Six Inventions that Changed Music

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.

Gibson Could be going into Bankruptcy: A Brief History of the Iconic Guitar Manufacturer

Vinyl Bay 777, Long Island’s music outlet, takes a brief look at Gibson’s financial predicament and musical history

 News broke yesterday that guitar manufacturer Gibson is potentially headed for bankruptcy. According to a report in The Nashville Post, the company has $375 million in senior secured notes that are set to mature with another $145 million that will become due if the previous notes aren’t refinanced by July 23. This means that if the deadline to refinance is not met, CEO Henry Juszkiewicz could face losing his company.

One of the largest names in guitars, Gibson was started by Orville Gibson in the late 1890s as a manufacturer of single-piece mandolin-family instruments. Their first guitars, circa the 1910s and 1920s featured a more durable violin-like shape. In the mid-1930s, the company made their first electric guitars, a Spanish-style lap guitar with a hexagonal pick-up referred to as the ES-150. Since those first designs more than a century ago, Gibson has produced several highly popular guitar models, including the Les Paul (solid-body), the SG, the ES, the Flying V, the Firebird and the Explorer, and continue to be innovators within the industry.

Gibson guitars have been a standard with rock, jazz, country and blues musicians for decades. Going back to the beginning, the ES-150 was endorsed by jazz musician Charlie Christian. Les Paul designed his groundbreaking solid-body electric guitar in the 1950s, which continue to be their most popular models. B.B. King’s “Lucille” was a custom ES-355. Other famous Gibson players include Beatles John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, Jimi Hendrix, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, Guns ‘N’ Roses’ Slash (the company’s current ambassador), Eric Clapton, Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia, Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, both Arlo and Woodie Guthrie, Metallica’s James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett, Bob Marley, Jimmy Page, Elvis Presley and The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards, just to name a few.

This isn’t the first time Gibson has been in hot water financially. In 1986, current CEO Henry Juszkiewicz and company president David Berryman bought the company from the Norlin Corporation, who had been slowly driving it into financial turmoil since 1969. At the time, sales were dropping, as was the quality of the product and the company’s reputation. Juszkiewicz and Berryman were able to salvage and repair the reputation of Gibson, as well as expand the company’s hold on the music industry, which includes the acquisition of many other instrument and technology companies. Some of their current holdings include Epiphone (guitars), Baldwin (pianos), Philips (audio equipment), KRK Systems (audio equipment), TEAC Corporation (audio equipment) and Cakewalk (audio software).

Unfortunately, things haven’t been going well for Gibson’s electronics acquisitions in recent years. Sales have been slumping, which has led to stakeholders fearing for their investments. It also doesn’t help that their CFO, Bill Lawrence, left in the midst of the financial issues less than a year after taking on the position.

Gibson doesn’t seem to be too worried about the bankruptcy issue though. In a statement made by the company today (reported by Billboard), they "fully expect the bonds to be refinanced in the ordinary course of business" and are "concluding a thorough strategic and budget planning process to identify those areas where it can maximize its investments, and pare back areas where investments have not been performing to expectation." The company has already sold a couple of their underperforming warehouses and is looking to streamline underperforming acquisitions, like Philips, to “focus on brands with optimal growth potential.” Gibson has already hired a new CFO, Benson Woo, to lead the company’s recovery efforts.

Whether or not the company finds a way to restructure their finances and holdings before the July 23 deadline, Gibson’s reputation for high-quality instruments to will likely remain untouched. The iconic company has been deeply rooted in music culture for more than a century with countless artists using their guitars to make history.

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Delve into music history by finding music from iconic Gibson players and more at Vinyl Bay 777. Long Island’s favorite new independent record shop has thousands of titles to choose from in an array of genres ranging from rock, pop, rap and R&B to dance, classical, reggae and everything in between. Browse our wide selection of new and used vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, music DVDs and memorabilia in store at our Plainview location and 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.

Happy Birthday Les Paul: How His Guitar Innovations Changed Music Forever

Vinyl Bay 777, Long Island’s music outlet, takes a look back at how Les Paul’s solid-body electric guitar became a rock music standard

Les Paul Live @ Iridium Jazz Club in New
York City in October 2008. Taken by
Thomas Faivre-Duboz, Paris, France. Found
on Wikimedia Commons

Today marks what would have been musician Les Paul’s 102^nd birthday. Known for practically inventing the solid-body electric guitar, his innovations have left a lasting impression on the music world forever.

A musician himself, Les Paul started his career playing jazz, blues and country music live and on the radio. From 1945 to 1961, he released several hit singles, many of which peaked in the top 10 on the singles charts. Paul continued to perform live solo and with his trio up until his death in 2009 at the age of 94.

Though he may have had a very successful music career, Les Paul is still best known for his electric guitar. A pioneer in the creation of the solid-body electric guitar, he put together his first design, dubbed “The Log,” in 1940. Built on a four-by-four piece of pine wood, The Log included strings and a pickup, which he would later add the “wings” of an acoustic guitar to for a more traditional guitar look. It would take 10 years for his design to officially be made, having been turned down originally by Epiphone and Gibson. But by 1952, the Gibson Les Paul was the most popular solid-body electric guitar in the world.

Les Paul’s talent for tinkering and innovation went much further than just guitars. As a young boy, he attached a coat hanger to a piece of wood and his harmonica, making the first known harmonica holder. His design has been in use for decades, its most iconic users being Bob Dylan and Neil Young. Paul also made strides in the worlds of recording and amplification. He was one of the first to come up with a way to record multiple tracks on top of each other, what he called “sound on sound,” and, along with Ampex, developed the first eight-track recorder in the mid-1950s.  Interested in achieving different effects with his guitar, he developed ways to incorporate delay, reverb and phasing into his sound. Paul was even one of the first people to use a coil and magnet to create pickup to amplify his guitar.

Les Paul’s namesake guitars are still some of the most popular designs to date. Guitarists spanning all genres of music, including Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page,  Slash, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, Kiss’ Ace Frehley, Reggae legend Bob Marley, The Who’s Pete Townshend and the Allman Brothers Band’s Duane Allman, have used his signature design to make music history.

Artists have been benefiting from Les Paul’s innovations for more than six decades. From his iconic guitars to his work developing new recording and amplification technology and techniques, his many musical innovations have had a monumental impact on how we hear music and will continue to shape the way we hear music for a long time to come.

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Find music from iconic artists like Les Paul, as well as artists that have been touched by his innovations, at Vinyl Bay 777 and vinylbay777.com. Long Island’s top new independent record shop has thousands of  titles in a plethora of genres to choose from. Browse our wide selection of new and used vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, music DVDs and memorabilia in store and online. With more titles being added all the time, it’s always a great time to see what’s new at Vinyl Bay 777.