[MUSIC] We're here at the Center for Popular Music here at Middle Tennessee State University. I'm with the director of the archive, Greg Reish. And I thought it would be fun to come here and show you some of the wonderful things that they've got here at the archive. Specifically some recording formats. There's another lecture in this course about the history of recording formats but there's nothing like putting your eyes and hands on the actual items. So Greg, tell us what we've got here. >> Well, we pulled out some examples of all of the major commercial recording formats. Starting here with the earliest one, this is an Edison style cylinder and actually happens to be on Edison's own label. Edison of course invented this kind of cylinder disk phonograph in the late 1870s and commercialized it about a decade later. Many people don't realize that he actually got into the music business with his own label and then others followed suit. There's also a misnomer about these, they're often called wax cylinders. Although the very, very early prototypes were made of wax or coated in wax, most of these commercially released ones are made of something more durable, a kind of metallic compound, essentially metallic soap. And they have about two to two and a half minutes worth of music on each one. And have surprisingly clear quality when they're in good shape and are played back with the right kind of equipment. >> So you have items here that you can still play back today? >> Absolutely, we have some of the equipment to do that on. And we also have a setup by which we can make digital transfers of these- >> Fantastic. >> And then clean them up a little bit more if needed. And then we can enjoy them as much as we like once they're in the digital realm. >> And so what era would that have been made, do you think? >> Well, these were first on the commercial market in late 1880s. Initially there was very little home usage of these. Most of these were sold to some kind of public facility, an arcade or a pharmacy or maybe a train station where you'd put a nickel in a slot and put tubes in your ears and you could hear it. But shortly thereafter, these were marketed to the home and also the business markets for taking dictation. That was originally Edison's idea for the primary use for this, was in taking dictation. And once it was transcribed this could be wiped clean and reused a certain number of times before it wore out. But then others quickly realized, and Edison got in on that too, that music was a huge market here. And so these started to be sold to home markets with home machines, most of which, or many of which both recorded and played back music. And these were in use, they were popular until about the mid teens and they continued to be produced through the 20s. By which time there were a fairly obsolete format, but there were still a few companies hanging on with these. Now many people think that cylinders were replaced by flat platter disks and that's not quite true if you look at the chronology. They were really overlapping formats- >> Like most of them are, really, in this whole- >> That's true, most of them are, but these really overlapped to a considerable degree. The flat platter disc was invented by Emile Berliner in the mid 1890s, and so it very quickly appeared on the consumer market as a direct competitor to the cylinder format. And these came initially in different sizes and it took a little while before the 78 RPM speed became the industry standard. >> And these are all four 78s? >> These are 78s, yeah, and we have a couple here from major labels like the Columbia record that I'm holding. >> This is an Al Jolson record, and Al Jolson, of course, was a major singing star who came out of the vaudeville tradition and lived through the jazz era. He's also well known as the star of the first major Hollywood talkie. >> Talkie, yes. >> Which was a musical, of course- >> The Jazz Singer. >> The Jazz Singer in 1927. One of the things that's interesting about Jolson's career with regard to the recording technology at the time is that he started his career before electric recording with microphones. And he, of course, came out of a musical theater background so he was a good example of someone who belted. Someone for whom the measure of a good voice was, can they hear you in the back row without any amplification? >> And the most famous example, maybe, of the belter is right here, Ethel Merman. >> Right, I mean Ethel, of course, is a slightly later generation. But Ethel Merman, as primarily a Broadway performer, she had that quality as well. >> Mm-hm. >> But in 1925, which was in the midst of the 78 era, when electrical recording came onto the scene. So all recording before that had been purely mechanical and acoustic, there was no electricity involved in the process. So in 1925, microphones, they had a completely different recording process that could capture more nuances. And that allows for a new kind of singer to emerge. And Jolson continued to thrive in his commercial career through that period, but he became a deliberate kind of throw back in his style. >> Right. >> It was an old fashioned style. His style, the modern style, was replaced by a singer like Bing Crosby. >> Right. >> And I'm holding here another major label, Decca, release from Bing Crosby. This happens to be Suwannee River, Steven Foster's song. The real title of which is Old Folks at Home, but it's so well known by that hook, way down upon the Suwannee River, that that became the de facto title. Bing Crosby was a good example of a crooner, which was someone whose vocal style took advantage of the microphone technology. >> Right, he was really credited with innovating, and basically when you put your mouth very close to a microphone, it's a very different kind of sound that a listener can hear, and a different kind of emotional response really that can be elicited by these kinds of singers. >> Absolutely, it's nuanced, it's intimate. And Bing Crosby, who probably would not have been heard in a public theater without amplification, but with this new recording technology, he took full advantage of that. >> And the women swooned. >> They did swoon, he was as big a pop star from the mid 20s through the 30s as existed anywhere. >> Yeah. >> So these are a couple major label releases. We also have here a couple of independent label releases. This is a little bit later from the late 