The Stylophone rose to popularity in the early 70s not just in musician’s circles but within toy culture as well, “This is largely attributable to its introduction on TV by Rolf Harris, its use in the song that launched David Bowie’s career, “Space Oddity,” and its appearance in a popular TV series “The Avengers”. Three million instruments were sold by 1975.” (Freed, A, The Fingerphone: a Case Study of Sustainable Instrument Redesign, 2012, NIME)
The initial desire for a specific toy is forced onto a child from influencers in their lives that they look up to or admire, “Children imitate their parents, TV, and the internet.”. A child might imitate their parent by asking for toys that allow them to replicate their parents vocation or a particular hobby of theirs. Television advertising targeted at younger audiences is mainly built up of toy advertising, this drives sales also. “Consumer behavior is heavily influenced by cultural influences.”, There was opportunity for a child of any gender seeing Rolf Harris on the television recounting a melody he once played on the stylophone with a girl and boy sat next to him would see the appeal and likely ask their parents for one.
The Stylophone as a toy was solitary, the interface only allowed for one user at a time. To make a Stylophone with more than one interface would allow for prosocial behavior in a play context as well as a musical context, sharing is important for development of prosocial behavior in early age children as well as for songwriting and musical development.
(Kolios, D, Consumer Behavior in Services: Looking through Neuromarketing lence, 2023,Hellenic Open University School Of Social Sciences)