How Records Were Made

Back before Spotify and clouds and downloads and iTunes and CDs, there were things called records, which today are making something of a comeback. First came single-song sides spinning at 78rpm, followed by the 10-inch album, 7-inch 45rpm and the 12-inch LP. Turntables came with a tonearm and a needle attached. When you placed the needle on one of those records, music magically emerged from the speakers.

The whole concept was ingenious and baffling—a platter with music hidden in its grooves, music that could only be revealed when a tonearm needle rode the disc. The average record-buyer didn't really know how the technology worked, but it didn't matter. As you watched the record spin, something electronically nifty took place between the silvery needle, the spinning black disc and the speakers. The sounds of musicians playing emerged, sounds that were the same over and over again, no matter how many times you played the record.

At different points in time, record companies created films to tout the recording and record-pressing process to promote the marvel of recorded music and new advances in fidelity. Here are five of these films:

Here's RCA's Command Performance, which in 1942 showed viewers how records were recorded and made...



Here, in 1951, Capitol created the film Wanna Buy a Record?, a whimsical promotional short starring Mel Blanc and Billy May...



Here, with the advent of the 12-inch LP, RCA released The Sound and the Story...



Here, in 1957, RCA featured New Dimensions in Sound, a stereo educational film...



And here, in 1958, RCA chimed in again with its Living Stereo...