Recording quality by decade

I think its fair to say that recordings over the years have tended to continuously become more heavily "processed" over time, digitally in particular. Kinda like a lot of fast food. Also like we always seem to get new taxes and laws and few older ones ever repealed. Things tend to snowball over time. Luckily, there are many with the skills needed to tame it all. That's what makes technology a benefit and not a curse!

Myself, I have really taken a liking to listening to older recordings, most anything that pre-dates the 70's and the rise of the transistor and digital to replace tubes and analog.

The recording vintage has a lot to do with whether my main system sounds like tubes/analog or transistor/SS. That's the way it should be! I can appreciate it all when its good for different reasons. Listening to old recordings can be a nice "tweak"!

Everything said here makes sense.One thing to consider is that from the mid to late 60's into the early 70's there was a new generation of engineers to deal with the new technology.Most of the major label staff engineers were from earlier decades and well schooled in creating a recorded sound that was representative of what went on in the studio.Every label had their own "state of the art" stereo..."Stereorama" "Living stereo" the list goes on and the gimmicks were devoted to those records in those series.As the Rock music boom started to flourish many of these bands were in the studio all night,or odd hours that called for a different type of engineer to handle the task.The apprentice engineers,young and hip and eager to meet the responsibility stepped up and became the next wave.They developed the "ear" for recording this music,and as the technology changed,they quickly became the masters of the medium.The same can be said of the producers,as they are the ones who controlled the engineering path between the musicians and the engineers.
Major label enginners were still in white shirts and ties up until the mid to late 60's.You can see this in the film "Janis" where Big Brother and the Holding Co. are recording for Columbia in San Francisco and the producer, John Simon, directs the clarity of the performance with grace and understanding, and takes the playback controls to illustrate his point as far as a wrong key change.The engineer is seen in the back,out of the action,watching in his white shirt and tie and black rimmed glasses.
Of course,that is why we love Jazz,Blues, Roots music,Classical, there is far less between we the listener and they,the artist.
Although the technology changed,and in some ways betrayed the simple integrities of these musics,the passions of the engineers did not wane and the lessons of the previous generations were always held in high regard.
It is always the artist,the producer and the engineer working together with one vision to make a great recording.

Rock records are compressed to punch hard on car radios which is how rock records are promoted and sold." Full Range" = no pocket change. Classical and Jazz is played almost soley on PBS stations,some of which put out near-CD quality sound, which would be thought by many raised on I-tunes sound as" unnatural' .

Onhwy61,
That makes sense to me.It would seem that keeping the recording pathway simple and straightforward and avoiding the added manipulation is preferable. I'm glad jazz didn't succumb to the over processing trend.
Regards,

If I were to generalize based upon my experience, Classical and Jazz recordings from the 50s up to 1980 are generally superb. I don't have a lot; but friends of mine that were deep into classical and another into Jazz had some outstanding mono recordings from the 50s. Some early Muddy Waters will keep you pinned to your seat. After 1980 digital mastering became popular. I have a few classical recordings that were made from digits. They sound pretty good until you put on an older analog recording and then the space opens up.
To me, the Beatles White Album (serialized pressings) from the 60s sounds really good; but in general, it seems rock from the 70s just never got to the level of Jazz recordings with some exceptions like Heart, Pink Floyd and Eric Clapton. He rocks. There are others too but I will still listen to many lower grade pressings for the music. I like ELP's early records but I swear at times I'm about ready to put a penny on my headshell. (Gasp!)