The Medium Is the Massage is an album by Canadian media philosopher Marshall McLuhan, released in July 1967 by Columbia Records. It is the audio companion to the book of the same name, co-authored by McLuhan with Quentin Fiore, which explores the subconscious effects of mass media on the global psyche. The record was produced by John Simon of Columbia, who took creative control of the recording, and co-ordinated by Jerome Agel.
Based on a script written by McLuhan, Fiore and Agel, the record is a sound collage that features McLuhan reading prose set to a cacophonous array of sound effects, voices and musical snippets. To create the collage, Simon and Agel used razors to cut pieces of magnetic tape and splice and overlay samples across each other in surreal permutations. The record specifically examines sound as a format of expression and experience separate from books, as per McLuhan's central theory that 'the medium is the message'. According to Agel, the record was intended to be as played like a pop album.
After the record's release, Columbia organized an elaborate promotional plan, involving advertisements in an eclectic array of publications and a unique campaign which saw female models in miniskirts outside media centres in American cities carrying posters of the album and giving free copies to passers-by. The record drew critical attention for its unique content, and was a success throughout the late 1960s on FM radio. More recently, critics have described as prophetic, due to McLuhan's comments on global communication, and the parallels between the cacophonous nature of the collage and the information age.
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