高分assignment代写范文：黑天鹅唱片和派拉蒙唱片

　　下面为大家整理一篇优秀的assignment代写范文-A Comparison between Black Swan Records and Paramount Records，供大家参考学习，这篇论文讨论了黑天鹅唱片和派拉蒙唱片。黑天鹅唱片和派拉蒙唱片都以“种族音乐”为目标，但他们有着不同的商业惯例。在商业实践中，黑天鹅唱片和派拉蒙唱片都对黑人艺术家给予了关注，并巩固了自己“种族标签”的声誉。派拉蒙唱片进军布鲁斯音乐的原因是为了解决其在吸引顶级艺术家和刺激零售商网络方面缺乏声誉或资本的问题，这两家公司对待非裔美国艺术家的态度存在差异。

高分assignment代写范文

　　Black Swan Records was a first major black-owned record company founded in 1921,and it only lasted for 5 years.During its short existence,“it revealed the possibilities and limitations of realizing social and political change through music and markets(Suisman,206).”Even though it had a short history,it played an important part in showing the relations between music industry and society at large,and it made significant attempt for African Americans to improve their social status and seek economic independence.In 1924,Black Swag Records fell down in the intense market competition,and it was forced to sell its label to Paramount Records,another record label known for its recordings created by African Americans artists.There are many similarities and differences between the two records labels,and the paper seeks to make a comparison between the two labels in terms of business practices,treatment of African American artists and efforts to appeal to record buyers.

 

　　In the first place,both Black Swan Records and Paramount Records aimed at“race music”,but they had different business practices.In business practices,Black Swan Records and Paramount Records paid their attention to black artists and both of them solidified their reputation as“race label”.However,there were obvious differences between the two companies at the same time.On one hand,Black Swan Records was established to produce a broad range of music by and for African Americans,while Paramount Records began with furniture and took advantage of“race music”to make money.At the end of 1910s,the heightened sense of entitlement as well as the bloody race riots of 1919 promoted the political assertiveness of African Americans in many forms(Suisman 207),It was in this environment that Black Swan Records was established and the creator of Black Swan Records expected to effect real change in the condition of African Americans in the United States(Suisman 208).In the meantime,Paramount Records had different background of foundation and goals.Paramount Records The creator of Paramount Records was firstly running a chair manufacturing company in Sheboygan(Filzen 106).Nevertheless,the creator of Paramount Records not only manufactured chairs,but also produced phonograph cabinets and phonograph records.With time went on,the company turned its attention towards phonograph players and eventually to phonograph records themselves(Filzen 107;Lovell).Moreover,the reason why Paramount Records marched blues in order to solve its problem of lack of reputation or capital in attracting top artists and stimulating a network of retailers(Filzen 107).In this way,the establishment of Black Swan Records had its political appeal and ethnical claims,while Paramount Records used“race music”to achieve pure business success.On the other hand,Black Swan Records tried to issue all kinds or records not just blues while Paramount Records focused on blues.As mentioned above,Black Swan Records sought to challenge white people’s opinion on African Americans’capabilities and attributes as well as uplift and empower African Americans in the guise of musical entertainment,consequently,in addition to blues,comic and ragtime records,Black Swan Records also issued classic music,spirituals and opera,for the sake of overturning the views of white people towards African Americans(Suisman 208).In the meanwhile,Paramount Records focused on blues since it was a new musical genre and it could make money by attracting black audience(Filzen 111).In addition,the creators of Black Swan Records had rich knowledge in musical industry.For instance,W.C.Handy called himself as“father of the blues”,in the meantime,the creators of Paramount Records knew nothing about the recording industry(Suisman 212;Filzen 112).Besides,even though blues and other African American music mainly represented work-class African American life,Black Swan Records sought to present“respectable”middle-class values,which led to serious class conflict inner the company(Suisman 223).Different from Black Swan Records,Paramount Records did not pay attention to middle-class values.

