Tell Tchaikovsky the news: The problem of rock and roll and the rise and fall of the American musicians' union, 1940--1970.
Item
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Title
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Tell Tchaikovsky the news: The problem of rock and roll and the rise and fall of the American musicians' union, 1940--1970.
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Identifier
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AAI3187385
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identifier
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3187385
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Creator
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Roberts, Michael J.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Stanley Aronowitz
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Date
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2005
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Sociology, Industrial and Labor Relations | Music | History, United States
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Abstract
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This dissertation is a case study of the relationship between the American Federation of Musicians, the labor union that represents professional musicians in the United States, and rock and roll music between the years 1940 and 1970. I seek to demonstrate how it happened that a particular labor union acted against its own economic interests as a way to contribute one piece to a puzzle that explains of how the labor movement as a whole has systematically undermined itself over the past three decades. It would have been in their interests for the musicians' union to aggressively organize rock and roll musicians and involve them in the culture and politics of the union, but for reasons having to due with the history and culture of the musicians' union itself, they did not. The exclusion of rock and roll by the union---most of the members were trained in the classical and jazz idioms---was also a betrayal of the working class, since rock and roll was about the affirmation of leisure as well as the sorrows of hard work at low pay, two issues that should be front and center in the culture of the labor movement. The musicians' union, once one of the most progressive unions in the labor movement, successfully tackling the difficult issues of automation and job loss, became one of the most reactionary when it attacked rock and roll musicians. Unfortunately for the musicians' union, the exclusion of rock and roll came at a very high price, as the structure of the music recording industry was dismantled and reconstructed around rock and roll music as the epicenter of the industry, a transformation that displaced the musicians' union from the core of the industry, a move that cost them millions of dollars in revenue and thousands of members. This dissertation examines how culture shapes social action, as well as the conditions that led to the self-demise of a labor union, with the intention of showing how the labor movement might learn from its mistakes in the past how to succeed in the future.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
