(upbeat music) - Welcome to "You Ought Know," I'm Shirley Min.

Today's show is about making music.

We start with music on wax, aka vinyl records.

See how the Drexel Music Archive is introducing music to a new generation.

But first, what goes into making a record?

We went to New Jersey to find out.

- Welcome to Independent Record Pressing.

Back in 2015, the explosion in vinyl was way ahead of what was actually able to be physically pressed.

There was a need for more vinyl pressing.

(upbeat music) Music has such an emotional connection to people with downloads and streaming growing, I think people still wanted to have something and actually put in their collections because people identify so much of their life by the music that they listen to.

Most of the records we press are independent artists.

We've pressed Radiohead, we've pressed Drive-by Truckers.

We did an Adele catalog piece.

I always tell people if you listen to music on NPR, it's probably a good chance we've pressed something that you've heard in the last hour.

Each record is individually pressed, has to be handled, it's a very manual process, which I think is part of the allure and sort of mystique of vinyl also.

There are a lot of things that happen before it even gets onto the press that really impact the sound.

High resolution, Digital files or actually analog tape is sent to a cutter after it's mixed and mastered and what they do is carve an image of the record into a lacquer and then that lacquer at that point gets sent to a plating facility where nickel stampers are made and that's what goes onto the press.

We put in PVC pellets into a hopper that gets melted, pulled into a biscuit with a toothpaste like consistency and then two labels are fixed on top and bottom and then it gets smushed like a big waffle iron between two plates with the stampers on them at about 270 degrees.

And then the excess is trimmed off and then really you can listen to the record straight from there.

(upbeat music) It sits for about half a day to a full day just to let it cool down and set.

And at that point it gets put into sleeves and from the sleeves then we put them into jackets.

We shrink wrap it and sticker it and then we pack it up and send it out the door.

The process of plastic to on a spindle is about 30 seconds or so.

We've been to probably about 2 million a year is what we're looking at.

Playing vinyl is remarkably inconvenient.

You have to pick it up, you have to physically put it onto a turntable you have to put a needle and then it just goes across.

It's not easy to flip to the wrong song, so when you listen to a record, you have to listen to great intention.

I really believe when people say vinyl sounds better, the reality is I think people have this experience of vinyl sounds better because they're actually listening to it in a way that you don't listen to it through streaming, through a cd, through a download.

(upbeat music) We pressed some of the coolest records out there.

I call that my will to work.

It really comes down for me, the music.

Talking to a label, hearing about an artist and then seeing it actually be manufactured and then taking it, listening to it and knowing that we were a part of making that.

(upbeat music) - This is the Drexel Archives, one of the many, many homes of the great things that we have happening at the music industry program at Drexel.

Sigma Sound Studios, one of the most famous recording studios in the world.

Home to Gamble and Huff, Disco music was born here.

It was all recorded on South Street at Sigma Sound.

(upbeat music) - When the studio decided to close its doors they spent years trying to locate the owners and say, "hey come get your stuff."

This is what was left.

And so it was basically considered abandoned property.

- Early two thousands there was a gentleman who contacted Drexel University and said, "I own a storage facility in New Jersey.

I have all of these, I think they're tapes.

I really don't know what they are.

Would you guys be interested in taking 'em off my hands?"

We naturally said yes.

- These are old tapes from the fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties.

We have over 7,000 tapes.

What about some unknown artists that's never ever before been released?

We found the Nat Turner Rebellion.

We plucked a few key students who wanted to work on the project and they literally put the whole package together, soup to nuts.

(upbeat funk music) ♪ This is a new generation ♪ - We helped basically take a record out of these archives that never would've seen the light of day and bring it to the masses 50 years after it was recorded.

- The album's called "Laugh to Keep from Crying."

When we put that out, it was the first release of recordings that were made 50 years ago in Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia.

♪ And soul ♪ ♪ Love and soul ♪ ♪ Peace ♪ - It's a huge deal because what we all do here is all about, you know, it's about the music.

I'm sure there's a lot of music in here that's really, really good, but it ain't great.

The Nat Turner Rebellion, that's great, great, great music.

That's a huge value to have people listen to that and discover it now 50 years later.

My favorite part is when I can get an 18, 19, 20 year old student to realize that music from 50 years ago is pretty gosh darn good.

(upbeat funk music) ♪ I've got last inspired ♪ ♪ Bo, bo, bo ♪ ♪ I just keep on laughing ♪ ♪ Bo, bo, bo ♪ - It was really crazy seeing all of these things in the archives like just to hear how much more alive it is than music that's made today.

It was just so much more real and human.

♪ Ah, ha, ha, ha ♪ - I love to see the students, you know rediscover all of this great music.

This is before streaming.

