The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is in Cleveland. But as any Cincinnatian will tell you, it was almost built about four hours down the road in the Queen City — at which point, if they’re real music nerds, they will also explain to you why their home town is the actual birthplace of rock n’ roll. If you’re not aware, just ask filmmaker/musician Yemi Oyediran, who has poured nearly a decade of blood, sweat and tears into the new documentary King of Them All: The Story of King Records.

The 75-minute film that debuted on PBS on Oct. 10 — and which can now be streamed on PBS.org and the PBS app — is a deep dive into the story of the scrappy label founded by Syd Nathan in Cincinnati in 1943, as a place to record “hillbilly” country and western players such as Cowboy Copas and the Delmore Brothers, before it stumbled into history as the birthplace of rock, as well as funk.

Using a mixture of contemporary and archival interviews and footage, and period-appropriate rotoscope animated bits, Oyediran describes how Nathan’s one-stop recording shop and printing plant would break barriers by bringing together Black and white musicians in the studio. King Records would ultimately expand to release jazz, blues and R&B albums and singles by the likes of James Brown, Otis Williams, Hank Ballard and Little Willie John.

Oyediran, who was born in New York and spent his childhood in Nigeria — where he unwittingly got his first taste of King music via his grandmother’s bootleg copies of singles from the affiliated label Federal Records — says he’s not the only one making the case for Cincinnati to be given its props as the birthplace for rock. “I do think Cincinnati deserves that credit — and it’s not just me saying that, it’s Vince Gill and Christian McBride, who agree with that,” he says of the country and jazz legends (respectively) who appear in the film.

He describes speaking to McBride about the impact King had on his own music, and how the nine-time Grammy-winning jazz composer and performer proved that he can “go deep” on the King catalog in the same way Gill can go on for hours about all the country acts you’re probably never heard of who recorded for the label. “He knows all the licks and all the King records by heart,” Oyediran says of Gill, who appears in the movie alongside Afghan Whigs bassist/co-Founder and Cincinnati native John Curley and other prominent locals, including former news anchor (and father of George) Nick Clooney.

In the film, former Warner Records VP Seymour Stein recalls label founder Nathan being “larger than life in every way,” saying his boss was like nobody he’d ever met before… or since. Ninth grade drop-out Nathan is described as a kind of Mad Libs image of an old school music man: heavy set and possessed of a a gruff voice, his face framed by oversized glasses and an ever-present fat cigar and, because he was blind, a “scary” figure behind the wheel according to Stein, who interned at King as a high school student in 1957-1958 before taking a gig there from 1961-1963.

After working in a pawn shop and as a wrestling promoter, Nathan opened a photography shop in downtown Cincinnati that eventually turned into Syd’s Record Shop after a customer dropped off some jukeboxes he was looking to get rid of. Aided by local AM powerhouse station WLW’s “Midwestern Hayride” show, which brought a lot of country acts to town, Nathan got to know a number of musicians when they stopped by the shop to flip through records looking for songs they might record.

Because wartime rationing made it hard to find shellac to press LPs, Nathan decided to open his own pressing plant, which led to the label’s first pressing, 1946’s “Filipino Baby” by Cowboy Copas. After building an accompanying recording studio that allowed artists to not sweat how much time they were spending laying down tracks, Nathan soon had a vertically integrated system where he recorded, pressed and printed his own albums and singles, and distributed them through a nationwide network of partners. By 1949, King was the one of the largest independent labels in the nation, and the sixth-largest label in the U.S. overall.

“I learned a lot about Cincinnati and this migration that happened across the country… and in particular the Midwest racial dynamics of Cincinnati being a border town where, on this side of the Mason-Dixon line, things were very different,” says Oyediran of the city, which was considered the “gateway to the North” due to its position just across the river from Kentucky. “African-Americans could have a different freedom of economy they didn’t have in the South. It was an open market for them to buy music, and same with the Appalachians,” he adds. “They were looking for things to connect them back to their homes and keep their culture alive. Syd Nathan saw that opportunity and entered it.”

Nathan also saw how the then-burgeoning R&B style was shifting into something else — via its mix of R&B, blues and country, a trend he hopped on thanks to a cast-off tune that randy blues shouter Wynonie Harris initially turned down. “Good Rocking Tonight” was written by musician Roy Brown, who tried to sell it to Harris for $50. When Harris rejected the price, Brown recorded it himself, prompting Harris to reconsider once he heard the track on wax.

