THE HISTORY OF RECORDED MUSIC · five eras · 21 milestones ▶ a playlist you can actually play ✓ every “first” sourced & confidence-flagged
Component 3 · AoS 3: Development of recording and production technology

The history of recorded music, as a playlist

Five eras, told through the songs that changed how records get made. Every card is a first: the first time a machine, a technique or an idea is audible on a record you can play in the room.

WAX · 1877 TAPE · 1936 CONSOLE · 1969 SAMPLES & MIDI · 1980 THE DAW · 1996
Teacher selection, not spec content. The spec names no tracks, artists or producers: every choice here is a pedagogical one, and "first" claims in recording history are almost always contested. Cards marked contested first carry the standard account and name the rivals. Sits alongside the Era-ID listening drill (3.3), which trains the cues these songs demonstrate.