Thoughts About the Impact of the Radio

            After viewing the visual timeline of educational technology, I would have to say that the radio is the technology that influenced music education the most from 1900-1990.  The video mentions the WHA broadcasts starting in 1917 as the first medium used to widely broadcast music education programs; but the impact of the radio certainly expanded further than that.  As far as simply listening to music and exposure to new music go, one’s options were rather limited in the early 20^th century.  Recording technology was ever-improving and commercial production of records opened up new worlds for music listening to those who could afford them as well as a record player.  With a radio, however, after that initial purchase, exposure to new music was seemingly endless.  Music education relies on a number of basic aspects including: student interest, listening and performing/producing.  Before a teacher has the opportunity to foster students’ interest in music, an external catalyst must light that spark.  Although I did not experience the revolution of the radio firsthand, I imagine it played an integral role in that process.  There is also the self-explanatory listening aspect that the radio expanded upon.

            Upon reading both chapter two of “Rethinking Technology in Schools” and the article “A Social History of Media and Technology in Schools,” I maintain that radio technology had the greatest impact on formalized music education between 1820 and 1990 for better and worse.  It is arguable that the television had the greatest technological impact on formalized education; but much of the reasoning for that argument can also be said for the radio (although decades earlier).  The radio set up the foundation for nearly every broadcasting technology that followed and is still a valuable resource to this day.  As I mentioned above, the radio creates listening and learning opportunities inside and outside of the classroom.  Not only was this a new technology to broadcast music, it also provided news about current events, dialogue on interesting subjects, and also changed the way advertisement worked.  Unfortunately, with such a breakthrough in technology come certain sacrifices as well as setbacks.

            First, it was not long before many “serious music” elitists began to criticize radio stations and their listeners for their lack of broadcasting “serious music.”  To a certain extent, these critics were correct; but that is not the case anymore.  As time went on, public and private radio stations began that featured (sometimes exclusively) what these critics refer to as “serious music” (which is better described as Western Art Music).  Otherwise, the major issue created by the radio and later perpetuated by the television is the listener/viewer’s lack of control.  The standardization and plugging of popular music on the radio is one of the issues musicologist Theodore Adorno frequently wrote about in the 1940s.  He explains that radio stations choose what music they play most frequently and listeners function under the assumption that the music they enjoy is what the radio will play.  Therefore, radio stations dictate what music the listeners will like.  Although this perspective unrealistically assumes that all listeners abandon their freedom, it is definitely based in truth.  Unfortunately, the music industry did and still does have a lot of control over listeners’ preferences.  That being said, listeners do have the power to change the station or walk away.  Therefore I believe that the positive impacts made by the radio far outweigh the perceived negatives.