Other than that, fill your boots...
This is part of my Music In Society coursework. It is a music technology timeline which came from a variety of sources and is, frankly, too much work for a BTEC course but is nonetheless very useful for a music historian. I would advise you to check the sources. I did but being the internet etc there might be mistakes. I know researching this that there are conflicting reports as you look around.
Anyway, here goes:
1800’s
1800’s Early in the century Music Boxes appear which may represent the first time technology and music combine.
1820 The larger cousin of music boxes, the Barrel Organ, appears.
1870’s Alexander Graham-Bell is credited with inventing the telephone and the microphone, also a new invention, is an integral part of his design. Around the same time loudspeakers were designed which are created from very similar designs. There is debate as to whether Graham-Bell and indeed Edison before him actually invented their devices or just used someone else’s design.
1870’s Self-playing fairground organs, called Calliopes, appear using steam power. The sounds are made by blowing air through holes into punched paper running over the ends of pipes. The Calliope featured in the song Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite by The Beatles, although the sound of the machine was on tape and cut into pieces to be rearrange randomly as the practicalities of recording a piece on the machine proved too much.
1870’s Reed Organs developed.
1877 Thomas Edison shouts into a horn to capture the sounds of his voice. The end of the horn is covered by a diaphragm, and the sounds cause it to vibrate. There is a needle attached to the diaphragm which scratches the vibrations onto a cylinder covered in foil. The words “Mary Had A Little Lamb” could then be played back.
1885 The Graphophone is invented by Chichester Bell and Charles Tainter. They use wax cylinders to engrave their sounds, in contrast to the foil one used by Edison. Wax cylinders are adopted as the recording medium for a short time.
1887 The Gramophone is invented, the early record player, by Emile Berliner. The system used flat discs made of rubber and could be mass-produced by making master discs made of zinc to stamp into the rubber ones. By 1910 the Gramophone became very popular. Records were cut using lathes, similar to those used to make furniture, and gramophones were often sold in furniture stores. The lathe has been in existence since ancient Egypt and the term, to “cut” a record, is still in use today.
The first records ran at 78 rpm (revolutions per minute) and could only store a few minutes of sound due to their fast speed. They were also poor at reproducing the more extreme low and high frequencies. To begin classical music was mainly produced but it was soon realised that popular music fared better as subtlety was less of a problem. Not only that but popular music sold more copies!
1889 Louis Glass creates an early juke-box which allows wax-cylinders to be played after placing a coin in a slot. As amplification was not invented yet, patrons had to listen to the music through a tube.
1896 The Aeriol Piano is marketed, the first self-playing piano. It used a punched paper roll, much like the Calliope, to denote which note should be played when. The rolls were created on a special punching piano, often by famous musicians, and were effectively a recorded live performance.
1896 Telharmonium (or Dynamophone), the first electronic instrument is patented by Thaddeus Cahill. It was unsuccessful as it was huge and expensive and, as the sound was transmitted by wires, interrupted telephone calls! However, it was somewhat revolutionary as it produced sounds in the same way as the Hammond Orgon nearly 40 years later. It also used a primitive speaker which involved attaching ordinary telephone receivers to paper cones.
1897 Shellac discs, made from insects, replace the rubber discs of a gramophone.
1898 Danish Valdemar Poulson invents the Telegraphone. This is the first magnetic recording device although instead of using tape as we would associate magnetic recording, he used magnetized wire. What is believed to be the earliest surviving magenetic recording was made by Poulson in 1900 of the Emperor Franz Josef of Austria. There was no amplification but the sound could be heard through a headset or over a telephone wire.
1900’s
1907 Lee de Forest invents the triode valve, which is essential in the development of amplification and broadcasting. Amplification was important to the development of music, not only when used with microphones to ensure singers could be heard over the bands or for replaying recordings, but also it was used to amplify signals for cutting records.
1916 Condenser Mic invented by E C Wente at Bell Labs.
1917 The first jazz record, Livery Stable Blues by The Original Dixieland Jass (sic) Band, is recorded
1920’s During the Great Depression money was short to buy records and radio becomes a favourable alternative. However, as the depression lifted, radio stations began to play more and more records and business boomed into the 1930’s.
1920’s The guitar was not the popular instrument it was today. There were no electric guitars and acoustic instruments were used in jazz bands but often failed to be heard. As no amplification existed, metal resonators were fitted in an attempt to make the sound louder.
1920’s Late in the decade George Beauchamp made the first steps into guitar amplification by winding copper coil around a horseshoe magnet. This came to be developed into the guitar pickup. The “Frying Pan” guitar was a lap steel guitar, which became popular in the Hawaiian sound, a very popular music genre of the era. Beauchamp and Adolf Rickenbacker manufactured them for their Electro String Company in 1932.
1920 Leon Theremin invents the Theremin, an electronic instrument which produces an eerie electronic tone which is played with no physical contact from the musician. It becomes synonymous with science fiction soundtracks.