This is like really human beings making this unbelievable sound in a room in a recording studio in Philadelphia.

(upbeat funk music) - Long before there were digital downloads there was the Victrola.

Come with us to Dover, Delaware to visit the museum dedicated to the man who helped bring recorded music to the masses.

- Welcome to the Johnson Victrola Museum.

(upbeat whimsical music) For most people, Eldridge Reeves Johnson does not ring a bell.

He is the person who started Victor Records and Victor Talking Machine Company.

Mr. Johnson was from Dover.

That's one of the things that we are so proud of here is a man who did so many great things who has very little name recognition.

(upbeat piano music) When he was a young man, he was attending school here at the Dover Boys Academy, which is now Wesley College.

Unfortunately, upon his graduating or finishing school his parents were given the bad news that their son was not really bright enough to go on to college.

They sent him to mechanic school.

He learned all of the intricate details of mechanics.

That later helped him out tenfold because there was a gentleman who came to him with a device that played music.

You had to wind it and as you wound it, it actually played music.

So he said, I think I can improve on that.

And so he invented a a spring wound motor and he placed that on the machine and then you cranked the machine up.

As the motor wound down the record would play.

The rest is history.

(Victrola music) (Victrola music continues) Mr. Johnson, he lived in a time where the only time you heard music is if someone was playing it live.

He loved music and he felt that everyone should have access to music whenever they want it.

Music became an integral part of daily life, not just here in America, but literally in the lives of people all over the world.

We're looking at the first quarter of the 20th century.

He built the plants in Camden.

It encompassed over 10 city blocks.

He employed over 10,000 people.

He had this great ability to market, starting with his famous logo the famous His Master's Voice painting and it became one of the most famous logos in the world.

The dog Nipper who was in the painting, he took on a life of his own and became, you know one of the most significant international icons of probably that time period.

The first inventions were tabletop machines and then a lot of housewives said that the horns are big and unsightly and they collect dust and they came up with the idea, let's turn the horn around, stick it inside of a decorative wooden box, we'll call that the Victrola, which is what happened.

The history of the Grammy actually starts here.

We have a Grammy that Mr. Johnson was awarded posthumously, but the reason why they call it a Grammy is because that's short for gramaphone.

And if you actually look at the Grammy award itself, it is one of Victor's little tiny machines on a pedestal.

The message that I want to give to all people who come to this museum is just because you have people who don't think that you're very smart or that you have good ideas does not mean that you are not destined to do great and wonderful and extraordinary things.

Mr. Johnson, he touched the lives of people all over the world and it started here.

(Victrola music) - Records, hip hop and DJs go hand in hand and Philly is the place to learn about it all.

- My name is Chris Schwartz, along with Joe Nicolo, we founded Ruff House Records in the nineties that impacted hip hop culture worldwide.

- I'm Joe Nicolo and together with Chris Schwartz, little did we know the impact that we were gonna have on rap music.

(upbeat music) - Hip hop didn't get colonized by the major labels till around 89 and Ruff House was sort of a mechanism of that.

Oddly enough the whole Philly scene really all evolved outta Studio Four.

- In the early eighties, I was the low man on the Studio Four totem pole as an engineer, so I got to do the style of music that other people didn't want to do and at the time it was rap music where there weren't any rules early in hip hop because there were no rules to follow.

We came up with beats that we thought were cool and we came up with lyrics that we thought were cool.

There was a label in Philadelphia called Pop Art.

Pop Art had Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince and here are these two 17 year old kids who were breaking the mold and that's basically what I always looked for in signing rap acts for Ruff House.

It had to come from a core credible place, but it had to cross over so that other people could appreciate it as well.

The way we came up with the name, we were sitting in our lawyer's office and there was a cassette on his desk.

- Joe picks up a cassette from a rock band called Ruff House but it was spelled R-O-U-G-H. Joe said," yeah, this would be a really cool name for a label."

I said, "it would, but we need to spell it differently.

We should make it R-U-F-F and give it more of like a street kind of graffiti vibe."

- Ruff House can also be, you know, game of rough house basketball, spell it R-U-F-F. And we looked up and said, oh cool, call it Ruff House.

At Ruff House we signed Cypress Hill, then there was Kris Kros.

Then you fast forward to the Fugees and then of course "The miseducation of Lauryn Hill," won five Grammys, entered at number one, over a half a million copies the first week.

So it was a true testament to the star power that these acts had.

- I know people who were in the record business 25 years and never even had anything approaching a gold record.

And I think Joey and I collectively have 250 gold and platinum records.

- For the most part, it's just dumb s luck.

We were good at finding acts, but it's just right place at the right time.

- Joe will say we are very lucky.

I don't agree because it was a lot of work (laughs) and I think we were smart enough to know that we would be successful if we had artists who knew what they were about.

