Part 28.  “THE CHAMP IS DOWN BUT NOT OUT”

The History of the Phonograph. Chapter 6

Welcome back!

Some say that the record players industry peaked in the 60’s..  What can definitely be said is that from the end of WWII the record player was really the only contender.

By the 70’s Hi-fidelity record players had the ability to reproduce sound almost completely free of defects.

Even a $200 vinyl record player had very little flutter and low rumble.

There were many improvements that did their part to improving the listening experience, belt and direct-drives, jewel-balanced tone arms, electronically controlled linear tracking and magnetic cartridges.

There was even quadraphonic sound.

That’s right, this may be a surprise to you reading this, but we had surround sound in the 70’s.
In fact for the 30^th anniversary of Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd released a re-master of their original quadraphonic mix of the classic album it’s available on SACD.

The 4 channel sound was created by electronic matrixing (putting out of phase), and then through the use of special record player head and phase detection circuits (sounds like something out of star trek doesn’t it) the amplifier was then able to decode the signal into 4 separate channels.

Even though this was a major breakthrough from both a technological and audiophile perspective, it didn’t really grab the imagination or the wallet of the average consumer and quadraphonic sound was short lived.

Until of course, the development of surround sound home theater systems and SACD players. Although this technology was made popular not through surround music but people wanting to replicate the experience of the 3D sound experienced when going to the cinema.

In this clip from  Not the nine o’clock news (with a very young Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones) Poke fun at the changing face of the gramophone!!

Records themselves became an art form in the 70’s onward . The large surface meant that the designs of the albums and the discs themselves became part of the attraction of collecting vinyl.  Something that many Vinyl collectors still value today.

All of these improvements kept the record on top as the music industry’s champ, even though from the late 60’s on, there was a new kid on the block  – the eight-track player.
The eight-track was popular because of it’s portability, it’s ability to record onto and was able to do one thing especially well that the record player did dismally – it could play music in the car.
Yet despite losing a little market share the record industry was still the king.

Then in the 80’s a new invention hit the footpaths attached to the heads of joggers everywhere, the Sony walkman, inventions like this and the rising popularity of portable cassette recorders meant that the compact cassette which had been around in one form or another since the mid sixties suddenly became very popular.

The cassette, like the eight track was even more portable, and like the eight track could be recorded onto, cassette decks started to appear everywhere and really starting giving the humble record a run for it’s money.

Yet the record player was still seen as the better quality device, in fact it was popular practice to buy the record, use it for playing on the stereo at home, and create a dub or copy onto a blank cassette for the car, the walkman or the radio cassette recorder (boombox/ghetto blaster).

The final challenger to the record arrived in ’82, the Compact Disc.

Initially only making a splash with digital audiophiles and the wealthy’s lounge rooms, it was too expensive, but still garnered a lot of press.
CD’s were more portable than cassettes and Eight-tracks, and was marketed as having a higher sound quality than record players, , they meant that they started to replace the record at home as well.
As CD player prices came down their popularity increased and CD’s quickly began to take over the record’s market.

By 1988, for the first time since it’s rise to prominence.  After being number 1 for nearly a century, the Gramophone sold less units than it’s competition – The Compact Disc had become King.

CD’s and Cassettes were the dominant consumer listening formats.
The demise of Vinyl’s popularity, was swift, dropping suddenly between ’88 and ’91.

Seen by some as a calculated ploy to make consumers switch to he more profitable format -CD’s, distributors began charging retailers more for new product if they returned unsold Vinyl, then started to refuse to give credit for any returns at all.
This caused retailers to only (conservatively) order titles that they believed would sell, thus giving more shelf space (a premium) to CD’s and Cassettes.
Then finally record companies deleted many vinyl titles for production and distribution.

It was all over for the record player.

Or was it?

The effect that the phonograph and gramophone has had on music is immense, simply enormous. For the first time in history, music could be captured in time, a performance could be immortalized and replayed at will. Sound could be preserved.

The durations available on records have shaped the length of pop songs, it’s supported and help sustain the radio industry, it’s helped create the values of generations, and was one of the loudest voices of the counter-culture revolution of the sixties. It’s given an untold amount of people pleasure, and many an opportunity for rock stars to drive their cars into a pool.

But their story has not ended.

Let’s go back to the 70’s for a moment..

My personal favorite 70’s improvement and one that doesn’t get a lot of press, happened in 1979. Technics added a pitch (speed) control to it’s SL-1200 model record player, making it the MKII. This was done from advice based on  a very real need from DJ’s. This simple improvement gave much more control to their beat mixing.

The Technics 1200 MKII turntable is still very much in production, is one of the most popular turntables ever sold and is known as the DJ and turntablists best friend.

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In 2001 The National Association of Music Merchandisers (NAMM) officially recognized the turntable as an instrument.

And Here’s Why… DJ FLY DMC World Champion 2008 on the wheels of steel.

(warning this clip contains explicit lyrics and some implicit licks!)

That year it outsold guitars at a 2-1 ratio.

The digital revolution of mp3’s and the like has had an impact, on the DJ industry, but the record is still the format of choice for most.

This isn’t just because of the sound, Records are tactile, the DJ can pick up the needle and place it where ever they please in micro seconds, for speed and pitch control the DJ can slightly slow the record down or speed it up with the pressure and movement of his hand and wrist. The control cannot be matched.

Many house and techno artists only release on Vinyl.

New technologies such as CD platters have helped but are still not as good.

Now technologies such as final scratch have helped bridge the gap between the digital formats (mp3’s) and vinyl. Final scratch and other  similar applications very cleverly use a timecoded vinyl control record. This contains an incremental digital signal that is sent back to the digital  player and mapped over the chosen digital track, thus giving the DJ tactile control over the digital format.

But it’s not just DJ’s that are still buying Vinyl. It’s also very popular in genres such as alt-metal, hardcore punk and indie-rock.

Audiophiles and collectors are increasingly being joined by young people as they discover that in a digital world the tactile feel, the artwork, and the sound is a beauty that cannot be replaced by a mp3 and a jpeg.

In the United states Vinyl sales have been increasing steadily. Sales between 06-07 increased by 85.5% and increased again by 89% the following year. In 2009 record sales were up again this time by 35%. Meaning 2.9 million units shipped. This does not include boutique records or 2^nd hand sales.

It should be stated that this only accounts for less than 1% of total unit sales in the U.S.
But what it does tell us is that the resurgence of Vinyl doesn’t look to be just a fad.

Meanwhile sales of CD’s are plunging, mainly being replaced by digital downloads.
Sales for CD’s dropped 20% in America in 2009.

Will the record player stand up against the test of time?

I think so, one of the most popular components being sold in music stores these day’s are turntables with USB chords to plug straight into the computer…

Who knows what’s around the corner…

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