In 1978, the Swedish pop band ABBA – one of the biggest artists of the seventies – built “Polar Studios” – a top-of-the-line recording studio.. \u00a0It was exquisitely expensive, even by the standards of the day, what with the acoustics and top of the line mixing console and peripherals and all.<\/p>\n
And, a few years later, in 1981, got even moreso; the group spent over half a million dollars, reportedly, just for a new 3M digital recorders, making Polar the world’s first commercial digital recording studio. All for a recording studio that had about as much recording power as your cell phone today.<\/p>\n
And in 1981, ABBA released The Visitors<\/em>, the first commercial record recorded purely using digital technology.<\/p>\n It was the only notable thing about the record.<\/p>\n We’ll come back to that.<\/p>\n ———-<\/p>\n One of the eighties’ biggest artists was Bruce Springsteen.<\/p>\n If you’ve read this blog at all, you know I’m a big Springsteen fan – starting in the late seventies. \u00a0The eighties were <\/em>hog heaven for a Bruce fan, of course; The River <\/em>was a classic, Born In The USA <\/em>was an inescapable hit, and Tunnel of Love <\/em>was a wonderful, if very downbeat, record.<\/p>\n But today we’re going to focus two other albums from the era.<\/p>\n Nebraska <\/em>came out in 1982. \u00a0After the rock and roll thrill ride of The River<\/em>, Nebraska <\/em>was unsettlingly bleak; a downbeat homage <\/em>to Woody Guthrie chock full of songs about murderous drifters and regular schmucks driven over the edge.<\/p>\n I mean, this was the “single”…<\/p>\n