Once upon a time, the only way you could listen to music was to go to a concert and see an orchestra perform live. Now, we have hundreds of genres accessible to us on our mobile phones.
Here are 5 inventions which revolutionized the music industry and changed the way we listen to music forever.
Auto–Tune
You might have mixed feelings on this one but although auto-tune means performances are less natural, it does make for pitch-perfect vocals on every track. It’s common for even the most talented artists to have the odd note be slightly off-pitch but auto-tune can subtly tweak any mistakes for the best sound. Of course, some artists such as Kanye West have used auto-tune stylistically to exaggerate vocals.
The Electric Guitar
Rewind back to 1941 and Les Paul was playing around with some homemade pickups, strings and a log. A decade later, leading guitar brand Gibson were mass producing the electric guitar. The music industry would be in no way, shape of form the same without it.
Multitrack Recording
The invention of multitrack recording meant that musicians didn’t have to record tracks in one take. They could record each section individually and layer them together at the end to create the complete track.
Synthesizers
Without synthesizers, the ’80s would not have happened. Well, it would have happened, but not how we remember it. Synths enable musicians to play with a whole range of sounds without needing a whole orchestra behind them.
The Walkman
Can you imagine a world without being able to listen to music on the bus? In 1979, Sony created the Walkman and changed the music industry forever. For the first time, the public could listen to music privately on a portable device. Amazing.
