A research on the recorded sound propaganda of the Italian fascist regime

Since the mid-nineteenth century, sound has become the object of a pivotal process of technicization producing machines (e.g. gramophone, radio, loudspeaker, microphone) that considerably increased its political power. Once technicized, sound could be reproduced, repeated, moved, transmitted. Sound began to be considered as the source of a modernized propaganda, mainly made of recorded songs and speeches and perceived as more effective. In the interwar period, then, recorded sound propaganda was made massive by the popularization of gramophones and discs, followed by the radio. Discs were thus used for their capacity to store, reproduce, and especially amplify the existence of political speeches and songs which could now be listened anywhere and anytime. The fascist regime imposed its rule in Italy exactly during this period. Recognized as the first totalitarian regime, Mussolini's regime potently used recorded sound propaganda to extend its territory and perpetuate itself. How did the recorded sound and its physical support, i.e. the disc, help the fascist regime to emerge and develop? Located at the intersection of sound studies, musicology, history and sociology, REDIRE (Recorded sound propaganda of the Italian Fascist Regime) studies the uses of discs and their capacities within propaganda apparatuses to fascistize the Italian people, to unify and extend the national territory, to forge the future fascist women and men. The aim of REDIRE is to contribute to a better understanding of the functioning and the political imaginary of technicized sound, using the context of a totalitarian regime as a key case study. 

REDIRE has already produced a database containing information on more than 900 records (https://redire.uni-bonn.de/), and led to the publication of an article (Jonathan Thomas, “Koloniale Expansion und faschistische Herrschaft durch Phonographie in Italienisch-Ostafrika,” Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft, no. 31, 2024, pp. 55-67. [https://doi.org/10.14361/zfmw-2024-160207]) and two chapters (Jonathan Thomas & Nicolò Palazzetti, "Propaganda, Diplomacy and Ideological Crisis: Sonic Cultures and Italian Fascism During the Early 1940s" in Diego Alonso, Steffen Just, and Christian Koller (eds), Controlling Sounds. Music, Sound Technologies, War and Power in the Era of Fascism, Paderborn, Brill/Schöningh, pp. 123-144; Jonathan Thomas, “Interdiscours, musique et disques en Italie fasciste,” in Marion Bendinelli, Séverine Equoy Hutin, Manon Him-Aquilli et al. (eds), Music and Politics: A Multidisciplinary Analyse de discours en circulation [provisional title], Besançon, Presses universitaires de Franche-Comté, [forthcoming]. More publications are in progress, including: “Expanding and Dominating Through Phonography: Fascist Italy and the Colonization of East Africa”; “Perpetuating Fascism: Propaganda and the Temporality of Phonography”; “What a Fascist Use of Sound Could Be? A First Exploration.”

Laufzeit: 2023-2025

Ansprechpartner:innen: Jonathan Thomas; Jens Gerrit Papenburg

Förderer: the project REDIRE  has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2022 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska–Curie grant agreement No 101105514.