1925 The microphone, earlier developed for the telecoms business is now used in recording studios. Singers could be heard over bands and, with the use of close mic-ing techniques, allowed singers to sing softly, developing the sound we now know as “crooning”. Bing Crosby became a very early success with this technique. Bing Crosby was involved heavily with recording innovations alongside Les Paul (Lester William Polsfuss to give him his real name).
While microphones had a better frequency range, records still had issues with sound quality. Records were made from shellac and were limited in storage. This means that a full symphony would be on many discs, all held in a case known as an album; a phrase still used today to denote a collection of songs in one package, usually on CD or download package. These early records were very brittle and easy to break.
1927 The first “talkie” movie, The Jazz Singer, is also sound tracked on a gramophone record.
1928 The first successful electric keyboard, the Ondes Martenot, invented by Maruice Martenot. It sounded similar to a theremin and produced eerie sounding notes.
1929 In Germany Fritz Pfleumer coats paper with magnetic particles. When combined with the technology involved in the Magnetophone it heralds the development of Magnetic Tape recorders which would revolutionise music recording and playback.
1930’s The Juke Box craze began and ran into the 1940’s. The Juke Box allowed customers to choose which music to listen to from a number of different records on insertion of a coin.
1930’s Leon Theremin invents the Rhythmicon, a hard to use rhythmic making machine and predecessor to the drum machine. It was introduced in 1932 and caused quite a stir but was very difficult to use and promptly forgotten.
1930’s The first electric bass guitar is produced by Audiovox. The Model 736 Bass Fiddle, as it was known, was not very successful. Other attempts follow but its not until the Fender Precision Bass that the instrument achieves widespread success.
1931 Following on from Fritz Pfleumer’s development with magnetic coating (he himself licenced his technique to be used), AEG make the first magnetic tape recorders. This allowed radio broadcasts to be pre-recorded, where previously everything was live and meant bad “takes” could be remade until satisfactory. It also allowed edits to be made by cutting the tape “splicing” it back together. Perhaps most significantly for music production, it facilitated the development of multi track recording. There were disadvantages to using tape. It deteriorates over time and takes time to access information on a particular part of the tape. It can also be damaged by magnetic fields and itself is quite easy to damage so careful storage was necessary.
1932 BASF and AEG combine forces to research and improve magnetic tape technology.
1933 The Hammond Organ is invented by Laurens Hammond and is conceived as a replacement for clapped out church organs, which were extremely expensive to replace. The instrument becomes extremely popular in rock and jazz music from its roots in gospel (spiritual church music).
1935 BASF and AEG demonstrate the first Magnetophone, which recorded and played back sounds on magnetic tape. This device was initially conceived as a dictation machine for businesses but became used in music recording in 1936 when a live orchestra became the first music to be recorded using the medium. There were further improvements that increased the frequency range for increased clarity and quality tape and recorders were released which approached the quality of records. They began to be used extensively in film and radio as well as record production. Bing Crosby, alway one of the first to embrace new technology, introduced the medium to Les Paul. Tape recording was the first editable medium and soon became the industry standard for many years.
1936 The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) makes its first television broadcasts.
1936 The first electric guitar is created, by manufacturer Gibson, that can be played in sitting or standing position (not a lap steel as previously manufactured). Lloyd Loar created the guitar in 1933 and tried to sell the Spanish-style guitar with his own company but was unsuccessful. Loar previously worked for Gibson and they began to take notice, producing the ES150 (ES standing for electro-Spanish) with the selling price of £150. Charlie Christian was a legendary jazz guitarist who first used the model to astonishing effect. Amplification appeared at around the same time. There were to problems with this model. Firstly there was lots of feedback due to the sound hole, secondly, the frequencies that should have been picked up were absorbed into the body of the guitar. A design change was needed.
1938 A development comes that begins to define the turntable (from a record player) as an instrument in its own right. Avant Garde composer John Cage uses a turntable to change speed and produce sliding notes in Imaginary Landscape No.1.
1940’s Pierre Schafer experimented developing the musical form known as Musique Concrete which used pre-recorded tapes played in different ways alongside electronic sounds and traditional instruments to create sonic compositions that can ignore structure and rules of normal music.
1946 The Fender “Woodie” line of amplifiers are the first line to be made in-house by the company and become popular over the next year or so.
1946 Les Paul invents the solid body electric guitar, which helps reduce the feedback problems of the Spanish electro-acoustic and gives a better tone as there is no sound hole to absorb the sound waves. Called The Log, it was a solid piece of pine built after hours in the Epiphone guitar factory. He took his invention out to play live but it was only upon changing the shape to look more like a traditional guitar that people actually began to notice the sound, leading Les Paul to conclude that people listen with their eyes.
1947 Germanium Transistors developed, which are stronger, smaller and cooler in operation than the valves hitherto used in amplification.
1948 Les Paul is given an Ampex tape recorder by Bing Crosby and starts to experiment. At the same time he releases the first example of multi-track recording, on his hit song “Lover”. Recorded in his garage as an experiment it features 8 parts on electric guitar, some recorded at half speed. This was not recorded on magnetic tape but on an acetate disk (using a cutting machine he made himself) by playing and then recording again over the first part, a technique that became known as overdubbing. He used around 500 disks before he was happy with his results.
