Welcome to Hell, here's your 8-Track


Neil Postman once said, 

"Anyone who has studied the history of technology knows that technological change is always a Faustian bargain: Technology giveth and technology taketh away, and not always in equal measure. A new technology sometimes creates more than it destroys. Sometimes, it destroys more than it creates. But it is never one-sided."

I'm pretty sure that we know that the 8-track was more bad than good.

Question for audiophiles here who might know -- was there anything good about 8-track technology that was lost when it went extinct? And what was that good, audio-wise, specifically?

 

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Showing 1 response by desktopguy

Yes, there was something good about 8-tracks. At a moment in time when the standard audio format was the LP, there were no real portable/automotive options beyond FM & AM radio. Good as those were/still are, something was missing.

Much like VHS videotape, 8-track tape players failed in all manner of resolution and usability details, but at least served to get the portability ball rolling. Next came cassette tapes, a huge leap sonically and technologically...then Walkmans and the rest is history.