And while some say the 1951 single “Rocket ’88” by Jackie Brenston (fronting Ike Turner’s band) has what the Whigs’ Curley says are all the building blocks of what became rock — the left hand hitting a boogie woogie phrase on piano, a driving beat and handclaps —  Harris’ 1948 rendition of “Good Rocking Tonight” had all those elements, plus it was released three years earlier in 1948. Thus, Cincinnati has a “very legitimate claim” to being the birthplace of rock n’ roll, according to Curley.

Despite the groundbreaking, color-blind work that was going on at King, Cincinnati was still “very segregated” during the label’s early days, with label studio drummer Phillip Paul recalling playing shows at clubs and then walking across the street and not being able to get a cup of coffee. Things were different at King, which had an open hiring practice that didn’t discriminate based on race. By the late 40s, Nathan, a Jewish man who was quite familiar with bite of discrimination, ran the most racially integrated label in the nation. As the 1950s dawned, he also hired producer Henry Glover as his No. 2, making the arranger/songwriter and A&R man the first Black executive at a label at level.

In addition to King, Nathan set up a galaxy of other affiliated labels to sell and record what were then called “race records,” including Queen Records and Federal Records, the latter of which signed a hot young singer named James Brown. Starting with Brown’s 1958 debut, Please Please Please, which featured the No. 1 R&B hit “Try Me,” Brown had a epic run with the label, which also released 1960’s Think!, 1961’s The Amazing James Brown and his sixth, and final album for Nathan, 1963’s Prisoner of Love. The recordings helped provide the template for what would become funk music.

Oyediran says at a time when our nation is as divided as ever over race and political differences, Nathan’s focus on diversity is worth paying attention to. “Everything has to make dollars and sense,” he says of the label boss’ laser-focus on the bottom line. “You can have discord and harmony in a song, but how do you make sure you’re all grooving the same and on the same page? That’s the process that helped create America.”

The label went into decline by the mid-1960s, following a payola scandal in 1959 in which Nathan was accused of making payments to radio DJs to promote his songs. While Nathan sought a potential buyer as he battled health issues, King got a sudden jolt in 1965 when Brown released his first Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit, “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” which made the label boss reconsider walking away.

“Syd Nathan only believed in me after we recorded ‘Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,’” Brown says in an archival interview. “And from that point on, I can do anything I want.” And, not for nothing, many consider the next song Brown recorded at the Brewster Ave. studio, 1967’s “Cold Sweat,” the opening shot in the funk revolution.

Despite the boost from Brown — who left in 1968 in order to sign with Polydor Records — King fully shut down that year, and Nathan, who was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, died in Florida a short time later at age 63 following years of heart issues. But King’s bulging roster of releases by the likes of jazz greats Roland Kirk, R&B acts the Platters, the Midnighters, Clyde McPhatter, Hank Ballard, the Ink Spots, Little Willie John, Brown and country performers the Delmore Brothers, the Stanley Brothers and Webb Pierce, among many others, secured its place in music history.

“We learn about how to interact with each other with play, whether it’s playing sports or playing music,” says Oyediran. “These are things that really help us figure out how to get through these divides, because we are practicing how we just make it work… You used to have to do that a lot more in America. That process is what King was and found successful, they draw people together and they made it work.”

The filmmaker says he thinks that coming together with an eye towards excellence regardless of race or background is what the nation needs to overcome the vicious divides that have torn us asunder over the past decade. “This film really articulates all of those things and points to how business can do it and how we can do it socially and the importance of doing it in America today,” he says. “We can look at all our unique stories of how working class, down-on-their-luck Americans came together to make some dope s–t.”

You can watch the King of Them All doc here.

For more than 20 years, Dan Beck worked hand-in-hand with the Epic Records’ artists roster, first as a publicity executive, product manager and then senior vp of marketing and sales. It was a golden time at the label — and among the bold-faced names he collaborated with were Sade, Cyndi Lauper, Cheap Trick, Pearl Jam, Gloria Estefan and Luther Vandross. 

But one of the artists he worked closest with was the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. He worked intimately with Jackson during both the “Dangerous” and “HIStory” era, but especially on the latter, for which he served as product manager.

In his book, “You’ve Got Michael: Living Through HIStory,” out tomorrow (Oct. 15) on Trouser Press Books, Beck gives an insider’s view of what it was like to work extremely closely with Jackson from going to his house to hanging with him in the studio to helping coordinate booking Michael Jordan — another famous MJ — for the “Jam” video.

