Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube
    Nostalgia Central
    • Home
    • Blog
      • Lists
    • Television
      • TV by Decade
        • TV – 1950s
        • TV – 1960s
        • TV – 1970s
        • TV – 1980s
        • TV – 1990s
      • Comedy
      • Drama
      • Kids TV
      • Variety
      • News & Sport
      • Advertisements
    • Music
      • Music by Decade
        • Music – 1950s
        • Music – 1960s
        • Music – 1970s
        • Music – 1980s
        • Music – 1990s
      • Artists – A to K
        • Artists – A
        • Artists – B
        • Artists – C
        • Artists – D
        • Artists – E
        • Artists – F
        • Artists – G
        • Artists – H
        • Artists – I
        • Artists – J
        • Artists – K
      • Artists – L to Z
        • Artists – L
        • Artists – M
        • Artists – N
        • Artists – O
        • Artists – P
        • Artists – Q
        • Artists – R
        • Artists – S
        • Artists – T
        • Artists – U
        • Artists – V
        • Artists – W
        • Artists – X
        • Artists – Y
        • Artists – Z
      • Artists – 0 to 9
      • Genres
      • Music on Film & TV
      • One-Hit Wonders
      • Playlists
      • Online Radio
    • Movies
      • Movies by Decade
        • Movies – 1950s
        • Movies – 1960s
        • Movies – 1970s
        • Movies – 1980s
        • Movies – 1990s
      • Movies – 0 to 9
      • Movies – A to K
        • Movies – A
        • Movies – B
        • Movies – C
        • Movies – D
        • Movies – E
        • Movies – F
        • Movies – G
        • Movies – H
        • Movies – I
        • Movies – J
        • Movies – K
      • Movies – L to Z
        • Movies – L
        • Movies – M
        • Movies – N
        • Movies – O
        • Movies – P
        • Movies – Q
        • Movies – R
        • Movies – S
        • Movies – T
        • Movies – U
        • Movies – V
        • Movies – W
        • Movies – X
        • Movies – Y
        • Movies – Z
    • Pop Culture
      • Fads
      • Toys & Games
      • Fashion
      • Decor
      • Food & Drink
      • People
      • Technology
      • Transport
    • Social History
      • 1950s Year by Year
      • 1960s Year by Year
      • 1970s Year by Year
      • 1980s Year by Year
      • 1990s Year by Year
      • Events
    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Pop Culture»Fads
    Fads Technology 2 Mins Read

    8-Track

    Share
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Reddit Email

    This was the first practical way to play recorded music in your car and was invented by Bill Lear and developed in the 1960s by a diverse consortium including RCA Records and the Lear Jet Company.

    8track_3

    A 4-track cartridge first appeared in the early 1960s and soon found favour at radio stations as jingles and advertisements could be set up on the tape loops so once they had been played they were all ready to go the next time. Players were soon developed for cars to exploit this new format.

    4-track cartridges were rather clunky as they required you to push one of four buttons to move to the next part of the tape.

    So the format was soon improved and called “8-track”, but not made backwards compatible with the earlier system.

    Although called 8 tracks there were still only 4 “programmes” (presumably they now had the capacity to be in stereo) and at least they now played in sequence without too much button pressing.

    8track

    Unfortunately, the tracks were too short to hold the album-side length rock compositions that were popular in the 70s prog-rock era.

    By splitting two-sided LPs into four you often found a tune stopped halfway through as the tape moved over to the next track.

    plungerJust as you were getting lost in the music, it would fade out and chhkunk! . . . the deck would change tracks before continuing the music.

    Certain artists just seemed to suit the 8-track format; people like Bread, Jim Croce and Seals & Crofts.

    The best 8-track player was probably the early 70s Panasonic Dynamite 8 plastic portable player (pictured at left) in red, yellow or blue and shaped like a dynamite detonator. You had to push down the plunger to change tracks.

    By the early 1980s, the 8-track was losing ground to the low-cost, less bulky cassette tape (which had the added advantage of offering superior sound quality).

    The 8-track has since been consigned to decay in the back rooms of Salvation Army shops and basements everywhere.

    Related Posts

    • Atari
      Atari
      Californian Nolan Bushnell created a game called Pong in 1971. The following year -  with $250 of his own money and…
    • Boombox/Ghetto Blaster
      Boombox/Ghetto Blaster
      A boombox (or Ghetto Blaster) - basically a large but portable cassette player with two or more loudspeakers - was…
    • Thalidomide
      Thalidomide
      Thalidomide was a pharmaceutical ingredient used in medicines in the early 1960s as a sedative, and prescribed mainly to expectant…
    • Outspan (Orange) Mini
      Outspan (Orange) Mini
      The Outspan Orange car was shaped like an orange, had orange skin-textured fibreglass bodywork, and looked like an orange but…
    • Roller Derby
      Roller Derby
      Roller Derby was born in Chicago during the Depression but didn't achieve national prominence until the advent of television in…
    • Walkman
      Walkman
      The technology behind the Sony Walkman - a portable personal device for listening to cassettes - might never have developed without…
    • Transistor Radios
      Transistor Radios
      When the transistor replaced the bulky and unreliable vacuum tube in amplification units, transistors did the job better and were…
    • Odyssey
      Odyssey
      Before there was Atari, before there was even Pong, there was the Odyssey. We take it for granted now, of…

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Reddit Email
    Previous Article3-D Movies
    Next Article The 1950s

    Comments are closed.

    Follow us
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
    • Instagram
    You May Also Like
    • Platoon (1986)
      Establishing Oliver Stone’s reputation as a truly […]
    • Flares
      Move over bellbottoms, here comes something that looks . . . the […]
    • 20/20
      20/20 was formed in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by high school friends […]
    • Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
      Tom Hanks is a widowed Chicago architect named Sam, so overcome […]
    • Robert The Robot
      When sci-fi shows like Captain Video and Tom Corbett, Space […]
    • Through the Keyhole
      1 9 8 7 – 2 0 0 8 (UK) 61 x 30 minute episodes This […]
    Twitter Feed
    Please note


    Nostalgia Central covers the period 1950 to 1999 and contains some words and references which reflect the attitudes of those times and which may be considered culturally sensitive, offensive or inappropriate today.
    Popular Tags
    1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1975 1976 Action Figures Amicus Arcade games Australia Beach movies Beatles Blaxploitation Board games Britpop Canada Crime Disco Disney Doo-Wop Elvis Presley Girl groups Glam Goth Hammer Heavy Metal Irwin Allen Labels Merseybeat Mod revival Motown New Romantic New Wave NWOBHM Oi! One-hit wonders Power Pop Pub rock Punk Radio Scotland Ska Soul music Surf music
    Search Nostalgia Central
    Copyright © 1998, 2022 Nostalgia Central
    • About
    • Contact
    • FAQ

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.