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When the phonograph was invented, the composer John Phillip Sousa was heartbroken. In a 1906 article on “The Menace of Mechanical Music,” he worried out loud that recording tools would reduce music from a matter of the heart and soul to a mere mechanical process. To us, this sounds ridiculous. It is clear that we have gained a great deal by the advancement of recording technology, which makes available to us a massive variety of beautiful music.
Nathan Beacom writes from Des Moines, Iowa. He is the founder of The Lyceum Movement, a nonprofit dedicated to building better public conversations through exploring first principles, and the author of The Way of Shang-di Substack.
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