With the economy crippled by the Great Depression in the 1930’s, society tuned into radio as it provided free entertainment. Improvements to recording equipment which allowed for more refined quality of live and recorded music made radio broadcasts a more affordable alternative to purchasing personal discs. Along with the radio broadcast improvements, the invention of the Simplex record changer mechanism by Homer Capehart in 1933 introduced the world to the Jukebox. Jukeboxes provided music for all to hear in speakeasies, ice cream parlors, and drug stores and can be attributed to the success of the Big Band genre. By this time, Big Band Jazz music had spread across the country from its birthplace of New Orleans. Ballrooms, parlors, and concert halls in Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco were all playing Big Band music.
Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti (15 October 1938 – 2 August 1997 ), known professionally as Fela Kuti , Fela Anikulapo Kuti , or simply Fela, was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer , pioneer of Afrobeat music, human rights activist, political maverick & leader of Fela Ransome Kuti & Africa 70 .