A jukebox is music playing device. It is usually coin-operated, decked out with bright colours and lights. It contains music tracks that can be selected through a special interface. It provides for music in public places such as pool bars and clubs and generates income for the operating concern. It also allows the patrons to choose and play their own choice of music at a fee.

Many years ago, some jukeboxes assumed the form of an automated musical instrument, but later on, they lost out to more modern jukeboxes that could play recordings of songs, as we know them today. Some of these very old types still exist today in museums. “Juke” means “dance” in African-American slang.

Jukeboxes of thirty years ago were rather complicated, mechanically. No CDs existed in those years and jukeboxes contained lots of actual, vinyl long-playing records with songs on them. These were especially designed for jukeboxes.

Later, more modern jukeboxes played CD, but these still had to be loaded mechanically and played with the normal CD player hardware contained within the machine. Today’s jukeboxes are often nothing more than a computer that plays music off its hard disk drive or caches it form the Internet and this has meant an almost limitless supply of music. It meant that patrons could select any song and it would be downloaded from the Internet if it was not cached in the machine already.

Jukeboxes, by their nature and intended use, majors on extravagant aesthetics, lighting and colour – a far cry from the very first models almost a century ago that were mere wooden boxes. The 1940s boasted imposing designs, dramatic lighting, transparent plastics and animated colours. There were also models that utilised a lot of chrome. Wurlitzer was a famous jukebox manufacturer in the United States during these years.

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