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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that spins the greatest hits of history one day

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Speaker 1: at a time. I'm Gabe Lucier, and in this episode,

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Speaker 1: we're looking at a game changing moment in the history

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Speaker 1: of music technology, the introduction of the first LP and

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Speaker 1: the birth of the album as we know. The day

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Speaker 1: was June twenty first, nineteen forty eight, Columbia Records released

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Speaker 1: the first long playing vinyl record, or LP for short.

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Speaker 1: Company president Edward Wallerstein announced the new format during a

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Speaker 1: press conference at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.

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Speaker 1: He also demonstrated the breakthrough technology by playing the first

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Speaker 1: long playing disc ever produced, a recording of the New

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Speaker 1: York Philharmonic under the baton of Bruno Walter performing Mendelssohn's

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Speaker 1: Violin Concerto in E minor. Take a listen. As the

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Speaker 1: name suggests, the LP allowed for longer recordings to be

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Speaker 1: played on turntables. The previous standard record had rotated at

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Speaker 1: seventy eight RPMs or revolutions per minute, and could only

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Speaker 1: hold three or four minutes of music on each side,

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Speaker 1: but LPs were a different story because they had a

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Speaker 1: narrower groove, which Columbia dubbed a micro groove, and because

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Speaker 1: they played at a slower speed thirty three and a

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Speaker 1: third RPMs. Each side of the record could now hold

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Speaker 1: around twenty minutes. This meant that longer works, such as

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Speaker 1: classical pieces or extended jazz compositions, could now be heard

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Speaker 1: in their entirety without having to flip over the record.

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Speaker 1: It also enabled contemporary musicians to package a dozen or

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Speaker 1: so of their shorter songs onto a single disc. The

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Speaker 1: LP addressed other limitations of seventy eight RPM discs as well,

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Speaker 1: including durability and sound quality. This was done by changing

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Speaker 1: the material from which records were made, ditching the heavy,

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Speaker 1: brittle shellac of seventy eight's in favor of lighter, sturdier vinyl.

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Speaker 1: The switch to vinyl also improved the listening experience compared

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Speaker 1: to shellac records, which had always been plagued by a

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Speaker 1: high level of surface noise such as crackles, pops and

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Speaker 1: needle his hiss. It wasn't the vinyl itself that reduced

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Speaker 1: the noise, but the long spiral groove that was able

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Speaker 1: to be cut into the more flexible material. As the

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Speaker 1: Columbia Records catalog proudly touted, quote, each LP record consists

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Speaker 1: of scores of microscopically fine grooves, precisely controlled channels capable

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Speaker 1: of capturing the most subtle nuances were the most magnificent

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Speaker 1: for tissime. Many of the features that contributed to the

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Speaker 1: LP success had already been developed as far back as

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Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties. Both Columbia and its primary competitor, RCA

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Speaker 1: Victor had experimented with vinyl material thirty three and a

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Speaker 1: third RPMs and micro groove, but those early efforts were

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Speaker 1: always derailed, first by technical limitations, then by the Great Depression,

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Speaker 1: and finally by the Second World War. It wasn't until

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Speaker 1: the summer of nineteen forty seven that a Hungarian American

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Speaker 1: engineer named Peter Goldmark was finally able to put all

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Speaker 1: the components together, the material, the speed, and the micro groove.

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Speaker 1: He didn't do it alone, though his team at Columbia

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Speaker 1: had spent the better part of a decade solving all

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Speaker 1: the previous problems, like grooves that were too wide and

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Speaker 1: playback times that were too short. It's no exaggeration to

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Speaker 1: say that their efforts changed the music industry forever. When

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Speaker 1: Columbia launched the first LPs in nineteen forty eight, the

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Speaker 1: term album referred to a group of record sleeves that

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Speaker 1: were bound together, like a physical photo album, but for music.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes an album would collect the various singles of a

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Speaker 1: given artist, each of which had to be recorded on

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Speaker 1: its own seventy eight rpm disc. In other cases, an

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Speaker 1: album would collect a longer musical work, such as Beethoven's

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Speaker 1: Fifth Symphony, which had to be spread out over five

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Speaker 1: or six discs. Once LPs caught on, though, the meaning

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Speaker 1: of the term album shifted. An album became a collection

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Speaker 1: of recordings issued on a single record, an entirely new

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Speaker 1: unit which music could be conceived, packaged, and listened to.

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Speaker 1: This new take on the album was a win for everyone.

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Speaker 1: It allowed record companies to charge more money for discs

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Speaker 1: with more content, It spared listeners the hassle of having

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Speaker 1: to change records every few minutes, and it enabled artists

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Speaker 1: to branch out from short, radio friendly singles. That last part,

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Speaker 1: in particular, was crucial to the development of modern music.

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Speaker 1: No longer restricted to singles and B sides, bands and

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Speaker 1: musicians began to conceive and record entire albums at once.

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Speaker 1: Some of the songs were longer, slower, or more experimental

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Speaker 1: than what the old model had allowed for, and often

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Speaker 1: they were united by a shared theme, concept, or narrative.

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Speaker 1: Commercial music became richer and more varied as a result,

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Speaker 1: and listeners gained a new appreciation for how artists developed

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Speaker 1: or changed their sound from one album to the next.

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Speaker 1: With so many points in its favor, the vinyl LP

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Speaker 1: had no trouble supplanting the seventy eight records of old.

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Speaker 1: By the nineteen fifties, it had become the industry standard

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Speaker 1: for recorded music, a role it continued to fill all

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Speaker 1: the way until the rise of digital recordings in the

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Speaker 1: late nineteen nineties. That said, the format of a long

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Speaker 1: play album never went anywhere. From cassettes to CDs to

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Speaker 1: MP three's, unified collections of songs remained the norm for

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Speaker 1: commercial music releases, and while vinyl isn't quite as prominent

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Speaker 1: as it once was, it's had a major comeback in

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Speaker 1: the last decade or so. Maybe it's the warmer sound

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Speaker 1: of the audio or the tactile nature of the object itself,

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Speaker 1: but for many people, even younger generations, vinyl is still

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Speaker 1: the ideal way to listen to an album. As for me,

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Speaker 1: I'm holding out for the resurgence of Shellac Records. Love

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Speaker 1: those pops and hisses. I'm Gay Blues and hopefully you

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Speaker 1: now know a little more about history today than you

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Speaker 1: did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up with the show,

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Speaker 1: you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at

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Speaker 1: TDI HC Show, and if you have any comments or suggestions,

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Speaker 1: feel free to send them my way by writing to

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Speaker 1: This Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Kasby Bias

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Speaker 1: for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening.

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Speaker 1: I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another day

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Speaker 1: in History class.