O'Regan, J. (2014). Payola. In W. F. Thompson & J. G. Golson (Eds.), Music in the Social and Behavioural Sciences: Sage. Payola Payola refers to an offer of money or gifts in exchange for promotion. The word itself is a portmanteau of “pay”, taken from “payment”, and “-ola”, a common suffix in music- related company names (Pianola, Victrola, and so forth). In the music industry, the term describes a “pay-to-play” practice which started in the 1950s to promote rock and roll records on radio and television. Although the term is most commonly used in relation to 1950s music business practices, payola existed in the Tin Pan Alley era where song “pluggers” were employed to build the popularity of particular songs in the hopes of encouraging greater sales and radio airplay. During the golden age of Tin Pan Alley from the late 1890s to the 1930s, song pluggers worked as professional advertisers to draw consumer attention to new songs that publishers had chosen to prioritise. As songwriters during this era were unlikely to also be performers, publishers needed to find methods to get new songs into the hands of popular singers in order for the song to become a local or national hit. To do this, a song plugger’s job could include anything from surreptitiously paying local performers to perform a new song during their concerts, to more aggressive tactics, such as planting themselves in the audience of a local performance and interrupting the show with a rendition of a new song. As the music industry moved from sheet music sales to record sales, the role of song plugger was transformed into a promotional role at independent record labels. The issue of payola in the 1950s was influenced by several factors: the rise of music on radio, the rise of a teen demographic interested in R&B and rock’n’roll music at the time, and the birth of independent record labels who specialised in and recorded rock and roll music. With the rise of television, dramatic programs and serials were transferred from radio to the small screen. In response, national and regional radio became more focused on the broadcasting of music and, as a result, the power of radio to create national hits grew exponentially. One of the earliest and most influential regional radio shows aimed at teen audiences was Alan Freed’s The Moondog Show, which premiered on Cleveland station WJW in July of 1951 and played selections of R&B records. Other regional shows began to highlight this music too, with Dewey Phillips’ Red, Hot and Blue show on WHBQ in Memphis, and other shows broadcasting from Nashville, Los Angeles and Atlanta. Slowly, rock and roll began to spread across the United States. Freed was the most successful of these DJs and in 1954, he moved to New York to debut his new national radio show Rock and Roll Party. Freed would become a central part of the “payola scandal” in 1959. The post-war economic boom in the United States also played a part in both the rise of rock and roll and the payola tactics used in the promotion of records. During the early 1950s, the United States entered a period of middle-class affluence, with the growth of suburban neighbourhoods, the availability of new technology for the home, and the affordability of automobiles. The children of the baby boom were spared the hardships their parents faced, were not expected to assimilate into adult life as soon as they left high school; they were a prominent demographic who were inclined to spend their disposable income.