How Jukeboxes Made Memphis Music
January 13, 2025 at 04:45PMThis one had me from the very opening: “Nashville is where you go to make a hit that sounds like everyone else. Memphis is where you make a hit that sounds like no one else.” While Memphis artists like GloRilla and NLE Choppa are massive stars today, the city’s indie-minded musical legacy began many decades before with labels like Sun and Stax—which were built, in part, on the city’s emergence as the epicenter of jukebox distribution. Robert Gordon peels back a corner of musical history you may not know.
At each location, operators had to not only maintain the machines but also change the records. Each stop could take an hour, including making repairs, updating the selections, chatting with the proprietor, and driving the country miles between locations. In addition to whatever records a bar owner requested, a jukebox operator would also carry multiple copies of the latest releases from B. B. King or John Lee Hooker for the Black clubs, Hank Williams or George Jones for the white clubs. And if they knew a previous record had been hot, they’d carry fresh copies of that title. “If I didn’t have a replacement,” says Gist, “I’d leave the worn one on there. Often, I couldn’t hear a word of the music. It’d all sound scratchy to me—but they wanted to hear it again!”
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2025/01/13/how-jukeboxes-made-memphis-music/
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