In recent years, there has been a major shift in the music industry, something that has taken everyone by surprise, going against the stereotype of the ‘digital generation’ by turning it on its head: the revival of the vinyl. No more than ten years ago, the vinyl industry was all but extinguished, existing as nothing more than your parent’s collection of 80s albums and the remnants left over in charity shops. New vinyls were rare and iTunes and CDs were dominating the music charts, with only a handful of bands keeping the tradition going. Everything looked rather miserable for the presumed dead music format, but, thanks to a number of reasons, vinyl records held in there.
The important part of its comeback is that there is not one specific event that brought vinyl records back. One major factor, of course, is Record Store Day, with the specific ethos to go to independent stores and invest in some freshly pressed albums and singles, some even being limited edition especially for the event. Its introduction in 2008 caused sales to pretty much double from 2007, and caused an upward trend that started to skyrocket from 2011. But what about other factors?
Well, the reluctance to let go of analogue technology, and the rise of the hipster trend, certainly helped. Despite heavy criticism from digital fanboys, it was self-confessed vinyl purists and nostalgia that kept the ball rolling, and the reintroduction of record players at a relatively inexpensive level (ranging from £50-250 in most places), meant that vinyl lovers could get out their old collections and start adding to them again, sometimes for the first time since the late 80s.
Not forgetting, of course, that another major contribution is the rock music industry. With the majority of dance and chart music going digital and taking up the digital download charts, rock music struggled to break into the main charts beyond the odd single or album. I believe at least some of that trend helped to inspire rock and metal bands to go back to publishing vinyl records. Pretty much every vinyl I ever bought in my teenage years was either an imported vinyl by an American rock band (such as Fall Out Boy and Go Radio) or one of the up and coming rock bands in the UK (from Franz Ferdinand to Bullet For My Valentine). Rock bands with a decent reputation making vinyl records definitely helped to inspire a new generation of record appreciators. For me, it filled me with as much nostalgia as inspiration, because I spent a lot of my childhood listening to my mum’s old LPs on her record player – a feeling which I’m sure many other people in their 20s have experienced themselves.
The most important feature of records, and a very big reason for their return, is certainly their incredible sound quality. There is arguably nothing better than the sound quality of a vinyl record, even with the cheap and tacky record players that opportunist companies put out for £20-30. It definitely plays back into the hipster way of thinking lesser-tech is better, but it is also very much true. Music that goes from magnetic tape to an LP and into your speakers and headphones are pretty much as close to being in the studio and listening to the band as you can get.
Of course, not every band does this, and often send over high-quality digital files instead, but even then, the vinyl record itself holds a lot more musical information than an MP3 file or streaming sites, so the sound is pretty much always going to be better. Sure, there can be some issues, especially if bands squeeze hour long albums onto a single record instead of having a double LP, but with vinyl sales increasing more and more each passing year, people would much rather pay more for better quality.
The rise of vinyl is something I’ve been observing for years. As a dedicated fan of the format, I’m glad that it’s now getting to the stage of the UK vinyl chart being reintroduced, as well as records reaching national stores in the UK, with both HMV and Tesco bringing LPs back onto their shelves (where, in my humble opinion, is exactly where they belong). After such an emphatic and triumphant return to the music scene, you can only wonder what is next. I’m looking at you, tape cassette.
Feature by Corey Bedford
The post Mixed Feelings: The Return of Vinyl Records appeared first on The Mixed Tape.
