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Off the Record: The Technology and Culture of Sound Recording in America

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From record players to answering machines, David Morton's history of sound recording explains where these everyday technologies came from--and why some of them, like the 8-track tape, ultimately met their demise. Chapters cover the record industry, radio broadcasting, dictation machines, answering machines, and tape recorders, but the book is as much about American culture as it is about machines. Where did the cult of "high fidelity" come from? Why was using recordings on the radio highly controversial at first? The answering machine chapter offers commentary from social notables ranging from Miss Manners to Blondie (would she have been "hanging on the telephone" if a machine had picked up?), and we learn that recording piracy was an issue long before Naptster. The writing is not overly technical and has lots of illustrations of little-known machines and the often hilarious advertising campaigns that promoted them. A fun read.