In this exclusive excerpt, Beck takes readers inside Jackson’s Trump Towers’ apartment as they worked on the CD booklet for” HIStory” in 1994 and pulled an all-nighter.  (Excerpted from “You’ve Got Michael: Living Through HIStory” by Dan Beck © 2025 and reprinted by permission of Trouser Press Books.)

In 1994, Michael Jackson left California and moved his team to New York.

In all my years in the music business, an artist never lived as close to my office as Michael Jackson did for a good part of that year. While recording at the Hit Factory on West 54th Street, he rented a multi-level apartment in Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. Residents used an entrance on East 56th Street, literally fifty yards from the entrance to the Sony building. My office on the 21st floor looked out onto 56th Street; I could almost see into the window of Michael’s apartment.

Given Trump Tower’s glitzy reputation, I was surprised at how modest the apartment appeared when you first walked in. The hallway from the elevator was unadorned. The door opened into a kitchen area, which was small enough to be called a kitchenette. The lower floor, which had two adjoining living rooms, seemed like a basic corporate condo, right down to the decorations (or lack of them). Lacking any of Michael’s personal effects, it felt like a large hotel suite.

Most of my meetings with Michael at his Trump Tower digs were quick and casual. I would drop off research information he requested or meet him for a brief discussion on our preparations for the HIStory release. But one that occurred there in early 1995 was a much bigger deal.

One of the biggest issues was what photos to include in the package. We had priced out the additional unit cost of a fifty-two-page booklet for the CD and a comparable one for the vinyl package. Designing it for the 12-inch vinyl release was easy; the images would be large and beautiful. But the booklets for the cassette and the double-CD package had to be made to work on a much smaller scale.

Narrowing down the selection of photos was difficult. For an artist whose career spanned decades, how could two pages from each year cover it? After I addressed this with Michael, he said his assistant would collect a set of photos for us to consider. Epic art director Nancy Donald would fly to New York so that she, Michael and I could finalize the selections. Miraculously, a meeting at Trump Tower was set within a week or two.

Early that Friday evening, Nancy and I went across the street to Michael’s place. His cook greeted us at the door and ushered us into the living room, which now contained a skid of boxes. A skid! A stack of boxes easily five feet tall, four feet wide and six feet long on a wooden platform, ready for a forklift to pick them up. Each box was neatly packed full of 8×10 photos spanning Michael’s life. There were thousands: Michael with Hollywood royalty like Elizabeth Taylor and nearly every living president from the last half-century. Desmond Tutu and Queen Elizabeth. Emperors. The Beatles. Photos of him with tribal kings at formal ceremonies in Africa. Michael captured in every second of performance; shots of massive audiences; countless pictures of Michael in hospitals with sick children, with armies of police and in moments of solitary reflection. There was Oprah, The Wiz, headshots, iconic body shots of his gloved hand and toes en pointe and every dimension of his phenomenal music video experiences.

Nancy and I feebly looked through a handful as we waited for Michael to join us. How in the world were we going to narrow this down to a CD booklet?

In a few minutes, Michael bounded down the stairs from the upper floor bedroom. As he sat on the stairway landing just a couple of steps up, Nancy and I settled in cross-legged on the floor. We opened the first box and began the staggering process of reviewing each photo. Nancy and I took turns holding up 8x10s like flashcards and, for the next several hours, Michael responded to each picture, occasionally surprising us with a memory of the place and time. It was an extraordinary experience to see Michael’s eyes light up as he rediscovered countless magical moments from his phenomenal life.

To eliminate a photo, he simply gave a soft “okay.” But when he wanted a picture, he would get excited and with a joyful smile say, “Must have … or will die!” He said this over and over, and we laughed through this repetitive process well past midnight, never even stopping to eat. It was an exhilarating marathon to review Michael’s photographic life with Michael himself!

By early morning, we were down to about two-hundred photos. It was still far too many for a fifty-two-page booklet. After being at it for seven or eight hours, Nancy and I were both tired. But we knew if we didn’t finish this now, we might not get another opportunity for weeks, even months. We had to keep going as long as we could keep Michael on task. By the second or third pass of those still in contention. Michael’s insistence on keeping certain shots was becoming more pronounced. I couldn’t blame him; these were all magical moments of his life.

