ABSTRACT
Crooning was a style of singing made possible by the development of the electrical microphone — vocalists could now be heard singing softly — and the source of a new sort of male pop star whom the BBC found sentimental and 'effeminate'. Some disparate examples of the controversies caused by the changing techniques of music-making suggest three recurring issues. First, technology is opposed to nature. Second, technology is opposed to community. Third, technology is opposed to art. In the mid-1960s the by now conventional routines of teen pop were challenged, in turn, by the 'authentic' moves of white rhythm'n'blues. For Yazoo's fans, as for Bob Dylan's a couple of pop generations earlier, new technology meant a new means of crowd control; the direct line between star and fans was fatally disrupted. This is a familiar position in rock but it is, in fact, a reversal of reality.
