His Master’s Voice as interpreted by The Recording Angel

Despite their adoption of dayglo blue and pink colours and an emphasis upon their name/acronym, I suspect HMV will always be associated in the hearts and minds of consumers with Nipper, the curious dog:

I’m currently reading The Recording Angel by Evan Eisenberg. It’s a survey of the history of recording and the impact of that process upon music and our experience and appreciation of music. And it’s brilliant: hugely original, witty and perceptive. I suspect I’ll be make more references to it here in future. For the time being, I just want to quote the author’s interpretation of HMV’s famous image:

… the immense popularity of the HMV logo suggests the following things. That we feel like dumb animals before the phonograph, cocking our ears in consternation. That we are not masters of the voice, but the other way around. That the owner of the voice is dear to us, that we miss him and would like to see and sniff him. That if the disc is faithful to the master, we will be faithful to the disc.