1948 Columbia records release the 12” 33 ½ rpm LP (Long Player) vinyl disc which can store 23 minutes of music on one side (the discs being double sided). They could not be played on a standard record player and needed an adaptor at extra cost.
1949 RCA Victor introduce the 7” 45 rpm single which were easily stackable in juke boxes. They were also stronger and offered better quality sound than the shellac discs. The format helped define the pop single length to around 3 minutes until Bob Dylan releases Like A Rolling Stone in 1965, which was around 6 minutes long. Promo releases split the song over two sides of a record. Public demand eventually saw radio stations play the whole song and the final release saw the whole song appear on one side.
1949 The EP (extended play) 45 rpm 7” vinyl and was intended by makers Columbia Records to rival the LP. No record players were produced at this point that could support all the different formats. The grooves in the disc were narrower and allowed the 7” single to become longer. Capitol Records (US record label of The Beatles and The Beach Boys) become first major label to support all formats.
1950’s Multi-track recording is developed and used in recording music.
1950 Leo Fender releases the first Fender solid body guitar after working on it since the late 40’s. Named the Fender Broadcaster it was produced on a large scale as an affordable instrument. It was renamed the Telecaster after a copyright issue with the name and has been in production (with refinements) ever since due to its popularity in country and rock genres.
1951 RCA and CBS bring out multi-speed record players. LP’s establish themselves as classical music vehicles with 7” singles and EP’s becoming established in popular music.
1951 Fender produce the Precision Bass, which is a response to increasing volume of electric guitars and drum kits. The body is modelled on the Telecaster and was the first mass-produced, successfully marketed solid body bass guitar. This bass was responsible for the shift from double bass to electric bass and helped usher in rock music. Bill Black used one in Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley.
1951 French, German and American broadcasting authorities open their first electronic music studios.
1951 Distortion before this time was usually a product of poor equipment and considered a problem. However, with the recording of Rocket 88 by Ike Turner it became a desirable sound. Guitarist Willie Katz had damaged his amp during transport, which led the sound to be fuzzy but as they liked the sound and had to cut the record they carried on. By the mid 1950’s guitarists began to alter their equipment to produce distorted tones. This is a fine example of a simple mistake being used to great effect.
1952 Fender introduce the Bassman amp to partner its electric bass. Its design was influential in future guitar amp design.
1952 The Gibson Les Paul, the remodelled solid body guitar, is launched. Les Paul himself gave little or no input to the redesign and was not particularly fond of it but endorsed the product that bore his name. The new P90 pick-up added a warmer sound.
1954 The Fender Stratocaster is produced which later became associated with guitar legend Jimi Hendrix.
1954 Plate reverb is introduced, achieved by a large metal plate suspended by elastic being used to pick up sound and convert it back to an electrical signal.
1954 Sony’s pocket radio means music can now be enjoyed on the move for the first time.
1955 The first synthesiser is produced at RCA studios. It was programmed like all early computers, using punch tape, and was valve driven. It was also very expensive and took up a whole room.
1956 Stereo tape recordings start to be produced. Stereo was first pioneered using a telephone system in 1881 by Clement Ader and at EMI in the 1930’s, stereo records and surround-sound is patented by Alan Blumlein. The first mass-produced stereo vinyl records were released in 1958.
1956 Elvis Presley releases Heartbreak Hotel, which features an early example of echo effects.
1957 The classic Gibson Les Paul is launched and used Humbucking (or Humbucker) pick-ups that were invented in 1934 by Electro-Voice. The pick-ups had a warm sound and higher output as well as overcoming hum problems. They were instrumental in creating the distinctive distorted rock sound that was popular in the 1960’s. Led Zeppelins’ Jimmy Page is a famous exponent.
1958 After a few attempts, the world standard for stereo is established and mass-produced stereo records are produced. However, specialist players were needed as well as two speakers so it’s some time before stereo becomes the norm. As car stereos in particular only had one speaker and radio and TV stations still broadcast in mono, many records were released in mono after this time.
1958 The BBC opens its Radiophonic Workshop. In 1963 it produced the Dr Who theme tune by Ron Grainer, one of the best-known, early pieces of electronic music. It has recently been announced it will re-open.
1958 The Mellotron is built and becomes one of the first instruments to use samples of other instruments. It was made with tape loops of real instruments that could be played back. It was notoriously unreliable but was used to great effect for the flute intro at the beginning of Strawberry Fields Forever by The Beatles.
1959 The first commercially produced drum machine is released by Wurlitzer. It’s electro-mechanical design offered predefined rhythms.
1960’s Music shop owner Jim Marshall decides to create a more powerful and cheaper alternative to American amplifiers by creating a new amp modelled on the Fender Bassman. Due to its design it distorted quicker and easier and became very popular in the 60’s rock scene. Requests from leading guitarists such as Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend led Marshall to create some of his most popular models.
1960’s Phil Spector creates his Wall Of Sound production technique using echo, tape loops and multi layering. It makes a distinctive sound and pioneers the use of the studio as an additional instrument. This is highly influential on the 1960’s production boom, in particular Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys (Wilson was both mentored by and in competition with Spector).
