| This dissertation traces the evolution of the baseball soundscape, elucidating the structural role of music as part of the baseball experience and exploring how baseball's sonic environment over the past century has reflected the production and consumption of music in American society. After first demonstrating the various components and functions of music and sound at baseball games, the origins of the game's signature sound, the organ, are explored. The increased use of the organ in secular settings during the early 20 th century along with the new technologies, such as PA systems and electric organs, eventually led to it entering the ballpark. The original baseball organists during the 1940s and 50s established the archetypes that later organists followed, and the organ was mostly uncontested as the producer of music at ballparks for the next few decades. While the organ may be the signature sound of baseball, communal singing is one of the best known, and most participatory, musical practices at the ballpark. Singing at the ballpark can express a number of different identities, and both standard and team-specific singing traditions play a significant role in baseball soundscapes. These singing practices were initially accompanied by the organ, but have recently been increasingly set to recorded popular songs. Organs began to give way to recorded music during the 1970s, due in part to the increasingly spectacular nature of baseball games and changes in the music industry. The organ was added to many newly constructed "retro" stadiums during the 1990s and 2000s, but popular music has continued to dominate, especially as the accompaniment to large video boards. Nevertheless, many organists have remained because of their willingness to adopt modern musical trends and ability to connect with fans. New technologies have continuously been added to the ballpark over the past hundred years, altering the production of music and providing accessibility to new and different sounds. The result is a heterogeneous soundscape that shares many aural similarities with other public venues, but is also distinctive in how sounds and music are employed to accompany an uncertain game. |
