Recording Technology and Concert Tango

[Stephen Brown <Stephen.P.Brown @DAL.FRB.ORG>]

An interesting phenomenon occurred in jazz recordings in the United States
when the fidelity of recordings improved dramatically in the early to mid
1950s.  Recordings that jazz bands seemed to make a transition from playing
more rhythmic dance music to playing concert music at exactly the same
time.  Some jazz historians have attributed the transition to the recording
technology itself.  They said that the subtleties of concert music could
not be captured in the pre-1950s recordings, and consequently the
demarcation between dance music and concert music was more sharply drawn in
recordings than in live performances.  One could also imagine that the
changes in the recordings furthered the transition in the music itself.
People going to a live performance would expect to hear something similar
to what they heard on the recordings.

I wonder if the same happened in tango recordings.  Concert tango music
could not be adequately captured on pre-1950s recordings, and therefore
dance music dominated.  As the recording technology evolved, and the
subtleties of concert music could be captured, the music played for
recordings changed, and hence expectations about what would be played at
live performances also changed.

--Steve (de Tejas)

Stephen Brown
Tango Argentino de Tejas

a noncommercial online resource for Argentine tango
http://www.tejastango.com/