Follies of the Madmen #254

The river represents the dulcimer strains of the music floating, ever so gently, through the air to bring you as close as humanly possible to the artists without your actually being present.

Thank you Mad Men for my introduction to Peggy the wonderful, wacky world of advertisement.

Music for the masses.

During my formative years, I purchased full stereo LP albums and avoided the 45 RPM format which was dying out in the early 1970s anyway. However my mother had many, many 45s and I remember her telling me that the average cost at retail was about one dollar. For two recordings. And you needed either the little puck to set over the spindle or those adapter inserts to play back the recording on a standard turntable.

The idea behind the large hole was that it allowed you to pick up the record with one hand by placing your fingers in the hole and your thumb on the edge without touching the surface of the record; moreover, the large hole and large spindle meant the record changer didn't need any kind of steadying device on top of the stack.
RCA was wary of 33 1/3 for the general market after its failed attempt at marketing it to the home consumer back in 1931. They felt the average person just wouldn't want that much music on a single record. They wanted variety, the executives told themselves. As far as the longhair types, most symphonic music was broken up into movements. Besides, 33 1/3 records were the same size as the old format.
The economy was different than in 1931, however, and so was the technology. People had more disposable income and vinyl meant that records were cheaper to make. (This would eventually lead to a new genre - bubblegum music.) They'd become used to prepackaged popular music albums, something that didn't exist in 1931, and a single record with the same music as a booklet of six was a natural progression. (They still went on calling them albums, though.) RCA quickly realized that if they were going to keep up with Columbia, they were going to have to get back into the 33 1/3 business. The 45 format worked in replacing the 78, but it didn't take off the way RCA envisioned it in the ad.

despite my only turning 40 this year, I have a strong love for older music, and, consequently, have a box full of 45 rpm records (and a good sized stack of lps too). My husband was the very intelligent and caring person who actually purchased for me a record converter last year, and I have been slowly getting a lot of my collection converted to digital format. Though, honestly, some of the records were in bad shape when I got them. When that happens, I just hunt until I locate a digital copy that's better.

@Tiona: Have you tried Gold Wave to help you clean-up your music? I've been using it for a very, very long time and it really helps. (No, I don't own shares in it, just a satisfied customer)

@Tiona: Not to state the obvious but you can literally wash a vinyl record. I use Castille soap, alcohol and distilled water solution along with a chamois for initial cleaning and then a Discwasher for digging out the grooves just before play. This won't correct the gouges and scratches but it does get a lot of crud out of the tracks.

Interesting...I haven't tried washing them, but most of the ones I bought myself are reasonably well taken care of...what I acquired after my parents didn't want them anymore, well, that's largely another question entirely.

@Tiona; You can tape a couple of pennies onto the tone arm to prevent skipping. :lol:

Everything old becomes new again.

Long before my parents bought our brand new Hi-Fi stereo with the automatic record changer and the 45 spindle adapter we used a single record player that had the 45 adapter built in. Lift it and give a half turn and voila, a 45 player. We moved around a lot later in life and my step dad had a huge collection of 78's. Those sob's were heavy.