Wired | Jan. 10, 1949: A Brand-New Format for the Shirelles, DriftersThe beauty of this technology is this: You could watch it play and see how it worked. Every bit of the science that made sound happen was visible.
1949: The 45-rpm record is introduced by RCA. Can rock 'n' roll be far behind?
Flat disc records began replacing the cylinder for reproducing recorded sound as early as 1887. The original standard, what we know as the 78, had a 10-inch diameter disc with a rotational speed of between 75 and 80 rpm.
The 78 remained the standard for portable recorded sound until the mid-20th century, despite some severe limitations. For one thing, the disc didn't hold much, meaning that longer works, typically classical music, had to be broken in mid-composition (which makes the 78 seem a little like the vinyl forerunner of the four-track tape).
Columbia introduced the 33-rpm disc in 1948, which mostly solved that problem, and its rival, RCA, was right behind with the 45. Despite a diameter of only 7 inches, the 45 could hold as much sound as the 78, and was far more portable and cheaper to produce.
With an iPod, on the other hand, there are no moving parts larger than electrons. The basic parts are still there (data storage, scanning, conversion from physical to electronic form, transportation to vibrating surface, conversion from electronic form to vibrating air) but there's nothing you can see going on. And a common phenomenon of everyday life gets a little more obscure.
It might as well be magic.
5 comments:
Noticed we still talk about the 'B side' of a CD?
We do, but now we don't even pretend that it's anything other than a quality judgment.
We still talk about "dialing" a phone, too.
My wife's dad used to have a "record album" recording of "Bolero" in the original sense of the word: It was a pocketed binder resembling a scrapbook, containing three 45's. The piece was split across the discs 1/6, 2/5 and 3/4, to facilitate playing with an automatic changer. (You stacked sides 1, 2 and 3, played them, then flipped the whole stack over to play 4, 5 and 6.)
Of course, it *was* "Bolero", so all you *really* had to do was play the same disc six times with the volume a little higher each play. :)
'...now we don't even pretend that it's anything other than a quality judgment.' Speaking as someone whose work has appeared on CD's _only_ as 'B' sides...
I didn't mean...
I'll just sit here in the corner now.
Relax. I didn't figure you did. :)
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