Vinyl is making a comeback #262

photo: Peter McLennan

Interesting piece, called "Vinyl Analysis: Snobbery Or Substance?" Starts off with the usual statistics on rising vinyl sales, then notes "the very fact that 389,000 LPs were sold [in the UK] in 2012 is a phenomenon worth investigating... "By Danny Wright.

"... History professor David Suisman, who chronicles the history of the commercial music industry in his book “Selling Sounds: The Commercial Revolution in American Music”, says, “In an age when music and many aspects of culture seem ephemeral and fleeting and, in many ways, superficial, the materiality of vinyl offers a substance.”

But is this substance or just plain snobbishness? Sometimes having a vinyl collection just seems another way for people to show their superiority when it comes to music and the chance to denigrate others.

Is there a valid reason? Yes and no. Some people just love the antiquity of the format. Some people love the large artwork (just look at the amount of vinyl art frames you now see in shops). Some people prefer the richer (better?) sound.

Yet there are more tangible reasons. The vinyl renaissance is also bringing back the actual joy of physical discovery of music. As someone who was in the queue for Record Store Day last year to get themselves a copy of 'Mclusky Do Dallas' I can attest to its popularity. It was something communal and exciting and it certainly creates a very different, and deeper, relationship between you and the artist..."

Read it in full here.