>>127336275
theres multiple reasons
mostly tech
first
>recording tech
basically consisted of putting a mic in the middle of the room. ""the mix"" consists of how far away you put said mic. for blues negroes, thats more than most could ever even afford. their absolute best case scenario.
for bigger budget acts, they were experimenting how to get backing tracks + lead vox where you could allow the vox to still come through clearly. their solution was to record as explained above, then take that recording, blast it into the vocal booth, and record the vox in the same manner, with a mic in the middle of the room dictating the mix.
the result is a muffled backing track, with crystal clear vox
and thus: crooner ballad spam
the second reason is
>shitty radios
the 45 has literally just been invented this year. most ppl dont have anything to play them on yet. very few have even been released yet.
so radio was the primary way to hear new music.
and while radios had existed for decades, they were still kinda fucking shit. FM was around, but mostly only in big cities (and still dealing with FCC figuring how tf to regulate/manage the higher frequencies), so AM is still the way for most. the radio stations were also outputting lower power. so while the AM signal could still carry quite aways, it might be half static by the time it gets there. the backing track might just not get there at all. so the aforementioned recording techniques were developed to at least ensure the melody got there safely
and thus, again: more crooner ballad spam
