Aiming to historicize aural media in 20th c. empires, MusiCol’s second international symposium invites researchers from diverse disciplines to consider a panoply of questions, perspectives, and methodologies in the study of recordings and music on colonial radio. Global by nature, both media depended on local participation; both transgressed social, ethnic, and geographic boundaries; both bring a new dimension to colonial history. In recent years, much effort has focused on digitizing recordings, from forgotten masterpieces by European artists to little-known works made by and for autochtone populations. These raise important questions. To balance local needs with global ambitions, who decided who and what to record, how to market it, and to whom? The record industry is an ideal realm for studying differences in governance and musical commerce across empires. It also sheds light on the musical productivity of vast numbers of musicians, largely unknown
today. But how were recordings received? We know that collective listening encouraged family exchanges and community-building (see Kinnear in India, Bengh in Malaysia, and Yampolsky in Indonesia). Recordings’ role in the evolution of musical tastes is less understood. Going further, we ask, did recordings contribute to flux in tastes, emergence of new identities, and even personal and communal Relations?
This symposium offers a rare opportunity to explore relationships between European radio and that of its colonies and what listeners in both contexts tuned in to. Substantial research has been done on the major European broadcasters and the history of African radio. Yet, few have studied music programming, and none across an empire. With its staggering variety of musical genres, colonial radio—”live and local”—offered a rich microcosm of musical life. This merits comparison both within each country and region and across the seas. Not only did local radio shape how, when, and why people listened, it manifests the particularity of local tastes as well as similarities within and across borders (Pasler 2024b). Colonial radio was also a trans-ethnic arena and window on colonial coexistence. In broadcasting news and lectures in many languages, it often accompanied these with music: on Radio-Hanoi (in Chinese and Vietnamese), and on Radio-Dakar (in eight to twelve languages, accompanied by their “folk” music). Music on colonial radio thus presents opportunities to explore tastes shared across countries, regions, and continents and what remained culturally distinct and emblematic for each population.