# How did people listen to music before the technology to do so?



## Guest (Aug 15, 2016)

Today we have many ways of listening to music
-CDs 
-Vinyl 
-Downloads 
-Streaming online

Just to name a few 

In the past, vinyl was very popular. There were other ways of listening to music like cassette tapes and wax cylanders depending on the era. However, throughout history people have also been able to listen to music through live performance (in concerts, private performances in one's own home etc).

My question is, before the technology needed to listen to music (live music, CDs, whatever), how did people listen to music? Was it all in their head? Were they all crazy?

I hope this proves to be a fruitful and delicious discussion.

Watermelon


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

In the old days, even before recording technologies were developed, our friends the Martians would stream music directly into our minds. But we found out that they were using this as a subterfuge to steal our women, and relations soured. Since then, we have developed other ways to share and listen to music, but we older people still look back on the Martian period as a kind of golden age.


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## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

In ancient times the Oracle was consulted, who would peer into the fire, looking down through the centuries, then in a trance-like state would begin performing "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)" complete with all the dance moves.


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## Guest (Aug 15, 2016)

That's very interesting. My great aunt has Martian background and I heard something similar from her when I asked about how people listened to music before the technology for live performance existed. Needless to say I did not believe her because I thought Mars was a god of war and not a planet. 

Kiwifruit


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## Guest (Aug 15, 2016)

@SimonNZ thank you for the informative response. Very good stuff. I hope to one day travel back in time to see it for myself.

Durian


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

jms said:


> @SimonNZ thank you for the informative response. Very good stuff. I hope to one day travel back in time to see it for myself.
> 
> Durian


If only that was possible.


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## Guest (Aug 15, 2016)

Pugg said:


> If only that was possible.


I currently have a time machine under development. So far it heats up food using some kind of microwave radiation i think. Useful in the kitchen, but it doesn't yet have the ability to travel through time.

Tangerine


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

This reminds me of a (possibly apocryphal) question:

"What did people do before Google Maps?"
"We used _actual_ maps".
"No, no, I mean _before_ Google Maps?"


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## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

jms said:


> I currently have a time machine under development. So far it heats up food using some kind of microwave radiation i think. Useful in the kitchen, but it doesn't yet have the ability to travel through time.
> 
> Tangerine


Unfortunately that pesky Captain Picard ruined the Borg's time-travel plans (see the dramatic reenactment in the "First Contact" documentary)


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## Guest (Aug 15, 2016)

jms said:


> Was it all in their head? Were they all crazy?


Almost certainly, though perhaps it depended on what they were listening to...why waste your time with an interminable oratorio or Young's Well Tuned Piano when you can satisfy your cravings for craziness with short simple hummable ditties?


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## Guest (Aug 15, 2016)

But how did they listen to what they listened to? The listenability of their listenings seem more impossible than possible. So I ask: how was listening to music possible before the technology existed to listen to music (on CD, live music or any other way)?

The most common answer has to do with Martians although I am sceptical because Mars is a god and not a planet or a place where Martians can come from. Even though my great aunt tried to prove to me that she has Martian blood i had to tell her that she was wrong because Mars was an ancient god of war and she cant have Martian blood unless her relatives were from Mars but that is impossible. Ultimately I will need further proof that Mars is a planet like some people think it is. In the meantime I shall work on my 'microwave' to see if I can go back in time to experience the Oracle. 

Blood orange.


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## Balthazar (Aug 30, 2014)

Prior to CDs, it was common to listen to music by pressing one's ear against railroad tracks. This was convenient as traveling musical groups could perform concerts at train stations without further overland travel.

Here is a vintage photograph of a gentleman enjoying a performance of Hummel's piano trio, Op. 12:










How people listened to music prior to the advent of the railroad remains a bit of a mystery.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

I think people used to perform in their own homes. A lot of houses had a piano, and when I visit Stateley Homes, I can picture a small Chamber Orchestra or a String Quartet!!


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Balthazar said:


> How people listened to music prior to the advent of the railroad remains a bit of a mystery.


The ruts in the ground made by horse-drawn vehicles. Where do you think Edison got the idea for the grooves in phonograph cylinders?


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Legend has it that there once existed people known as _instrumentalists_ and _singers_. If one sidled up to them and gave them money or drugs or sex, they would, if they were in a good mood, manipulate their instruments or use their vocal chords in such a way as to cause disturbances in the _air_, that fluid-like ether that surrounds us. These disturbances would then propagate into people's heads through their ear canals and then be processed by special processing equipment in the control center of the human organism, colloquially known as the _brain_. If processed correctly the human animal would then experience a series of stimuli interpreted as music. Those stingy with their money or drugs or bodies had the option of buying or building instruments and playing them themselves.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

In the past, everyone's favorite music was the dinner bell. It was just one note repeated a few times, but everybody loved it!


