Chapter 2: Trends Towards Mobility 39 other place that had hitherto been the domain of the radio. They were now able to select the music at whim. Even though singles and EPs had a signifi cant share of the vinyl market, the LP record became the fundamental unit for music distribu- tion. An LP was often designed to be listened to as a whole, ideally from the beginning to the end. Selecting individual songs from an LP required some dexterity. As a result, the LP became a time-continuous collection of strongly related songs, broken in two only by the need to fl ip the record around. Tape recorders (also known as magnetophones), popularized in the 1950s, gave the consumers the freedom to choose and order the pieces of music they wanted to listen. People got used to the concept of recording songs from the radio, vinyl, and other tapes. Some old- timers still fondly reminisce on how they used to stand by the tape recorder, fi ngers ready to hit the record button, waiting for their favou- rite songs from the radio. However, due to the linear nature of the tape, it was slow to search for a particular recording and diffi cult to reorganize the contents. The tape and vinyl formats were complemen- tary, both having their uses. 1 The few commercial portable / ″ tape recorders were mostly used 4 by professionals and devoted amateurs. It was not until the later 1960s that portable music recording and playback became practical for the masses, as Philips popularized the C-cassette format. The sound quality 1 was worse due to the smaller tape width ( / ″) and slower speed, but 8 the decrease in quality was made up for by the small size and practical handling. Various portable C-cassette recorders fl ooded the market. The essence of the tape technology remained the same, but the size decrease allowed a shift in the use patterns. In turn, this led to greater adoption, larger manufacturing volumes, and decreasing prices. The C-cassette arguably brought personal music management to the hands of masses. The next fundamental change followed when Sony introduced the 22 Walkman in 1979 (Figure 2-10). Within the next decade, the easily portable cassette player with headphones became the standard armoury for the youth of the “Walkman generation”. The basic use of the player remained identical to that of previous tape recorders, but the device was now small enough to be carried literally everywhere. Also, shifting the sound output from speakers to headphones allowed greater indi- vidual freedom for listening anywhere, any time. Reaching beyond mere music consumption, the device became a statement of youth values, social escapism, fashion, and a multitude of other factors. The 22 Walkman was unarguably the iPod of the 1980s.