When Music Television, better known as MTV, launched 35 years ago this month—12:01am on August 1, 1981 to be precise—the idea of a 24-hour video music channel was foreign (as it is again today) yet fascinating as we got to see beloved pop heroes “playing” music against often outlandish video sets.
True, the VCR has been effectively dead for years but that didn’t stop Japan-based Funai Electric from selling more than 750,000 VHS machines last year. Where they sold ’em and who bought ’em is an interesting question but none of that matters anymore as this surprising vestige of the past comes to an end.
Last week we presented a selection of iconic ’70s-era advertisements from long-forgotten brands with names that fall in the first half of the alphabet (A–M). Our favorites included the Carver ad showing a young Bob Carver hamming it up, Garrard’s “Improve Your Hearing for $200” turntable ad, and the iconic Maxell ad depicting a listener getting “blown away.” Here we pick up where we left off, starting with classics from Nakamichi, Nikko, and Optonica. Watch for Part 3, our final installment, next week.
Few products have the power to single-handedly change the course of history. Thirty-seven years ago this month Sony introduced a portable cassette player that would forever change the way we experience music on-the-go.
Electricity. The force behind everything readers of this magazine cherish. Try to imagine a world without it. Impossible. 264 years ago this month Benjamin Franklin—inventor, entrepreneur, and one of America’s founding fathers—hypothesized that lightning was an electrical phenomenon that could be transferred to another object and set out to prove it by flying a kite during a thunderstorm.
Twenty-three years ago today marks the world premiere of Jurassic Park in our nation’s capital. The movie, which cost $63 million to make, shattered all box office records at the time and gave us a newfound appreciation for prehistoric creatures. Who can forget the terrifying footfalls of the approaching Tyrannosaurus rex, which would become home theater demo fodder for years to come.
Napster, the notorious Internet-based peer-to-peer file sharing service made its debut 17 years ago this week, forever changing the way we discover and share music and (ultimately) forcing the record industry to face the music: The Internet wasn’t going away and (with the help of Apple) would radically transform music distribution.
The week of May 23rd is a landmark week in the annals of Star Wars history. Return of the Jedi hit theaters on May 25, 1983, six years to the day after the original Star Wars (later retitled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) forever altered the course of space-themed Sci-Fi in 1977, not to mention special effects and movie sound.
Stop for a moment and try to remember life before the Internet. Typewriters. Trips to the library. Looking stuff up in the Yellow Pages. A different world, right?
Apple didn’t invent the MP3/digital music player but it did single-handedly create the market for it with the iPod, which debuted in October 2001 with the enticing tagline “1,000 songs in your pocket.” By mid 2003, sales of the iconic device topped 1 million. So if Apple didn’t invent the MP3 player, who did?
When New York City’s Carnegie Hall opened its doors to the public 125 years ago today, it was known simply as the Music Hall. The historic opening night, which kicked off a five-day music festival, featured guest of honor Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky conducting his Marche Solennelle.
Thirteen years ago today Apple launched the iTunes Music Store, allowing music lovers to buy and download music from top artists in digital form instead of having to copy MP3 files or ripping CDs into iTunes.