Episode 5: Music Rides the Technological Wave

In the past 100 years, music has experienced change at a never-before-seen pace. People have gone from listening to local talent playing at town fairs to instantly streaming music from all over the world. Technology's effect on the broadcast, recording, and instruments themselves has transformed the way people create and consume music. In this episode, we explore the past 100 years of innovation and how it has affected our perspective of music. 

Check out the full playlist with each song discussed in the episode below:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3B7lSmINZXG9DmizZOIKQa?si=9f2cb4dff9ed4382

Transcript

Episode 5: Music and Technology 

Intro
Since its inception, music has evolved through technology. Whether we are talking about the introduction of the piano in 1700, the first brass instruments with valves in the early 1800s, or when the drumkit arrived on the scene in the early 1920s, innovation has inspired artists throughout human history. Today’s show looks at the past 100 years and how innovation has changed how we play and consume music. Welcome to the musicscope.

Radio

100 years ago, in the 1920s, everyday life was very different than it is today.  Much of the population operated without a car or indoor plumbing. There was no highway system, and most existing roads were not paved. The Titanic, the Wright brothers’ first flight and World War one, or the great war as it was called then, were still fresh in people’s memories. Jazz was an underground movement that was considered taboo by many, and the victrola played newly introduced 78rpm records that lasted about 3 minutes per side. Music was consumed locally, especially in rural areas like the deep south, where traveling musicians would go from town to town, performing at dances, fairs, and church gatherings. 

When radio was introduced, it fundamentally changed how people consumed music and programs. Well, Kind of. In Europe, the precursor to broadcast radio was the Electrophone.  This was a special telephone party line that people could subscribe to and receive news, music, and various programs.  Families were given a number of headsets to listen to programming, depending on the level of the subscription. The electrophone lasted from around 1890 to the 1920s when radio as we know it was commercially introduced. 

Radio transmissions had been experimented with and used for years but became commercially available and more widely used in the US in the early 20s. By 1930, most homes had a receiver. The radio allowed people to hear a wide variety of music and programming beyond what was available locally. Someone in Lawrence, Kentucky, or Saginaw, Michigan could listen to the same Broadway show or classical music program thanks so syndication and more powerful antennae. 

By the 1940s, radio technology had progressed enough to be a standard piece of equipment in cars. Roads and cars became more reliable and accessible, and people took their music with them. As people traveled, it allowed them to hear local music broadcasts, especially after 9 or 10 pm when the major networks shut down for the evening. A cross-pollination of western swing, gospel, blues, country, and R&B would bring about the birth of rock n roll. 

In the 50s, television began to replace radio as the main source of entertainment.  Formal radio programs began to go away, and radio shifted into the ‘top-40’ format which focused on music and the almighty hit single. 

For recording artists and labels, marketing strategy revolved around producing hit singles and saturating the airwaves. At this time, albums were produced as compilations of singles and other recordings and marketed as collections of songs. This began to change in the mid-60s by artists like Bob Dylan and the Beatles, who used more introspective lyrics and experimented with album themes. This in turn would give rise to the album itself being portrayed as a work of art with concept albums like The Beatles’ “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” The Kink’s “Village Green Preservation Society” and “Dark Side of the Moon” by Pink Floyd. Rock Operas expanded the concept even further by delivering a defined narrative instead of a simple theme. The first was the double album ‘Tommy’ released in 1969 by the Who, which had an intricate story about a deaf, dumb, and blind boy, his self-perceived spiritualism, and eventual downfall. The extensive album packaging even included a libretto. 

FM radio came around the same time that albums began to outsell singles, and at first it offered an alternative to top-40 radio by playing entire album sides. Its higher frequency range provided a clearer sound with a wider dynamic range. Eventually, FM would be commercialized and promote the top-40 format as well as talk, oldies, and other specialty formats that had previously been on AM. 

Internet radio debuted in 1993 and has grown to offer streaming services and access to thousands of channels worldwide. People can access it through subscription, internet streaming devices or phone apps. It offers a consistent sound quality with limited commercials compared to traditional airwave radio. 

Recording

Possibly the biggest innovation over the past 100 years has been the continual improvement in the method of recording music. The first recording devices were mechanical. They used air pressure from the sound being recorded to scribe onto a wax cylinder. The sound was captured using long cones, sometimes several at a time to focus the air pressure coming from the sound source. Think of it as a megaphone in reverse. Recordings using this method are scratchy and only capture a little bit of the dynamic range. Often, lower-range instruments like a bass or tuba were hard to pick up, and were replaced by higher-pitched instruments that could be heard better in the recording.  Not only was the technique’s sound primitive, but the wax they were recorded on did not hold up well over time. Precious few recordings survive from this period. 

