ITT: /mu/ in 1949

>>127325300 (OP)
>Once there was a very boring year of music
>It was so boring that everyone died. The end.

>>127325300 (OP)
A godly year for blues and country

>>127325324
Yes it was. Drab croonerslop hit after drab croonerslop hit with not a tempo over 40 bpm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWHlYsg0dxw
And here you go.

Zzzzzz...

I enlisted in the service hoping they'd post me in Japan, instead I get assigned to this Korea mudhole I'd never even heard of before and all the women are ugly.

Wake me up in like sixteen years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbTAbpADKRI

>>127325457
>Wake me up in like sixteen years
Well ok more like 6-7 years.

>>127325524
Not in the top 10 just yet only some mid-tier hits. That will come soon though.

>>127325324
Oh my, the quality of that potrait is unreal, like of a quality never seen before. It looks like it was made 50 years into future.

Nothing going on here unless you're so bold as to listen to the Negro station in town.

"Comrade, we are confiscating your family's shoe factory for exploiting proletarian labor (they hired people and gave them jobs?) You will be require to attend political classes downtown and study works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6J7LvSERRI

>>127325616
absolute goyslop postwar propaganda song

>yes, get married and buy a new prefab home in the new suburbs and a new Buick
>cons00m, goy, cons00m

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDsI98r0ggA
Nice little ballad from pre-Mitch Miller Doris. And fuck you Youtube for recommending me a Fetty Wap song.

>>127325637
It's as if people had lived through a depression and a world war and wanted to own nice stuff finally.

>>127325604
>putting that bold proclamation on her first record when she hadn't even done anything yet
Ha ha wow that's some impressive arrogance there. Patti Page's debut record didn't have that.

>>127325690
Patti had two hits in 49 one of which was So In Love. Still early and some questionable singing choices here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fss3osUS-pM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYvZ5wQcS2w
Frank's starting to lose it these days. No matter how much he tried to blame Mitch Miller this junk predates Miller's being at CBS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXH7IuCVKUo
The original "bird" R&B group.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ62MOvS2hQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWHlYsg0dxw

Jo at her prettiest and most melliferous. Christgau I'm sure would hate this record.

'sup niggas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3FNLnFg6Ck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PrL_TclbXc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm-tjm6gHH8

music is so cringe

>>127325879
Jimmy Page is all of 5 years old but may already be plotting to steal this song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2RkvMxL2Fo

Kay in a bit more crooner and not as bluesy mode.

>>127325885
People who don't like music are classless, uncultured weirdos.

>>127325879
Why is every blues song from the 40's and 50's this?

>>127325885
Are you meaning music in 1949? Because cringe isn't quite the operative word...that's what's coming in the next few years. For now we'll just call it boring.

>>127325706
>Chappell
Uh oh.

>>127325300 (OP)
There's no good music out yet.

Sup.

>>127325616
I find it disturbing that this was the catchiest song linked in here.

>>127328612
also false there's a lot of country, blues, and early bebop jazz. yes i agree it was a poor time for chart hits.

Nothing can stop Mr. P this year as he has an astonishing 15 (!) chart hits. Whether that's due to him or a lack of competition for male singers since Sinatra and Crosby are on the downswing is anyone's guess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVBaiuuT_Vg

This little lady you may have recalled as being a vehicle for Mitch Miller slop but she had a prior existence on RCA that was far more tasteful if if also blander.

My favorite actress
https://youtu.be/ZVYpdBcso3A?si=dpxqsh9rwJVlwKlY

>>127328686
It's a transitional year as there was an interlude in the late 40s between big band's demise and the rise of 50s sounds. There just wasn't anything going on for a while (in the mainstream anyway) and stuff felt directionless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdeo2cgPXtM
And, Kitty Kallen is back to recording after two years off but she still won't have any chart success as a solo singer for quite some time to come. That said this song is actually fast so that's an immediate instant plus. Maybe it was too lively for radio in 1949 so it didn't get airplay.

>>127328723
>>127328848
>>127328871
Sure the hits were dull but 49 is a more significant year than it seems for technological reasons as this is when the 45 disc is debuted by RCA and tape recording is beginning to be used. That will mark a major step up in recording quality and sonic possibilities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yh5MUUFJCM

That said I'll give you what most of you are actually here for (which is more likely than not not Doris Day). Here's an early Muddy, the seventh single he cut and one of three this year.

