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THE SHORT AND LONG OF IT: HOW 45 RPM SINGLES AND 33 1/3 RPM ALBUMS HELPED SHAPE RADIO AND AMERICAN CULTURE OVERVIEW ESSENTIAL QUESTION How did changes in the technology of record manufacturing effect popular music, radio, and the people who consumed both? OVERVIEW The earliest recordings made with Thomas Edison’s phonograph in 1877 required no electricity. To record, musicians directed their performances into a large, funnel-shaped horn. The narrow end of this horn was attached to a needle that recorded the sound vibration by cutting a groove into a wax cylinder as it was rotated by turning a crank. To play the sound captured on that wax cylinder, this process was reversed. Though the improvements to this process have been many, the basic concept of making “records” in the pre-digital era continued to involve capturing sound in the form of indentations on a material surface. What did change over the course of time was the surface on which records were made. Wax cylinders were replaced by flat shellac discs. Shellac however was hard, heavy, and, worse, breakable. Vinyl, the more flexible compound still used for records today, was introduced in the 1930s. With the introduction of vinyl, fierce competition within the recording industry led to two closely timed technological advances in the late 1940s. First, in 1948, Columbia Records introduced the “Long Player,” a 12-inch record that rotated at 33 1/3 rpm and held almost three times as much music as previous records, roughly 18 minutes per side. The following year, Columbia’s main competitor, RCA Victor, released a new 45 rpm 7-inch record. Though it held only 4 minutes per side, RCA also promoted their new, small and portable playback system that automatically switched between records that the user could stack on its spool. Though this 45 rpm 7-inch, which became known as the “single,” and the 12-inch “LP” were initially marketed as direct competitors, the different records led to different uses. Teenagers in particular were drawn to the 45 rpm record. Many among the teen demographic listened to “Top 40” radio, on which they could hear their favorite songs in regular rotation. With RCA’s record player, teens could be just like their favorite DJs, SOUNDBREAKING: EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS FOR THE EIGHT-PART PBS SERIES THE SHORT AND LONG OF IT: HOW 45 RPM SINGLES AND 33 1/3 RPM ALBUMS HELPED SHAPE RADIO AND AMERICAN CULTURE OVERVIEW (CONTINUED) playing individual songs by different artists one after the next. The LP would find its natural radio format some years later, with the rise of FM radio and with a somewhat older audience, and by the late 1960s, the LP was the format most recording artists had in mind when they entered the studio. Some artists would go so far as to not release singles at all. New technologies prosper only when they become meaningful to users. The stories of how the single and the LP became meaningful in different ways in American music culture provides a unique glimpse of American life in the mid-20th century. This lesson explores the technology of “records” and what it meant to the people who consumed them. Students will learn how a record works and why a needle on a disc can record and play back music. Moreover, students will investigate how these technological changes had far reaching effects, even in the domestic setting. Finally, this lesson follows the 45 rpm and LP record through the airwaves of both AM and FM radio, using excerpts of broadcasts by the pioneering DJs Alan Freed and Tom Donahue and investigating how the possibilities and limitations of each medium and their respective places on the radio dial provide a framework for historical analysis. SOUNDBREAKING: EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS FOR THE EIGHT-PART PBS SERIES THE SHORT AND LONG OF IT: HOW 45 RPM SINGLES AND 33 1/3 RPM ALBUMS HELPED SHAPE RADIO AND AMERICAN CULTURE OBJECTIVES Upon completion of this lesson, students will: 1. KNOW (KNOWLEDGE): 2. BE ABLE TO (SKILLS): • About Thomas Edison and the invention of • Evaluate the effects of technology on history and sound recording culture • How a vinyl record stores audio information • Interpret and discuss the meaning of a variety of primary source materials, including radio • How the emerging youth culture of the 1950s broadcasts and print material can be understood in relation to technological advancements in record and record player • Read, listen to, and watch a variety of sources production to gather information and draw historical and thematic connections • About the inventions of AM and FM radio broadcasting, how the technologies differ, and • Analyze content from historical materials to arrive how these differences affected American music at a better understanding of the past culture • Understand connections between popular culture • How FCC regulations created space for the and the time, place and social circumstances in emergence of FM radio which it was created • About the pioneering