Skylarker
March 30, 2012, 03:29 AM
This is a subject I get obsessed with from time to time...the vinyl resurgence of the 21st Century. Such a contradiction...amidst all this crazy futuristic shit that would have seemed INSANE fifteen years ago (hell it seems insane NOW sometimes) we have returned to a love for an outmoded, severely flawed, anachronistic icon of media. The vinyl record.
Perhaps it is here to stay for awhile. Maybe not. I admit I was pretty into it for a couple of years, but then last summer I kind of got sick of it, and it never really felt right to begin with. I fond myself collecting vinyl because it was vinyl, not because I was interested in the music itself.
I always kind of assumed it was a trend. Maybe it is, but maybe not. As many things good as I can say about it, I can say at least as many bad.
I admit the sound is beautiful but you need to have really good speakers to truly tell the difference, and besides, what good is superior range and that warm, deep, well-rounded wash of sound when unless the thing is kept in IMMACULATE condition or else NEVER played (which is a bitch and pointless, respectively) the sound is pocked with crackles and skips and pops? And you need a really good turntable, tonearm, stylus, cartridge, all that crap. In the old days the average music-loving kid didn't have to ALSO be a techno-snob. He/she just loved the music. But nowadays that's not enough, you also HAVE to be obsessed with the hardware, which is very fishy to me.
Plus, in 2012, who has the fucking time to sit around like a hippie and "play records" all day? Not me. I have to work and I drive around a lot and I have kids and stuff. I listen to music in the car (I still feel this is the best place to play music) and at night, on good headphones while everyone is asleep. Plus I am often on the computer; I jump around a lot on there...if I see a YouTube clip I wanna play or something, the record gets in the way. It forces you to commit at least 40 minutes at a sitting to one album. Which is fine, but it's very demanding in today's world.
Don't get me wrong, I know vinyl is amazing in so many ways and it is truly a beautiful form of media; my gripe is not with vinyl as a form but with the modern day obsession with the form as the focus rather than the content.
I still love CDs and good-sounding digital. I have a lot of problems with vinyl but moreso with vinyl elitists, especially the ones under 25 who think Christopher Eccleston is the first Doctor.
Perhaps it is here to stay for awhile. Maybe not. I admit I was pretty into it for a couple of years, but then last summer I kind of got sick of it, and it never really felt right to begin with. I fond myself collecting vinyl because it was vinyl, not because I was interested in the music itself.
I always kind of assumed it was a trend. Maybe it is, but maybe not. As many things good as I can say about it, I can say at least as many bad.
I admit the sound is beautiful but you need to have really good speakers to truly tell the difference, and besides, what good is superior range and that warm, deep, well-rounded wash of sound when unless the thing is kept in IMMACULATE condition or else NEVER played (which is a bitch and pointless, respectively) the sound is pocked with crackles and skips and pops? And you need a really good turntable, tonearm, stylus, cartridge, all that crap. In the old days the average music-loving kid didn't have to ALSO be a techno-snob. He/she just loved the music. But nowadays that's not enough, you also HAVE to be obsessed with the hardware, which is very fishy to me.
Plus, in 2012, who has the fucking time to sit around like a hippie and "play records" all day? Not me. I have to work and I drive around a lot and I have kids and stuff. I listen to music in the car (I still feel this is the best place to play music) and at night, on good headphones while everyone is asleep. Plus I am often on the computer; I jump around a lot on there...if I see a YouTube clip I wanna play or something, the record gets in the way. It forces you to commit at least 40 minutes at a sitting to one album. Which is fine, but it's very demanding in today's world.
Don't get me wrong, I know vinyl is amazing in so many ways and it is truly a beautiful form of media; my gripe is not with vinyl as a form but with the modern day obsession with the form as the focus rather than the content.
I still love CDs and good-sounding digital. I have a lot of problems with vinyl but moreso with vinyl elitists, especially the ones under 25 who think Christopher Eccleston is the first Doctor.