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## Guest (Aug 15, 2016)

I think some people don't understand my question when they say people had pianos to play to themselves. There must have been a time when pianos didn't exist!

My great aunt was born in 1822 and is turning 134 next weekend and she says that pianos existed in her youth but before that they had horpsy-cards but before that there were other instruments too which you could play to yourself.

I actually want to know how did people listen to music before all of this technology and the technology to sing to yourself as well? Vocaloid is a bit of a new technology so it can't be singing as the first way of making and listening to music. How did people listen to mozart before instruments???????????

Banana


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## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

Its undeniable that before 1756 it was much harder to listen to Mozart than it was in the years following, but somehow they managed by working hard and working together.

(unrelated question: if some bully wanted to be mean to a Borg wearing glasses would they call them "five-eyes"?)


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## Guest (Aug 15, 2016)

Working hard and working together is one of the great communist achievements of the pre-Mozart era.

Mango


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

jms said:


> Working hard and working together is one of the great *communist* achievements of the pre-Mozart era.
> 
> Mango


Communist? Did you mean to say that?


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## Guest (Aug 15, 2016)

GreenMamba said:


> Communist? Did you mean to say that?


If you take the ng out of 'mango' you get Chairman Mao Zedong.

Lychee


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## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

KenOC said:


> In the old days, even before recording technologies were developed, our friends the Martians would stream music directly into our minds. But we found out that they were using this as a subterfuge to steal our women, and relations soured. Since then, we have developed other ways to share and listen to music, but we older people still look back on the Martian period as a kind of golden age.


I just checked with a Martian I know, and he said that after hearing the Voyager Golden Record they would never waste their time on a planet with such poor taste in music.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Isn't anyone here seriously interested in this topic? It seems a good premise. But then again, most "in the box" thinkers don't like to question the basic "givens" of anything, they just accept the status quo mindlessly.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

millionrainbows said:


> Isn't anyone here seriously interested in this topic? It seems a good premise. But then again, most "in the box" thinkers don't like to question the basic "givens" of anything, they just accept the status quo mindlessly.


It wasn't presented as a serious question. It has nothing to do with accepting the status quo.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

GreenMamba said:


> It wasn't presented as a serious question. It has nothing to do with accepting the status quo.


You didn't start the thread, GreenMamba, so you can't say with authority that the OP was not serious. You just don't like it when my seriousness infringes on your seriousness, in the form of your being a "status quo" thinker. But that is a blanket accusation, to all who have half-heartedly posted their irrelevant attempts at levity. The fact remains that nobody I've seen has even bothered to put any thought into the question of "How did people experience music before there was music reproduction?" The question is chock-full of potential, but nobody here has the imagination to think about it.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

millionrainbows said:


> You didn't start the thread, GreenMamba, so you can't say with authority that the OP was not serious. You just don't like it when my seriousness infringes on your seriousness, in the form of your being a "status quo" thinker. But that is a blanket accusation, to all who have half-heartedly posted their irrelevant attempts at levity. The fact remains that nobody I've seen has even bothered to put any thought into the question of "How did people experience music before there was music reproduction?" The question is chock-full of potential, but nobody here has the imagination to think about it.


The OP asks: "My question is, before the technology needed to listen to music (*live music,* CDs, whatever), how did people listen to music? Was it all in their head? Were they all crazy?"

In other words, how did people listen to music before there was any music to listen to?

Go for it, O serious one. :tiphat:


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Woodduck said:


> The OP asks: "My question is, before the technology needed to listen to music (*live music,* CDs, whatever), how did people listen to music? Was it all in their head? Were they all crazy?"
> 
> In other words, how did people listen to music before there was any music to listen to?
> 
> Go for it, O serious one. :tiphat:


Brilliant observation no.1: in the old days, music was tied to people, with instruments. It was not a disembodied phenomenon of recording, or a mechanical contraption. People made music for other people. There was a big social component to it.


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

The answer to the OP is obvious: before there was any music to listen to, everyone listened to 4'33''. In a constant loop.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

millionrainbows said:


> Brilliant observation no.1: in the old days, music was tied to people, with instruments. It was not a disembodied phenomenon of recording, or a mechanical contraption. People made music for other people. There was a big social component to it.


We all knew that already. But if you want to think you are an imaginative thinker for stating it, then be my guest.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Simple. They learned to play an instrument so they could perform music at home with the family or they frequently attended concerts.

It's a wonder any orchestra can make money these days from live concerts when it is so much easier and more convenient to listen to music at home, lavoratorily speaking, especially.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

There's some good books on the subject: Simon Frith, etc.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

hpowders said:


> It's a wonder any orchestra can make money these days from live concerts when it is so much easier and more convenient to listen to music at home, lavoratorily speaking, especially.


Because to this day, nothing beats live performance.


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## ejwin (Aug 11, 2016)

Ahhhh. But what to do with all of those Eight Track Tapes?


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