Weird Musical Instruments and Technologies That Never Caught On

The vinyl record. The cassette tape. The CD. The ability to publish music on iTunes. Everybody remembers certain landmark developments in music. But what about the technologies that didn’t catch on? Who remembers them, in all their glory?

We do. Today, SongCast brings you the 5 weirdest musical technologies that never quite caught on. For better or worse.

1. The Record Player for Your Car

This fully automatic record player for automobiles was first demonstrated in 1959. Now that vinyl is back in vogue, who knows? Maybe this bad boy will made a comeback as well.

2. Stalacpipe Organs

This video shows the stalacpipe organ in Luray Caverns. Hammers connected to the organ’s keys strike the hollowed-out stalactites to produce sound. Scientists spent weeks testing the pitches of various stalactites to tune the instrument. It’s so weird that stalacpipe organs never became a household staple!

3. Transparent, iPod-Friendly Jeans

You know the feeling: your iPod is tucked neatly into the pocket of your favorite skinny jeans, when suddenly it starts playing Avril Lavigne? Not her early stuff, but something from ‘Girlfriend’? Why is that even on your iPod, anyway? With these jeans, you wouldn’t have needed to take your iPod out of your pocket to hit ‘Skip.’ Why don’t we own these, again?

4. Pianos for the Bedridden

One of the saddest parts of being a bedridden hospital patient is not being able to play the piano from your bed. This problem was fixed in 1935, but no one seems to have told our local hospital. This piano is also useful for couch potatoes who happen to be musical prodigies.

5. Digital Audio Tapes

Oh, Sony. How many new media formats have you pioneered over the years, only to be defeated by less-advanced competitors with slicker marketing? We’re talking about Betamax, yes, and HD-DVD, and all the rest. Anyway, Digital Audio Tapes were basically super advanced cassette tapes that Sony introduced in 1987, which, for absolutely no reason, nobody ever bought.

Some of these musical technologies seem more useful than others, but clearly none is as valuable today as publishing music on iTunes. If your songs aren’t out there already, SongCast can help!