HtA is an argument-driven project that responds to some of the central debates of music history and sound studies. First, we address the history of technology and capitalism by exploring how early performers and recording companies responded to the technological, economic, and cultural shifts of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Second, we address the musical construction of race by centering how Black performers navigated the music industry in Jim Crow America and how musical conventions originated through racial stereotypes in minstrel shows. Finally, we examine the transnational context of American popular music and reveal a key shift in the pattern of musical globalization as the recording industry developed.
HtA contributes a new model to a small but growing number of DH projects that engage directly with sound. It offers the public a new way to engage with the earliest years of recorded sound and the context in which these recordings were made. We accomplish this in three ways: embedding historical argument into item metadata, creating pages that integrate primary sources with interpretive text, and embedding sound into the text itself. We prompt users on the homepage to explore the recordings through questions such as “What role did Black people from the British Caribbean play in the Jazz Age?.” Instead of providing simple answers, we construct multimedia essays that allow users to explore the musical and historical arguments as well as the sounds themselves. In this way, HtA also introduces a new methodology for music history by using digital tools to better integrate sound into historical scholarship. Rather than referencing external discographies or playlists, our project engages directly with sound as part of the prose and guides users through our analysis of early recordings.
Our proposed poster will introduce HtA to this academic community and showcase three central elements. First, we will include examples of the primary sources used in the website, including sheet music and advertisements. Second, we will describe the digital platforms and tools we used to build the project. Finally, we will show examples of how we assembled the site’s pages to communicate central arguments about the history of the early recording industry and the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. We will include an interactive station of two laptops where conference attendees can explore the project and listen to the music therein. Two of our Project Associates will be present to facilitate exploration and discuss our historical arguments and methodological approaches.