This is a Friday bonus post, a small piece that I’m hoping we can discuss a bit. But before I go into this pit, let me just say that I ALREADY know that some of you could care less about vinyl, are even glad, in fact, that it is a long gone technology despite the surge in the niche market of LPs.
Me? I’m a huge fan of vinyl. I just wanted to throw a bit in here that might make for interesting viewpoints.
One of the things I enjoy about vinyl is simply the need to be in a specific location, a need to concentrate, and a difficult but important ability to not be able to readily skip songs.
I think one of the key elements to enjoying our classic albums in their fullness is because we essentially had to listen to the album, side to side. It’s why we can say I LOVE Led Zeppelin IV and not say, I LOVE “Stairway To Heaven”, being totally oblivious to the rest of the album because we didn’t have to hear it all.
This is not a GET VINYL, DUDES piece. It’s just another element of my needy brain as it goes on its merry way analyzing why things go the direction they go. (I tell it to shut up, but it refuses to listen).
So, your points!
I agree with your conclusion. Laziness forced us to listen to the whole album but then, how many of us regularly made mix tapes. So, even back then we found a way to cherry pick. This dovetails nicely with your “8 to 10 songs per album are usually better than 15 songs on an album” discussion, which I also agree with.
With that said, I’m not going to start buying vinyl again and if I have a choice of buying a cd with 10 songs on it or one with 10 song plus 4 bonus songs, I’m buying the one with the bonus songs. So what does that say about me?
It says that you’re frugal!
You can out me in the frugal class as well. I’ve bought a few vinyl albums recently, the newer audiophile limited editions seem to be made with the care the records companies should have used all along. Still, when it comes time to spend $25-$30 on an album, even a classic, I’m often torn between the new vinyl pressing of the original and the 2 or 3CD+1DVD digital deluxe editions. The LP tends to be more of a collectible.
Interesting!
I generally find the extra tracks take away from the whole.
For listening pleasure I am a vinyl fan – much prefer the sound quality as long as you are careful with what you buy – I still don’t really like CD’s although I have heard them sound good on expensive players and have out of necessity. Not sure about hi-res files yet although my phono stage converts to 192khz/24bits before amplifying.
If however you are talking about background music, in the car or on an i-pod in the gym then I can live with 16 bit and less digital.
My listening habits never changed when I switched to CD. I still listen to the whole album. In fact, when i think about it, I used to pick a favourite side on vinyl if time was a factor – once I had CDs, and “sides” disappeared, I got into the whole album more often than not. Sides I had forgotten about, or infrequently heard, became new and exciting discoveries.
Very cool point, Bob. But I fear you may be in a very small minority.
I’m with you Bob. I’m one of the few people I know who still listen to albums 99% of the time. And since the cd came along, I listen to the whole thing instead of just one side at a time. My biggest complaint of the cd era was that they thought they needed to make the albums longer to fill up the cd and very few of my all time favorites albums are longer than the 40 minutes or so of an old vinyl album. But I’ve never missed vinyl except for the covers. Cleaning the record, dropping the needle and the pops I have never missed. But I’m a big surround sound fan also and to each their own. Most of my serious listening at home is in surround and most of my stereo listening is in the car. The only people I don’t get are the ones who don’t seem to enjoy music at all and vinyl fans are definitely people who appreciate the music.