It was not until recorded music began appearing for sale (or for single performances in coin-operated phonographs) that the technology of sound recording expanded beyond the laboratory. Since that time, musicians have interacted with recording technologies in many ways to create new forms of music and new types of sounds.

But in the early years of the phonograph, it could be difficult to get “serious” musicians (such as famous opera singers or symphony musicians) to make recordings at all. Some of them were justifiably appalled by the poor sound quality of the phonograph, and others thought that their livelihoods would be threatened if their performances were captured and mass-produced. That, combined with the popular taste, dictated that for quite a few years, record companies like the North American Phonograph company sold mainly popular music. Barroom piano players and Vaudeville performers were brought in to stand before the recording horn to belt out their “lowbrow” entertainment.

Because the cylinders could only hold 2-3 minutes of music, existing songs sometimes had to be revised to fit on the cylinders. This was one of the first obvious musical innovations related to the phonograph. The time restrictions inherent with the phonograph (disc or cylinder) would also come to play a major role in the writing of new songs, too. There was already traditions in popular and classical song-writing that shaped the songwriter’s work, but the phonograph created new restrictions.