Evolution of the Musical Format

Most of the youngsters today probably can't imagine their favorite tunes coming from anything except an i-Pod or a compact disk. But there was a time, not so long ago, when music wasn't quite so easy and convenient.

My first experience with music came in the form of the good ol' vinyl record. I was probably four or five years old when I first discovered my parent's Herb Albert & The Tijuana Brass album. I can still remember the album cover. It showed a woman in a whipped cream wedding dress. I have to imagine that this was a bit on the risque side back then. (By the way, here's a bit of trivia....Herb Albert is the "A" in A&M Records).

Before long, I had my own collection of rock albums. I had all of the Kiss albums, Frampton Comes Alive and many other records that would go on to become rock classics. The old record albums featured a lot of things that have gone by the wayside with today's downloadable music. For instance, the cover art and liner notes were always interesting. A lot the albums also featured lyric sheets on the inside record sleeve. I always enjoyed reading along while the record played. It had the tendency the give you a better appreciation of the music.

As for the sound of the vinyl record, you're likely to hear mixed reviews. Personally, when played on a good quality turntable, I always thought the music had a deep, warm sound that seems to be lacking on a lot of today's digital music. Now on the other hand, the more the the record was played and handled, the more likely it was to become degraded. As a result, you might start to hear subtle pops and hisses. And in worst cases scenarios,  the record might become scratched which would cause noticeable skipping.

With all of this being said, the biggest disadvantage of the vinyl record was that it wasn't mobile. I mean, you could drag your record player outside and run an extension cord, but who wanted to do that? And you certainly couldn't play records in your car.

So, lo and behold, we were introduced to the 8-track tape........

My old 8-track player

Now, the 8-track tape was a piece of work. First off, it was relatively bulky. If you had a collection of 8-track tapes, you might carry them in a case that was the size of a good size toolbox. But it was a reasonable trade-off for being able to play our favorite tunes in our cars and through portable stereos. I used to have a portable player that looked like a dynamite detonator. You pushed the t-shaped handle down to change "programs" or "tracks". And if a track played until the end, it would automatically sequence to the next track.

I can remember rolling down the road, jamming out to Black Sabbath's "Heaven and Hell". Ronnie James Dio would start to belt out the opening verse of the song:

"Sing me a song, you're a singer. Do me a wrong, you're a bringer of evil...."(fading out to silence)

CLICK!

(slowly fading back in)".....The devil is never a maker. The less that you give, you're a taker. And it's on and on and on!"

A typical 8-track tape.
Note the four "programs".

It would ruin the whole mood. You see, due to the time limits on each of the four tracks, sometimes a song was split across two tracks. It might start on track one and then "click" over to track two. Another drawback of the 8-track was that most players didn't have the ability to rewind or forward the tape. So, you might have to sit through a couple lame songs before you heard a good one. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait too long for an improvement on the tape technology. This came in the form of the cassette tape.....

The biggest improvement with the cassette was that Ronnie James Dio would be interrupted no more. We were now able to listen to both sides of the "record" in it's entirely. Another bonus was that the the cassette was considerably smaller than the 8-track. And rewinding and forwarding was a standard option on almost every player. Things were looking up.......

....until your player "ate" the tape. I can remember hearing the dreaded "garble" sound coming out of my 6x9 coaxials. If I was lucky, I would hit the eject button before my Van Halen II tape was turned into a pile of magnetic spaghetti. In those not so lucky cases, I would spend the next hour fishing the broken tape out of my car stereo with a pair of needle-nose pliers.

Although I knew only a couple of people who ever had them, I must also mention reel-to-reel tapes. The exposed tape was wound up on a large reel that resembled a movie film reel. I never saw a record store that sold them and I always thought the they looked like much more trouble than they were worth.

When the compact disk (or CD) was first introduced, it appeared to be the biggest advancement in recording media ever. Since nothing in the CD player physically touched the disk, we wouldn't have to worry about the wear and tear that were sometimes experienced with vinyl and tape. The biggest initial drawback for CD's was the cost. I bought a few CD when they first hit the market. If I recall correctly, they were roughly $17-18 a pop. Then, you had to shell out a few hundred more bucks for the player. If you wanted one for your car, you could easily shell out $500 or more. I wound up waiting until the price came down to the $10-12 range before I started to beef up my collection. I'm guessing that have at least 500 CDs now. (I bought many of these used for much lower prices at flea markets and the old Record & Tape Traders)

I like a lot of things about the CD. The sound quality is good and the disk itself is fairly durable. However, you can scratch them. If this happens, just use it as a coaster or a miniature Frisbee as it will never play music quite the same.

Here are some interesting tid-bits regarding CD's:

• The first album to be released on CD was Billy Joel's 52nd Street. It was released in Japan in 1982.
• The first album to sell a million copies on Cd was Dire Straits' Brother In Arms (1985)
• A typical CD has the recording capacity of 74 minutes
• There is only one "track" on a CD. It spirals from the inside hub to the outside edge.

And closing things out, i-Tunes and other digital downloads have taken over the current market. There's no doubt that this type of music is the most convenient. And you can't deny that the quality can be quite good. But I still prefer to have a hard copy of the record, even if it's in the form of a CD. Admittedly, I will transfer my favorite CD's onto my i-Pod for the convenience of listing to them while I'm at the gym, on a plane, etc. But I still want the peace of mind to know that I can reference the CD jacket for song info, band bio, lyrics, etc.

There have definitely been great some advancements in the recording industry through recent years. Have we finally reached the end point with the current digital technology. Or can we expect to see yet another format in the near future? Stay tuned....

kw