Segregation of the Masses
The invention of the phonograph segregated American society. The phonograph, later known as the gramophone or record player, was invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison as the Dereham and Fakenham Times reports in the “History of the Gramophone”. The phonograph created personal choices within music which could be heard within the convenience of homes for the first time. Bringing the art of the elite to the masses and the art of the margins to the center according to Alex Ross in “The Record Effect”. As the Civil War ended in America the phonograph’s invention was accepted with jubilation. The Civil War in the United States created national unity to a country that had migrated a conventional war of army vs. army to a war of society against society as Gary W. Gallgher, from the “Gilder Lehraman Institute of American History” states. Making the Civil War a major contributor to American society being open to the change that the phonograph brought with it. With Victorian social values still held in high regard the phonographs invention precipitated the decline of those …show more content…
The culture was flush with the industrial revolution and struggling to recover from the Civil War. The phonograph was a time-out from the harsh realities of war that the American people had been enduring for years. The social need for the phonograph and the timing of its creation by Thomas Edison was pivotal in American history. Victorian values such as social deference, religious conformity and family respectability were being challenged from different angles, but the invention of the phonograph created stronger social groups which challenged those values. The combination of old and new music bolstered old and created new family identities. New values emerged such as hereditary identity, education and cultural tolerance. The invention of the phonograph was and still is challenging the landscape of American
The invention of the phonograph segregated American society. The phonograph, later known as the gramophone or record player, was invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison as the Dereham and Fakenham Times reports in the “History of the Gramophone”. The phonograph created personal choices within music which could be heard within the convenience of homes for the first time. Bringing the art of the elite to the masses and the art of the margins to the center according to Alex Ross in “The Record Effect”. As the Civil War ended in America the phonograph’s invention was accepted with jubilation. The Civil War in the United States created national unity to a country that had migrated a conventional war of army vs. army to a war of society against society as Gary W. Gallgher, from the “Gilder Lehraman Institute of American History” states. Making the Civil War a major contributor to American society being open to the change that the phonograph brought with it. With Victorian social values still held in high regard the phonographs invention precipitated the decline of those …show more content…
The culture was flush with the industrial revolution and struggling to recover from the Civil War. The phonograph was a time-out from the harsh realities of war that the American people had been enduring for years. The social need for the phonograph and the timing of its creation by Thomas Edison was pivotal in American history. Victorian values such as social deference, religious conformity and family respectability were being challenged from different angles, but the invention of the phonograph created stronger social groups which challenged those values. The combination of old and new music bolstered old and created new family identities. New values emerged such as hereditary identity, education and cultural tolerance. The invention of the phonograph was and still is challenging the landscape of American