The CBC recently featured an excellent photo essay titled “Bring the Noise: The Evolution of Personal Audio“. It’s an interesting essay that tracks the beginning of the personal audio era with the introduction of the pocket transistor radio, up until the introduction of the 5th generation iPod.

While it doesn’t go into great depth (and excludes Sony’s minidisc), it certainly provides enough information to demonstrate that the iPod craze is really at the tailend of a personal audio cycle that began in the late 1970’s.