 

　　In the second place,there are differences between the two companies in treating African American artists.Firstly,the creator of Black Swan Records assembled a board of directors whose membership included a wide range business and professional leaders,in other words,with the help of interpersonal network,it was easy for Black Swan Records to find appropriate African American artists.Meanwhile,Paramount Records had low-budget talent searches and it depended on its salespeople and record distributors to find new blues talent(Filzen 113).Secondly,Black Swan Records had strict requirement on African American artists.For instance,it is necessary for artists to play in strict accordance with the arrangements.The company only accepted the blues which did not conflict with the overall project of uplift(Suisman 222).What is more,it also adopted an informal system of triage,the artists who did not fit the recognized social profile for a singer of“cultural”songs may influence his(her)position in the company’s recording roster,regardless of the fact he(she)had a repertoire encompassing various styles(Suisman 219).However,there was no similar rule in Paramount Records.Thirdly,when it comes to the payment of African American artists,the black musicians were paid less than white performers of the day in Paramount,and African American artists also suffered exploitation from Paramount;while the issue did not exist in Black Swan Records.During the 1920s,the income gap between white and black recording artists were huge.For example,a white recording artist may be paid five times as much as the black recording artists(Filzen 114).Moreover,distributors and record dealers who were responsible for searching talents of Paramount were also rewarded at the expense of the musicians(Filzen 114).In addition,Paramount exploited African American artists through calling for a sales royalty and artists’own written material(Filzen 114).The artists in Paramount were forced to relinquish some of their rights as artists(Filzen 114).

 

　　In the third place,the two companies also differed from each other with respect to efforts to appeal to record buyers.In order to improve the reputation of Black Swan Records,the company organized a remarkable music and vaudeville tour,including comic skits,dancing and singing(Suisman 220).Furthermore,the creator of Black Swan Records sought to make its records available no matter where people may acquire them(Suisman 223).Therefore,people could find the advertisement of Black Swan Records in black newspapers,trade press and black political periodicals in different promotion points(Suisman 224).For example,people could find the information about new records in Talking Machine Worlds,and they could know sundry cosmetic products in the entertainment pages(Suisman 224).In addition,in view of the hostility of the environment and suggesting that the company was on the front lines in the struggle for ethnical equality,Black Swan Records preferred to use eye-catching and straightforward pronouncements to attract people’s attention,such as“DON’T BE DECEIVED!BLACK SWAN RECORDS Are the Only Exclusive Colored Records and Are Made by a Colored Company”,“The Biggest Hit of the Season!DOWN HOME BLUES”(Slade).At the same time,Chicago Defender was the only one paper which Paramount issued its advertisement.As the readers of the paper were almost exclusively African Americans Paramount advertised the lyrical content of the song and a catalog release to attract people to buy(Filzen 117).In addition,Paramount also depended on retailers,wholesalers and distributors to sell its records.For example,with the help of some innovative sale techniques such as enticing store owners to stock the“race label”,Artophone Corporation was an important distributor of Paramount(Filzen 117).Besides,promotional gimmicks were also important for paramount to stimulate its sales(Filzen 117).For example,it ever issued an advertisement called,“Lectric Chair Blues”,and stressed that people would be touched seriously with“big,round tears-all kinds of tears and heart throbs”.For another advertisement called“Black Snake Moan No.2”,people could find a picture that a man was frightened by a big black snake on his bed.The picture and the title could greatly attract people’s attention and promote them to be interested in the records.

 

　　In conclusion,Black Swan Records and Paramount Records were two important records labels in the 1920s.Even though both of the two companies lasted for a short time,they played significant role in the development of African American music and promoting the appearance of many famous African American artists in the America.At the same time,there are many differences between the two companies in terms of business practices,treatment of African American artists and efforts to appeal to record buyers.Black Swan Records was established to produce a broad range of music by and for African Americans,while Paramount Records began with furniture and took advantage of“race music”to make money.Black Swan Records tried to issue all kinds or records not just blues while Paramount Records focused on blues.Black Swan Records sought to present“respectable”middle-class values while Paramount Records did not.Moreover,Black Swan Records assembled African American artists based on interpersonal network while Paramount depended on its salespeople and record distributors to find new blues talent.It is necessary for artists to play in strict accordance with the arrangements of Black Swan Records while there was no similar rule in Paramount.The black musicians were paid less than white performers of in Paramount,and African American artists also suffered exploitation from Paramount;while the issue did not exist in Black Swan Records.In addition,the two companies also had different ways of marketing and promoting.Black Swan Records promoted its records through eye-catching and straightforward advertisements issued various papers and remarkable music and vaudeville tour,while Paramount relied on only one paper,capacities of retailers,wholesalers and distributors,as well as promotional gimmicks.