There’s something about the sound of a vinyl record that can’t be beat. Today’s infographic informs us that vinyl sales have increased 17.7% since 2011. And I have to say, I don’t really know people who buy CDs anymore, what everybody really wants is records. There’s something ritualistic about putting on a record that might satisfy people as much as the actual music does. In high school I practically lived at my best friend’s house, who also happened to be my neighbor, and every time it rained we would put on Bridge over Troubled Water, by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, and listened to all of its vinyl-ly goodness, paired with raindrops. If we had done this with a CD, I don’t think the end result would have been the same.
There’s quite a bit of novelty and nostalgia wrapped up in record players themselves, and I think a lot of people are catching onto this. Whether it’s their sound–a kind gravelly and familiar heaviness in many cases–that makes us happy, or the attractiveness of the record player itself. What’s old is cool again–we’ve expressed this with vintage clothes, styles, and interests, and we’re now expressing this in the way we listen to music.
Check out today’s infographic for the low-down on vinyl records. I will leave you now with a quote from the great book High Fidelity, by Nick Hornby. “What came first – the music or the misery? Did I listen to the music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to the music? Do all those records turn you into a melancholy person?” [Via]
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