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Talkies, or movies with sound, revolutionized the film industry and audio technology. Before sound, silent films were accompanied by live orchestras and intertitles. The first sound feature, The Jazz Singer, was released in 1927. Some opposed talkies, but they became the norm, leading to the disappearance of theater orchestras and the end of some acting careers.
Talkies are movies that include dialogue, music, and other forms of sound. Although the vast majority of movies today are talkies, when “talking movies,” as they were called, were first introduced, they attracted a great deal of public comment and concern. In addition to radically reshaping the motion picture industry, especially in Hollywood, sound has also had a profound impact on the technology used to record and reproduce audio material, and the rise of sound has had some interesting unintended consequences.
Before the advent of sound, silent films were accompanied by live orchestras playing in the theater, and when dialogue or exposition was needed, intertitles with written material were shown. The atmosphere in a theater showing silent films would have been congenial enough, as patrons often talked to each other about the film and reacted as a group to particularly startling events. The thought of speaking in a movie theater today is, of course, anathema, because people want to be able to focus on the scenes and dialogue.
As early as 1900, attempts were made to produce sound recordings to accompany films. The early pioneers of the industry faced several problems, not the least of which was sound quality. They also had to sync the recording with the film, which was challenging, as several devices were used to play the audio and display the film. They also had to contend with volume levels, which were difficult to adjust without electrical amplification.
By the teens, sound-on-disc technology had advanced to the point where synchronization was made much easier, and people had also developed sound on film, ensuring synchronous playback. However, the first sound feature didn’t come out until 1927, when The Jazz Singer was introduced to worldwide audiences.
Initially, many people were against talkies, in the belief that they besmirched the purity of silent film. Famous directors such as Alfred Hitchcock have expressed a deep loathing for sound. However, sound proved to be an unstoppable tide, conquering production studios and theaters around the world.
One of the more unfortunate side effects of the rise of sound was the disappearance of theater orchestras. Many musicians from such orchestras protested the “canned music,” but their efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, and as theaters no longer had to hire orchestras to accompany films, their overhead costs were drastically reduced. The talkies also ended a string of acting careers, as actors with thick accents or strange voices found themselves out of work.
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