1960’s 4-track recording becomes the standard way to record pop music. Prior to this most songs were recorded by the band playing live in the studio. Multi-tracking later expands in the decade to include many tracks (up to 24) and panning and phasing effects and synthesisers also make inroads into studio use.
1960’s The Wah-wah pedal becomes more popular and is used by Hendrix in Voodoo Chile. It becomes very popular in funk music throughout the 70’s, particularly notable in Theme from Shaft by Isaac Hayes. It works by pressing on a pedal, which sweeps a filter up and down in frequency. It was originally to mimic a muted trumpet.
1962 The Fuzzbox becomes popular and is a way of creating distortion at lower volumes without damaging amplifiers. In 1961, the band The Ventures asked a friend to recreate the sound of a distorted amp and the first commercially available fuzzbox, the Maestro Fuzztone FZ-1, was released in 1962
1962 The first Beatles’ recordings are produced by George Martin. Love Me Do is released as their debut single.
1963 The Mellotron is commercially available.
1963 The Fender Blackface Twin amplifier introduced. It becomes very popular due to its warm sound, twin reverb and extra distortion.
1964 The first home cassette tape system is produced. Early tapes were cumbersome and had to be threaded every time they were played. BASF produced high quality cassettes, originally for dictation machines (you’d think after magnetic tape was “misused” the first time in music production that they would have realised as it took them by surprise!). To the consumer this meant smaller, compact pre-recorded music that could be played on car stereos and the ability to record your own music. However it also meant that music piracy was now made easy.
1964 Stereo 8, 8 tracks cartridges, appeared and became a popular format in the 60’s for car stereos. It was largely unknown in Europe (where cassette dominated). Cartridge players battled with cassettes for dominance but cartridge players were bulky and cassette had blank tapes to record your own music, pre-recorded tapes and cassette decks all freely available. There were problems with sound (wow and flutter) and they often got jammed and wore away. Cassette in comparison was lower quality (theoretically) due to the lower speed and required a more complex player.
1965 Robert Moog developed a much smaller synthesiser powered by transistors, named the Moog, which became commercially available to order.
1967 George Martin produces The Beatles’ Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, using overdubbing, tape splicing and effects by changing the speed of tapes. It becomes a landmark album.
1968 The seminal electronic album, Switched On Bach by Walter Carlos (later Wendy Carlos), is released bringing Moog music to a wider audience. In 1969 Carlos also contributed heavily to the soundtrack of the cult film Clockwork Orange.
1968 Mono records stop being manufactured.
1969 Dolby noise reduction is developed which eliminates hiss on cassettes. This signals the final straw for the cartridge format. Cassettes then became the standard in cars due to their small size, noise reduction and good support. Dolby noise reduction works by dividing the signal into 5 bandwidths and then applying noise reduction to each band.
1969 The Minimoog is developed. The first affordable synth, it features sounds that could not be found anywhere else and is much smaller than the Moog, allowing a greater degree of portability.
1969 The VCS3 synth is produced in the UK by Electronic Music Studios. Most famously used in the Dr Who theme tune by Ron Grainer, it was also popular with psychedelic bands. It was more flexible than the Moog but the Moog was easier to use and had a distinctive sound, which made it more popular.
1970’s This decade sees a multi-tracking boom meaning musicians had to have an understanding of studio techniques.
1970’s A new form of synth appears in the 70’s. The EDP Wasp is an early type in 1978. The oscillations that produce the sound are digital instead of analogue. This means a huge improvement in the stability of the sound and polyphony (the amound of sounds that can be played at once) improves greatly.
1970 The first digital delay is developed. Previously delay was made with magnetic tape being played back with a time interval. These delays were used to help time lapse between front and back speakers in a large PA system
1971 The microprocessor is invented which means lower costs and smaller units for music technology.
1972 The ComputeRhythm is relased by Eko. It could be operated manually or use pre-programmed punch cards and represent the first programmable drum machine.
1972 Mesa Boogie amps are introduced, starting with the Mark 1. The sound is somewhere between a Marshall and a Fender amp and the brand becomes very popular.
1972-3 Technics release the SL1200 turntable. Due to its high torque motor it was able to return to its original speed quickly after stopping it with your hand. This meant that record “scratching” could develop and was pioneered by Afrika Bambaataa and Grand Wizard Theodore. When upgraded with the speed control which changed pitch, it was easy to play records consecutively without changing tempo. 12” singles began to appear in the 70’s, in part due to this development, with extended non-vocal sections to help DJ’s mix. The SL1200 was originally supposed to be a high-end turntable and was often installed into clubs for this reason. However, due to the above benefits and the fact that they are highly robust and reliable they have dominated club and dance music until very recently.
1973 Jamaican born DJ Kool Herc used two of the same record, played from one turntable to the next, to extend the instrumental sections at parties in the US. This represents the evolution of hip hop, as while the “breaks” played he would shout to his crowd which would lead to rapping.
