Recorded Sound Propaganda of the Italian Fascist Regime

If much has been said about the use of radio by the Italian fascists to establish and lead a regime that they wanted totalitarian from its advent, other devices of technicized sound, especially discs and their political affordances and effects, have been neglected.

However, discs and phonographs were among the first technical sound devices and media to be available for political propaganda.

Since the end of the 19th century, they have enabled political actors in the USA and Europe to transcend the time and space of their practice and to multiply their presence.

In the interwar period, discs and recorded sound became fundamental parts of propaganda devices designed to elicit ideas, behavior, and adherence to a political project from massive audiences through sound.

It appears then necessary to question the political functioning, the practices, and the social effects of propaganda discs, alone or associated with the radio or the loudspeaker, especially in a regime that its actors wished totalitarian.

With ""REcorded Sound PropaganDa of the Italian Fascist REgime"" (REDIRE), I wish to inform the political role and effects of discs in the context of Italian fascism and to participate to the reflection on the political functioning of (technicized) sound, especially in a totalitarian regime.

To do so, I will study the propaganda conceived by the regime to support the policies of development or perpetuation of fascism in time (education, identity, conservation and manipulation of cultural heritage) and space (colonization, war, transnational soft power, international existence of Italy).

Through an investigation of the State archives and the press, I will examine the political uses of recorded sound engaged by fascist socio-technical networks, from their imaginary conception to their realization and their social effects.

Finally, fascist and nazi recorded sound propaganda will be compared to better understand the political functioning of sound in a totalitarian regime.