This thesis is a socio-economic history of the relationship between music technology and organisational practices in twentieth-century Australia. It argues that the history of technology in the Australian music economy is dependent not only upon the changing technical characteristics of musical instruments and electronic consumer goods but also upon government policy-making, management practices in music technology manufacturing firms and patterns of music technology consumption. The thesis examines economic statistics regarding the import, export and local production of music technology in Australia. The economic statistics have not previously been examined in relation to the history of music technology in Australia. The historical analysis is structured according to a four-part periodisation which includes the Electric Age (1901-1930), the Electronic Age (1930-1950), the Transistor Age (1950-1970) and the Information Age (1970-1990). This periodisation enables the analysis to continually be refocussed as the key technological and socio-economic dynamics change. With this perspective, the history of the relationship between technology and organisation in the Australian music economy has been demonstrated to be dependent on a number of key technological changes. The thesis examines changes including the shift from acoustic to electric recording; the development of transistor-based consumer electronics goods; and the advent of digital information technology. However, a number of key social determinants, particularly organisational modes, are examined including changes from protectionist to more deregulated trade policy; lack of business skills in areas such as marketing, manufacturing technique and industrial research and development; and the development of a sense of popular modernity which is expressed in the consumption of new, technically advanced and glamorous music technology. In addition to the new perspectives on the history of music technology provided by the analysis of empirical economic data, this thesis contributes to the historiography of technology. The analytical framework it proposes locates music technology within what is described as an assemblage of technologies: technologies of production, technologies of sign systems, technologies of power and technologies of the self. This approach makes clear the interdependence of technological and social factors, and the inadequacy of narrow technological determinist and social constructivist accounts. The notion of an assemblage of technologies is further embellished by drawing upon key elements of recent theories of systems analysis: the seamless web, evolution and chaos theory. Through this analytical framework and the socio-economic analysis of the relationship between music technology and organisational practices, the thesis demonstrates that the history of technology cannot be understood unless it is seen as part of a complex and interacting technical, social, economic and institutional system.

This dissertation provides both an historical outline and contemporary ethnographic account of the Panamanian musical practice called “música típica popular,” which is commonly understood in Panama to denote a specific kind of vernacular music that is widely embraced. By examining the social-historical processes, events and discourses that have contributed to the genre’s development, this study seeks to develop greater understanding of what I argue is this music’s particular and pronouncedly ambiguous relationship to prominent themes of Panamanian cultural nationalism. Specifically, I endeavour to show that early on in its history música típica popular epitomized Panama’s (liberalist-identified) national ethos of progressive modernity and cultural cosmopolitanism while at the same time maintaining alignments to specific territories and musical practices significant to Panamanian vernacular imaginaries. The historical outline covers música típica popular’s development beginning from the late nineteenth century to the present. Its focus is on the genre’s tandem commercialisation and massification, performance and production technologies and associated performance modalities, shared musical/sonic traits, repertoire and approaches to innovation through musical mixing or fusión (fusion). One of the central goals here is to trace and examine points of alignment between música típica popular and dominant paradigms governing isthmian geo-cultural self-identification—particularly the interplay between a rural-identified “vernacular” culture and the perceived urban cosmopolitanism of Panamanian metropolites. Through ethnographic research this study also aims to examine the various sonic, social and economic factors that contribute to notions of música típica popular as a particular socio-musical collectivity actively in dialogue with discourses of Panamanian national and cultural identity. To this end, notions of “genre” and “style” provide an analytical framework particularly for coming to terms with the interplay between sensibilities of convention and common practice, and a need for meaningful differentiation among practitioners. It is my contention that while música típica popular practitioners actively cultivate links both to themes of Panamanian music-cultural vernacularism and cosmopolitanism, on the whole the relationship of the genre to nationalist discourse should be more properly understood as one of sustained ambiguity: not wholly aligned to one theme or the other, and in fact doggedly and often productively resistant to such binary categorizations.

This dissertation provides both an historical outline and contemporary ethnographic account of the Panamanian musical practice called “música típica popular,” which is commonly understood in Panama to denote a specific kind of vernacular music that is widely embraced. By examining the social-historical processes, events and discourses that have contributed to the genre’s development, this study seeks to develop greater understanding of what I argue is this music’s particular and pronouncedly ambiguous relationship to prominent themes of Panamanian cultural nationalism. Specifically, I endeavour to show that early on in its history música típica popular epitomized Panama’s (liberalist-identified) national ethos of progressive modernity and cultural cosmopolitanism while at the same time maintaining alignments to specific territories and musical practices significant to Panamanian vernacular imaginaries. The historical outline covers música típica popular’s development beginning from the late nineteenth century to the present. Its focus is on the genre’s tandem commercialisation and massification, performance and production technologies and associated performance modalities, shared musical/sonic traits, repertoire and approaches to innovation through musical mixing or fusión (fusion). One of the central goals here is to trace and examine points of alignment between música típica popular and dominant paradigms governing isthmian geo-cultural self-identification—particularly the interplay between a rural-identified “vernacular” culture and the perceived urban cosmopolitanism of Panamanian metropolites. Through ethnographic research this study also aims to examine the various sonic, social and economic factors that contribute to notions of música típica popular as a particular socio-musical collectivity actively in dialogue with discourses of Panamanian national and cultural identity. To this end, notions of “genre” and “style” provide an analytical framework particularly for coming to terms with the interplay between sensibilities of convention and common practice, and a need for meaningful differentiation among practitioners. It is my contention that while música típica popular practitioners actively cultivate links both to themes of Panamanian music-cultural vernacularism and cosmopolitanism, on the whole the relationship of the genre to nationalist discourse should be more properly understood as one of sustained ambiguity: not wholly aligned to one theme or the other, and in fact doggedly and often productively resistant to such binary categorizations.