Music Trade Review

JUNE
THE
21, 1919
MUSIC
T RADE
REVIEW
15
MUSICAL PUBLICITY HAS DEEPLY
AFFECTED AMERICAN· NA TIONAL LIFE
Frank H. Williams Points Out in Printers' Ink That no Other Advertising Has So
Completely Changed the Country's Characteristics
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A most interesting tribute to the power and
effect of . the advertising of musical instrument
manufacturer s, including talking machine and
player-piano makers. in changing the character­
i, tics of the country's citizens and making·a
widespread impression, appeared in Printers' Illk
last week in a featnre article by Frank H. \Vil­
Iiams. The article was ill th e form of a mono­
logue by a character known as "Jackson," a
former city ed itor and therefore naturally ob­
serving.
In the article "Jacksoll" calls to .milld the
fact that just a few years ago the ollly music
in the village was the local clarinet band and
two o r three square pianos in the leading homes,
which were rarely, if ever, played. "Music ill
those days," he said, "bulked just abo.u t as
la rge in American natiol}al life in the majority
of communities as the Chautauqua does among
the Fiji Islanders-America was not musical."
"It didn't look like we would ever be musi­
ca l," he continued. "A few struggling piano and
organ makers turned out a moderate number of
musical instruments which they disposed of
with difficulty, and one or two band-instrument
makers flourished. But, genera ll y spea king, the
American nation had little acquaintance with
music and cared less.
"Then some highly important things occurred.
Th e talking machine was invented , the Erst
piano-players made their appearance on the mar­
ket and aggressive, enterprising, far-s ee ing busi­
ness men began the exploitati o n and d eve lop­
ment of these musical instrumellts."
After describing briefly the conditions dur­
ing the ea rly days of player- piano and talking
machine exploita t io n , with ad\;ertising that was
devoted chiefly to describing the wonderful in­
ventive genius exhibited in the ins~ruments
"Jackson" continues:
"But while I have no inside dope on the mat­
ter, I'd be willing to wage r that it was only
when the manufacturers began to hamm e r hard
o n the musical end of the ta lking machines that
sales began to bound.
N ow It I s Music T hat I s Advertised
"You remember, of course, h ow a compara­
tively few years back all of th e talking machine
ccmpanies suddenly perfected th e ir product and
began advertis ing heavily that every home could
now hear the wo rl d's mo s t famous singers,- just
as though the singers we r e right th e re in the
h o use. I remember distinctly one ad of this
period in which a great lot o f fam o us opera
singers were shown floatin g o ut of o ne of the
parlor ta lking machin e cabinets.
U p t o that
tillle I'd not paid much attention to the prog­
re ss being made hy th e phonograph concerns,
and I still remember how thi s ad caught my
interest and he ld it. It came with a distillct
surprise to me to know that r co uld hear all
th ese famous peo~)le o n a phonograph. It was
MADISON
Piano Co.
Incorporate d
Manufacturers
The Madison Tone­
Supreme- Jts Own
219 Cypress Ave.
NEW YORK
[llat very ad whicll made m e buy a phonograph,
and I'v' ~ 110 doubt it influenced countless others
to do th e same th i ng.
Ch a n ge in Advertisin g A ppeal
"It is interesting to note th e diffe rence in the
phonograph ads of to-day from wha t they were
a numb e r of y ears ago. I was enough interested
in this t opic th e ot h er day to go over to the
pub l ic librar y and watie through th e magazine
pages of so m e o ld pub lications and through
the ads ill so me old lIew s papers just to find out
what slaut th e phonograph companies had on
their product in the early days of the industry,
and in what way that o ld - time slant differed fr o m
th e angle they have OIl th e ir go ods to-day.
" 1 found that da y bef o re yeste rd ay the e m­
pbas is ·was placed on the r e markable natur e of
tbe talkin g lIlachi'le -its ability to reproduce
sounds and all tbat. Yesterday the emphas is
was e ntirely on the musical end of th e busi­
ness- bringin g music to yo ur own home at a
modera te cost, hea rin g famous opera singers
again and again in tbeir most famou s so ngs
at less than the price of a pair of seats at
tbe Metropolitan Opera House, and that kind of
stuff. To day, o f cours e, phon og raphs are ex­
clusively musi ca l instruments and the emphasis
in all th e ads is upon the musi ca l features, but
this emphasi s has b ee n sh ifteel from be ing en­
tirely on the machines to rest lar ge ly upon the
record s .
Some Recen t Exa m p les
"Look at the r e cent ads issued by the Victor
Co. One of them is headed 'Music T ha tIs
More Than a Memory,' and tells us that the
Victrola 'makes th e opera and th e concert more
than a l1eeting pleasure .
You can have
eucores with o ut number.
You can hear the
interpr eta tions by the very same artists who
WOIl your admiration at the opera or concert.'
The Y oca l ioll, we are told by th e _\ eo lian Co.,
plays for yo u 'vh e music as you be s t lik e to
he-ar it. The gamut of musical expr essio n , from
I-inging bra v ura to the most d e licate ecbo, is at
th e command of your fInger tips.'