1974 Krafterk release Autobahn, a song using predominantly electronic instruments (some guitar and flute feature). The song used Moog bass, phasing on the synths, vocoder on the vocals and electronic drum pads. The song featured on BBC’s tomorrow’s world and a 7” single version, edited down from the original 22 minutes, became a UK top 11 hit in 1975.
1975 The first digital reverb is commercially produced by EMT.
1979 The Sony Walkman is released and plays audio cassettes. It’s hugely popular and despite many competitors the portable cassette players is nearly always referred to as a Walkman. Lightweight headphones also increased in popularity as a result.
1979 The first commercially available sampler, the Fairlight CMI goes into production. The device is more like an early computer in that it has a monitor with lightpen (a device for drawing on the screen, popular in precision computing before the rise of the mouse). It was very expensive but used by pop stars such as Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush. One of the earliest recorded examples can be heard in Bush’ Army Dreamers as a cello part.
1979 The first sample based drum machine becomes available for sale. The Linn LM-1 is much more realistic than its predecessors but very expensive. It’s followed by the Linndrum which was a bit cheaper and had more kit sounds and became used in lots of early 80’s music. The Roland CR78 also appears, as featured on Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight.
1979 The Tascam Portastudio 4 track home recorder became available. Bands were now able to produce demo tapes in their home using cassette tapes. Despite the limitations of the 4 tracks there was the option to “bounce” 3 tracks onto one free track. The Portastudio One was released in 1984 and this was where the real revolution came. It was possible to remix and mix down to a stereo recording.
1980’s This decade say the rise of digital delay and echo. Notable recordings include those by U2 who’s guitarist, The Edge, used it to devastating effect on the Joshua Tree album in 1987. Using a dotted eight note delay with each note playing 2 or 3 times, his guitar lines are simple, but with the ever present delay effect, become a textural shimmering wash.
1980’s Guitar design has an overhaul with the “superstrat” design sold by companies such as Ibanez, Jackson and Charvel. These models increased octave range, decreased action and added locking tremolo as well as sometimes adding higher output pickups, more strings and crazy designs.
1980’s Midi guitars are developed which enables guitarists to control synthesizers and midi instruments via a guitar with a midi pick up. Success was limited but the Roland GR series is perhaps the biggest success in the area.
1980’s Throughout the 80’s sampling technology is developed. A sampler digitally records a sound, processes it and plays it back. The Art of Noise were a breakthrough sampling act as evidenced on the hit Close to the Edit in 1984.
1980 The Roland TR808 programmable drum machine was produced. The sounds were not realistic but could be easy to change with adjustable pitch and decay and so became popular with dance music and hip-hop. DJ Frankie Knuckles played records over the drum machine and brought electronic instruments alongside vinyl manipulation. The 808 would be a defining sound of the 80’s house scene and 90’s dance scene with innovators 808 State taking their name from the machine.
1981 The new music only channel, MTV launches, bringing the image of music and musicians to the fore and helps to make the music video into an art form. Music promotional videos were around in the 60’s with Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues and the Beatles Strawberry Fields Forever being notable examples but this was the first time they had a dedicated forum.
1982 The first digital audio CD’s go on sale. Early CD’s are criticised by purists for sounding too sterile. CD’s were more robust than vinyl and cassette (vinyl’s scratches affected sound and cassettes would often unspool having to be wound back up with pens) plus you could track hop easily with the press of a button. The music industry re-released all their old back catalogues and slowed vinyl production. In 1988 CD’s overtook vinyl sales. This means many older acts and music companies resold old music on the new format to fans and became cash rich. CD and cassette then dominated the music formats into the 90’s. Vinyls were still used by purists and DJ’s, as some DJ techniques, like scratching and mixing, were then impossible on CD. Early CD demonstrations showed them being horribly abused before being dusted off and playing with no problems. The reality was different as many consumers found out. Once scratched enough to damage the data, which was not as difficult as the demonstrators imagined, the CD’s would skip horribly which sounded even worse than a mushy, popping record.
1982 The Roland TB303 is released and was supposed to be an electronic bass player with a sequencer built in. However, because it did not sound like a bass player, it flopped. Later in the 80’s, 3 DJ’s picked one up after it was discontinued in 1985 and used the filter and decay control to produce a squelchy bassline that sounded rather interesting. Set over a house music beat, this new track, called Acid Trax, was released by the 3 DJ’s under the name Phuture. The track coined the term Acid House, which was to become the start of the modern dance scene, particularly in the UK where it became very popular once listened to under the influence of a new drug, ecstasy. The 303 basslines were often put through effects to make the sound edgier and due to the 303 sequencer being notoriously fiddly it often resulted in off notes and strange rhythms which became a feature of acid house. The Acid House explosion was in 1988-89 but due to the rather limited nature of the 303, the sound had to change and the Acid House scene died out. The sound of Acid House was an integral part of the Madchester scene in the late 80’s early 90’s and as such dissipated into indie, rock and dance music, the effects of which are still relevant today.
