100-Year-Old, Aviation Themed Sheet Music Covers

From Gizmodo –

Yes, music takes you places, and this was true 100 years ago too, when sheet music was the most widespread form of distributing popular music. And in the age of the Wright brothers, when powered flight started to gain ground, aviation became a significant theme in popular music. The following collection proves this very well. It is amazing and weird at the same time to see how the vision of aviation technology and early 20th century popular music were fitted together in these sheet music covers depicting travellers–both men and women–aboard all kind of aircraft–no matter lighter or heavier than air–in flight, even in outer space.

Go to the sheet music.

Eighty years ago, the recording industry of the day was crying that radio would destroy the music. Sadly, to this very day, the bean counters are still unable to learn how to use new technology. Will they ever embrace change? I doubt it.

Time Magazine – 1932 –

Tin Pan Alley is sadly aware that Radio has virtually plugged up its oldtime outlets, sheet music and gramophone discs. The average music publisher used to get $175,000 a year from disc sales. He now gets about 10% of this. No longer does a song hit sell a million copies. The copious stream of music poured out by Radio puts a song quickly to death. The average song’s life has dwindled from 18 months to 90 days; composers are forced to turn out a dozen songs a year instead of the oldtime two or three.

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