Slideshow summarizing some of the technology used for popular music over the past 150 years. Part of my course MUSC 1800: Popular Music at Lakeland Community College.

1. MUSC 1800: Popular Music
Music and Technology
Dr. Matthew C. Saunders
Lakeland Community College

2. One Theme: Technology
• The way that music comes to us makes a huge
difference.
• “The medium is the message.”
• Important Types of Technology

3. Musical Instruments
• Acoustic instruments
• Electric instruments
• Electronic instruments

4. Recording and playback technology
Player piano: 1890s
Piano roll.
Production in 1980s

5. Recording and playback technology
Edison phonograph:
1877
This 1901 model in
action

6. Recording and playback technology
Berliner Gramophone:
1877

7. Recording and playback technology
Standard Disc Sizes:
78rpm: 10” diameter, 3 minutes per side
(standardized ca. 1910)
45rpm (“single”): 7”, 3-5 minutes per side (1949)
33-1/3 rpm (“LP”): 12”, 22-24 minutes per side (1948)
Making a disc

8. Recording and playback technology
• Magnetic
recording
– Wire (ca. 1890)

9. Recording and playback technology
• Magnetic recording
– Reel-to-reel (1948)
– Demo

10. Recording and playback technology
• Magnetic recording
– Cassette (1963)

11. Recording and playback technology
• Magnetic recording
– Eight-track (1964)

12. Recording and playback technology
• Digital recording
– Compact disc (1983)
– Early promo
– Digital vs. Analog

13. Recording and playback technology
• Digital recording
– Digital audio tape (1987)

14. Recording and playback technology
• Digital Distribution
–Mp3 and related file formats
• What does mp3 do?
• Other digital formats

15. Broadcast Sound
• (Sheet music): 1500 (Petrucci)
• Telephone: 1876 (Bell, and others)
• AM Radio: 1897 (Marconi)
• FM Radio: 1933 (Armstrong)
• Television: 1923 (Farnsworth)
• Internet: 1993 (World Wide Web)
• Satellite Radio: 2001 (Sirius/XM)