Technology and Change
The other day I decided to get out my old vinal Records (LPs) and 45s. I did this because I had bought a new stereo for my husband as a Christmas gift. It came complete with a turn table, CD player, cassette player and radio. We hadn't had a turn table in our home for several years. We had given away the two we had when were first married. We had kept the old records, however.
As I got out one of the 45s my niece looked at it with wide eyes. Having never seen such a thing in her life she said, "That's a BIG CD." I told her that was she ought to see the larger LPs. I took one out and set it on the turn table. After listening to a bit of one side I turned it over to listen to something on the other side. "Wow!" She continued. "It has two sides!"
For those of us who grew up before CDs were the thing, it seems so odd that someone could not know about what life was like before CDs.
I guess that is the way things have always been. New inventions and technology take over and we cannot imagine what life was like before them.
My kids cannot imagine life without computers. My generation could not imagine life without cars, or washing machines or record players.
I wonder what invention will come along to change the way their kids will see things.
As I got out one of the 45s my niece looked at it with wide eyes. Having never seen such a thing in her life she said, "That's a BIG CD." I told her that was she ought to see the larger LPs. I took one out and set it on the turn table. After listening to a bit of one side I turned it over to listen to something on the other side. "Wow!" She continued. "It has two sides!"
For those of us who grew up before CDs were the thing, it seems so odd that someone could not know about what life was like before CDs.
I guess that is the way things have always been. New inventions and technology take over and we cannot imagine what life was like before them.
My kids cannot imagine life without computers. My generation could not imagine life without cars, or washing machines or record players.
I wonder what invention will come along to change the way their kids will see things.
posted by Kelly @ 1/14/2006 01:00:00 PM
5 left a comment.--
5 Comments:
We ain't seen nothin' yet.
I can't believe you even found something with a turntable!
I thought they went the way of the typrwriter.
I have a friend who wants to write an artsy screenplay called "The Oracle of Sherbrook."
Sherbrook is in Canada, and "Oracle" refers to the company that made turntable stereos, once upon a time.
The story, as he ran it by me, revolved around that artifact--the turntable stereo-- and how there was a charm, as well as a sound to it that newer generations may never experience.
The film opens in a bedroom in the dusk before dawn with a sleek, black LP slowly turning with a barely perceptible sound. And then we see a hand carefully lowering the needled arm into the opening groove, and we hear the loudly-silent shock of sound as the needle touches the outermost rim of the LP, and is slowly drawn inward with an occassional scritch and scratch before the explosion of music (was it Buddy Holly? I forgot) as dawn breaks over the farmlands...
There was something mystical about the process, oracular, made more poignant by the fact that it is yesteryear's technology, though having it's own incomparable magic that is irreplaceable.
That was several years ago, but was the last time I thought about the old LP...
...until now. You summoned the same feeling.
Hey, he's back in Canada now, but I have his email address and I'll invite him to your blog!
Apparently the nostalgia for 'original' things also includes film cameras and typewriters. Even though personal computers have been around for over twenty years, American writer Paul Auster composes all of his books on an old Olympia typewriter.
As for records, there are pros and cons...perhaps all of the ticks and pops and noise disappears with digital sound, but I find there's a disconnect associated with sampling music and converting everything to zeroes and ones.
I recognize now that my story idea of the Oracle of Sherbrooke (spelled correctly with an e) was mainly about nostalgia, and the way you can transport yourself back in time, to all the associations you had with the music you were listening to. There already has been the novel High Fidelity...but this concerned top ten lists and relationship fidelity...so if I get off my bum and restart the 'project' it will have to be about something else.
Terry,
If you are talking about nostalgia...see one of my previous posts...
http://paperclippings.blogspot.com/2005/07/
more-on-music-and-memory.html
John,
I found this stereo at ShopKo...last December. It looks like an old radio...though it doesn't have the best sound...it still plays the LPs. We have had a lot of fun listening to the Footloose Soundtrak, Styx and Asia...to name a few.
Ah, yes. My generation. :)
Good to see ya, Terry.
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