Art Garfunkel Heart in New York (1981)
It is rumored that the length of the CD was determined by the duration of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, a favorite of Norio Ohga, then president of Sony. Next to the Dutch company Philips, the Japanese electronics enterprise, played a pivotal role in the invention of the Compact Disc.
Despite being cheaper to manufacture than vinyl LPs, the first digital audio medium did not improve sound quality. On the contrary, as many have pointed out. Dr. John Diamond, founder of the Institute for Music and Health, suggested in 1989 that while analog music has calming and healing properties, digital versions actually have the opposite effect.
Diamond's experiential thesis came about seven years after the launch of the CD. By that point in time, CD sales in the United States had surpassed those of vinyl LPs and a digitization craze swept through the music industry.
Yet, in 1982, the journey had started on a humble note with the release of just 50 CD albums in Japan. Among them was Art Garfunkel's Scissors Cut—an album that was poorly received by both critics and audiences. A bright spot on the album and our pick of today is “A Heart in New York”.
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