A vibrant history of acoustical technology and aural culture in early-twentieth-century America. In this history of aural culture in early-twentieth-century America, Emily Thompson charts dramatic transformations in what people heard and how they listened. What they heard was a new kind of sound that was the product of modern technology.
An understanding of the role of sound in our lives and of the importance of music in our emotional and cultural development leads inevitably to the realization that the quality and accuracy of available systems of recorded sound goes beyond a question of free trade and the right to manufacture and sell whatever the public will buy.