Turntable Tutelage: How-To Records (Episode 63)

In the middle of the century, a collective thirst for knowledge
grew around the world. In these new space age times, people had
neither the time nor patience for books, tutors, or
apprenticeships. Instead they turned to the newest form of mass
media for their learning needs...the vinyl record. The turntable
allowed unlimited listens in the private and cozy confines of home
making it the ideal vehicle for audio instruction.  As a
result, there was a gigantic wave of how-to records, or educational
records, produced. These discs were designed to help people learn
how to become better. Better ventriloquists, better dancers, better
pick-up artists, better mathematicians, and better duck
callers. An age of self improvements, decades before YouTube.
It gave people a sense of control and purpose in a world where so
much was changing over which they had no influence, no power, and
often no understanding. This combined with a wave of mass
capitalist consumption made for the fertile conditions for the
explosion of instructional discs. Today, we discuss the wacky world
of tutelage that are How-To Records.   Highway Hi-Fi is a
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