Today I mentioned on Facebook that my boys and I were listening to Christmas music on an 8 track. The reaction was more than I would have expected. Not so much that we were listening to Christmas music, which only happened because James asked nicely, but the medium on which the music was re-produced.
I guess it is a bit rare that an 8 track player is fired up, even here where we have an old stereo in our basement. I swear that somewhere we have several 8 track tapes boxed up. For now we must content ourselves with a nice mixed tape my mother-in-law has entrusted to our care. Perhaps I really should spend sometime at garage sales to acquire a more complete collection.
I think the quintessential album for the 8 track is Meatloaf Bat out of Hell. Or possibly Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon. If you happen to have either, let’s talk.
The general topic of recorded music media that have fallen out of vogue is one that fascinates me. In vinyl I posses 45 RPM singles, 33 1/3 RPM albums, 12″ EPs and Singles, as well as 78 RPM mini albums and singles of the Victrola era. I also have the 8 track and “Mini” cassettes. Joyce brought to our music collection cassette singles, something I never had. We have two turntables and after the boys are older I’d like to pick up a Gramophone or Victrola.
Of course there are CDs – and lots of them, thanks to my stint at both record stores and radio. I still remember writing a report in my first college English class about the new Compact Disc technology. At that time there were still those who called them Compact Disk. One of my favorite scenes in The Wedding Singer is when Julia’s fiancee buys a new CD player for multi-hundreds of dollars.
I never owned an MP3 player, leapfrogging right to my Droid. But I buy most of my new music in the digital form and then burn to CD.
So thanks for joining me on this little inventory of my odd music collection. Perhaps I’ll add a “music” category so I can share some of the unique music on these diverse media. Music from Star Wars by the Electric Moog Orchestra might be a good place to start.