TALK TO ME TELL ME WHYYYYY

>>127325300 (OP)
Was this the last year Russian military were gang raping German women and children on an industrial scale? Somebody should write a song about that.

guys i just saw Hitler walking around Buenos Aires, he's alive

Korea? Where's that? I can't even find it on the map. That in South America someplace?

man i love living in wooden shack and eating beet root. long live Stalin! long live gommunism!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQPjlfTa2ks
Amos Milburn was a big name in R&B during this time not so well remembered today and Fats Domino ripped his entire sound from him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry_-p-0stx4

Hank!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6TfKEpgSa8
A little more rock-and-roll on this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkk_LhYPk8c

This is peak country music, nothing can top him

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz0bjfZUxOU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkIoIKxdztQ

>>127329938
>>127329864
I prefer the Dinah tune personally.

>>127329179
Perry's helpmates on there who won't have any hits of their own for quite a while to put it kindly.

>>127328994
WHY DIDN'T YOU KILL EM FASHIE?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fncjikUXjGY

>my country in 1949
No no NOOOOO!!!!!!

>>127330057
Poland?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tj_2tO4tyY

Rosie's solo debut but she wouldn't actually make the Billboard until early '51.

>>127325300 (OP)
Ach Helmut...I am not liking this new wall. My dream is that 50 years from now, this wall will be flattened by a wind of change...I'm looking for freedom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8n0jdv2y18

And that's where it all began.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBg4p13I98c

>>127330393
again, why does all 40s-50s blues sound exactly the same?

capitalism is in its last days and will fall soon! long live all-union party of Bolshevik, party of Lenin and stalin!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiM5E6oTM70

No matter what so-called integrationists up north feel, we shall never allow the Negro in our homes, schools, workplaces, and daughters, not in 50 or 100 years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTlnXvdQFGg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKxg6TCMfwY
Cute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoR6s-FU8fw

music stopped being good 4 years ago

>>127330791
the last gasp of big band before a long stretch of veeerryyy verrryyy slooooowww crooner lullabies

>>127330821
After the war everyone apparently needed a nap for a while and became like my cat sleeping in the windowsill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi2J-dXWOxY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO7JRR42gCo

I don't ever see black music gaining traction with white audiences

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mitLcbHHz8

>arrested again early in the year for dope possession
Poor Billie just can't stay out of trouble.

>>127330938
At this point only Ella, Satchmo, and Nat are widely considered ok for white people to listen to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAPCxfuBzyo

>>127331017
Shoulda add that was the #1 selling disc of the year.

There should just be a years general with a different year every thread

>>127330975
duke
the greatest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2GE1fGgCuI

>>127330959
billie dindu nuffin

>>127325593
underrated
also realistic
i was about to post
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQS8l4iz4mY
but then
>String Quartet No. 4 in D major, Op. 83, on December 27, 1949, dedicating it to the memory of his friend Pyotr Vladimirovich Vil'yams.
>This quartet, which evoked Jewish folk music and was composed after his return from a trip to New York, was not performed until after Stalin's death due to the politically sensitive nature of its content
so i guess well have to stick to this soviet forestation program propaganda piece
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqkxghfTuU4
still pretty good desu

>meanwhile
>somewhere in the southern hemisphere
HUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duEpCnJXJhg

>>127325593
Also be sure to thank Comrade Stalin and Soviet people for liberating your cunt from the fascists.

>>127328828
This early and Patti Page was already inspiring imitators?

>Pop music in the years following World War II was mired in a Tin Pan Alley tar pit with little inclination to take risks. Songs generally consisted of three flavors: the romantic ballad, the dance number, and the novelty song. The first was the mainstay of the business; ballads were typically assigned as the A-side of records, considered the moneymaker and the guaranteed hit, as well as "cred" material to prove a singer's artistic legitimacy and singing abilities. Politics, religion, or patriotic material were studiously avoided.

>Lyrics were simple, monosyllabic, and G-rated with no direct sexual innuendo allowed. As such, the singer's performance would convey a sexy atmosphere to a tune and nonewere better at it than Frank Sinatra, but it was a bland form of sex for the sort of couples who had missionary-only intercourse with the lights off. Part of this staid risk avoidance was commercial constraints and public tastes; pop music was usually viewed by songwriters as product churned out for money and the real cred came from writing showtunes or film scores.

>Although the pop music establishment would later on during rock-and-roll decry the "infantilization" of pop music, the Tin Pan Alley format was hardly any more adult itself; its main target audience was the urban teenage or young adult couple and real world problems were kept out of music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OYF4XhugEI

Guy Mitchell's first recording when he was still going by his birth name.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlBN8LEPddc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqbWJ1ZMO84

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1LPdWKtUzY

Bebop feat. an early Blossom Dearie appearance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DckuX2dupfw
Decca had just launched Coral this year. Not quite the schlock mill it would become later. That said Connie Haines was always charming and hard to hate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wncn1EXh-44

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NFjzwHN2qQ

this era of muzic is very dull but perhaps not as bad as the era of housewife pop slop that is coming

>>127326021
don't ask me

>>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

>>127338802
>and thus: crooner ballad spam
That was really more business reasons because big bands had died off. So in mainstream pop, for a while at least there was nothing else to do but grind out endless Sinatra imitations (since all those ballads were just everyone and their dog trying to sound like Sinatra).

