So there is this apparently ‘big’ revival of LPs according to David Hayes. I don’t understand it. I have a hard time believing that ‘youth’ are that interested in LPs. I think they may be curious and find them kind of neat, but overall there is no way there are as many ‘youth’ interested in them as Hayes makes there out to be.
I understand the Nostalgia aspect of LPs that Hayes mentions. It’s getting back to the ‘original’ form in which music was produced. The album covers are many times, great artistic masterpieces. But I know for a fact that most music of the LP glory-days is available in CD form now. The original cover art is still the same, although I understand that it’s minuscule compared to the large LP covers, so in that aspect if you’re focusing on ‘art work’ then the original LPs are the only way to go.
Many times the CD form is superior to the LP form as inside the CD there is often lengthy booklets describing the music, lyrics, and band. The music has been remastered so it’s clearer and smoother. I guess this may take away the ‘nostalgia’ aspect of the music but then are you really listening to the album for it’s music or for it’s nostalgia. I think that if I want to hear a song I like then I want to hear it in as clear and smooth a deliverance as possible.
When it comes to collecting LPs I think that it is a relatively small group of individuals that still do so. My father still has hundreds of LPs in our basement and I look through them and marvel at some of their complex artworks , yet simplistic form of deliverance. I can appreciate what the original forms meant to the artists and the consumers, but I still enjoy the ease of listening to a CD or MP3.
As for the messages, experiences and lyrics from the LP glory-days, I totally agree they are more meaningful and complete. I still would rather listen to a song from the 70s or 80s than today’s music. That doesn’t mean I need to heard it on an LP to listen to it and appreciate its meaningfulness. I can probably find most music like that in CD form or get it off the internet. This may be buying into the modern consumption patterns that society has set these days, but I’m ok with that. I’m still getting the same out of the music as if I were to put it on a turntable. The messages still get through to me and I can appreciate what made me and millions others enjoy this music from the first time we all heard it. So keep those old records on the shelf, (they are ‘pure gold’ as my dad calls them), but I’ll find that same music by myself in a cleaner more compact form, because it’s that really what society is all about these days. Quicker, cleaner, smoother and taller. Who needs the days of simplicity where the music mattered and the world was freer? (sarcasm for those of you who missed it.)
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