The jukebox was extremely important in America’s music listening history. ‘Juke’ came from the African American term ‘jook’ or to dance. Juke boxes provided music and endless entertainment for years in burger joints or places of public gathering. You’d ‘drop the nickel in the jukebox’, punch it the appropriate code for your song, and it’d be playing in seconds. In 1950, jukeboxes began playing 45 rpm records, rather than 78 rpm. Wall boxes eventually became popular at diners, small devices for customers to have private selection of their own songs.
1937 Wurlitzer Jukebox
The jukebox was a real key figure in American culutre. It has become so associated with the 80's that when you think of the 80's it's one of the top three things that come to mind. The jukebox was a great tool for entertainment, bringing music in a cheap and accessable way to patrons of many bars and burger joints. The jukebox itself never really caused any big technological change but was loved so much by its users that it upgraded with technology. Most things associated with the vynal record died when it did, but the jukebox upgraded to digital with the rest of the world. It has encouraged people to dance and have fun for decades and is a symbol of good times. The jukebox itself seems like just a music player, but it's so ingraned in our culture it's much more. The jukebox itself is a work of art symbolizing the good old times of the past.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I see a jukebox I associate it with Happy Days, they were so popular in those years. Today however it seems that the jukebox has lost some of its use and has become more of a collectors item. I still see them sometimes when I go out to eat at the local diner. They have them on the end of the tables like the ones in the picture but I don't think that I have ever heard anyone use them.
ReplyDeleteLike every other piece of technology it is funny to look at what they used to look like. You would have thought they might try to make them look nice.
I tend to laugh every time I see a jukebox player. It brings a feeling of a different era for me. It was this iconic device which changed the American teenage society. Usually the only places now that still have them or ones in working order are diners and nifty-fifties. While some have kept with the time and look of the machine by punching in the number code to select a song. The cost to play a song has not. Also with more up to date diners, they have digital jukeboxes, acting more like an iPod then anything else.
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