Suzanne Vega ’s catchy tune has made her " Mother of the MP3 " – though it took a while . Vega wrote"Tom ’s Diner"as an a cappella song right smart back in 1982 . By 1984 it has been exhaust on an unknown folk compiling , and did n’t appear on Vega ’s studio albums until 1987’sSolitude Standing . In 1990 , the birdsong was remixed by The DNA Disciples , adding a danceable beat and instrumentation – this version hit theBillboardHot 100 , peaking at # 5 in the US .
So what does this have to do with MP3 ? Well , after its release in 1987 audiophiles began using Vega ’s a cappella track to examine loudspeaker system scheme for clarity . It was turn over a good , fond recording of a human voice – something that could reveal flaws in an audio setup . Working at the Fraunhofer Society in Germany in the 90 ’s , audio locomotive engineer Karl - Heinz Brandenburg was strong at study originate the MP3 audio compression system . Brandenburg used Vega ’s a cappella adaptation of " Tom ’s Diner " to tune the compaction organization , playing the track before and after compression was applied to secern whether MP3 sound good enough . He figured Vega ’s song would be a tough track to compress ( as it was already favored by audiophiles ) , and would be a good psychometric test for whether MP3 was really listenable . Although many audiophiles ended up hating MP3 , Brandenburg seems to have done pretty well for himself – MP3 became an fabulously popular technology . On the selection of " Tom ’s Diner , " Brandenburg call back : " I was quick to fine - air my compression algorithm … somewhere down the corridor , a tuner was playing ' Tom ’s Diner . ' I was electrify . I knew it would be well-nigh impossible to compress this warm a cappella voice . "
In last week’sNew York Times , Vegareminiscedabout the Sung and her life history as a " two - tally wonder " ( the other smasher was " Luka " ) . From her article :
Read the restfor one artist ’s thoughts on her nearly thirty - year career in medicine – and the unexpected resonance of a Song dynasty scrabble on newspaper back in 1982 .