1983 The Roland TR909 drum machine, discontinued a year later, became the defining sound of house music due to its distinctive drum sounds. This, along with the 303 and 808, comprise the holy trinity of early dance music technology. The limitations of these machines birthed the house and dance music genres. If they were any good at doing their job, the scenes would almost certainly have not evolved.
1983 The Yamaha DX7 is released. The DX7 was an digital synth, which used combined waveforms to produce sounds. It was good at hard sounds but subtle and richer sounds proved to problematic, yet it came to define the sound of 80’s pop.
1983 The MIDI (musical instrument data interface) standard is introduced meaning that control messages can be sent from a control down a wire to one or more instruments. This means that one synth could control the timing of another so it was possible to make them in time and play together. It also meant that one musician could play a whole host of instrument with one controller and led to the formation of many electronic duos, as showcased by Yazoo, where you have one keyboard/MIDI whizz and a singer (this format had already tested out visually at least in 1979 by Sparks).
1983 DAT (digital audio tapes) and players are released. Sound quality was excellent and allowed high quality home recording. Many legal issues around digital copy protection delayed DAT from the market and could be the reasons they did not surpass cassettes in sales terms. They were used up until the takeover of computers in professional recording and radio production.
1983 For the first time, pre-recored tapes outsell vinyl.
1985 The first sampler to be in the average musicians price range arrives. The Enisoniq Mirage was midi equipped and had a small sequencer, keyboard and synth built in. It had a maximum sample time of 6.5 seconds.
1985 Sony and Phillips develop the CD-ROM standard that would revolutionise home music production. It also meant that you could pirate music CD’s with perfect sound quality.
1985 Affordable digital reverbs are produced making them more available to more musicians.
1985 The Atari ST home computer is released and is the first computer to be shipped with MIDI as standard. Programmes were written that acted as sequencers and had the distinct advantage of being graphical. This meant you could see all the parts on a colour screen, which hardware sequencers lacked. Editing was also easier using mouse and keyboard and the “piano roll” sequencing system was developed. This meant you did not have to understand music theory to sequence music. Popular music programmes Logic Pro and Cubase originate on the machine and sampling software was developed. Musicians Fatboy Slim, Madonna, Eurythmics and Jean Michelle-Jarre have all used the Atari ST and a UK number one was achieved by utilising the ST in 1997 by White Town for Your Woman.
1986 Akai release the S900 which became a standard in the 80’s for sampling. Long sampling times and good editing facilities helped its success. Jungle music was pioneered when the beats sampled were played back at higher pitch, which increased the tempo.
1987 The Roland D-50 synthesiser is released which used samples to create the sounds. This caused some memory problems due to the technical limitations of the day. The samples were used for the attack pattern while the synthesis was used for the actual sound. This could more accurately reproduce sounds like the bowing of a string, which was always difficult to reproduce with traditional synthesis techniques.
1988 Alesis release the HR-16, the first affordable digital drum machine.
1988 CD sales surpass tape sales to become the dominant format.
1988 Akai S1000 is released to become the new standard for samplers. You could also timestretch on it, which creates its own distinct sound. Samplers become very popular in dance and rap music and copyright issues arise as the samples often belonged to the songs of popular artists. While legal issues have sometimes led creators to lose money due to using a sample, it has also revived careers of people like Gary Numan due to his music being sampled on pop hits. This is in direct contrast to The Verve who suffered losing 100% of their royalties after they used a sample of a Rolling Stones song on their hit single Bittersweet Symphony despite having written the song that the sample features in.
1989 Digitech introduced the Whammy pedal, which enables guitarist to bend their pitch or play a self harmonizing sound.
1990’s Digital multi track recorders become available and are able to match some commercial studios. Tape hiss is a thing of the past on home recordings.
1990’s Mid decade Apple MACs and PC’s become popular for making music. You could then record midi and audio onto one machine. Processor power increases allowing extra tracks and effects. With the addition of writable CDR’s being built into computers as standard it meant it was possible to be a home producer burning directly onto CD. More and more software such as synths and amp modellers (allowing sounds to be processed in a way that putting them into an amp would sound) became popular. The rise of the internet and social networking sites also mean that music could be put directly online to promote and, later on, bought directly for download onto computers to be burned, or onto portable devices to be listened to directly. The addition of MP3 was a major factor in the straight to consumer revolution. Pirating was a massive problem (and still is).
1991 The Minidisc format is introduced by Sony. The small discs are re-recordable, have digital, hiss-free sound and do not wear out like tape. They are also robust as the discs are housed in sturdy plastic shells. Sound quality is high, tracks can be edited and re-sequenced and then named to make moving between tracks easier. Pre-recorded mini disk was a flop but the recordable versions were very popular. It was well suited to home recording and minidisk walkmans were tiny and great for recording audio on the move. Many journalists used it for recording interviews but the format declined with the onslaught of MP3.
1992 The MP3 format is introduced. It’s a digital file format that uses compression to reduce file size, which enabled transmission over the net. The algorithms used to compress the files are based on auditory masking, a psychoacoustic phenomenon that means that some tones can be made inaudible by a tone of a lower frequency. These algorithms were first calculated in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Purists do not like MP3 format as many say the compression makes the music lose its character. In 1994 MP3’s begin to spread and in 1997 Winamp MP3 playing software is released. The first solid state MP3 player is released in 1998 while the format’s popularity soars.
