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| Melotone Records | |
|---|---|
| Name | Melotone Records |
| Founded | 1930 |
| Status | Defunct (reissues and anthologies survive) |
| Genre | Jazz, Blues, Country music, Pop music, Latin music |
| Country | United States |
| Location | New York City |
| Parent | Brunswick Records (brass) |
Melotone Records
Melotone Records was a United States-based record label launched in 1930 that issued affordable 78 rpm discs and served a mass market during the Great Depression era. The label operated as part of a network of budget imprints alongside Brunswick Records, Vocalion Records, and Columbia Records subsidiaries, targeting nightclub audiences, radio listeners, and juke box patrons with repertoire drawn from Tin Pan Alley, Harlem Renaissance performers, and regional country scenes. Melotone's catalogue bridged artists active in Chicago, New York City, Nashville, Tennessee, and Los Angeles, contributing to dissemination of popular and vernacular styles across the United States.
Melotone was established in 1930 amid major restructuring of the American Record Corporation and the recording industry crises precipitated by the Great Depression. The imprint was part of the cost-cutting strategy pursued by industrialists associated with Warner Bros., RCA Victor, and later management that reorganized assets among Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company interests. Early pressings were manufactured in New Brunswick, New Jersey and distributed through regional chains including outlets in Chicago and Boston. Between 1930 and 1938 the label issued thousands of titles, weathering competition from Decca Records and Victor Talking Machine Company by focusing on low-priced discs sold in five-and-dime stores and via mail-order catalogs run by retailers such as Sears, Roebuck and Company. Melotone ceased primary operations in the late 1930s as consolidation and the entry of wartime restrictions shifted the industry toward reissues and larger conglomerates like Columbia Broadcasting System affiliates.
Melotone's roster included session work by established studio orchestras and vocal groups associated with producers linked to Tin Pan Alley songwriters and Harlem Renaissance composers. Staff musicians who recorded for Melotone intersected with ensembles led by figures connected to Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, and Duke Ellington sidemen who moonlighted in studio dates. Vocalists and bands represented on Melotone releases range from regional country music acts from Nashville, Tennessee and Texas to blues performers from Memphis, Tennessee and Chicago blues itinerants. Popular songwriters whose compositions appear in the catalogue include names tied to Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Hoagy Carmichael–style repertoires, while novelty and dance numbers align with trends promoted by Harlem Renaissance dance venues and Savoy Ballroom circuits.
Melotone pressings reflect the transitional recording technologies of the early 1930s, produced using electrical recording systems derived from innovations by Western Electric and technicians who previously worked for Victor Talking Machine Company. Sessions were often recorded in studios located in New York City and Chicago, employing condenser microphones similar to those used at the Brunswick Studios. Producers emphasized clarity for radio broadcast and juke box amplification, using single-microphone balances for small jazz combos and sectional microphone setups for dance orchestras similar to approaches found on Decca Records discs. Master lacquers were electroplated and pressed in shellac formulations standard before the World War II rationing of shellac, which later affected the industry-wide production quality and availability.
Melotone issued both single-author songs and popular dance band arrangements; catalogue numbers run in sequential series shared with sister labels. Notable releases include dance-band interpretations of George Gershwin tunes, country-tinged ballads recorded by performers who later appeared on RCA Victor and Columbia Records releases, and early issued takes by blues vocalists whose sides circulated in regional jukeboxes across Mississippi and the Midwest. Some Melotone masters were later reissued by American Record Corporation subsidiaries and appeared on anthology compilations of Depression-era popular music. Collectors prize certain Melotone pressings for unique alternate takes and vocal performances that do not appear in the catalogues of major labels like Victor or Columbia.
Melotone's visual identity used economical die-cut labels, typographic logos, and brochure art designed for mass-market retail, echoing visual motifs common to Art Deco commercial design of the era found in New York City advertising. Packaging emphasized price-point and repertoire categories, often grouping releases under headings appealing to patrons of dance halls, radio listeners of NBC and CBS broadcasts, and customers of national retailers. Marketing relied on cross-promotion through sheet music publishers in Tin Pan Alley and trade press such as Billboard (magazine), with label copy highlighting association with established studio orchestras and songwriters to lend cultural cachet.
Although Melotone ceased primary operation before the postwar boom, its surviving discs provide documentary evidence of popular tastes during the Great Depression, and its issues helped circulate regional styles into urban radio markets. Music historians and archivists working with institutions like the Library of Congress and university sound archives reference Melotone items when tracing the dissemination of Jazz, Blues, and early Country music recordings. Reissue labels and curators of Anthology of American Folk Music-style compilations have drawn on Melotone masters to reconstruct lost sessions, and collectors of pre-war 78s seek Melotone pressings for their intersections with performers linked to Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, and other prominent figures of the era.
Category:American record labels