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Back to the past: Why isn't Vinyl dead?
In nearly every article I read about music, the article mentions the resurrection of vinyl. It’s not only on the internet, I’ve seen it on TV too (well Hulu…I’m a cord cutter) including Jimmy Fallon, and possibly Colbert too, holding up the vinyl albums for the artists that perform on the show. About a decade ago I had some hipster friends who were into vinyl and PBR. I’ve seen vinyl records for sale in Hastings. Here’s a few articles about vinyl.
I guess what I don’t understand is why or how is vinyl coming back? I thought the lowly CD had killed off vinyl in the early 1990’s and then starting with Napster and going up to Spotify or Apple streaming that the CD was dead. Even iTunes and digital downloads appears to be dying in favor of streaming.
Yet possibly the most inconvenient format – one which is larger than all of its current competitors, one that never really made it into cars, one that nobody ever went jogging with – is experiencing some of the fastest growth of any format. Again why?
My memory of vinyl records consists of when I was a kid my mom would play the vinyl of several Disney animated films (Lady and the Tramp, Cinderella and The Jungle Book were three of them, though there may have been more) to put me and my brother to sleep. The vinyl albums were like a novelization of those movies, something like this maybe http://www.discogs.com/Unknown-Artis...elease/1457633 or this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAjWGzgpa0k They would play and we’d fall asleep and sometimes the record would skip when it reached the end of side and it would wake me up.
Later I found my mom’s vinyl albums when I was like 12. My parents had been really religious when I was a child and the Pentecostal church we went to said all music but gospel would send you hell so we didn’t buy very much music when I young. I was always a reluctant Christian forced and cajoled by both my parents and fear of burning for all eternity. However, once I had a choice at like 14 I opted out of church and quickly became nonreligious. I remember one of her albums being Meat Loaf’s Bat out of Hell. Seeing my mom own something like that (just based on the cover art because I think my childhood record player was either broke or gone by that point so it wasn’t like I listened to any of her records) was an eye opening moment. It made me see my mom in a different light.
Weird thing is I just typed it into Edge to see the album cover and Groove music popped up with Meatloaf songs ready to play. So I clicked play and today is the first time I’ve ever heard some of those songs. Again modern technology for the win. I heard songs from a 38 year old album by accident and without any effort.
I don’t see vinyl having a long term future with smart phones becoming ever more powerful and widespread. At some point all of the “high res” music feature of the Pono player and other devices will show up in a smart phone phones. Most of today’s music is recorded digitally, so it’s not like the analog from start to finish argument works in favor of vinyl works any longer. Though, on the other hand, since I don’t see a reason for vinyl’s resurgence, I also don’t see a reason for it to go away. I guess people buy it as a cool poster for a band you like that can also play songs if you wish.
What is your experiences with vinyl, what do you think about its comeback and what do you predict for its future?
I guess what I don’t understand is why or how is vinyl coming back? I thought the lowly CD had killed off vinyl in the early 1990’s and then starting with Napster and going up to Spotify or Apple streaming that the CD was dead. Even iTunes and digital downloads appears to be dying in favor of streaming.
Yet possibly the most inconvenient format – one which is larger than all of its current competitors, one that never really made it into cars, one that nobody ever went jogging with – is experiencing some of the fastest growth of any format. Again why?
My memory of vinyl records consists of when I was a kid my mom would play the vinyl of several Disney animated films (Lady and the Tramp, Cinderella and The Jungle Book were three of them, though there may have been more) to put me and my brother to sleep. The vinyl albums were like a novelization of those movies, something like this maybe http://www.discogs.com/Unknown-Artis...elease/1457633 or this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAjWGzgpa0k They would play and we’d fall asleep and sometimes the record would skip when it reached the end of side and it would wake me up.
Later I found my mom’s vinyl albums when I was like 12. My parents had been really religious when I was a child and the Pentecostal church we went to said all music but gospel would send you hell so we didn’t buy very much music when I young. I was always a reluctant Christian forced and cajoled by both my parents and fear of burning for all eternity. However, once I had a choice at like 14 I opted out of church and quickly became nonreligious. I remember one of her albums being Meat Loaf’s Bat out of Hell. Seeing my mom own something like that (just based on the cover art because I think my childhood record player was either broke or gone by that point so it wasn’t like I listened to any of her records) was an eye opening moment. It made me see my mom in a different light.
Weird thing is I just typed it into Edge to see the album cover and Groove music popped up with Meatloaf songs ready to play. So I clicked play and today is the first time I’ve ever heard some of those songs. Again modern technology for the win. I heard songs from a 38 year old album by accident and without any effort.
I don’t see vinyl having a long term future with smart phones becoming ever more powerful and widespread. At some point all of the “high res” music feature of the Pono player and other devices will show up in a smart phone phones. Most of today’s music is recorded digitally, so it’s not like the analog from start to finish argument works in favor of vinyl works any longer. Though, on the other hand, since I don’t see a reason for vinyl’s resurgence, I also don’t see a reason for it to go away. I guess people buy it as a cool poster for a band you like that can also play songs if you wish.
What is your experiences with vinyl, what do you think about its comeback and what do you predict for its future?
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