August is Inventor’s Month. Started by the United Inventors
Association of the United States of America in 1998, the month is meant to
celebrate all the inventions and inventors that have revolutionized the way we
operate in our daily lives.
As music has been around for many centuries, there have also
been many advances in the field that have had an impact on the way we make and
consume it. Devices like phonographs and iPods and software like LPs and CDs brought music home for personal and private use. Advanced technologies in
instrument design and recording techniques revolutionized new trends in the
kinds of music we are able to create.
This Inventor’s Month, Vinyl Bay 777, Long Island’s music
outlet, would like to pay homage to the inventions that have made music what it
is today. Here are six that revolutionized the way we make and hear music
forever.
1.
Electric Guitar: Before the 1930s, much of guitar
music was made on hollow-body, acoustic instruments. According to an article in
Gizmodo
though, these conventional instruments were often too quiet for large-scale
performances. Created by George Beauchomp, an artist who played Hawaiian-style
guitar, and Adolph Rickenbacker, a electrical engineer and instrument maker,
the first electric guitar aimed to solve this issue. By 1932, their first
design , dubbed the “Frying Pan,” was being manufactured. Of course, there have
been improvements on the design, including Les Paul’s sold-body electric, which would become a standard in rock music,
but without the idea sparked by Beauchamp and Rickenbacker, none of it would
have happened.
2.
Phonographs: It’s hard for most of us to
remember a time when recorded music wasn’t necessarily easily available in one’s
own home. But in the 1800, if you wanted to listen to a song, you would have to
buy the sheet music and play it yourself. Attributed to Thomas Edition in 1877
(though the concept was not new, wasn’t put into physical practice yet), the
phonograph was able to both record and play back audio, the first time anyone
had been able to do the latter effectively. This meant that someone with a
phonograph machine could buy recording and listen to it in the privacy of their
home.
3.
Vinyl Records: It’s hard to talk about
phonographs without talking about the medium for which the recordings were
cast. Before the LP we commonly know today, machines used to play wax cylinders
(referred to as 78s for the speed at which they rotated), which were heavy,
rough and didn’t hold a lot of music. The first
company to use vinyl for music records was RCA Victor in 1930. Columbia
then ended up perfecting its use over the next ten years.
4.
Transistor Radio: One thing that listening to
music lacked in the early days of personal listening was portability. In the
1950s, transistor radios helped solve this issue. Based around transistor
technology, which had been invented in the previous decade, the device replaced
bulkier vacuum tube models. Texas Instruments, in conjunction with Regency, was
the first to get their portable radio to market. If not for the transistor
radio, advances in portability, such as the Sony Walkman or even the iPod,
might not have been a thing.
5.
Headphones: According to Smithsonian
Magazine, the first headphones were used by telephone operators. Nathanial
Baldwin created the first modern-ish headphones, sending his prototype to the
military for testing during World War I. In the 1950s, musician John Koss decided
to adapt the military-style of headphones for personal use after noticing a
lack of headphones that would work on his new phonograph, which had a headphone
jack installed in it. Today, earbuds and headphones are everywhere, closing
people off to the world in a soundtrack of their own choosing.
6.
Personal Computers / Internet: We use our
computers for everything nowadays. But back when computers were first becoming
a thing in the 1960s, they were far from personal, taking up entire rooms just
to function properly. By the 1980s, computers were starting to make their way
into homes, thanks in part to Apple and IBM. Once the internet started picking
up speed in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the personal computer became a
virtual necessity. Now, computers run many of our daily lives, including
getting us closer to the music we can’t live without. We download music to our
computers and stream off the internet using them. Amateur creators can record
their own music and distribute it without the assistance of a label.
There have been many inventions that have revolutionized the
way we make and consume music. From amped up electronic guitars making it
easier to hear the instrument in big concert halls, to phonographs and vinyl
records that brought recorded music into households and handheld radios and
devices that made music portable, each of these have had a crucial effect on
the music industry. This Inventor’s Month, we remember those that have helped
make music what it is today and look forward to the future inventors who will
continue to innovate technology and improve upon the music industry.
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Celebrate music innovation at Vinyl Bay 777, Long Island’s
favorite new independent record shop. We have thousands of titles to choose
from in a variety of genres. Browse our wide selection of revolutionary formats,
including vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, music DVDs and memorabilia, in store
at our Plainview location or online at vinylbay777.com. With more titles being
added to our selection all the time, you never know what you might find at
Vinyl Bay 777.
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