much more common in the 1990’s, accompanying
the rise of the personal computer, which along with
appropriate peripherals and software could form
the nucleus of a professional sound studio. More in-
dependent musicians became involved in recording
and editing their own music.
A parallel trend contributed to radical changes
in music distribution and consumption at the end
of the decade. Scientists had known for years that
audio information was processed selectively by lis-
teners, and after digital audio became widespread,
audio engineers became very interested in discover-
ing ways to reduce or remove the less essential com-
ponents of sound data. As the World Wide Web in-
creased in popularity throughout the 1990’s, a great
interest arose in achieving smaller file sizes (and
faster downloads) for all kinds of data, including dig-
ital audio. Several compressed formats were devel-
oped, including Macromedia’s Shockwave audio,
RealAudio, and others, but MPEG Audio Layer 3
(MP3) became the most popular. Designed by an
international team of scientists in the early 1990’s
and approved as an encoding standard by the
Moving Picture Experts Group, the format spread
rapidly in the later part of the decade, as users used
the Internet to share MP3 files, which could also be
quickly transferred to recordable audio CDs, which
had conveniently become more affordable and eas-
ier to use. Since many of these shared files began as
commercial recordings, concerns were soon raised
by recording companies.
Impact In subsequent years, distinction between
the roles of the consumer and producer of digital
audio continued to blur, and debates continued
over intellectual property issues as a result of the ef-
fects of rapid technological innovations, which con-
tinued to accelerate.
Further Reading
Brinkley, Joel. “On New DVD Formats, the Sound of
Good Things to Come.”The New York Times,De-
cember 9, 1999, p. G14. Concise overview and
summary of emerging audio DVD formats, in-
cluding multiple channels.
Chadabe, Joel.Electric Sound: The Past and Promise of
Electronic Music. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pren-
tice Hall, 1997. A musician’s perspective, includ-
ing events and trends in the 1990’s as well as
detailed historical background from earlier de-
cades. Photos, index, extensive notes.
Chandler, Alfred D., Takashi Hikino, and Andrew
Von Nordenflycht.Inventing the Electronic Centur y:
The Epic Stor y of the Consumer Electronics and Com-
puter Industries. New York: Free Press, 2001. Gen-
eral overview showing important connections be-
tween the two industries, and long-range trends,
including attention to developments in the
1990’s and the shift from analog to digital tech-
nologies. Tables, charts, index, notes.
Ifeachor, Emmanuel C., and Barrie W. Jervis.Digital
Signal Processing: A Practical Approach. Harlow, En-
gland: Pearson Education, 2002. Complete tech-
nical presentation of all aspects of digital signal
processing, including many that are commonly
applied in audio applications. Equations, charts,
diagrams.
Williams, David Brian, and Peter Richard Webster.
Experiencing Music Technology. Belmont, Calif.:
Thomson-Schirmer, 2006. Comprehensive hands-
on overview covers digital audio editing as well as
related topics such as MIDI. Includes DVD-ROM,
diagrams, screen shots, photos, index, appen-
dixes.
John MyersSee also Apple Computer; Audiobooks; Com-
puters; Digital cameras; Digital divide; DVDs; Elec-
tronic music; Internet; Inventions; Microsoft; MP3
format; Music; World Wide Web. Digital cameras
Definition Electronic devices that take pictures
and store images as digital data
First introduced in the 1990’s, digital cameras became the
preferred choice for photography among general consumers,
dramatically affecting how photography is done.
The first digital camera that stored images as com-
puter files was produced by Fuji in 1988. The first
digital cameras available to consumers were the Dig-
ital Camera Company (Dycam) Model 1, which ap-
peared in 1990, followed by the Kodak Digital Cam-
era System (DCS)-100 in 1991. The Dycam Model 1
stored thirty-two compressed images on one mega-
byte (MB) of internal random access memory
(RAM). The camera included the digitizing hard-
ware within it and could be attached to a personal
computer (PC) to transfer images. The DCS-100The Nineties in America Digital cameras 257