ABSTRACT
R. Murray Schafer has pointed out that when classical composers repeated a theme numerous times, they did so not from a lack of inventiveness, but to impress the theme on the listener's memory. Schafer contended that the development of athematic musical style (that is, a style that lacks repetitions) a little after the turn of this century occurred at about the same time as phonograph records became successful with a mass audience. From that time on, said Schafer, the phonograph record proVided the means for repetition. In his view, the ability to repeatedly play a recording is a means used by the listener to proVide a certain comfortable sense of permanence in an era when rapidly changing events make the future seem uncertain. Schafer said that radio stations, by repeatedly playing the same few recordings, have catered to this human need for a greater sense of stability and security.l Yet I would argue that formats based on playing current hits actually work counter to this goal-that the ephemeral nature of artist popularity and the ever -shorter life cycles of hit records ultimately convey a sense of instability rather than steadiness.
