Chapter 05 of 5
From CD to Auto-Tune
Discs, downloads, streams and the pitch fixer that became a sound of its own.
- The Disc
The compact disc
In 1982 the compact disc went on sale, first in Japan. Music was stored as digital data read by a laser.
- The First
Billy Joel
The first album released on CD was Billy Joel's 52nd Street.
- The Boom
Replacing vinyl
CDs were small, durable and skip-free. By the early 1990s they had overtaken vinyl and cassettes.
17 more cards in this chapter
Could you answer this?
What was Auto-Tune's inventor working on before music?
📻 The Sound That Changed Everything
- 01Capturing SoundThe first recordings, a talking tinfoil machine and why pop songs last three minutes.
- 02The Microphone Changes SingingCrooners, radio, magnetic tape and a guitarist who recorded with himself.
- 03The Studio as InstrumentWalls of sound, backwards guitars and the Beatles' sonic experiments.
- 04Machines Make MusicThe synthesizer, the sampler and the six-second drum break heard on thousands of records.
- 05From CD to Auto-TuneDiscs, downloads, streams and the pitch fixer that became a sound of its own.