Distance and Connection. Phonograph Records as Narrative Objects in 1940s Cinema Article Swipe

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Phonograph Narrative Connection (principal bundle) Period (music) Expression (computer science) Function (biology) History Communication Visual arts Psychology Linguistics Literature Computer science Art Aesthetics Engineering Electrical engineering Evolutionary biology Biology Structural engineering Philosophy Programming language

Will Straw ·

YOU? · · 2023 · Open Access · · DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1101787ar · OA: W4385648284

This article examines a corpus of American musicals of the 1940s to observe the use made within them of phonograph records. My hypothesis is that, across these films, the phonograph record becomes a key token in the structuring of relationships within narratives. Records function as objects connecting people and places; they become mediators of interpersonal connection and carriers of cultural expression. The article is concerned, in particular, with the gender relations that form around phonograph records, during a period when radio disc jockeys, jukebox operators, and other agents in the world of music were often represented by women characters.