Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Delivery of Recorded Music




On thing about getting old is you remember how things used to be. The playing of recorded music has evolved in my life time. When I was young there were still some "78 RPM" records around. However it was mostly 33&1/3 RPM albums and 45 records ( the ones with the big hole in the middle) The evolution in my lifetime is as follows:

Record Albums Good sound unless scratched which was easy to do. Had to play one record at a time unless you used a record changer which caused the records to get scratched. I still like the album cover art and miss it. The CD cover art is too small.

45 Records Usually, just one song on each side. My first 45 was "Solder Boy" by the Sherells. When I was a kid I liked them better than albums because you only played the "hits" and not all the other "misses" they put on the album.

8 Track You can play it in your car! Continuous play and easy to use. When I was a teenager I got a 8 Track player for Christmas and spent all of Christmas Day installing it in my car with the help of my friend Tom Muscus. Then we drove around town listening to music. I saw a guy at Payless Drug Store, in the music department, a few days later and he told my there was nothing as good as playing Simon and Garfunkel in your car..... he was right.

Cassette Tape Smaller than 8 Tracks and better sound. I still use them but less and less. I only switched over to CD's a few years ago and not in my car until last year when I bought a new car with a CD player. My kids though we were in the dark ages because we did not have a CD player and would play cassettes in a 8 track player with a converter attachment. I still have some 8 Track tapes but we sold our 8 track player at a garage sale. The cassettes would wear out with use and the tapes would distort the music or clog up the player.

CD's Better sound, easier to find the song you are looking for on the CD and more durable than tape.

Digital Music-MP3/ipod See my post below. I miss the album art but it is the way to live in your own little world of music anyplace. I like being able to buy music on line without having to buy an entire album and run around town looking for it.