This is episode 20 of Ben's radio show Red White Blues: an Anthology of America's Music (aired 14 November 2024 on Radio Buena Vida). We're able to share it because the music played is all non-commercial V-Discs taken from the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/V-discs1-991943-1944.
On this episode, we look at the history of V-Discs and the rise of vinyl.
In August of 1942, the American Federation of Musicians declared a strike: an all-out ban on members going into the studio and recording music. The strike was called to force the big three record companies to increase the royalty rate on recorded music paid to musicians, which had become a substantial part of music workers’ business in an American culture structured around the production of consumer goods. The strike would last for two years, in which time no commercial records were made.
But the US military and the big labels joined forces to create V-Discs (or Victory Discs)—non-commercial records for the enjoyment of the American soldiers and staff stationed abroad. Records up to this point were made of a rationed material sorely needed in the production of armaments: shellac. With the US having an abundance of oil, the petroleum-based vinyl record came to prominence and it’s been that way ever since.
Oil-based plastic didn’t just shape music manufacture in its own image, though—it shaped American consumerism, which undergirds the world as we know it through mass production and mass communication, the end result of which is masses. It’s us.
Tracks played (with V-Disc catalog numbers in brackets):
1. “Ain’t Misbehaving & Two Sleepy People”, Fats Waller [32]
2. “There’s Gonna Be A Hot Time In The Town Of Berlin”, Frank Sinatra [72]—with introduction from side A (“I Only Have Eyes For You”)
3. “Blues in Berlin”, Josh White [44]
4. “Pearl Harbor Blues”, Dr Clayton [82]
5. “Ring Dem Bells”, Duke Ellington and his Orchestra [37]
6. “Redman Blues”, Don Redman Orchestra [104]
7. “A Smooth One”, Benny Goodman, Cootie Williams, Charlie Christian et. al. [187]
8. “Jelly Jelly”, Earl Hines and His Orchestra [308]
If you like the show, you can listen to every episode right here on SoundCloud or by following this link: https://soundcloud.com/spaghettiforbrains/sets/red-white-blues
