Recorded Music in American Life : The Phonograph and Popular Memory, 1890-1945

Have records, compact discs, and other sound reproduction equipment merely provided American listeners with pleasant diversions, or have more important historical and cultural influences flowed through them? Do recording machines simply capture what's already out there, or is the music somehow transformed in the dual process of documentation and dissemination? How would our lives be different without these machines? Such are the questions that arise when we stop taking for granted the phenomenon of recorded music and the phonograph itself. Now comes an in-depth cultural history of the phonograph in the United States from 1890 to 1945. William Howland Kenney offers a full account of what he calls "the 78 r.p.m. era"—from the formative early decades in which the giants of the record industry reigned supreme in the absence of radio, to the postwar proliferation of independent labels, disk jockeys, and changes in popular taste and opinion. By examining the interplay between recorded music and the key social, political, and economic forces in America during the phonograph's rise and fall as the dominant medium of popular recorded sound, he addresses such vital issues as the place of multiculturalism in the phonograph's history, the roles of women as record-player listeners and performers, the belated commercial legitimacy of rhythm-and-blues recordings, the "hit record" phenomenon in the wake of the Great Depression, the origins of the rock-and-roll revolution, and the shifting place of popular recorded music in America's personal and cultural memories. Throughout the book, Kenney argues that the phonograph and the recording industry served neither to impose a preference for high culture nor a degraded popular taste, but rather expressed a diverse set of sensibilities in which various sorts of people found a new kind of pleasure. To this end, Recorded Music in American Life effectively illustrates how recorded music provided the focus for active recorded sound cultures, in which listeners shared what they heard, and expressed crucial dimensions of their private lives, by way of their involvement with records and record-players. Students and scholars of American music, culture, commerce, and history—as well as fans and collectors interested in this phase of our rich artistic past—will find a great deal of thorough research and fresh scholarship to enjoy in these pages. Have records, compact discs, and other sound reproduction equipment merely provided American listeners with pleasant diversions, or have more important historical and cultural influences flowed through them? Do recording machines simply capture what's already out there, or is the music somehow transformed in the process of documentation and dissemination? How would our lives be different without these machines? Such questions arise when we stop taking for granted both the phenomenon of recorded music and the phonograph itself.In Recorded Music in American Life, historian and musician William Howland Kenney examines the interplay between recorded music and the key social, political, and economic forces in America during the phonograph's rise and fall as the dominant medium of popular recorded sound. He addresses such vital issues as the place of multiculturalism in the phonograph's history, the roles of women as record-player listeners and performers, the belated commercial legitimacy of rhythm-and-blues recordings, the "hit record" phenomenon in the wake of the Great Depression, the origins of the rock-and-roll revolution, and the shifting place of popular recorded music in America's personal and cultural memories. Kenney convincingly argues that the phonograph and the recording industry served neither to impose a preference for high culture nor a degraded popular taste, but rather expressed a diverse set of sensibilities whereby people from every social strata found a new kind of pleasure. Students and scholars of American music, culture, commerce, and history -- as well as fans and collectors interested in this phase of our nation's rich artistic past -- will find a great deal of thorough research and fresh scholarship to enjoy in these pages. Contents......Page 10 Introduction: Recorded Music and Collective Memory......Page 12 1 Two "Circles of Resonance": Audience Uses of Recorded Music......Page 24 2 "The Coney Island Crowd": The Phonograph and Popular Recordings before World War I......Page 44 3 "His Master's Voice": The Victor Talking Machine Company and the Social Reconstruction of the Phonograph......Page 65 4 The Phonograph and the Evolution of "Foreign" and "Ethnic" Records......Page 86 5 The Gendered Phonograph: Women and Recorded Sound, 1890–1930......Page 109 6 African American Blues and the Phonograph: From Race Records to Rhythm and Blues......Page 130 7 Economics and the Invention of Hillbilly Records in the South......Page 156 8 A Renewed Flow of Memories: The Depression and the Struggle over "Hit Records"......Page 179 9 Popular Recorded Music within the Context of National Life......Page 203 Notes......Page 224 A......Page 255 B......Page 256 C......Page 258 D......Page 261 E......Page 262 F......Page 263 G......Page 264 H......Page 265 J......Page 267 K......Page 268 M......Page 269 N......Page 270 O......Page 271 P......Page 272 R......Page 273 S......Page 274 T......Page 276 V......Page 277 W......Page 278 Z......Page 279 Contents 10 Introduction: Recorded Music and Collective Memory 12 1 Two "Circles of Resonance": Audience Uses of Recorded Music 24 2 "The Coney Island Crowd": The Phonograph and Popular Recordings before World War I 44 3 "His Master's Voice": The Victor Talking Machine Company and the Social Reconstruction of the Phonograph 65 4 The Phonograph and the Evolution of "Foreign" and "Ethnic" Records 86 5 The Gendered Phonograph: Women and Recorded Sound, 1890–1930 109 6 African American Blues and the Phonograph: From Race Records to Rhythm and Blues 130 7 Economics and the Invention of Hillbilly Records in the South 156 8 A Renewed Flow of Memories: The Depression and the Struggle over "Hit Records" 179 9 Popular Recorded Music within the Context of National Life 203 Notes 224 Index 255 A 255 B 256 C 258 D 261 E 262 F 263 G 264 H 265 I 267 J 267 K 268 L 269 M 269 N 270 O 271 P 272 Q 273 R 273 S 274 T 276 U 277 V 277 W 278 Y 279 Z 279 Reimagining the historical influence of the phonograph and recorded music in American life can begin with a reconsideration of Evan Eisenberg's description of domestic consumer phonograph culture.