It should come as a surprise that there is still a lack of research on how (young) people use music media in everyday situations. Contributions have been made in recent years with the advent of new technologies, but still not enough is known. The surprise is made greater by the recognition that music in various multimedia forms has pervaded everyday life in economically developed countries for a considerable period of time. Music in cinemas, shops, cafés and restaurants has been established since the 1930s. The pre-war era also witnessed the rise of music in the home, via the gramophone and later the radio. Gramophones were to have a major cultural impact in that they spread American influences across the Atlantic to Europe and other parts of the world following the mass importation of recorded music in the early 1930s. By the mid-1930s gramophones were relatively cheap to buy and portable too – they could be taken on holiday or moved around the home – which increased their use among young people and the working classes.

An even greater cultural impact was made by the radio. Commercial radio broadcasting began in 1920 in the United States and Europe. Throughout the 1930s the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) – the only company with a licence to broadcast across radio waves whilst located in Britain – provided daily airings (excluding Sundays) of dance band music that proved extremely popular: ‘Each band was allocated its own day and fans tuned in religiously’ (Nott 2002: 62).