When you carefully lowered the tone arm and the stylus found the first tracking groove of the record album, there came a comforting "bumpf" and perhaps momentary static. I miss that. Those of us who lived through our stereo rigs and saw music as "meat and potatoes" bought 12 inch LPs (Long Playing) and believed ourselves to be riding the peak of audiophile entertainment!
Adorning the protective sleeve was something called "album art". I own one of many coffee table books available filled with award winning paintings, drawings and photographic work featured on the covers. There was the famous (Pink Floyd's Hipgnosis covers) and the infamous (the Beatles with raw meat and decapitated baby dolls) but it was usually eye catching and could cause you to reach for the item just to get a closer look.
There was plenty of room on the cover sleeve for something called liner notes. Musicians, producers, publicists, anyone of note could provide a discography or biographical information on band members (or solo artist) or offer tribute as an admiring critic or co-performer. And you didn't need a magnifying glass to read it. If the jacket folded out you were in heaven. There was room for lyrics and/or the list of who in the group played which instrument on each cut! It could be a treasure trove of information taking your enjoyment of your favorite band's release to the next level.
Then things changed.
I will skip the 8 track tape period. Any medium that clunked in the middle of a song to change direction in the player was laughable to those of us who loved recorded music. A favorite tune cut in two? Unthinkable.
Cassette tapes caused things to change. One could create their own mix of tunes or record a complete album and play it in the car or at the beach or (eventually) anywhere a Sony Walkman could travel. As far as liner notes...trifolded mini inserts with printing requiring at least 20/20 vision to read and miniaturized cover art spelled the end of an era.
LPs were still king, but the practice of making high quality cassette copies for your car or distributing ones to friends and family threw up a red flag and the copyright infringement battle was on ("Home Taping is Killing Music" was the refrain.). It took years of legal wrangling to settle on the fact that evidence presented regarding the destruction of the music industry was inconclusive, Some changes were made to the copyright laws, but nothing earthshattering. After a time it became a tempest in a teapot.
No worries. Say hello to the compact disc.
With record platters there were clicks and pops and skips caused by needle wear or improper handling. With cassette tapes a dirty rubber roller could eat your tape or cause it to snap or stretch out making for wobbly tunes. But the new compact disc format spun untouched by anything but laser light. Nothing is lost in the translation from encoded 1s and 0s via light transmission compressed to mp3 audio! A disc could last forever! No scratches or pops and clicks. Amazing digital reproduction (DDD= digitally recorded, mixed and mastered) presenting a clear danger to your ears and speakers if played too loud. My first DDD recording was of Mozart's Requiem and the warning was clearly stated on the case. I fried the tweeters in my Pioneer three ways. The cases were much bigger than cassettes but at a quarter the size of an LP there was little in the way of art to pull the eye. Most came with multipage booklets or pullout sheets with lyrics or info similar to what was printed in the past but a magnifying glass was still required (albeit with a less powerful lens). This was the best format. No more noise in the recording. We now could enjoy clean and clear digitally encoded music but, for some, at the expense of analog tonal quality. Debatable to many.
Time and technology marched on and the CD appears to be sliding into oblivion. Hello MP3 player and streaming web stations! Now we can stuff hours of music on a tiny device we can play through headphones or via bluetooth connection in our car or on the beach on in any/every room in the house! Of course a computer is required which is another whole story, but music is becoming more a personal medium than ever. The commercial recording industry as we know it is in decline. Artists don't need a label to hold their contract or release their album in order for it to be heard or purchased by their adoring fans.
Since recording has gone digital anyone with instruments, a computer, DAW (digital audio workstation) software and an audio interface can make a record in a bedroom or a bathroom or a closet or on stage in a club! We're not here to debate whether home or pro studio product sounds better. Just the fact it is possible for anyone with those simple resources to make a "record" is astounding.
Now, with all this being said, over the past few decades there has been a resurgance in the sales of 12 inch LP albums.
Shop around and you will find the format is making a comeback. And of all the formats which do you think is most dear to buy? Yup. The LP is by far the most expensive format.
Adelle's 25 is available as an MP3 download for $10, a CD for $15.99 and in VINYL for $23.99.
Most major retailers now have a small vinyl section in their stores and, apparently, are doing well enough with them to stock more.
Money Magazine in a recent article cited vinyl revenues are music's fastest growing segment! In the first half of 2015 CD sales sagged 32.5% while vinyl surged 52.1% .
Both ad supported as well as pay streaming services tallies eclipse that of vinyl sales by a wide margin their rate of growth only 50% of the erupting LP market.
So dust off grandpa's old turntable and look for the audio connections on the back of your entertainment center (AV tuner or surround system). You might need a new belt, cartridge or stylus. You might need to spend a few hundred for a direct drive turntable if you really want the good stuff.
But get ready for a resurgence of album art and liner notes. Put away the magnifying glass, slap on the headphones (the ones without the microphone), drop the needle, sit back and enjoy the analog tones and richness of stereo on vinyl as you read the cover from front to back and top to bottom.
What is old is new again. Another generation will pull the 12 inch platter from its cover, gently remove it from the paper sleeve, flip side one up, place it softly on the spindle, wipe away the dust with that special cloth and gently drop the tone arm on the lead-in to the first cut. Next comes a small pop and once the stylus finds the groove...heaven!
