Running out of time... line. (It's lame, but so early in the morning)

The Timeline

The last and final of all the projects. I hated doing this project. When the group we put together at the beginning of the year discussed our goals and aspirations for all of our group projects everything we had thought of looked promising. Slowly as the semester progressed only the selected few in our group progressed along - I am not immature enough to name names, but I feel almost used by a couple of the procrastinating group members who put thier time into their own projects and completely dodging out on helping out at all...

For the Timeline we all had a group meeting and discussed few topics, and quickly decided on one we all thought was interesting. We came up with the theme of technologies for audio recorded media. We began with Cavemen, how they started with just cave drawings that eventually became universal- but were shortly lost to the grunts and moans now known as an English Language- and ending with Cd's.

The way this project was supposed to work was alot like the way we did the podcast. We chose that style because the organization of our podcast went smoothly and everyone did thier parts. I was initially just assigned Cavemen, but ended up doing that as well as the phonograph. Adam worked on the vynel records, and Cara did her part on the Cassette tapes.

To do the timeline Cara, Adam and I searched photo's together and later in the day when Cara went to work at the mall she picked up some paper and string and finished up the project. I love the colour scheme CARA! :D

This is what we have for our information; it is incomplete without the CD as we were told last minute that the member of the group was not going to be completing it. *cough* Jerk *cough* but the information we have is interesting anyways.

Cave men carved or scratched pictures with the stone sharpened-stone tools onto walls of the cave. These drawings were representations of events that happened in thier daily life ex. Hunting victories. Record keepers developed systematic symbols that represented words and sentences that were faster to draw, and universally recognized.
In early trading Cavemen used clay (portable records) with pictographs to record the quantities of materials traded or shipped. These pictographs evolved and slowly lost their picture detail and became abstract-figures that represented sounds in the spoken language.

"Cave Drawing." National Wildlife Federation. 2007. National Wildlife Federation. 19 Nov. 2007 .
Combs, S. "Letter to Mom and Dad." 2007. 19 Nov. 2007 .
"Inventors; a Brief History of Writing Instruments." About.Com. 2007. About Inc. 19 Nov. 2007 http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa100197.htm.

It is hard to imagine going for my morning jogs without having “I am a winner” by The Aquabats blaring into my ears and setting the pace, or listening to my favourite Avenge Sevenfold song when I need some cheering up. With the help of Thomas Edison’s invention of the phonograph created on December 4th, 1877 it wouldn’t be possible. The phonograph was really invented while Edison was working on the telephone. Initially the telephone was invented as a faster way to send telegraphs for the Western Union – “But the problem was that the telephone could transmit information much more quickly than a telegraph. It was not economical to slow the transmission down to the rate at which someone could transcribe it. What was needed was a way to record the message so it could be played back later at a slower speed. This problem provided the motivation for the invention of the phonograph.” (Turn of the Century 1)
The making of the phonograph was done with a needle known as a stylus. The stylus was then held up against a rapidly moving cylinder with tin foil wrapped around it. It had two separate diaphragm / needle units. One was used for recording the voice or sound, and the other was used to play it back. When a noise was picked up by the recording needle the sound vibrations would get indented onto the cylinder and would later be able to be played back.
In the North American Review written in June 1878 Edison had made a list of the things he had thought the phonograph would be used for in future times;

Letter writing and all kinds of dictation without the aid of a stenographer.
Phonographic books, which will speak to blind people without effort on their part.
The teaching of elocution.
Reproduction of music.
The "Family Record"--a registry of sayings, reminiscences, etc., by members of a family in their own voices, and of the last words of dying persons.
Music-boxes and toys.
Clocks that should announce in articulate speech the time for going home, going to meals, etc.
The preservation of languages by exact reproduction of the manner of pronouncing.
Educational purposes; such as preserving the explanations made by a teacher, so that the pupil can refer to them at any moment, and spelling or other lessons placed upon the phonograph for convenience in committing to memory.
Connection with the telephone, so as to make that instrument an auxiliary in the transmission of permanent and invaluable records, instead of being the recipient of momentary and fleeting communication.
(The Library of Congress 2)
So it was no surprise when Edison Phonograph Works also produced musical cylinders for coin-slot phonographs – aka early jukeboxes, which pointed the future of the phonograph as an entertainment machine.
You could see how much this invention had an impact on society and media as a whole. The creation of records was later created and the completion of the telephone which is still used today. A negative effect was created (and any invention would create, even today) as the starting of elitism grew larger. Elitism is just the belief that certain people or certain classes deserve special treatment by virtue of their perceived. When new forms of technology are released the pricing is ridiculously high making it so “only the rich” can afford to purchase or use it.
1. Donna Yankowitz , The Turn Of The Century, The Phonograph. 2007 <http://www.ushistory.net/phono.html>Dr. James H. Billington,The Library of Congress, Inventing Entertainment: The History of the Edison Cylinder Phonograph, 2007 < http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edcyldr.html

(taken from Adam's Blog - for his part)

Our project was focused on forms of projecting music or information. Music is considered a form of social opposition when it is used in that way, so the way music gets around is a big factor. Its creation had to do with making a better quality in music, as technology progressed people’s demand for better forms of it rose. I picked to research vinyl, which was an important form of recording music from the 1930’s up until now even. It was most involved in the hippie movement of the 60s, when psychedelic music and rock ‘n’ roll were a huge part of society.

(taken from Cara's Blog- for her part)

The cassette tape was responsible for many social phenomena since its creation in 1963 by Philips Electronics. But there is one main connection that the cassette tape has to culture of the 1970s-90s, and it is that of the hip-hop culture. Small and compact, the cassette tape was the first portable piece of audio equipment with recording on the piece. With the help of the Sony Walkman in 1979, this was made possible for individuals to mobility with audio recordings. This is where one can see the start of hip-hop culture becoming more popular, because MCs and Breakdancers were provided with the mobility to spread the idea of hip-hop culture. This culture would be blown away with what would come next. The highly anticipated, large-and-loud style boombox, or ghetto blaster, was created in 1981, further advancing the Breakdancing scene, because now, breakers could make an entire style out of carrying around this huge music playing device. Relating back to the cassette tape, these two aspects of hip hop culture were a result of the cassette tape, and essentially, pushed the hip hop movement to a great start.

Bibliography

Bellis, Mary. “The History of Sound Recording.” About.com. 2007. New York Times Company. November 25, 2007.

Bellis, Mary. “The History of The Cassette Tape.” About.com. 2007. New York Times Company. November 25, 2007.

“Boombox Birth.” Pocket Calculator Show. 2007. Boombox Museum. November 25, 2007.