By Chris M. Johnson
Next time you’re browsing through your favorite local music store, pay close attention to what’s going on in the vinyl section. Stereotypes would have you believe that a 20-something hipster is desperately browsing through the 7- or 12-inches, looking for a White Stripes rarity, or your weird uncle is leafing through the records, looking for that Chicago album you can play backwards to reveal a crazy hidden message. However, stereotypes cannot account for the fact that something much bigger is occurring in the world of music, something the general public hasn’t been used to since piracy has taken precedence over the way we acquire music. Buying tangible music has made an extreme comeback and has manifested itself in the form your dad tried to force on you when you were younger: vinyl records.
I’ve been a believer in the form since I moved to Louisville in 2006. There was something about searching for modern music that I loved. Finding it on vinyl justified my search for music and made it a fun experience. I could find a new CD at ear X-tacy or, if worse came to worse, find it on amazon.com. But I wanted more than that. I wanted to find that Beck record that had a very limited vinyl pressing or that Queens of the Stone Age record that contained bonus tracks not found on the CD copy. The only problem was that I did not have a turntable. My knack for collecting found reason when I decided to buy records only by artists I was about to see live in concert, with the intention of getting them autographed after the show. After a couple of years, I was left with a flat wallet and a slew of framed records, with no outlet to enjoy them.
Over the course of a few years, and after making a few new vinyl-loving friends, my passion for collecting began to resurface. Unfortunately, the fact remained that finding money was still a difficult task. I couldn’t quite justify spending money on a format that I wasn’t able to support. My inability to find Portishead’s “Dummy” record was my impetus for ceasing the vinyl collection in 2007. This album has since been pressed again and has been readily available at both of my favorite record stores. But this was still not enough to fall back into old habits.
Then the incredible happened. My ultra-gracious friends gifted me a record player, under the guise that I should be looking for records with them.
Hold on. Wouldn’t it be easier and way more logical to buy CDs or download music, legally or not? Why yes, yes it would. But the time for that has been far surpassed.
On his Twitter account, Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo posed an interesting question.
“Am I remembering correctly that people used to break into cars to steal CD’s?” Cuomo wrote on Twitter.
You are remembering correctly, Cuomo. There has been no better public realization of the death of the compact disc format than this recollection. The truth is that there is no reason to buy a CD anymore. Most every music lover owns an iPod or some comparable MP3 player. You can easily streamline the process of acquiring music by purchasing music digitally or, if you’re truly a horrible human being, downloading it illegally. So why bother with anything else?
Let’s look at the numbers. According to the Nielsen SoundScan trend reports, sales of vinyl records increased by an insane 33 percent in 2009, as compared to the previous year. Nielsen reported in 2008 that Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” album sold roughly 26,000 units, becoming the year’s top seller. By 2010, the results Nielsen reported were staggeringly telling.
Arcade Fire’s 2010 release, “The Suburbs,” sold a rough total of 18,800 copies. Did vinyl sales drop? Not even a little bit. The top selling vinyl record of 2010 was The Beatles’ “Abbey Road,” clocking in at 35,000 records sold.
So what’s going on here? I’ll tell you what: The desire for tangible music has come back full force, and you should want in as well.
You’ve heard of the financial issues that local favorite ear X-tacy has encountered over the last year. If you enjoy shopping for music at all, you should be hypersensitive to this issue. Personally, the thrill of searching for rare and special records has ignited my desire to consume tangible forms of music. In a new era where CDs no longer make sense, the search for vinyl records has quieted my loud hunger for tangible forms of music and has given me something to look forward to on payday.
Shut down your computer and go to a local favorite. I’m positive that John Timmons and the staff of ear X-tacy and Craig Rich and his cronies at Underground Sounds would appreciate the business. Find that aspect within your love of music that enjoys wasting time secretly hoping to find music you can fall in love with, or find some sort of reconnection with. The same desire to hold great art in your hands has taken a manifestation in the form of vinyl records. This is not a testimony to encourage you to buy 12-inch records. It is just a plea to find your passion for music, as I did. Go out and seek the music you love.
