The 8-track is an obsolete magnetic tape technology. It was invented in 1964 by Bill Lear of the Lear Jet Corporation in association with Ampex, Ford, Motorola, and RCA Victor Records. The 8-track’s success was directly tied to a mid-century boom in car culture and the rise of car stereo systems. In 1965, Ford Motors began offering 8-track car stereos as a standard upgrade to all their models, and RCA Victor began releasing 8-track pop albums. Initially, its convenience outweighed the format’s obvious flaws. 8-tracks were not particularly resilient, and also, long songs were broken into multiple tracks separated by awkward, annoying blocks of silence. Smaller, less expensive cassettes dealt the first blow to 8-tracks, and then compact discs ensured its demise. However, even today there is a cult following of 8-track audiophiles. This subculture was documented in the short documentary So Wrong They’re Right.

History of the 8-track
8-Track Heaven
So Wrong They’re Right, a documentary about 8-track collectors