George W Johnson

about

George W. Johnson may not be a household name, but he has a singular place in music history -- the former slave and New York City street performer is, according to most accounts, the very first African-American recording artist. The phonograph, or "talking machine," had been invented by Thomas Edison only few years before Johnson tracked a rendition of "The Whistling Coon," a racist minstrel song. That recording helped give birth to what we now know as the record industry. At the time, there was no electronic amplification of a singer's voice -- artists all but shouted into a cone-shaped device, and the sound waves moved a needle etching a rotating drum of hard wax. Johnson's story is featured in Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919, a new book and companion CD compiled by archivist Tim Brooks. Brooks doesn't believe Johnson resisted singing the racist tune. picture User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

top songs

albums

One Hundred and Twenty Years

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Phono-Cylinders, Vol. 2: Edited and from the Collection of George A. Blacker

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Lost Sounds: Blacks and the birth of the recording industry 1891-1922

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Lost Sounds: Blacks And The Birth Of The Recording Industry - 1891-1922

The Laughing Song

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1 1891 Monarch (Victor)-583

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The Laughing Coon

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Gramophone Daze, Vol. 3

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Blacks And The Birth Of The Recording Industry 1891-1922 (disc 1)

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Negro Laughing Song

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Edison Gold Moulded Record: 4005

The Whistling Coon

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