Cultural Communication in India: Role and Impact of Phonograms

The book is perhaps the first ever attempt in India to view the phonogram as an instrument of cultural change and development. Most of the studies so far, though not many, were confined to the narration of its historical and technical aspects. This empirical study, based on a detailed survey and several interviews, therefore, assumes importance for at least two reasons: firstly, for ushering in an age of audio-visual mass media (while the visual media in the form of print had already existed, the film-media appeared almost concurrently) which brought the music in general, and our great musical tradition and masters in particular, almost at the doorstep of the people, and secondly, for opening up of a music industry which a few years after the invention of the gramophone, unleashed a great source of business and gave rise to what has become a flourishing cultural industry especially after the introduction of audio-cassettes in the mid-sixties.
This book deals not only with the history of the phonogram industry in India beginning from about 1902 when the gramophone was introduced, with the first recording following soon thereafter, but also the status of the industry in terms of Releases (classified according to the type of music), Sales, Production, and Export-Import, etc., as also the problems this growth has brought for it. In this connection it also discusses the problems and status of the artists. The study was sponsored by UNESCO in cooperation with MEDIACULT, Vienna, an affiliate of the UNESCO