Mechanical Music

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 29, 31 January 1930, Page 11

Mechanical Music

L he Influence of Broad- . casting HE very vexed question of whether broadeasting constitutes a menace to the professional musician has been a subject of discussion ‘ever since broadcasting was introduced, and the fight between societies of musicians and broadcasting is still an undecided battle -in many countries. In- America, where broadcasting had.a considerable start over our own country, it had seemed that some sort of-under-standing between the musicidin and the broadcaster had been reached; but the arrival of the "talkies" and the: great advances which have been made: towards perfecting the gramophone record appear to have been watched with the greatest. anxiety by professional musicians in-the United States. Recently large advertising «spaces in American newspapers were taken by the American Federation of Musicians, with the object of trying to arrest the erfcroachnient of mechanical music where it is feared the new art will oust the professional musician. Some of. the arguments put forward by the American Federation of Musicians do not seem to ring true; as, for. instance, a statement that "The ‘cultural. menace of this movement, to supplant real music with. the’ flat, savourless monotony of mechanical music, becomes apparent upon a moment’s thought." Is it not the generally accepted view. that broadcasting resulted in a vast extension of the musical public and an enlarging of the appetite of the world for music of all kinds? The extension of the use of what is described as mechanical music must result in less employment amongst individual ~performing musicians, bat may not this prove to be. only a temporary objection and not one which is likely to have any lasting effect to the detriment of music generally,-nor to the. disadvantage of the community, for surely-the increased taste for music must stimulate the demand’ for creative musicians in every grade of the art.