Record Store Day

A relic from my past has been making a comeback of small sort among the kids of today. It's the vinyl record. I see quite a few "record" albums for sale these days and as many are current albums, not the oldie types. You can still find a copious among of old vinyl record albums for less than a dollar each at thrift stores like 'Goodwill', evidence a s we oldies die the remembrances of past land in the Goodwill heaven arena.  So one with an old or one of the many new record players can have plenty of retro music and an increasing number of current vinyl records to play.

There is even a special day  for people who prefer vinyl to digital music. It's 'Record Store Day', held the third Saturday of every April. The web site for the organizers of Record Store Day says  it is held “as a way to celebrate and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding nearly 1,400 independently owned records stores in the US and thousands of similar stores internationally.” Wow! If there are still 1,400 vinyl record stores left the media must be enduring. (that web site also says there are stores participating in this day on every continent except Antarctica)

When my own daughter asked a me a few years ago if she could have a record player I nearly fell out of my shoes. It seems that it had become fashionable among teens to have vinyl. That triggered my memories as a boy, when record shops were the only music shops of any kind.  There used to be several record stores just a short bike ride from my home, a place were we kids would hang out ( there was a malt shop next to one of them and that provided additional motivation for loving those old records) and spend our money buying an endless supplies of old single 45 records. They were three for a dollar at one time. What a magical place the record shop was to spend hours flipping through albums and playing some in the sample sound booths each store had to sample the sound of music. Seem, a better way to learn and appreciate music than downloading a digital album on line, as kids do today.

The practical reason for preferring an old record player over a modern digital music device is that those old records have a better sound. I fact, a digital recording is not capturing the complete sound wave. It is approximating it with a series of steps. Some sounds that have very quick transitions, such as a drum beat or a trumpet's tone, will be distorted because they change too quickly for the sample rate. Kids today notice that records sound better...uh, until they wear their grooves so much or until dust gets in the grooves on the record. Any specks of dust or damage to the disc can be heard. Nothing's perfect!

I no longer have any of the many vinyl records I used to own, probably because I dislike or am indifferent to the music of today so much that I do not buy "new music". As an old fossil I am still listening to the music of the 50's, and 60's, though now it is on a digital platform. (My mom threw out so many of those old records, even the original Elvis albums) when I moved away after college. But it's nice to see something from the past appreciated today by so many of the kids of today. Score that a "hit" in my book.