Comments

1
Isn't Nipper the name of the dog who sticks his face in the phonograph in the old RCA ads? Coincidence??!
2
@1, yup, though the dog predates RCA's existence (and thus its purchase of Victor). It was used by Victor in the US and HMV in the UK, and some other labels as well, and is still going strong, though the original Nipper died way back in 1895.
3
Hella old cylinders, now digitized for your enjoyment: http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/
4
@2, thanks! I'm glad our own Nipper is still around.
5
Don't forget Emil Berliner!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emile_Berli…
6
Interesting how this pre-electric techology influenced the type of music which became commercially available. It had to be loud enough so the sound waves would actually move the cutting needle. This limited things to rather shrill mid and upper-mid range range frequencies like horns and tenor singers, which gathered around a big horn attached to the cutting lathe and basically performing as loud as possible. It wasn't until the development of electric microphones, amplifiers and cutting heads in the late 20s that anything else got to help the evolution of popular music.

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