Audio Sources of History

Modernity and its way of life had produced several new types o sources for the reconstruction of the recent past. Audio sources are one of the prominent categories of this type. Audio sources are based on sound and it includes all the varieties of recorded sound. The popular categories of audio sources are:

• Interviews and Oral histories
• Radio Broadcasting
• Speeches
• Songs and Music

Interviews and Oral Histories

Interviews and Oral Histories make excellent primary sources.  In their own voice, one can listen to someone's personal recollections, opinions, or interpretations of events they were directly involved with.  Listening to a person's voice brings a person closer to what they are saying than reading a transcript.  The oral history recordings help to understand the accents and emotions and gain a better sense of someone's personality.

Radio Broadcasting as a Source of History

Radio is a powerful medium, which uses voices to connect people with their past. Early radio dramas employed actual interviews alongside researched historical scripts. English historian Paul Thompson in his work The Voice of the Past: Oral History noted that ‘old radio broadcasts have themselves become valuable documents for historians of the recent past’. As a medium of communication, radio has several inherent advantages for communicating the results and process of history. Radio programs were often focused on community development programs, which is an important source to analyse the socio-cultural life of the period.

Speeches

Recorded speeches are another important category of audio sources. These are mainly political speeches that help to understand ideological intervention and political movements. Political speeches of early leaders of the world offer a valuable record to understand global political situations.

Songs and Music

Songs and music primarily represent the aesthetic sense and leisure of a society. It forms an integral part of the cultural life of the people. The lyrics of the songs often reflect the socio-political, economic, and cultural life of the age. The musical instruments and compositions used in the songs may reflect the likes of different generations.