We didn't have to figure it out for 'em.

- I never in my wildest dreams realized that I was gonna leave the legacy that I'm leaving in hip hop and it makes you feel loved and appreciated that your legacy's gonna live on forever.

(upbeat music) - PSTV is located at 440 North Broad in the school district building.

We work with students from K through 12.

So any student that is enrolled in a Philadelphia school can actually come and utilize all of our services.

We've got photography, we've got studio production, we do podcasts, we do a lot of songwriting, script writing, filmmaking, and we've been offering a DJ explosion class.

We've been very honored to have DJ Top Choice come in and volunteer his time and work with our students to teach them all the basics.

It's been a great class and they're gonna start becoming our resident DJs here at PSTV.

♪ Back on the eight track ♪ ♪ Rewind the tapes ♪ ♪ Check the meters to make sure the levels are straight ♪ - How I got involved with PSTV was by a man named Marc Holley.

Him and my dad were great friends and I talked to Marc.

I told him that I go around to inner city schools teaching students how to DJ, mentoring them about school, college, being a young entrepreneur.

And from that he said, I have an idea.

I would love to host a DJ class at PSTV.

- PSTV, we like to be in the place of being listeners to our learners.

So we had a student who signed up for a Logic Pro X class that was really adamant about this DJ thing.

So I said to him, is this something that you guys will like?

And he said, "yes."

We tried to facilitate students' interest, right?

So this kid had a huge interest in DJing.

So what I did was I called DJ Top Choice and was able to launch that DJ explosion class.

(upbeat music) ♪ I'm gonna be this way till the end ♪ - I got into Djing when I came to PSTV, I saw their DJ setup and just started playing around with it and Marc, I asked him if he can create a DJ class and he did.

It makes me happy 'cause I go to Central.

It's really stressful.

So I come here and just de-stress with music and just mix it up.

- So at the class I show them how to blend songs in, picking the right DPM first a song, also scratching to transitioning to all the tools that's on the controller as far as the cross fade or the volumes, the levels, the knobs and the jog wheels.

And also just making them feel free to have fun with it.

DJing it should be taken seriously, but to have fun makes it all better.

- I was looking for a special DJ that really cared about the community.

For him to volunteer and come here is really, it means a lot to us and not only to us, but we also instill that in the learners.

- Teaching this course, it makes me feel great.

I'm able to express myself through something that I love and able to inspire others to do the same thing.

- We're able to bring together students that come from all over the area of Philadelphia, all different backgrounds, all different cultures, and for them it's really exciting to watch because they really create bonds with one another and it's a chance for them to meet one another where they would not have had that opportunity.

- It's very, very fun.

And what I've learned is scratching, mixing, cross fading, just mixing one song into another by going by BPM or just how the song sounds compared to another one.

So if they sound similar, then I can mix them together.

- DJ Top Choice is a great teacher and he is taught me scratching and matching BPMs and he's just taught me all the basics.

It lets me show how I feel inside into music.

I like to let all my stress and everything outside of here go away and just focus on DJing.

- I learned how to scratch, I learned how to mix.

It makes me feel happy and makes me feel confident.

- It was so easy to teach the class because they enjoy it, they love it, and it's something that they don't learn or get to do every day.

- This guy is huge.

He could be anywhere in the world, but he's here with us.

- We really pride ourselves on being able to not just provide them an industry experience but creating a space that's safe, fun and really provides an opportunity to get to know one another within your community.

- I like to know that there's other people around me that have the same passion as me.

- It's really, really fun.

But every single time I come here I just get really, really excited - Looking for an old record?

Well, there's a haven hidden in Upper Darby that houses more than 4 million recordings.

Here's iconic radio personality, Jacky Bam Bam with more.

- Hey gang, I'm guilty of being Jacky Bam Bam from 933 WMMR and we've been rocking, we've been rolling coming up on 54 years and you wanna know about a guy that powers my show.

His name is Val Shively, he's a Philadelphia treasurer.

It's R&B records, Garrett Road in Upper Darby.

I started going to Val Shively with my dad Papa Bam Bam when I was a little, little, little boy.

I'm gonna put one of these records on Pierre Robear's turntable right now 'cause this is how we do it.

- My name is Val Shively and I guess I'm the owner of this place.

(light music) This is a warehouse.

If you know what you want, we can do business.

This is the deal.

This is what I'm about, okay.

- [Shirley] Val Shively used to collect coins and stamps when he was a kid, but it wasn't until vinyl records that his real passion emerged.

- In 1956, I heard, "Don't Be Cruel" by Elvis Presley, went nuts.

Oh my God, this is like, oh my God, where'd this record come from?

I didn't know who he was.

I never heard of him.

And I got that record, right and I had it and I used to play it, play it, play it, and play it and never stop playing it.

