Recorded music in American life : the phonograph and popular memory, 1890-1945 / William Howland Kenney.
| Author/creator |
Kenney, William Howland |
| Format | Book and Print |
| Publication Info | New York : Oxford University Press, 1999. |
| Description | xix, 258 pages, 10 pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Subject(s) |
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| Contents | Two "circles of resonance": audience uses of recorded music -- "The Coney Island crowd": the phonograph and popular recordings before World War I -- "His master's voice": the Victor Talking Machine Company and the social reconstruction of the phonograph -- The phonograph and the evolution of "foreign" and "ethnic" records -- The gendered phonograph: women and recorded sound, 1890-1930 -- African American blues and the phonograph: from race records to rhythm and blues -- Economics and the invention of hillbilly records in the south -- A renewed flow of memories: the Depression and the struggle over "hit records" -- Popular recorded music within the context of national life. |
| Abstract | Now comes an in-depth cultural history of the phonograph in the United States from 1890 to 1945. This book offers a full account of what the author calls "the 78 r.p.m. era"--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, the author 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. 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. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-233) and index. |
| LCCN | 98008611 |
| ISBN | 0195100468 |
Available Items
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions | |
| Music | Music Stacks | ML3477 .K46 1999 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |