Tuesday, April 25, 2017
The Sony Walkman
The Walkman was so huge in the 1980’s because it took listening to music from a fixed location of your home to where ever you were going. It was in fact a portable audio cassette/tape player that was considered “small” during the time. The Sony Walkman was a 14 ounce, blue and silver portable player with chunky bottoms along with headphones and a additional case. It doesn't stop there the Sony Walkman included another earphone jack so not one but 2 people could listen to it, how great! These pieces of junk compared to what we have today valued $200 dollars, despite the price tag these were a great hit. Even if you think about it these Walkman were only $80 cheaper than the average monthly rent of $280 in 1979.
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I think the Walkman was a huge leap in technology. Before this if you wanted to listen to music on the go you had to bring a full sized stereo which was nearly impossible. In my opinion the Walkman brought new life to the music industry.
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind that the original iPod (with the wheel) was $400 in 2001, and cost an extra $100 for an added 5 GB of storage. If you account for inflation, $200 in 1979 was anywhere from $450 to $500 in 2001.
ReplyDeleteWhile today, most people's phones double as music players, you often see people wearing very expensive headphones to listen to their music. People have always been willing to spend lots of money to listen to their music wherever they go, and all that's changed since 1979 is that now you can fit more songs into a smaller package.
I agree with Trevor and James that this was a huge leap forward in technology. However, I could not imagine walking around town with such a huge brick hanging out of my pocket (I don't even wear over-ear headphones because they look so ridiculous).
ReplyDeleteThe Walkman seems rather large by today's standards, but it was the first easily portable music player. Remember, before the Walkman was released, boomboxes were the popular music player (if you didn't have a portable radio). Before the era of the Walkman, if you had a boombox that could play the radio music, you would probably be one of the coolest people in your town.
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