Before 1906, all one
could hear on the radio waves were voices and Morse Code. That all changed when
people learned that music could also be broadcast through radio (Media).
Between 1906 and 1927, the air waves were completely unregulated – anyone could
transmit anything on any frequency as long as they had a transmitting radio and
a microphone. This mean that by turning the dial, one could hear the amateurs
playing jazz, the new immigrants singing cultural songs, or a neighborhood
gathered together in front of a mic, beating out something on the guitar.
Everyone could have a voice after setting up a few things, and they could
influence how far their voice went by just increasing the power supplied to
their instruments. Like today, radio waves aren't visible nor audible (at least for humans). It takes the magic of technology to literally pluck sound "out of thin air". The fact that so many people can put their voices into this unobtrusive medium is amazing.
I found it funny how Dos
Passos didn’t mention anything about the radio throughout the entire novel. He
shows the readers the voices of stenographers, pamphleteers and propagandists,
but seems to have completely ignored the radio, which allowed many American
voices to stream into the air, as I mentioned before. I don’t think this was an
oversight on Dos Passos’ part, however. Radio was not the fine-tuned technology
that we are used to today. According to the Smithsonian, the radio was bulkier,
more finicky, and much more sophisticated for the operator to use in the 1910s
than today (Ruben). Not everyone could work with the radio, and even those who
actually could were not able to broadcast consistently clear and static-free.
Adding to the confusion, radio stations were not limited to just one frequency
and could interfere with another station transmitting at the same frequency –
all the stations had to switch frequencies to avoid interference and jar their
listeners as a result. Perhaps all of these drawbacks made the radio waves of
the pre-WWI years so discombobulated, so distorted, that Dos Passos couldn’t
properly integrate it within his novel.
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| The Radio Operator of the 1910s and 1920s. With lots of gadgets and rare technical experience. |
This would change when the government stepped in to regulate the airwaves in 1927). By
this time, the transistor had been invented and the radios became more portable
(Ruben). The radio waves had become such a mess that these voices were
interfering with each other and with emergency communications. The government
decided that each station would be confined to a specific frequency, and barred
the way for the less popular voices to be able to transmit over the airwaves.
In a sense, the government had to choose which voices to allow – presumably by
estimating how much value these voices had to the people who were not granted a
voice over the radio. This meant that news, music and anything else transmitted
over the radio had to appeal to a broad base of people – otherwise, the station
would not get enough ad revenue and would die off.
Concert hall music was
then recruited to support radio. A prime example of this is Aaron Copland, who
grew up just before WWI. He wanted to compose music that would appeal to a wide,
American audience, and made his compositions simpler to that end. Critics gave
him flak for “dumbing-down” his music, but Copland wanted his music to not be
constrained to just the concert hall. In 1937, Copland composed “PrairieJournal” for radio broadcast (Bourne). Supposed to represent the prairie life, “Prairie
Journal”, like most of Copland’s other pieces, attempted to define America.
Copland wanted to establish what American music was and what it wasn't, and to
that end he incorporated folk melodies within his compositions. Composers like
Aaron Copland changed how they made music and also influenced the radio waves
at the same time. Traditional art streaming through new media changed the media
and changed itself. Stations that continuously streamed music were established
while concert music had to be tweaked to appeal to the broad audiences of the
radio; in this way, music could become the representative of the American voice
and country as Copland desired.
Radio changed music and
brought out new voices while drowning others, whether this was for better or
worse is individual opinion.
Link to Copland's "Prairie Journal"
BW 1910s/20s Man Wearing Headphones + Operating Early Radio Station. N.d. Gettysburg. Gettysburg. Web. 28 Sept. 2016.
Media, American Public. "An American Revolution on the Radio Dial." American RadioWorks - Hearing America: A Century of Music on the Radio. American Public Media, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.
Ruben, Marina Koestler. "Radio Activity: The 100th Anniversary of Public Broadcasting." Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian, 26 Jan. 2010. Web. 28 Sept. 2016.
Works Cited
BOURNE, MICHAEL KENNEDY;JOYCE, and Rob Nagel. "Copland, Aaron." Encyclopedia.com. HighBeam Research, 01 Jan. 2003. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.BW 1910s/20s Man Wearing Headphones + Operating Early Radio Station. N.d. Gettysburg. Gettysburg. Web. 28 Sept. 2016.
Media, American Public. "An American Revolution on the Radio Dial." American RadioWorks - Hearing America: A Century of Music on the Radio. American Public Media, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.
Ruben, Marina Koestler. "Radio Activity: The 100th Anniversary of Public Broadcasting." Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian, 26 Jan. 2010. Web. 28 Sept. 2016.
I like the way you connected voices and radio together. It's interesting to me how Dos Passos refrained from a specific indication of radios in The 42nd Parallel. The confusion created by the unregulated frequency of radio characterizes fast-paced urban life, and the regulation could be seen as a sign of how people were trying to cope with the effects of Modernist technologies.
