Do the Huckle-Buck: Jazz and the Emergent LP, 1949–1955
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Published:March 2024
Chapter 1 focuses on various renditions of “The Huckle-Buck,” the top-selling R&B hit of 1949. The song’s movement through the record industry occurred in tandem with the proliferation of the LP as a medium for popular music. Between 1950 and 1955, jazz became the only music played by Black musicians to circulate on LP, despite having a small market share compared to other forms of Black popular music. As jazz moved into a more central position with white adult listeners, LPs began to circulate racially coded language about the social and economic value of the music. Through the music of Paul Williams, Louis Armstrong, Buck Clayton, and others, this chapter asserts that the repackaging of Black artistry onto a new, prestige format is best understood as a contemporaneous form of cultural repackaging as well.
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