If nothing else CD’s did increase the amount of music we were able to hear.
I guess I could start before the 8-track, but why bother so many of you probably have never seen or used an 8-track player, and will never know the wonders of listening to more then one song at a time when the play head would get out of alignment and start playing multiple tracks at the same time. The amount of playable time on a pre-recorded 8 track tape tended to hold only a single album or about 46 minutes of content. They did eventually make longer 8-track tapes but only for blank ones as this media format didn’t last very long.
At the same time as the 8-track the LP Album was the true money maker for the industry clocking in at a maximum of about 50 minutes and generally held between 10 to 12 tracks. This was the stable this was the bread and butter of what was the music business before CD’s and Digital music came around.
We enjoyed so much with the LP and the industry delivered so many magical things liked booklets and picture disc’s and inserts and just the inside information about the band about the songs, about everything we wanted to know as there was no MTV yet to tell us all the gossip. It was the equivalent of a book to some of us as we found out about all the people who were on the album and what they played.
Along side the LP there was also the 45 rpm, many of you only think these were available to the public due to Juke Boxes which was not the case, this was the industry’s quick cash grab for the masses the single the hit song, the one you heard on the radio why by the album if you only wanted the hit song.
I still remember my first 45’s I bought three of them Rich Girl by Hall & Oates, Lonely Boy by Andrew Gold, and Undercover Angel by Alan O’day, what can I say I was a small kid and I liked Bubble Gum Pop music at the time.
Then we had the Cassette Tape, thought this one would last forever, and it certainly did last longer then most of them, as it was the media type of choice for the Car Stereo which was fast becoming well it already had become the biggest and most often place that we as people listened to music.
Cassette tapes could hold a whole album and if you transferred your records to cassette yourself you could get the 90 minute tape and put two albums on one tape, one on each side. I remember the constant battel between TDK and Maxell for the best quality tapes. Then there was the worst blank tapes to buy which was Irish tapes, they didn’t ever come with a case.
But then the CD changed all of that and took over the industry it offered us everything we wanted Quality, Longevity, Ease of creation. Though they did promise us the CD’s were indestructible and would last forever, which in both cases was incorrect, as they easily got scratched and they certainly didn’t age as well as they told us they would. But CD’s allowed us to have 80 minutes of music on one disc. This is the traditional CD length for Audio and not counting what can be done with MP3 files.
This plus the ease of being able to jump from one track to another with ease was for certain the death nail into the other media formats of the time.
Surprisingly Albums have been making a comeback and will never be what they once were but you can still get new ones, can’t say the same for cassette tapes and 8-tracks, or 45’s for that matter.
Still the CD’s is on the edge of its own demise with everything being streamed and digitally downloaded there just doesn’t seem to be a place for CD’s, even the new cars don’t have CD players, everything is blue tooth or USB.
Do I miss the old days sure, but it is hard to pass up the amount of music you can stream or just have on your phone or music device. Sure we may be nostalgic for the old times, but it is so much more fun to ask Alexa to play Stairway to heaven then to go find the album and reconnect the turn table.
#beats #follow #unsignedartist #podcasts #repost #podcastlife #trap #musicvideo #independentartist #songwriter #spotifyplaylist #worldstar #hiphopmusic #podcaster #apple #art #musicproducer #indie #rnb #instagood #explore #like #album #applepodcasts #beatport #instamusic #podcastersofinstagram #atlanta #viral #song
#itunes #spotify #applemusic #music #youtube #hiphop #soundcloud #tidal #newmusic #rap #podcast #deezer #googleplay #artist #amazon #amazonmusic #radio #iheartradio #producer #love #rapper #dj #pandora #tiktok #singer #instagram #explorepage #musician #podcasting #youtubemusic
source