Before the record industry set upon the rubber pellets that now make up the vast majority of humanity’s record collections, music was pressed on shellac, a much more brittle product—it is often made out of a resin literally from bugs. Shellac was mostly too brittle to try to print a full LP on, so most of the records made from it are 78-singles. Owing to that fragile quality, and for how utterly disposable the single was in the pre-1960 era—a lot of 78s were pressed by furniture companies trying to sell record cabinets, with records as an add-on—78s are some of the most sought after records in all of the crate digging universe; the subject of books, $37,000 purchases, and New York Times Magazine multimedia projects.
78轉也在網路上極為罕見,因為從原始來源轉換它們時——通常是壓板本身;當時錄音室還不存在——會讓許多數位文件帶有模糊的嗡嗡聲,使得在iTunes上購買這些文件的人並不多。然而,本月一個了不起的項目剛剛上線,目標是將儘可能多的78轉音樂免費上傳至網路供下載。
互聯網檔案館和紐約現代音樂檔案館 (ARC) 已合作,通過保護它們供後代使用,將儘可能多的78轉錄音上傳至網絡。他們已經上傳了超過30,000份錄音,從優美的約德爾音樂到夏威夷音樂,再到一些最早的合成器錄音。他們計劃最終歸檔接近200,000個唱片。
那麼,您應該從哪裡開始聽這些呢?這裡有大量的福音音樂,比如Sam Cooke和Soul Stirrers,藍調(Joshua White,Sonny Boy Williamson,Leadbelly,和Blind Lemon Jefferson) ,以及來自Hank Williams的鄉村音樂。還有非常多的爵士樂選集,主要是bebop前流行的迪克西蘭版本,意第緒語課,和可能是最古老的“House of The Rising Sun”錄音版本(比Animals樂隊早25年)。這裡還有一些經典的聖誕 歌曲,以及木刨機聲音效果唱片,還有Edith Piaf的傑作。但這個週末我最開心的是在
探索因為許多這些資料尚未納入世界音樂典籍中。總而言之,這是我迄今為止最喜愛的發現:組成Lou Bega的“Mambo No. 5”的取樣。
Andrew Winistorfer is Senior Director of Music and Editorial at Vinyl Me, Please, and a writer and editor of their books, 100 Albums You Need in Your Collection and The Best Record Stores in the United States. He’s written Listening Notes for more than 30 VMP releases, co-produced multiple VMP Anthologies, and executive produced the VMP Anthologies The Story of Vanguard, The Story of Willie Nelson, Miles Davis: The Electric Years and The Story of Waylon Jennings. He lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
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