Listening to history in the time of vinyl. Vinyl records as sources for the history of the medium
Mrozek, Bodo
Listening to history in the time of vinyl. Vinyl records as sources for the history of the medium - 2014.
46
After 1945, the most important medium for the recording of music was vinyl records. Through vinyl records, music became a product that could be sold piece by piece—a fact that changed this product significantly. Musical performances were not the only source of music anymore—instead they often served as a promotion for the sale of a record. Records were not only important for aesthetics, but also as a political medium. They caused debates, bans, boycotts, and often cases of censorship. Records also shaped new cults and practices of listening, new (written) media, new markets, and were even used as “social capital” for group distinction and they stimulated intellectual debates. Although records had in many cases an overtly wider circulation than books and could be used by larger groups (by illiterate audiences for example), records were still not used very often in historiography. Despite the fact that they contain more information than written texts (such as phonetics and intonation in the case of spoken word recordings for example), most historians still quoted from written texts only. Although national record collections did exist, historians tended not to use them. This article discusses the advantages and problems that records present for contemporary historiography and names the main collections. It brings together approaches from multidisciplinary sound studies and those of contemporary cultural history. By advocating the use of records as historical sources for sound, but also for visual history and as a source of texts, the article lays out how they might be found and how they can be used as typical sources of an epoch of media history that can be described as the age of vinyl.
Listening to history in the time of vinyl. Vinyl records as sources for the history of the medium - 2014.
46
After 1945, the most important medium for the recording of music was vinyl records. Through vinyl records, music became a product that could be sold piece by piece—a fact that changed this product significantly. Musical performances were not the only source of music anymore—instead they often served as a promotion for the sale of a record. Records were not only important for aesthetics, but also as a political medium. They caused debates, bans, boycotts, and often cases of censorship. Records also shaped new cults and practices of listening, new (written) media, new markets, and were even used as “social capital” for group distinction and they stimulated intellectual debates. Although records had in many cases an overtly wider circulation than books and could be used by larger groups (by illiterate audiences for example), records were still not used very often in historiography. Despite the fact that they contain more information than written texts (such as phonetics and intonation in the case of spoken word recordings for example), most historians still quoted from written texts only. Although national record collections did exist, historians tended not to use them. This article discusses the advantages and problems that records present for contemporary historiography and names the main collections. It brings together approaches from multidisciplinary sound studies and those of contemporary cultural history. By advocating the use of records as historical sources for sound, but also for visual history and as a source of texts, the article lays out how they might be found and how they can be used as typical sources of an epoch of media history that can be described as the age of vinyl.
Réseaux sociaux