Listening to technologically mediated music in film

representations of social and solitary listening in Swedish cinema 1930–70

Abstract

Cinematic representations of musical listening may be understood as reflecting changing listening practices in society at large. Proceeding from this assumption the article examines a variety of scenes from Swedish feature films, all of them produced between 1930 and 1970, where characters are involved in different kinds of musical listening. Focussing specifically on representations of technologically mediated musical listening, the article aims to show how sound reproduction technologies such as the radio and the gramophone were represented in relation to both social and solitary forms of listening in Swedish cinema during the period in question.