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The Early Magnetophone
The second world war was a tragic time for many but one of the things that kept them going was music. With demand high for recordings by troops wanting memories of home, Vinyl was found and became the material on which all future records would be made.During the war the development of the Magnetophone by the German company AEG was improved. -
Magnetophone descovered
The magnetophone technology was discovered in 1945, by the advancing Allied forces. -
Vinyl Record
New standards were created for recording playing speeds for vinyl records with the introduction of the 33-1/3 rpm, 12 inch recording and the 45 rpm, 7 inch recording.The two speeds introduced by Columbia in 1948 continue as the standard recording speeds of albumns and singles recorded on vinyl to this day. So, even though the vinyl recording has disappeared from the world of mainstream record sales, and only really still survives. -
7"LP
the 1950's several important standards were set in the production and distribution of vinyl recordings.In 1950 RCA introduced the first 12 inch LP, followed in 1951 by the introduction of the 7" single. Both standards that still exist for vinyl recordings to this day.So with the birth of Rock 'n' Roll, the new standard of the 7 inch single would become the iconographic image around which the new Rock 'n' Roll music took it's physical form. -
Recordings
In 1953 Elvis made his first studio recordings, cutting a personal disc in the now infamous Sun Studios in Memphis. As the decade wore on record companies started to ship 7 inch singles to radio stations and the days of the old 78 format had clearly passed. -
the BBC
BBC beginning broadcasting in FM for the first time in 1955 and stereo vinyl becoming the dominent media of all recorded music. A sudden boom in productivity of technology researchers around the world while people worried about the youth of that age listening to such music. -
Woodstock
Another important cultural development during the 60s was the creation of the rock music festival. The Monterey International Pop Festival, with performers including Jimi Hendrix, The Who & Otis Redding was held in 1967 but one important point about music festivals is the film "3 days of peace and music" immortalised on film by Michael Wadleigh causing the festival to get its name Woodstock. -
Compact cassette
Originally introduced by Philips in 1963, the compact cassette was offered to the market with free licenses worldwide, an important factor in its growth. Of course the sixties will always be remembered for the birth of bands like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Beach Boys, but it's interesting that the latter of these bands were the first to use a full-range sound system for their rock music concert tour. -
radio
In 1964 the first pirate radio stations started broadcasting, one the now legendary Radio Caroline. Radio Caroline North and south claimed a staggering 32 million visitors between them. There were also stations such as Radio City, Radio London, Radio Scotland, and many others which had followed Caroline onto the new age. One radio station even took over a disused Anti-Aircraft Battery in the Thames Estuary. -
Radio 1
By 1967 however, the BBC had launched Radio 1 (using a Pirate Radio format), and the pirate radio stations were forced to withdraw from the airwaves. Another memorable invention was the cassette tape. -
Concert technology
Held in 1969, Woodstock for many captured the mood of the late 60s hippy movement and served as a good example of how concert technology had developed during the course of the decade. -
Inventions
Other great inventions of the 70s included the wonderful laser disc format. Like some shiny vinyl album that could play video it promised to finally end the battle over video formats in 1978. Inevitably, no-one bought it and the medium soon disappeared into nothing. -
Home video
As the 70s were drawing to a close, and with the popularisation of home video, the first promotional music videos were released the birth of the MTV generation was imminent. -
The Battle- sony betamax
In 1975 the battle to win the video wars began with the introduction of the Sony Betamax format. -
The battle-VHS video tape
VHS video tapes soon followed in 1976 and the war for market dominance was on. Of course history reveals that VHS won the battle and the Betamax format soon died, much to the relief of confused customers bringing the wrong tapes home from those earliest video rental shops. -
sony walkman
1979 welcomed the new Sony Walkman and a craze of sweat banded joggers and cyclists hit the streets humming along to their favourite tunes, while the rest of us got annoyed listening to bad singing voices and muffled noise from the early headsets. This simple invention took personal music listening out of the home and into the streets. Everywhere you went you could see people wondering around wearing their Walkman’s, a trend that still continues to this day, although the Walkman’s are now iPods. -
Music video continued
The best at this new found medium got even very average songs to the top of the charts by producing really good videos. Bands that really made the most of video were acts like Duran Duran, Michael Jackson with his multi-million dollar epics and Frankie Goes to Hollywood, making the use of video more controversial and immediately increasing record sales. -
Music Video
On August 1st, 1981 a new era of music launched with MTV playing their first ever music video named video killed the radio star by the Bugles. This simple act changed the face of popular music for ever. The pressures on artists were now not only to have a great sounding song, and to look good for the cameras, they had to produce great videos too, and smile happily all the way though as they were doing it. -
The CD
The next great revolution in music technology was billed as the wonderfully indestructible compact disc format. Originally introduced in 1982 by Philips and Sony, the new format offered crystal clear sound quality, while (according the presenters on "Tomorrows World") being virtually unscratchable. Who can forget those demonstrations of CD's being covered in jam, wiped off and then played like they were brand new? The introduction of the new media was slow to take off as people liked vinyl -
Portable NOT CD
Factors combined with a price rise of the new discs meant that it wasn't until1988 that the CD became the dominant media for recorded music. So, with music videos, portable music, cd and MTV all happening during the 80's it was another big decade of development for the music industry. -
Dominant sales
In the 90s the face of music had changed much. While the CD remained the dominant force is sales terms, people were still buying vinyl records, the new Mini-disc format proved popular with some and the steady adoption of the internet started to gain popularity with the more technically literate as the decade wore on. -
MP3
If anything, the nineties were largely about delivering music to the fans however the fans wanted to receive it, a trend that still continues to this day. Of course the introduction of the recordable CD and the later introduction of the MP3 format in the 90s raised the question of music piracy again in the industry with each new development supposedly signally the death of the music industry as we know it. And yet, as had happened with earlier inventions like the cassette recorder. -
The Big 6
By 1994 the global "Big 6" music companies controlled a $30 billion record industry: Philips (owns Polygram, A&M, Mercury and Island), Sony (owns CBS Records), Matsushita (owns MCA, Geffen), Thorn-EMI (owns Capitol, Virgin), Time Warner, and Bertelsmann (owns RCA Records). Not bad for an industry reportedly being killed more every day by the methods of piracy! Even with the further developments in music delivery brought about by improving speeds for the delivery of music over the internet. -
buisness
By 1999 the 5 largest record companies in the U.S. controlled 84% of the 755 million albums sold in the U.S. which is some business from the early days of our vinyl music history.
