Just some thoughts about recorded media…

Records were invented 1877 and consisted of wax on cylinders. Once the technology was refined and everybody owned a cylindrical record player and their own stacks of wax, a “new and improved” record came out in 1895.

This flat disc had better sound and was less prone to breakage, plus a recording could go on each side! It required a new player with a flat turntable, so out with the old and in with the expensive new. At least the stacks of wax took up less room.

But wait! At 78 revolutions-per-minute, a disc played only a few minutes before it had to be turned over. The new-fangled 48 rpm record was smaller and played more music. New equipment required, of course.

Then came 33 1/3 rpm. More music than ever before. Wax gave way to vinyl. More new equipment was required.

1957: Stereophonic records! Holy moley guacamole! We had to have it. So they gave it to us - at a price. More new equipment - and twice as many speakers!

Meanwhile, a side industry of audio tape was trying to keep pace. First came reel-to-reel tapes in 1930. 30 inches-per-second was the first speed, but is was ratcheted with commercial finesse to 15 ips, 7 1/2 ips, 3 3/4 ips and finally 1 7/8 ips.

1962: We’ll see your stereo and double it. Quadraphonic tapes came out in endless loop cartridges. This innovation was followed by compact cassette tapes cartridges, 8-track cartridges, and micro-cassette cartridges.

Let’s take a breather. By this point, it should be obvious that the consumer public is merely being played. We fall for every single “new and improved” concept that comes along. And the beat goes on…

Betamax audio and video tape (1975), VHS (1976), Laserdisc (1978), CD (1982), DAT (1987), SVHS (1987), DVD (1997), HD-DVD (2005), and Blu-Ray (2006) are only a few of the technical leaps that we fell for.

As computers got into the fray, we had AIFF vs WMA vs MP3 vs OGG, etc.

So what? So this: Each audio and/or video innovation required new equipment and resulted in the scrapping of everything we had purchased prior to that time. What an enormous waste of our money!

I’m not against progress, nor do I wish that technological advancements be withheld from the public until something better is invented. But come on, people, you see where this is going, don’t you?

Blu-Ray is out of here in 5 years. DVDs will already be in the landfill one layer above Dad’s vinyl records. Something “new and improved” will be siphoning our bank accounts by then.

So maybe we should start saving up now and just skip the Blu-Ray expense. What d’ya say?

Six-Eye Jackson

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