Why 45s were made for hit singles

The format that permanently fueled the concept of the one-hit wonder. Introduced by RCA Victor in 1949 as a direct competitor to the LP, the 7-inch 45 RPM record was designed to hold exactly one song per side. These cheap, durable little discs were incredibly easy to manufacture and quickly became the dominant format for stocking jukeboxes and driving rapid-fire youth culture consumption of individual hit tracks.