DJs of AM and FM radio, and their roles in American youth culture • How trends in the formats of recordings and radio broadcasting reflect concurrent changes of broader American culture ACTIVITIES MOTIVATIONAL ACTIVITY: Ask your students: • How do you listen to music? (Students will likely suggest their phones and computers. Also encourage them to think about whether they use speakers or headphones.) • How do you think your parents listened to music when they were your age? • Do you own any “physical” music releases such as CDs, cassettes or records? If so, where do you listen to them? Do you relate to these recordings differently than you do to the Mp3s or music that you stream? SOUNDBREAKING: EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS FOR THE EIGHT-PART PBS SERIES THE SHORT AND LONG OF IT: HOW 45 RPM SINGLES AND 33 1/3 RPM ALBUMS HELPED SHAPE RADIO AND AMERICAN CULTURE PROCEDURE: Ask your students: • What family members are present in each 1. Play Clip 1, Soundbreaking - The 78 rpm advertisement? Record and ask your students: • What room of the house do you think the people • How do you think music is stored in the grooves are in in each advertisement? on records? • Do you think it would be easy to move this • Why do you think this type of record was called record player, or bring it to a friend’s house? a 78? (Students should note that “rpm” is an abbreviation of “rotations per minute.”) 5. Now display the following two slides (Slides 3 & 4, College 45s Ad and Philips 45 2. Distribute Handout 1: How Records Work Player advertisement). and read it out loud as a class. Ask your students: • Why does a record that spins slower allow for longer playing time? • What advantages might a “long playing” record have? • Can you think of any reasons people would want Ask your students: to purchase a short, 45 record? • What family members are present in these 3. Play Clip 2, Soundbreaking - The 45 and advertisements? ask your students: • Do you think the absence of parents is significant? What might it suggest to young • In this Soundbreaking clip, Steven Van Zandt people? Is there any music in your life that you mentions that the portable 45 player that a enjoy but your parents do not? “kid could take into his room” was a significant development. In what ways do you think this • How is the size of the record player represented might have changed the way young people in these advertisements? listened to music? (Students should note that this was a level of privacy previously • In what ways do you think the size of the 45 unattainable. Young people and their friends rpm record player might have been attractive to could now listen and dance to music in their young people? own private spaces.) • Why do you think that George Martin suggests 6. To encourage your students to consider the that the louder a Rock and Roll song was the difference in music consumption between better it would sell? 1960 and the present, make a T-Chart on the board with one side representing the 4. Display the following two images (Slides present, and the other representing the 1 & 2: Westinghouse Record Player year 1960. Ask your students the following advertisements, 1940s). questions, keeping track of their answers on the board: • On what devices do you listen to music? On what devices do you think people listened to music in 1960 (Students might answer that in 1960 people listened to music on the radio and on record players.) • How much music can you access on your SOUNDBREAKING: EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS FOR THE EIGHT-PART PBS SERIES THE SHORT AND LONG OF IT: HOW 45 RPM SINGLES AND 33 1/3 RPM ALBUMS HELPED SHAPE RADIO AND AMERICAN CULTURE PROCEDURE: (CONTINUED) device(s)? How much music could a person • In what ways do you think a show like Freed’s access on their device in 1960? could help sell 45s? • How do you discover the music you listen to? How do you think people discovered new music 10. Play Clip 5, Soundbreaking - Bob Dylan in 1960? (Students might answer that in 1960 and the Transition to FM Radio ask your people discovered new music from the radio and students: television, but remind students that people have always discovered music from each other.) • In what ways does this clip suggest that Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” broke with • Once you discover what you’d like to hear, do established AM radio formatting? you buy it? If so, how and in what form? How do you think people did this in 1960? (Students • Do you think “Like a Rolling Stone” would have will likely mention the radio, but remind them fit into Alan Freed’s broadcast? that people went to physical record stores and • In what ways does this clip suggest that the lyrics bought their music as well.) of “Like a Rolling Stone” might have presented • Overall, how do you think the differences in the new possibilities for both artists and DJs? way the 45 rpm generation and your generation listen to and discover music affects the way you 11.

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