As for technology, tape recording begins to come into use in 1950 and that year starts bringing about a noticeable change as peppy novelty hits begin appearing on the charts and new sonic possibilities had come up. If rock and roll had not yet arrived, it clearly showed there was a shift towards more uptempo hits.

>>127338802

>>127330757
This tune was released as a 45 for promotional purposes, in fact it was one of the very first that RCA put out.

>>127338802
>and while radios had existed for decades, they were still kinda fucking shit
it's all still vacuum tube shit, will be a while before transistorized radios

>>127340021
>released as a 45 for promotional purposes, in fact it was one of the very first that RCA put out
neat
you can rly tell the diff too

>>127338802
that leads to an interesting story.

>Patti Page cuts "Confess" in 48
>this is only her third-ever record and she hasn't yet had any chart hits (as far as we know anyway since the Billboard until 1958 only had 30 positions on it so it's possible the first two did get some airplay).
>the arrangement was meant to have backing singers but Mercury would not pay for them because she hadn't had any hits yet, so they said her and her manager would have to fund them out of their own pockets
>a Mercury engineer devised a solution to double up her vocals and create a mock chorus
>this was tricky because no tape yet, just master discs and he had to sync two of them together
>however it worked, the song reached #15 and became her breakout hit
>and also established self-harmonies as one of her recording trademarks

the arrival of vinyl discs was also economically motivated because the shellac used in 78s was mostly sourced from India and Burma but after the independence of those countries when they were no longer part of the British Empire the cost of shellac doubled overnight

>>127340021
RCA was a technology company so of course they always had the most cutting edge recording stuff.

>>127325604
Teresa took until disc #4 to chart, and it was an accidental B-side hit. Also she was initially on London Records which was UK-based but had recently begun expanding into American singers, recorded in the US with the discs manufactured in England.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS7WsoBaI4s

Petula Clark also put out her first recordings this year, not that anyone in America knew about it. John Lennon was right when he said there was nothing (in the UK at least) before rock and roll.

>>127340157
cool
so she recorded vox in the backing track, then recorded lead on top of it?

kinda crazy to think doubling vox would become the standard, but there was like a decade+ gap between where no one was doing it at all

>>127340244
Apparently her early pre-tape records are all exclusively ripped from the original 78 discs and the master discs are no longer around as the record label tossed them out in the early 70s thinking they were old junk nobody was going to need anymore ("Ah who wants this ancient rubbish now m8? We have Jethro Tull now.")

>>127340259
It was two separate recordings on two master discs and the engineer had to carefully sync them together to produce the doubled vocals.

>>127340269
based engineer autism
that sounds like absolute cancer to do
no wonder it didnt become standard

>>127340299
>no wonder it didnt become standard
Didn't have to because it was only two years before tape came into use anyway.

>>127339966
Sinatra's late 40s decline was among things because his style had become so normalized in pop that he lost his uniqueness.

>>127339966
Frankie Laine had some of the only hits in this time that were fast and not ballad sludge.

>>127338802
Blues was almost exclusively an indie label thing at that time. R&B singers were sometimes indie, sometimes major label, at least the biggest names like Louis Jordan anyway.

>>127340157
All things said it's one of the better ballads from this time as it has an actual melody and the jazzy arrangement easily beats string bullshit. It also has a great B-side.

>>127328828
Vis a vis a record like this that could well be AI generated.

>>127340352
lol yea how many lounge crooners do you realistically need?

>>127341454
Evidently too many because almost as soon as the 50s began the chart hits began shifting to novelty songs.

>>127341454
>lol yea how many lounge crooners do you realistically need?
The smarter ones like Peggy Lee shifted to albums during the 50s and didn't really try for chart hits.

>>127341454
>>127341477
every singer loved ballads because they had more chance to flex their vocal skills. it was also a cred thing because the idea was if you couldn't do a ballad you weren't a serious singer. worked on the same principle as rock groups and acoustic songs. if you can't go unplugged you're not "serious."

>>127333780
One of four hits Doris had this year and I fucking hate the xylophone.

>>127341747
the backing chorus is probably like what Confess was supposed to be going for

>>127325706
the other hit was out in December so I guess that probably didn't chart until 1950

>>127341747
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo-tvKwsjCg

My god, it's actually above 50 bpm, may even approach 60. That didn't happen too much back then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp9g5qOhOzs
This was her last '49 hit. Also actually somewhat fast. I think only "Again" was a ballad out of them.