Kelli Smith-Biwer, Ph.D. 2023

Advisor: Mark Katz

Dissertation Title: The Hi-Fi Man: Masculinity, Modularity, & Home Audio Technology in the U.S. Midcentury

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Dissertation Abstract:

Hi-fi home audio systems are modular—that is, they are made of a collection of interchangeable components such as turntables, receivers, amplifiers, and loudspeakers. At the advent of hi-fi culture in the 1950s, modular audio systems were marketed primarily to men while all-in-one console systems were advertised in women’s and home magazines. As early as 1952, well-known audio critic Edward Tatnall Canby reinforced this gendered technological divide when he wrote, “Aunt Minnie can run a [console system] and so can three-year-old-sister Jane…Me I’m a hi-fi man of sorts and I want my stuff really separate…The separate-unit system is the thing for me.” In this dissertation, I introduce my concept of modular masculinity, a framework that reveals how post-war technological discourse reflected and encouraged an understanding of masculinity as flexible, reconfigurable, and dynamic. I show how the hi-fi system, with its separate, customizable components, facilitated a range of technological engagement that allowed men to explore and express a variety of masculine roles: moody musician, loving father, dutiful husband, resourceful carpenter, exacting engineer, and so on. Focusing on discourses around loudspeakers, cables, and tonearms, I examine the images and rhetoric around each to contextualize and analyze historic co-constructions of masculinity and sound technology. These case studies center on midcentury magazines such as High Fidelity, Hi-Fi & Music Review, and Audio, as well as archival material including technical circulars, corporate ephemera, engineering notebooks from research labs, patents, and government publications. Modular masculinity is a flexible framework for analyzing the social, political, and economic forces that shaped the ways men engaged with home audio technologies. Gender has never been a simple male-female binary: my framework reveals masculinity as a multivalent formation that develops both in dialogue with and independently from femininity. This study into the discourse surrounding midcentury hi-fi equipment illuminates complex constructions of music technology and masculinity that continue to influence marketing and consumer behavior today.

Kelli Smith-Biwer is currently an Assistant Professor of Instruction for Music History in the School of Music at Ohio University. Leveraging her past work experience in IT and network engineering, Kelli seeks to broaden the conversation around gender, equity, and audio technologies. Her current research centers on masculinity and 1950s home audio culture in the United States. A vital aspect of Kelli’s work hinges on community engagement and advocacy. She has arranged workshops taught by Black, queer, and femme-identifying producers; facilitated hands-on music technology demonstrations in local venues; and founded gender-inclusive electronic music ensembles.