The phonograph is a very important, possibly the greatest technological invention in the history of music. During the late 19th century is when the phonograph was first invented, at that time there were several people experimenting with musical recording devices and ways to record things. The person who is credited for inventing/ who invented the first phonograph was Thomas Edison in 1877. His phonograph was a huge break through in the music and recording world. It was able to both record and play back the recordings, so it was an even greater invention at the time then what people expected.
Phonographs had such an impact at the time it came out that it was used in schools, especially in music education classrooms. This is a very good thing because it allows music classrooms to listen to music from orchestras and such to familiarize themselves with the music. It also is good because music classrooms can utilize it to record their own rehearsals or performances and then listen back to them to learn, critique and grow from hearing it first hand.
Since the phonograph came out to what it has advanced to today is truly a remarkable thing. It went from a phonograph to a record, to tapes, to CDs, to handheld recording devices (for just the recording aspect), to what we have today with ipods. The radio and computer could also arguably be thrown into the mix because you could use the radio to hear the music that was recorded and you could use the computer/laptop to both hear and record music.
To play devils advocate for a moment on the phonograph, people may argue that it was a bad invention and it isn't good for music or music education. People will find ways to take advantage of having this type of technology, for example a student can abuse their privileges with recordings and listen to things that aren't necessarily part of what you're doing in your class, they use it for their own personal luxuries. Students also can illegally download music to listen to rather then purchasing the required music if needed for their music classes, which isn't good at all. It also gives students an "easier" way to hear music or hear great performances, like the NY Philharmonic. Rather then actually going to see the NY Phil, they can just buy music or download music they they've played and listen to it. This in itself isn't good because they are not truly getting the experience of seeing the orchestra and you miss a lot when you just listen to the recording rather then seeing it live and full of expressions right in front of you.
As i've said, the phonograph is a very large part of music education that has technologically impacted it. The phonograph gave us the first way to both record and playback the recording's you made. The phonograph and the technology from it has greatly impacted the way we view/listen to music today. The phonograph is a large part of music education.
