Everyone who lived before the ’90s will, somewhere in their house, have a collection of dusty but much treasured vinyl records. It might be in the garage in a box, in the back shed, or even under the bed. Some of it might be strange by today’s standards, and the music might be a bit dated, but it might be time to pull the vinyl collection out of storage and give it a bit of a spin.
Vinyl has gone through something of a second birth in recent years. If anything, the rise of digital downloads have done it a favour, as people who take music seriously now realise that the CD does little to replicate the sound and depth that a record does. The short version of it is that the CD, a digital recording, isn’t capturing the complete sound wave — the analog signal of the vinyl is much closer.
So what it loses in portability, vinyl makes up for in sound, presentation and nostalgia. Many new albums are being released on vinyl as well as CD. Most of these are also accompanied by a CD or digital download option, making it the best of both worlds.
Being a child of the 1980s, I find myself with a largely inherited vinyl collection — it includes the classic comedy of Bill Cosby, a complete collection of Lionel Richie spanning The Commodores to his solo career, a signed ‘Goodies’ soundtrack and, rather strangely, an album by Tony Barber called Love Changes Everything. Joining these is a lot of new records from modern artists including Donavon Frankenreiter, Jack Johnson and Newton Faulkner. All of these sound superior to the digital versions on CD.
While I’ll never be far away from a digital music device and value their easy access, they still don’t beat the experience of sitting down with a vinyl record cover in a comfy chair and enjoying the music. Chances are you’ll come across some tunes that you haven’t heard in years, and never will again — there’s quite a lot of albums out there that never made the digital transition.
Just as a bonus side note: if you’re lucky, you might find that your record collection has been safely stored in a milk crate. It’s a sad sign of the times that modern milk crates no longer fit vinyl records. I was lucky enough to find an old one, and have fondly dubbed it the ‘iCrate’.
*Matt Smith teaches media studies at La Trobe University, and blogs at The End of the Spectrum. He’s still hasn’t found a replacement in his heart for Billy Ocean music.
I had a large vinyl collection and I tossed most of it away. In my day most records were damaged by booze, cigarette and dope ash, inebriated people trying to find a song to play over and over again. Vinyl lived the life we led. Most records in garages are full of irritating scratches. Anyone considering becoming a vinyl collector or having romantic ideas about collecting vinyl; or believing the bullshit about vinyl having ‘superior sound’ should remember: one false move and your precious vinyl record is damaged forever. CDs and 320 kbps MP3 are much better for those who like to listen to music (rather than collect albums). The only vinyl album cover worth collecting was Juicy Lucy’s self titled début album (1969).
I still play my vinyls, largely for nostalgia. The Kellogs sound fx (snap, crackle and pop) add to the atmos. I chipped my John Wesley Harding earlier this year and am still looking for a replacement, refusing to shift format to the cd or even mp3 which would be more convenient.
The Drowsy Chaperone was a similarly nostalgic appreciation of vinyl and of old Broadway musicals, toured in Australia by Geoffrey Rush, Robyn Nevin and Shane Jacobson for the Melbourne Theatre Company. It was good fun.
You can’t hug an MP3
My 45’s are in pristine condition. I have nothing to play them on though.
Elan, USB players are fairly cheap now, (50 AUD and up) – burn them all to CD or MP3, and keep them pristine. (Some of them will play 78s as well, if you have shellac as well as vinyl in your collection) (there’s filtering software for when you get tired of the retro Kellogs effects)