A Return to the 45?
With a computer in every home and a portable digital device becoming the norm for listening to music, it makes an audiophile wonder what the future will hold for recorded music.
A change is underway, and it has been growing more popular over the last half decade, in the way people consume music. Gone are the days of turntables (except for the few diehards who find vinyl better) and Walkmans (spinning CDs is joining the dinosaur generation of music listeners). The MP3 has become king. Digital audio in MP3 format are the norm in portable devices that bring your favourite music to your ears.
But how will this change, when keeping in mind Marshall McLuhan's "the medium is the message," manifest itself? What is the form it will take? After asking a different range and variety of people, I have come to the conclusion that we are returning to the age of the 45 figuratively speaking. Let me explain...
After the cylinder was overtaken by the flat disc (the most popular format becoming the 78) at the turn of the century, recorded music became massed produced and purchased by consumers around the world. The 78 - meaning it rotates on a record player, or Gramaphone/Phonograph as the early ones were called, at 78 revolutions per minute (or rpm) - ruled the roost from the 1920s to the late 1940s when the 33 (a disc rotating at 33 rpm) took over. It was the same diameter (12 inches) as the 78 but could produce twenty-five minutes of music instead of only five.
The 33 made it possible for musicians to create 40 to 50 minute recordings of their songs on one disc (20 to 25 minutes on each side of the disc) and the record album was invented. The 33 (or LP (long play) as it was called) competed with the 45 (at 7 inches in diameter and capable of playing a single song of 5 minutes on each side of the disc) for sales until the advent of the Compact Disc (CD) in the mid 1980s.
But the 45 itself ruled the airwaves of all radio stations and many consumers liked the smaller disc because they could purchase a single song (with an additional b side song as an added bonus) from a band they liked without having to buy a whole album. The 45 single's greatest popularity - beating out all other forms of recordings - was during the hay day of Rock 'n Roll (late 1950s to the late 1960s). It was the lat time, up until now, that the single song format ruled. With the invention of the CD, the album ruled and singles on CD never grabbed an audience. The vinyl discs were pushed to the niche market for DJs and purists who dislike the digital format of sound recordings.
But with digital music available online and a mp3 player suited more to playing randomly selected individual songs from consumers' favourite artists (why take the time or spend the extra money to download an album full of songs when I like only one or two from the artist) the full sized CD is joining the 33 in the minds of many music listeners. If you ask a young person today what he is listening to, it is rare he or she will say an album from a certain artist. You will more likely hear them reply with a compilation of songs from a variety of artists they enjoy. We are seeing a return to the single as the most popular format of listening to artists. Albums will become a thing of the past ass the newest form of the 45 takes over and reminds this writer of the days when running to the local record store to pick up the latest 45 from the Rolling Stones was the norm; it's just that the record store is now online.
A Glossary of Terms
78 - a disc made first of shellac, then synthetic materials such as vinyl that rotated at 78 revolutions per minute (rpm) on a record player (or Gramophone/Phonograph). It was the most popular form of recordings and became the standard (early discs could rotate at between 70 - 80 rpm). Its size was first 10 inches then 12 inches with 12 becoming the norm. It could play up to 5 minutes of music per side (the first were one sided).
33 - a disc that rotated at 33 rpm and was sized at twelve inches. It could play up to 25 minutes of music per side. It was also called an LP, or long playing disc. It initiated the start of what was to be known as the record album.
45 - a disc that rotated at 45 rpm and was seven inches in diameter. It could play up to 5 minutes of music per side. It became the popular format for the release single songs by musicians starting in the early 1950s. It replaced the 78 as the norm in the late 1940s since it could play the same length of music but was smaller and made less surface noise.
LP - a Long Playing disc also called a 33.
CD - a Compact Disc that was 120 millimeters in diameter and played up to 80 minutes of music. It moved music into digital format and replaced the 33 and 45 as the standard for music purchases starting in the mid 1980s. It also came in a smaller 80 millimeter size and held 20 minutes of music used for singles but it never become popular like the 45.
EP - an Extended Play disc. It is a CD that contains more songs than a single but less songs that a regular CD. It usually contains four or five songs lasting less than twenty minutes.
Note - After the popularity of the Compact Disc it has become the norm by most DJs and other audiophiles to identify vinyl discs by their respective sizes rather than their spin times. Therefore a 33 is called a twelve inch and a 45 is called a seven inch.
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