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I didn’t grow up listening to music on vinyl records; I had a few kids’ albums when I was really young but by the time I was old enough to buy my own music, cassette tapes were the mainstream.

My dad had lots of records and listened to them on a regular basis, loud, with headphones on. When CDs became the mainstream and all of my dad’s favourite albums were purchased on CD, the cassette player was removed from the home stereo system, a CD player was added, the record player stayed, and my dad still listened to records turned up loud with headphones on. Now CDs are basically dead; new music is consumed in the form of mp3s, whether obtained legally or not.

I have a huge collection of CDs that I never touch. They mean nothing to me - I have no connection to the physical CD, the music was ripped from the CD to my computer long ago and I haven’t interacted with the CD in years. Listening to music has become passive - there’s no physical interaction anymore.

I recently received a record player as a gift from my girlfriend Alison and I instantly fell in love with vinyl. Music has become interactive again! I carefully remove the record from its sleeve - you can’t throw it around, it’s not indestructible - I put the record on the player, make sure the size and speed are set properly; I clean the record, lift the needle cover and lower the needle. It’s a ritual, it takes time, I’m doing something more than listening, I’m involved and how good the record sounds depends on me. Halfway through the album I have to get up and flip it, clean it and play it, like stoking a fire. The packaging is bigger than a CD or cassette, the pictures are bigger, the liner notes and lyrics are easier to read. I feel like I’ve bought something real, something permanent.

I think a lot more thought was put into the entire structure of the album when vinyl was the mainstream. There’s no skip button so skipping a track is a real chore; you have to get up, stop the record, lift the needle, turn on a light, find the tiny line that separates tracks and try to place the needle in the exact right spot. Bands made albums that you’d want to listen to all the way through, no one wanted a bad track right in the middle of an album side so the bad tracks were left off. If you just liked one song you could buy a single and the single usually came with a bonus song on the other side. Music was better because it had to be.

The trend now is to offer free mp3 downloads of an album when you buy it on vinyl - it’s perfect! You get the vinyl for home listening and the mp3 for your iPod. The best of both worlds: the interaction and ritual of vinyl with the portability and convenience of an mp3. I wouldn’t be surprised if bands just stopped producing CDs in the future.

I’m hooked on vinyl; the ritual, the interaction, the permanence and the sound quality; it’s all too perfect and it’s how music should be enjoyed!

Posted on Monday, December 15th, 2008 at 11:39 am by Matt Mc and is filed under Music & Videos.

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