ABSTRACT
In February of 1914, the Victor Talking Machine Company hired white social dancers Irene and Vernon Castle as spokespersons for its growing catalogue of dance recordings. The Castles consciously marketed the refinement of their 'modern dancing' in opposition to 'rougher' working-class versions. Victor's likening of their business arrangement to an act of political diplomacy, however, reveals continuing tensions between those dancing bodies and musical technology. Recordings of dance music were available virtually from the beginning as well. Companies built upon a pre-existing discourse of 'good music', developing a position that conferred legitimacy on their technology as a purveyor of edification and distanced it from suspect leisure entertainment. Talking machines became a technology of betterment, of moral uplift, of social refinement and respectability. Central to the popularity of these repertories was syncopation, an aural sign of racial difference, whose rhythmic energy produced new kinds of movements, articulated through an increasing number of body parts.
