April 18th was National Record Store Day, and it got me thinking. If vinyl no longer existed, would there still be the same demand for record stores that there is today? No doubt, it is a small demand, but still, would there be as many people looking for that rare 1997 Chumbawumba Tubthumber CD as there are people looking for that first edition 1972 David Bowie Ziggy Stardust LP on vinyl? I think not.
Why is vinyl still in demand? Now, I think that I prefer vinyl for the same reasons everyone else who buys vinyl does (and I'll admit some of them are shallow): it sounds better than anything else, looks cool (especially in a frame in your bedroom), and is kind of a collectors item. It's something physical that you can hold on to touch, play with. Anyone can download an mp3 and have a huge iTunes library, but few can boast an impressive vinyl collection. CD's are great and everything, but records are just so much more. A vinyl record forces you to listen to the whole album, it makes you appreciate music in the way the artist intended you to, which I think is great, and a lost art form in itself (see earlier post).
So celebrate National Record Store day a little late, go buy a vinyl record, or dust off your mom's copy of Joni Mitchell's Blue or any other vinyl she might have and listen to it in the way it was intended to be listened to.
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