From 1932 until the early 1990s, the vinyl gramophone record was the single most popular medium for the reproduction of recorded music. Like many significant inventions, the line of evolution began with Thomas Alva Edison, who developed the cylinder recording system. It was Emile Berliner—already known as the man who invented the microphone used in the mouthpiece of Alexander Graham Bell's first commercial telephones—who, in 1887, developed the idea of using discs with a lateral groove cut in spiral.
The first discs were manufactured from rubber, but shellac was introduced in 1896, and the 10-inch, 78 rpm "single" became the norm. This system, however, had three notable problems: Shellac was extremely brittle, and records broke easily; it generated high levels of background noise; and it was simply not possible to get much music on a record—around four minutes on each side. Large-scale classical compositions had to be chopped up into movements and sold as a collection of discs bound in cardboard albums— indeed, this is where the term "album" originated.
In 1932, RCA Victor launched the first commercially available long-playing (LP) records using a new material—vinyl. These featured a low surface noise, were 12 inches in diameter, and played back at 33 rpm, and so could contain more music. That this new system failed to take off at first was a matter of timing: As the Great Depression kicked in, consumer confidence was unsurprisingly low. Nevertheless, Victor continued to back what was clearly a superior approach, and gradually, during the 1950s, the 12-inch LP and 7-inch single took over.
