Kenney examines the interplay between recorded music and the key social, political, and economic forces in America during the era of the phonograph's rise and decline as the dominant medium of popular recorded sound: from the appearance of the first commercial recordings to the postwar years when the industry became more complex and less powerful. "In this comprehensive study, Kenney provides a long-overdue update of histories such as Roland Gelatt's The Fabulous Phonograph: From Tin Foil to High Fidelity...[he] asks innovative theoretical questions."--American Historical Review