Things being as they are, so-called pop records always outsell recordings of classical music by a substantial margin. Until recently, though, the big U.S. record companies and the hi-fi industry in general have nurtured an image of concern with things cultural, touting the concert-hall realism of their latest recordings and reproducers, while knowing full well that most buyers had never been in a concert hall in their lives. Predictably, when 4-channel sound came along, it was hailed as another breakthrough in reproduced realism — a better way than ever of transporting the listener "right into the concert hall" by providing him, via the rear channels, with the ambience information that tells a concertgoer's ears that he's in a very large, enclosed space. The implied appeal was, as usual, to the classical listener who is traditionally somewhat conservative in his acceptance of new recording techniques. Only as an afterthought, it seemed, was 4-channel sound suggested as a means of creating new sonic experiences, such as that of being bathed in instrumental sounds coming from all directions.
