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"Recorded music was a little scratchy, but sounded better because engineers did not kill dynamic range to make it louder."

I thought they compressed the dynamic range in those days too, in order to compensate for noise in tapes and vinyl?

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Yes. The RIAA Curve (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA_equalization) has been around since 1954. Before that there was an assortment of different compression strategies used by different record-player manufacturers. In the 1930s records made by one company often wouldn't sound correct on record players made by another company. The RIAA standardized this. Perhaps a more surprising note for the 1975 list would be "And the RIAA made contributions to the industry which benefitted consumers."

Not to the extent that they do now, at least in pop music.

I thought they went to tape to avoid the popping.

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