Abstract

In Great Britain, the interwar years are a period of rapid expansion of the record market and related amateur practices. While it had originally been conceived for administrative and pedagogical purposes, the gramophone becomes at that time an important medium for music.Not being a curiosity any longer, it becomes a "musical instrument" for performing music and listening to it. This change is supported by many discussions and by the creation of several forums, such as gramophone societies and specialized periodicals. This paper discusses the role of these various forms of sociability in shaping the use of the new medium together with a new relationship to music. This evolution can be depicted as the development of an aural way of listening to music resulting in the birth of a new listener. Analysing the various forms of sociability involved in this phenomenon leads the author to tackle the issue of gender and to replace the significance of this set of practices into the broader tradition of music socializing.