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| Credit: Steve Gutenberg/CNET |
In his “Audiohphiliac” column, Steve Guttenberg asks a question that those of us with grey hair or balding heads long to know: “Did the iPod kill the boom box?” Back in the 1970s and 1980s, the boom box was the very definition of portable music and also a statement of macho. Whether it was a street corner, the beach, the park, or your back yard, having a good boom box with lots of D-sized batteries became a part of your experience.
Steve doesn’t go into great historic detail nor does he outlay a definitive thesis. His article is a fun read nonetheless. I would put forth the opinion that there were a variety of factors that killed off the boom box—in particular the death of the cassette tape.
While I don’t have any raw data to prove my conjecture, I don’t think that CD-driven boom boxes ever caught on and there isn’t a single model that sticks out to me as being very good.
For those wanting a trip down memory lane, Steve’s article is a good read.
