This article describes the methods and arguments of Hearing the Americas, a digital public history project that illuminates the history of popular music and the recording industry from 1890 to 1925. We argue that the use of digital tools allows the website to integrate sound directly into writing on music and thereby explicate a series of historical arguments. The article examines three arguments advanced by Hearing the Americas, showing in each case how digital tools generate new insights. The first case uses mapping to reveal some of the specific ways in which the economic and social context of Jim Crow shaped the experiences of Black performers; the second integrates sound and text to reveal the origins of certain blues conventions in the racist stereotypes of minstrel shows; and the final case uses digital tools to argue that the marketing strategies of the recording industry throughout the Americas helped produce a key shift in patterns of globalization.

中文翻译：

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聆听美洲：利用数字工具了解早期唱片业

这篇文章描述了方法和论据聆听美洲，一个数字公共历史项目，阐明了 1890 年至 1925 年流行音乐和唱片业的历史。我们认为，数字工具的使用使网站能够将声音直接整合到音乐写作中，从而阐明一系列历史论点。这篇文章考察了作者提出的三个论点聆听美洲，在每种情况下展示数字工具如何产生新的见解。第一个案例使用地图来揭示吉姆·克劳的经济和社会背景塑造黑人表演者经历的一些具体方式；第二个将声音和文本结合起来，揭示了吟游诗人表演的种族主义刻板印象中某些蓝调惯例的起源；最后一个案例使用数字工具来论证整个美洲唱片业的营销策略有助于产生全球化模式的关键转变。