That was the beginning of me into music.

- [Shirley] As a teen, acquiring more records became somewhat of an obsession.

- I was always working since I can remember, anything, everything to make Bonnie and especially to buy records.

And I bought records like there was no tomorrow.

(doo wop music) I meet this guy who says, "Hey, I hear you talking about music."

I says, "I love music."

He goes, "you ever hear Blavat?"

I said, "Blavat, what's that?"

And so he tells me about Jerry Blavat, which is in Camden, New Jersey on WCAM.

- [Shirley] After listening to Jerry Blavat, Val was inspired to collect records from doo wop and male vocal harmony groups of the fifties and sixties.

- Things like "Desiree" by The Charts and "Please say you want me" by the School Boys and "Zoom, zoom, zoom" by The Collegians.

I had a want list.

Wherever I went, I knew this is what I was looking for.

- [Shirley] After years of collecting hit records, Val's passion turned into a successful business with the help of his loyal sidekick Chuck.

- Chuck came in here when he was 14, 15 years old.

He's been here for 45 years.

- [Shirley] What is your role here?

- It could be clerk as long as the check clears at the end of the week.

Well, feed the cats first, go through eBay, see if we sold anything.

Check the emails, see if anybody asked for anything and so forth.

- I got a guy that's been with me forever.

You know what?

I treat him like gold because without him I don't exist.

♪ Ooh wop, wop, wop ♪ - In the beginning I only sold what I liked.

Well that's stuff that I heard from Blavat, I'm doing mail order and I'm doing business all over the country and I'm doing good.

- [Shirley] Records from juke boxes were always a good get.

- I ended up buying a big load from New Orleans, a million records from a place called Tack, slang term for nickel, you know, for juke boxes.

Two 48-foot tractor trailers filled with records.

That's exciting.

Not knowing what was in there.

I sell hits.

You can say anything you want.

I got it.

I'm really known for having something nobody has.

That's where I come to life.

I don't sell a lot of anything.

I sell a little bit of a lot.

Everything has a shot because there's somebody out there's looking for it.

I don't wanna tell you what I got 'cause I don't have time.

You tell me what you want and and watch me because I got it.

♪ Doo wop, doo wop ♪ - I'm one of the people that if you could do anything in the world, I would do this.

You know, this is a dream.

♪ Doo wop ♪ - If we don't have it, you don't need it.

- We have to go everybody!

Thanks for coming to R&B Records with Val Shively and Upper Darby.

That's a rock and roll party.

I'm Jacky Bam Bam from 933 WMMR, and you ought to know where to go to find some vinyl.

Goodbye, everybody.

- Centro Musical on Lehigh Avenue is more than a music store.

As you'll see, it's where music, people, culture and ideas come together.

(tribal music) - Centro Musical has been around 63 years, it's well known around Philadelphia, Delaware, and New Jersey.

The murals outside, we repainted and fixed it so people know that we serve music, we sell instrument, we sell CDs.

I took over almost seven years ago.

Since I'm real Puerto Rican from the heart, I tried to keep the same tradition, giving services to the customer, giving the Canita drink with people.

Sometimes we play music here, we celebrate.

We always try to have a good time.

This is not only a job, it's also play.

A typical day at Centro Musical will be the open my store, customers start coming.

I put the speaker outside and play music, a lot of salsa.

Some musicians call.

They start singing or playing, some instruments they start playing here.

Here in Philadelphia, it's a lot of musicians that live here.

So in Centro Musical, almost every day somebody that play music show up.

It's like a family here.

(upbeat music) (singing in Spanish) - Music is joy.

So every time you play music you feel happy.

When you sing, you feel happy.

So you bring joy to them and to myself.

This community has a lot of Puerto Rican that really like salsa.

It's passing to generations and generations.

Salsa is a fusion of Caribbean music from Cuba, Puerto Rico and Cuba and Puerto Rico, they root from Africa.

And from Indians that are living in the island.

Everyday somebody come for something different.

We sell a lot of instruments, trumpets, congas, bongos, maracas, clarinets, guitars.

Some speaker that people need when they want to perform or play.

We carry a lot of things from Puerto Rico.

In that tradition we carry something that's called a pasteles machine or (speaking Spanish).

You put the vegetables inside and then we ground and you could do the pasteles or what they call alcapurrias.

Here in Centro Musical, we are international.

They all love music.

You know you don't love music, you're dead inside.

My customer become friends, after friends, they become family.

So we treat everybody equal and I'm very grateful that I got the support of the community.

We really appreciate that and we are here to give you more services for the years to come.

(singing Spanish) (speaking Spanish) (all laughing) - All right, that's our show.

Thanks for watching everyone.

Have a good night.

(upbeat music)