King (1947-1957)
10 videos • 125 views • by Jason Madore During the 1950s, two big changes happened to recorded music that allowed record labels to start resembling today's professional recording companies rather than the quickly-assembled, fly-by-night operations that were so prevent before. First, record companies were now recording just about every type of music (and records of all genres were selling well because of the booming US economy), and this greater exposure allowed new hybrid genres to emerge (rock + country = "rockabilly", blues + vocal group = "doo-wop", etc.) The other big change was that records were now predominantly being released on either vinyl LP or vinyl 45, which allowed higher fidelity upon playback than what had been possible with the shellac 78 record. (45s instantly won over the record buying public, and they outsold the older 78 format around 1952-1953. In 1958, US production of them stopped completely, save for a few promo records sent to radio stations and record dealers for special events.)