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Not that his fingertips are reaching exclusively for the great or the serious. The proportions of the public committed to classical and to pop music have remained remarkably the same: over the last ten years classical sales have hovered around 20% of total record sales. A great many of the bestselling disks in the classical category (Christmas Hymns and Carols, Richard Rodgers' Victory at Sea) are classics only in the vocabulary of record companies. Many record executives still wince as if stuck by a stylus when asked to release out-of-the-way music rather than the profitable old favorites.*
But there is no doubt that the taste of the companies—and of the customers—is gradually improving. Says Columbia Artists President Frederick C. Schang Jr.: "They start listening to Mantovani. In time they want Kostelanetz, which is a step up. or maybe the Boston Pops. Then maybe they will venture on to a big-time symphony orchestra playing Tchaikovsky. After that, one of these days, they'll even go for Beethoven—and they are caught. That's the way it's done in this country."
New Revolution? How long can the record boom go on? Indefinitely, according to the industry's hopeful calculations. The prospect of new technical developments promises to open the market wider than ever. There are now some 40 stereophonic tape labels; Westrex and London Records in the U.S. have announced the development of single-stylus stereo disk systems.
But stereo tape is still expensive (as much as $18.95 for a recording of Brahms's First Symphony, v. $3.98 for the same symphony on LP). A better prospect for a new revolution in recordings : sound-plus-picture. Engineers are now working on a disk that will be keyed to a picture to be played on a television screen. The audiophile will see Harry Belafonte singing at the Waldorf as he listens to him, will watch the great operas unfold onstage as the music pours from his phonograph.
Love, Love, Love. Even without the advent of what might be called LL (for long-looking) disks, the record industry has profoundly influenced American pop and jazz artists. While in the early days of the microgroove decade the 45-r.p.m. disk was the major vehicle for pop singers, all of the more imaginative pop and show tunes are now recorded on LPs. The 45, with only three minutes to sell its wares, relies on the babbling lyrics and thudding beat of rock 'n' roll and kindred styles. But the LP provides time for the leisurely display of stylists and songs, has pushed the outer age limit of pop record buyers into the 405, and now accounts for two-thirds of cash pop sales.
At the other end of the scale, the average age of pop short-play customers has dropped steadily, is now computed to be around 13. That fact is enough to guarantee that along with the ballad there will always be the beat, whether it is rock 'n' roll or some such hybrid rockabilly or the new "rockahula"—Hawaiian rock 'n' roll. Beyond that, the industry is devoutly committed to the sentiments that Columbia's pop A & R (Artists and Repertory) Chief Mitch Miller once eloquently summarized as: "I love, you love, we all love, why do we love, who do we love, how much do we love, where do we love, why did you stop loving me?"