The story of bessie smith illustrates how the advent of recording technology changed the position of the performer in musical life

Bessie Smith's first electrical recording was "cake Walking Babies, From Home", it was recorded in May 5, 1925, where the power of her voice was more evident than in her acoustic versions, and made her voice and songs available to a wider audience. She also benefited from radio broadcasting which was a new technology at that time. She was played even in stations of the segregated South. After giving a concert in 1923, for a white/only audience at the theater in Memphis, she then performed a late/night concert on station WMC, received by a radio audience. She not only reached black audiences but also black audiences.