André Millard has been at UAB for over twenty years. This teacher of popular culture, film and music, and World War II is also a collector of music in all formats.

How did you become interested in the history of recorded music?
As an Edison scholar, I followed what Edison did, and that got me into music and film. Initially I taught the history of technology, but students were interested in the media rather than the machines. Music and film are as important in their lives as they are in my life.

Do you really have more than a thousand records in your collection?
I probably have a thousand just on my laptop. But some people in the Birmingham Record Collectors Club and other groups have millions. I had the equivalent of that in gigabytes, but when you've got more than 50,000 songs, you start running out of space. Now there's some soul-searching for every record I acquire; I've got to justify it to myself. It's a challenge because today there's more music out there than ever.

Do you make any music yourself?
I was in bands, but I convinced myself that my talent was listening to other people play. Then in 1996 the Smithsonian asked me to write a book about the electric guitar, and I learned how to play from one of my former students. Now I find I'm getting pretty good, and I have a very nice guitar collection—about five antique guitars right now. I am especially interested in the guitars the Beatles played.

Why should people know something about the history of recorded music?
It's the soundtrack of our lives. More than anything else, it expresses our identity. Music and our popular culture are at the center of what we do.

What is the future of music?
In 2004 when I updated my book America on Record, I predicted we would get our music by telephone—in a handheld device. In the future a majority of people will get their music downloaded to handheld devices through wireless Internet, and that device will plug into your home system. However, I think CDs and DVDs have at least 10 more years. People disregard the packaging, but you're not just buying a piece of music—you're buying a chunk of the artist, so you need the pictures and liner notes.

By Charles Buchanan