1992 Writable CD introduced to the market.
1994 The DVD format is introduced. While music on DVD is more a specialist thing, some albums were produced in DVD surround sound to astonishing effect. It had a bigger effect on the music video and concert DVD, which allowed greater sound and picture clarity and more storage space over video cassette.
1996 The Alesis ADAT 8 track digital home studio is released, recording straight onto DAT.
1996 The first DVD players are sold. The format comes to eclipse video cassette. It’s still the most popular format but digital distribution with no physical media is becoming more popular, as is the Blu Ray format which is a high quality storage format.
1996 Minidisc multi track home studios are introduced.
1997 The Rebirth software is introduced. It combines two software 303’s and an 808 into one programme. It’s later upgraded to include the 909.
1997 The Roland Groovebox MC series launched which had elements of TR drum machines and the 303.
1999 Moby records the super smash hit album Play at his home studio.
1999 Napster software released and allows music sharing over the internet. This led to massive problems with copyright. Napster was closed down for copyright infringement in 2001.
2000’s
2001 Daniel Bedingfield records the smash hit Gotta Get Through This at home with Making Waves Audio 2 software.
2001 The ipod is brought into the market by Apple. It revolutionises both consumption and distribution of music by having MP3 files bought online and downloaded directly to the device. It signals the end of music shops (although some specialist stores still survive) and while continually trying to tackle piracy, confirms the MP3 as the dominant format and the MP3 player (apple’s branding being the ipod although there are many other types) as the dominant music player. Alongside computers and mobile phones (many of which now play MP3’s) this also signals the demise of the compact disc although whether the format completely disappears is yet to be seen. Oddly, vinyl sales are on the increase in the early part of the 2010’s but this is because of a love of the format which has never truly died as many believe it sounds superior, especially compared to the low quality MP3 format. There has been lots of support by artist who create vinyl only releases and record store day events, which help the industry.
2002 The Variax modelling guitar is launched by Line 6, which reproduces sounds of a whole guitar collection such as vintage Les Paul’s and Stratocasters as well as acoustic guitars and sitars.
2011 Digital downloads sales surpass physical copies for the first time.
2012 Old music outsells new music for the first time. The reasons for this could be many. There is obviously a lot more old music than new. Also old music could be difficult to track down when shops selling physical media were in operation. Now, all music is available if you know where to look and most online MP3 retailers have massive back catalogues. It could also be because older artists are seeking to re-commercialise their back catalogues by releasing them again in mp3 format. The Beatles did this recently although they didn’t do quite as well as expected as many predicted they would dominate the sales charts. Finally, it could be because younger audiences just aren’t buying as much music, maybe through illegal downloading, whereas older consumers are now buying their music again. There are also lots more radio and streaming sites so people just don’t need to buy music like they used to. However, this does not account for the rise in vinyl sales, which would suggest that hardcore music fans who buy lots of music could be less interested in the modern music landscape or indeed the inadequate MP3 format.
Now mobiles phones, computers, media players, games consoles and car stereos all support non physical media. CD is declining, vinyl is rising, cassettes are obsolete and MTV no longer plays much music. Music also shares its home with TV, film, videogames and social media and as such no longer has the monopoly on our attention like it used to. However, its worth bearing in mind that most of the above competing media usually incorporate music into their form. The Sony Playstation was notable in the 90’s for using its CD format to get pop and rock acts of the day to put their music into their games. Music exists everywhere but the way it is being produced and sold is in a very mixed up way. The dust has yet to settle on the digital revolution.
SUMMARY
Music seems to be more disposable than it used to be as there is no format involved. It’s just a case of pressing delete. This could mean in the future that music simply becomes more commercial. There is certainly a dominance of pop music in the current climate. It has to have lots of musical hooks to grab people very quickly as its very easy to move on quickly. Reports suggest that most young people rarely listen to a track, skipping it after a short time, which would reinforce this theory.
As each successive technology has come along, it usually wipes away what comes before. Wax cylinders had poor sound quality and were very easy to damage with just a finger. The record has declined in popularity as it was large and bulky and damaging it could depreciate sound quality. Cassette tapes were smaller but sound quality would depreciate over time. However the format was perfect for in car stereos and recording music from radio or record was the secret to the success of the format, despite making piracy a big problem. CD’s were also small and produced excellent sound reproduction but as we have found out they depreciate over time due to the metal reacting with air as the plastic breaks down. And the supposed indestructability of the format proved to be untrue as a small scratch could produce an unlistenable digital glitch. MP3 means that large back catalogues are available, that musicians can interact directly with consumers, that physical space is no longer a problem and sound files can be organised with great ease. However piracy has become an unmanageable problem and little has been done to solve it. It’s also undesirable to audiophiles due to its inferior quality. MP3 also threatens to make the album format redundant. The album, after the mid 60’s, symbolised a body of work or a statement of intent by an artist. Classics such as Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd reinforce this idea as the tracks do not work as well on their own as they do as part of the whole. But if people can download just one track from it why does an album have any more relevance? It is no longer a complete package. The rock band Radiohead refused to sell their albums on iTunes for this very reason.
