THOSE NEW INDEPENDENTS

In the mid-fifties the first generation of the 45 was slowly transforming the American record industry, partly due an unexpected wave of independent teens demanding their own music. 1953 through 1955 would witness new labels created in all parts of the nation. Most were producing some truly bad music, songs that would never hear the sound of day on any radio. Unless the record company was in a large metropolitan area with a good talent pool to draw from, chances are that the performers were those high school favorites who could not cut it professionally, and there were plenty of unscrupulous operators to lure those hopefuls into a recording studio for which these kids parents would pay big bucks to satisfy their vanity. Radio stations received hundreds of 45s each month and most wound up in the trash when program directors, who'd  been raised in an era of big band singers, failed to see any potential in these new artists. To them it sounded as if these kids were off key, stuck with meaningless lyrics or just blithely making noise. Some major labels were buying up the competition or financing new upstarts while demanding distribution and publishing rights. The record and radio industry was beginning to feel growth pains and looking for ways to ease into profit as the music continued to accelerate on 45.