| Music is the art of combining vocal and/or | | | | home to play on their (phonograph) record |
| instrumental tones in a structured manner. | | | | player. The last of the records to come out |
| | | | was the 45 made for single songs. |
| Music has been around almost as long as the | | | | |
| earth is old. We can designate medieval music | | | | It took the music industry decades to advance |
| as a beginning, although a precise time is | | | | from the 45 record to new formats, such as |
| impossible because the knowledge of that time | | | | 8-tracks and audio/cassette tapes. Once they |
| period is too vague. | | | | were created it seemed as if the industry |
| | | | took off and overnight the CD (molded plastic |
| However, in the 1100s large volumes of | | | | disk scanned by a laser beam for digital |
| written, notated polyphony and non-liturgical | | | | data) was "born". These, like the record |
| Latin songs began emerging before two major | | | | were, and still are, sold in stores for |
| changes began to take place.a) The use of the | | | | customers to purchase and take home to play |
| interval of a third as a stable harmony.b) | | | | on their CD players. Following shortly behind |
| Humanistic orientation to text with music. | | | | is the Mp3 player(standard technology and |
| | | | format for compressing audio signals into |
| These changes took several decades, putting | | | | very small computer files. Sound data from a |
| the beginning of the Renaissance somewhere | | | | CD is compressed to 1/12 the original size) |
| between the 1420s (harmonies of Dufay) and | | | | and ipod (portable Mp3 player). |
| the 1500s (humanistic texts of Josquin), | | | | |
| which brings us to the beginning of opera in | | | | Now, the pace has picked up even faster and |
| the 1600s. The Renaissance style ended around | | | | we can download music right off the internet. |
| 1750 and is also among the clearest divisions | | | | In the beginning though, a company (I'm not |
| of Western music. | | | | going to mention any names) was allowing |
| | | | people to download as many songs as they |
| Sometime in the early 1700s through the late | | | | chose for free. But, there was a problem..It |
| 1800s, the best known pieces of European | | | | was not exactly legal. A computer company |
| Classical music were written. | | | | names Apple made the process legitimate by |
| | | | allowing the artists to get paid for their |
| The 1800s was the beginning of a new era, | | | | work. The music industry now has the |
| because of a brilliant man by the name of | | | | opportunity to license and sell it's content |
| Thomas Edison. This man was an exceptional | | | | over the internet. The idea that people would |
| inventor, on 12-6-1877 he finished one of his | | | | pay for downloading music seemed a bit far |
| best inventions...The phonograph and had it | | | | fetched in the beginning. But, music sales |
| patent on 2-19-1878. Now mind you it was a | | | | have gone down by one-fifth since the |
| fairly complicated machine, using a metal | | | | millennium and downloads increased to over |
| cylinder with tin foil wrapped around it. The | | | | 500 million by July of 2005. |
| machine had two diaphragm-and-needle units, | | | | |
| one for recording, and one for playback. When | | | | A revolution in the music industry was |
| he spoke into a mouthpiece, the sound | | | | changed dramatically on February 23, 2006 |
| vibrations would be indented onto the | | | | when a 16 year old, Alex Ostrovsky came home |
| cylinder by the recording needle in a | | | | and downloaded a song from the Coldplay |
| vertical groove pattern. Edison gave a sketch | | | | concert he left just minutes before. Alex |
| of the machine to his mechanic, John Kreusi, | | | | down loaded one of the songs for 99 cents |
| to build, which Kreusi supposedly did within | | | | from the iTunes Music store (which the Apple |
| about 30 hours. Edison immediately tested the | | | | computer company started less than 3 years |
| machine by speaking the nursery rhyme "Mary | | | | ago). Shortly after that an Apple employee |
| had a little lamb" into the mouthpiece, and | | | | called to let him know he has just downloaded |
| to his amazement, the machine played his | | | | the ONE BILLIONTH song. For being the lucky |
| words back to him. | | | | downloader, Apple Computer Company is sending |
| | | | him a $10,000.00 gift card for the iTunes |
| Now, we are going to get a little closer to | | | | Music Store, a 20-inch iMac, 10 ipods, and a |
| the twentieth century of music in time in the | | | | scholarship to the Juilliard School in New |
| 1900s. Starting in the beginning of the | | | | York. |
| 1900s, there were disks (no, not CD's yet) | | | | |
| used by recording studios to record music. | | | | The "one billionth download" should go to |
| These discs called records were then sold in | | | | show you how much this industry has taken |
| stores for consumers to purchase and take | | | | over the music world over time! |