ReplyDeleteI was intrigued by your suggestion that Dos Passos did not include radio in the novel because he found it too disconcerting to integrate. I'm not sure I agree with this statement, because Dos Passos doesn't seem like one to shy away from disorder in his writing. Many of his "Newsreel" and "Camera Eye" passages can be quite difficult to decipher, but it is often their incomprehensibility that makes them so interesting. But now that you mention it, it seems odd that Dos Passos should exclude a technology that was so important in that era.
ReplyDeleteI had never thought about the lack of radio descriptions in The 42nd Parallel! Now, it certainly seems a bit odd that Dos Passos didn't include them. I agree with Angela, on another note, as he did write about the complexities of the newsreels and "camera eye" (so why not the airwaves?).
ReplyDeleteI think you do a good job in this post of highlighting some drawbacks of innovation, specifically what we lose through it. It is an interesting question whether the music before regulated radio, muddled and confused though it was, was more culturally valuable in terms of diversity than a more readily accessible program.
ReplyDeleteI think it is very interesting to think about unregulated air waves and the fact that any person with the right technology could broadcast. The amount that one could have heard, and from so many different people and classes, is a fascinating thing to think about. I feel as this is especially relevant to the modernist movement in that it is the voices, or music, of so many different kinds of people being put out there through new technology. And then, when the government begins to regulate, it is interesting to think of how they would then control the voices that were to be heard on the radio. Being that the technology was probably more available to people with time, the voices the government chose were probably the ones with the most breadth in voice.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you brought up Aaron Copland! He's one of my favorite American composers and I think it's very interesting how his music fits into this era. I didn't realize that he was considered part of the Lost Generation until just recently, because rather than adopting the disaffection that permeated the work of many of his contemporaries, Copland's music always sounds like more of an homage to Americana. I wasn't aware that Copland composed music specifically for the radio, but given his affinity for capturing the spirit of the common people (like Fanfare for the Common Man) this doesn't surprise me at all. It's interesting that while he and Dos Passos share this fascination with the crowd/common people, they come up with such different approaches to it.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a great post! I really liked how you immediately connected one's access to the unregulated waves at the time to their own individual voices. Like the previous comments, now that you mention it, it does seem very odd that Dos Passos would overlook such an important technology. As you state, I doubt this is a simple coincidence, but I think it would be very interesting to think as to why he may have made this choice.
ReplyDeleteI thought what you wrote about the influence of medium and technology on art was very interesting, especially noting that composers like Copland specifically changed their styles to suit radio audiences, which in turn influenced other forms of music as well. I also wondered why Dos Passos didn't make much reference to radios, and you presented an interesting theory as to why he might have chosen not to.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you brought up that Dos Passos excluded such a pivotal technological development from his novel. I also thought that what you said about the regulation of stations, the limiting of the voices heard not only because of the government but also because of the stations' need to make profit was very interesting. We have discussed the difficulties that many of the character in "The 42nd Parallel" as well as in "Melanctha" have with expressing themselves and using their voice. It is very interesting to connect this with yet another way in which voice is filtered in society: the radio! I also really liked that you mentioned that Copland actually adapted his music to what the masses would approve of and want to listen to. I thought that was quite a fascinating contrast with the artists of the modernist era that we studied, who through their art sought to shock the masses, invoke feelings of surprise, maybe even dislike and discomfort.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your summary of the origins of radio. The idea of the government choosing voices is somewhat terrifying and seems almost dystopian to me. As for Dos Passos, I agree with Angela in that I'm not sure whether his reasons for excluding the radio from his novel can be constructed based on what we read.
ReplyDeleteI completely missed the absence of radio from The 42nd Parallel until you brought it, and it's certainly curious that Dos Passos left out such an important machine especially because of his use of speech in his novel. However, while I do not have the answer myself, I'm not sure that the reasoning you provided is entirely accurate. To me it seems that the radio would too a part of life too popular to disregard entirely no matter how garbled the airwaves were.
ReplyDeleteI specifically liked that you brought up that Aaron Copland wanted to identify American music and distinguish it from that which is not. Although you pointed out that Dos Passos does not directly discuss the radio in "The 42nd Parallel," I think this is an interesting parallel because just as Dos Passos was trying to identify the speech of the American people, Copland was trying to identify the music. Both artists' emphasis on sound is also interesting. I also want to say in response to what you said about the noise of the radio being too distorted for Dos Passos to incorporate into his novel, when reading his Newsreel and Camera Eye sections, it definitely did not seem like Dos Passos would shy away from distortion!
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that you bring up Dos Passos' lack of the radio within his writings. I feel that because the radio in its youth was such an unreliable mode of information with its inability to control static and the breaks created within. It also does not play into the silence that movies had in the beginning (not to mention radio was not as common in the beginning of its creation making it a difficult experience to convey)
ReplyDelete