The History of Cool

We tend to have a schizophrenic relationship with technology; we either think something is really cool, or we take it for granted.  Or maybe one viewpoint evolves into the other, as illustrated by Rolling Stone’s 24 Inventions That Changed Music.

From Thomas Edison’s phonograph in 1877 to the microphone to LP to the Compact Disc to the Internet  …  they’re all there.

It’s interesting to trace the evolution of media from wax cylinders through tape and vinyl to CD’s and computer drives.  Even more interesting, is to consider the evolution of playback devices from the Victrola to the cassette deck to the CD player to the iPod/phone.

The romance is connected to the playback device, of course.  I still remember the big honking furniture cabinets that housed the stereos of my youth.  More importantly, I remember how much I loved my first transistor radio.  It gave me freedom, independence, and the power to live in my own culture.  The transistor radio is probably the single biggest factor in the dominance of rock and roll.

That said, I remember how badly we all wanted a Walkman the moment they came out.  By then it was mug’s game though.  CD’s, mp3’s, iPods … I don’t miss my cassette tapes but I do get tired of replacing and re-organizing my media every few years. 

The stated theme of the list is recording and playing back music, so it’s more than a little curious that the Marshall amplifier is on the list.  Sure, that amp is the most famous, but it doesn’t relate to recorded music any more than the first Les Paul guitar or the first effects pedals.

The dates of some of the innovations are interesting, too.  When you think about how fast we moved from cassettes to CD’s to mp3’s, it’s amazing to realize the LP was invented in 1931 but 78’s were sold into the mid-50’s.  The biggest surprise, though is the vocoder, invented in 1940 for military use!  Take that, Daft Punk.

Variety (Part 2 ... or 3)

Here's some more arithmetic for you:

I have just over 4,000 songs on my iPod, which is apparently 11.3 days - 271 hours - of music.  With commercials and babbling, that's over 450 hours of music for a radio station.  Almost 19 days before a song repeated.

19 days on my iPod, 4 hours on the radio.  450 hours, 4 hours.

So why would any of us listen to the radio?  Sure, when we hear a new song and like it we want to hear it over again.  But every four hours?  To the exclusion of all the other great music we love?  Are we that forgetful?  Are we that dumbed down?

Maybe the bigger question is:  since they know we all have the technology, why do radio stations stick with the ridiculously short playlists?

I have my favourite artists and preferred playlists, so it takes me months - but I listen to every song on my iPod.  Every one of them.  You see, the 4,000 songs represent only a subset of my CD collection.  They are my favourites.

I have an older iPod, with a puny 20 GB.  The current 160 GB model is capable of storing 40,000 songs.  That's six months before a song repeats.

Even if radio stations wanted to play it safe and only play "hits", there have been about 10,000 of those since rock's inception.  They could still favour current and recent "hits" but have months worth of addditional material keep things interesting.  And that's just rock.  Imagine another 2-3 months worth of tunes crossing over from country, jazz, blues and folk?

Wouldn't that be cool?

Yes, by the way, there is Frank Sinatra on my iPod.