The Battle For Black Music: Paid In Full
Sign in to watch this content please.
- Episode
- Episode Two
- Broadcast Info
- 2024 (58 mins)
- Description
- This series charts the shocking story of how some of music’s most loved artists - from Louis Armstrong to Prince - were exploited by the music industry on the basis of their race. Starting at the birth of the recording industry with luminaries like Bessie Smith, through the glory days of Jazz with Nina Simone, the joys of Motown, Stax and Philadelphia records and ending with the fightback by visionaries like Master P and Jay-Z, the series includes some of the best music of all time. With contributions from artists like Gloria Gaynor, Ice-T, Smokey Robinson, Chaka Khan and many others it shows how whether through dodgy contracts, management or ruthless streaming deals, we see how many of the songs you know and love have a dark truth behind them. This episode charts the attempts of Black Musicians to fight back by starting their own record labels. Considered by many to be the ‘OG’ of blackowned labels, Sam Cooke decided he’d had enough of other people profiting from his phenomenal success and started Swan Records in the 1950’s. He started investing in other black artists on reasonable terms and had he not met an untimely death, he may have been the Jay-Z of his time. His mantle was picked up by legends like Berry Gordy with the Motown phenomenon, Philadelphia International and Stax. All, though, were ultimately unable to fight the incredible power of the major labels, and ended up selling their stakes back into the white-dominated industry. It wasn’t until Master P that a black-artist owned label would survive and prosper within the hostile music world. His success was emulated by artists like Jay-Z, and then the new generation of artists like Drake and Stormzy followed in his stead to become music moguls in their own right.
- Genre
- Business Studies; Music
How to cite this record
The Open University, "The Battle For Black Music: Paid In Full". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/250993 (Accessed 19 Apr 2025)