日治時期的臺灣進入了現代性以及現代機械與技術的時代。蓄音器與曲盤改變了人們的音樂經驗，使現在的人們得以「聽見歷史的聲音」，並提供研究者探究臺灣音樂史在文獻之外的路徑。思考里克爾(Paul Ricoeur)提及「歷史」所關涉的「敘說時間性」以及阿多諾(T. W. Adorno)反省批判「曲盤」所隱含的現代性「書寫」，將開展出「鐘錶時間」以至於「曲盤時間」的詮釋軸線，並從1933年一張古倫美亞所錄下流行歌〈跳舞時代〉的曲盤中聽見臺灣30年代的「跳舞時代」以及狐步舞的節奏是如何旋繞在臺北城入夜後不停歇的跳舞場中，交疊著跳舞女、身體、時間、摩登經驗與現代機械技術的複雜意涵。

During the Japanese Colonial Rule, Taiwan went through a period of modern machinery and technology. Gramophone players and records have changed people’s listening experiences. These gramophone records allow people to hear the sound of history and provide an alternative approach to music history besides written documents. Considering Paul Ricoeur’s concept of narrated time in history and Adorno’s critical reflection on modern “writing” of recordings, the interpretation of “clock-time” and “record-time” could be given. From a recording of a popular song, “the Dance Age”, we hear the dance age in the 1930s in Taiwan: the foxtrot rhythm had resounded in commercial dance halls at night in Taipei city where dance hall girls, body, time, modern experience and technology together interwove complicated meanings.