An exhibition exploring the evolution of music playback devices over the past century is currently on display at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in Manhattan. Titled "Art of Noise," the show runs through August 16 and features a collection of 85 objects, including phonographs, radios, turntables, jukeboxes, and portable music players, highlighting the transformation of sound technology from 1910 through 2024.
Originating at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where roughly half of the exhibits are sourced, the exhibition traces the development of devices that shaped how people accessed and experienced recorded music before the digital age. The collection includes notable pieces such as Raymond Loewy’s 1933 New World radio, designed as a globe symbolizing the broadcast of sound across distances, and John Vassos’s 1935 RCA record player modeled like a briefcase. Among the more iconic objects is a 1947 Rock-Ola jukebox, emblematic of the rock ’n’ roll era, known for its illuminated rose window design.
The exhibition also showcases the distinct design philosophies of various decades. During the 1960s and 1970s, audio equipment took on increasingly sculptural and experimental forms. For instance, Wendel Castle’s 1973 stereo chest features carved walnut with curvilinear shapes, while Ron Arad’s 1983 DJ system contrasts with a Brutalist, concrete-and-rebar aesthetic. Several of these pieces served as both art objects and functional machines designed for daily use, offering visitors a glimpse into the era’s interplay between form and function.
While the exhibition includes a substantial amount of paper-based material—advertisements, posters, handbills, and album sleeves from multiple eras—curators say these elements serve to contextualize the social and commercial backdrop that accompanied technological advances. Nevertheless, some critics note that the show’s focus on printed ephemera can distract from the more compelling narrative centered on device innovation and the cultural shifts in music consumption.
The exhibition also engages with the shift from physical to digital music experiences. Teenage Engineering contributed interactive seating embedded with digital samplers, allowing visitors to manipulate preloaded tracks, emphasizing contemporary modes of music interaction. Additionally, audio engineer Devon Turnbull curated a dedicated listening room featuring high-fidelity playback of vinyl records and analog tape, where live sessions recreate the sound quality and ritual of earlier music consumption.
Among the designers featured, German industrial designer Dieter Rams holds a prominent place, with thirteen Braun radios, turntables, and tape players from the late 1950s and early 1960s on display. Rams’s minimalist and functionalist aesthetics have long influenced modern product design, notably inspiring the first Apple iPod released in 2001, which mirrors elements of Rams’s 1958 T3 transistor radio.
The exhibition underscores the dramatic changes in how music is accessed, moving from complex, tangible devices that required deliberate effort and social interaction, to today’s streamlined digital platforms that provide instant access worldwide. The progression reflects both technological innovation and shifting cultural attitudes toward music ownership and consumption. Visitors are offered a retrospective on an era when physical media and elaborate machines shaped the soundtrack of daily life, now largely replaced by wireless, on-demand streaming technologies.