"Look ~l tlti s Jdvertisclllent of Co lumbia
rec o rd s- -'Happy Music.' 'A ll the happ y mu s ic
you ever heard o r ever will,' says the copy-'yes­
terday, years ago , or to-marrow-can be yours
at' Columbia r eco rds.' The Edison phonograph
111akers ce nt e r their (';t1l1paign ar ou nd tIle tone
p e rfect ion ot th e records. One by one famous
singers hav e been s hown singing in comparison
with the J-;: di so n 're -c r eat ion' of th eir vo ices.
Tn 1he advertisemen t I ha ve h ere the critical
ears of th e friends of Guido ~iccolilli 'could
discov e r no quality in Ciccolini's wonderful voice
n o( a lso pr e se n t in th e re-creation.'
" The c urr e nt advert is ing of th e Emerson
['h o n og rap h Co. do('s not seck t o se ll the c la ss ic
n·c o rds. but it is se lling music just th e same.
'Do you lik e music,' it queri es, ' the kind that
sets your fee t a-drumm ing and your lip s a-hum­
m :ng?' Of course, the answ e r is Em e r so n r ec ­
ord s.
"The objec t of t h is lo n g harangu e on piano
and phono~raph advertising," Jack son continued,
"is to driv e h ome the point I am tr ying to
mak e- -nam l· ly, that the phonugraph manufac­
tur e rs a nd the piano manufactur ers hav e, through
th e ir adv e rti s in g, so ld m u sic to the American
nati o n.
T h e y have , by th eir ad ve rti s in g--a t
ka s t this is 111 )' o pinion of the matt e r--changed
America fr 0 111 o ne of the least musical nations
int o one of t h e lea ding musical nati o ns of the
world!
"T hink of wha t a widespread, almost uni ve r sa l,
ir,fluence mu s ic n ow has on this nation. Big
movie th ea tr es suppor t large symphon·y orches­
tras which play several times a day and whic h
r e nder the higbest sort of mu~c.
, \nd the
public cats this music up. Tbe public appre­
ciates it-b eca use t he pub lic has heard mo s t
of th e hi g h-brow pieces on player-pianos or
phonograph s . High - brow arti,ts, vocal or in­
strumen tal, tour the country and are greeted
by enormous ent husiastic crowels and g igantic
r ecei pts wherever th ey appear. Popular s h ee t
mu s ic se lls into the million s of copie s because
along wi th the advance in th e sales of 'cailned'
mu s ical machines has cOllle a cOI"J'espondi ng
incre ase ill tb e llumber of human piano-players.
CO ll1munity song fe stivals are quite the thin g.
.\1most every persoll ' is pretty sure nowadays
. oi h ear ing some livenin g, cheerfu l, popu lar
music, o r some really nne high-brow music at
least once a week.
":l,.11 the old-time worries and fretting and
fuming over the non-musical cbaracter of the
A merican nation is at an end. If an apprecia­
t ion . of music is necessary to make a nation
great then, believe me, no o ne need fear for
th e future of America .
A dvertising M ade t h e Nation M u sical
"I may be wrong, but I think that this change
ha s come about through the advertising cam­
paigns waged by the manufacturers.
There
was no overwhelming demand at the start for
talking machines and player-pianos.
Both of
them were considered more 01' less of curiosi­
ties. The manufacturers did,l't, like the auto fac­
tories, have to double and treble and quad ­
ruple their capacities over night to keep up
with the demand. It was a forcing process with
these musical instruments at first. Father and
mother and sister had to be shown and shown
agall1 just w hat the automatic piano-player
would do for · them befor e the machine was
bought. Phonographs were s imply queer new
things ulitil the makers b ega n selling music
to the public and sold the phonographs on
the strength of getting this music to the
Pl! bl i cat a cheap price.
"Of all the wonderfu l adv e rtising campaigns
of recent years whic h ha ve v itally affected the
l 'n ited States I think tbi s sa le of music in enor­
mous quantities to a not o riously non-musical
people is the most striking. \,v hat other cam­
paign can compare w ith i t ? What other cam­
paign has, by the s he er s trength of its adver­
tising, so tremendo.usly c hanged our e ntire
natio nal characteristics ? Ce rtain ly automobile
advertising basn't becau s e automobiling did not
have t o be sold to the public- the demancl for
tbis speedy, cheap mod e o f transportation and
pleasure was all ready and waiting. The adver­
ti s ing me re ly so ld individual cars. Th e can­
ned food adv ertis in g ha s made a big change in
our bousehold eco n o mi cs, but it ha s n't changed
our national characteristics to any very appre ­
ciable ext ent.
Correspondence sc h oo l adver­
ti s ing has simply s upplied the insatiable d e mand
of ,\mericans for th e m ea n s of getting ahead; it
hasn't ohang e cl a n o n-a mbiti o us peop le into an
ambitious race. Office s up p li es advertising has
had a vital effect upon our business enterprises
-it has mad e tbem keener, more efficient, more
systematic. but it hasn't changed any deep­
rooted tend e nci es . Many ot her campaigns have
put ove r difficu lt propositions to big successes,
but right now I ca n ' t think o f anything that can
b e compared in th e magn itud e of results to this
selli ng of music t o u s---an d I've thought q uite
a little about th e matte r I ,
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