Why Vinyl is Cool
A little over a month ago I decided to make a video on consuming music digitally and via vinyl. I really just wanted something as a bit of a gateway into the format, mainly keeping a high level comparison of the 2 and why vinyl is making a resurgence. As a newer adopter of the format myself, it was nice to get some thoughts out that doesn’t get too deep into the details and stay relatively surface level to hopefully get some people to connect and maybe pick it up as well.
Well, 1 month doesn’t make a huge difference in learning a new hobby, not to mention much more important things going on in the world during that time (consider donating or volunteering to racial justice orgs like ACLU nationally or MBMHMC in Chicago). Yet, as I find myself exploring music and audio technology things around this format, at the core of why I’m doing it can likely be a reason for why vinyl is cool and why you should get into it as well.
I’m not going to lie, getting into vinyl is more of an investment than a quick, flat, monthly subscription of a music streaming service like Spotify, Apple Music, etc. You almost have to treat it like home furniture purchases, is what I’ve found. You need a turntable. Depending on the turntable you’ll also need a pre-amp. Then an amplifier receiver. Then some speakers to play your music. And then you can start buying the actual records themselves. Oh but now you likely need to store those records somewhere because they’re relatively large. So yea, it’s basically furniture. That’s sort of the fun of it all, however. Now all of that is assuming you don’t have ANY speakers or audio equipment at home. Chances are you have a TV and maybe a soundbar or speaker system, you can probably just plug the turntable to that and get going, so it’s a bit of an exaggeration but you’ll still need to spend some money and find physical space in your entertainment center.
Myself, I found that I like a dedicated space for just the turntable, my records, and the speaker system. While all of that is a bit of work and some expenses, here’s why it’s cool to me. I’m no longer just thinking about the purchases or the audio technology behind it (well, I am because I want a full home speaker setup so doing some wifi stuff…I’ll document and address in a future piece of content), but part of my home, part of who I am, and part of entertaining guests when I have them over.
You carefully decide the photos and art you put up on the walls of your home, after all, it’s both very personal in the way you want the environment to make you feel, but also consider what you want to portray when you have guests. The little captured moments that strike up a conversation or just bring memories you want to welcome into your space, and tell others about you and your values. I don’t know if everyone actively thinks about those things, but the subconscious action of doing so is what makes those decisions special. This is the way I began thinking about my vinyl collection and everyone does it differently.
Of course, this can vary from person to person, some might like it so private that it’s never on display and enjoyed alone. Others, like myself, want to display it in a space that I can both enjoy and share with others. My turntable, speakers, and vinyl collection have a dedicated space, as it’s both an expression of myself and I like the idea of letting my collection speak as others peruse and make a decision on what to spin. Due to the nature of vinyl, it’s not an unlimited, never ending, always changing playlist the way I get on Spotify. They’re semi-permanent fixtures so the choices on what to add to the collection, for myself at least, means that a lot of thought goes into the records I add. Sure I like a lot of modern hip hop, and rock, and pop, and metal, and even come country, but the choices I have been making so far to my collection go a little bit further than that. Linkin Park is my favorite band of all time, but I only have A Thousand Suns as 1. I believe it’s extremely underrated and 2. it’s the album that personally got me into music production. Kendrick Lamar has established himself as maybe the greatest emcee of all time, but To Pimp A Butterfly is what let me to fully buy into that notion, and solidified my deeper love for hip hop. Touché Amoré’s Stage Four is a beautifully crafted punk album on loss, grief, & regret, that also scratches my distorted guitar itch coupled with raw lyricism.
And then I spent a long time finding a pair of speakers that both hold up to my audiophile requirements but was aesthetically pleasing to the eye in the living room. I finally went with a pair of Klipsch R-15’s and just a standard turntable stand with vinyl storage slots but the idea stood that I was consciously making a decision as how I was going to be presenting this aspect of my home. You use it to build a connection, to relax, to deliberately sit and listen to music in a way that creates a new level of appreciation for that art form.
That’s why vinyl is cool.