1940s. This is a hillbilly record, as a lot of country music was called at the time. This is Grandpa Jones. Some people may remember him from his appearances on the Hee Haw television program in later decades. But this was recorded for King Records, a very important independent out of Cincinnati. And King was involved with country music of the time, with blues and some early rockabilly and a number of other important genres. >> The genres that the large labels didn't want to touch with a ten foot pole. >> Well, by the 1940s, some of them were getting into country. Particularly as the post-war economic boom led to a boom in the recording industry. >> The singing cowboys and all that. >> Yeah, so there was, as one famous newspaper article put it, the industry generally realized there was gold in them thar hillbillies. >> Yeah, right, right. >> But there were still a lot of independents who were giving a voice to artists who couldn't find major labels. Surfacing regional markets primarily. And here is a lesser known subsidiary of King, many of these labels both majors and independents has smaller pressing subsidiaries. So King had Queen of course, one of their subsidiary labels out of Cincinnati. And this is more of a blues record, Bull Moose Jackson singing the Bull Moose Jackson Blues from about the same era, the late 40s. And this Ethyl Merman album is a good example of where that word album came from, because 78s were singles. They had music on originally just one side and eventually both sides but limited to about one song three and a half minutes and so on each side. If people wanted to have longer collections of music perhaps from a show like this Irving Berlins, Annie get your gun, every famous Broadway musicals. So people wanted to have a wider array of selections from one source like this. They could be sold or compiled at home even, into albums, which are very much like photo albums. So these 78s are now put into individual sleeves as you can see, and this notion that you could have an array of individual songs comprising an album is what gave rise to that word being used for LPs and even CDs in later decades. So a lot of these were sold like this, pre-packaged, but one could also buy an empty album and just fill it up with your favorite records. So we like to call that sometimes the early 20th century version of the playlist, to put together a list of your favorite records and have them all in one place. [MUSIC] As we move into the post-war years, the 1940s and into the 50s, open reel tape is now a very popular format for recording, recording at home. But they're also commercially released, open reel tapes like this one. And the reels, these are half, excuse me, quarter inch tapes. But the reels themselves were available at different sizes depending on how much music was on them. And these were fairly widely used during the 1950s. There was some feeling among audiophiles who wanted a higher level of fidelity that this was a good format for them. But at the same time we have the introduction of vinyl flat disks. In 1949 the 45 RPM single, which is made of vinyl, the 78s were generally made of shellac, a different material. These are lighter and more flexible. The 78s are heavy and brittle. >> Yes. >> They actually can break, whereas these can warp if they're exposed to too much heat. >> Right, if you've ever seen one of those old slapstick films of somebody breaking a 78. You can't do that with a 12 inch LP. >> And that would hurt, I have to say, because these things were heavy. >> [LAUGH] >> But the vinyl discs are much lighter weight. A little bit cheaper and easier to produce. Coming out of the 40s and then to 1950s, these began replace 78s. 78s continued to be made through the 50's but increasingly it was considered an old fashioned format. But it is remarkable to think back on how long the 78 shellac disc was the predominant format. We're talking about from some time around the turn of the 20th century, all the way to the midpoint of the century. >> Longer than >> Longer than any other format. >> Except, I guess maybe arguably. >> Arguably, LPs which is now experiencing a nice resurgence of interest. >> Yeah. >> But these were the cheap single alternatives to the single 78s, made of vinyl. These were one song per side and played at a 45 RPM. >> Well, this song, too, was a song that caused riots. It's Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley, which of course was one of the big first rock and roll hits. >> Yeah, in 1954, >> Caused riots in movie theaters. >> Yeah, and many people think that this was one of the landmark moments, the release of this particular record in the birth of rock and roll. >> With its B side, 13 Women and Only One Man in Town. >> [LAUGH] But it's also interesting to note that this 45 release also, the same song came out on 78, as an example of the overlap of formats at that time. In fact, we have a copy here in the archive of a Deca 78, of that exact same recording. And then, of course, the large format, LP, long playing format in vinyl, is what many people now think of as the quintessential album. But again, that word hearkens back to this earlier kind of flip-through book of recordings. And these also appeared in the very late 1940s and picked up steam in the 50s, and were in wide usage until CDs at the market in the early 80s. And as we mentioned, they're now experiencing a revival of sorts. This was a greatly forwarding convenience for listeners, if nothing else because now, instead of just putting on a record and hearing three, three and a half minutes of music, you could now hear 15 to 20 minutes on each side. And eventually, by the time we get to the rock era in the mid 1960s, artists and producers started to think more about how they can take advantage of that amount of space. As not just, well, that can fit so many three-minute songs. But now, I can have longer songs and I can string them together. >> Right, with the concept that, right. >> Concept, album with the Beach Boys and the Beatles and many others following suit. >> And by the way, that's a wonderful Japanese, [LAUGH] >> Yeah, it's an import pressing of Kiss's Hotter than Hell, 1974. >> Love it. >> I believe is the date on this, with all of the song titles and information in both English and Japanese. And then maybe we- >> I'll switch back. >> We reach what some people might consider sort of a low point of recording formats. The 