Recorded Artifices

Abstract This chapter examines the contents of musical and non-musical recordings made in and for Latin American and the Caribbean in the early twentieth century. If through music it is possible to appreciate the interplay between public popular entertainment and emerging discourses of musical nationalism, the vast array of recorded comedies, historical re-enactments, monologues, and many other creative artifices defined by their theatricality are the point of departure to discuss talking machines’ relation to popular culture and their potential to craft experiences of auditory realism. By pondering over the sounds, silences, and elusive reproducibility of these sound recordings, musical and non-musical alike, this chapter studies how they were experienced in and as performance as well as their relation to changing political landscapes.