Into the Groove: The Story of Sound From Tin Foil to Vinyl by Jonathan ScottMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is a history of recorded sound. Initially the inventors, Edison and others, thought this would benefit businessmen the most, as they could record their notes or whatnot. Reporters could record an event then dictate off that recording for their articles. The inventors didn’t foresee how music would dominate.
Jonathan Scott had done incredible research about the recorders and players, and the formats for these devices. In the early days it wasn’t clear if the cylinder, which was most popular, or the disc would win out. Later there were format wars of speed of the discs, and of course the materials used until we land on vinyl that is used today.
There’s an extensive glossary at the back, which I perused but didn’t thoroughly read. Links and pointers to old archives and the earliest recordings are included. All in all an extensive book and interesting, however it didn’t hold up to extensive reading. The writing style at times was a bit hokey, gimmicky with trying to make puns and otherwise funny remarks, but they fell flat for me. Not sure it matters terribly, but the writer is based in England so there was a focus more on the UK than the United States, so a little slant away from my own experience.
Musicophiles and those dedicated history buffs about things or stuff, may find this a more engaging read than myself.
Fun fact: Jazz was first known as jass but everyone thought the letter J would be too easily erased, so they switched the last letters to Z so we have: JAZZ.
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