From Walkman To iPod: A Tale Of Two Eras
I remember my first Walkman. Talk about a status symbol, taking the time to find album cuts to tape (the record industry didn’t seem to have a problem with “pirating” then), looking for Chromium Dioxide tapes that would sound brighter (and wear down the tape heads faster), and seeking out those illusive 120 minute cassettes for a longer, more enjoyable listening experience.
Now I have an iPod and can appreciate the difference in sound quality (CDs are practically obsolete), playlists, and even digital video (for those us who remember the tech leaps from Betamax to VHS to .wmvs). I think it would be fun to give a young person a Walkman and see what they’d do with it, and if they could figure out what “eject” meant and what that big button with the single arrow did….
My dad had told me it was the iPod of its day. He had told me it was big, but I hadn’t realised he meant THAT big. It was the size of a small book.
It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.
Throughout my week using the Walkman, I came to realise that I have very little knowledge of technology from the past. I made a number of naive mistakes, but I also learned a lot about the grandfather of the MP3 Player.
You can almost imagine the excitement about the Walkman coming out 30 years ago, as it was the newest piece of technology at the time. Did my dad, Alan, really ever think this was a credible piece of technology?
Yes, we did, and that’s why we upgraded the techonology today’s youth enjoy. The difference is, we can truly appreciate how far its come.
BTW — I thought about posting this on Monday, but as Craig W found this amusing, I thought I’d share. h/t
June 30th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
The last question is, after all the “I’m naive” comments, still ridiculously arrogant. Of course, we thought it credible. It made music truly portable. I think this schmuck needs to be stuck with a turntable and vinyl for a month and see what he thinks about that!
With regard to how far it’s come, wow. In the 15+ years that I’ve been in the IT business the prices for stuff has dropped as fast as it has gotten smaller. My first PC at my first IT job had 8MB RAM. My boss wanted it upgraded to 16MB, so I could run OS/2 as fast as possible. That extra 8MB of RAM cost about $600. Now I can get a 16GB microSDHC for my phone for about $70, a 4GB micro for $10! I can hardly handle those micro cards, they’re so small.
Now that’s progress. And, as you say Bob, it didn’t come out of a vacuum; today’s professionals are the ones who made it happen.
June 30th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
I remember the near embarrassment that came with my birthday gift of a Walkman knockoff from Panasonic. The real thing was just so much more cool…. I don’t remember why, but it said Sony on it, I s’pose that was enough.
Yes, I was a typical shallow 12 y.o. don’t say you weren’t.
June 30th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
I couldn’t quite ever get past the cassette speed problem, where the tape spun slower at the beginning and faster at the end.
The songs were only in tune when the tape was near the center with equal amounts on both reels.
But most people wouldn’t notice that.
June 30th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
At least they never came out with a new version of the Walkman every two weeks
June 30th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
I came in about half way there, but ya, I too remember the walkman definitely being the “must have” when I was a kid in the early 90s. These days though, I have a Zune and I definitely know the feeling of the digital age, Bob. Good times.
June 30th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Can you link the article Bob?
June 30th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
I have to say that the earlier technology was built to last. I recently got rid of my portable cassette player. It still worked. Same with a Hi-Fi stereo (remember those?)
still use the Texas Instruments solar-powered calculator that my grandfather bought me in the ’80s. And my early-model DVD player (bought second-hand) has outlasted two newer models.
June 30th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Whoops.
Sorry ’bout that, and good catch Ortz.
July 1st, 2009 at 12:44 am
From Walkman To iPod: A Tale Of Two Eras…
Bob Parks, a black conservative Republican commentator, writes about advances in music technology: “I remember my first Walkman. Talk about a status symbol, taking the time to find record cuts to tape (the record industry didn’t seem to have a proble…
July 1st, 2009 at 9:10 am
Shoot, I remember my first reel-to-reel recorder, a GE that I used to tap into the audio output of a black & white t.v. to record the audio of shows that I wanted to listen to again. Back then (BE, Before Electricity), you saw a show once, then if you heard the “soundtrack” again your mind’s eye could replay it without too much concentration. Let’s see the kids of today do that!
Yes, technology marches on. Today’s stuff approaches Magic (re: Heinlein’s comment, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic!”).
I started in computers in 1967 as a 14-year old (a rather precocious one, I’m afraid…) and had already taught myself electronics so I was fiddling around with the technology of the time. TUBES, don’cha know! Remember tubes? Anyway, look what we have now! I understand it perfectly, as well as HOW it works, and it still amazes me!
Good grief, I’m officially an Old Fart…
Igor
July 1st, 2009 at 9:27 am
Hi Bob! Thanks for the h/t. I sent it along to you because, for some reason, I thought you might find it amusing. (Perhaps it was the progression of technology, or maybe the naivete of “youngsters” these days”… or maybe even both?)
The funny thing is that, while I never had a walkman before myself, even from a young age I did know how to use tapes (which was also why I chuckled at how this kid didn’t realize at first that there was another whole side to the tape).
Amazing how quickly technology progresses these days… no all of a sudden things like walkmans, compared to their most modern descendants the iPods, could be considered by some to be as outdated as the horse-drawn carriage or whale oil lamp (probably seems like it to be that long to them anyway).
July 1st, 2009 at 11:54 pm
Igor, you’re probably never going to see this, but that quote belongs to Arthur C Clark.