‘Dancing with my darlin'’: Patti Page and adaptation in pop music

Abstract

This article looks at the circumstances of adaptation in the pop music of the late 1940s and the early 1950s. Contrary to popular accounts that would see adaptation as evidence of an exploitative relationship based around race, the argument shows how adaptation functioned to generate and maintain growth in a three-tiered industry that was looking for new business models to adapt to the post-war commercial and social environments. Without denying the exploitative nature of adaptation, the article recognizes its value and strategic utility in the process of growth during a boom period that allowed unprecedented growth across all sectors of the industry, both mainstream and marginal.