Erasing audio history

Updated on Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 10:43 PM by Logan Molen

I'm reading a terrific book called "Perfecting Sound Forever" by Greg Milner that chronicles the history of recorded audio. So far I've learned about Edison and others who invented recording cylinders and discs, and A great book on the history of recorded soundhow the Lomaxes traveled across the South, using crude equipment to record raw versions of traditional folk and blues songs by performers that include the now legendary Leadbelly. Without those so-called field recordings, there'd be a critical hole in the audio history of the 20th century. And frankly, without some of those recordings, we might not have The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Who, even Elvis, all of whose early songs paid great homage to blues and R&B.

The topic of audio quality might sound boring, but it's not. Really, particularly in an age of digital song files and podcasts.

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