Instrumental Music In The 1950-1970's

Before the 20th century, listening to music was a rare and temporal treat. Such advanced designs of different music outputs did not exist then like they do today. Living in an age where in which we can enjoy and engage with music so freely and so easily, it seems almost illusory that there is a complete history to the way in which we consumed music in the past. Dating back to a time where it was only possible to do so by physically attending some sort of musical event. People would gather in churches, homes or concerts of sort and relied on the pure form of live, instrumental music. Even though, in 2015, people as a whole still widely engage with live musical performances, we are lucky enough to have and seldom acknowledge the varied types

Although different music mediums were expanding in range, the radio was still a popular and cheaper option amongst the masses. With the introduction and popularisation of the television, radio construction became forced to adapt to the ever changing technologies. Before, we recognised the classical and warm features of the design of the radio, the future demanded a more electronic and technological style in its designs.

In 1954, Regency created the pocket transistor radio (image1). This was a portable radio that could allow signal for wherever you went. Other radio designs competed with the ‘portable’ factor and now radios were becoming smaller in size and funkier in design. As seen in the images, these radios were compact and simple in design during this period. With the television being introduced and other large house- hold appliances, the radio was no longer a large feature wanted within the home. This was also a time period which embraced popular mass culture, media, modernism and conceptualisation. Plastics and metals were used in order for mass production and cheaper

1970-1990

As the world continued to move forward in the digital age, the invention of magnetic tapes, cassettes, and the portable walkman with headphones, transformed the music listening experience. Music could become a personal experience. Within this time period also came the CD. Radios continued to be altered to fit the masses of music and types of consumption. Boomboxes were the new kind of house-hold radio. These rather larger radios allowed for much higher intensity volume for house hold use than the previous radios. It could also attend to those consuming 8-track tapes and (sometimes) CD’s.

The designs of these boomboxes were kept simple. Every design was similar to the next- large, industrial, heavy and rectangular shaped. Rather than being appealing, these machines were made purely for their multi-functional purposes and were kept large for sound purposes.