Nostalgia ~ Music

I don't want to say too much about yesterday. Needless to say, I'm highly embarrassed (once again) by my strop, for which I apologise.

I have a few personal messages I have to respond to but I'll be back to start my catch up soon.

Tonight, as rain delayed play outdoors once more, I realised that if I'm to survive the winter months I need to come up with a few more indoor threads. So, following several blip and non-blip conversations recently regarding hoarding, meet the new thread, Nostalgia!

Tonight's topic is music... formats!

Hands up who knows what all of these are. Well done!

For everyone else, we have;

The vinyl record. The dinner plate of the music format, this used to be all you got and the world was ruled by the number 78, 33 and 45. These were the revolutions per minute (rpm) that these grooved discs rotated on the turntable.

Next came the magnetic tape, in it's most popular form, the cassette. These were the first truly portable formats, introducing the walkman to the world. I have hardly any tapes remaining and I have no idea how "Geoff Love and his Orchestra plays Star Wars and Other Space Theme's" survived the various move and the fact that I no longer own a way of playing it!!!

We enter the digital age with the compact disc. The coaster of the music format upped the stakes with improvements in sound quality, storage and portability. For some, they remain the ultimate format but like most things, they are now finding themselves being replaced as technology advances.

The one which might cause problems for those too old to have bothered going further with their music collection and those too young to think that any flat disk the size of a vinyl album is called a frisbee is the mini-disc. The Betamax of the music format, this was a short-lived attempt at combining digital quality sound with a more mobile friendly size. Alas, it was destined never to be fully accepted by the buying public or really endorsed by music distributers themselves, who pitched the price too high and didn't release many titles.

The digital download era is represented by two items. The flash drive memory stick and the iPod. Between them they have sealed the fate of the compact disc and to date represent the ultimate in sound quality and portability. The 2GB flash drive here can hold around 400 - 600 tracks while the 80GB iPod can hold... well more albums than I'll ever own!!!!

Hope everyone had a good Tuesday. Here's to better Wednesday!!!

;- )