In the 1920s, western electric introduced a system that used electrically charged components to capture sound. The current could be manipulated and balanced, which allowed for much better sound quality. The actual recording of the sound was still mechanical – an electrically charged stylus would scribe the soundform into a wax master, which would then be copied onto a metal plate and consumer copies made from that. Your grandparents ‘78s’ used this process.  This was the first series of recordings that had any sort of engineer involved. The engineer would make sure the microphone and recording equipment’s voltage and placement were correct for the best possible recording. 

This system proved much more reliable and easier to preserve. It was also easier to set up and somewhat more mobile. Typically, a Western Electric system would be set up in a hotel or other accessible space, and multiple artists would be scheduled and recorded over a period of anywhere from a weekend to a couple of weeks. Rarely did a recording session get scheduled for one artist. Music was still largely regional, so record companies would send talent scouts to seek out local acts. As setups and microphones became more advanced, some companies set up recording studios – fixed locations where they could control the acoustic environment and become a destination for artists. At first, many recording studios were attached to radio stations that would use the recording to promote local artists appearing on their shows.  This helped give birth to the disc jockey and helped establish the recording as a souvenir for fans. Together, they forged the path for recordings to replace sheet music as the chief consumable for music. 

In 1945, another innovation was brought to the recording industry – Magnetic tape. During the 30s, Germany developed a procedure of capturing sound on a plastic film with a magnetic coating. A recording head magnetizes the particles on the tape and a playback head reads and amplifies them. This method was kept secret until Germany’s defeat in world war 2, when the allies took the technology to the world. This advancement in recording made an enormous difference in fidelity as well as the nature of how recordings are made.  

In mechanical and electrical recording, a live performance was simply captured by the equipment. Magnetic tape allowed an artist to record multiple takes on different segments of the tape. Les Paul pioneered this technique, called ‘overdubbing’ in the 1950s. A great example of his work is ‘How High the Moon’ which features multiple guitars recorded by Les Paul and a vocal with harmonies recorded by Mary Ford. This concept allowed tape to be divided into sections called ‘tracks’. For example, the first recording machines divided the tape into two sections, meaning two separate sources could be recorded at the same time. By the mid 1950’s, a 4-track tape machine was widely used. This in turn would be replaced by 8, 16 and finally 24 track tape machines. Magnetic tape also provides better reproduction of bass frequencies, giving a natural warmth to recordings. Now, having been trained in analog recording in the 90s, I’m a little biased (no pun intended) towards the sound of magnetic tape, which was the standard medium for recordings for over 50 years and it is still widely used by professional recording studios today. 

In the mid-seventies, digital recording technology began to emerge. Instead of capturing and reproducing sound using acoustic energy, digital samples of the sound are made in a very rapid, very dense manner. For example, a CD reproduces 44,100 sound samples per second. Since the samples are stored as digital code – literally ones and zeros, they can be easily and safely stored with no deterioration. They can also be used to create a digital image of the soundwave for editing. Instead of cutting and splicing tape, engineers can simply highlight a section of the soundwave and cut, copy, or paste it elsewhere. As computer technology has become more powerful so has the capabilities and resolution of digital audio. 

Digital technology has also led to multiple emulators of gear in digital audio workstation software. For example, a user can change the type of processor, microphone, amplifier, or instrument with a click of the mouse instead of changing out the physical unit. There is still a large debate regarding the sound quality of analog versus digital processes, but there is no debate that digital is more convenient for editing. 

Gear 

Musical instruments themselves went through significant changes in the last 100 years. The guitar went from a parlor instrument almost exclusively associated with Spanish music to one of the most popular instruments in the world, found in every genre of music. I’m not going to go in too deep right now, because we have an entire episode dedicated to the legacy of the electric guitar. But the guitar pioneered the use of the 20th century’s greatest resource for innovation in music– electricity. Soon, basses would follow guitars in becoming electric. Leo Fender introduced a brand-new instrument in 1951– the electric bass guitar – which looked like a giant version of his telecaster guitar, but with 4 strings and wider spacing between the frets. 

Soon, electric pianos like the Wurlitzer and Fender Rhodes were introduced. At first electric pianos had a hard time gaining acceptance, but for traveling musicians, electric pianos offered a portable solution that offered consistent setup and tuning. Eventually, they would show up in popular recorded music notably in Ray Charles’ hit ‘What’d I Say’ which featured a Wurlitzer 100 and gave the instrument credibility with recording artists. The distinct sound of electric keyboards would pick up steam, and many artists would go on to use them. The Door’s “Riders on the Storm” used a Fender Rhodes, and Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” prominently features a Hohner Clavinet. 

