As an avid music listener who grew up in an era of cd-players which transitioned into mp3 players (think Clinton-era), my fascination with vinyl has grown hand-in-hand with my interest in different music genres such as jazz and blues.
Although I have a rather poor vinyl hi-fi setup (I'm a college student) and like most other students - use an ipod on a regular basis, I still think
music really comes alive on vinyl. Sure the audio can be muddied by unwanted noise, but there's an aesthetic with vinyl that cannot be rivaled by mp3/cd's. Here are the top 5 reasons (in no particular order) why I enjoy music on vinyl:
5 Reasons Why Vinyl Still Rocks!
1. Aesthetic
Artwork on vinyl is just more beautiful. From Cream's
Disraeli Gears to Pink Floyd's
Dark Side of the Moon the artwork is large and bold, not inhibited by a plastic case or a jpeg/gif file.
2. Historical value - it's physical
I was once interested in building a time capsule for some reason or another and came upon a website by an Oglethorpe University, a university that created a
time capsule that was sealed in 1940 to be opened in 8113 A.D. Among the items listed in the capsule were phonographs such as the "History of Mines."
This university chose the analog format, such a format that will allow future generations the ability to extract audio from a physical object, not have to extract/convert/compress the audio from a digital source.
3. Historical value - the artist's history
My interest in classic rock grew to a point where mere mp3s and cd's could not communicate the artist's message. I unfortunately was not alive during the 60's and 70's when many artists performed and recorded, and so my understanding of their music is mediated and is based primarily on their works on studio album recordings. And vinyl allows me to see and hear how the artists intended their music to be published - not converted down to digital files to be sent from computer to computer, but as objects of their own creation in vinyl, the medium of their time.
4. Vinyl Digging
In a 2002 film about hip hop entitled Scratch, DJ Shadow's meticulous interest in vinyl digging and his use of samples from vinyl is featured (
Youtube link) He describes a particular music shop he frequents in Sacramento/Davis, California as an
incredible archive of music culture. He connects the physical aspects of vinyl lp's with the personal search for beats and hooks. And DJ Shadow also respects that many of the unwanted vinyl housed in the music store are from artists who never "made it."
For me as a college student, you can't beat the price point for vinyl. Yes it's easier to pay a dollar a track on itunes, but there's nothing like finding an awesome vinyl from an unknown artist for under a buck. (Or in my case finding Les Paul & Chet Atkins "Chester and Lester" for $3)
5. Vinyl has a future
This may be disputed by many in the current Ipod age, but vinyl continues as a niche among audiophiles. As music becomes digitized, modified, remixed, and downloaded - it's nice to know that music can still be accessed in a physical format.