I thought for sure that I’d never use the player. This was in the mid- 1980s so by then the eight-track craze had long left town, replaced by cassettes and the Sony Walkman. My second car was a 1974 Ford Mustang that my Dad had bought from my cousin Caren and it came with a factory installed in-dash eight-track deck. Probably as no surprise to readers of Copper, my relationship with eight-track tapes began and ended with a car. I guess none of this mattered because the news of The Eight Track Museum’s grand opening captured the attention of The Village Voice and likely thousands of other readers just like me. Eight-tracks were plastic boxes with labels that never stayed fully glued to their surface. So now a museum arrives to celebrate what exactly? Eight-tracks didn’t have any liner notes, no expansive cover shots to wow you or any spectacular packaging to gaze upon. Again, jingles and ads – not high-fidelity music! Across the course of its 15-year lifespan that fidelity issue would remain a hurdle that eight tracks would never overcome. The commercial development of the eight-track tape, officially known as Stereo 8, by the consortium was all the result of someone looking at its predecessor, the 4-track tape, and asking, “what if?” The 4-track was introduced in 1960 and had quickly become a favorite at radio stations for use in playing jingles and ads. In fact, in 1966 Ford became the first automotive manufacturer to make it available in all of their models. It was also interesting to learn that the format was invented by Bill Lear and developed in the 1960s by a diverse consortium that included RCA Records, Lear Jet, and the Ford Motor Company. Sure, 8-track was the first practical way to play recorded music in your car. But did they? The article prompted me to do some digging, some soul searching, and walk just a bit down memory lane. I hadn’t really thought about eight-tracks much over the years and was convinced that most people felt the same way. Eight years ago, The Village Voice ran an article on the opening of The Eight-Track Museum in Dallas – a destination open to the public and a celebration of everything associated with this recorded music format.
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