International Research Deck

The Personal Soundtrack: The MP3 Player Provides Constant Music

Saturday, July 10th, 2010 | Technology and Gadgets

Of all of the inventions of the last few years, one of the favorites is the portable MP3 player. It is a small device that holds large amounts of music, making it the best way that we have to provide a private soundtrack. One of the most common brands is the iPod. Kids can be rough on their iPod, though, and break the screen. When this happens, you need a professional who can perform ipod screen repair. This repair person can also usually provide iphone screen repair. At the moment, the MP3 player is the standard of music portability.

Up until the Twentieth Century, music was only as portable as the instruments carried by the musicians. Until this time, all music was live. Music lovers bought a ticket at a local concert hall to hear the symphony or an opera. For an evening at home with friends, whether it is a dance or dinner party, music was provided by neighbors or traveling musicians. Since all music had to be performed live, most people studied music, whether voice or an instrument. This meant that a person could provide his or own music by playing or singing alone in their room.

The first development that allowed people to listen to music outside the presence of musicians was the phonograph. Musicians could record their performance on a record, and this record could be reproduced for sale. Phonographs or record players varied in their portability. The first victrolas were somewhat portable. While they were table sized, they did not require electricity. The turn of the crank gave the device the kinetic energy it needed to turn the turntable. Later, the living room hi-fi was a piece of furniture that was rarely moved, but kids preferred portable record players that they could take from their bedroom to the basement for a party.

The next development was the radio. The first radios were also articles of furniture that occupied an honored spot in the living room. The radio allowed the music lover to listen to a larger variety of music because the radio provide live music or had a supply of records that was larger than most people could have. Over time, although they still needed electricity, radios shrank to smaller, more manageable sizes. The next breakthrough came in the 1960s, when transistor radios was an inexpensive choice. These small radios ran on batteries, allowing the young listeners to carry their broadcast music in their pocket for the first time.

After the transistor radio became popular, development of other small music players happened quickly. The next developments were the cassette tape and eight-track tape. The Walkman came out as the first portable tape player. It was small enough to wear on the belt, but it required the listener to carry a supply of cassette tapes. Then along came CDs, which are more indestructible than a delicate tape. But still, a supply of CDs was needed for variety. The final breakthrough was the .mp3 file and web sites that sell them for about a dollar apiece. Now a tiny MP3 player can be slipped into the pocket to play the thousands of songs that can be stored in its memory.

Tags: mp3 player

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