1979: LAST DANCE- LOST IN MUSIC: Black Music's Unsung Banner Year: Part 1 By Sheldon Taylor

                                                             

                                          " These Are The Good Times"

                                                     ----Chic (1979)                                               

In 1979, R&B music stood at the crossroads of a music industry deep in recession.  Only two years earlier, Warner-Elektra-Atlantic (WEA) grossed $394.5 million in sales. The label conglomerate’s watershed year was captured in Rolling Stone Magazine (“Platinum Rising”). WEA was responsible for one of every four albums sold in the marketplace. Of the Top Five albums released in 1977, WEA distributed four. They also placed eight more in the Top 20, commanding an impressive 24.7 market share. 

Profits from huge-selling albums like Carole King’s Tapestry (1972), The Eagles’ Hotel California (1976), and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours (1977) spawned an era of excess so decadently captured on the defunct HBO series Vinyl: Large expense accounts and corporate bankrolls. Endless jet-setting. Elaborate artist showcases and hedonistic parties.

    

    

Don Henley and the late Glenn Frey---the twin pillars of the rock band the Eagles recalled the exploits of the 70s industry salad days in Rolling Stone:

“We were young and the times were exciting. Money and girls was the biggest motivation. There was a time in 1976…1977 when the record business was crazy.  That was when the music business was its zenith. I remember when they [the label] flew out cases of Chateau Lafite Rothschild and I seem to remember the wine was the best and the drugs were the best and the women beautiful. Hangovers consisted of Bloody Marys and aspirin. There was much merry-making. Those kinds of record sales were unprecedented. I guess everyone thought it was going to continue like that. Lots of money was spent on parties and champagne and limos and drugs. And then the bottom dropped out.”

                                                           

                                         " There's Been So Many Things That Held Us Down"

                                                  ---McFadden and Whitehead (1979)
                                                                      

By the end of ’78 the party really was over. Records are returned to warehouses unsold. Rising prices, product oversaturation, and misguided projections push the music industry into a downward spiral that would last for years. Cracks in the industry armor are visible as early as ’77 when Billboard Magazine runs a piece (“National Survey Indicates That Increased Wholesale Costs Affecting Profitability”) on record wholesalers rejecting album price increases due to lost profit margins driven by industry speculation.

                                              

R&B music was especially hit hard. Things were a long way from the days when majors like CBS Records link up with imprint Philadelphia International Records to form joint venture relationships in order to gain access to the Black record-buying market. 

Major labels handled distribution while their partners provided the product. Lacking the know-how and internal network record companies formed “special markets” departments to oversee the development, marketing, and promotion of the music. 

Unsung Black record men Larkin Arnold and LeBaron Taylor and others were tapped to run these new departments effectively kicking off the era of the Black record executive. 

This wasn’t some affirmative action concession. Arnold and Taylor's extensive backgrounds in law, radio, and business made them perfect conduits to grow 70s Black music into a dominant force.

                                                        

Arnold was one of the first African-American attorneys to be hired by a record company. Less than five years later, he becomes vice president of Capitol Records and is also in charge of their Black music department, Arnold was responsible for the gold-selling success of Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, Natalie Cole, and Peabo Bryson.

Under Taylor’s leadership along with assistance from colleagues Paris Eley and Vernon Slaughter---R&B grows into a healthy 25 percent of the CBS revenue. Taylor's success transforms Black acts into platinum sellers. In the past, record labels were content if a Black record went gold. Platinum sales were primarily associated with pop and rock acts. 

That would change when Taylor pioneered a strategy of holding a hot R&B record back from mainstream airplay until it sold 500,000 copies. As soon as a song reached its peak selling point----Taylor would secure a new marketing and promotion budget to take the record pop, extending its life. Artists like Teddy Pendergrass, Earth Wind and Fire, and Isley Brothers would flourish under this crossover model.

At Buddah and Casablanca Records, Cecil Holmes (along with label head Neil Bogart) oversaw the careers of Donna Summer, Gladys Knight and The Pips, Bill Withers, Parliament-Funkadelic, and Curtis Mayfield's careers. 

Holmes became the first African American executive given his own custom label. His Chocolate City Records launched the career of flagship act Cameo, guiding them to five consecutive gold albums between 1978-1982.

                                                               

During this era, success came quickly. John H. Jackson’s House on Fire: The Rise and Fall of Philadelphia Soul revealed that Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff’s Philadelphia International label churned out one platinum album, five gold albums, and eight million-selling singles in just two and a half years. 

Nelson George’s The Death of R&B’s proclaimed Black families playing the records until “the grooves were worn smooth.” The Philly Soul percussive string-laden compositions were even praised by Eagle Glenn Frey as “pretty good fucking records.” 

     

When the major labels learned the ropes, they no longer had to rely on creative outsourcing. Now, they competed with their partners for talent. Deep pockets and a highly capable infrastructure allowed them to sign the hottest Black stars directly. 

Revenue generated from gold and platinum R&B albums was often siphoned to projects with more crossover potential. Artists with solid track records like Maze (and later Luther Vandross) didn’t receive the huge budgets their pop and rock peers required to take their careers to the next level. 

Black radio was also under attack. Jackson characterized corporate takeover of Black radio outlets as attempts to “appropriate community airwaves with the intent of launching their own artists” Mom-and-pop retailers servicing black music’s core audiences were also being phased out. 

Responding to the marginalization of Black music's gatekeepers, Gamble, partner Ed Wright and radio personality Dyana Williams successfully campaigned for the creation of Black Music Month and co-found the Black Music Association (BMA) with the intent of reversing industry systemic policies and raising Black music's profile as a cultural institution.

                                               Part Three: Rock And Pop Roars Back  

Rock music couldn't escape R&B's influence in the 1970s. The Rolling Stones, Chicago, and Rod Stewart all incorporated uptempo Black music rhythms in dance music Rock stations were being sacked in of favor disco radio formats while fans objected to their heroes making records like  I Miss You (1978), Street Player (1979), and Do Ya Think I'm Sexy (1979). 

                                                            

                                    

                                   

Rock music would return in a big way when The Knack's debut album Get The Knack sells a half-million records in only 13 days as their single My Sharona surged to number one for six weeks. Acts like Rupert Holmes (The Pina Colada Song) Billy Joel (My Life) Joe Jackson (Steppin' Out) and Rickie Lee Jones (Chuck E's in Love) would deliver big records that resonated with fans weary of disco and uptempo R&B-----like a certain record that was rocked everywhere from uptown clubs to downtown discos to uptown park jams.

Chic's Good Times is the crown jewel in a catalog that includes hits Dance, Dance Dance (1977), Everybody Dance (1978), I Want Your Love (1978), and Le Freak (1978). Forging a minimalist approach to dance music---the band's creative nucleus Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards took the traditional R&B guitar-bass-drum rhythm section signatures and reshaped them into dance music cornerstones. 

Chic's winning streak abruptly ends when Black music becomes caught up in the disco backlash thrusting the industry into a panic. It begins to turn its attention away from uptempo R&B (whose rhythmic elements informed disco). 

Up to this point, post-civil rights Black upward mobility is perfectly timed with Soul music's creative quantum leap from a singles-to-album format. As a new decade dawned, these gains are out of step with new attitudes that flip the switch, turning out the lights on a society musically and socially.

              

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