In the 50’s and 60s, a new instrument was developed, the synthesizer. A synthesizer generates audio signals through electronic means. The signal’s frequencies are then added to or subtracted from depending on the desired effect. Early synths used hundreds of vacuum tubes and punch cards to generate electronic signals. The Moog synthesizer was released in 1964 and was the first to incorporate filters to manipulate sounds. The Mini-moog would introduce the synth as a self-contained unit with a mini keyboard built in. Synths were initially viewed as a bit of a gimmick,. Until major artists started incorporating them into their music. Stevie Wonder used a mini moog extensively in 1970’s talking book and would continue to pioneer its use in his songs. Keith Emerson helped spotlight the synth’s capabilities in his performances with Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, and the Who’s Pete Townshend used an ARP synthesizer that drove many of the rhythms on the album Who’s next, including ‘Baba O’ Reily’ and ‘Won’t get fooled Again’. 

The drum kit, although an acoustic instrument, consistently embraces innovation.  It originated as a contraption kit or ‘Trap Kit’ by piecing elements of New Orleans second-line percussion together and allowing a single player to use pedals, stands, and sticks to operate them. The first contraption kits had wood blocks, bells, and marching bass drums that would literally be kicked while the drummer also played a snare. Later, this would be done by the use of a kick drum pedal. Soon, other hardware was added to link items together and add tom-tom drums. As drums grew in popularity, particularly in jazz, other elements were added on, such as the high hats, a pair of cymbals operated by a pedal that crashed them together, and a ride cymbal, which is used to keep time. In the 60s, many rock drummers began to adopt Louie Belson’s double bass drum setup. This added a new element, especially in heavy music. As drummers added more cymbals and drums, hardware became more extensive and intricate. By the 1990s Neil Piert of Rush was surrounded by drums and electronic percussion on 3 sides.  Other drummers to incorporate auxiliary percussion into their setups include Stewart Copeland of the Police and Bill Bruford of Yes and King Crimson. 

Instruments increased in capability and complexity, allowing a single performer to do more things.  Beginning in the 1960s, the ‘power trio’ generally a drummer, bassist, along with a guitarist or pianist became the predominant configuration for bands. This would only have been possible with the innovations in musical instruments. 

Digital revolution

As chipset manufacturing became more efficient and widely available, computers became more powerful and less expensive. By the 1990’s, digital processing via computer was becoming more reliable and on-par with many analog mediums. Electronic instruments offered a wider selection of tones in a single unit. Digital workstation synthesizers gave musicians access to hundreds of different sounds in one keyboard.  Electronic drums require no tuning, little maintenance, and took up less space than a traditional drumkit. Guitarists can use amp modeling technology to emulate multiple, much more expensive amps in a single unit. In the mid-80s, MIDI or Musical Instrument Digital Interface was introduced and created a standard for communication between electronic instruments and could be used to synchronize digital triggers, specify which instrument sounds to play, and notate pitch, timing and volume. Around this time, samplers were introduced and used to record a snippet of sound which could be triggered to playback. This technique would prove especially useful in hip hop, where snippets of recorded music could be arranged to form entire new songs and soundscapes. 

Computer age

Digital information storage, processing, and retrieval evolved into a very efficient medium and by the early 90’s had given rise to the internet. First through email, and then through social networks like MySpace, Facebook, and TicTok, people began to interact with the world and each other through the use of internet technology. Artists on opposite sides of the world could collaborate on a song. Technology would enable people to use their cellular phone as a camera, database, processor, instrument, and entertainment hub. Music was hardly kept in a physical form after 2010, when streaming platforms such as iTunes and Spotify took over the market. Streaming meant you could listen to any artist, anywhere at any time you wanted, as long as you had signal and an active subscription to your service of choice. 

In the late 2000-teens there was an interesting development. Since the 1990s, the vintage instrument market had been booming. Vintage electronics began to follow suit. Analog recording methods were studied and adopted by major artists like Jack White, The Foo Fighters and Gillian Welsch, and Vinyl records outsold CDs for the first time in 30 years in 2020. People were making a purposeful turn towards vintage technology. Many say it is the warmth of the sound… a soundwave that is unbroken by the microscopic gaps between samples. As the digital age brings more and more convenience and capability to musicians, the old ways of manipulating sounds directly through analog gear beckon to musicians.  The future may be a golden hybrid between the two, but only time will tell what innovations will come next. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed our journey through the last 100 years of musical innovation. I hope to see you again next time, when we explore the history of the electric guitar, voice and emblem of rock n roll. Thanks for listening to the Musicscope, I’m Mike Grubb