Although it was a marathon, the night flew by, and I never realized how exhausted I was until the muted light of daybreak filtered through the curtains in the far room. Michael was a trouper. Not many artists of any stature would have collaborated the way he did that night. We had truly pulled an all-nighter and got the CD booklet down to fifty-two pages.

Even without new singles at country radio, Taylor Swift’s presence in the format is still unmistakable. Swift’s Oct. 3 release, The Life of a Showgirl, rocketed in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (dated Oct. 18) with 4.002 million equivalent album units in the United States, according to Luminate — the biggest first week for an album in modern music history.

Meanwhile, country stations are giving Swift’s early hits renewed play, and SiriusXM’s channel 13 is showcasing her full catalog, evidence that those Nashville-era songs remain a core part of her story even as she rules pop, and that her country roots still echo on the dial.

“We have put some throwback Taylor tracks back on,” says MoJoe Roberts, senior vice president of programming for iHeartMedia’s Last Vegas cluster, which includes country KWNR (95.5 The Bull), citing “Mean,” “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” and “Our Song.” Roberts plans to keep them in rotation for a few weeks before re-evaluating. “We want The Bull to keep a seat at the Taylor fan table,” he states.

Swift is still a gold artist in the format, after all. Of the tracks Roberts notes, “Our Song” and “Mean” logged the most notable presence among Country Airplay reporters Oct. 3-9, according to Luminate. The former drew 800,000 impressions (up 3%), the latter, 500,000. Plus, big gains show for “Love Story” (up 39%), “Teardrops on My Guitar” (20%) and “Tim McGraw” (36%).

Swift’s catalog still connects, says Audacy country format captain Tim Roberts. “She’s older now, but so is her original audience,” he notes. “They still relate to those songs.” Some fans follow her pop releases and some don’t, he adds, “but the country audience certainly remembers those early records.”

At WYCD Detroit, where Tim Roberts also leads programming, Swift remains a reliable content driver. “This love story with Travis Kelce and the NFL connection, which touches nearly every major U.S. city, keeps her relevant,” he says. “We just did a promotion for the movie, giving away premiere tickets, and packed the theater. It was big for us.”

Beyond Country Airplay chart panelists, SiriusXM recently launched Taylor’s Channel 13 to welcome the Showgirl era. The station features music from across Swift’s career, with about a quarter of its library drawn from her first four albums, according to Kathleen St. Clair, SiriusXM’s director of music programming. “That includes the re-recorded versions of Fearless, Speak Now and Red and their respective vault tracks,” she says.

“These songs continue to be integral to appreciating the full scope of Taylor’s artistry,” St. Clair adds. “Beyond nostalgia, by having these titles live in a musical universe like Taylor’s Channel 13 alongside pop tracks and brand new songs from The Life of a Showgirl, fans can explore common threads between Taylor’s country, folk and pop sounds.”

From country playlists to pop superstardom, Swift’s music continues to bridge worlds, proof that the sound she started with in Nashville still carries far beyond it.

Austin’s biggest festival weekend got an early start when fans lined up around the block at Fair Market for a special Myles Smith performance at White Claw Sessions Powered by Billboard, a free concert series that brings fans together to enjoy the music they love.

Fresh off a run of sold-out stadium shows, the UK singer-songwriter gave fans a rare, up-close experience, performing some of his biggest viral hits in an exclusive setting.

Before Smith took the stage, Abraham Alexander, one of White Claw’s Next Wave Artists, set the tone with his soulful vocals and groove-heavy sound, getting the crowd ready for a night to remember.

Smith opened his set with a captivating rendition of “Wait for You” and kept the energy going with a setlist that included fan favorites like “Gold,” “My Home,” and his Billboard Hot 100 hit “Stargazing.”

Fans kept their spirits high throughout the evening, sipping on a variety of White Claw flavors and products, and making the most of the interactive experiences on-site. Between sets, guests stopped by the interactive photo booth to snap pics with their crew and picked up custom White Claw-branded bandanas, perfect for their next music festival or concert.

A few lucky White Claw Shore Club members chosen at random even had the chance to meet Abraham Alexander and Myles Smith before they hit the stage. From can’t-miss shows and exclusive music experiences to collaborations with chart-topping artists, White Claw continues to show up in music culture in a big way. White Claw Sessions Powered by Billboard will continue to bring fans closer to the artists they love throughout 2025.

Don’t miss your chance to Grab Life by the Claw and attend the next event! Sign up for White Claw Shore Club to stay updated on upcoming performances, drops, and community experiences for you and your crew.