The Walkman the most important invention in the last 50 years?
July 4, 2009 11:00 am
Yep, that’s right. According to T3 gadget magazine, the now-obsolete cassette (remember those?) player is the most important music-specific invention of the last 50 years, beating out compact discs, mp3 format and even the market-dominating iPod.
In a recent U.K. Telegraph article, Kat Hanniford at T3 said they chose the Walkman over these newer inventions because, “It changed the way we access music, changed how often we could access music, and changed a generation.”
Originally invented so the co-founder of Sony, Akio Morita, could listen to opera while on the road, the beast really did revolutionize how we consume music. It finally came out July 1, 1979 and was called the Freestyle, the Soundabout and the Stowaway in a number of different countries, until Sony decided to make Walkman the official name.
To mark the 30th anniversary of the portable cassette player, the BBC recently invited a 13-year-old named Scott Campbell to give up his precious iPod and replace it with a Walkman for an entire week. The thing probably looks like a VCR with headphones to a kid who had probably never even heard of a Walkman before the experiment. Campbell even says it was borderline embarrassing to be seen in public with the monstrosity:
“When I wore it walking down the street or going into shops, I got strange looks, a mixture of surprise and curiosity, that made me a little embarrassed.”
Poor little chap. I remember how every kid in the neighbor HAD to have “the grandfather of the MP3 Player,” in order to be socially acceptable. Well, maybe it wasn’t that serious, but not having the ability to tune out on the bus to school in the morning definitely put you at a disadvantage. I also remember when the portable compact disc player came out and I begged my parents go buy me my ticket to cool-hood.
So this all has me a little nostalgic with flashbacks to my childhood, and I am sure some of you out there feel the same way. So to take a little walk(man) down memory lane, here is CNET’s photogallery of the Walkman’s illustrious career.
What will the next 50 years will bring in the universe of portable music technology? Will it be the iPod or something we have yet to invent? It’s exciting to think of the possibilities.
Happy 4th of July!
–Michelle Lanz
Photo by Esa Sorjonen
