Huge Numbers Of Record Collectors Know That Vinyl Is Still Tops

by Seth Frank⁽⁷⁾
SoundStage Direct

Many good ideas are found to be wanting once they are tested by time and the discerning eye of many who can spot flaws, hype and underperformance, and who will not tolerate sub-standard performance. Certain objects are carefully scrutinized, especially when they are articles for which there is a copious amount of passionate interest among the public. You could try for many years but it would be improbable to come up with a new idea that rivals one piece of technology that we take for granted.

The new technology was revolutionary in its time for its ability to supply information, entertainment and culture to the entire world and can be enjoyed time and time again. Vinyl records created a new experience for music appreciators and those who wanted discs of actors reciting dialog. Narrations of important news events could be kept on file for repeated playback by anyone who had copies and a machine to play them on. When the 78 RPM recording came along, it offered the music fan good quality recordings of favorite tunes, opera, classics and other varieties of sound recording, in a relatively inexpensive price range.

Vinyl represented a cheap, durable format that was widely available in stores and capable of being played many times without wearing out. It is hard to overestimate the impression that LPs made on the world’s music fans when they were introduced because recording artists then received a much larger canvas on which to express their creative musical ideas. The longer playing format offered record collectors many exciting new choices that included a much deeper, more thorough representation of their favorite artists’ work. LPs began to furnish a large selection of a musician’s oeuvre in more full pieces, and the recordings were frequently packaged in dust jackets with graphics and photos.

You could buy a copy of any disc and play it back whenever you were in the mood, be it a Shostakovich symphony or the Beatles vinyl. When new technology began to gain a foothold in the market, it was a sure thing to those in the know that vinyl recordings’ days were numbered.

Record shops that were once stuffed with racks of those familiar LPs were committing more and more space to the short, squat and square plastic jewel boxes that contained the CDs. But before anyone could count vinyl out, it developed a new life, and when the more popular CDs began to dominate the market, legions of vinyl supporters rose up. Like any idea that has a spark of originality and a good reason for being around, enthusiasm for vinyl never went away, although it was dialed back considerably by CDs.

It’s not just decrepit Elvis vinyl collectors and fans of rare vintage opera recordings who appreciate music on the grooved black surfaces.

Younger folks have also hopped on the vinyl admiration train and are riding it to revival land.

SoundStage Direct, LLC is an online independent store based in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. SSD has the largest selection of vinyl records online. And you don't want to miss amazing closeout deals available at our LP outlet! We have record albums in every genre (like the Beatles vinyl, Elvis vinyl) and in a variety of formats available ready to be shipped at your doorstep.

Article submitted Thursday, January 19, 2012 & read 2 times.

Leave your comments through Blogz:

No comments yet.

0-0-0-0-1-ADSO

Most Recent