Designed for Success Better Living and Self-Improvement with Midcentury Instructional Records

by Borgerson, Janet; Schroeder, Jonathan

• ISBN13: 9780262048835
• ISBN10: 0262048833
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780262377874
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2024-05-14
• Publisher: The MIT Press
• More Book Details
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Summary

A charmingly illustrated history of midcentury instructional records and their untold contribution to the American narrative of self-improvement, aspiration, and success.

For the midcentury Americans who wished to better their golf game through hypnosis, teach their parakeet to talk, or achieve sexual harmony in their marriage, the answers lay no further than the record player. In Designed for Success, Janet Borgerson and Jonathan Schroeder shed light on these endearingly earnest albums that contributed to a powerful American vision of personal success. Rescued from charity shops, record store cast-off bins, or forgotten boxes in attics and basements, these educational records reveal the American consumers’ rich but sometimes surprising relationship to advertising, self-help, identity construction, and even aspects of transcendentalist thought.

Relegated to obscurity and novelty, instructional records such as Secrets of Successful Varmint Calling, You Be a Disc Jockey, and How to Ski (A Living-Room Guide for Beginners) offer distinct insights into midcentury media production and consumption. Tracing the history of instructional records from the inception of the recording industry to the height of their popularity, Borgerson and Schroeder offer close readings of the abundant topics covered by “designed for success” records. Complemented by over a hundred full-color illustrations, Designed for Success is a wonderfully nostalgic tour that showcases the essential role these vinyl records played as an unappreciated precursor to contemporary do-it-yourself culture and modern conceptions of self-improvement.

Author Biography

Janet Borgerson is Senior Wicklander Fellow at DePaul University.

Jonathan Schroeder is William A. Kern Professor in the School of Communication at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Borgerson and Schroeder are coauthors of Designed for Hi-Fi Living: The Vinyl LP in Midcentury America and Designed for Dancing: How Midcentury Records Taught America to Dance (both MIT Press).

Table of Contents

Introduction: Achieving the Good Life with Midcentury Records 1

Part I: At Work 31
1 Becoming a Better Worker: Efficiency, Productivity, and Career Training 35
2 Paths to Persuasion: Selling and Salesmanship 59
3 Making Money, Management, and Motivation 69

Part II: At Home 83
4 Fitness and Beauty 89
5 Sustenance: Eating and Drinking 111
6 Family Fidelity: The Harmonious Marriage and Well-Adjusted Children 125
7 Mind Altering: Expanding Your Mind for Greater Success 151

Part III: At Leisure 169
8 Leisure and Sport 173
9 Joining In: Play an Instrument! Learn to Dance! 199
10 Let's Learn a Language 221
11 Learning to Listen: Music Appreciation 233

Part IV: On Vinyl and Cultural History
12 A History of Instructional Recordings 251
13 Conclusion: Midcentury Records and the Creation of Modern America 261

Acknowledgments 267
Notes 269
Bibliography 289
Illustration Credits 303
Index of Records 305
Index 309