Controversies

All recorded music sounds better on its original format.

Since wax cylinders were created and manufactured as the ideal format for replicating the sound of music for individual listening and re-listening, musicians and recording engineers have all adapted their practices to make the music sound as good as possible within the constraints of the format used by their clients.

Each new format includes new limitations, and also new possibilities. If we take the cassette as an example, this format gave music producers the chance to leave the studio with a copy of their current attempt and hear it again in conditions that were almost exactly the same as their fans, giving them more control over their final experiences. With the spread of Walkman, boom boxes and cassette tapes in the car, consumer experiences became more individual and isolated and as the 90s progressed, music began to sound more internalized and less public, a trend that continues to characterize new music to this day.

The pleasure of each format is therefore inseparable from the music that has been created for it. To each format their own era: big bands on 78 t, r’n’b on 45 t, hard rock on LP, grunge on K7, jungle on 12″, and shoegaze on CD.

To seek with only one format to recreate the experiences of all other formats is to aim too high. But since music from all past eras is available on CDs, one wonders if some reissues give access to another kind of fidelity than the original format, another experience of the past, especially when access to the original format and equipment is often limited.