Skip to main content

Weekend Magazine: Vinyl: the Australian record industry, 1963

Posted 
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
Old photo shows people in record store
Weekend Magazine: Vinyl: the Australian record industry, 1963

SUBJECTS:  History

YEARS:  9–10


Discover a time in Australia's past when the vinyl record industry was thriving.

Today you can download your choice of music at almost any time or place.

But in this clip from 1963 you will experience life before music downloads and compact discs (CDs): the age of vinyl records.

These records created a teenage mass market and revolutionised Australian popular culture.


Things to think about

  1. 1.How important is recorded music in your life and how important is it for you to have high-quality sound? After World War II, and especially in the 1960s, the relatively low cost and improved quality of vinyl records changed the way people experienced music. Teenagers soon became the industry's biggest market as they eagerly bought the latest popular recordings.
  2. 2.When was the first musical recording made? Describe the differences between the early gramophone shown in the opening footage of the clip and the record players shown in the record bar. The reporter mentions portable record players as one reason for the record industry's success in the 1960s. Name two other changes that he mentions.
  3. 3.The record industry representative who is interviewed in this program states that the Australian record industry had a short downturn around 1958 following the introduction of television in Australia in 1956. What technological improvements and social changes contributed to the recovery of sales of recorded music?
  4. 4.This program provides some evidence of the kinds of music that were popular with teenagers in the 1960s. Use the internet and other resources to discover more about 1960s rock and the 'surf sound'. Find the names of at least four of the most popular performers between 1963 and 1965 and the names of some of the songs that made them famous.


Date of broadcast: 1 Jan 1963


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Posted