Today, it is common to see people on the street, riding the subway, or in the gym listening to music on their MP3 players through headphones. But most of us don’t realize that personal stereo systems are a modern invention. In fact, the recording industry, which records music and sells it to the public, is not very old at all.
Live Music
For thousands of years, music has been an important part of every culture on the planet. Before the Middle Ages, however, the only kind of music that was available had to be played live. Music was not recorded or written down, so the knowledge of how to play instruments and certain songs was passed down orally from teacher to student.
Then, sometime before the fifteenth century, people began to use a written language to record the notes of songs so that they could remember them and share them with others. This language is called musical notation, and it is still used today. The advent of musical notation meant that musicians in France, for example, could learn how to play a piece of music written by musicians in England without ever having met them.
The Phonograph
The next major advance in music technology occurred in the late nineteenth century, when Thomas Edison invented the phonograph. This device allowed people to record sounds for the first time. It had two major components: a large metal horn, which focused sound waves onto a vibrating needle, and a rotating cylinder covered in wax. As the needle vibrated, it would make grooves in the wax. The process could be reversed to replay the sound for an audience. People could now play their favorite songs whenever they wanted, so they didn’t have to rely on live musicians anymore.
In the beginning of the twentieth century, the cylinder was replaced with a spinning disk called a "78." This phonograph changed the type of music that people listened to because a 78 could record only three minutes on each side. So, many songs were shortened to fit the format of the medium. Also, the quality of the phonograph recording was quite low. Musicians had to play loudly to ensure that their music would be picked up. Higher tones, such as the voices of sopranos, were easier to record than low tones. Among the orchestral instruments, trumpets and violins worked best. For folk music, banjos were better than guitars. As a result, the first music to be recorded, such as the tunes played by jazz bands, featured these kinds of instruments.
Radio
By 1926, a new invention, the radio, was spreading across the country. The old mechanical equipment was replaced by microphones, which are more sensitive and can pick up a wider range of tones. Because singers and musicians no longer had to play at top volume, more delicate and complex styles could be captured.
Bing Crosby, who eventually made more than 1,700 recordings, was among the first singers to take advantage of these developments. Instead of singing as if he were performing in a large concert hall, he sang softly into the microphone in an intimate style. He and other male singers like him, including Frank Sinatra, dominated the airwaves for years. Their popularity soared even higher when smaller, portable radios became widely available. Disc jockeys, often called DJs, would ask their listeners about their favorite tunes. Over time, this process resulted in "top-ten" lists of the most requested songs of the day, which would become known as pop─short for "popular"─music.
Around the same time, a recording company called RCA Victor introduced albums that were more durable and able to hold more information. These new long-playing records, called LPs, also sounded better. The recordings could be more subtle and complex, and up to 23 minutes long. These were sold by the millions and helped launch the careers of hundreds of folk, country, blues, and pop singers.
Les Paul and Tape
Another development in the recording industry came after the Second World War when American engineer Les Paul was introduced to a piece of equipment used by the German military. It used thin strips of paper or plastic coated with metal particles arranged in a way that represents sounds. Significantly, these tapes could be used to record sounds, erased, and then used to record again. This meant that musicians didn’t have to make their performances perfect the first time. If they made a mistake, they could just try again. Tape had another benefit as well; you could record several sounds separately, and combine them into the final recording later. This clever technique, multi-tracking, dominated professional recording for decades.
After he mastered the art of recording, Paul went on to invent another musical tool: he built the first solid-body electric guitar. This new instrument was loud and unlike anything else ever heard! It appealed to young people, especially during the 1950s and ’60s, and contributed to a new genre of music called rock and roll.
This genre was transformed─as was the music industry yet again─in the 1970s and ’80s. After the mid-1960s, the cassette tape was developed. Much smaller than regular recording tape, it was placed in a plastic shell for protection. Because it was so compact in size and simple to use, cassette tape gave people the chance to record their music easily and share it with friends. This led to a surge in the number and variety of artists on the music scene.
The Synthesizer and Digital Technology
Most people were satisfied with both LPs and cassette tapes. In 1960, however, an enterprising engineer, Robert Moog, built a machine that could make sounds out of electrical signals, called a synthesizer. At first, it was slow to catch on, but in the 1980s, people began to buy these machines for their homes. Because the synthesizer was easily hooked up to a computer and simple to play, it took off. This new digital technology allowed people to manipulate rhythms and beats, expanding several musical genres such as techno and hip hop.
Meanwhile, recording companies were desperate to find a medium that could last longer and capture higher-quality recordings. Finally, in 1982, Sony and Phillips released a new kind of record, the compact disc (CD). Shaped like a smaller LP, the CD could hold over an hour of music, and it sounded crystal clear.
The CD remained the most popular music medium for over two decades, but recently, the Internet has begun to have a profound effect on the industry. Since 1991, computer users have been able to compress sound into small files called MP3s. These can be stored on a portable storage device, such as an iPod, or sent to other users over the Internet. Because the files are digital data, they can be erased, modified, and copied easily. More importantly, MP3s can be uploaded and downloaded from the Internet, so music lovers can shop for a wide variety of songs from anywhere in the world as long as they have an Internet connection. With this level of convenience, it’s no wonder that MP3s are quickly replacing the CD in popularity.
The recording industry will undoubtedly continue to change. The standards of consumers keep on rising and the quality of recordings must continue to meet those expectations. Who knows what heights recorded sound will reach in the next century?