V is for VINYL
Ahhh, with a gentle tug it slides right out of its snug fitting cardboard home, a light blow clears the dust, and you slip the hole onto the… hole receiver thing… ok, I’m no good with the technical lingo, but I don’t think there is a more pleasurable listening experience than one you have to work for. And vinyl is just perfect. The whole process of taking it out of the sleeve, caressing the edges of the record, popping it onto the turntable, gently plopping the needle into the grooves and hearing that initial crackle, and all that’s before your new favourite record even kicks in.
Be it old school, or retro, outdated, or due a comeback, vinyl is king and will always be. It has been around longer than Paul McCartney. And that’s a long time. You see, being a part of the iPod generation (by association – I have never owned the clinical rectangle of laziness), I feel myself being more and more drawn to vinyl. You have to work for your pleasure with vinyl.
There’s no scroll wheels or fast forward buttons, you can’t play games on a record player or view the video to the A side on vinyl. And for that simplicity, that honesty, even that hope that one day I could own a 7” playing jukebox, I love vinyl.
Cassettes had their moment and were loved. I’m sure we can all remember taping the Top 40 on a Sunday afternoon, and making mix tapes for our mates or for the car (I currently have about 6 tapes strewn around my car . . !). But their reliability, their tendency to somehow get mangled in the tape player, their wanton desire to slow down with age and ruin your memories and tunes – they were due a replacement.
CD’s are convenient, they are quick, and they are easy. You still get the mix tapes except you burn the tunes rather than record them. You can still tape the Top 40 but you’ll have to download the live feed or stream it through your iListening device or something. But they are lazy. Nowadays you buy an overpriced CD, burn it to your computer, download it to your mp3 player and never pick up the physical CD again. They get discarded and cast aside because you can afford to – you take from it what you want and leave the rest. Sounds sinister!
Vinyl though, vinyl is with you all the way. To listen to a record you have to want to, it won’t come on in a shuffle, you can’t make a play list, and you can’t scroll to the next record. You have to want it, and that’s why vinyl and listening to vinyl can be such a rewarding experience. This coupled with the fact that you can raid your dad’s old record collection and find some gems from Teardrop Explodes to ELO is why for me, vinyl will always be the number one format. CD’s, mp3’s, mp4’s whatever…. You can keep them.
Make the most of your music listening, make it a fully engaging experience, not something you put on in the background or do when your on the Metro.
Enjoy music again, enjoy vinyl again.
