Electrical recording and the microphone

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Technology

Electrical recording and the microphone · Until 1925, musicians sang into a large horn, which scratched the vibrations directly into the record. Anyone who played softly did not register. Western Electric developed a system with an electric microphone and an amplifier, and the record companies Victor and Columbia took it up in 1925. From then on, recordings sounded fuller and clearer, with low notes and soft details. Singers could sing intimately close to the microphone. That way of singing is called crooning, and it became the sound of the popular music of the 1930s.

Listening

• 
  My Blue Heaven · Gene Austin, 1927
• 
  Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas) · Jimmie Rodgers, 1927
• 
  Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day) · Bing Crosby, 1931

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Genre Map · Technology^NL Map

See also

• Jukebox
• Magnetic tape
• Electric guitar
• Gramophone and the 78 rpm record
• Swing and big band
• Country
• Chanson