Innovations and Evolutions- The Microphone
The Microphone
It's hard to think about singing and not inherently assume you would have a microphone. In today's age, it is an integral part of almost all singing and musical venues you will see. But of course there was a time before the microphone, and that's where we will start.
Singing before the advent of the microphone
Before the microphone, singing was done in much smaller venues. A tenor style of voice was prefered for its ability to project loudly and fill a room, such as Al Jolson on Broadway. This also impacted the style of music being created and performed, it wasn't necessarily limited, but there was not as much variety in style. Nobody wants to listen to music they cant hear!
Microphones in music
Once microphones and amplification began working its way into the music industry a whole new era ensued. Larger venues, different vocal ranges became more favorable, and allowing events to be held in more areas.
This also allowed people like Frank Sinatra, with a softer, more baritone, style to become extremely popular, and one of the most well known singers even today. You can't go to Vegas without seeing or hearing him!
Sources
Wikipedia contributors. “Microphone.” Wikipedia, 6 Mar. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microphone.
Guion, David. “How The Microphone Transformed Popular Singing.” Musicology for Everyone, 14 Dec. 2018,
music.allpurposeguru.com/2009/11/popular-singing-and-the-invention-of-the-microphone
Greenberg, Robert, and Robert Greenberg. “Music History Monday:
Microphones | Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian.”
Robert Greenberg | Speaker, Composer, Author, Professor, Historian, 30 Apr. 2018, robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-microphones/#:~:text=While%20the%20first%20microphones%20were,until%20the%20very%20early%201930s.
I hadn't really considered the fact that style would be different without a microphone, but it's obvious now that I think about it. There are so many little things that can be done with the voice which would be inaudible at any significant distance, without amplification. I think cathedrals/churches are an example of pre-microphone singing done in very large spaces, though, because they were engineered to take advantage of acoustics in such a large space (with the biggest ones fit for 10,000 people) -- so I'd think it depends on the type of singing, whether it was done in much smaller venues or not, before microphones were developed. It's very interesting to think about the fact that Sinatra might not have gained such popularity without the microphone, though -- as you said, no one wants to listen to a singer they can't hear!
ReplyDeleteI never really thought of the way music was produced and presented and preformed before the invention of the microphone. You post gives so much information about it and what came along with the invention, like being able to entertain larger venues, and different vocal ranges. I really like the way you mentioned Frank Sinatra as I think he's a great example.
ReplyDeleteI never thought of music before microphones or how that worked. I thought that this was a very interesting subject for that brought to light that the variations of music were minimal because different voices are harder to hear. I thought the example of Frank Sinatra was great.
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