Chapter 1
The birth of the beat
Chapter 2
The sound of rebellion
Chapter 3
Curators of the global groove
Chapter 4
The digital shift and the bedroom label
YOUR GOAL
Master of Behind the vinyl curtain
Ch 1 · The birth of the beat
schopenhauer The Birth of the Beat
Two turntables spin, looping that drum break, now the Bronx is gonna jump!
schopenhauer How a wartime material shortage forced the record industry to invent the vinyl LP.
schopenhauer How two German refugees in New York created a legendary jazz record label.
BETA
schopenhauer Match classic tracks to their record labels to discover how legendary music empires were built.
Fun Fact
Lac bug wax: Early records were made of shellac, a resin secreted by female lac bugs native to forests in India and Thailand.
Glossary
merseybeat (noun)
A style of British popular music of the early 1960s characterized by a strong, driving beat. This Liverpool-born style gained global fame in 1962 when the Beatles signed with Parlophone Records.
A style of British popular music of the early 1960s characterized by a strong, driving beat. This Liverpool-born style gained global fame in 1962 when the Beatles signed with Parlophone Records.
Quiz
What did the term 'album' originally refer to before it meant a single 12-inch vinyl record?
Quiz
Which famous dog mascot appeared looking into a phonograph horn on the logo of RCA Victor?
Quiz
What speed, measured in revolutions per minute (RPM), became the standard format for the single record released in 1949?
Quiz
Which record label, founded in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, became synonymous with modern jazz?
Quiz
Who invented the gramophone disc, which eventually replaced Thomas Edison's wax cylinders?
Quiz
During World War II, what material's shortage led the music industry to experiment with vinyl instead of shellac?
Quiz
Which country's classical music traditions were first extensively preserved on commercial disc recordings by the Gramophone Company in 1902?