Sony Walkman: The OG Retro
Not everything deserves to be a legend, but some do. In the course of history, we have encountered some of the products which deserve to hold the legendary status. While some are still remembered as how they used to be, somehow they’re holding up, but some are remembered for what they created. And the Sony Walkman is one of such legends. Felt like a stretch? Me too! Let’s dive into it…
The World before the Walkman:
The Sony TPS-L2 Walkman was a sound-breaking product (sorry for the pun). The world of music before the Walkman was very different. It was the era of the 70s when boomboxes were the hype. These were large radios which could get as loud as World War 2 as some might say & would be utterly cumbersome to use. But still, they were the jam & people would carry the largest boomboxes around the streets to be the cool kid in the block. Music was ever social. It was everywhere as if it was part of nature.
Cassette tapes used to exist (on which the Walkman was inspired), but they were more professional rather than accessible. They were mostly used by the journalist, to take notes of their interviews. Nothing like personal music used to exist back then.
It was either all out or none.
The Shift:
But here comes the paradigm shift. The Heads at Sony wanted to make a shift. They wanted to create a smaller, mobile music system, which out of all can make smaller being better. Masaru Ibuka, the co-founder of Sony was a big fan of Opera Music and to listen to it everywhere, he used to carry his big audio-cassette recorder (used by journalists mostly). But this was very cumbersome. Neither was it portable nor did it have the tactility of a great music player. So, he ordered his staff to strip apart the audio recorder and use the bare minimum essentials to do the one thing which mattered the most, i.e. to listen to music.
And this was the story of the Walkman, which was born in 1979.
The (Anti) Social Behaviour:
After it’s launch in 1979, the Walkman was a big hit instantly. It was a big eye candy and was famous among the youth. It really redefined the meaning of music of completely which used to be a social act before but now more personal than ever before. It was basically everywhere, people used it at their homes, on the streets, while riding a bike, just everywhere we can think about. It was the first time, technology allowed us to close of the world. But there were a lot of issues.
As people got more engaged with the idea of the Walkman, they were more attuned to be more by themselves and this lead to a lot societal chaos. People were using it which could be potentially be fatal, like crossing down a street or riding a bike. This led to several backlashes of the Walkman with federal agencies. There were anti-Walkman rules popping out in towns out of which the law in Woodbridge, New Jersey was the most popular, which basically banned the use of Walkman on public streets, especially crossing streets to reduce the chances of mishaps. And to this day, this Walkman ban still prevails in New Jersey.
To some the Walkman was just anti-social, but for some it was another way to socialize.
The Socializing Factor:
Even though the Walkman felt like an escape pod for most (which it was originally), Sony pulled a smart move. Instead of making the Walkman a solo affair, they added another headphone jack (his & hers headphone jack) with the introduction of the hotline. Instantly, the Walkman made music now more intimate where you would share your music with your friends and loved ones. With the introduction of the hotline, people were still able to talk comfortably with each other without a ton of music being blasted at them. It was used to lower the volume of the music and would allow the users to talk to each other.
Apart from that, the increase in use of cassette tapes (which surpassed vinyl sales) also allowed them to share songs they would record, which was popularly coined as ‘mixtapes’. Instantly, people were able to share more about them by just sharing music, some even confessing love. It was just like SharePlay but before SharePlay.
Impact on Pop-Culture & it’s Imminent Death:
As time passed by, Sony released many models of the Walkman, making it more accessible across genres of life. It was colourful, it could handle a sport, it was small, ‘it was everything you wanted it to be, making it more personal for the individual even though everyone had it’. It became the pop-culture icon paving the way for many, but as with technology, it had its life.
With the advent of Compact Disks (CDs) for digital storage, cassettes were losing their market share, and so was the Walkman, but it was the era of 2K, when the iPod was launched, which nailed the coffin of the Walkman. Instead of carrying a cassette of songs, now the whole library moves with you.
Nevertheless, the Walkman established how technology can be a part of us, not only does it make work or life much more playful, but it paved the way for future technologies to reference something back in time, in a time where you even can’t skim through your music until you pay for it…
