Could you imagine a time when every sound, whether it be spoken, sung, played or made, was lost for ever once heard? Off that sound would go never to be replayed or heard in that form again? All music was a live performance never to be replicated?

Its sounds wonderfully strange but that was how it was until  1878, when Eddison invented and patented is wax cylinder. There was a recording, but no play back facility originally, in 1860 of a woman singing Au Clair de la Lune by Edouard-leon Scott de Martinville.

So that was that. Now everything is recorded and saved for better or worse.

However, continuing my thread about technology and gadgets I am interested how things have changed in my lifetime. And  boy how things have changed. Some good, some bad but mostly better.

When I was a youngster in the early 70s I was given a hand-me-down dancet in blue and cream. Open the lid, stack your records (in my case the Action Man soundtrack, the Oogly Oogle bird song or something like  that and  a gifted K-tel emsemble) and press start. The sound was mono but it played music. Brilliant. Then came a small transiter radio which picked up Radio Caroline and that was just a tinny sound but still it was fantastic to listen to the wild tunes of the day.

I can remember borrowing a cassette recorder with a microphone that plugged into the front. The turning on the old valve radio and tuning into the top 40 on radio 1 at 5pm on a sunday meant that one could record to cassette the top tunes by postioning the microphone in front or the speaker, pressing record when the song started (praying that no one made any noise during the recording) and stop at its end. This was the cumbersome process one had to go through just to record a few tracks and often ended in really crap results.

So then we move forward a decade to the 80s which saw the arrival of the Radio Cassette player (twas sad it was only a mono speaker but it was a break through in technology). With this you could insert a tape into the slot press play and the sounds were reproducedin mono, but now you could also put in a blank cassette and record direct from the radio. It was still a bit hit and miss but the recordings were much better when you timed the start and stop right.

There was also my Dad’s old turntable, amplifier and massive speakers that I inherited. At last stereo reproduction with treble and bass controls and a decent sound reproduction from the vinyl records. My first LPs (long playing records) were Broadsword and the Beast” Jethro Tull, “Deathwish Sondtrack” Jimmy Page, “led Zeppelin 2” Led Zep and “A Brick in the Wall” Pink Floyd. All very grown up but not very portable and eachside only lasted about 30 minutes.

By the end of the decade we welcomed the CD or compact disc and this could store a whole album and a bit more on one side. The were smaller and said to be indestructible compared to the vinyl it was to replace. What utter marketing nonsense. Scratch them and the became unplayable.

Nothing really changed till we enter the 90s which heralded the arrival of the Sony Walkman. I know the cassette version was out in the 80s  but I didn’t get one one til the 90s and shortly afterwards I upgraded to the CD Walkman. Now music was really portable, although one had to carry around bulky boxes or sleeves if more than one album or compilation was deemed a must.

Then shortly after someone came up with the humble MP3 and that has pretty much seen a complete game change and attitude towards how we listen, buy and share music.

The MP3 really did make a difference but it was the introduction of mega fast broadband connections that caused the revolution and the ability to compress the digital code of sound into tiny blocks.

Now one can carry tens of thousands of songs on their mobile phones and share that via wireless speakers to friends anywhere. Now music has truly become nationwide in mobility values.

I used to go to mate’s homes and look through boxes of records, tapes and CDs and play tracks I hadn’t heard of or swap music. Music was purchased from record stores and you could chat with similar minded people of the classics or modern bands.

In a modern home. No stereo, no amplifier, no boxes or shelves displaying one’s purchases, certainly no Dancet and no massive wooden speakers. Now its a computer, mobile phone or Radio with Bluetooth and wireless connections through speakers disguised as anything but wooden boxes.

Everything is downloaded, stored and reproduced from or to computers.

Good? for mobility yes but aesthetically speaking no.