The Museum tries to save sounds and music that have accompanied part of our lives — but which, with the modernization of technology and changes in the Internet, may well disappear forever.
What do a typewriter, a Tamagotchi, and Windows 95 have in common? Their startup sounds, noises and music have been treasured in the Museum of Disappearing Sounds. The existence of this museum was mentioned on February 2, 2020 by Bulletin’s Twitter accounta newsletter specializing in good news.
Its purpose is, as you might expect, to “ save endangered sounds “, announces a small insert at the opening of the site. Because, with the evolution of tech, all the old machines you used as a child will soon no longer be available – if they haven’t completely disappeared already. And with them, all their panoply of sounds and sound effects.
Find all the noises threatened with disappearance here.
Save noise from VHS players
The creator of the museum is Brendan Chillcut, he explains in the section dedicated to the creation of the museum. ” I started the site in 2012, I wanted to make it a place to preserve the sounds made famous by my favorite old gear “, he explains, “ like the sound of a VHS rewinding in a 1983 JVC HR-7100 player “. Brandon explains that he realized as he grew up that the noises of his childhood disappeared in favor of new, more modern objects. ” Streaming is becoming more and more popular in the US, it’s likely that in a few years no one will remember JVC’s VHS players “.
Brendan therefore made the decision to create this museum in order to store all these sounds, and, at the same time, pay homage to them. You can thus find or discover the joyful ringtone of the first Nokia telephones, or even the sound of teleprinters (yes) and that of GameBoys. “ Can you imagine a day where we would never hear the Windows 95 startup music again? ». Honestly, no. But thanks to Brendan, such a thing shouldn’t happen right away.
I still have a lot of tenderness for these big outdated computers and for the now obsolete diskettes, these objects that accompanied my first uses of the internet and computers. But still, in my opinion, the museum lacks a few essential sounds: the noises of a minitel, and the heady Windows XP ignition melody.