Lately I opened a box of old Stereo Review and High Fidelity magazines that I have had in storage. I have been enjoying the heck out of the articles and ads. The writing styles have certainly evolved. For the most part the writers were simply more literate than most who write in the audio press today.
Many of the technical articles take on an entirely different dimension with the advantage of a historical perspective. There are articles on the emergence of stereo, the importance of TV audio, what does it take to make a good loudspeaker... many of the articles on these topics were extremely well thought out and quite prescient, others... not as much.
Another fun aspect has been reading the music reviews from the '70s... harsh criticism that we seldom see today. I have found it very refreshing... also, reading reviews of new artists, some proclaimed to be the next big thing who never were, and others panned as want-to-bees who later became huge.
Product marketing has also been a lot of fun. I especially love the ads from the '50s. Below are two ads for the same product. The Static Master dust brush is still in production though the company who originally made it is no longer with us. Interestingly in 1957 the company was the Nuclear Products Co. in El Monte California. By 1976, they were simply Staticmaster, still in El Monte California.
I love the fact that in 1957, the power of polonium made your static go away, but 20 years later, it was ionization and the "natural" hair brush that was keeping your records clean. I also love comparing the industrial design.
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