Whoever originally designed 8TrackTapes (Japan in the 1960s?)
truely had an evil twisted soul !!!
In the 1960s (1950s?), GM actually made both 45 and 78LP record payers for cars. High end 57 eldorado had a recording record player for biz execs. The passenger seat faced backwards for the secretary and had a typewriter built in.
The 8-track was the quantum leap forward in technology that made recorded music in cars practical. It also let you listen to selections from “both sides” without starting all over or flipping the record. Fisher tried to make a record player that would repeat tracks and/or play tracks at random, actually produced some, but they never really worked.
Think of the 8-track like Susan Oliver’s Role in the reworked Star Trek pilot “The Menagerie.” When her keeper-aliens put her together, they had nothing to go by and she was a mess. But everyone who saw her thought she was gorgeous, an allusion created by the aliens (aka marketing and sales ;-) ).
And yes, I still have a turn table and a lot of vinyl. Had to replace the 4-channel in about 2,000 cuz I couldn’t get needles, but I still have it!