way of making revenue in a bit of a crazed moment in the music industry, as it is also an effective way to promote a word-of-mouth phenomenon, and a great way to continually connect with fans. What’s missing from this portion of the marketing scheme, and is something I would recommend to the Ditty Bops, is a viral component to their word-of-mouth spreading. There is nothing on their website that a fan could send another fan digitally. Though the videos are from youtube, fans can’t share videos through the Ditty Bops website. Though I feel the tote bag concept is a great approach to word-of-mouth marketing, there definitely needs to be a digital parallel to that idea.
The Ditty Bops are doing a lot of things right. They’ve got their musical craft together, their live performances are creative and interactive, their brand is strong and memorable, and they’ve aligned themselves with an environmental context that is active in nature. My only concern is that perhaps their cause will triumph their music. A lot of their media coverage is centered on their advances as environmentalists or other crazy antics they’ve pulled to better preserve the environment. And sometimes that’s fine—their intriguing story is likely to grab a person’s attention. Perhaps that person will google “Ditty Bops” and happen to listen to some of their music, and then prove to be a devoted fan. No publicity is bad publicity.

Additionally, the “cause marketing” works in this case because the relationship is authentic; the Ditty Bops truly care about the environment and work to preserve it. Essentially, it would be hard to separate their music from their environmentalism because it so closely defines who they are as people.
What we learn from the case study of the Ditty Bops is that a relationship as fluid as this, between artist and cause, is what an up-and-coming artist should strive for. Not every musical artist is meant to be aligned with a cause and not every musical artist may be so passionate about many other disciplines outside of music. However, it is important to recognize that this relationship—the Ditty Bops and the green movement—is natural and that it works. In a music industry environment that seems to perhaps be moving towards a model where an artist is “sponsored” by a corporation, it is important to remember that authenticity is apparent and something artificial is transparently clear in the eyes of the public.

Referential Analysis of "Mr. Sandman" by the Four Aces

Even before the words “Mister Sandman” are uttered and the Four Aces begin singing their harmonies, the beginning melody—played on what sounds to be a xylophone—seems to imply a distinctive cheerfulness. I picture the men in the group smiling while singing, revealing pearly white teeth, and perhaps waving striped hats above their heads in joviality. The singers sound like they might be skipping through the streets of their quiet neighborhood, much like Gene Kelly did in the 1952 movie Singing in the Rain. In addition, the ongoing drums featured give the song a constant marching feel.

The song sounds colorful and bright, happy and chirpy, as well as clean and sparkling. It brings to mind a storyboard of images, but especially conjures a summer day in a suburban town in the 1950s. The bells heard throughout the song sound like an ice cream truck driving through the neighborhood on a sunny day. The ice cream truck seems to be stopping at different parks and playgrounds, selling various flavors of ice cream, brightening the faces of the town children.

At the same time, the song makes me picture teenagers making their way to the nearest diner, in groups of five or so. They too seem to be skipping through the streets, soaking in the freedom of their homework-free summer. As they walk, one teenager, in complete excitement, mentions which tasty shake he wishes to order once he arrives at the diner. Soon enough the group reaches their destination, where they are greeted by smiling waiters, seated in stools, and given the chance to finally slurp those refreshing shakes.

“Mister Sandman” not only refers to a happy and warm summer day, but it refers to a specific cultural moment—a moment of post-war tranquility and completion of family structure (with soldiers returning home to their families.) In addition, this culture is the first to usher in a suburban lifestyle of quiet and relative calm, as it also interestingly takes to the new medium of television. The culture also valued wholesomeness, propriety, and conservatism; this is reflected in what the Four Aces request in the woman of their dreams—“complexion like peaches and cream,” and “lips like roses and clover”—as opposed to what a contemporary songwriter might ask for in a woman. The upbeat and bright nature of this song captures what was so defining about this cultural moment in time.

Historical Analysis- "Why (Am I Treated So Bad)" by the Staples Singers

The album “Freedom Highway,” released in 1965 as a live in-church session, set the stage for the gospel family act, The Staple Singers. The album included old African American spiritual songs, as well as new compositions—one being the bluesy track “Why (Am I Treated So Bad.)” On this track, “Pops” Staples—the patriarch of the family—alternates between his falsetto singing and his steady sermon-giving speaking voice, while his daughters smoothly harmonize the repeated chorus. While the song has a happy up-tempo feel, with the sisters clapping all the way through, the lyrics are filled with feelings of deep frustration. The sisters lament over baseless hate—“I’ve done nobody wrong, but I’m treated so bad,” as they brush off promises of hope—“things are going to change, still I’m treated so bad.”

These lyrics resonated strongly during this period of the civil rights movement—a peaceful resistance against discrimination towards African American citizens, led by leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. The song was released in a time and place where segregation prevailed; public places like theaters, hotels, bathrooms, and water fountains were segregated. African Americans encountered signs that read “for whites only” on a daily basis, having to be reminded of their second class citizenship repeatedly. This second class status even prevented many African Americans from voting, whether through tactics like literacy tests or poll taxes.

In a time where racism was commonplace in American policy and inherent in American culture, the rhetorical question the Staple Singers rose, “why am I treated so bad,” was incredibly powerful. What particularly struck Pops about the state of the black man—and what essentially led him to write this track—was the rejection and refusal the “Little Rock Nine” received in 1957 when the nine high school children attempted to enter a white school in Little Rock, Arkansas. Though the Supreme Court called for desegregation in 1954, in addition to the school board having allowed the registration of the nine black children, the children were nevertheless blocked from entering the school, as they were also spat on and harassed for two weeks. Mavis Staples, Pop’s daughter and lead singer of the act, describes the way in which her and her family were watching the news in the living room and how her father had laid back in his reclining chair and said, “Now why they doin that? Why they treatin ‘em like that? Why they treatin ‘em so bad?” She explained that her father started writing the song right then.

The song actually became Martin Luther King Jr.’s favorite Staple Singers song. Pops had met Martin Luther King Jr. and suggested that the group join the movement by performing; apparently Pops came home and told the family, “If he can preach it, we can sing it.” The Staple Singers did indeed join the movement, creating quite a soundtrack for the civil rights movement, with other powerful songs like “When Will We Get Paid?”—another rhetorical question that demanded reparations for the exploitation of African Americans during slavery. The Staple Singers also joined the movement with white folk singers like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. In fact, in August of 1963, both Dylan and Baez performed in Martin Luther King Jr.’s march on Washington DC, before Dr. King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. At that performance, Baez performed “Oh Freedom,” a song the black slaves used to sing. In this song, Baez delicately sings “and before I’ll be a slave, I’ll be buried in my grave, and go home to my Lord and be free.” At a certain point in the song, Baez sings “And there’s no more moaning, there’s no more moaning, no more moaning over me.” Interestingly enough, during Pop’s sermon-like interlude in “Why (Am I Treated So Bad),” Pop tells of asking his parents what the word “moaning” meant. His parents answered him, “Oh, when you moan, the devil doesn’t even know what you’re talking about.”

This moan could be heard in “Oh Freedom,” somehow preserved through the lyrics of the slave song. At the same time, Pop’s mention of the moaning and his telling of the story from his childhood presents this idea of the moan as a sort of backdrop of his life—something that was inherent in his surroundings that he couldn’t help but notice as a child. This moan, though created and preserved through the slave songs, has extended to the music of the civil rights movement. The Staple Singers’ “Why (Am I Treated So Bad),” as well as other music from the civil rights movement, contains this moan, this sound of suffering, pain, burden, and death.