The whole concept of the evolution of music formats had always fascinated me.  It's always bigger, better, faster, more.  Striving for the largest capacity in the smallest possible space without sacrificing aural quality.  Vinyl sounds great when it's brand new, but is extremely fragile and quite susceptible to wear and tear.  The biggest evolution in the early days was the experimentation with how many rpms to play the records at to find that balance between quality and quantity.  Then the actual matter that the records were cut onto was altered to make them as durable as possible, although regardless of the physical material a scratch would likely do the whole thing in.

Eight track tapes were born out of necessity, driven by the desire for portability as automobiles took off with the American teen market.  Ford was the biggest champion of the format, offering eight track players as an option on all of their vehicles starting in 1965.  Home eight track players weren't even available at this time; it was strictly an automobile accessory.  Which makes sense, as I'd be willing to guess that the average person listens to more music in the car over the course of a lifetime than they do in any other location.  The radio can be hit or miss depending on your specific likes and dislikes, but nothing beats the power of choice when it comes to tunes for the road.

The next revolution came with the cassette tape, essentially a portable version of the reel to reel following the failed PlayTape format.  Cassettes and eight tracks were actually invented at around the same time, but eight tracks were considered to be of higher sound quality, relegating tapes to the status of a children's toy initially.  Some of the best selling releases would come out on cassette as an alternative, but usually a month or so after the vinyl and eight track releases, thus killing sales. 

The advent of Dolby noise reduction technology changed that.  Audio tapes were more compact and with more capacity than the eight track, with the added bonus of the ability to record whatever you wanted onto them.  The mix tape was born, changing road music and dating interactions for the next thirty plus years.  Life ain't nothing but a sweet groove.  A good mix tape to put you in the right mood.  (Digressing again, the digital revolution made mix making easier, but at the same time killed the artform aspect of it.  But that's a rant for another time.  Maybe my comeback article…)

By the time the CD came around, we've gone full circle back to records after years of dabbling with magnetic tape.  Vinyl for the digital age.  The digital encoding doesn't wear out like an old cassette and the size is comparable, but scratching is now a problem again.  At least the shiny plastic of a compact disc is more scratch resistant than a vinyl record, especially if you're moderately careful.  Making contact with a needle as the means to harness sound was always asking for trouble.  CD scratches are also much easier to fix than vinyl scratches.

DAT recorders and mini discs round out the physical containers of the early digital era.  Recordability was a big plus, but forcing the transition proved difficult leaving CDs and cassettes as the king and queen of the popular musical format.  Vinyl is all but dead, with those of the punk rock mentality being the only ones to still embrace the black circle. 

Finally we reach the digital era of mp3s, Napster, and file sharing.  The Apple iPod is the greatest musical invention of all time in my book.  Literally thousands of songs at your fingertips in a device the size of a deck of cards.  Add on a personal FM transmitter and you might never leave the car again.  Even though the lawsuits previously mentioned had the record industry running scared, digital is the wave of the future and here to stay.

Enough digressing, back to 1971.  Cassettes were coming, but the eight track was still entrenched as the format of choice.  I browsed the racks in earnest, but still no sign of an album by my father...