Timothy Dean Taylor

Recorded sound has been so routine, for so long, that we forget it was once a brand-new technology, as disruptive of existing social and cultural norms as today’s digital devices, and as sharply contested. We have trouble imagining, even imperfectly, a time when its potential had not yet been fully explored, and its unintended side effects had not yet been fully manifested. We forget that the social, cultural, and artistic conventions governing the use of recorded sound are conventions, negotiated over time, and that there was once a time when they were fluid and unformed. Music, Sound, and Technology in America: A Documentary History of Early Phonograph, Cinema, and Radio masterfully recreates that lost world, collecting a wealth of primary source material—some famous, most long-forgotten—that reveals how the generation(s) that witnessed the advent of recorded sound responded to it. It immerses the reader in a time when the tools named in its subtitle represented the cutting edge of modern technology, and their impact on everyday life in America was up for grabs.

The subtitle defines the book’s scope and structure: It is divided into three parts, each curated by one of the three editors and each dealing with one of three key recorded-sound technologies—phonograph, radio, and motion pictures. Each part begins with a substantial introduction in which its editor sets the historical context, provides necessary technological background, and frames the key themes that will structure the section. Each part then presents approximately forty documents, organized into sections (and sometimes subsections) that group them around particular themes relevant to the particular technology at hand. This is a historical sourcebook of exceptional quality. Its diversity of sources, generously sized excerpts, crystal-clear organization, and thoughtful editorial commentary make it valuable (and fascinating) reading for anyone with a serious interest in recorded sound.… (mere)