Over the years, the way we listen to music has changed drastically. Growing up, I listened to LP’s (vinyl records) and 8-track tapes. Remember those? My husband and I still have quite a few LP’s from our youth that we’ve kept, and we still have a stereo system to play those records if we ever want to. Not that we have in the past 20+ years — but hey, you never know when that urge is going to strike! There’s something about those LP’s that makes us reminisce about simplier times and make it very difficult for us to part with any of them.
Then came 8-track tapes. (Some of our bloggers may not even know what those are!!!) Recently, while cleaning out the boxes we have stored in the rafters in our garage, I came across a big box of 8-track tapes with artists such as The Carpenters, Styx, Journey, Bruce Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac, Merle Haggard, Bee Gees, Bay City Rollers, and many others. We even had the 8-track player from way back when. Don and I laughed, we reminisced, and then packaged it all up for our upcoming yard sale. Hopefully, our “trash” will be come someone elses “treasure”.
It was funny to see how big and bulky those 8-track tapes were, and it’s easy to see why they didn’t last long in the music industry. However, that said, I do believe that the 8-track tape did pave the way for the more popular cassette tapes, which Don and I had a ton of, too! Cassette tapes were a huge success – they were small, compact, convenient, and how cool was the portable Sony Walkman that we could use to play those tapes and wear headphones? And remember boom boxes that played cassettes, too? I loved cassette tapes, and according to research, the audio cassette became the most widely used music format during the 70’s, 80’s, and part of the 90’s.
That is, until the compact disc (CD) took the music industry by storm. This disc format was the coolest way to play music – how amazing was it that all that music could fit on a shiny silver disc and sound so good? The cassette tapes looked so bulky in comparison, and it didn’t take long for them to become outdated and a thing of the past! I think CD’s is the music format that most people know the best, probably because it’s so current. My two daughters, born in 1990 and 1992, have only bought music on a CD. They’ve seen vinyl LP’s, the 8-track tapes, and the cassette tapes, but have never played any of them. To them, it’s ancient history. Over the years they’ve bought and collected dozens and dozens of CD’s, and most of the time they’d use their CD player to listen to the music.
A few years ago we bought them their first iPod, and it took them a while to “get into it”. MP3 players are truly amazing. I mean, here’s this little thing that fits in the palm of your hand that holds THOUSANDS of songs. Who would have ever thought that would be possible? Don and I have also gotten an iPod, and all those CD’s we bought over the past 20+ years we’ve converted into digital music and downloaded them to our iPods. Yes, it’s very cool to have every single CD we own on our iPods - - it truly boggles my mind!
But even now, with MP3 players and Ipods dominating the market and quickly becoming the main source of playing music, my girls still love CD’s. While most people are buying and downloading their music via the internet and iTunes, my girls still insist on buying the CD version of the album they want, then copying it to iTunes and downloading it to their iPods. When I recently told them that someday, possibly soon, that CD’s would be obsolete, they were both pretty upset. While they love their iPod, they also really enjoy the “physical” part of having a CD. But, chances are, within the next ten years or so CD’s — just like vinyl, 8-track, and cassettes — will become nothing more than a part of history. And that really does makes them sad.
Right now, it’s all about digital music. And I have to admit that it’s awesome and way cool, but it also makes me wonder how we’ll be listening to music another 10-20 years down the road. Each year, sales of CD’s are declining in lieu of MP3 players and downloadable music. And quite honestly, I’m going to really miss CD’s, too.
So, how many of you remember playing vinyl records and 8-track tapes? What is your main source of listening to music now - - CD’s or iPod/MP3? How do you feel about CD’s become obsolete in the future? Will you miss them or have you already moved on with your MP3 player?