Hanson, Mass Communication 8e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
Lecture Notes
Chapter 6: Audio: Music and Talk Across Media
Learning Objectives
1-1 Identify and describe the two major inventions in recording and audio technology history
that changed how people experience music
1-2 Explain how streaming audio programming extends the reach of terrestrial stations
1-4 List three types of long-tail audio technology changing the audio and recording industry for
everyone from music fans to international stars
Annotated Chapter Outline
I. The History of Audio Recording and Transmission
A. Phonograph: early sound-recording machine
B. Gramophone: device that used a method for recording sound on flat discs rather than
on cylinders
C. Berliner and the idea of the recording industry
D. A New Way of Publishing Music
i. High fidelity (hi-fi): term used to refer to a combination of technologies that
allowed recordings that reproduced music more accurately
ii. Non-notated music: music like folk songs or jazz solos that didn’t exist in written
form
iii. Evolving Formats for Recorded Music
a. 45-rpm disc: had high sound quality, but could only contain four
minutes of music
b. Digital recording: a method of recording sound that involves storing it
as a series of numbers
d. Home digital copying controversy
E. The Birth of Radio: Transmitting Music and Talk
i. Telegraph: technology that allowed messages to be sent electrically
ii. Wireless telegraph: a point-to-point communication tool that used radio waves
to transmit messages
iii. Radio as Mass Communication
a. Reginald Fessenden and sending voice signals over radio
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b. David Sarnoff and the radio
iv. The Radio Music Box Memo
a. Radio Music Box memo: a document that outlined radio’s potential as a
popular mass medium
v. More Receivers Than Transmitters
a. Radio became a mass medium
vi. The RCA Radio Monopoly
a. Civilian government officials rejected the idea of all-government control
of the radio
vii. Radio Advertising
a. WEAF: first broadcasting station to sell airtime to advertisers
viii. Radio Networks
a. Network: a new company to provide programming to a large group of
broadcast stations
b. See Figure 6.1
ix. William Paley and the Power of Radio Advertising
a. William Paley and cigar ads
b. Creation of the CBS
F. From Radio’s Golden Age to the Television Age
i. Golden age of radio: an era in which radio played the same role that television
does today
ii. Golden Age Radio Programming
iii. Becoming a Companion Medium
a. Radio Consolidates and Goes High-Tech
a. 1980s: relaxation of some ownership rules
b. Telecommunications Act of 1996 and broadcast deregulation
i. Detrimental to diversity and independent and
II. Streaming Audio
A. Streaming audio: some tied to terrestrial station, others are internet only; extends the
reach of stations
B. Podcasting
i. Podcast: audio programs distributed over the internet as compressed sound files
that can be listened to online or downloaded to a computer or phone
ii. Beginnings of podcasting
iii. Podcasting and the Long Tail
III. Music, Youth Culture, and Society
A. Rock ‘n’ roll: born at the same time as modern recording technology, flourished on the
radio, featured new instruments, and brought together a host of traditions
B. Race records: recordings by popular black musicians before 1948
i. Shift to rhythm and blues (R&B)
C. Blending Black and White Musical Traditions
i. Elvis Presley
ii. Chuck Berry
iii. Rock Radio
a. Influence of DJs
D. The Changing Face of Popular Music
i. Motown: The Sound of Young America
a. Brought R&B to the masses
b. No longer had white artists covering black artists
c. Moved black music into the mainstream
ii. The British Invasion: A Rougher Rock
iii. The Growing Importance of Producers
a. Producers: puts together the right songs, songwriters, technicians, and
performers in the creation of an album
b. Rick Rubin
Hanson, Mass Communication 8e
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iv. Hip-Hop Brings Together DJing, Dancing, Rapping, and Art
a. Beginnings of hip-hop
b. Four elements of hip-hop culture
a. MCing
b. DJing
c. Rap music: spread out of the Bronx via cassettes that were passed from
person to person
a. Important to understand a rapper’s roots and locale
d. Themes and use of hip-hop
v. Country: Pop Music for Adults
a. Country music: born in the late nineteenth century, evolving out of a
range of musical forms that included Irish and Scottish folk music,
vi. Finding a Niche: Popular Radio Formats
a. See Table 6.1
b. After television, radio was forced to appeal to particular audiences
c. Radio formats
vii. Talk Radio: Politics, News, Shock Jocks, and Sports
a. Explosion in popularity
viii. Political Talk
a. Largely conservative
b. Entertaining hosts who have a strong point of view and the ability to
connect with an audience
ix. Spanish-Language Broadcasting
xi. Public Radio
a. Authorized by the 1967 Public Broadcasting Act
b. NPR and All Things Considered
c. Two major developments
F. Changing the Musical Experience: From Social Music to Personal Soundtracks
i. The Death of “Social Music”
a. Social music: music that people play and sing for one another in the
home or in other social setting
ii. Akio Morita’s “Personal Soundtrack”
a. Japanese engineer who invented the Sony Walkman
b. Allowed transportable music that was personal and not shared with
those around you
IV. Music and the Long Tail: The Future of Sound
A. See Figure 6.2
B. Shift in where people listen to audio