Comment by kjkjadksj
It is kind of interesting how long it took for people to start applying distortion to other parts of the track outside the guitar. Seemed like that started when people were doing 4 track mixing on little cassette tascoms that would clip unlike expensive studio multitrack setups. Neutral Milk Hotel and such.
As far as vocals go, I think it didn't take people long. I think overdriving the microphone mixer is probably as old as the recorded blues. There are swing recordings from the 1930's in which loud vocal passages distort. I don't have any specific references, but I'm sure it's something I've heard before.