Playback: From The Victrola To Mp3, 100 Years Of Music, Machines, And Money

by Mark Coleman

Suddenly, popular music resembles an alien landscape. The great common ground of 45s, LPs, and even compact discs is rapidly falling by the wayside to be replaced by binary bits of sound. In the 21st century, radical advances in music technology threaten to overshadow the music itself. Indeed, today the generations divide over how they listen to the music, not what kinds of music they enjoy.Playback is the first book to place the staggering history of sound reproduction within its larger social and cultural context. Concisely told via a narrative arc that begins with Edison's cylinder and ends with digital music, this is a history that we have all directly experienced in one way or another. From the Victrola to the 78 to the 45 to the 33 1/3 to the 8track to the cassette to the compact disc to MP3 and beyond (not to mention everyone from Thomas Edison to Enrico Caruso to Dick Clark to Grandmaster Flash to Napster CEO Shawn Fanning), the story of Playback is also the story of music, and the music business, in the 20th century.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Technology, History, Engineering

268 pages, Hardcover

First published January 7, 2004

Reviews

[Bhusting · Rating 3 out of 5]

Man I love music. Add some technology? NOW you’re talking!

Read it for class. Pretty good! Wanted to give it 3.5 but can’t figure out how to do that on mobile.

[Recycler27 · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading this book, a friend recommended to me a more recent book on the same subject: Perfecting Sound Forever, by Greg Milner. I was shocked by how much better the Milner book is. Milner is a much better writer and thinker; his subject matter is treated more thoroughly, while also including very interesting asides.

My advice is, don't even bother with Playback. Go right to reading Perfecting Sound Forever. If you want more information on this subject area, you can then try the Playback book, which has some material not covered in the other book.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would recommend this book to anyone who has a broad audio collection. Coleman writes an interesting history covering the full history of recordings beginning with wax and ends his narrative with the advent of the iphone. He also provides insights about how certain genres and artists influence the creation and use of various media. It weakens near the end when he tends to spend a bit too much time--understandable since he is a journalist who covered these--on hip-hop and the various versions of MP3 devices.

[Stuart Spitalnic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good if you're interested in history of recorded music. Could have used another edit - some pretty big factual errors and ridiculous mistakes sprinkled about, my favorite being his calling the company that makes ipods 'MacIntosh'

[Dani · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a challenge to shove that much history into so little pages, but Coleman manages it. I read this book for my Development in Electronic Media class, and it has been one of my most enjoyable reading assignments I've ever had.

[Alvaro Raba · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an alright account (at least from the historical point of view) of the recording and music industry. The book is sometimes slow-paced but it keeps things interesting, this is a page-turner if you are interested in facts and dates. Don't expect a compelling narrative.

[Darren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I use this as a text in my History of the Music Industry class. That pretty much says it all!

[Kentsoul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad history of recording/playback technology...at points it's painfully obvious it was written nearly a decade ago...perhaps a revision is in order?

[Professor Miriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent!