One for the Record Books
Designed for Dancing explores the era of mid-century vinyl and how it shaped American culture
By Craig Manning Let’s dance. That’s the invitation that authors Janet Borgerson and Jonathan Schroeder are extending to readers with their new book, titled Designed for Dancing: How Midcentury Records Taught America to Dance and out this month on MIT Press. Designed for Dancing is the second installment in a planned trilogy of books that uses vinyl record covers as a framework to tell illustrated, anthropological stories about the United States in the mid-1900s. The first, Designed for Hi-Fi Living: The Vinyl LP in Midcentury America came out in 2017 and had its release party at Traverse City’s Brilliant Books. Michigan Roots Borgerson and Schroeder grew up in Flint, but their respective families spent summers on Duck Lake and ventured into Traverse City often for day trips or shopping outings.
When in town, the pair say they visit TC record stores, like the long-shuttered Full Moon Records, once a fixture of downtown, or RPM Records, housed inside the bright orange building on Hannah Avenue. These days, Borgerson and Schroeder are entrenched in the academic world. She’s in the midst of a fellowship at DePaul University’s Institute for Business and Professional Ethics; he’s a communications professor and researcher at Rochester Institute of Technology. In spite of those busy jobs, the two have continued working together on the Designed for… series. Album Covers as Story Tellers When it was published, Designed for Hi-Fi Living was an expansive look at how day-to-day American life was encapsulated in the record album covers that were being made in the wake of World War II. Rather than focusing on the iconic album covers of the rock ‘n’ roll era – from acts like
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Elvis, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones – the book instead explored the covers of mostly forgotten compilation albums or promotional records. For instance, it wasn’t uncommon at the time for airlines or travel companies to sponsor vinyl albums themed around destinations like Hawaii, spurring Americans to travel the world. Designed for Hi-Fi Living explored the American story by looking at those types of forgotten covers. Speaking to the Northern Express about the book in 2018, Schroeder called the it “the story of post-war America told through record album covers.” Designed for Dancing goes farther down the rabbit hole of mid-century record album covers, focusing specifically on records themed around different types of dances. From the waltz to the hula to the tango to the twist, the covers chart dance records released in the 1950s and ‘60s, examining them “as expressions of midcentury culture, identity, fantasy and desire.” “We decided we wanted to do a pretty
comprehensive book on social dancing,” Schroeder said. “And we ended up, I think, with 28 chapters. We go from waltz to Watusi to the twist. We bring it up to the ‘60s, with what we call a soul and rock ‘n’ roll dancing. And then we stop right before disco, which we think is a whole other story.” Schroeder says that the underlying theme is about how records and dancing tell the story of American identity. “How did people bring their ancestral dances to the U.S., like polka? Why did Americans learn to Latin dance?” he said. “What’s the difference between a mambo and a merengue? We set out to find (the answers) and to talk about the dances, always through the lens of the record covers.” In many ways, the book captures how America – and American music and dance in particular – were truly the products of a “melting pot” mentality. Borgerson and Schroeder devote an entire chapter in Designed for Dancing to folk dances, spotlighting records themed around folk
