Ross Laird,
Sound Beginnings: The Early Record Industry in Australia.
City: Currency Press, 2000.
ISBN 0 86819 579 0 (pb)
384pp
A$39.95

(Review copy supplied by Currency Press)

Uploaded 30 June 2000

Ross Laird’s new book sets out to document the early history of the Australian record industry between 1924 and 1934 in what the author recognises as a period of great change. It was during this decade that Australian record manufacturers, distributors, and wireless engineers flourished and then floundered against giant American and British companies. Yet, there is more than the old David and Goliath story here as Laird draws attention to the forgotten Australian pioneers, inventors, and businessmen who helped build a local record industry with their manufactured disc and cylinder supplies and inventions. These were individual Australians who, in many cases, gleaned valuable experience by first working for British and American record manufacturers and then starting their own local disc pressing and recording companies and factories.

There is an underlying complex story here involving, on the one hand, foreign and local companies which manufactured records in Australia and, on the other hand, foreign and local distributing companies which often pasted local labels over imported American and British products (and Canadian and German products to a lesser degree). One of the book’s most valuable contributions, then, is Laird’s comprehensive list and background information on 195 cylinder and disc record labels either distributed or manufactured in Australia before 1934. (323-345) On close inspection, it is obvious that most of these labels – such as Actuelle, Amfonola, and Beta -were controlled by just a few companies.

In order to illustrate the case of this record business monopoly, Laird uses a wealth of primary and secondary sources to chart the rise, climax, and decline of the phonograph industry in Australia. The book seeks to illustrate the complex interplay of social and cultural forces surrounding the struggle between British, American, and Australian record companies as each fought for market dominance. Having said that, the story behind the evolution of the Australian record market is as much about contextualising cultural imperialism as it is documenting the growth of an entertainment industry. It is no wonder that Laird seems reluctant to offer an in-depth interpretation of an intimidating wealth of materials.

It is useful that Laird includes the pre-history of the reception of Edison’s phonograph in the late 1880s and 1890s as it sets the context for this soon-to-be-popular form of mass entertainment that originated from the United States. Laird traces the transition of Edison’s Kinetophone invention from an expensive, circus-like attraction for professional exhibitors and penny arcades (requiring banks of electric motors), to a form of home entertainment; owners could record on the Kinetophone as well as play cylinder records on it. (13) Australian manufacturers of cylinder records began to emerge around 1903, supplying the American technology with sound products. As a result a local Australian record industry was born.(18) Yet, in many ways, as Laird suggests, the local Australian record industry could not compete with the large-scale import of relatively cheap high-quality cylinders, which as a result, ultimately undermined Australian attempts at building a long-term local industry. (20)

Throughout the book, Laird addresses the cases studies of the active record companies operating in Australia between 1924 and 1934 in order to follow the directions of the growing industry. Included are individually interesting chapters on the Australian franchise operations of the British Pemberton Billing, World Records, Parlophone, Gramophone, Columbia, and Vocalion labels, as well as the American-based Brunswick Record Company label. However, many of these record companies had simultaneous operations in both the United States and Britain; at times the book is unclear from where the finance capital originated, when their Australian distribution franchises and factories were formed. As a result, readers may have difficulties in discerning whether the Australian market was dominated by British or American interests. In any case, it is significant that by 1933, the now British EMI was the only active record company in Australia.

Originally from the Unites States, formation of the EMI company was the result of the British conglomerate of Columbia and Gramophone that in 1925 became strong enough to buy out its American parent company. (146) According to Laird, after 1929 the Australian record market had become completely controlled by British interests; the American companies, such as Brunswick, and Australian companies, such as Unbreakable Records and Clifford Industries, began winding up business. (313) In an understated way Laird puts forward the idea that the Great Depression and the formation of EMI had killed the local Australian record industry. (308)

Laird writes from a privileged position – he is a sound archivist at Screen Sound in Canberra where valuable collections of historical documents are held. Laird uses his access to this material to tell the story behind the evolution of the early Australian phonograph and recording industry. The book utilises three kinds of major sources. The first type of sources presents early contemporary views and attitudes of the industry through numerous press reports. There is an impressive array of trade articles from such contemporary Australian and British trade sources such as Smith’s Weekly, Listener In, Australian Phonograph News, Australasian Phonograph Monthly, Wireless Weekly, Table Talk, Talking Machine and Wireless Trade News, Daily Telegraph, Argus, Punch, and Bulletin. Secondly, and perhaps even more important, is Laird’s use of private records and corporate archives, which include board minutes, internal and external memos, press releases, and other correspondence to reveal the activities and thoughts of the pioneering businesses and individuals involved in the record industry. The third group of sources to which Laird gained access are the previously unpublished minutes and comments of the Commonwealth Government’s 1927-1931 Tariff Board Inquiries, which offer a different view.

At the same time, Laird lets us know early in the “Introduction” that his personal retrospective analysis could blur the historical account he presents. Laird wants the views, attitudes, and cynicism of the primary sources to speak for themselves. (xii) Many of the primary documents are reprinted for viewers to form a conclusion of their own – at times, a majority of the book’s content seems to be directly taken from the original sources. Laird works hard to let the documents and sources speak for themselves while avoiding comments or suggestions of what that content means. As a result readers are challenged to process much of the material themselves.

While Laird attempts to preserve the integrity of the sources he nonetheless overtly alters the text in the process. From the beginning of the book, he admits that he has corrected spelling mistakes while standardising the punctuation errors found in the original documents. Why not reprint the exact copy of the documents to preserve their integrity? Laird repeatedly fails to identify exactly from where all his information originates. This is perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the book -the intelligent reader wants to know more. Furthermore, it is not easy to trace the book’s citations because trade articles and government reports are ordered (alphabetically) at the end of the book rather than in the sequential order they are used in individual chapters. For those accustomed to academic referencing the book’s citation method is somewhat of a problem. Another example is the lack of proper documentation in the book’s appendices. Charts of statistical data contained in the back of the book are valuable. However, the reader is only told that the information came from “various sources,” which remain unidentified.

More of Laird’s interpretations may have enriched this early history of the recording industry in Australia. He is an “expert” writing from a privileged position; he is the researcher and archivist who is closest to the texts. Whether consciously or not, history is constructed by any writer before the first word is written when they decide which sources to use and exclude. Therefore, it is not unreasonable that Laird’s readers should expect his educated opinion to help make sense of the story he constructs, and of its larger impact on Australian society. Overall, Laird’s book presents an interesting and impressive piece of social history that scholars will wish for greater analytical interpretation.

Brian Yecies