Once upon a time my Saturday’s were spent hunting round a string of second-hand record shops. I would meet up with similar people and have a chat and a laugh. There were bargains to be had. It was all about knowing your stuff; knowing about the artists and albums, the labels and genres. I would find the odd gem plus a number of OK albums and carry them off home to peruse at leisure.
Those were fun days.
When I got home I would spend time looking over my finds. I would read the blurb o the back avidly and look at the photos. Then I’d play them through. Sometimes I would play an album endlessly until I knew every note, every word and the melody. It was an experience.
The excitement of finding a treasure set the heart pounding. You would hold it and look at it and feel the adrenalin rush.
Every time you went out it was with the possibility at the front of your mind. Maybe today you would find that magic album? It was possible.
Nowadays that has gone.
It is not the same trawling on Amazon or Ebay. Everything is there. You are merely haggling about the price.
The digital era means that you can download an artists entire output in seconds. What used to take years of searching and know-how is now available at the click of a button. There is no hunting, no excitement at the unexpected find and no big pay-off when you have it all.
There are the benefits that now everything is available and all those forgotten gems are there at your finger-tips. There are the missing tracks, the unreleased material and a wealth of live concerts. Things have come out of the woodwork that you never knew existed. Who has been sitting on all this stuff? Why wasn’t it available fifty years ago when we would have drooled over it?
The downside is that it has all been devalued. Music has lost its lustre. It does not have the same significance.
Any spotty kid who knows sod-all about music can have the complete set of Chess singles or the entire Trojan catalogue and he doesn’t even know what he’s got.
I’m drowning in a glut of great music but I’m listening to less. Then there is the thing about the quality. Where is all the brilliant new music? Why is so much of it over-produced dross?
I miss those Saturday discussions, meetings, arguments and the hunting. I miss the adrenalin. I miss the buzz and I miss all the social implications.
But then I’m an old dinosaur.
You said it all, hit the nail right on the head.
I absolutely hate mp3’s. If anyone tells me “oh, yeah, I downloaded it”, they’ll get a reply from me such as “you ain’t got f*** all matey, you THINK you have, but you’ve not actually HEARD the music”. Quite how anyone can be satisfied with the aural experience of between 5 – 6.5% of the music information is utterly beyond me. I can feel my stomach churning at their inadequacy and mediocrity and total lack of regard to what can be, given the correct circumstances, absolutely fantastic.
A few weeks ago a friend brought his 15 year old son round. The boy is really into The Who. He had come to the right house. After him falling over just looking at the selection, I asked him if he’d like to hear a vinyl record – he had never heard one. He choose “Quadrophenia” and when the band kicked in after the first minute of wave noises, he physically jumped up off his chair in shock.
It was hilarious, he was speechless. He’s now saving up for a turntable and has been back round to make himself a list of the records he needs to get. I will of course help him with that adventure.
I feel very positive about the future of the vinyl record.
I’m so glad to hear that. People get used to tinny rubbish. The power of the real thing is lost. I’m glad a new generation will have that experience. Cheers Opher
Reblogged this on William Chasterson and commented:
Welcome to the digital age; )
Thanks for the reblog – much appreciated – best wishes Opher
I miss the days of trying to drop the needle on my favorite spot of an LP!
Unfortunately a lot of my albums have the click to prove it! Thanks for that – best wishes Opher
I agree almost entirely with you. I disagree that there is no good new music to be found. There is an amazing explosion of good creative artistry going on in the folk-world and the home-recording studio has led to another explosion of good indie musicians, albeit swamped by the plethora of rap and similar music incorporating home studio effects and techniques.
There is no doubt that vinyl and physical metal needle styli has been proved to produce the warmest and most accurate rendering of the original sound pieces laid on the vinyl record. However, as previously noted the metal styli is the direct cause of deterioration of any given vinyl record.
The latest technology appears to offer the best of both worlds, with vinyl records being read by a lazer. If I had the money, that would be the setup I’d look to go for.
As it is, with the help of an Uncle known as Blackbeard, I have the complete works in FLAC and MP3s of most of my favourite artists, so that I can listen through each record as an MP3, and If I like it I will burn the corresponding CD from the FLAC file, and subsequently listen to it as a CD on my compact stereo system.
Cheers Ian. I’m sure there’s loads around that’s good. I don’t get to hear a lot of it. Most of the popular stuff sounds overproduced and bland. I like it raw, loud and preferably with some meaning attached! I’m too busy writing to get around as much as I’d like.
What would you recommend?
Within the folk world there are so many good acts out there. Pretty much most of it gets aired on Mark Radcliffe’s BBC Radio prog on Wednesday evenings. Mike Harding also produces a regular hour long Internet radio Folk show, which is available as an MP3 podcast after being broadcast.
My personal favourites amongst the new wave of folk include The Unthanks, Lisa Hannigan and Laura Marling along with the various outgrowths from the Folk Musician Supergroups Blowzabella and the Old Swann Band.
I havent really found any original new loud electric music that has rocked my boat since discovering Counting Crows in the early 2000s. However there are a lot of very good cover bands out there who are well worth going to see. I’m not sure if The Hamsters are still going, but as their stageshow consisted of 2 sets each of Hendrix, ZZ Top and the Doors, along with their own material, I’d always go see them anytime they pass my way
I missed out on the Hamsters but I heard all about them. I’ve turned on to Laura Marling. I’ll give the others a listen. Thanks for that Ian.
Have you heard the Mississippi Allstars? They are probably my favourite around aty the moment and I do love the Eels!
Reblogged this on Opher's World and commented:
Is that why the young have gone back to vinyl?