"The 7” single set the length of the standard pop song, the double album symbolised the excesses of 70s prog rock, and the 12” gave life to the idea of the extended dance track for club DJs. The clarity of sound, the seductive gleam and rip-off pricing of CDs became emblematic of 80s yuppie aspirationalism – which made the sheer functionalism of the rave era’s white label 12”s, often with nothing more to identify them than a scrawled phone number from Doncaster, Dagenham or Düsseldorf, seem all the more thrilling and rebellious."

The Medium is the Message: Joe Muggs on how it’s never just about the music: music, and how we respond to it, is shaped by the medium.