Today is National Eight Track Tape Day!
Today we recognize the era that heralded the great music of the sixties and seventies on eight-track tapes, and allowed people to actually choose the music they wanted to hear in their cars. From the mid-60s through the early 80s, eight-track tapes with their magnetic tape sound recording technology, allowed for portability of music which in turn drastically boosted singles and LP sales, that would continue through cassette tapes and eventually CD's.
In 1964, Bill Lear of the Lear Jet Corporation, created the eight-track tape and it's use would spread to be used in stereo systems, car radios, and even smaller devices that people could use as they walk. That's right before the walkman there was the 8-Track!
The first player was released in 1965, as Ford Motor Company introduced factory-installed and dealer installed eight-track tape players as an option on Thunderbirds, Mustangs, and Lincolns, and Ford offered an eight-track tape player as an upgrade option on the 1967 models of their cars. Eventually innovation would catch up and eight track cartridges were phased out by late 1982, as the rise of cassettes would dominate the decade.
They may have vad only 20 years of industry, but 8-track's helped change the record industry as a whole and have their rightful place in the annals of innovation.
What was you first 8-track, what was your favorite, whats an 8-track you would like to still have today!