A musician strike once changed everything. Could another do the same today?

In the 1940s, the American recorded music industry came to a halt for two years when musicians went on strike over royalty payments. Could something similar happen today?

James C. Petrillo was apoplectically mad. As head of the American Federation of Musicians, the largest musicians union in the country, he was sick and tired of seeing members not being paid what they were owed when it came to record sales.

The people who made records were not getting their due from the major record labels. All the money from record sales was going to the record labels and not to the musicians. Years of talk produced nothing so Petrillo announced that his union was going on strike.

At exactly midnight, July 31, 1942, union musicians could no longer make any kind of commercial recordings for any commercial record company. The supply of new music was to be strangled, if not cut off entirely.

There were exemptions, of course. Musicians could continue to perform on live radio shows. V-Discs, special records made for the troops serving overseas in World War II, could still be made. And, of course, non-union musicians weren’t bound by the strike.

At first, the labels tried to bluff their way through it, hoping that their stockpiled reserves of unreleased recordings would get them through until the strike could be settled. Old deleted recordings were re-issued. For example, because Rudy Vallee recorded As Time Goes By in 1931, it was reissued in 1942 when it appeared in Casablanca and turned into a number-one hit. Meanwhile, songs from Canada, the U.K., and Europe were imported.

The strike lasted until Nov. 11, 1944, when the major record labels finally gave in and a new royalty deal was signed, ending the longest strike in entertainment history. Profits would thereafter be distributed to musicians, not just the executives at the labels. There were some lingering issues, but all the bit points of contention were solved. Meanwhile, though, there were some interesting unintended consequences.

Singers were not considered musicians by the AFM and therefore not obligated to follow any strike mandates. Performers like Frank Sinatra were separated from their Big Band masters and free to make solo recordings between 1942 and 1944. This marked the beginning of the rise of the solo superstar artist.

The big band orchestras suffered and were ultimately forced to near extinction. Not only had many members been drafted into the military, making it hard to fill their seats, but wartime rationing took a toll on the venues where they could perform. Some radio stations resorted to playing jazz, R&B records (or, as they were known, “race” records) from small labels, thereby further spreading the seeds for the birth of rock’n’roll.