Music is a lot of things. It means different things to different people. Its impact on our lives is immeasurable. Soulfulness comes in many forms but for me it comes in sound. The sound of the wind whispering through an aspen forest in the Colorado Rockies or the waves crashing on the warm California sand at home are sounds I love. I also love the sound of American music. Music is a lot of things of course. Music is also a commodity.

That commodity has seen numerous trends and has gone full circle and back around again. As of Tuesday, May 10, 2011 the commodity of music experienced a new chapter in an ongoing saga.

America now has its own gigantic jukebox. The Library of Congress has made available for public consumption what it is calling our “National Jukebox”. This project has turned our cyber connected nation into one big on-line juke joint.

The Library of Congress has taken 10,000 recordings previously only available at the National Archives in Northern Virginia and put them on-line. This “streaming” service is free to the general public. Hey Pelosi, play C-17.

The first of this aural treasure trove of American culture is made possible through an agreement with Sony BMG Music who has the rights to this material. If it turns out there is any commercial viability to these all pre-1925 recordings, Sony retains the rights to release any of them for commercial consumption.

It doesn’t seem likely that a spoken word recording of Theodore Roosevelt will knock Lady Gaga off the charts anytime soon. It would however be interesting to hear what a Republican of considerable character, intelligence and foresight actually sounds like. How interesting it would be to be able to compare recordings of say the legendary Caruso to more contemporary opera stars like Domingo and Carreras. If someone was curious to hear what the so called "jazz era” Duke Ellington, in his Harlem Cotton Club days sounded like, they could go on line and check that out as well.

These recordings are from the old Victor label (later RCA-Victor) which is part of Sony’s vast catalogue. The Library of Congress also plans to make similar arrangements with Columbia and Okeh records in the near future.

The new National Jukebox is the latest event in a long and interesting story of our relationship with sound. Since Thomas Edison first invented a way to capture sound and have it played back for a listener, the business of music would forever include more than just selling tickets to a live performance and the sale of sheet music.

Since Edison’s invention how people procured and enjoyed music has changed a great deal yet, in some ways, very little has changed. Even after the release of the first vinyl records, sheet music maintained its position as the top of the music food chain. More Americans had pianos in their homes than record players. When furniture makers began manufacturing  victrolas, and later phonographs, this changed. These same furniture manufacturers became the first record companies. This constituted a virtual monopoly on the commodity of music. It was an economic environment in which the musician didn’t figure much in the monetary equation.

Music was thought of in terms of record sales to individuals as record players themselves became affordable and more portable. The two sided “single 45” was the main stock in trade for much of our music history. Long playing albums or LPs emerged in the 50’s and 60’s and became a major product offering as well. These albums were often just a collection of 45’s by a particular artist. The 33rpm records pretty much replaced the 78’s (rpms) that had been more popular up to that point.

The concept of an album as art in and of itself hadn’t been fully explored. Many musical historians point to the release of the Beatles album Sergeant Pepper in 1967 as changing this
notion. Songs strung together in a particular order complementing one another on some level is still with us today. The concept album as art perhaps pre-dates the Fab Four by a few years when Frank Sinatra recorded Come Fly With Me at the Capitol Records studio in Hollywood in 1958. It was an entire album whose concept was a global, musical travelogue. Interestingly enough the famed Beatles producer George Martin was present during some of these sessions.

In the world of jazz music the LP was a concept based on the sessions themselves. Very specific musicians creating high art in the moment through their improvisational interpretations of carefully chosen material, is a concept all on its own. In the world of blues, mostly referred to as rhythm and blues and race records during much of the twentieth century, it was the jukebox and live performances that represented the musical commodity and helped define this genre.

In some ways the downloading of music one song at time brings the commodity of music full circle at the dawn of the new millennium. The downloading of a specific song is not too dissimilar to listening to a 45 or what was referred to as a single. When I was growing up, you might hear a song that you liked on the radio. If you felt you wanted to hear it any time  you pleased, you didn’t download it for .99 cents you went to the store and bought it for .62 cents. These 45’s were not that much bigger than a CD is today. You could stack several 45’s on the spindle of a record player in any order you wished. They would drop down on one another and you had yourself a primitive iPod.

The record stores themselves became a kind of a town square for everyone but the town’s squares. It was sometimes a good idea to get to the store early so you could get your hands on the small black sphere before they ran out. It wasn’t like you were going to rip it onto your “Windows Media Player” or “iTunes.” You weren’t going to get a copy burned for you. There was something about the tangible quality of the physical product itself. I can remember the feel and sound of the plastic wrapper coming off the LP and the smell of the record and its cardboard sleeve. There was true pride in ownership. These records were a treasure.

Other mediums such as the ridiculously flawed and cumbersome eight track and the slightly more efficient and smaller cassettes came in vogue for relatively brief periods of time.
These two ways of listening to music had poor sound reproduction, especially cassettes, compared to vinyl. They did have one distinct advantage in that they could be played in a car. With the coming of the digital age however they would be short lived mediums. The compact disc clearly offered a wide variety of advantages over the eight track and cassette technologies. There are those however that insist that vinyl still has a richer, warmer sound. The current trend back to vinyl may have something to do with this. There are independent vinyl retailers cropping up all over the country who peddle hi-fidelity and nostalgia at the same time. What’s old is new again. With that said, there is also nothing more constant than change.

Just a few years ago the commodity of music experienced a seismic shift that had been rumbling under the surface for some time. Virtually every major retail “record” store closed their doors and went out of business. In California the closing of the massive Tower Records chain let us know there was no going back. Digital downloads and on line shopping were the future.

The Library of Congress’ National Jukebox project bridges the centuries and helps bring historical recordings available to the masses in the information age. To what degree the
masses take advantage of this is, of course, yet to be seen. It does however speak directly to the democratization of the arts. History, culture and beauty are not just for the bourgious class but for everyone. These recordings will likely find an audience made up of academies, historians and musicologists but it is just as accessible to anyone thirsty for a taste of Americana. Regardless of who hears these recordings, for most people they will be hearing these sounds for the first time.

This music is who we are. It helps to tell our story. It is our cultural genealogy.

These recordings that are from the first quarter century of the 1900’s also include some examples of music that would become what we now refer to as the blues. You may be surprised to find out what it sounds like.

- David Mac

Here are just a few samples of what is available at the National Jukebox.

Boll Weevil Blues - Vernon Dalhart/Ed Smalle/International Novelty Orchestra (8/8/1924)

Mean Cicero Blues - Duncan Sisters (11/14/1924)

Hoop ‘em up Blues - Dick Long/Nankin Café orchestra (11/21/24)

The Memphis Blues - Morton Harvey (10/2/14)

Blame it on the Blues - Victor Military Band (4/8/15)

Homesickness blues - Nora Bayes (5/4/16)

Bluin the Blues - Original Dixieland Jazz Band (6/25/18)

Crazy Blues - Original Dixieland Jazz Band (1/28/21)

Paradise Blues - Marion Harris (11/17/16)

‘Joe Turner Blues’ Medley - Victor Military Band (10/19/16)

Lullaby Blues (in the evening) - =American Quartet (3/31/19)

Blues (my naughty sweetie gives to me) - Esther Walker (9/26/19)

Profiteering Blues - Bill Murray (3/16/20)　

Wang-wang blues - Paul Whiteman (8/9/20)

Beale Street Blues - George Olsen and his Music (7/25/24)

Lonesome mama blues - The Virginians (3/9/22)

‘Taint nobody’s biz-ness if I do - Lena Wilson (5/9/23)