8-track tape, which appeared in the 1960s and was widely used through the 1970s. It had a convenience factor that was an advantage over the LP's and 45s because cars could be equipped with this, portable players could be equipped with 8 track capability. They are simple, durable but they didn't sound all that good, frankly. >> Although some of us who grew up with you know cars that had these that still remember the sound that an 8 track makes when you. >> Yeah, and the sound of switching from program to program. >> Right, the curchunk yeah. >> Because each of these tapes has four programs that can be changed manually by pushing a button or at the end of one program it would automatically go to the next. >> Yeah. >> But this this was a common tape format, of course much, much easier than the open real tapes which we had to be played at home and thread it through the heads and so on. This is, the idea from this came from radio cartridges that were being used where time is of the essence. You just punch something in and let it play. Is Barry Manilow's greatest hits released in the late 70s. He was, of course, a major artist as a songwriter and then as a performing artist as well, Arista Records. And the eight tracks were essentially replaced by the smaller format, cassettes, what were originally called compact cassettes, because they were so much smaller than any of the open reel or eight track Formats but these were, you know, it for the time sort of the ultimate in convenience. Playing in the car, playing in boom boxes, home stereos with tape decks, and so on. Also, not the greatest sound quality. These pretty thin tape, not the highest quality tape, and they often degraded with repeated playings, but they were very, very popular among consumers. >> Well and it's also experiencing a resurgence again among kids, mix tapes and indie rock bands and so forth, I mean, I don't know if you've been following this? >> That's right. Yeah. The notion of the mix tape, which many people in the 70's and 80's, and even a little bit into the 90's considered kind of an art form in and of itself. Which is now- >> And a very personal gift >> And a very personal gift, which people are still doing in the form of playlists and other kinds of curated collections, but- >> Doesn't feel the same though, does it? >> It doesn't feel the same because it doesn't take as much effort to put that together. >> To drop and drag. >> It used to be a real, I did this many times- >> Me too. >> For old girlfriends. >> Well, yes. >> Made mix tapes of some of my favorite songs, and spent the better part of an afternoon, sometimes, putting them all together in just the right order, and checking the levels, and all of that. [MUSIC] Now, these formats, the LP primarily, but also these tape cartridge formats were eventually replaced in the 80s by the CD, the compact disk, which came out in the early 80s, directed at first, primarily at the audiophile market because of the very high quality sound reproductions. A lot of classical CDs. I was working at that time in record retail when these came out, and I remember the early CD buyers were primarily classical enthusiasts who wanted to hear things in- >> And those were some of the first recordings that were transferred over to the digital format from the libraries of great labels like CBS, Columbia, and so forth. >> That's right, the initial thought was that the audio fidelity, the purity of the digital format was something that could be fully appreciated with the nuances and the dynamic range of classical music- >> A bit of snobbery there? >> Of symphonic music. >> [LAUGH] >> Clearly a bit of snobbery. But it didn't take long for the rock and popular music industries to realize that this had a lot to offer for them and their consumers as well. So, the CD also was an increase, was an improvement in the convenience of music for consumers because now you didn't even have to flip a record, or flip a cassette tape. Now we could get as much as 80 minutes or close to 80 minutes of music on one disc, that was easily portable, durable, it could be played at home, it could be played in the car, portable players, this is the era of the cassette tape Walkman giving way to the CD Walkman. So this notion of having very high-quality sound everywhere you go, it started a little bit with the cassettes but that doesn't have the fidelity of the CDs. >> Yeah. >> Purely digital format, a lot of LPs were now being transferred over but a lot of newer recordings were being touted as purely digital from start to finish. We used to have that little three-stage. >> I remember. >> Code on the back of a disk. If it was DDD, it was digital from recording through the mastering and to the delivery to the home consumer. So that was something that we all looked for. Now there are many people looking back on it who think that maybe the digital recording medium loses a certain amount of warmth that analog has and I think that's part of what's feeding the vinyl revival a little bit. But at the time DDD was considered just the absolute best, in sonic quality. Whatever the artists and the producers intended, you were going to hear that, if you were playing it back on a decent system. >> Right. >> And of course, from digital, we move into the era of the MP3. Which is still with us today, although that's starting to give way to streaming- >> Streaming. >> Delivery. But the notion was that we didn't need a disk to house digital files, especially if they were in a compressed format, which MP3s certainly are. >> Right. >> And that allowed them to be distributed through iTunes, through Amazon and other retail outlets. But it also enabled easier trading and file sharing and so on which has given rise to all sorts of legal battles and problems within the music industry. But now I think those are starting to become less and less an issue, as streaming seems to be emerging, one way or another, as the new delivery format. And that, of course, is fraught with its own set of problems. >> Fraught with all kinds of, right. >> That the industry is trying to work out, even as we stand here. >> Well, thank you so much. This has been a fascinating tour of audio formats. Thank you very much. This is the Center for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University. We have been speaking with the Director of the Center, Gregory Reish. Thank you, Greg. >> Thank you, Jen. [MUSIC] [APPLAUSE]
