Midcentury record albums presented rock and roll, cool jazz, and stereophonic symphonies, but vinyl LPs also tapped into aspirational US goals of self-improvement, success, and global influence. While celebrated discs delivered Chuck Berry’s rockin’ dance music, Miles Davis’s musical innovations, and Bach’s concertos, rarely remembered records lectured listeners on child rearing, wine drinking, and music appreciation. Camouflaged in the mix of midcentury hi-fi aesthetics, modernist design, and technological progress, vinyl records transmitted advice for living a good life and provided packaged instruction for training body and brain in an easily consumed, portable format.

Janet Borgerson and Jonathan Schroeder are a creative team - writing, teaching, and collecting vinyl records together for over 30 years. Powered by PhDs in psychology (Jonathan) and philosophy (Janet), their enthusiasm for modernist design, retro aesthetics, and travel found expression in their book, Designed for Hi-Fi Living: The Vinyl LP in Midcentury America, which was named a best book of 2017 by the Financial Times and a best music book by Vinyl Factory. Overthrowing conventional assumptions, Borgerson and Schroeder's analog rescue project pulls vintage vinyl out of the bargain bins and reveals the cultural relevance of these midcentury records.

Borgerson and Schroeder are co-authors of Designed for Success: Better Living and Self-Improvement with Midcentury Instructional Records (MIT Press, 2024), Designed for Dancing: How Midcentury Records Taught America to Dance (MIT Press, 2021), and Designed for Hi-Fi Living: The Vinyl LP in Midcentury America (MIT Press, 2017).