Hatrack River Forum: New column: 25 years later, still compact and discy

This is topic New column: 25 years later, still compact and discy in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :

25 years later, still compact and discy

On Aug. 17, 1982, our relationship with our music changed forever. The compact disc was born.

It’s hard to explain, for those of you who weren’t around then, how big a change this was. You just popped a CD into your player, and it played. That was it. No longer did we have to go through the rituals of cleaning and wiping our vinyl albums to reduce (but rarely eliminate) the hisses and pops. No longer did we have to wince as our 8-tracks clunked to the next track. No longer did we have to fast-forward our cassettes hoping to get past the whining sound they’d make sometimes. And with near-perfect fidelity.

CDs changed the way we stored our music, too. Records had to be kept in the sleeves, upright, away from damp areas, or we’d find we had a wonderful collection of big taco shells. 8-tracks never stacked well and filled up your car’s passenger side floor quickly, and eventually they’d wear out and play the same four songs over and over and over, driving your mom insane when you left one running all night. We all learned to patch our cassettes, and I remember the panic when the sound would suddenly stop and I’d have to scramble to pop it out before the tape erupted like the stereo was throwing up.

More...

Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :

Revenge is sweet. [Evil]

Posted by Avatar300 (Member # 5108) on :

What's a CD?

Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :

You know...a Certificate of Deposit?

Posted by TL (Member # 8124) on :

Cemetary Dance maagazine. I read it. You should too.

Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :

I was dating a guy in 1979-1980 who was very into the technology of music, and extremely picky about music quality (he would send an LP back if he even heard the slightest "pop" in the sound, which I couldn't hear).

He was excitedly telling me about this "new little discs" that was under development that would be read by lasers and had much higher quality sound than LPs, etc.

I said, "Nah. It will never happen. Won't catch on because people don't like change."

[Blushing]

Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :

I still have a couple hundred records. Mine, my wife's, and my roommate's, as well as some from friends who no longer have a record player and use us as storage. Every now and then we'll break out some Cosby, but most of them time they just take up space.

I'm considering getting one of the record players with the built-in CD burner to convert 'em all, but after I was through I'd have no need for it ever again. Someone should rent those...

Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :

quote:
had much higher quality sound than LPs, etc.

While CDs have impressively high fidelity - much higher than most vinyl snobs give them credit for - they are not as high quality as LPs.

Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :

You never listened to my records...

Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :

Heck, I'm still trying to find a needle that will play my old 78s.....

Posted by Megan (Member # 5290) on :

My very first job was in the movie department of a Media Play (books, movies, music, video games). DVDs were just on the verge of coming out, and I assumed they would be just like Laser Discs--pricey and ultimately a marketing failure.

[Big Grin]

Posted by plaid (Member # 2393) on :

Didn't CD manufacturers used to boast about how scratchproof and unbreakable CDs were? (Maybe I'm hallucinating this, but I remember them boasting about this... then quietly dropping that marketing angle at some point, perhaps after they'd had small children of their own.)

Posted by Dragon (Member # 3670) on :

We have a ridiculously large record collection as well. I remember my Dad saying that he knew he would be stuck with my Mom for life the day they combined their record collections. Oddly, the only record I can remember listening to is the Chipmunks' holiday album.

Posted by Boris (Member # 6935) on :

About the only LP I ever listened two was a recording of Henry the 8th...which explains quite a lot, actually.

Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :

Plaid- yes I've heard that too. Interestingly people have found over the last few years that the first generation of Cds are actually wearing out and falling apart. There were some long term design features that were not added for a few generations of early CDs.

Posted by theamazeeaz (Member # 6970) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Dragon:
We have a ridiculously large record collection as well. I remember my Dad saying that he knew he would be stuck with my Mom for life the day they combined their record collections. Oddly, the only record I can remember listening to is the Chipmunks' holiday album.

I remember listening to more records than that, but my dad loved to slow down the Chipmunks albums physically on the player, and you could hear David Seville singing normally.

Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :

They said they were more durable and scratch proof than records were, and they are.

They are also harder to break.