Ongoing History Daily: The Sony Walkman, part 1

All this week, we’re going to look at one of the most revolutionary music devices the world has ever seen, one that changed how we consume music forever. I’m talking about the Sony Walkman.

Portable cassette machines had been around since 1964, but they tended to be bulky things with handles. The first wearable device that played cassettes was created by Andreas Pavel in 1972. He wanted something to listen to as he hiked through the forest. His invention was called the Stereobelt, but despite shopping it to a number of electronics manufacturers, he couldn’t find anyone who was interested. T

hen in 1979, Sony co-chairman Akiro Morita assigned his engineers to create a super-portable cassette player that used headphones so he could listen to music as he flew back and forth across the Pacific. The first device was rolled out in Japan on July 1, 1979.

More tomorrow.