A Most Valuable Medium: The Remediation of Oral Performance on Early Commercial Recordings

As companies sought to discover what kinds of records would appeal to consumers, they turned to performance forms already familiar to contemporary audiences-sales pitches, oratory, sermons, and stories. In , Richard Bauman explores the practical problems that producers and performers confronted when adapting familiar oral genres to this innovative medium of sound recording. He also examines how audiences responded to these modified and commoditized presentations. Featuring audio examples throughout and offering a novel look at the early history of sound recording, reveals how this new technology effected monumental change in the ways we receive information.