TEX-MEX RECORDING PIONEERS presented by Alex LaRotta

The Association for Recorded Sound Collections presents the following program from its 2012 ARSC Annual Conference at Rochester Radisson Riverside, New York on Friday May 18, 2012:
TEX-MEX RECORDING PIONEERS
presented by Alex LaRotta
This presentation will focus on the Tex-Mex recording pioneers that forged the “Tejano” record industry following America’s post-World War II economic boom, independent of the “big five” record company collective of New York and Chicago.
Starting with Armando Marroquín’s first locally produced conjunto record in 1945 up until the end of the independent era with the major label-motivated Tejano crossover of the late 1980s, this lecture will focus on the peoples, places, genres, and recording technology throughout Texas within this forty-plus year time frame.
The Ampex 300 and Finebilt record press were particularly important in the culmination of this industry. Also essential in analyzing this little-known history is the role of the music format-from shellac-based 78-rpm discs to the stereophonic 45-rpm and LP and into the dawn of the digital revolution-and how this affected sales, distribution, and subsequent internationalization of a once-regional music.
A key element to the success of these early Tex-Mex record companies and producers is the behind-the-scenes efforts of local jukebox operators, record distributors, studio engineers, and pressing plant machinists that paved the way for a local industry almost entirely autonomous of New York and L.A.
This presentation aims to examine these key players with visual supplementation of Billboard charts, trade ads, and related ephemera of the era. I will also include photo and audio scans from my own 78s, 45s, and LPs. As a largely misunderstood and marginalized music, I hope this will offer some great diversity to the fantastic ARSC conferences.
THE ASSOCIATION FOR RECORDED SOUND COLLECTIONS (www.arsc-audio.org) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and study of sound recordings, in all genres of music and speech, in all formats, and from all periods. ARSC is unique in bringing together private individuals and institutional professionals-everyone with a serious interest in recorded sound.
Videographers: Michael and Leah Biel
Editor: Nathan Georgitis