Digital music seems to have made music disposable these days. It seems that having it so readily available thru either my many ipods, my iphone, and computer with remote control I can quickly switch, shuffle, pause, fast forward my music very easily. Don’t get me wrong, I think this is a wonderful thing especially when the need comes up when playing music at an event to be able to pull up just the right song for just the right moment like playing music for youth group. Need some game music there is a playlist ready for that; need some background music for reflection time there is a playlist for that too. But being able to access music so easily, has it ruined our ability to appreciate an album? How often do you sit back in your easy chair and just listen to one of your favorite albums? It seems like more often than not it is more back ground music for work or something to listen to on my walks. And I know some of you are thinking about this so I will say it... YES I do think/obsess about this stuff way too much ;-).
Now lets introduce you to vinyl. For those old enough to remember there were these big black disks that you put on a turntable and drop a needle on it. That’s the way we used to listen to music. No way of mixing up the music unless you had a jukebox or you put on tape your favorite songs... but even then you couldn’t put the thing on shuffle. Over the past year or so Vinyl records have been making a come back. Some say it is because it sounds better (more on that later) and others say they want that tangible feeling of dropping the needle. For me there are two reason why I went out and bought a record player again: 1) I wanted that feeling again of sitting back and enjoying an album like I used to; 2) I love the look of vinyl and having the large cover art and I thought it would be fun to collect my favorite albums in the format. I do try to avoid collecting a lot of stuff but I went against my aversion to it and went for it. And after hearing the sound I am VERY glad I did.
The sound of vinyl is remarkable, at least on albums that were originally intended for that format. I didn’t even get the top of the line record player. It was only 100 dollars at Radio Shack. I have it hooked up to my Bose computer speakers. I have been getting into some classic jazz and I picked up a few of my very favorite albums. The detail in the sound was incredible. I used to read websites that said that vinyl sounds better and I couldn’t see how they could think that but now I know. One thing I will say is I am not going to call it better but it is a very different and unique experience that is very enjoyable and worth the money I dropped down on this stuff. I also bought a couple of classic rock albums I love, Boston’s debut album and Steve Miller Band’s best of. Both sound really good and I noticed things in the songs I never noticed when listening on CD or my ipod. The interesting thing is these are not old records I bought at a second hand store, I bought them at Best Buy brand new! Best Buy noticed that record sales have been taking off so at some of their bigger stores they dedicated shelf space to vinyl. A lot of the new albums coming out are also being made available in this format. Some companies are offering digital downloads to offset the fact that you can’t easily transfer vinyl to your ipod like you can a CD. And Coldplay on their latest album offers the CD with the vinyl record. Pretty cool. The new vinyl has improved over the old offerings. They are much thicker and stronger then they were before which makes me think that they may last a lot longer. If you do decide to go with vinyl though keep in mind that the newer albums are a little pricy since they don’t mass produce this stuff like they do CDs.
Of course I just made the transition back to vinyl but it doesn’t mean I am giving up on my digital collection. I spent WAY too much money on it to give up on it and because it is easy I will still primarily use my ipod but what it does mean is that the albums that mean the most to me I will more than likely enjoy by dropping the needle and getting up half way thru the album to flip it to side B... speaking of which I am ready for side B of this album I am listening to right now.
