I was in the record business from the 70s through the early 2000s, and oversaw the transition from LPs to CDs. I had a huge LP collection (50% classical), which I transitioned to a huge CD collection, and got rid of most of the LPs. I still have the entire collection.
CDs were the better format by a long ways, but I totally understand why people love vinyl. For one thing, the large format cover. I remember working for a classical record label, and we were looking at the final cover proof of the last LP we were releasing before going all CD, a particularly beautiful photo of the Alps, and my boss saying “Aren’t you going to miss the big cover art?” And all of us nodded solemnly. It really felt like a funeral, like I was saying goodbye.
I also remember wondering how people were going to clean their weed, and roll proper joints without an LP with a gatefold cover.
Properly keeping a vinyl collection is a chore. First of all, if you are doing it right, ALL of your LPs are in a poly sleeve for protection, so the process for playing an LP is this:
Remove the album from the shelf, where it is properly stored upright and tight.
Remove the LP from the poly sleeve
Remove the inner sleeve/ dust cover from the cover.
Remove the LP from the inner sleeve/ dust cover, carefully using fingertips on the edges and label only.
Hold the LP, and look at it from the edge, to see if there are any obvious warps or kinks. Of course there aren’t, you store it properly, but you look anyway.
You blow off any obvious hairs or dust.
Set it carefully on the turntable, trying to put the spindle through hole on the first try, without rubbing it around, making nearly invisible, but bothersome, marks around the hole, that will irk you every time you see them.
Carefully clean the surface with a Discwasher or some other cleaning device.
Use a stylus brush on the needle to remove any schmutz.
Carefully place the needle on the surface, and relax for the next 20 minutes as you listen to your music. Or dance. Or my personal favorite: Air Guitar (I play for real, I’m allowed).
Flip the record, repeat the entire cleaning process, and drop the needle.
Reverse the process, put the LP back into the inner sleeve, put that in the cover, put the album back in the poly sleeve, and slip it back into its proper place on the shelf.
That’s a lot more complicated than simply dropping a CD into a drawer and pushing a button.
The psychological result of all those steps, EVERY time you want to play music, is that it starts to feel like a ritual, and takes on a feeling of importance. The music you listen to, the LPs that that you fuss over, that you preserve, and collect, take on a personal and cultural significance, that you feel a need to protect.
As new formats came along, CDs, then Digital Downloads, the ritual was removed, and music stopped feeling important. In the 60s and 70s, music was a significant factor in ending the Vietnam War, but it is hard to imagine today’s music industry mobilizing against the government. Most people don’t take their music as seriously as they did back then.
Yet some have rediscovered the satisfaction in having such a strong, PHYSICAL relationship with their music collection, and are collecting LPs again.
I get it. Music has ALWAYS been important to me, so I don’t need the ritual to remind me anymore anymore, or maybe doing the ritual 100,000 when I was young wove it into my DNA. Either way, CDs have the durability, combined with the punchier sound quality, ease of use, and longer duration, and I was hooked the first time I saw one. I’ll take the advantages of the CD over The Ritual any day.
I am so grateful to see someone write it out like this in ritual sense so that someone who didn’t have any records would understand. It’s downright reverent of the music. Thank you for that.
I was in the record business from the 70s through the early 2000s, and oversaw the transition from LPs to CDs. I had a huge LP collection (50% classical), which I transitioned to a huge CD collection, and got rid of most of the LPs. I still have the entire collection.
CDs were the better format by a long ways, but I totally understand why people love vinyl. For one thing, the large format cover. I remember working for a classical record label, and we were looking at the final cover proof of the last LP we were releasing before going all CD, a particularly beautiful photo of the Alps, and my boss saying “Aren’t you going to miss the big cover art?” And all of us nodded solemnly. It really felt like a funeral, like I was saying goodbye.
I also remember wondering how people were going to clean their weed, and roll proper joints without an LP with a gatefold cover.
Properly keeping a vinyl collection is a chore. First of all, if you are doing it right, ALL of your LPs are in a poly sleeve for protection, so the process for playing an LP is this:
Remove the album from the shelf, where it is properly stored upright and tight.
Remove the LP from the poly sleeve
Remove the inner sleeve/ dust cover from the cover.
Remove the LP from the inner sleeve/ dust cover, carefully using fingertips on the edges and label only.
Hold the LP, and look at it from the edge, to see if there are any obvious warps or kinks. Of course there aren’t, you store it properly, but you look anyway.
You blow off any obvious hairs or dust.
Set it carefully on the turntable, trying to put the spindle through hole on the first try, without rubbing it around, making nearly invisible, but bothersome, marks around the hole, that will irk you every time you see them.
Carefully clean the surface with a Discwasher or some other cleaning device.
Use a stylus brush on the needle to remove any schmutz.
Carefully place the needle on the surface, and relax for the next 20 minutes as you listen to your music. Or dance. Or my personal favorite: Air Guitar (I play for real, I’m allowed).
Flip the record, repeat the entire cleaning process, and drop the needle.
Reverse the process, put the LP back into the inner sleeve, put that in the cover, put the album back in the poly sleeve, and slip it back into its proper place on the shelf.
That’s a lot more complicated than simply dropping a CD into a drawer and pushing a button.
The psychological result of all those steps, EVERY time you want to play music, is that it starts to feel like a ritual, and takes on a feeling of importance. The music you listen to, the LPs that that you fuss over, that you preserve, and collect, take on a personal and cultural significance, that you feel a need to protect.
As new formats came along, CDs, then Digital Downloads, the ritual was removed, and music stopped feeling important. In the 60s and 70s, music was a significant factor in ending the Vietnam War, but it is hard to imagine today’s music industry mobilizing against the government. Most people don’t take their music as seriously as they did back then.
Yet some have rediscovered the satisfaction in having such a strong, PHYSICAL relationship with their music collection, and are collecting LPs again.
I get it. Music has ALWAYS been important to me, so I don’t need the ritual to remind me anymore anymore, or maybe doing the ritual 100,000 when I was young wove it into my DNA. Either way, CDs have the durability, combined with the punchier sound quality, ease of use, and longer duration, and I was hooked the first time I saw one. I’ll take the advantages of the CD over The Ritual any day.
My family had discwasher but not needle cleaner. You are supposed to use it EVERY time???
What’s your favorite purely classical LP to air guitar to
I am so grateful to see someone write it out like this in ritual sense so that someone who didn’t have any records would understand. It’s downright reverent of the music. Thank you for that.