Articles - Record Connection - Phone: (717) 733-1641 recordconnection@earthlink.net


< < < BACK				NEXT > > >

Vinyl's Still Groovy Warm Feelings for Analog are Giving the Old-Fashioned Record New Life
				Joseph Manez Times Union Albany, N.Y. Nov 9, 2003

"Snap! Crackle! Pop!" is making a pop-culture comeback, but this has nothing to do with breakfast cereal. The National Association of Recording Merchandisers, which counts approximately 80 percent of the retail record industry as members, reports that sales of new and used vinyl records have increased by more than 300 percent since 2000. Vinyl records are part of America's cultural consciousness, holding a romantic place in the hearts of music enthusiasts. Rock 'n' roll was invented on vinyl, and jazz, blues, country and classical have spent most of their recorded lives being pressed into black discs of wax, shellac and plastic. "The world wasn't ready to give up on vinyl. The record companies were," says Bob Irwin, a record producer who has his own label, Coxsackie's Sundazed Music. Irwin has worked on vinyl and CD reissues for a plethora of albums by artists ranging from the Byrds to Patti Smith. Irwin attributes vinyl's comeback to sound fidelity. "Any knucklehead can tell you that a great analog sound blows away a digital source," he says. For audiophiles like Irwin, the superior sound quality and tradition are well worth the drawbacks cleaning dust from grooves, changing an album after one side, the frailty of the medium. Vinyl's popularity has also been boosted by more and more young music fans who want to start their own collections or add to the stash their parents left unguarded in attics or basements. Area stores say they are seeing an increased number of young faces poking through their doors. A brief history The story of the analog record goes back to Thomas Edison, who in 1877 invented the first record player. Edison's tin-covered cylinders gave way to wax discs and eventually to 10-inch shellac records that could hold four minutes of sound per side. Columbia Records introduced the first long-playing records in 1948. LPs, at 10 to 12 inches in diameter, could hold up to 25 minutes of sound per side and were made of a plastic called polyvinyl (hence "vinyl," for short). Seven-inch, 45-rpm records were introduced the following year for singles and B-side releases. Vinyl dominated sales of recorded music until the end of 1982, when cassette tapes began to outsell it. But vinyl's demise was sealed by the advent of compact discs, introduced the same year. The collection cult Even after vinyl lost its footing in the retail industry, it remained a passion for collectors. Despite the loss of commercial sales, its mystique continued, for those who grew up with it as well as for some younger collectors who didn't. "A vintage record looks more like a piece of history," says Jim Kaufman, 23, whose collection includes more than 6,000 vinyl records. Kaufman, a student from Albany, adds, "I think it looks cool: It's bigger, sturdier and the artwork looks better." A look at classic album covers proves his point. From Debbie Harry's sultry stare on the cover of Blondie's "Eat to the Beat" to the jean-clad crotch (with working zipper) on the Rolling Stones' "Sticky Fingers," the foot-square glossiness of an LP is superior to a CD's 4 3/4 inches of space for cover art. To others, vinyl is a tradition worth maintaining. The Blue Note Record Shop on Central Avenue in Albany has been selling new vinyl records for more than 55 years. Its 100,000-title catalog shows that, to some, this resurgence is no surprise. Biff Pock of the family-run Blue Note says, of the act of placing a needle on a spinning record, "There's a connection between you and the album, instead of putting a CD in a slot where it disappears." Ron Alvaro, owner of Stereo Workshop in Clifton Park, was less certain that vinyl would come back. He says he has been surprised by the increased number of college students coming into his shop looking to fix old turntables or buy refurbished ones. Alvaro's own collection started with an Elvis single when he was age 12 or 13; 10,000 pieces later, he has run out of room. He has a simple explanation for his gargantuan collection: "I collect any pop record I didn't have." Tech talk There's a big difference between analog and digital recording. On an analog record, sound waves are pressed into the plastic grooves of the record. The stylus, or turntable needle, picks up the vibrations embedded in the disc. On a digital compact disc, soundwaves are broken down into segments of information encoded in the form of ones and zeros. This information is read by a laser and is converted back into soundwaves. "New digital technology is being driven by the desire and need to capture analog-like fidelity in the digital domain," Irwin says. He says the ultimate goal in reissuing analog albums on digital mediums is to stay true to the original sound of the record. While the popularity of vinyl is on the rise, sales are still a minuscule part of the recording industry's revenue. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, last year new CDs alone brought in more than $12 billion. The National Association of Recording Merchandisers reports that sales for new and used records added up to only $67 million. There's no doubt it's a digital world, but there's a growing number of music enthusiasts signing off their file-sharing networks to search for vinyl. One of them is Rohan A. Grant of Caribbean Records in Albany, who says vinyl is authentic, CDs ersatz. "It's like cooking," he says. "You have your TV dinners: It looks like food, tastes like food, but it doesn't taste as good." FACTS:VINYL VALUES New or vintage vinyl in the Capital Region: Last Vestige Records, 173 Quail St., Albany, 432-7736 Blue Note Records, 156 Central Ave., Albany, 462-0221 Mr. Bill's CD's, 881 Loudon Road, Latham, 783-8067Joseph Custom Tailor, 795 Madison Ave., Albany, 463-4972 Stereo cartridges or turntables: Mom's Stereo, 3905 State St., Niskayuna, 393-4677The Stero Workshop, 1604 Route 9, Clifton Park, 371-3073Last Vestige RecordsBlue Note Records ON THE WEB Vinyl and hardware:http://www.elusivedisc. comhttp://store. acousticsounds.comhttp://www.amusicdirect.comhttp:// www.solidviper.comhttp://www.vinylrevival.comhttp:// www.audioasylum.com/audio/vinyl/bbs.html Hardware: http:// www.Audioadvisor.comhttp://www.needledoctor.com Copyright Capitol Newspapers Nov 9, 2003
< < < BACK				NEXT > > >