“A New Pleasure”: Listening to National Gramophonic Society Records, 1924–1931

Abstract

This paper draws on research into the National Gramophonic Society (N.G.S.), a British record label of the 1920s which specialized in chamber music. Existing accounts of the early development of the record industry concentrate on the production and marketing of recordings; they also address the reception of recordings but on very broad scales, chiefly in the field of popular music, and mainly through the writings of prominent critics. Early consumers of recorded music have received less attention, yet their testimonies tell us much about the crucial developments of the 1920s, when innovative technology and marketing persuaded many lovers of “classical” music to accept the gramophone. Because it operated by subscription, the N.G.S. can be used, in the manner of a historical microscope, to focus on individual listeners during this period and study their backgrounds, motivations, tastes and habits. Some transferred to the gramophone existing practices from music, literature and other cultural spheres; for others, records offered engagement with and appreciation of types of music which had previously been inaccessible.

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