Living the history of music players

The Gramophone

In a random discussion over lunch with some colleagues, the topic of how the music players have evolved over the years came up. Somehow, it got me excited, thinking about the gramophone my parents had when I was a kid. Then I got reminded of a huge radio transistor - an upgrade to the gramophone followed by the addition of a small black portable version. This followed by a tape cassette player which itself went through a series of upgrades related to features and size. Then came along the CD player, followed by the DVD player, before I moved on and got the “new” albeit temporary standard in mobile music players - the legendary iPod.

This quick trip down memory lane brought an instant smile, the one you always get thinking about the treasured memories of the bygone days. I could not but help myself thinking about what I and people of my generation have witnessed – a revolution in multiple dimensions spanning and not being limited to communications, entertainment, science, technology, and globalization. All of these are in themselves topics that deserve independent discussion. However, I was fixated today only on the transformation of the music players which are so omnipresent and yet taken for granted that we fail to realize what they once were.

Sony's Legendary Walkman

Looking back in history, the first form of music “boxes” were produced way back in 1811. It took a while to create the piano but the progress took a leap when Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877. Jukeboxes became a hit but it was only when broadcasting provided the channel to reach masses in their homes did the transformation take a new turn. Then came along the 8-track players, the radio transistors, followed by the home stereos, cassette decks and the infamous Boomboxes that were an iconic symbol of the youth, a fashion statement even. Sony’s Walkman in 1979 was the first portable music player that truly changed the industry. Then the race switched tracks and focus moved from portability to quality leading to the development of the Compact Disc players, DVD players and the new media was made mobile with the launch of the Discman in 1989.  It was only in 1997 that MP3 players hit the market and a new era of portable players which achieved glory with the launch of the iPod in 2001. Since then, not much has changed in portability and quality, but the channels have changed form and the change has been primarily on how the media is broadcast and consumed leveraging multi-utility platforms and convergence of communication devices with larger, faster memory and processing power.

iPods - Rewriting History

So, where do I fit in this piece of the historic revolution? Well, like I mentioned earlier, we had a gramophone when I was a kid and I vividly remember the large circular cellulose based discs that were the records that brought the gramophone to life and I still remember playing Boney M.’s “Brown Girl in the Ring” time and again moving the stick and needle of the gramophone in lieu of any sophisticated controls. Now, it does not mean that I am very old but only that it took more time a few years ago for technology to reach places across the globe such as the one from where I come from. Fortunately for me, I feel lucky to have been able to witness and be a part of the transformation that has happened, a transformation that has touched and changed the very fabric of our life.
From the "live" musical performances, to music boxes, radios, cassette players, CD/DVD players to MP3 players to finally converge into phones, the industry has reached a point where it is hard to even imagine where and how it all may have started. It is hard to say where the industry will be a decade from now, especially with the rapid innovation and breakthroughs in technology with shorter than ever shelf lives. However, not much will change in the nature of the portable music players, because their individual entity would have been lost soon and channel convergence will consume the very entity I got so excited about and have fond memories of. I am sure the generation of today would not appreciate the value the new devices bring and many would even stare at us - people from the cassette player era, and would not understand why we could have at times needed a pen/pencil to play music on a cassette. 

The tape based cassette

A Boombox

However, no matter how things change, music has been and will always be the universal language binding us and bringing us together in ways we don’t even consciously think about. So, let me end this post with a song from the days when it all started to come together. 
Dear voice assistant please play "Brown Girl in the Ring". Wait... What?? The song started playing already. How? The device can read my thoughts. Well, soon enough!

Weekend escapades - Trip to the Smokies

Even though the long 4th of July weekend was fast approaching, I hadn't planned anything for it and yet I wanted to get away from home given that we had an extra day off - Friday, thus making the weekend four days long. Some plans that I would have loved had they materialized, did not, and resorting to last minute planning, I along with three of my friends – Karan, Vikas and Vivek, decided to visit the Great Smoky Mountains. I had long wanted to visit the Smokies but the plans had not worked out, given the long distance from where I stayed. 

For the uninitiated, the Great Smoky Mountains are a sub range of the Appalachian Mountains rising along the Tennessee-North Carolina border in the south-eastern United States. The name "Smoky" comes from the natural fog that often hangs over the range and presents as large smoke plumes from a distance, most commonly in the morning and after rainfall. Renowned for its diversity of plant and animal life, the beauty of its ancient mountains and the quality of its remnants of Southern Appalachian mountain culture, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is America’s most visited national park. The Smokies are a hikers paradise and despite having the densest black bear population in the Eastern United States, (around 1500 bears live in the park), the park is visited by over 9 million visitors each year.

Given that ours was a spur of the moment plan, cabins were hard to come by. We made numerous calls and sent out tons of emails and heard back from one the next day. However, there was a catch - you had to have an all-wheels-drive to reach the cabin. We went ahead and booked an SUV and reserved the cabin - aptly named "Over the Edge" - for it was on a mountain providing breathtaking views of the Nantahala forest. The slight con to it was that the cabin was a bit off from the Smokies National Park. 

