MUSIC DEVICES
The battery powered transistor radio came out in 1955, and I remember always having one in the bathroom to listen to the latest music on AM radio. There was often static, and the radio had to be in the right position to get reception. There were very few really clear stations. FM came along later to solve these problems.
Our favorite music was purchased on vinyl records, mainly 45
rpms. We would stack as many as possible
on the turn table. After one record would play, the needle arm would lift and
swing out of the way, while another 45 would drop down. Eventually we purchased 33s which were larger
with a small hole. They may have 6 songs
on each side by the same artist and they had album covers with photos. I had
quite a collection of 33rpm albums. After the invention of the reel-to-reel
tape recorder in the 1940s, music reproduction evolved into four-track and
eight-track cartridges. By the late 1960s, many cars were sold with 8-track
tape players. With this popularity, there was a demand for home units and the
boombox came out in the 1970s. Eight-track players for the home and vehicle
became less common in the late 1970s when the compact cassette (invented in
1962) took over the market. The eight-tracks often came unlooped or creased or
worse, the tape would break. Eight-tracks were phased out by late 1982. Cassettes were only a fraction better, but
quite smaller. With these I was also able to tape my favorite music with my own
tape recorder. I used this quite a bit
for my teaching, recording my own voice of chapter reading. We were also
watching VCR movies (a large tape-type cassette) and Blockbuster stores were
renting the most current Hollywood movies. In the 80s and 90s, we spent many
hours on the weekends watching movies and on occasion I would show a VCR to my
students if a book we were reading had been made into a movie. Along about
1982, the CD music format came out but took a while to catch on. Movies were
also now on CDs. Portable music CD players were introduced in the mid 80s but were not popular until the 1990s when anti-skip technology was introduced. I remember
listening to my very own music with ear buds when travelling in the van with
all the wives for playoff games in the 90s. With the advent of music downloads
in the early 2000s and iTunes Music in 2003, CDs are decreasing in popularity.
