When it comes to innovative ways that musicians have honed in on cash over the years, it may surprise you at how crafty some artists were in their...business models. Yeah. Let's call it that and move on.
1. Your Favorite Songs Were Probably Written By Nobodys
Did you know that Elvis, the goddamn KING of rock and roll never wrote wrote a single solo song? Though he is credited with over 600, he only co-wrote a handful. In books, that's called ghost-writing. In music, that's called making fucking bank and looking banging in a video.
While it's true that there are some brilliant singer-songwriters out there, rarely do we question if they put the pen to paper, because if it sounds good, who really cares? Well, besides the poor saps who actually made the hits that your teen twerks to.
2. The Beatles Were Totally Not The Creators of the British Invasion
When your parents were out in fields of glover knocking Birkenstocks, your grandparents hid a little secret from them. Grandma and Grandpa were, uh, knitting their booties to a whole 'nother musical infestation. America was literally invaded again, this time, without all the blood and guts and stuff. Unfortunately, it was worse. Herman's Hermits, The Dave Clark Five. and The Hollies jumped the pond while the Stones were drinking spiked tea and failing spectacularly at banding. The Dave Clark Five, though pretentious, actually had several top 20 singles to their name. Apparently, The Beatles just had the advantage of making teen girls into screeching slices of American pie.
3. The R&B Genre Began as a Black-Only Billboard Music Chart
As much as the US loves its segregation, you'd not be surprised when it came to racial purity in music, such as it is. And it was, especially in the 1940s. If you were a white guy who liked to lip sync to Race Records, you were shit out of luck on your dreams of making it big as a vocalist. That obviously never happened until Eminem showed up on the scene in order to watch the world burn. Actually, that's a lie. This shit's been going on for a hot minute. Bobby Caldwell? It's 2023 and people are still figuring out what that honky won't do for love. Eventually, some white people got together and decided that Black Records was a little stupid, so they renamed it "R&B" and everyone lived happily ever after, except, you know, those who didn't.