The Birth, Death, and Revival of Physical Media
Updated: Oct 12
In The Birth
Physical media was technically introduced in ancient Mesopotamia with the Epic of Gilgamesh in 2100 BCE. However, we are going to start with phenomena such as the introduction of the printing press, motion pictures, and records. Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in Germany in 1440. The first motion picture was “The Horse in Motion,” released in 1878. A year earlier, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, the first device to record and play back sound. Thus came Berlinger’s gramophone a decade later, which is basically the predecessor of what we know today as a record player.
The Death
At one point, we almost lost sight of the bigger picture as we accepted these continuous changes in entertainment technology. Who wants to carry around a book of CDs when a device that downloads up to one thousand songs was introduced over two decades ago? Apple launched its “1,000 songs in your pocket” campaign in 2001. Eventually, the Blockbuster pressure of rewinding a tape after you finish a movie dissipated when the option for streaming to have “next up” queued and ready before you even finish processing the emotions from your last cinematic experience became the norm. Radio killed print, television killed radio, then the internet killed television.
The Revival
Today, the average collector may treasure an item like a vintage comic book, classic film VHS tape, or 80s rock vinyl record. These new advances becoming mainstream will give the illusion that we are wasting time with the cherished forms of entertainment that were beloved not too long ago. We have studied the tech companies' methods of moving the goalposts. We used to buy physical games and now are stuck in a never-ending game of monopoly when game ownership is unclear even after paying for it. As we lean toward accepting a society normalizing a new technological breakthrough every day, let’s keep the classics on the pedestal they’ve earned.
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