From Home to the Smoky Mountains in 12 hours

We embarked on our journey in the evening on the 30th of June and stopped for the night in Shenandoah, VA. We leisurely started off in the morning and reached the office of Carolina Mountain Vacations in Bryson City, NC late in the afternoon. The management provided us detailed printed instructions to reach the cabin but we were amazed to find that our GPS was able to take us there too, although it did make us take a wrong turn close to the cabin and on the rough terrain, making us step out of the car despite the all wheels drive to put a rock behind the wheel to help us turn the car around. It was exciting nonetheless coz it reminded me of my trips with my friends to Dhanaulti in Uttaranchal in a Maruti 800 which at times got stuck in such places. That we intentionally went to such places knowing the risk is a different thing.

We reached the cabin in the evening and decided to rest and enjoy the view if offered, especially during sunset. The cabin was fully furnished and well equipped to take care of all our basic needs - including cooking. However, we had got Indian food packed to avoid the hassle and also be able to spend more time doing “nothing” and relaxing in the evening - staring at the setting sun, the stars or in oblivion, rather than wasting it in unproductive activities as cooking. 

Cabin: Over the Edge

Sunset - from the cabin deck

 Following this, we drove through the Historic Nature Trail close to Gatlinburg,TN to the trail-head of a short trail to the Grotto Falls. We wanted to do the trail to the Rainbow Falls initially, given the rave online reviews, but the trail was much longer and tougher and we didn't want to risk coming back in the dark as the bears are known to be pretty active in that area. The 1.3 mile hike to the Grotto Falls was easy, and did not offer any exciting views as it consisted of a narrow trail along the mountain, surrounded by thick forests on both sides. The waterfall in itself wasn't that great but it was unique in the sense that it fell from above, like a veil over the head, and you could actually go behind it without getting wet. Of course we were not there to not get wet. There was another group enjoying in the water, yet shouting and were out of the water pretty soon, leaving us wondering why they would do so. We went in and realized that the water was ice-cold, freezing even, that when the temperature outside was very high (upper nineties). I went ahead and stood under the waterfall, and within a minute or two, felt like my head was numb. It felt like your brain has frozen and I was left with slight dizziness and headache. However, after spending a few minutes outside, I felt better and went straight back in. Trust me - it was the coldest fresh flowing water I've ever been in. But yes, it was very refreshing and fun. 

Under the Grotto Falls

The next morning, we all got up late (surprise!) and drove to one of the visitor centers in Cherokee to find out what all we could do there- the recommendations from people employed there always help. However, for the first time, we walked out after purchasing a map of the park and without any help on what was best there. We had some information from the internet research and relied on it to see places around and planned our day accordingly.  

We drove to the trail-head of the Clingmans Dome  where a tar road 0.5 mile long but with a steep slope led to the base of a 54 foot observation tower. From the parking lot itself we got an amazing view of the forest covered Appalachian Mountains - folding and interlocking till as far as the eyes could see. The short hike was strenuous but the uniquely built observation tower atop the mountain and the view from it were worth the climb. 

The Clingmans Dome

View from the Clingmans Dome

We tracked back to our car and drove through the narrow and scenic Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail - which was a one way and was still packed with slow moving traffic. We stopped by in Gatlinburg on our way back and really liked the festive atmosphere the city offered. We even took the Sky Lift which was a double seating open-car aerial rope-way to the top of the Crockett Mountain. 

The Sky Lift in Gatlinburg, TN

We were lucky to be there around sunset thus we got the best of the views during daytime and at night when the city lights were on. Having spent some time in the city, we headed back to our cabin, which was a good 2 hour drive away. We reached late at night and it was a bit scary going back in as we had left the door at the entrance to the cabin area open by mistake and feared that a curious bear may have ventured in. In addition, it was dark without the lights on and we only had the a small light - thanks to an iPhone torch app. 

The next day we went to the North-West side of the park. Surprisingly, there was no direct route to go across the park and we had to go around it. In addition, there are some one way roads, which the paper map highlighted, yet our GPS did not understand and thus miscalculated the time required to reach the destination. After a long, yet scenic drive, through which we came across thousands of bikers, who I presume were there to participate in some rally on the eve of the independence day celebrations. We found some had had accidents given the sharp turns of the mountainous roads, but yeah I can only imagine the fun they would be having driving through that area on bikes - Harleys et al.

We reached Cades Cove loop in the afternoon after getting delayed having got lost on the path, thanks to the GPS and the roads that were not even on the traditional paper based map we had purchased. We had to drop the plan of hiking to Abrams Falls, and thought of driving around Cades Cove where the visitor center personnel mentioned the bears were active and could be viewed along with other wildlife. The 11 mile one-way drive took us more than 2 hours, given the slow moving bumper to bumper traffic - which stopped abruptly every now and then, every time some enthusiast thought she'd spotted some wildlife( and she had not ). To our disappointment, the only wildlife we saw was some deer - which we get to see even in the parking lot of the building I stay in New Jersey. 

Cades Cove Loop

Our time at the Smokies was over and we embarked on our 12 hour drive back home. As before, we stopped for the night, this time in Harrisonburg, VA. The next day, July the 4th, we reached back home in the afternoon and went straight for some Dosas for lunch. 

We were tired but wanted to see the famous Macy's fireworks at the Hudson River in New York. Vivek persuaded me to go to his place which provided a convenient view of the Manhattan skyline and also to the fireworks which were scheduled to go off at 9 pm up until 9:20 pm. We saw the fireworks, which started late around 9:30 pm were not as great as anticipated. I drove back home late at night - with some more memories and experiences to treasure and share, before getting back to the grind and hustle bustle given the regular home-office-home schedule.

Macy's Fireworks in New York

Macy's Fireworks in New York