ABSTRACT
In the recording industry, the invention of the long-playing record made an impact. But of far greater significance for light music was the introduction of the extended-play record, and of the 'single'; not so much in themselves as in their formidable partnership with the portable Dansette and other record-players of this type. It rapidly became apparent that a fundamental shift in the markets for music was taking place; from the middle-aged and elderly to the teenagers and young twenties, and from the so-called middle classes to the lower, or so-called working classes. For the first few years after the ending of the war, young people had not really perceived the power over the music world conveyed to them by that slot of comparative solvency between leaving school, and marrying and starting a family. The new electronically amplified instruments and synthesizers seemed to render traditionally trained musicians redundant.
