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DECEMBER 31,
THE MUSIC TRADE
1921
REVIEW
Wherein the Editor^of This Player Section Bowsjhe]Old Year Out and Wel-
comes the New Year in With Some Sage Observations on Things That Have
Passed and Some Predictions Regarding Events That Are Still to Gome
"Happy New Year"
The wish may be hackneyed, but judging from
the wails which have accompanied the passage
of the old year it is needed. From January to
December we have had an exciting time, and
now that it is all over we feel a great deal bet-
ter. Of course, physically speaking, it is not in
the least important that one should have arrived
at a certain set point in chronology, but so long
as man is governed by his feelings and not by
his reason there will always be something stimu-
lating in the thought of taking a fresh grip and
starting anew. Yet, so far as the music indus-
tries are concerned, the principal need, we think,
is just now for a spirit of thankfulness. Things
have not been bright, but they have been ever
so much brighter than most thoughtful men sup-
posed a year ago that they would be likely to
be during 1921. The player industry in particu-
lar has had every reason for gratitude. It has
managed to go along. It has not been brought
to a standstill. After a slump of which the pro-
fundity seemed to be immeasurable, there has
come about a distinct revival, which seems likely
to endure. With the relief which is promised
in the abolition of the excise tax it is certain
that the New Year will show a gratifying in-
crease in orders and in consequent factory
activity. We have come through a dark season
and have known something very much like de-
spair more than once. But the worst has been
over now for some time. Several months ago in
this department we said "the dawn is at hand."
There is no longer any doubt as to the correct-
ness of the statement.
What Is Going to Happen?
There would be nothing gained by adopting a
blind optimism in respect to what the future
holds. One ought to do better than this. One
ought, in fact, to display a sane optimism, that
is to say, an optimism grounded on the simple
fact that the world is really and truly by degrees
coming back to itself. If we consider the facts,
how the greater part of western, civilization has
been racked and torn through four years of war
and three years of almost hopeless attempt at
recovery, how the destruction of property and
man-power has been great beyond previous expe-
rience or power to imagine, we can have little
difficulty in understanding that ordinary busi-
ness cannot be expected to return to the easy
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methods and prosperous days of the immediate
past. On the other hand, western civilization
does not propose to commit suicide. Little by
little the signs of recovery display themselves,
and in this country they are already quite unmis-
takable. Now, it is a curious fact, never explained
by statisticians, and in fact unexplainable on
any statistical basis, that the music industries
never suffer fatally during a general depression
of trade and always recover more rapidly than
any other from any temporary setback they may
experience. The explanation is doubtless to be
found far away from the realm of figures. It
has to do, doubtless, with the fact that when
times are bad the people need music to comfort
them, whereas, when times are good they
employ music to express their happy feelings.
Whatever one may think of the explanation, the
fact is undoubted. So when we find a general,
slow, but steady progress of business back to a
state of prosperity we may be certain that at
the van of the advance will march the music
industries. The industries might be plausibly
supposed to be like those mighty warrior ances-
tors of Mark Twain, whom he described as al-
ways charging into battle, waving their weapons
and shouting their war-cries, in the rear of the
army; and who always came out of battle
whooping and cheering, at the head of it. On
the contrary, the music industries are always first
to advance and last to retire. Which is a
parable, and being interpreted means that 1922
will be a better year than 1921.
Down With Normalcy
That mathematical term which President
Harding dug up out of some text book and
placed upon the stage of everyday usage has
obtained a most unenviable empire over the
minds of the many. Everybody talks about "nor-
malcy" and the "return to the normal." Now,
we do not like that talk. It does not in the
very least appeal t° us. We are of the opin-
ion that it could well be spared. Why? Be-
cause the constant repetition of a word which
strictly indicates an adherence to an established
norm or rule, in the sense of an average or mean,
unconsciously leads to the belief that this sup-
posed mean or average is in itself desirable. Yet
plainly the very aim we all have is to rise above
a sort of mean between satisfactory and unsatis-
factory states of affairs into conditions where
the satisfactory shall always be with us. It is
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Ty-tee, waif downnp-on that South Sea.
Isle,
Seems I hear you all - ing
bad medicine to be always talking of "normalcy"
or "the normal," for when we do this we uncon-
sciously hypnotize ourselves into the belief that
it is good to aim at something lower than the
highest. True, most men, in times of depres-
sion, think of the normal as a state of pros-
perity which is no longer with them. But in
times of great prosperity the normal is thought
of as the humdrum condition of calm business,
when nobody is doing enough to hurt. The music
industries, and especially the player industry,
need to awake themselves from the normalcy
dream and start in to make the year 1922 far
better than any "normal" has ever been. Let
us talk about attainment, not normalcy, and then
go out and work!
En Passant
Whatever may be said about other branches
of the music industries, it must certainly be said
that the player business needs a bracer for the
New Year. And if we were delegated to impart
the necessary stimulation we should perform the
duty by trying to inculcate the belief that 1922
ought to be a year of profiting by past lessons.
Ever since the player-piano became an impor-
tant factor in the music industries the retail
trade has taken the line of least resistance in
respect of methods for merchandising it. But it
is now evident, as it has been for some time,
that the player-piano is losing out on these
tactics. The foot-power instrument has degene-
rated, as merchandising material, until there is
now very little trace of attempt to conduct intel-
ligently any retail efforts to sell it. Demonstra-
tion had become a totally lost art when it was
revived two years ago through the efforts of
one Western manufacturer. Meanwhile the re-
producing piano has come to the front. But
the new instrument cannot be used as a scheme
for avoiding the trouble of demonstrating. It is
just as necessary to use intelligence and skill in
the one case as in the other. To sell the foot-
power player the salesman must be able to show
the prospect how to play satisfactorily without
too much trouble. To sell the reproducing piano
the salesman must be able to show the prospect
the difference between good and bad reproduc-
tion. It is a case of intelligence either way. Now,
the great fault has been laziness. The bracer
for the New Year, then, might well be put in
the form of an admonition, "Use your brains
during the year 1922, even if you did not need
to use them during 1921."
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