As technology progresses it inevitably gets used for something that was never intended. The Technics SL 1200’s were intended for high end audio but birthed DJ’s, the Roland 303 was intended as a backing instrument but gave rise to a new form of music, Acid House. A prime example would be the microphone, developed for telecoms but used in recording. Remember that some early electric instruments could be heard through telephone wires. If telephone were never invented then we would not have modern recording and in fact modern distribution via the internet as there would be no internet. Music would still largely be live and perhaps we would not have the big stars and corporations we do now. Is the modern music scene better for these developments? It’s tempting to say yes, people can make their fortunes, lots of music is at our fingertips. But with these changes the money is clustered into clumps where many musicians cannot make a living, where live music struggles to find an audience and its no longer a part of our general life like it used to be.
The backing of certain instruments by certain musicians has been important. The electric guitar being taken up by bluesmen such as Muddy Waters mean that someone heard him play, loved the sound and it made him famous. Conversely, someone liked the sound, wanted to know how it was made and the electric guitar becomes more widespread. It’s a two-way relationship. Would Muddy Waters have become famous if he’d taken up the electric guitar? Perhaps not. Would the electric guitar have become popular if it hadn’t been taken up by Muddy Waters? Well other musicians were using it but looking up the timeline there are lots of instruments that fell by the wayside. Certainly his blues sound was massively influential on the UK scene in the 1960’s and the music that was produced there came to dominate the popular music scene, making the electric guitar the prominent rock and pop instrument. His performance in the UK in 1958 shocked everyone who was used to hearing acoustic blues.
There are socio-economic factors involved in the take-up of music technology. During the great depression in 1920’s America, records were often too expensive to buy so radio proliferated and helped make that medium a dominant force in popular music. Religion often formed a big part of pop music. Gospel and church music was a huge influence on early stars. Johnny Cash was a big lover of spiritual songs played on the radio and the songs that his mother taught him from her hymn book (he later recorded his favourites from the book for a special box set). The Hammond Organ, which was sold to churches to replace pipe organs, found its way through gospel into blues. Blues was often similar to gospel music but replaced the spiritual themes with ones about booze and women and the musicians, styles and instruments came with it.
The boom in popular music, starting with rock n roll, can be traced to rising prosperity and the effect of the Second World War ending (note the comparative gap in the timeline while WWII was taking place). July 1954 marks the end of food rationing in the UK and there was a new population of baby boomers that were teenagers with energy and cash to spend. By the mid 50’s these people were approaching their teens and found rock and roll to be the music that spoke to their generation. By the early 60’s, the time was ripe for the arrival of The Beatles in the UK, the first band that really captures the UK teen’s imagination.
The mind set of America after Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 may also be a factor in the spread of Beatlemania to the US and worldwide. The event shocked the nation and it might have been that The Beatles were a non-threatening phenomenon for the US teenager to get behind and forget serious issues; just have fun. Of course, The Beatles proved to be their own catalyst for musical and cultural revolution as they changed the way records would be made forever, spearheaded an artistic revolution and changed the form of pop music.
Bob Dylan is another character that was involved in the burgeoning protest movement in the 1960’s. Being a folk singer who made statements in his lyrics, he captured the imagination of the civil rights and anti-war protesters and was present at certain events in America that became landmarks for these movements. It was not a mantle that Bob Dylan wanted as opinion of him changed from being a concerned folk singer to being worshipped as the second coming.
Affordability of technology is the final factor I would like to discuss. Lots of the technology used today has been around for a long time yet took a long time to be successful. Some of this is because it was not very useful when first released but synths interested people very early on yet their huge cost meant they were not practical or widespread. In the 80’s through to the 90’s, when microchip and computer technology became cheaper, you can see the proliferation of electronic music into dance music that would only be possible using electronics. Without the drop in price, this would never have happened and only the biggest acts or the richest people would be able to use electronic music. Now it is possible to produce quality music with very little expense. Mind you, Bob Dylan was doing that in the 60’s with just guitar and vocals.
The future of music is uncertain. There will be a device out there somewhere that has no practical uses in music at the moment but someone will find a way to use it and perhaps revolutionise music all over again. Piracy is rampant but companies will find ways to control it and things may die down. But as new measures to control piracy come into place, new piracy methods will be birthed. The way music is consumed, I think, will stay largely the same at least for a little while. Things are very confused, there have been lots of changes and control has yet to be re-established. There will be little physical media except with some more specialist enthusiasts, such as vinyl is today, but for non-physical media there will be an improvement in delivery speed, usability of delivery front-ends and an improvement in quality. In fact, as the globe faces recession and resource depletion, perhaps this will change music back to being more live as we fail to afford to buy music and music players. I think this is something I would like to see, a return to the more social aspects of live music. It can exist alongside present methods of music communication but perhaps something drastic has to happen to make this shift.
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